The List

So that little piece of advice my professor gave me:

Choose the next job to get the LAST job.

In true b-school form, this piece of advice was accompanied by a line graph where the X axis plotted time income and the y axis plotted income.  The line moves fairly steadily along the horizontal axis until a point where it starts to shoot up dramatically at a faster rate.  I'll let you marinate on that.

On another note, I'd been frequently asked by people wanting to know what was on my list of things to do in New York before I moved so by popular request I've written it below.  Please feel free to comment on things I should have included.  I didn't actually get to accomplish much due to the lightening speed at which moving materialized but the spirit was willing.

1- Olana and Storm King (I'd been fascinated by the Hudson River School of Painters for some reason.  I think I read about it during a time I was fixated on Truman Capote)
2- River Cafe (I did go by it in a water taxi)
3- Rasputin (a vaudeville Russian dance hall in Brighton Beach, the stories about it keep the mystery alive)
4- Shalimar (This is a diner in the town where I grew up and I had to have one last cheeseburger there.  The burger wasn't as good as I remembered but it was still a nice trip down memory lane.)
4- Eddie's Sweet Shop (A landmark ice cream shop where the boys from the catholic high school would work at the counter.  It was in its own way, very Norman Rockwell)
5- Ellis Island (It was fascinating though you can't go up into the Statue of Liberty without a special ticket so I learned.)
6- A Greek restaurant in Astoria (I did get the name of a place to go from Greek foodies two days before leaving)
7- Empire State Building (I used to work in the area and thought that was enough)
8- The Cloisters (Been there and wanted to see if it was as beautiful as I remembered)
9- Peter Luger's (Been there but wanted a bloody steak)
10- Metropolitan Opera (Saw The Magic Flute and Faust)
11- Salisbury, CT (Went over Labor Day weekend)
12- Visit a friend in Westchester (She came to visit me)
13- Go ice skating (Decided this was too dangerous)
14- See a concert at Bowery Ballroom (Hadn't been in a while but love the venue)
15- Visit The Frick (One day hopefully, maybe over Christmas for a concert)
16- Visit my alma mater U Penn (Maybe for my 15th reunion)
17- Visit the Musuem of Television and Radio (I figured Youtube might solve this)
18- Have a Corona ice (it seemed so Queens, I need to check if they ship)

Berkeley Hills, 94708

I had the epiphany the other day about moving to the West Coast; it wasn't as hard as I thought.  Still, the three hour time difference to New York is sometimes inconvenient when I have the urge to call someone and the fact that four different seasons occur in a day makes dressing tricky if I don't pay attention to what time it is.  Yet, I did it.

I think I put moving up with New Year's Eve and turning 30 (again and again).  Things would monumentally change at this milestone of unprecedented import.  Or not.  It's all relative.  I'm still unemployed so that can delay reality sinking in but as we get older, we grow farther apart.  Literally and figuratively.  Stuff gets in the way.  I'm certain if one of the brat pack from Friends left New York, that would the equivalent of the character getting killed off.  And isn't it funny how the series ended when they got married and started having kids?

I've discovered Berkeley to be a very accurate caricature of itself.  A Prius in every driveway, active community members, people bicycling everywhere, diverse blended families and of course, a plethora of aging hippies.  While it's almost unheard of not to have a car in Berkeley, it's still fairly easy to get around by public transportation or...by foot.   For the gainfully employed, commuting by car is  a given but the days start and end earlier.  There isn't a cab to be seen or a siren to be heard and 9pm is LATE for a Saturday night.  San Francisco is just a BART ride away for night owls.

Moving has reassured me of my priorities.  One of them is being closer to nature.  My friend picked me up on Tuesday to go for a run around a reservoir.  Granted, there's a nice reservoir in Central Park but this reservoir had me saying to myself, "What were you waiting for Crespo?"  Well now, I'm waiting for a job.  It's tough because I don't want to have taken these steps forward only to take a step back.  I took an executive education course at business school at Berkeley last week and the Professor shared some interesting career advice.  Want to hear it?

Look out for my next post.  For now check out the view of my back yard.