New York Round Two

Rangers v. Yankees

2008-07-06T10:53:00.001-07:00

I forgot something else. I went to see the Rangers v. Yankees at Yankee Stadium! Sorry, dad, I didn't call to tell you. But it was incredible. My friend Natalie from the Fort knew one of the players on the team that she went to high school with, so we had his seats behind home plate and got to take in the game. It was crazy being there because you always hear about it as a child and I had never actually been. Also, this is the last year that they will play there because they move in to the new stadium next year....

Anyway, the game I was there for, we (the Rangers) won, and I was supporting the great state of Texas with my Red and Blue!

Three in one day???

2008-07-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

I forgot something! The 4th of July was only 2 days ago...I stayed in the city. But I got to see the biggest fireworks show in the country on the East River put on by Macy's. It was stunning. There were so many fireworks that the sky was so smoky that you couldn't make out some of the fireworks. The streets were packed--the freeway was shut down so people could start gathering at 4pm to get a spot. I saw people on rooftops that overlooked the river, so many umbrellas (it was raining), the streets were packed and you couldn't move. Nonetheless it was quite an experience.

Hope y'alls was amazing.

Coop

Pictures...

2008-07-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

...for those of you who don't have Facebook to see them...

I'm a terrible blogger.

2008-07-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

Howdy world. After receiving hate mail from multiple people, I guess it's time to update the world with what's been going on in NYC.

Let's see, last time I updated, it was June, now it's July 6th. There has been so much going on, I'll have to give a highlight reel. Sorry you're not getting the detailed account of my life.

As far as work is concerned, I have been at the offices ever since the third week in. My office is so much fun, the people that work in there are crazy and keep me laughing for the entire day. For two weeks we worked on the Fall preview guide that is distributed to stores, and it was finally sent out at the end of June. We broke a record with 76 pages of goodness. It was really a process, meeting with the buyers to find out key items to push, meeting with the VPs and Senior Directors, conference calls, and so on. It was really a good learning experience, I learned all about allocations and which stores receive what and why and where all (soon to be) 61 stores are, and so much more.

The office is so relaxed, which is so nice. I feel like I get to play around more than I actually do work, and that's not just because I'm an intern. There seems to be a lot of down time for everyone, which is nice sometimes, and not at others. At times, the office is crazy and stressful, so it's nice to have the down time every now and again. I have been sent out on several spy missions to take photos at high-end luxury retailers of fixtures and so on so we can continue to develop our stores to the best that they can be. We are always opening new stores, in fact there are two coming up in August and continue through the year. We have an exciting opening coming up in Paris which is going to be the European flagship. Should be an incredible store.

Right now we have moved on to Holiday, so we'll be meeting with the buyers and getting key stats and what we're pushing (think gift giving)--Holiday is probably the craziest season because we have to focus so much of gift giving. The showroom for Spring of 2009 was opened last week, so hopefully I'll get to do a walk-through at some point, which will be really cool. The way it works since we do everything internally goes like this: the designers start compiling concepts for the collection a year in advance. From there, there are actual artists that take the concepts and begin to draw the looks for the season, which are called stats. Depending on the season, sometimes the buyers buy from stats or from samples. It is REALLY expensive to get samples, so it is near impossible to get samples for everything. But when the samples arrive, a showroom is compiled with a crazy amount of looks. The showrooms are absolutely incredible. They are propped by visual, there is furniture, lighting, wall coverings, flooring, everything to create an environment to help Ralph get a feeling for collection. He then does a walk through and calls anything out that needs to be changed or he doesn't like and it's immediately changed. The showroom is then opened to Senior Management, and they do a walk-through with Design and they get the feeling for collection. The buyers then come in and literally "buy" the pieces that they think will create a cohesive collection in the stores. Not everything is bought, sometimes things are bought in color multipliers if they will create a classification or something of the like. Even when you see the runway show, all of those pieces are just samples and the Women's Collection Buyer doesn't buy all of the pieces, or has a color changed to something that would work better. All in all, it is a HUGE process that happens 4 times a year, sometimes more depending on how many deliveries are coming in for a particular season. And of course, anything can change on a dime, colors are dropped, pieces are changed, refitted, and so on. Wow, that's a inside look.

Anyway, enough about that. I'm sure you're bored to tears. But everyone thinks what we do is kind of a joke and just purely aesthetic, but there is a HUGE backstory to everything we do.

