Be Careful What You Wish For

During the time I was working in Yahoo!, my office was located in the midtown office, across Bryant Park (40th between 6th and 7th).

At the beginning I thought this was awesome, not only because I love Bryant Park (I spent a lot of time there writing on one of my hiatuses) but because I was actually in — what I thought — was my dream job.

I made good friends in there, particularly two guys from completely different departments: Jim and Tim.

Jim was a hippy-like free soul. He came from Ohio, and had a sleeping bag under his desk, where he’d lie down to take siestas after lunch.

Tim was a radical, go get ‘em, ironic and very intelligent Californian, who’s style of humor clashed completely with mine. He loved the Latin culture, and specially enjoyed the weird racism that exists between Latinos from different countries.

We’d make fun of absolutely anything and everything. Our only tough times would come at lunch time. There’s just no good restaurants around midtown (unless you’re a tourist). So we would be forced to take long walks to little restaurants in what seemed camping trips. The cart in 6th and 53rd, the Dominican basement near 9th Av, and an eventual trip to a Jewish deli in 7th Av.

About nine months later, Tim and Jim were relocated to the swanky new HotJobs office in Union Square.

The first time I went to visit them, I was amazed how many cool places were scattered close to them. It was here that Tim introduced me to Sushi, there was a respectable burrito place about two blocks away, and above all, the neighborhood had a great vibe.

I tried without luck to transfer to the new office, it was already a big break that I was working at all in New York City (the main office for my division was in Coral Gables, Florida). And months later I left Yahoo! to greener pastures.

Three months later, I got hired by a company headquartered right next to the HotJobs office. But Tim and Jim had moved on to other jobs and it was the end of what could have been a great time. But I still feel very lucky, working on such an amazing section of the city.

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