week #38

Finally! I finally found, viewed, applied for, got, and paid for an apartment in New York City. Wow. Done. Finally. I'll be living a bit north of the Columbia University area, so while maybe not the sexiest address in NYC, it's a place. Of my own. Yep, that's right. It's my own little over-priced studio. Take that all you roommate-seeking jerks who didn't think I was hipster cool enough to share your flat. I can have all the weird sleepovers I want now. Booyah.

So now that the apartment is taken care of, I can finally start doing fun new New York things. I still need to actually move all my junk in, but a weight has been lifted, and it's amazing all the free time I feel like I have now. Instead of seeing 3 places every night after work, and then surfing craigslist during any down time, my time is all mine. What to do... what to do...

I wanted to learn how to curl, but I couldn't find any New York City curling leagues. Perhaps I'm not searching hard enough for that. But man, there are so many things I could do. So many different ways to use my spare time. Volunteering at an animal shelter? Homeless shelter? Join a soccer league? Softball league? Running group? Participate in a language exchange? Take night classes? Knitting lessons? Any suggestions?

random thoughts during this week #37

Happy first official weekend of football season. Did your team win? Mine did. So, this morning, I had to be over in Brooklyn to look at an apartment, but afterwards, I headed over to a bar called the Public House. It was billed online as THE OFFICIAL Steelers bar in New York. I think the internet was telling the truth. I walked in right at one, and there was one seat left at the bar, and I was probably the only one there not in some sort of Steelers' gear. To my credit though, I'm living out of a suitcase, and when I was packing, I thought I might need more business clothes instead of my Polamalu jersey. (Just kidding. It's a Hines Ward jersey.) So that was a nice way to spend the afternoon. Plus I made friends with my displaced Pittsburgh brethren. It was really a nice afternoon.

Now, I just have a random musing that I want to put out there in the world. So, my current subway stop is Columbus Circle. It's right on the edge of Central Park, and when I'm walking there in the morning, I often look up at the buildings along the edge of the park. (I know, this is blasphemous to true New Yorkers. I was told to never look up, or I'd give myself away as a tourist. Whatever. I don't care.) The reason for my looking up, aside from admiring the architecture, is that I always wonder, "which of these buildings was used as Dana's apartment building in the movie Ghost Busters?" I swear, when I'm looking up at them, with the trees of Central Park in the view, it looks exactly like a scene from the movie. I've been trying to look it up online, but haven't found the right search string yet.

All right kids, I'm out.

week #37

I just posted this morning, and here I am again. My new week starts tonight at midnight, and I haven't thought of anything yet, except for maybe this: No more bitching about my move.

I was talking to one of my old coworkers in Cleveland today, and I think she put it best when she said, "Well, a bad day in New York is still better than any day in Cleveland." That really got me thinking. Yah, my apartment search is totally sucking, but so what, I'm in New York. No sense putting off the fun until I find a place. Carpe Diem as they say.

Don't get me wrong, I probably will still bemoan some things (my feet HURT), but I'm going to try not to. I don't want your pity.* I'm in New York. I am having fun. Seeing new things. Meeting new people. Eating tons of delicious food. Exploring - OH! the exploring.

So fret not dear followers (Hi Kate and Rems), negative Nancy is gone. And, so, I leave you with these words of wisdom...

* except you mom. I want your pity. And your financial donation to help cheer me up.

week #36

Well, this past Tuesday was my first day of my new job in NYC. Everyone asks, "how's it going?" "are you excited?" "are you nervous?" "are you living it up in the city?" The answer to all of these questions is, I AM STRESSED. I still don't have a place to live. I have a temporary situation worked out, which is fantastic, but isn't permanent. What happens if I don't find a place in a week or two?

So really, work has been fine. New York has been fine -- although I did get verbally accosted on the subway my first day here, but I didn't take it personally. I think the guy was just nuts. If I could just find an apartment I would start regaling you with stories of my big apple adventures, but alas, I am stressed.

week #35

Alas, dear readers, I am currently writing from the JFK airport in New York. Last week's rambling, optimistic post was a sham. Let me tell you...

So, I was going to be rooming with two girls out in Hoboken, N.J. (or the 'Boke as I had been calling it). Right? So, last me and this girl leave off, she texts me Friday saying "hey roomie, I'll email you the papers to sign on monday." Roomie! She called me roomie -- that's legally binding! Anyway, Monday comes and goes, and no email. So Tuesday morning I send her an email, and get no reply. Wednesday, I call and leave a message. Thursday rolls around and I'm getting nervous. I haven't heard from her, and I'm supposed to be moving in on Saturday. So Thursday, I bring out the big guns. Three calls, one text, one more email. Nothing. Friday, I try one last call, and when it goes unanswered again, I realized I have to quickly devise a plan B. Well, actually, I panic, get depressed, curse the NYC and all its evils, and then devise.

The plan I come up with is to hop on a flight from PIT to JFK early Saturday morning, and come back Saturday night. A total of about 10 hours to find a place. So I figure it's time to call in the professionals, and I call a broker. I look at some places and put in an application and deposit down on an over-priced, tiny studio on the UES, that's actually pretty cute and I will hopefully be able to move in this coming Wednesday. I am cautiously optimistic about this. I'm sure something else will go wrong (perhaps the building will burn down?) but I have to hope that cruel fate is done toying with me -- testing my will to move to New York.

