After months and months of looking for a job in the worst economy in just about anyone’s living memory, I am super duper freaking pleased to report that Alexis got offered a real freaking job today! Hot Dam! Details on the position will follow, but I wanted to share since, well, the economy sucks and we could all use a dose of good economic news.

So I take some of what I said yesterday back. There is some sustainability here. Like, for instance, an entire store called Sustainable NYC. There also seems to be an effort on the city’s part to increase the amount of bike riding here. I’ve seen a good number of bike lanes all around midtown and in The Village. Even up in Inwood, way at the Northern tip of Manhattan where we’re staying, there’s bike lanes. There’s also this, which Melissa says just recently appeared.

Covered bike parking with a bicycle map for the city is pretty cool. We also discovered a community composting garden on the Lower East Side. In fact, we found a ton of little gardens in the midst of an extraordinarily peaceful part of the city (at least on a Friday midafternoon). The gardens were really pretty, though locked, and still somewhat lush.

On the giant and extravagant wedding front (which is the whole reason we are here after all), yesterday was the first event. We got off to a raring start with a huge rehearsal dinner at City Crab. About 40 people sat around tables cracking into King Crab and Lobster (both okay to eat per Seafood Watch), chowing down on popcorn shrimp (which I felt bad about), muscles and clams. Mmmm-Mmmm good. My cousin and his finance gave the bridal party (of which I am a part) all gifts last night. Michael got us guys beer steins and a grooming kit, both with our names etched on them.

The scene itself was decidedly un-extravagant feeling (though I can bet it cost an arm and a leg since this is NYC.) I was impressed at the Yankee Stadium-decorated cake though.) I’m pretty sure the real show is coming up in a few hours. My uncle confirmed that the price tag for the whole thing broke the six-figure barrier(!) and my mom, Alexis and I got a look at the bride’s 14-page schedule events. That document starts at 7;30 a.m. with Jen rising and shining, continues with her hair and makeup starting an hour later, Michael’s at 10 and continuing in 15-minute increments through the rest of the day.

Again, at our wedding, there were people camping and we decided to tell the wedding party where to stand about 5 minutes before the first guests arrived. Two sides of the family I guess.

Anyway, I’m off to put on my tux now so we can go to the hotel and do the whole picture thing. According to my copy of the schedule (I only got a three-page version), we’re doing pictures for almost two hours and then a rehearsal of the ceremony for half an hour. Hopefully there’ll be a time for a drink or two too. But it’s not written down, so I’m not betting on it.

So I am in New York City as I write this. Lex and I have been here a full day now and it’s pretty dam great. There are some things about it that are driving me crazy already but the joy and energy that I am getting by being surrounded by so many people using a city wisely and well is overwhelming that frustration.

I had to do some work today in the form of an interview (writing off this trip! yeah!) and then some writing so I spent a bit of time in a mid-town coffee shop. Besides watching a first date between a couple of people who had obviously met online (I think they hit it off. It was cute.), the coffee shop scene in Midtown is very 1995. There was wi-fi, but you had to sign on to it and it was wonky, the coffee was burnt and though I asked for it “for here,” it was given to me in a styrofoam cup.

Which leads me to my first real frustration: New York is completely not sustainable. I knew this, but it’s always shocking to re-discover and even more so now that I am so steeped in the subject everyday at work. It’s like the city just discovered recycling and still doesn’t quite get it. I mean, is it weird when I go to throw out something that I am taken aback to see wasted food, Styrofoam cups, glass bottles and discarded newspapers all mixed in the same bin together?

Sure, NYC residents have a smaller carbon footprint than most Americans thanks to their reliance on mass transit (which is phenomenal, natch), but when no one bats an eye at the fact that the bar (Volde Nuit) where we spent $120 on dinner (mussels, Beligan Frites and Belgian beer) uses plastic forks and plastic cups for the dips and everyone leaves lights on with wild abandon, they lose whatever green points they had scored. The vast majority of your electricity comes from coal people! Coal. Ever read anything by Dickens? Coal sucks!

On the other hand, NYC feels amazing to me right now. There’s two reasons for this. First, I love the energy that is ever present in this city that comes from the mass of humanity that is always everywhere on every street. I know that by the end of this trip I’ll feel a bit peopled out and will be craving some space from others, but I’ll still think it’s totally wonderful how the residents of this city use this city. My favorite part of it is how it’s all connected. Unlike Seattle, which is made up of discreet neighborhoods that one passes through, New York’s neighborhoods all melt together. That makes it okay, and even enjoyable, to interact with the city as you get from one area to another.

Also wonderful in this city right now (and this is new to me) is a burgeoning politeness going on. I know. It’s New York City. People are supposed to be rude and brusque and have no time for niceness. But it’s there nonetheless. Maybe it’s a high from the Obama win (I see many signs of joy about that, not just the one above.) For example, on the subway today, I saw a guy offer his seat to a woman. She wasn’t old or infirm or anything. She was just a woman and he was just being polite. Earlier in the day, someone actually said “Excuse me,” when she bumped into me! “Excuse me!” In New York. Something us up here. Don’t ask me what, but something is up.

Anyway, that’s my report from day one. I love the feel in the streets and soaking in the life that surrounds me at every step. Now, if it would just stop raining.

These three photos are of a guerilla installation at Melissa’s subway stop at Dyckman and 200th St. Totally awesome:

If you’re anything like me, trying to figure out exactly why the economy tanked is no easy task. That’s why I’ve been listening to Marketplace almost daily for the past few months and, more recently, Planet Money, an NPR podcast where they try to explain the situation to everyday people like you and me. I think they do an excellent job because they, like me, were complete neophytes on these issues when it all started. We’re learning together.