Life in NYC has been great. The city is always hustling and bustling with so much energy. The weather has been out of control. It rains and then shines and rains and shines day in and day out. It is humid as fuck all the time, which is not fun. Walking to work has been pretty much ruled out because by the time I get there, I'm a ball of sweat, and that just isn't nice for my office mates. I have met some amazing people in the city. It is insane how many people are here. I have celebrated 21st birthdays, drank on penthouse rooftop gardens, gone out to the clubs, the dive bars (shout-out to Matty B), lounged in the most amazing place in the city-Central Park, drank so much coffee I should turn into a coffee bean (it's the only way to make it through the workday), ate incredible food--bagels, pizza, italian, southwestern, and the list goes on. I enjoy my runs along the East River. It's so peaceful and calming to run along the water. I have eavesdropped on so many conversations, it's not even funny. Space in NYC is not an option. I have taken the subway too many times to count, the bus gets me to work everyday. Life in NY is so different. I don't get to hop in my car and drive 2 feet. When I get back to Dallas walking to class is going to be like walking around the corner here.

It really saddens me that I'll be leaving the city so soon. I love it here, and I don't even want to THINK about going back to school and having to do SCHOOL WORK! What the hell is that. I want to get paid to do something I love. Which has become a reality...because...

Last week, the Vice President of Retail Brand Development came over to my desk and told me had something to tell me. He began, "Will, I just got out of a meeting with Charles Fagan [read: Executive Vice President of Global Retail Brand Development], and he wants to you know that when you graduate, there is a spot here for you at Ralph Lauren."

I must have done something right. I was honestly in shock and so overwhelmed, and grateful, amazed and relieved at the same time. Pretty monumental day for me. So, needless to say, I am coming back to NY when I am finished and will be somewhere with RL.

I am obsessed with the Keri Hilson song "Energy." For some reason the beat and melody and lyrics just move me. It's not even that special of a song, but it's just really great.

Fashion in NY is insane. If you didn't know, Attly and I started a fashion blog [http://navytieaffair.blogspot.com]. You can read up on, though we are TERRIBLE at maintaining and need to work on that. It seems like time is SUCH a premium here, every second spent is so important and it is hard to find time to sit down and so things like that. But, we will make time. So many sure to check back, because it is going to be big and you're going to be glad that you knew me.

I've also come to a major realization about people in my life. I have always been really selective with people that I like, I'm sure all of you know that. If I don't like you, it's not hard to tell. I hate being fake, it's a waste of time. Anyway, there are too many people in the world to like everyone. I think it's important that everyone in your life brings something really special to your life, something that no two people can bring [unless they are twinners]. Ha, just a thought.

This post has really been all over the place. From reflective to informative. I am sitting in Starbucks (because our internet has been down for 5 days now) and I keep having random thoughts so I am just letting them out at they come.

Hope this finds everyone doing well. I will make my very best effort to update more often. I will be going to Hamptons sometime in the very near future because Marantz is finally back in town, and I am beyond excited. Friends are coming in town this weekend, so excited to see people I haven't seen in 2 months. Oh yeah--I have been here for over 2 months now. Where has time gone???????

I love you all--when I think of each of you, you make me smile.

Will

My Miss List

2008-06-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Stolen from RCO. But I like the idea...

My Miss List:
1. Hurseystrassen's lux amenities.
2. Reliable and fast wireless internet.
3. Reasonable prices on anything and everything.
4. Friends and family.
5. A paycheck!!
6. Cable TV/TiVo
7. Villa-O Sfuzzis
8. Breadwinners.
9. My bike!
10. Dedman...seriously.

...more to come.

A week in the office

2008-06-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

Time is flying by in NYC. Another week down, a whole new set of experiences.

All week I was in the offices working on Fall communication for product presentation. I worked on concept boards that we used in meetings to arrange how everything will be presented in the stores (through September) and also got to work on the season preview guides that are sent out to the stores to give them a glimpse of what they will be receiving, how it is going to be merchandised, etc. It was a pretty fun week, I enjoyed being in the office. The people in the office are always lots of fun, it's very lively and everyone is very funny and chatty. On Friday, I got to go to a meeting at the L'Oreal offices for the upcoming fragrance launches, which was really cool. I would tell more details, but I'd have to kill you as this is classified information. Haha--needless to say when they come out it will be a really big to-do.

