For the first time in my NYC life, I'm NOT moving

Oh my god, I'm putting down roots. I was beginning to doubt the possibility of ever living in the same apartment for more than a year but it's happening. And it's such a relief. Despite all of the turmoil of 2009 I am going to be able to stay in my apartment. I'm so relieved not to have to apartment hunt again or pack everything up again or start over in a new neighborhood again. Financial District, you are my home! Finally I feel like my apartment is mine.

I'm still going to be skating on thin ice for awhile but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It started two weeks ago when I went to dinner with two of my close galpals. We were celebrating our successes (one friend is doing so incredibly well at work, the other is in school learning about stuff that sounds so cool) and venting about strife. Mine was of course feeling financially squeezed and wondering what my next step was for my apartment. My lease is up in March. I was afraid management would raise the rent. I was dreading it.

My friends must be good luck because the very next day I got a letter from the building. They offered me (and I'm sure, every other tenant whose lease is almost up) the opportunity to stay in my current apartment for another year or two at the same rent, plus incentives of x months free depending on the resigned lease length. It was an unexpected joy. I'd heard of friends getting similar deals in their buildings but didn't expect it for myself. It was like a mini-miracle.

I'd been working on getting myself back into the moving mindset to save money so for a week I tried to fool myself into thinking I would be happy moving. But by the weekend it was clear I'd be miserable. So I talked it over with some close friends and my family and together they helped me decide that staying is the best decision for me. I am still going to continue looking for freelance work to make ends meet and I think will apply at a few retail places again.

I can't express how great it feels knowing that I get to stay put for at least another year (and probably two). I look forward to being on solid ground not only for my own benefit but so that I can start helping others again, one of my humble pleasures. For now I can only volunteer but I have a feeling someday soon I can start contributing in ways above time. Maybe someday I'll even own a place! With a husband! Dream big roxy, dream big.

Pieces fit

Gentle Giant sent a rep to my apartment today to fix my TV stand. Good thing because I was running out of patience and ready to fix the damn thing myself. I was a bit afraid the rep would look at it, say "Sorry, we can't fix this" and then offer to cover the replacement cost. The piece is just so New York I couldn't stand the thought of losing it.

I needn't have worried. The rep came in, glued the leg back into place, used one nail and the stand was fixed. I helped him turn it right-side up and we positioned it in the correct spot. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes. He told me to wait 8 hours before trying to move it. No problem!

I went back to work, where my giddyness carried me through the day. I've been really tired during the day and drinking a lot of Starbucks. Really bad-for-me Starbucks too - a tall iced Cinnamon Dolce Latte with whipped. May as well be called dinner. But the drink works; I'm wired for a good 4 hours afterwards. I'm kind of bummed because while the Starbucks in Fairfield (CT) gets the drink right, none of the NYC ones I've been to know to drop the cinnamon on top of the whipped. It's just in the drink. Kinda flavor overkill. I'm not going to say anything though. The baristas are busy enough.

I haven't been sleeping well. It's partially because of the damn drippy air conditioner above me but also because of an unexpected cause - it's too quiet! My apartment is in the back of the building and faces a shared courtyard. There is no street noise at night. Even sirens are only distant muffled wails. There is no New York City noise, and it's very weird. My circadian rhythm is a bit off too - my body still tries to wake me up at 6:15 AM, no matter how many times I tell it it's OK to sleep until 7:30 or 8 now. I'm sure the sofa bed isn't helping. I dream about sleeping in my bed. How lame is that?

Little things

On Monday morning I woke up smelly and tired. I went into my bathroom to hang up my shower curtain and take a shower - only there was no curtain rod. What the eff? I can't believe I hadn't noticed that earlier. I had to shower very carefully, and I put down a towel to make sure the floor didn't soak.

At work I celebrated the move with my coworkers and answered the same questions over and over happily. I am truly excited to be here. My commute was great - 15 minutes on the 6 train and 5 minutes of walking. Versus 1 hour 15 minutes on Metro North and 10 minutes on the 6 and 10 minutes walking, this wins every time.

In my kitchen unpacking Sunday, I'd discovered that I had no drawers. Only cabinets. When I'd seen the apartment the kitchen was empty and somehow the thought of no drawers had never occurred to me. Also no counters had never occurred to me, but I didn't have those either. But I digress. I'd have to buy a couple of drawers to put under the sink with a utensil holder.

During lunch I scrambled back to my apartment (subways run less frequently during off-peak hours) to meet the locksmith by 12:30. He had some serious trouble adding the deadbolt to the backyard door. It should have taken 15 minutes max. Before I knew it, it was 1, then 1:30. Finally, I told him that even if he wasn't done I had to leave. I felt horrible because he was all sweaty and obviously working hard, but I'd already taken enough leaves of hours from work. He dragged it out 15 more minutes and finally got the damn thing. Again, my work was super understanding.

