I start out going from our house to "One Madison". It is torrential rain, so everything is slippery. I'm not in jeans (I'm training) so I am in nice pants and good shoes. Not "good for the rain" shoes, but black dress shoes.
And I start my morning by slipping on the last step down to the 110th Ave subway station, landing on my ass in a puddle in my grey slacks - with Colombia students rushing over to say "Sir, Sir are you okay?" as you do when you are pretty sure some old man broke a hip.
I also found that the old men don't answer right away, not because they can't hear you (despite the fact you just repeated the question louder), but because they are shocked at the note of concern in the youngster's tone.
I finally get off my ass, through the turnstyle on the 1 train when it arrives (seemingly years later).
I go down to 42nd street to switch to the N or R train. I follow the crowd, my ego bruised, my pants wet, bumping into other sodden umbrellas and generally annoyed. The train comes, we get on it and I look at the screen to see how far my stop is.
It is the W. The W?
I feel a bit twilight zone-y as the W stopped running a few years ago.
But it stops at 23rd, and out I get. Into the pouring rain to work the week at Credit Suisse.
I am home today. It went horribly wrong. HORRIBLY. I can easily teach how to pass this test to 1 or 2 people. But they put me in a room of 10 Security experts (CISOs for you financey types), and they hammered me. Really, they wanted to talk detailed security, not how to pass the test and I folded like a UCLA quarterback.
After some discussions with my employer, we all agreed it was best if I don't return. I did get a nice note from my employer this morning however, blaming themselves and asking me not to worry. (I might have sent a freaked out note or two yesterday to them.)
So I am home in the sunlight today and feeling better.