| Listening to: Thom Yorke Solo Album |
July 23rd, 2006 – Upper West Side, New York City, New York
I cannot believe I am in New York and will be going to my first day of work tomorrow morning. It’s really unbelievable because my mind is kind of dazed with all the activity that has been going on in the last couple of days. I’ve done so much! So let me start there…
My Mom and I arrived safely on Wednesday night but we had a sleepless night sharing a double bed with one another and get used to being 3 hours ahead. But, with a heart breakfast at Key West Diner and a couple of cups of coffee we were off to move into my apartment. We walked ½ a block down and arrived at our destination: The Princeton House. We walked in and got my key as well as a giant pile of boxes that were all for me. They included boxes from Austin that my buddy Giulio was kind enough to ship (thanks bro) and also boxes from various stores across the Internet. It’s a much different experience trying to order everything you need. It’s actually very difficult especially to time their arrivals with your own. Fortunately everything arrived on time, even things I wasn’t expecting. We took all the boxes up to my apartment and took the first look at my empty apartment. It was HUGE! I had only seen it with the previous tenants stuff already in there. We had a lot of work ahead of us if we wanted this apartment to feel like my new home by Sunday.
I made a few trips from the hotel over to my apartment since they are so close to one another. It really worked out well. We made the hotel reservation well before I arrived in June to find an apartment so we were just really lucky to be so close to my new residence. It made taking my big, heavy bags a lot easier. By the time the morning was over, my desk had arrived, my bed had been delivered and setup and I had opened a new bank account in New York City. Washington Mutual will be the new residence of my money and it was so easy to do. I was offered a free checking and savings account with free checks for life.
Our stomachs were telling us it was about that time, so we headed out to find some food. We wound up eating at a pizza place I read about in my Frommer’s guide and it was only up a couple of blocks. It was a vegetarian pizzeria and the pizza was really good. After we ate, we headed out to shop. We went to Rite Aid and Gristede’s (a super market across the street from my apartment).
We then decided to tackle the main part of our shopping by going down to Bed Bath and Beyond. We took the subway to 72nd and walked the rest of the way to 66th. We kept thinking we’d only buy a few things because we couldn’t take that much back with us in a taxi. When we arrived and looked around for a bit, we noticed a sign on one of the carts that said “Cart all full, have it delivered same day for $15.” Well this was exciting! We asked and they said as long as we didn’t have any oversized items we could get it all delivered by that night. We picked out a bunch of stuff including a toaster over, kitchen cart for the microwave and toaster over, linens, pillows, a tall light, an all important fan and a lot more. We called it successful day after that and headed home to wait for the delivery.
We spent the rest of the evening unpacking things, setting up my desk, chair and computer and eating at a bbq place called Texas Rotisserie. It wasn’t traditional Texas service since the workers were the epitome of New Yorkers but the food reminded me of the last four years I spent in Austin. At some point, I can’t recall when, we took a refreshing walk down to Jamba Juice (about 10mins) and enjoyed a smoothie each. It’s really nice to have a Jamba so close to my apartment but my bank is not going to like it.
On Friday my Mom and I headed off to do more shopping. We went to find more supplies on the Upper East Side. We took the subway for the first time this trip up to 149th in the Bronx and then down to 86th and Lexington to do some shopping. We stopped and Staples, Best Buy, Pier 1 and then topped it off with Jamba. At this point, we heard that my sister might be driving down to see me instead of taking the train like she originally planned so we called her and asked if she would be willing to take us to Ikea the next day. She replied later on and told us that she would be more than willing to take us which was great news since we were trying to find a kitchen table and the best we would find was $169 + delivery at Straight From the Crate on 72nd. We bought a couple of things during our shopping but we were mostly going to wait until the desk day at Ikea, I knew Saturday was going to be a big day of shopping.
We worked all evening setting things up and cleaning up the apartment. Unfortunately, it was raining for most of the day which caused severe flooding. This caused the highway that my sister was taking to shut down completely. She didn’t have a map of New York nor did she know it very well so she just had to wing it. She stopped at 5 or 6 gas stations trying to get directions to Manhattan and avoid the nasty traffic that was piled up every which way. She wound up somewhere near Yonkers then down at La Guardia Airport. At this point we asked the front desk clerk if he knew how to get here form the airport and he directed her with no problems. She arrived really late that night and after 7 ½ hours (when it should have taken 3 1/2) she was absolutely exhausted. We spent a few minutes showing her the apartment, which she was super impressed by, and then hit the sack.
The next day we slept in and took our time getting out to Ikea but once we did we were successful all the way. We found a great deal on a dining table and four chairs as well as kitchen essentials, a tv stand and a COUCH! I wasn’t expecting to get a couch at this point but we found a really nice one and my parents said that they would be willing to get it as an early birthday present. Wow, that totally made my day. We got all of our shopping done for my apartment and it felt so good! We loaded up my sister’s little civic with boxes and bags that all barely fit into her car. It was too close to call. We headed home tired but relieved that 4 hours at Ikea got everything done. My couch is being delivered next Saturday along with my cable service installation. So by next weekend I should be all set (except for a tv).
Today we spent the day exploring. We met up with Ahna’s college friend Farnoosh in the West Village and headed down to Goldman Sachs afterwards. We could only see the building but both my sister and my mom were glad that we went down. We walked up past the NYSE and I had to stop and take a picture just because I couldn’t believe I was in New York standing at such an important landmark. Crazy… We explored around lower manhattan, went up to Greenwich Village and then finished off the day with a walk near and around central park and 57th. There was a great street market (on 7th ave I believe) where we found some lunch, a smoothie, an original ray’s pizza (which was fantastic!) and a currency exchange so I could finally exchange my euro’s. I found some socks to wear to work too and they were really cheap. I definitely want to either go back there or find market’s that are similar to that on the weekends. It’s going to be fun finding all these things in New York, I’m really excited. At the same time, I am really tired and my mind is still spinning. It’s going to spin even more this next week as I adapt to actually starting my job. Hopefully I can pick up a wireless signal and post this entry or else this might not be seen until next Saturday. Let’s hope the prior is true.
Take it easy.
