early april. things were fairly desperate. i had given myself an ultimatum. if, by may 1, i didn't know how i was going to pay my june rent, i would give up my apartment. this didn't necessarily mean that i would have left new york. but it certainly brought that prospect significantly closer than at any time prior. honestly, i have never been so frightened in my entire life.

but on the fourth, back when i posted my little rumination about tompkins square (which, by the way, is part of a concept, provisionally titled 'city parks'), i received an unexpected phone call. remember the chocolate shop? well, i had been in fairly consistent contact with the woman who had been my boss there. she had written to me and asked if i would be a reference for a job she was applying for. they wanted to speak with folks that she had managed to assess her management skills. i agreed, of course and did my best to paint a rosy picture. not that it was a stretch. i'm just bad at that sort of thing, off the cuff.

well, turns out that she got the job and needed to hire a staff and was curious what my work situation was and if i would be interested. here's the deal. remember that thing that happened a while back? you know the thing. the one that left a whole in the skyline and all of our lives. now that the plan for the site has been chosen, it is time to settle how to honor the fallen. she had been hired by the consulting firm that was administering the international competition to decide just that. and now i'm a part of it. it has been fairly hectic, but overwhelmingly satisfying to be involved in something so significant. that feeling of unhinged desperation, so recently crashing over me with disturbing regularity, has receded.

but that wasn't all the gods had in store for our hero. the hits just kept on coming.

to be continued...

-finn