Friday, July 23, 2010

Day 19: An Unusual Day at Work

For this story to make sense, it is important that you know that I work for a website. This website's name is Track.com. The purpose of the site is to provide sophisticated investors with independent research on different aspects of the financial markets - like foreign exchange, commodities, equities, etc. But remember: a website. Which explains why it was a bit difficult for everyone to work today when we arrived at the office and discovered that the internet was out.

Within a few minutes of discovering the problem, one of my bosses suggested that the business who owns the floor below us, the sixteenth floor, had said that we could use a part of their office and access their internet. I found this rather amusing, because the business on the sixteenth floor is another website that publishes finance and market information. Its name? Tracked.com, naturally. Isn't this starting to sound like a scene out of an office comedy movie?

These two businesses are, of course, not in the same building by coincidence. They are funded by the same investor, who believes that both will be a success. It is still funny to me though that part of my office at Track.com was working at Tracked.com today. I felt like there might have been a secret competition, but it was probably only in my imagination!

Today there was a relief from the heat that had settled in for most of the week. Unfortunately, I couldn't walk home from work as I usually do because it was raining. Lately I have taken to strolling down Seventh Avenue in the evenings, a walk of about 25 blocks. The street is lined with every kind of restaurant you could possibly imagine. There are always lots of people, which would be more interesting if half of them weren't puffing away on cigarettes and blowing the smoke in my path. I can't understand these New Yorkers who smoke, because they are so unlike the smokers I saw in Beaufort growing up. In Beaufort, people who are smoking stand in one place and sort of pace about, smoking and thinking or talking to someone else. Here, the smokers are power-walking down the street, sucking in on their cigarettes and elbowing through the crowds as they rush to their destinations. They must have fantastic lung endurance; for me, it is already so hot outside that I would die if I had hot smoke swirling around inside of me too!

Tonight is the going-away party for my college roommate who will be leaving shortly for Hong Kong on the Fulbright Scholarship. I'm about to head out to find some dinner before the party!

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