This morning I read an article in The New York Times about the government restructuring the bailout of AIG and it raised a question for me. I sent it in to Planet Money and hopefully they will answer it for me. But I also wanted to share it here, in case they don’t and someone who reads this can help me understad:

I was reading an article in The Times just now about the government restructuring its bailout of AIG so that now we’re buying $40 billion worth of preferred stock. Apparently, the CDOs that AIG owns will be purchased by a separate entity set up by AIG in order to get those toxic assets off the company’s balance sheet. According to The Times:

A.I.G. would contribute $5 billion to the entity, which would buy $70 billion of the securities at 50 cents on the dollar, or $35 billion. The remaining $30 billion of the purchase price would come from the government.
As I read that, it means that We the People will own the vast majority of a company created to hold insurance on bonds that, in this economy are more likely than not not to be paid back. So if I understand everything I’ve learned about CDOs on Planet Money, that means the new entity (ie: the federal government, ie: you and me) is going to be on the hook to pay back all the people/institutions that bought insurance via those CDOs. And, as I understand it, buying those CDOs and providing that insurance is what got us all into this mess in the first place (see: those poor Wisconsin schools and that German/Irish bank).

So, while I understand the need to prop up the economy by bailing out these massive instittuions that purchased all these CDOs and then had to start paying them back, how is it a good idea for the government to own these CDOs and now be on the hook to payback investors if the bonds included in them start to fail? If that risk is realized, doesn’t that just compund the problem, except now it’s the government that needs a bailout?

On top of that, at Planet Money, I read that people don’t want to buy these CDOs for 10 cents on the dollar, but in that Times article, it says the government is paying AIG 50 cents on the dollar for $30 billion worth of the CDOs or toxic assets. I don’t get that either.

As a news junky who still harbors dreams of working in a news room for a major national daily, I can’t resist posting this slide show of front pages from around the country today courtesy of HuffPo. I do recognize the irony of loving actual newspapers (I have a collection of historic front pages from my lifetime) juxtaposed with posting about them online.

It’s over. At last. President-elect Barack Obama has arrived! We did it!

After all my ranting and raving, my anger and fear, my hope and work, there’s not much else I can say anymore. It’s historic. It’s amazing. It’s wonderful. It’s everything I hoped for and more. I’ve been sighing deeply since 8 PM (PST) last night when the election was called. I feel so much more relaxed. Of course, now the hard work starts.

But first, I’ll share my last night with you. We had a party at Office Nomads. Here are the pics:

Interesting news from the LATimes today. Gary Truedau is the creator of the comic Doonsebury. He penned a strip to run on Wednesday that predicts an Obama win. The article is about editors across the country hemming and hawing as they decide whether or not to run it. (Since the comics pags goes to press in the afternoon, there’s no way of knowing if it will be accurate or not, for sure.) I like the story just because it is an interesting take on the election and as Trudeau himself says, he’s putting himself on the line, not editors.

The editor of the LATimes talks about his thoughts on the subject on his blog. He’s got the right answer, I think, and Trudeau makes an excellent point in update response:

If Obama wins, I’m in the flow and commenting on a phenomenon. If he loses, it’ll be a massive upset, and the goofy misprediction of a comic strip will be pretty much lost in the uproar.

But my favorite bit of the piece is the reaction of the McCain camp (never mind the fact that they even GAVE a reaction comment):

From the John McCain camp, spokesman Tucker Bounds said: “We hope the strip proves to be as predictive as it is consistently lame.”

That’s not pathetically angry at all, is it? Kinda sums it all up in a nutshell.

I know the calendar only says Nov. 2 and in the Northern hemisphere, that just means it’s mid-fall. But I’ll tell ya what,  thanks to turning the clocks back last night, it feels like winter here right now. I’m sitting here at 5:30 pm and there’s not a drop of light left in the sky. And as you can tell, Seattle sunset is just going to get earlier and earlier… ugh.

(I’d take a picture, but, well, what’s it gonna show?)

We did a lot of research while voting. Viva voting by mail!

Wondering where I’ve been lately? As the election really heats up and more idiotic words and commercials are aired everyday, I’ve honestly reached a point of burnout (though I really like this new ad). While I can hardly think about anything besides Nov. 4 and work nothing else has caught my eye that I’ve felt like posting about. Obama is a socialist? Yawn. Obama is up in all the swing states? That’s nice. McCain is a dottering old fool and Palin is not much more than a Barbie with an amazing wardrobe courtesy of Republican donors? Well, that one was pretty cool to read, but I was swamped that day.

But, I’ve voted now, so as far as I am concenred, this election is dead to me.

I know you’re wildly curious to find out who I voted for:

No surprise there

I will soon return you to my regularly scheduled blog.

I’m in Portland, Oregon all this week for work. The magazine I write for–Sustainable Industries–hosted its Portland Economic Forum on Tuesday and then we held two days of editorial meetings afterward. Since I was already planning to come down this coming weekend to help pick grapes at Blooming Hill (where my mom and Jim live), I decided to make a week of it. So I’ve been staying at the farm all week and commuting in to Portland on the light rail every day. (An aside: It is so nice to have a train to take to work instead of a bus. I wish Seattle were more forward-thinking. AH well. Soon we’ll have light rail too.) One of the benefits of this is that I get to wake up in and go to sleep in a beautiful setting everyday. Although I never want to commute this far to work on a regular basis (about 30 miles or so) because most of my time is spent at work, getting to work or sleeping and not enjoying farm life, it does provide opportunities like waking up to the view I had yesterday morning.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Sunrise at Blooming Hill Vineyards