Sunday, August 12, 2012

These Vagabond Shoes...

For just a moment before writing this I had a moment of existential worry where I said to myself, "Self: are you too used to microblogging after being addicted to Tumblr? Do you even have the patience to sit down and write a real blog entry anymore?"

And then I sat down and wrote all of this. Clearly I need to have a little more faith in my ability to go on and on about myself.

This is my fifth day living in New York, and it has been a whirlwind adventure already. Just a few highlights: The subway runs 24 hours! Genius! Take that, BART, and stick it somewhere no one will look for it, like your trains that run after 1 AM oh wait you don't have any.

A whiskey/gourmet grilled cheese bar two blocks from my apartment, across the street from another bar with a mini-golf course in the back and an old-timey photo booth. The windmill on the golf course is made entirely of smashed PBR cans.

Hipster watching on the train, which I have been able to navigate more or less without trouble. There was one trip that was a little less successful, but I was coming back from IKEA late and was tired and brain-dead from a day of running around and trying to hustle free stuff from all over the city to furnish the apartment.

My lovely roommates, of course: Domonique and Maggie. Both are lovely people generally and already a great fit, living-wise. That's a golf club from mini-golf in the third picture on the left, there. I'm sure I'll have some stories soon.

My Aunt Ellen and Uncle Mike for being so unbelievably helpful I want to cry. They've provided everything from a ride from the airport to free furniture(!) and a free air conditioning unit(!!!), not to mention advice on learning about local events and places to visit. Very excited to be living so (relatively) near them.

As you may have gathered based on my excitement to get an AC unit, it's a little bit hot here. The kind of hot where a car passes and you make a face because the breeze it blows toward you is even warmer than the stagnant air you are already walking through. I spent my first night lying on top of my sheets and sweating, staring at my open window and wondering why it wasn't letting any cool air in. I'm lucky I got here at the tail end of the really warm season, I'm not even getting the worst of it.

But, God. Pizza and beer and parks and the L train and theatre and new people and family and and and. It's only been five days.

I think I'm gonna like it here.