Oh wait, and here's the new thing for the week (no, it wasn't using the realty broker, although that was a first, nor was it being dumped by a roommate): I am sleeping in the airport. My red eye was canceled. HA! So, I'm flying out Sunday morning. At least there's WiFi at the airport though, so I can blog and check my email, and see that potential roommate who will henceforth be known as that stupid *!$*@ emailed me saying that her other roommate doesn't actually want a third roommate, so sorry.

And so, I am begging New York, the fates, any higher being out there, and Suze Orman who's on the TV currently, to please stop messing with me, to help a sister out, to please, please, please, make something in this whole move go right, because I'm not sure how much more I can take.

week #34

Why, hello blog. Sorry I've taken such a hiatus. Many apologies for my lack of new things of late. But I was just in NYC yesterday and today searching for an apartment (umm, new thing), so I have many new things to tell of. In fact, this post may get too wordy and philosophical. I just re-read Eat, Pray, Love, so I'm pretty sure that's the cause of anything that gets too deep.

Anyway, yesterday, I woke up at 4 a.m. -- an ungodly hour for anyone for sure, but especially for someone who works the night shift and didn't hit the hay until well after midnight. So I arrive in New York mid morning, with a list of apartments to see and a second tier list of people to call to set up appointments for later if the #1s don't pan out. How much detail do you want here? I'll go into my depressing day… but if you want the gist, just skip down 4 paragraphs.

The first two places were in Morningside/Harlem. This is not an area I'm too familiar with, but according to the ad, it's just steps away from Columbia University. Columbia was gorgeous. I walked around the campus for a while, and man, I could picture myself living there for sure. When I finally got to the business of heading over to the apartments, my heart slowly sank. "Steps from Columbia" actually meant about 10 blocks and 4 streets in the wrong direction. The apartment wasn't a total dump, but I just couldn't stomach spending $1200 a month, to live in a shack in a sketchy neighborhood. I wasn't too worried though, because, this was only my first stop, I had others lined up.

Well, #3 was a closet. I know, I know, it's New York City, ALL apartments are a closet. But, no, this place literally was a closet. I don't think I could have fit my queen size bed and had room for anything else, including clothes. Three strike outs off the bat and I was starting to get nervous. Then when I got to #4, it seemed to have already been rented "just that morning."

It was now time to start calling my B-list. After that though, I got a number of "Apartment's gone" -- clicks, and also left a few voice mails for people. I set up two more appointments out in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, which can be dodgy I know, but was hoping these places would be in good areas, but no such luck. I actually skipped the appointments I had set up with the owners, because there was no way I was living in that area. So I headed back to my hotel room to regroup, recheck craigslist, and break down and finally call a broker or two. I found that the favorite tactic of the broker is to post an apartment for $1250, but upon calling, tell you "sorry, that apartment is gone, but I have one for $1400 in that neighborhood."

I was thoroughly defeated at this point. I mean, really, really questioning whether New York wanted me. I knew this was going to be hard, but I didn't think it would be as soul crushing as this. A friend of mine from Cleveland was helping me search the web for places to try, and sent me a link to an ad for a roommate. A call, text, and visit later that night, and TADA -- I have a place to live in Hoboken, N.J. for at least the next 4 months. What a sense of relief. (Roommate also equals new thing (discounting college of course.))

So I got a place to live. Hoboken is pretty cool. The roommate seems pretty great (she texted me this morning and called me "roomie"). And my mojo was coming back. I AM going to kick this city's ass, thank you very much. So, since I was officially going to become a resident, I thought I'd use my last chance as a tourist to take one of those double decker bus tours (also new). It was fun, interesting, relaxing, and a great way to see the city and get a tan -- or in my case, a sunburn. I went to Times Square. I did some shopping at Century 21 (new). I had some really fantastic sushi near Wall Street. I visited ground zero for the first time ever, which was pretty awe inspiring.

*moment of silence*

Then, when my feet were aching and I couldn't stand acting like a tourist anymore, I hopped a subway train and a bus (I am so proud of my bus-taking abilities) back to LGA. And now, I'm writing this on the plane back to Cleveland. I'm just drafting this up, to be posted when I get back to my apartment, because typing on your computer on the plane makes you look big and important. I'm doing work here people, not reading some smut novel like the rest of you schmucks. Oh, time to power down, we're coming in for a landing. Hopefully I'll be back to regular blogging from here on out. I actually think I might end up doing more than regular blogging, because there is so much to do in New York. I can't wait to get there. I can't wait to do anything and everything!

week #31 - 32 - 33

Oh dear... I'm super behind. Many apologies. Thing is, I'm busy and stressed with packing up my life and shipping it off to NYC. If you want to stretch the rules a bit, I'm sure I've been doing new stuff like posting my apartment on craigslist, trying to get out of my lease in the Cleve, straightening out bills, apartment searching for places in New York, calling brokers, looking at roommate ads (what is the difference between a sleepover and a "weird sleepover?"), canceling bills/services/utilities, and much more. Ugh... there is so much to do.

Today I'm showing my apartment to a person who will hopefully love my place and take over my lease. If this happens, I will probably die of happiness. Getting out of my Cleveland lease has proved to be the most difficult and stressful part of the moving process (and heck, I don't even have a place to live in the big apple yet). I'm hoping this showing goes well, because I am sorta thinking this would be the perfect opportunity for some creep to murder my in my own apartment and steal all my valuables. Although, I think he would be disappointed with what few valuables I have. (A Wii and the whole Bourne Identity Trilogy... SCORE!)

So... sorry for my lack of newness, my boring old same self. I promise I'll make up for it later in the year with *gasp* two new things in a week.