Good Neighbors

The neighbors help. They really do.
They may even be the primary reason that so far I am thinking that New York City is the best place to be unemployed. I think it was lonelier the last time, 10 years ago, back when I was looking for a job in New Jersey. Well, I was looking for a job while living in Jersey…I’m not sure whether it’s accurate to say that I was looking to work in New Jersey.
A decade later, my job search is conducted from a studio apartment in Manhattan. Small space, but maybe I have a bigger support network now. Or at least it feels that way in the better moments, like the other day when a lovely neighbor knocked on my door and asked me if I wanted to go to Silver Moon Bakery for a chocolate chip cookie, which she was willing to pay for. There were so many things right about this offer: the neighbor, herself part of the looking-for-work brigade, exactly the kind of person I need to talk to when things are down; the idea of taking a little walk, which is so healthy and gets me out of my rut; the spontaneity of it all; and the not insignificant fact that this woman has the good taste to realize that the chocolate chip cookie at Silver Moon is indeed an answer to many of life’s woes.
It turned out that, real life providing yet another disappointment, the bakery had sold out of the chocolate chip cookies. But my neighbor paid for my iced tea and we sat on a bench on Riverside Drive, right there within spitting distance of the park, and we talked about looking for work and how it can impact on a relationship and how it’s important to try not to drive a partner crazy with all the ups-and-downs, mood-wise. A day or so before, I had sat on another bench along the same stretch with another neighbor, talking about other facets of a job search. I have been working on some of my most serious problems right there on those benches, with smart, funny, quite remarkable women who know a hard time when they see it, but they also seem to know how to keep going. They inspire me. They add so much flavor to my life and to my city, not unlike the chocolate chip cookie at Silver Moon Bakery.