getting the hang of Thursday
Another update from Writely at the office...
Yesterday was intense. I am still in recovery.
To make it short and less incriminating, a timeline:
midnight: get a call from NGO contact - he needs flyers for a presentation at the UN at 6pm
4:30am: wake up and don't really get back to sleep
6am: get up and get ready to go to Training
7:30am: arrive downtown to Federal Office Bldg near City Hall to set up for Training session - denied entrance until 8am, go stand outside with the rest of my coworkers who also got there early as instructed.
8am: go inside with coworkers, presenters, and their luggage, get through security, start setting up, eat breakfast
9:00: discover in the course of A/V setup for the presentation that while we have reliable V from our projector, there is no audio out cord for the laptop so we're short an A. Jerryrig the mic on the podium to pick up the laptop speakers, instruct presenter on problem.
9:30: sit through introductions and presentation, which is entirely entertaining and pretty fun, actually. Hand out raffle tickets. Answer questions. Generally make myself useful until:
12:00: break down the session room, pack up the V equipment, go downstairs with boss where we have a devil of a time finding a cab, return to office.
1:00: back in the office, break for lunch. call UN NGO contact, confirm need for flyers and time. make copies.
5:00: having worked the rest of the afternoon, depart office with flyers to the UN Church Center. have devil of a time finding a cab but eventually make it, only 5 minutes late.
5:35pm: shake hands and chat with the Seminary CEO and Chairman, with my NGO Rep, and with reps of the Church Center. Hand out flyers, meet & greet representatives of various NGOs who have come for the evening's Interfaith service.
5:40ish: Native American (I believe they were Lenapi) drumming and chanting.
5:50: still drumming and chanting.
6:00: for a little variety, chanting and drumming
6:10: drumming, drumming, chanting. People have been coming in off the street and from the various NGO meetings. Room is now full of colorful crowd of international religious reps. Fascinating mix of people. Really excellent to see.
6:15: I get sent upstairs to see if we can use the Church Center copier (we can't), arrive downstairs to see the Service has begun - Buddhist bells are just tapering off.
6:20: a woman stands at the mic and breathes deeply. and breathes again. I start to have a bit of a Star Wars flashback. On the altar, two young women in black start doing dramatic movement with a white piece of fabric. Drape, and drop, and drape dramatically and drop, to the accompaniment of ... the woman breathing into the mic. No, really.
6:25: the breathing stops, the dancers retire, and the Interfaith Invocation begins, first with a Buddhist call, then a Muslim call, then a Gospel Christian. Beautiful chants, beautiful voices, but I have to leave to meet Jaye.
6:35: finally, the Invocations come to an end and I feel the moment is opportune for my departure, so I sneak out and snag an SUV cab.
6:40: I have an entertaining conversation with my cabbie about how NYC is converting to hybrid vehicles - like the SUV I'm riding in, the vans, the other SUV models, the Priuses and other sporty units - to save gas costs. Not just cabs, but the Parks Dept and other city agencies.
6:45: Arrive late for my meeting with Jaye. Have lovely conversation in which we get no planning done for our trip, because I forgot the road atlas. Doh!
8:00: go get dinner. Lamb curry, yum! Join friends at Pub, eat, drink, make merry.
9:30: Pub Quiz! We mix it up by drawing our Team Name on each of the Round Sheets in the theme of a word game. Hangman, Scrabble, Crossword Puzzle (answer and clues), Big Boggle, and Pictionary. We were entertained, but we may have been the only ones. Hee.
11:30ish: It's a tie-breaker round between The Squirrels and the Motherf*ckers! Oh, no!! And we have to work with Asian geography! And we know we've had this question before, but the clock is ticking, and we win anyway!
12:30am-ish: finally extract our team from celebratory drinking and telling of bad jokes with the Quizmaster. Walk to E's place to crash.
8:30am: wake up late, scramble around.
9:00am: trip on a hole in the crosswalk and go sprawling on the asphalt. Thank you, New York City streets.
9:20am: arrive work, start this entry.
I'm ready for my nap now.