My new home away from home

Well, since this is an introduction into my life in NYC, I should probably start by describing where I spend eight hours every day. (If you don't care you can skip this post...they'll get better I promise)

The building

I work at the Forbes building which is on the lower east side of Manhattan, at the corner of 12th St. on 5th Ave. to be exact. Its an austere stone building with the words "FORBES MAGAZINE" in big black letters across the front. The neighborhood is really nice; the building is right next door to the Parsons School of Design and the New School, and NYU is all around. There are lots of college students roaming the area, so I feel right at home (its a lot like Comm Ave actually). There are also a lot of stores, from Coach to Gap, a few blocks up 5th Ave, and there are a ton of restuarants and bars in the immediate vicinity. Favs like Subway, Jamba Juice, and Tasti D-Lite (and some local goodies, too of course) ensure that I never eat the same thing for lunch twice in a row. Also, to my absolute delight, there are no less than six shoe megastores within a two block radius (reviews TK).

The building itself is amazing. Every floor is unique and there are offices and cubicles set up in every way you can think of. There are galleries on the first floor that are open to the public. They house collections owned by the Forbes family, including delicate flowers made of gems and model ships. Beyond the first floor, security is tighter than a BU dorm: you have to sign in all guests and get passes for them to wear, even if its just the (food) delivery guy!

I work on the 3rd floor which, along with the 4th floor, houses the editorial department. I work in the editor in chief's office, although I'm not his direct assistant. I sit next to his assistant, Michele, but I'm kind of removed from the rest of the floor. But we have nice windows and Michele has lots of plants (with some left over from Olivia, who had this job before me) so its a nice place to work. My desk area is pretty plain. Besides the TONS of paper and magazines that I have strewn about I don't have any pictures up or decorations. Suggestions are welcome!

The best part of the building is on the 9th floor. That's where you'll find the gym and the roof deck. The gym is small and simple, just a few machines, weights, and treadmills with a nice carpeted area for stretching and lunchtime aerobics classes. There's also a small locker room with really nice showers that I actually use. You don't want to go back to work all sweaty do you? And I frequently leave work to work out for an hour at time, because we get three hours a week for gym use...during work hours. My bosses go a lot, too, so they are understanding and let me work out whenever. I haven't run into any of them at the gym yet, and I'm a little scared that I will be all sweaty and have some out of breath exchange with them. Thankfully, everyone is very good about seperating gym from work. I have to try to remember that the guy probably glimpsed my stomach while I was doing sit ups won't mention it the next time we pass each other in the hall.

The roof deck is absolutely amazing, especially for this time of year. Beautiful views of the city and the perfect place to eat lunch!

My job

I am an editorial assitant, but technically I am the assistant to the deputy managing editor. I also assist two assistant managing editor and the editorial counsel (the mag's lawyer). All four are really awesome people, and my work for them is very straight forward. Like I said, they let me go to the gym frequently, and I can take a full hour for lunch if I want, and they have even been known to send me home early on Fridays.

In addition to assisting them, I also answer the editorial phone line, keep track of mistakes in the magazine, fact check and write stories (if I think of a good topic to pitch. suggestions welcome!), and, my favorite part, organize and order food for the bi-monthly reporters lunches. I also am the unofficial mass-emailer of the editorial department. If someone wants to send something out to the editorial staff, they send it to me first and I send it out. This way, I get to see what is going on before anyone else. This is usually just red tape, but recently I got first dibs on courtside US Open tickets for that night!

I have business cards, too.