Wednesday night A-dog and I went out downtown and met Matty B and Nat.Phil and her friends. It was quite the night bar hopping all over town...literally. We began downtown and ended up on the UES. Thursday was not a fun day at work. Attly left on Thursday for the weekend to attend a wedding, so I have been hanging out here. Relaxing, recovering, detoxing, exercising...all necessary things! It was a great, low-key weekend. Met Amber and Claire up here for brunch yesterday and walked around for a bit.

The weather has been getting better. It was hot as a mofo last weekend, cooled down for the week. This weekend was warm and rainy. The weather patterns are very odd here.

Other than that, all is well in NYC. Back to the offices tomorrow to finish women's preview and start mapping for the stores.

Hope everyone is doing well--happy father's day to all of the dad's, especially you JWC! Have a great week.

William

P.S. Make me feel cool and email me at will.cooper@poloralphlauren.com if you need something to occupy your time.

It's already been a month...

2008-06-08T07:36:00.001-07:00

It is hard to fathom that I have been here for a month. It has been so jam-packed with activity the time is flying by.

The past weeks have been so busy. I was at the downtown stores 2 weeks ago working in SoHo and on Bleeker Street. The downtown stores are much more relaxed and low key than the Mansion. The sales staff is much more down to earth and it was a nice change of pace from working with the haughty folk at the Mansion.

For the weekend we met up with a friend from SMU and went to dinner, schmoozed with the bartender and he told us some great places to go. Somehow we ended up hopping from bar to bar and eventually met some more SMU kids. It's crazy how many people you know in the world wherever you go. Bars in NYC don't close until 4 in the morning, which is quite dangerous. We stayed out really late and have a Taco Bell receipt from 4:54 to prove it (why was TB open at 5 am?). It was one of those really random but fun nights.

Sunday was really relaxing. Attly bought a longboard to cruise around town on. Caitlin called and we were off to meet her on the west side. So I put on the running shoes (exercise is great, but seemingly impossible to partake in after working 14 hour days, ya dig?) and ran through Central Park while Attly longboarded his way down. We met up with Caitlin and just hung out for a couple of hours. On the way back I experimented with the longboard, it's actually really fun and not all that difficult. Mikey, if you're out there I was yours if you still have it.

Monday was back to work. My boss was out in the Hamptons doing a changeover so it was just Lauren and I at the Mansion all week executing a changeover on the women's floor. I worked really long hours and it was really stressful. We were working during store hours, so the second you do something a customer or an "entitled" sales associate will some destroy your work. Needless to say we executed it with perfection and all the higher-ups were impressed with our work sans Tamara. Friday was a little more fun. I was assigned to go to all of the luxury retailers on 5th and Park aves and do some investigatory work. It was fun being a spy. The rest of the afternoon I was in the office working on the presentation concept boards for Fall which is hitting stores in a little over a month. I'll be back there Monday to work on some more stuff. Again, it's a nice change of pace to get out of the stores for a while.

This weekend has been crazy, naturally. Friday, Attly and I began at Brother Jimmy's BBQ, a great local spot. We ordered the "Swamp Juice" which came in a 64 ounce fishbowl with crazy neon straws (think Razoo's) and then had some Natty Light, because they actually serve it at this place in tall boys, we couldn't resist. Later I met up with Natalie Philips from Fort Worth and she hung out with us all night. We met up with a huge SMU (and Matty B-you're jealous) crowd and I somehow misled the pack to a bar, so they left but I stayed with NatPhil and had some drinks with Claire and her family friend. After that NatPhil and I ventured off into the night to go find one of her friends and the rest of the night was slightly hazy, we're not exactly sure on the exact details. But, made it home safely.

Saturday, I met Claire for brunch and a great spot called Prune. We killed our hangovers with amazing bloody marys (they have an entire menu of bloodys) and amazing food. The place was really small (read: 10 tables) and there was a wait the whole time we were there. Well worth it. After that I came home and napped for the afternoon while my amigos were partaking in a Mississippi style BBQ in Central Park. Attly is the watermelon seed spitting champion on NYC. Go figure......

