By Day and By Night

"WHAT BRINGS YOU TO NEW YORK?" IS NOT an uncommon prelude to a conversation at a dinner party here in the city. At any given event, a native New Yorker is usually a rare find. It's easy to expect a question like this when the vast majority of residents have moved here from other places around the world. So allow me to entertain this notion with a few details about what I do these days in the Big Apple... both my 9-5 and my 5-1 or 2 in the morning.

By day... I work at the American Museum of Natural History. Since 2002 when I moved to NYC, they've put me in a diorama display and let the kids come by and ogle me through the glass (kidding). I'm in the education department at the Museum, where we do some fantastic outreach programs for teachers and kids. My team produces all sorts of things for a national audience, mostly for people who may never set foot inside the Museum. Seriously rockin stuff. Online games about sharks, magazine features about Darwin, graduate courses about Einstein, comic strips about asteroids, exhibit guides about dinosaurs, and textbook chapters about volcanoes... the list goes on and on.

By night... I live, laugh and play in New York City, doing daring deeds and saving the world: one exciting design at a time. What do I really do? Lots of freelance. That's what Refresh is all about: my public face to folks who want websites (I also do a smattering of print and video work, but I'll save that for another time). For example, I'm in charge of communications for an organization called the Haven. It's a group of artists (actors, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, writers..) who meet every week and put on the occasional performance around the city. With the help of my team, I gleefully manage a website, newsletter, podcast, and a few other things to keep over 400 people connected.

And the rest of the time, you ask? Occasionally, you'll find me watching one of these, goofing off in the kitchen, moving and grooving, catching a frisbee, sliding down a mountain, watching the stars, eating out here, worshipping, learning, and listening. "Rarely," says my buddy Kevin Johnson, "does Armistead actually sleep." (Meh. I get enough.)

Next time: The Dawn's Early Light.

Cheers,
Armistead