After work it was back to Bed Bath & Beyond for a shower curtain and a bath mat. In the bath section I checked out the space savers. My bathroom is tiny but workable. No room for a shelf unit though, so a space saver would be great. But the ones they had were kind of expensive and none of them really matched my vanity. Then I went to the Container Store and marveled at the cool shit they had. I bought two sets of drawers for under-cabinet organization and a cool kitchen sponge-brush thing. Even on sale, everything was expensive. I know this will be a trend in New York City. I'm bitching about it nonetheless.

My bag was huge, plus my earlier swag, so I caught a cab home. Another $14 gone, and I tipped ridiculously high. I checked online, where I found a nice space saver on sale on Linens N Things' site for $45. I ordered it right away.

I unpacked some more on Monday night and was disappointed that the movers didn't call to schedule fixing my TV stand. It was kind of holding me up and I am impatient. I slept on my sofa bed again. My guess is it will be at least a week before I have enough room to set up my mattress.

Ambient noise

On Sunday morning, I woke up at sometime in the very early morning to a loud, repeated noise of something hitting metal. With no clock plugged in, I had no idea what time it was. Was someone doing construction nearby? I was very confused. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep to no avail. Finally I had to get up to see what it was. I checked my cell - 3:30 AM. Oy.

I followed my ears (not very easy for someone partially deaf from rock concerts) to the kitchen, and then back to my window. One look outside told me everything - water was dripping onto the top of my air conditioner. And it was very loud. I went outside and looked up. Sure enough, the neighbor on the second floor had an air conditioner directly over mine. And it was leaking. Onto my air conditioner. BANG BANG BANG...BANG...BANG...like a 2-year-old hitting a pan over and over. Welcome to New York, I guess.

I was too exhausted to do anything about it. I went back inside, covered my head with a pillow and toughed it out.

I was able to sleep until about 9:30 AM and I needed every second of it. That's when the calls started rolling in - friends checking up on me, family, etc. I was starving so I dug through my boxes until I found my food. Bagel, yum.

Then it was on to unpacking. A truly daunting task. I started by checking my manifest. I wanted to unpack my clothing first since it and my hangers accounted for 6 boxes alone. Unfortunately, all of those boxes seemed to be on the bottom. After a bit of shuffling I found my hangers and soon after started hanging up my clothes. I ended up with a lot of extra hangers but my closet rod was full. Guess I won't be buying any new clothes for awhile.

The closet wasn't super wide but it was very tall inside. Since I am pretty tall my first thought was to yank out the shelf, raise the bar and add a second bar. But I decided against it when I tested the shelf - glued and nailed. Instead, I decided to buy a second shelf and install it myself. Then I could use the floor for shoe storage. Damn I have a lot of shoes. And much like my jeans, I think I wear the same three pairs over and over.

I broke for lunch and stared longingly at my poor, broken TV stand, which was still wrapped in the moving blanket and laying upside-down to protect the broken leg from further damage. As I'd started opening boxes I realized how much crap was dependent on that stand - all of my DVDs, all of my video games and the system, my TV, my DVD player, etc. My TV was sitting on my dresser looking distraught, and my stereo was still packed since the TV was in its space.

With no other form of entertainment, I pulled out my laptop. Time to test the Internet. As my HP started, I prayed to the Internet Gods that someone around was running an unsecured router. As luck would have it, there was not one but three people doing just that. I could live without TV but life without Internet was too much to ask. None of the networks had super reception - all were one bar - and I couldn't even connect to the first two. The third let me connect and I was surfing the web slowly. But at least I was on.

I ran out to D'Agostino and grabbed the basic groceries - milk, butter, cereal, etc. With no gas I had to remember to buy microwavable dinners. I also signed up for their rewards card, which I noticed only gave you discounts after you earn a certain number of points. Lame. I miss Stop & Shop already. I went back home, unpacked everything and headed down to Bed Bath & Beyond.

I cannot even describe how bad of an idea that was. Let me be clear - love Bed Bath & Beyond. I was happy to see that the store carried discounted toiletries like my store in Connecticut. But it was back to school weekend and every college freshman and their parents was there as well. Not to mention that the store completely overwhelmed me. I mean, they had a whole wall of spatulas. There were too many New York City options. I went for a trashcan. I wanted a stainless steel one to match my kitchen. The cheapest one was $90. I walked out without the trashcan, but with $90 worth of crap. They do take coupons though - their coupons, Linens N Things coupons, expired coupons...that pretty much rocks. The subway ride was unpleasant at best with two huge bags. I'm happy I live only 2 blocks from the station.

A friend came over for dinner, so I put the unpacking on pause. We went to the Atlantic Grill and had awesome meals with complimentary brownies for dessert on a dreary rainy day. I learned later that it's a bit of a celeb eatery but we didn't see anyone while we were there.