Saturday night we met up with the SMU crowd and had a couple drinks on the UES before going to a friend of a friend's penthouse apartment on 5th ave for dinner and drinks. It was fun, we met a lot of cool people from other schools and they made a killer steak. The view from the rooftop patio was unreal, you could see central park and all the way down the avenue. Pretty sick. Then we went to Mansion, some NYC club where the bouncers are douchebags and the people are...well...club goers. I am not much into that scene, but of course someone knew the promoter so there was a table and such, but it was packed with people and the music was loud and thumping and clubby and that's not my scene so I peaced and headed home to get some much needed rest.

Not too sure what's on the menu for today, hopefully lots of relaxation. The weather in NYC is RIDICULOUSLY hot. Not to mention HUMID. The AC is on full blast and we're doing our best to stay cool.

Hope yall are well and having a blast this summer.

Talk soon,
WTC

2008-05-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

To pick up where I left off....

Monday I reported to the corporate offices at 9:30 and went on air up to the 11th floor. I was greeted by the assistant to the higher-ups and she showed me to a desk where I was to wait for Tamara, who I am reporting to. Tamara was at the Mansion early that morning trying to recover the store from Private Sale. Tamara eventually showed up and I filled out some papers and we left the office for the Mansion.

I was thrown right into and started in the "tie pit" putting out the new summer ties. Nothing too thrilling. We then moved around some merchandise and reworked some areas. It was really disappointing to me (stop reading if you think the Mansion is glamorous) because I learned all about the back of house and the stock room and such. On the surface, everything is so pretty and perfect for the customer, then you step into one of the million doors marked "Private" and you suddenly learn that everything is a facade. Oh well, I guess that's true with most things. The rest of the day I worked in men's and then headed home for the day.

Oh yeah, Attly came in town on Monday, so he met me at the Mansion so I could give him the keys to the apartment so he could get settled. The apartment is a whole other bag of worms.........

After work I met Attly for dinner and then hit the hay in need of massive amounts of sleep.

Tuesday I was back at the Mansion slaving away folding millions of articles of clothing, I was probably late and got yelled at for that and I was probably not wearing appropriate clothing so I was spoken to about that, also. Ha. We worked some more in men's then went to lunch. After lunch we went to the temporary space and worked in men's doing the same moves we had just done at the Mansion. The people at the Sports store are much nicer than at the Mansion. The associates at the Mansion have an air about them that makes them seem better than you, but alas, there's not much I can do about that. Met Attly again for dinner and we went out and had some (much needed) drinks.

Wednesday was back to work at the temp space reworking some men's. I had to deliver a package to the Jitney to get some product to the East Hampton store. That was a fiasco--I went with Lauren who is a newbie in Product Presentation and we ended up missing the first bus as it drove right by us and then had to wait another hour to load up the box. After that we revisited the temp space to fill and fix what had been transfered out and then went to the Mansion to start working in women's. The remainder of the day we worked on women's Collection and tried to salvage the floor as it had been destroyed after private sale. Attly and I went to dinner/drinks again. Anyone see a pattern?

Thursday was not a fun morning. I didn't want to go in to work because I had far different expectations for the job. But I persevered and showed up (late) and was scolded yet again. We reworked women's collection (it takes up a whole floor so there was a lot of work to be done) and then peaced for lunch. After lunch I got to do some fun things. I reworked the vintage case in men's and women's antique jewelry. We finished pretty early and were released for the week until Tuesday. Hooray!

Friday Attly and I did some exploring on the west side (foreign territory) and walked a lot. Walking everyone is a real workout. I don't really remember what else we did. Saturday we went out to Greenwich, CT to have dinner with Gerdts. We had a delicious meal at Gaia and then went out for drinks. We barely made it home on the midnight train. Sunday we went back out to CT and relaxed by the pool and soaked up the sun. It was a really nice change. We had some great pizza and the Gerdts casa and drank some brews. We made it back again on the midnight train safely...

Today, Attly and I had brunch at the Barking Dog, it was delicious. We went to see Indiana Jones, it was pretty decent. Had dinner at an Asian spot and here I am. Exhausted from a busy weekend.

Ready to take on the week and see what I can stir up....hope everyone is well.

Talk soon,
wtc

Some visuals...

2008-05-26T09:01:00.001-07:00

Hello from the train!

