i use to have a lot more experience with varanus before i started college and had to sells them, ackies will make you want to watch the cage constantly to see what they are doing and how they interact with everything in their environment. blue tails are pretty skid dish same with timors,(little experience with both mostly just volunteering at reptile places) but i had black rough necks and argus monitors. once i get a house i will be getting another rough neck i could watch him for hours as he just climbed everything in his cage. my adult female argus was content with just sitting on the couch as i rubbed her back, my adult male argus would walk where ever he please and if you stopped him, he would tripod look around, drop down, hiss and then try to tail whip and lunge to bite you. monitors are unlike any reptile, when you look into their eyes you feel as if they are thinking of what they are going to do next and they are unpredictable. and 95% of monitors do not like to be handled, they will tolerate it for some time. my female argus was fine sitting next to me if i picked her up she became a brat.
if i was you i would look into ackies, friendlier of the monitor sp., easier to care for, not a huge size, cage size is reasonable compared other monitors.(my argus pairs cage aka a room in my house), and come in either reds or the yellows. and I'm 99.9% sure there all U.S.C.B. blues/timors not to many people breed them, so chances are you will find lots of W.C. and maybe 1-2 U.S.C.B.
read P.E. monitor FAQ great info on ackies and other monitor sps you may like(the only problem is you are in NY like me AKA no water,black/white throats, niles, crocs.)
and read some books on them, the books are kind of dated but still some good knowledge in them
Monitors,Tegus, and related lizards-bartlett
care and maintenance of popular monitors and tegus-michael balsai
Monitors(the biology of Varanid lizards)-dennis king and brian green
trust me you can never do to much reading on Varanus sp

best of luck and keep us posted

Tom