After dinner we went down to the Whole Foods in Union Square. I had been in there plenty of times - my work used to be located at Park and 17th. But it was my first time downstairs. With two sets of arms I stocked up on goodies.

I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow. I need a week off to unpack.

Opened up my eyes

I feel like I just went through a moving blitzkrieg - and survived.

Moving Day completely snuck up on me. Being the classic procrastinator I went out on Wednesday and Thursday nights (the stress of not hearing from my Super didn't help) so by the time Friday night rolled around I was frantically packing as much as I could. My roommates didn't help but that was OK because I wanted to know where everything was. I packed and numbered each box and kept a manifest on my notepad, though by Friday night the once-detailed descriptions read things like "crap" "more crap" and "random crap."

I packed my laptop last of course. Come Saturday morning I enjoyed my last hours of Internet surfing ESPN.com and NYTimes.com. I was going to miss secured Internet. And cable TV. And a home phone. (I despise cell phones. I do own one though.) But in NYC I wouldn't need those at first. And I would not be able to afford them comfortably.

The movers arrived promptly at 8:30 AM. It was a crew of 2. They thanked me for my directions to get around the low railroad bridge. We did a tour of the house - that stays, that goes, etc. and they proceeded to load everything up in 2 hours. It was like my friends had told me. They took two boxes at a time, lifting 80 lbs or so. They ran up and down the stairs. They wrapped my furniture like madmen. I had no idea what to do during the process. I'd prepared too well - there was nothing for me to run around and do.

When the moving company first prepared the estimate, I remember laughing when the sales guy told me 15 boxes. I thought that would be way too many. I ended up with 20 boxes plus a few random items and my furniture. Luckily they brought a medium sized truck so everything fit with room to spare.

I found out later they're not supposed to do this, but the crew also gave me a ride to the apartment. Otherwise I would've had to drive and find parking and that would have been a nightmare. As it was, the movers couldn't park the truck on my street. There were cars parked literally bumper to bumper, even in front of the hydrant. Since I live on a 1-way side street, the truck would have blocked the whole road and they didn't want to risk a ticket. They ended up parking on the ave and running the stuff down 76th. I felt terrible but the two of them were very cool about it. I offered to help and they just laughed. I ended up supervising from my apartment. I offered to buy them lunch and they politely declined.

Since I live on the first floor they didn't have stairs to deal with, but there was a tight corner. They excelled at getting my stuff in without damaging it. It took awhile to figure out how to get the arms off my couch, and we all had a good laugh when they put the arms back on, then tried to put the couch on its back only to have the arms slide right back off. I fretted about my stuff getting stolen off the truck but everything got into my apartment safely.

Well, almost everything. The crew chief ran in about halfway through to let me know that my TV stand had broken while they were taking it off the truck. I came out to have a look. Nothing terrible; one of the legs had broken off. The piece looked real but was made out of particle board.

"Aha!" said the mover. Particle board isn't as strong as regular wood so it can break during moves. "Oh," said I. I know particle board isn't as strong as regular wood. I think that's pretty much a duh. I was still bummed. He gave me two options. They could take the piece back, fix it and deliver it. Or they could send someone out. I chose the latter.

The rest of the move happened without incident. Despite the TV stand incident the move was done in about 2 hours and they did a great job. I was satisfied and gave them each an $80 tip. When they left, I looked at the stacks of boxes in my apartment. I was buried in boxes again. But all I wanted to do was sleep even though it was only 2 PM.

Unfortunately that didn't happen, because no sooner had I plopped down on my couch than my buzzer went off. I thought it was the movers so I just buzzed the door. I looked out of my apartment door but it was an older man. I don't know why, but my first thought was that it might be some guy who would buzz me a lot because he didn't want to bring his keys. Turns out it was the locksmith.

On the way down, my Super called to let me know that I needed to call the locksmith to schedule a time for the locks to be changed. Sigh. It had fallen on me to schedule. But he had come on his own. He was very nice, but very slow. All I wanted to do was sleep, but after 2 hours of working on my door he left to go get a different lock. He came back in 30 minutes and spent another two hours changing it out. Oy. It was 6:30 by the time he was done and I was about to collapse. He told me he needed to come back on Monday to do the backdoor. Fine, whatever, please let me sleep.

The only food I had was some leftover pizza I'd brought with me from Connecticut. That was my dinner. The movers had strategically placed my boxes so I could open up my sofa bed (my boxspring and mattress were up against the wall so I could have more room to unpack). I pulled the sofabed out, threw on a sheet and found my pillow. I turned on my laptop, put in "The Bourne Identity" and fell asleep at 8:30 PM. I dreamed away most of my first night in NYC.