Wednesday, September 30, 2009

On The Job

On the job

I had a busy day of clients today -- two to be exact. One on the Upper East Side and another in Murray Hill. A slice and a can of soda is always the right meal option when one is ravenous and on the run. I found a place on 34th and Park that only charges $3.50 for it. That's a deal! They even piped in classic rock.

Today I was thinking about the tremendous and slightly bizarre foresight I had when I chose to leave journalism full time and go into real estate. Back then I didn't expect to have a kid quite so soon, but I really couldn't have picked a better career. (Although I've had a few trader clients who told me I would have been a welcome addition where they work, which can be interpreted many ways.)

I'm back to taking out clients and closing up deals, but I don't have to be in an office eight hours a day and, even better, I don't have to hire a nanny. I spent the summer lurking around Madison Square Park watching nannies behave badly, and suffice it to say I haven't been impressed with anything I've seen. Right now La Madre is a great on-demand caretaker, and one that will likely make Andre multi-lingual. Today she sang him songs in Russian and German.


I saw this on Second Avenue while uptown. The beauty of having a boy named Andre is that everyone can relate to the name. French? Russian? Latin American? Everyone knows and loves an Andre. He's only three months old, but already very cosmopolitan.