day 1

So, this is more or less what's happening with Tina and Mark Moore in the Big Apple - a city that Tina finds more or less annoying on a daily basis.

Mark says he'd "like it more if he had a job."

Well, then, that's where we will begin. His job working for an evil Swedish company.

He took the job seven years ago. Back then, we were in Philadelphia, living in an apartment. I was working for the Associated Press at the time, about to move over to the Philadelphia Inquirer - talk about evil empires.

Anyway, his job brought us to New York two years ago. Actually, it brought him to New York. I was just here a couple weekends a month. More often than not, I made him come back to Philly, a.k.a "my city."

Then, as the Inquirer imploded under a new owner, I decided it was high time for me to leave. I tried the Times, the all-so-serious, weighty newspaper that is obviously published for people who don't ride the subway, but was rejected.

So, finally, I gave in. I decided to go to the Daily News instead, a tab, a celebrity concerned, Britney-Spears-loving tab, but a newspaper definitely published for subway riders.

Less than two months after my arrival, I received the shocking call: "They fired me," Mark told me as I stood at the D'Agastino's check-out. After losing the over-priced olives, I rushed home to console him. It sweems the company wanted "a new direction." Bullshit.

That brings us to today.

I'm happy to have more time with him, but the severance is running low and we're going to have to move. And that's fine with me. The commute from the Upper East to the Upper West side invades my senses on a daily basis. The transfer station from the 6 to the E train smells like dirty feet. The subway doors closed on me the other day, bruising my hip. Then, a free-newspaper hawker who was aggressively handing out papers struck me in the arm, hard.

I think he was a Metro guy.

peace.