What can I say? Several interviews later, dozens of resumes mailed, faxed, emailed and re-emailed, I’m still without a job.

Oddly enough, at the moment, I’m feeling pretty good.

I suppose now is the time to begin the passage of Days.

We actually “arrived” some time ago. But it is only now, after being here for several weeks that I am beginning to get a feel for this place.

I had always figured it would take time to settle in. I also figured it would take time to find work.

I hadn’t figured it quite like this.

Observations: Yes, it is cold here. But it doesn’t feel cold. The temperature is difficult to explain. Yes, you have to wear a heavy coat, and yes your hands will get very cold scraping the ice off the car’s windshield. But it doesn’t have the bone chilling cold of the New York winter. I can only assume this is because of the lower humidity here.

Since it is so cold the various heating plants all around the city produce incredibly huge plumes of steam. I don’t mean pillowy clouds of water vapor, I mean towering thunderheads that rise many times higher than the tallest buildings of downtown Minneapolis. Since it’s flat here one can see white plumes all around off in the distance. There is a coal-fired power plant Northwest of the the city, about 50 miles distant. It resembles a cloud-generator off on the horizon. In fact, when the sky is overcast, one gets the idea that the clouds in the sky are actually being created down here.

Began journal project. Recapped trip out here. Still trying to organize apartment. Proving very difficult due to boxes. If I give up the original packing the damn electronics came in they’ll probably never leave here again.

Learned how bottle return works. There is no deposit in this state. Only bar bottles that are sold at very few places have a deposit and must be returned to the place of purchase. The rest are recycled. But recycling is only picked up at two week intervals. For a building as large as ours that is beyond silly.

Dinner: baked ziti with spinach, ricotta, tons of garlic. Chianti.

We departed NYC two days after the movers piled our boxed things in their truck and sealed the door with clunk that echoed down our street.

Despite