My roommate Angie gave me a special New York guide book on my first day here. It is the "NFT", or "Not For Tourists Guide to New York City." What a handy little book. It breaks down each neighborhood (including mine--Washington Heights generally doesn't show up in tourist books. I guess there is no tour of Law & Order crime scenes) and shows where a newbie, like myself, can find grocery stores, hardware stores, and points of interest. It also has very detailed bus and subway maps. It is an essential guide for newcomers, except for one small thing...it is outdated the minute it comes off the printing press.

This is the city that never sleeps, and I don't think that necessarily means that most locals suffer from insomnia. It just means that things change constantly. New restaurants are always opening, and a few more are closing. People leave the city when they want a quieter life, and others come when they want to shake things up a bit (like me!). And copy shops disappear from off the face of the city without any tips to find another one.

For the past couple of days I have been trying to find a place to make copies of my writing sample portfolio. In PR they really want to know that potential candidates can write. According to my little black NFT book there was a place to make copies on Broadway and 171st. No such luck. I am pretty sure I made a good reconnaissance of the neighboring blocks but I saw no neon sign advertising 5 cent copies. Since it wasn't completely urgent I held off my copy making and tried again today.

I realized that change inevitably happens, even to copy making establishments, so I was pretty certain that a place like Kinko's would keep better tabs of their facilities. I searched online for a few places to look for in my travels today. You wanna know how many of them I actually found? Zero. It looks like Kinko's website is as up to date as my book.

Finally I found a place to make copies in the Upper West Side. Believe it or not I did find the place in my NFT guide, but it had another name. It was a prett ghetto establishment for the Upper West Side. Paper boxes were strewn about and the machines looked like they belonged next to the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History. They had a self serve copy machine that I intended to use, until I saw that the automatic feed slot was broken. I had more that five pages to copy, and I did not like the idea of placing each of my twenty pages on the glass. But I did not want to traipse all over the city to look for another place to make copies. Instead I used my secret weapon. If you don't know what that is, I'll enlighten you: my hair toss. It was infamous at church in Bellevue, and I find that it even works in New York. Gently tossing my hair and cocking my head to the side, I asked the kind non-native english speaking boy to please make my copies. After all I had a lot to make, and the machine was not working 100%. He gave in to my super power, and made my copies. Of course now that I am mentioning this power online, I may have weakened it. But at least I have my copies and a few portfolios for upcoming interviews.

You are probably wondering how that is coming...well I am still in the interview process for the internship, and that's it for right now. And as long as the streets don't change overnight, my NFT book should get me to each and every interview I wil have.