You know it's bad when one of your best friends, who you talk to almost every day (Sherri) sends you an email to remind you that the last time you blogged was in February. Yes, I have certainly been guilty of neglecting my blog, but it's not because I've been having fun exploring the city, like in many of my previous posts, but quite the opposite, I've been working like a dog at my new job with J. Walter Thompson. I had taken a job a month ago with Euro RSCG and realized after 2 weeks that it was just not the right fit for me. Luckily, the offer that I received from JWT (the same day I received from Euro), was still good, and so I happily re-accepted the offer and have been there going on 3 weeks now. JWT is located in the midtown area (E46th and Lexington to be exact) and is one of the oldest advertising agencies in the country. I believe they opened in the late 1800's, but today this office is far from ancient, in fact, it may be one of the coolest and biggest advertising agencies I've ever worked for. I took a few pictures when I worked straight through the weekend on my first week there, but it doesn't really capture how cool the space is. In fact, the coolest thing about this place is the JWT bar. The room itself is like a real night club with a long white bar that glows and real bartenders that come on Wednesdays and Thursdays for cash only well drinks (but beer from the keg is always free). I wanted to take pictures, but of course the bar was closed that Sunday. :-( Besides the bar, JWT takes up about 5 levels of space in a huge building and each level is unique and all so art deco. It's a massive space and just what you would imagine an advertising agency would look like.
My commute now is basically 2 train stops from my house and I get off at the Grand Central station terminal. There is something about Grand Central station that is just so New York and every morning I look forward to my commute there. In my opinion, nothing really represents New York better than Grand Central station. There is always tons of people that walk through there. The energy itself from all of the chaos is invigorating and in a strange way, there seems to even be a method to the madness. Everyone is focused and walking with a purpose and no one, no matter how many people there are, seems to get in anyone's way. It's quite unbelievable and even more unbelievable that I am now part of all that madness. The walk to my office from the station is only a couple blocks and although there are things around my office to explore, I honestly have not had a chance to explore my work surroundings ever since I started. I have just been so busy that I work through lunch and have been working at least 10-13 hours a day (and 1 full weekend). In fact, I've gone to the same restaurant (below our office) every day eversince I started. I simply can't be gone long enough to really get food. I wish I could tell you all what it is that I am working on (you'll most likely find out in June when it launches), but because I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement I am forbidden to discuss my actual work other than to say that it's been really exciting and I'm happy to be back in traditional advertising and being able to work on commercials again. It's been a long time since I've done that, so it's been fun to be able to sit in on recording sessions, hang out in the editing rooms and doing something totally different from interactive advertising. The hours are long, but crazy as it seems, I don't really mind it. The only thing that sucks about the long hours is that I've had no time to go to the gym, blog or really do much outside of working. I am always the first one to leave the house and the last one to come home. My roommate Jason jokingly commented the other day when he saw me, that he forgot that I was even living there. But like I said, it's not that bad, and I was prepared coming to New York to expect to work like a New Yorker. This city is full of people who work hard and play hard. I don't see how you could survive in NYC, especially if you live in Manhattan, if you didn't have that mentality. In fact, my company gave me a blackberry and last Friday, at 2:00 AM, I got an email to send something to someone...and at 2:02 AM I sent it. This is my new life at the moment. Yesterday was the two month anniversary of my move out to NYC (thanks Kenny for the reminder) and I can honestly say that I am actually happy here...at least for now.
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