I got to my first day of work early this morning, so I got a cup of tea at McDonald’s and took a quick walk around the block. Just around the corner, I stumbled onto the building I was just reading about last night, the Hearst Tower, set to open in summer 2006. Right now the company’s offices are all over Midtown, but they’ll soon all be under this one roof.

It’s absolutely beautiful, a sort of Howard Roark-ian monument in glass and sandlike pillars and forms a la Soldier Field before it became the monstrosity it is today. But more interestingly, the Tower is environmentally friendly – for example, its roof captures rain water which is then used to re-humidify the air inside. Three cheers for the globally crusading publishing world – we’ll cut down the world’s trees for our mags/papers/books, then let Borders employees tear off the covers of unsold copies and throw them in the dumpster, but By God, we’ll paint our offices with low-vapor paints and furnish with formaldehyde-free furniture.

Anyway, it really is an astounding piece of architecture. Too bad they don’t move until my gig is over. But maybe I’ll have a spot in it someday.

Day 1 went really well. The office is very low-key, and the staff is fantastic. One of the editors said my phone interview was the best he’d ever heard, which was flattering because all I remember of it was being neurotically nervous and hopped up on caffeine and maybe being a little too familiar in tone. I think they just thought it was cool I was already in their tomorrow.

Anyway, the job basically rocks. First off, we don’t even have to come in until 10am. And like co-intern J. said, Where else is it your job to find out answers to ridiculous questions and random/bizarre facts? We’re going to be so ready for Jeopardy by June.

For the first time today, I felt like coming here and doing this was definitely the right thing. I’m sure this is just the beginning of a lengthy rollercoaster ride – there’s still tons of logistics to figure out, and I haven’t made much progress on my Basic Needs checklist. But I’m starting to feel the potential for my life in this city to be very, very good.

Of course, two hours later, after subway hopping from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back again, seeing one apartment, missing a second appointment due to slow subways and missed stops, walking way too far in way too high boots, passing through a gauntlet of catcalls and lewd looks from scary men and 12-yr-old hoodlum punks on the walk home, and having to scrape out the apparently regularly occurring everyday grime from underneath my fingernails, I was irritated all over again. But, so it goes.