moriath

Good news and bad news today:

Good news: BILLY AND I SIGNED THE LEASE ON A NEW YORK APARTMENT!!! We're living in Rego Park in Queens, which totally isn't glamorous...or big...but it's a little place not too far from NYC that will enable me to actually get a job out here. We're so excited!!! And yet, a little lost: we gave ourselves two full days out here...and we had our apartment by 2pm on the first day. What do we do tonight? And all day tomorrow?

Bad news: Michael's has discontinued the vase that I really wanted to use for our centerpieces. I know, it's on a totally different scale than our apartment, but it's still a little disappointing. They were purple!

So Billy, James and I drove to New York yesterday. According to our little GPS-thingy the trip should have taken nine hours. Between stopping to switch drivers, going to the 24-hour Arby's in Pennsylvania (lol, as if it were the only one in the entire state), and having to stop at half of the stop lights in New York City, it ended up taking eleven.

Oh well. We had fun.

Especially when I drove in Manhattan :-D That may be one of my crowning achievements in life so far.

I didn't drive far (roughly 23 miles according to Google, but we took a slightly different route. And that's just what I did in New York; I don't remember when exactly I took over but I drove for a fair amount of time in New Jersey as well), but I was still impressed with myself. My dad apparently thinks it wasn't very chivalrous of the guys to "let" me drive in New York, but a) I volunteered b) Billy volunteered to take the first leg of the trip, which was highway night driving (aka bane of my existence) and c) after sitting through almost an hour of James driving, I never wanted to be in a car with him ever again. I didn't think anyone could actually be too cautious of a driver, but he definitely fits that description. After about 5 minutes I was itching to take over the wheel, but ultimately let him handle PA and NJ until the traffic started to pick up in New Jersey. Then I conveniently needed to use the restroom so we switched drivers at a Starbucks.

And then I drove in Manhattan.

Saw one apartment yesterday in Queens. It was a fine apartment, and definitely had the plus of not requiring 15 forms of identification + our first born in order to rent it, but I wasn't so in love with it that I felt the need to put down our deposit right there. But I'm sure there are worse apartments out there. We're looking at another one in Queens today, and after that I'm making the boys look up apartments. I have done 99% of the planning for this trip, from researching hotels to apartments to look up, to being the de facto navigator (I'm the only one who has any experience with being in cities on their own). Someone else can take charge (of everything except navigation) for awhile).

Summary: I'M IN NEW YORK CITY. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I woke up around 9:20 to hear an obnoxious buzzing outside my window. My bedroom has the thinnest windows EVER, so even though I'm on the second floor I can even hear conversations perfectly. This time it sounded like a chainsaw. Or a weedwhacker.

Instead it was a tiny snowblower that is hardly making a dent in the blanket outside.

Which they apparently figured out because twenty minutes later, when I'm wide, if grudgingly, awake, they've quit.

Fuck you, maintenance people.