Life in the Middle Lane

Lately, I had a lot of time to think about water.  Here in Atlanta, it has been raining almost non-stop for about 15 days.  Yesterday, I walked in the rain for a bit and watched the path of the water flowing down the street. I often left my cube, to see how the rain was affecting traffic patterns. I observed the splashes of water on the roads, I crossed a bridge over the Chattahoochee River, I watched new reports of people drowning.

I love the way the clouds sit between the buildings.

And I started thinking that there was a blog post somewhere in all this observation. I decided to start writing and see where it all lead.

1.  Water takes the path of least resistance, downward. I watched a stream of water flow down one street, hit the curb at corner, turn left and flow down another street.  I wanted to see where it was all going, so I followed it for a bit.  It flowed for a while until it came to another, lower street where it flowed until it found a drain.

2. Water has a one-track mind; when flowing, water goes in only one direction.  In every instance that I observed a flowing body of water, all of it was moving in the same direction.

3. Water is fickle. The least bit of disturbance would cause it to redirect its path.

I love to run around with my camera. I was hoping for a view of the interstate, but it was raining too hard.

4.  Water always finds a way to get where it wants to go. No matter what obstacles are in water’s way, it will go around, through or under them all to continue on it’s journey.

5.  Water has a “mind” of its own.  No matter how many time we whined that we wished it would stop raining, it didn’t stop. No matter how many people cried for their homes and families to be spared the destructive power of the flood, they weren’t. Poor neighborhoods and rich neighborhoods (and everyone in between) was affected by the storm.

I was going to go through and relate each of these water thoughts to life, the job search, being a twenty-something, learning, perseverance, crowd-sourcing or any number of things. Then I decided not to.

What do theye things mean to you? To flow or not.

I’ve been in Atlanta for almost two months now, and I’ve settled into my life with the GF and I’ve gotten a job. Next on my list of things to do is to make myself some friends. So like any good Gen Y quasi-computer geek, I went straight to Meetup and twitter. And while twitter hasn’t been really fruitful (too much spam) Meet up has been amazing.

There are meetup groups for anything you want to do. Me, I’ve joined a couple of arts/film/food lovers groups, a couple of writing groups and a couple of book clubs. So far, my I haven’t been able to attend many of the activities. All the activities tend to happen at the same time that I have something else going on!!!

A few weeks ago, I went to one book club meeting, and I wasn’t impressed. I spent a week quickly reading the book club selection, and not really liking the book. I almost chickened out of going to the meeting (I’m shy and not that into meeting new people). I talked myself into going, only to be pretty disappointed. I ended up leaving the meeting sad and depressed. I didn’t feel a connection to any of the the other members, and there wasn’t anything about that meeting to convince me to return.

Today was different, I attending a Women of Worth book club meeting. It was, in two words, hilariously awesome. It was my kind of book club; we read poems and drank vodka and laughed our asses off. It was so much fun.

When I got home, the GF asked me if I felt silly for getting all bend out of shape over the first failed meeting up. I didn’t actually answer her, but yep. I feel a little silly.

I got off the train on Thursday, and found myself in the cleanest MARTA station I’ve ever seen. The platform didn’t smell like pee or filth. The escalators were all working. I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to go, I looked wildly at the wayfinding signs, and randomly picked, and went up the escalator. At the top, I found myself at a security checkpoint in a Georgia State Building.  I quickly found out I was in the wrong place, and made my way outside.

Outside the building, I looked up into the sky and the first thing I saw was shiny, golden dome of the Georgia State Capitol.  Immediately I was taken back.  I was probably in the third grade, and my class went on a field trip to another state capitol. It was beautiful. All I remember is that the seats and carpets were deep burgundy and sooooo soft. The dome (are domes required on capitol buildings?) was stately, but opulent, with different colored glass and gold filigree.  I remember our tour guide telling us that the building was newly renovated. I was starstruck. I remember thinking—I wanna work in a place that’s this cool when I grow up.

Then I was taken to another time. I was 22 and driving to DC.  It wasn’t my first trip to DC, but this trip was special. I was in town for an interview, it was the middle of the worst year of my life, and it was my first trip to DC by myself as an adult.  I was on the interstate, and I remember looking over the city. It was so pretty and glittery and POWERFUL!! I fell in love with DC immediately, and I fall more in love every time I’m there.

I was so excited and I couldn’t hold it in. I just hooped and hollered and did a jig in the car. It was so exciting. I had to call my friends and scream “I’M IN DC!!!!!” And because my friends are awesome, they yelled along with me.