2008-05-25T11:35:00.001-07:00

Hi all--I have been a bad blogger recently and haven't kept up; my apologies. It is hard to find time to sit down and type. But I am on the train now headed to Darien, CT to see Gerdts and hit the beach with Attly. The weather is so nice and I cannot wait to soak up some sun.

What's new in NYC...

Like I mentioned earlier, the Hamptons trip was a blast. I got there Monday night after some delays while waiting for Raul (Creative Manager from Rugby in Dallas who is moving to East Hampton to work at the new store). We took the Hampton Luxury Liner from the city and it dropped off right outside our hotel. The ride was only about 2 hours. We got to the hotel and went to check in. It was a historic hotel above the restaurant The Palm which is really famous in the Hamptons...quite a scene. After that we went and checked out town; peeped through the barracade and saw the Rugby store. The store is immaculate.

We headed back to the hotel and ran into a bunch of RL people in the lobby and sat around til the wee hours of the morning drinking and playing poker. The bar was closed but they left the tap on so we floated the keg before the night was over. All in all a good time for the first night.

I reported early on Tuesday morning to get busy on making the store pretty. All day I worked in men's doing the merchandising and setting the concept tables, etc. It was a ton of fun to have free reign over the merchandising. I met a TON of people from corporate, a bunch of the concept designers who are all really cool. The entire team was really cool--they picked the best of the best associates and it was great getting to know all of them. For dinner that night I went out with the creative team (read: windows and interrior rigging) to a famous place called Rowdy Hall and had the famous Rowdy Burger and many-a-beer. It was a good time. After that it was time for bed. Exhaustion had already begun.

Wednesday was an early morning: 6:00am. There was a lot of work to be done, and they happened to be putting a car in the window that had been cut in half. It was really cool. We were kicked out for a couple of hours while they repainted the floor (for the fourth time) and after that reworked a bunch of the merchandising in men's and started women's.

Thursday was another busy day. I worked in women's all day and reworked some of the merchandising to get ready for the photos and opening on Friday. The photographer came and I directed the photo shoot telling him what to take shots of, etc. We were there til 2:30 in the morning and it was quite a scene when everyone showed up from the bar. It made things more enjoyable to see skateboarding down the main road by a bunch of drunk people.

Friday was the big day. We were scheduled top open at 10am, but Ralph was scheduled to stop by at 11, so we held off and made sure everything was perfect. Ralph arrived a few minutes late in his black Ferrari with yellow racing stripes. What a baller. He walked in and loved the store and said it was the most beautiful Rugby store he'd ever seen. When he was in the room he has such a commanding presence, despite his stature. Every word that he said was important; he wanted some changes made in women's to edge it up a little, so we held off opening the store and reworked some things and then the store finally opened it's doors around 1. The rest of the day was pretty busy, a lot of people in the store had never heard of Rugby and were really enjoying the store.

Friday afternoon consisted of long naps and nourishment. After napping, Raul and I had dinner downstairs and the hotel and fittingly celebrated with multiple Long Island iced teas. We had some interesting company at the bar, an 80 year old man and his fresh-off-the-Jitney russian prostitute. Made for some great laughs.

Saturday I stopped by the store and hung out for a while. In the afternoon, a bunch of us went on a trip to Montauk, at the end of Long Island, and some ventured into the water to do some surfing while others relaxed on the beach. It was nice to get away from the hype for a while. We came back and grabbed a bite to eat and then retired to bed. The sleep deprivation was really setting in.

Sunday was departure day. I stopped by the store in the morning and caught the Jitney out at 12 to get back to the city. I got back and did some cleaning up and got everything settled for my first day on the job.

I'll recap the first week sometime this evening. I am tired of typing..........

Hope everyone is well.

WTC

time to breathe...

2008-05-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

nyc is crazy. i haven't had time to breathe. or eat. or sleep.

the hamptons was a ton of fun. i met ralph several times, her is very kind...and short. the store is amazing.

my internship is uneventful so far. i am going to work on getting into something more exciting.

i will elaborate at a later date. i am extremely exhausted.

hope everyone is well.

Let's try this again...

2008-05-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am sitting in my new home for the next couple of months. It is kind of an out-of-body experience. But somehow, I feel like I belong here and that I've been here for quite some time.

