Yesterday I was talking to my dad about life changes and where ours are headed. We were both laughing about the fact that if someone had told us on July 1st, 2010, where we would be in a year, we would both think the idea was preposterous. Hell...if you had told me two months ago that I would be living in New York I'd probably give you my best quizzical look and ask "What went wrong?"
It is something that I need to keep reminding myself, though. Life doesn't always turn out how you plan it. What is that saying? "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans"...?
Anyway, this is not going to be a very emotionally-inquisitive post. This post is making its appearance because now we have a cute, quirky, very Brooklyn apartment. This appearance is because I have a real home. It took awhile but I feel comfortable. This is a good thing and I feel more good things are coming towards me. I'm standing on the train tracks in the field behind our neighborhood in Elk Grove, eating sour candy with Keith, listening to the soothing sound of the horn which inevitably makes me feel comfortable, feeling the iron start to vibrate, and deciding when we're going to get off the tracks to make way for the haul to pass at its slow, rumbling pace.
So, my trip started out in a bitty Versa and finally ended in this:
A 17' U-haul.
Notice the state on the side of the truck? I can't believe it is what we were assigned. I felt like God slapped me in the face when I saw it.
Ann and I starting packing up the truck while Sarah and Eleni went to go sign the lease and get the keys from the broker. Ann's friend, Tara, came over and eventually Heather (who is everybody's friend, I can't tell who knows who and how but I guess it doesn't matter) joined in on the moving "fun." Ann lived in the basement of the previous place and probably had the heaviest furniture but we remained badass and by about 3:30pm we were finishing with everything.
Ann, Heather, and Tara went to grab Vietnamese sandwiches while Sarah and I started cleaning...Eleni had already left for the new apartment since we were waiting for the Ikea people to deliver my life.
Finally we drove to the new apartment! I had never seen it...
Outside.
Living room with our huge windows and exposed brick.
Pretty kitchen for yummy cooking.
Our never-ending hallway. I couldn't get all of it in the picture because it curves around.
We had to return the truck by 6pm and were running late so moving turned into us just unloading everything onto the street. The Ikea men finally showed up and ended up helping us with the heaviest pieces of furniture. At one point, two of the girls were desperately trying to move an armoire and one of the men walked up and picked it up in both of his arms and hauled it up the stairs and into our apartment. I regret not taking a picture of that.
Eleni, Sarah, and I returned the truck with a $20 bribe because we didn't fill the tank up...sometimes it pays to be a girl. We then walked over to Blue Angel Wines where my cousin, Amaris, was working. She gave us a delightful discount on two bottles and then we we stopped at a Spanish food restaurant to get take-out for Sarah. A quick jump on the subway got us back to our new place. Eleni and I had pizza ordered and went to go pick it up. The six of us all found whatever space we could in the now cluttered and battlefield-looking living room and scarfed down multiple pieces of pizza while drinking wine and the "beer of the hipsters" - PBR.
Obviously the next thing any normal person does is go up to the roof. The complex is only four stories so we all grabbed our wine and bounded up the stairs.
Eleni celebrating our quirky roof.
What we were condemned to look at.
We spent a little over an hour up there and met some of our young neighbors who happen to have a mini garden on the roof. I already weaseled my way into joining that project. Tomatoes, zucchini, basil...I know of a few hungry girls that will be eating well.
I was too excited to just sleep on my mattress so Eleni and I, now overly happy from wine, decided to be Ikea partners and construct my bed. After about an hour I was jumping on it and dreading putting sheets on (my least favorite chore). The minute those purple sheets were on I realized that I wanted the yellow ones...alas, the day had been too long on too little food and too little sleep. I stripped off my clothes as quickly as possible and collapsed on my bed until 11am the next day.
Yesterday consisted of an unusual TWO cups of maté to fully wake up and a 1.5-mile walk to Marshall's and Target for an iron, shelves, and a few other necessities. By the time I got back it was already the evening. After sending out a couple résumés and making a phone call to a crazy Alabaman, Eleni determined that she "really needed an alcoholic slushie." We ventured one block over to sit in the beach-y, retro "One Last Shag" bar and sat on their patio drinking blended margaritas and deciding they needed to be stronger...
Apparently we then decided indian food with wine on the roof was equivalent to bliss so we needed to carry out this mission. We were joined by our other roommates, two friends, and eventually our first couchsurfer (from Canada, complete with his funny accent). We originally had decided on no couchsurfers until we got settled but by this point none of us really cared enough. He slept in the midst of our train wreck living room on our blue velvet couch which I have appropriately dubbed "The Pimp Couch."
Now, I still have mounds of clothes to iron. I need a desk and a nightstand. I also need to swiffer my floor since I'm a clean freak about floors. I have way too much research to do for the Living Tongues Institute. But I'm also sitting in the local hipster, Berkeley-esque cafe that is across the street since there's wifi here and ours hasn't been hooked up yet. Needless to say, our apartment seems like it's full of recovering crack addicts because we're all internet whores. And since I don't work, well, I'll get to my chores eventually.
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