All of a sudden, I’m snapped back to all the times over the past two years in MPA school where I’ve emphatically declared that under no circumstances would I consider a job in state government. ‘It’s a bureaucracy!’, I’d say. ‘Nothing ever gets done there!’, I’d say. ‘It’s too big!”, I’d say.

But there I was, about to walk into that big domed building. I just shook my head. I whispered under my breath, “Never say never.”

Would the train smell any better? LOL, probably not. I generally don’t smell like flowers in the afternoon because I do not wear deodorant and it’s hotter than hell in Atlanta. Yes, you read correctly. I do not wear deodorant, and I haven’t in years. But that is a story for another day.

But there are a lot of super stinky people on the train, and they all like to sit near me. But that’s not important. The important thing is that I see so many different types of people on the MARTA train. I try to create stories for them or figure out the kind of life they have and what they do for a living.

I people watch. Even though I always have a book (or three) and my ipod, when I’m on the train I prefer to look at the people. I don’t like to listen to them, gosh, listening to the really talkative people on the train gives me a headache.

I have ridden every train in Atlanta (not on purpose) and there are distinct types of people who ride each train. I normally ride the East-West Line to get to work every day. Last week, I had to ride the North line to drop my car at a long-term lot so I could go to my sis’s graduation. Later, to the airport I had to ride the South train. When I got back to NC and I had to pick up my car I accidentally got on the Northeast line and ended up in f*cking Doraville, which threw me about 45 minutes behind, by the way. Then I had to turn around and go back and get on my correct train.

So, because of my adventures in Atlanta, I know my trains, and I can identify the kinds of people that ride each train. The most pronounced difference is between the northern trains and all the others.

The northern trains (those coming from and heading to Dunwoody and Doraville) have lots of very professional-looking people. Lots of Asian people (computer geeks, my stereotypical guess), and young-ish and middle aged suburban, professional, middle and upper middle class, houses worth upwards of 250K, white commuters. Polos and pink and blue button downs, khakis, ladies in broaches and DKNY and men in golf clothes, wrinkled, sun-glassed and looking at me but not smiling back at me people. There are very few other minorities on these trains (unless they are getting off at one of the mall stops). Another huge difference on this train is that you have to sit beside someone on this train, it is always full and people expect you to slide over so they can sit with you. Which is cool, I’m just used to riding the East-West train.

On the other trains, I almost never let anyone sit with me, or sit with anyone else (unless it’s an old lady). I made the mistake of sitting beside someone during my first week in Atlanta, I thought the guy that I sat with was going to have a fit. On these trains, people would prefer to stand up rather than to sit beside someone else.

Also, the East-West and South trains are FULL of black people. All kinds of black people (and other people). Toothless, dirty, unclean, crazy, screaming, drunk, stinky, hippie, tattooed, and homeless people. Cool-looking artist/student types, wigs, weaves, locs, long and short, naturals, professionals, government workers, old ladies, flip flops, 3 inch heels, loafers, jellies, teenaged or just young looking mothers and babies (like, 5 babies), pretty boys, service workers, teenaged kids, poor people, middle-class commuters. All kinds.

The compelling thing isn’t who I see and what they look like, though I wish I could take pictures of them, seeing them could be so powerful. The very small ethical part of me can’t do it. Damn you, morality!!! Anyway, what is compelling is where all these people come from. All the people are coming into the city from their homes, and their homes are in distinctly different places.

One of the things that I hate about Atlanta is its size. Its huge and its sprawling. Atlanta is huge all by itself, and then when you add all the little suburban towns, the ATL metro is massive. Atlanta, like all large cities, has lots of black people, mostly poor, living in the inner city and most of the white people living in the suburbs.

This bothers me. I don’t care (too much) about where people live. What I care about is the differences in the school systems, crime rates, types of grocery stores, number of boarded up buildings, number of liquor stores, dirty streets, lack of grass, decent housing, graffittied walls.

Take a guess about where the better schools are, which has lower crime rates, who has the better, fresher produce and meat, which has more boarded up buildings and more rodents, where the streets are dirtier, who has the best greenspace, and where the better houses are (even the affordable ones)…..

Yep, I know. Exactly. And that’s what bothers me.

End of the second day working for the City…. and I’m dead tired.

Seriously, I have to get used to getting up early again after working half days last week in my old internship. During grad school, I didn’t have to get up until 7 or 7:15 to be at school by 8:45 and now I have to get up at 6:15 to 6:30 to be at work before 9.

