There's no place like home...

I'm so relieved that the subway strike is over, so I don't have to deal with a commute like today's ever again. I left the house with my mom at 6am, at which point we drove up to the Bronx to pick up one of her colleagues. The three of us drove down Broadway and Amsterdam Ave to 113th st in Manhattan, to St. Lukes, one of the hospitals she works at. We couldn't get to Roosevelt on 57th street, the other hospital she works, because of police checkpoints preventing vehicles with less than 4 passengers from going south of 96th street. Our plan was to catch the 7:15 hospital shuttle bus taking passengers from St. Lukes to Roosevelt, but we missed it by 5 minutes. While getting breakfast across the street, one of their colleagues walked in and noticed us sitting down to eat. She had a car, but no passengers, and we were three people needing a ride, so the four of us teamed up and drove past the police barricades and got dropped off at Roosevelt around 8:05. At that point I strapped on my rollerblades and skated approx 5.5 miles down to the southern tip of Manhattan, where I'll be working for the next two weeks (it's the same place I worked at in July, so you can check out the archives to see pictures of it). After missing yesterday, and after 2.5 hours of traveling, I finally showed up to work this morning (let's not forget that it's winter!). I heard the strike has just ended, so I should be just fine tomorrow. What a relief. However, I must admit that the exercise and camaraderie with other New Yorkers rollerblading down the Hudson River Park was exhilarating. It was also great to revisit so many NYC landmarks, like the Empire State Building, where Jon Stewart films the Daily Show, the Intrepid, the Statue of Liberty, Wall St. and Battery Park. Here's a picture of me in front of the NY Stock Exchange on Wall Street. There's no place like home.