Anyway, the trip up was pretty hazard-free. I am notorious for overweight luggage, and of course didn't disappoint when I arrived at the check-in counter. I managed to arrive at the airport with 5 pieces of luggage. Two huge suitcases, a duffle bag, a garment bag and my backpack. Jay at the AA check-in counter made me weigh my two checked pieces and they were all of two pounds over weight. But of course he insisted that I "redistribute" the weight. 10 minutes later after sprawling my shit all over the place I managed to get one down to 49 pounds and the other to 51 pounds. Jay decided to be nice and "let one pound slide." Thanks, Jay.

I somehow made it through security with three carry-ons. But of course was marked as a "SSSS" (read: 4S, who knows what that means) by the airline, meaning I was subject to a pat-down and having my bags emptied and checked for bombs. After all of that, I had about 15 minutes until my flight was scheduled to depart, so I grabbed a kid's meal at good old Mickey D's and bolted to my gate (I was miserably hungover for this entire process and thought some good grease would help my state. Next time Drew says it's a good idea to travel hungover, don't listen.)

No flight to NYC is complete without a delay. So, naturally my flight was delayed about 45 minutes. As the flight was boarding, it was my turn to have my boarding pass scanned. I made it about three steps before I was attacked by the gate agents insisting that I check one of my three carry-ons. Blast, they caught me. So I parted ways with my duffle bag and continued on to the second to last row, middle seat. I love looking out the window at the sparkling silver engine two inches from the window.

Alas, I arrived at LGA in one piece despite the bumpy landing due to the rainy weather in New York. I am so thankful to have amazing friends that are willing to pick me up from the airport. As I strolled down to baggage claim, I was greeted by a tall (freshly) blonde Gerdts with a big smile. Miraculously, all three bags arrived (wet from the rain) and off we went on an adventure into the city. Little did I know that Gerdts is a professional city driver and we arrived at my apartment building (with a brief stop at Tasti D-Light) and met the guy that I'll be living with for the next couple of weeks. He is very nice, works in banking in Midtown. He gave me the keys, and then bolted for the weekend out to Rhode Island to be with his mom.

Gerdts and I did a little unpacking. My room is about equivalent to a closet in Texas. And we all know I don't travel light. I had already shipped two boxes of shoes and clothes on Monday that were waiting here when I got here. So I put some things away and then headed off to dinner with Gerdts. We ended up at Rockerfeller Center and had dinner at the restaurant there. After that, it was time to hit the sack.

Here are some pictures from day one:

Gertds halling up one of my suitcases up the steep incline from the parking garage to the street.

My (tiny) room.

Saturday I woke up around 9. It was an odd awakening because I had no Idea where I was. I eventually figured out I was in NYC and excitedly took on the day. I was supposed to meet Kristina and Emily for brunch (which, in case you didn't know, is the new dinner) so I got up and got ready and headed out for some good exploration. I walked down my street (75th at 2nd) to Madison to go check out The Rhinelander Mansion (The RL Flagship) at 72nd and Madison. I perused the store for a bit and got a good feel for what I'd be working with. I then headed to check out the temporary space at 1055 Madison (80th and Madison) that RL is occupying while the Sports Store (888 Madison, across from the Mansion) is being renovated for a women's flagship and converting The Mansion into an all men's store.

Phew, lots of RL info. Anyway, I ended up heading over to Central Park and meandered down to the Village (roughly 70 blocks--lots of good walking) where we were going to have brunch. Only to find out they missed the train and weren't going to make it in to the city. Change of plans: take the train out to Rye (where Kristina lives) and hang out. The train takes about 45 minutes, the ride wasn't too bad. I met Kristina and (Emily) Gerdts in Rye and had some lunch and ice cream. Then we headed back to the Marantz casa to say hi to mom and dad. Which turned in to Gerdts and I joining the family for dinner.

No Marantz family holiday is complete without Coops and Gertdsie, so they say. We went out to the beautiful American Yacht Club and watched the sun set and slurped down multiple seabreezes. I love summer. Dinner was phenomenal; I had some tasty mahi mahi.

Sunset at the AYC.

Kristina, Me and Gerdts at the AYC.

Watching them retire the American flag.

I took the train back into the city and here I am. I am pretty exhausted from my first day in the city. I am so thankful to be here in good health and spirit. I am headed to the Hamptons on Monday to open the new Rugby store in East Hampton. I'm sure there will be many stories to tell. Hope everyone is well.

WTC