Additionally, it takes 45 minutes for me to travel from where I’m staying in Smyrna to where I work. I’m driving in heavy Atlanta traffic, with the sun directly in my eyes. My transition glasses don’t work in my car, so I’m squinting and irritated. By the time I get to work, I’m sleepy again. Luckily, my co-workers are wonderful and they wake me up.

Thirdly, my first day at work lasted 13 hours. Yes, from 9 am to 10 pm, it was damn near 11 by the time I got home and close to midnight before my head hit the pillow. Then I had to get up and do it all again today. :-/ So, yeah I’m tired and I should probably go to bed now….

And I will, but first let me tell you what I’ve learned so far during my super summer internship.

1. I don’t want to be a County/City Manager. If I become a CEO of a local government, I can kiss my life good-bye, and I don’t want to do that now. Maybe when I’m old and don’t have anything better to do with my time I’ll change my mind, but I doubt it. Being a manager is a hard, largely thankless job. As a manager, you deal with all the crap, not just the fun parts, and I’m really only interested in the fun parts.
2. Speaking of the fun parts, they consist of downtown revitalization, urban development, affordable housing and general real estate, and creative solution to solve social problems. I love community development!!! Who knew?
3. I think I’d be best working as a department head or a consultant working for local governments. I would get to know all the people that City/County managers know, without having to deal with all the stuff that makes my head hurt and bores me to tears.
4. I am not a morning person. Mornings give me a headache. I need a job where I make my own hours and no one is expecting me to show up before 10am.
5. I love Decatur. I am drawn to progressive cities like a moth to a flame. I heard a presentation last night that said that residents of the city where I am working are smarter and wealthier than the rest of Metro Atlanta and most of the nation. Sound familiar? Just like Chapel Hill, Madison Wisconsin and several other places at the top of my “have to live there” list.
6. I really need to work on my small talk skills. Even when I try to keep conversation light, I generally fail miserably, and I don’t introduce myself well. Any suggestions?

I really like my internship. Everyone has been so helpful and nice to me. I’ve gotten some good leads on possible projects that could turn into capstones. Good Times!

Work has been so busy I haven’t had any time to do anything fun, hoping to fix that over the weekend…. and hopefully have pictures! Oh, and I’m trying public transportation tomorrow, so I’ll have time to read

So many people have asked me over the past few weeks, “How did you get an internship all the way in Atlanta from North Carolina?”

After answering the same questions about 10 times, I have consolidated my response. I hustled and I networked! I knew where I wanted to be and I knew that I only had myself to depend on to get me there.

I thought about all the new things I could learn in Atlanta. I love Orange County, but I knew I wanted a different kind of experience. I made a list of all the things that I’m interested in and that would make an interesting topic for my capstone paper.

I am interested in learning everything so my list is long. It ranged from regional government, land use and transportation planning (traffic is horrendous in ATL), public transportation, non-profit development and management, economic development, public private partnerships, consulting firms, etc.

I did way too much research on different agencies and organizations in the Atlanta area. I Google-bookmarked over 50 agency websites- that I obsessed about everyday. I sent letters of interest, I got my career person at school to send job fair invitations to people, and I sent email inquiries. I did everything I could to get a job.

And I got nothing. But here is the interesting part. I started telling everyone I knew that I wanted to be in Atlanta this summer. I told my classmates, I told program alums, I told my professors, I told people I met in hallways. It became a standard part of my introduction: Hi, I’m Monica; I’m a first-year MPA student. I am interested in Economic Development, Social Justice, Regional governance, and Downtown Redevelopment. I want to be rich and famous. Most importantly, I am interested in interning in Atlanta this summer.

It was amazing the response I got. Professors and alums immediately started talking to me about the people they knew in Atlanta and people I should call. And it worked; I met great people, made some great contacts, and got myself an internship. And if I decide to move to Atlanta after graduation, I’ve already started building my network.

And all those useless emails and letters that I sent before? Not a waste at all because I’ll start meeting those people, too and I can revisit them for jobs later.

Honestly, I hate networking. It feels like begging. But it works and I’m starting to get good at it. So what does that say about me?

However, slowly and surely I’m beginning to understand that the world is such an easier place to move in if I have my peeps working for me. Life is truly all about WHO you know. And if I know some people and you know some people and then you and I network, at the end of the day we leave with twice the resources. Which rocks!!!

I’m learning that I’m not using a person if I network with them. Most people like to be helpful. I love when I can help someone make a useful contact. So it’s a win/win, right?

By the way, I’m Monica and I’m looking for friends and fun stuff to do in Atlanta. Any ideas?