New home

Kenzi this is for you! The movers brought my stuff from Atlanta yesterday, and I actually felt horrible for them because I now live in a 4th floor walk-up on the upper east side. It's probably the biggest place that I found when I was looking, but to you Atlanta and Texas folk, it's going to seem miniscule. But it has nice, newly finished hardwood floors (which you can't see because of the boxes everywhere right now) and two entire rooms - a bedroom AND a living room. (You have no idea how difficult that is to find on a budget in this town...)



There's not much storage, but the singular closet (hidden behind those boxes) has some nice shelving in it which should help. Now my challenge is going to be where to put the rest of the stuff. I think I'm going to have to do a major mental overhaul of what absolute needed household items are. My goal is to be unpacked by the end of October. We'll see what happens...



This is my new sofabed (which was also uncool for the movers to carry up three flights of stairs, because apparently it's enormously heavy) which is going to double as the guest sleeper. The cable/phone people are coming out on Saturday morning. I still need to get a couple of things furniture-wise, but I figure I should probably unpack a little before I add to the immediate clutter. The good news is that the place was given a complete overhaul between the last tenant and myself. It's freshly painted, the bathroom is recaulked, and I have all new appliances (stove/oven and fridge.) I also mentioned the gorgeous hardwood floors, and the ceilings are high, so it doesn't feel so box-like. Big windows also help on adding airiness to the space, and there is lots of natural light.

That's the scoop on the new digs.

I <3 New York.

I've finally moved to New York city, and it's been really fun for the past two weeks. I'll try to post interesting or cool things that I see here and there. I've got to make a habit of carrying my camera around because I've missed a few cool things already. (These pics are from my cell phone, which is why they are kind of blurry and not framed well.)

Temporarily, I'm living across the street from Rockefeller Center (home of NBC studios), and over the weekend, there were people camping out (for four days!) in order to catch a glimpse of the New Kids on the Block, who were going to play the Today show plaza (pictured above) on Labor Day. It's a highly touristy area, so everything is kind of expensive, but it's close to everything, including the theater district.



Last weekend, my friends, Sam and Bari, met me at the TKTS booth. We decided to get tickets for whatever was available and make a night of it. Once we settled on Gypsy (which was ridiculously amazing - Patti LuPone completely rocks!) and got our tickets, we walked down to the new New York Times building and did a little shopping. Then they were kind enough to show me Chelsea Market, home to an entire city block of shops dedicated to food and food preparation. Once we got there, I promptly lost my mind from the sheer enormity of options.

Luckily, we got there late enough that most of the shops were closing, limiting my perusing capacity. Now that I know it is there, I will definitely go back soon, and I'll go back often. But for me, what was more exciting about that building is that the Food Network tapes their programming there. Oh, and it used to be an old Nabsico Factory. (Note the memorabilia wall pictured above.)



This photo is a mini-AJ reunion from my birthday outing. (Sidenote: Sam, the most brilliant photographer I know, took this pic with my phone, which is why it's not blurry and framed correctly. Other friends had headed home earlier, so I didn't get a shot of the whole group.) We were heading back to the subway after a night of wine and risotto in the Village. (I've been dying to pretentiously say that I "hung out in the Village last night", and now I can!) I've also been looking for apartments and slowly starting to get to know new areas of the city. There are a surprising number of parks that seem to pop out out of nowhere as you walk around, and it's nice to always find a green spot to sit down or walk through.



As for other random things: In TriBeCa, I saw the firehouse from the Ghostbusters movies on the second night of my arrival, but I didn't have my camera or phone at the time. In Times Square last weekend, we saw a bike rack which Sam said was designed by David Byrne - one of many that are scattered around town. I didn't get a pic of that either. But I did get a shot of the David Letterman studio (above photo) on my walk to work yesterday.