[Insert clever but oblique music or movie reference] Day 1
I've had a mild headache for most of the day that can be attributed to quite a number of things from the remains of exhaustion to dehdration to caffeine withdrawl to...god knows. Stress? The night before flying out I slept in my sister's bed at my mom's house. I forgot to mention it and she sent me a text today asking about it. Apparently I shed a fair amount of hair in the three hours I was lying down. Sis admonished me to relax and let go of the stress. My sister admonished me. My sis is driving herself crazy trying to keep enough of a job to feed her child, is juggling the family dramas of two families, both with disapproving attitudes toward her parenting (based on different things), her daughter's father is a bum... but apperantly I need to calm down because I stress too much.
When I first told a lot of people that I was moving several of them were encouraging, saying I should fit in and that NYC is the sort of place they could see me getting along in. A few, maybe a couple, wondered how a laid back person like me would get by in a town so storied for its aggressive residents. I'd like to think I'm pretty calm - at the very least usually pretty low maintenance. I could be wrong, but it's what I shoot for. In any case, I'm one day in and so far, so good.
I finally had a full night of sleep which, with getting late local time, being a little wound up, and the time difference, meant I got up nearly at noon. I intend to get up much, much earlier tomorrow and for the foreseeable future. But it was nice to putter around and take in the apartment. The residents keep it pretty sparse, which I think is nice. After moving so much garbage even when I know I hate having a lot of stuff, I really have come to admire people who can truly live simply. In any case, the apartment is large - four bedrooms and a living room and spacious kitchen. Just one little bathroom, which was already a problem today. My friend's motto of "never pass up of a chance to go to the bathroom" will have to stay fresh in my head. I did that today and ended up having to run out two blocks to a tiny Cuban restaurant to use their bathroom. But it meant I had tasty Cuban food for dinner. And because it was across the street from a wine & liquour store and because I'm so pathetically enamored of good wines that it makes me sad to have a fine meal without any wine, I got back to the apartment with dinner and a bottle of Clay Station Old Vine Zinfandel. For $10 it was surprisingly good. I've had a cuvee from Clay Station that was really good and the zin appelation is Lodi - a region I am coming to trust for good zins.
Anyway, the girl I'm subletting from (who, by the way, is omigod knuckle-chomping hot) was supposed to be around to show me things I need to know like where the trash goes and where to buy groceries, etc. Also, she was supposed to hand over a spare key to the apartment. But her work got swamped and so she didn't get back until late afternoon. There wasn't much in the kitchen so in the early afternoon I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood to try to get some orientation and find out where a few things are. The street I'm on is one-way. With traffic flow the next street it crosses is Broadway, which is where the Cuban restaurant is. There are also laundromats and jewelry stores and hair salons. Against the flow of traffic (I believe to the south-ish), a few blocks down, is Roosevelt. It's one of those peculiar streets with a train trestle running right over with trains running on it all the time. It's probably not strange around here, but my California-based mind keeps spasming a little bit, trying to avoid envisioning the street after a moderate-to-severe earthquake. I wandered along Roosevelt for several blocks taking in the many shops, pubs, stores and fast food places there. That's where the grocers are, and I'll just have to get used to stores being much, much smaller. I don't know where one would even find a "super" market out here. The place I stopped at for some shopping had many essentials but not much of a range of items. Tons and tons of different kinds of breakfast cereals but only a couple of kinds of milk (with lactose and without - no rice or soy or almond). There's a different grocer for veggies and fruits, the best one being at a stand in the underpass of the train station.
You know, I've always been proud that I can speak Spanish, but never thought it was the biggest deal around. It's served me as a short cut in some places but I never noticed it put me at a distinct advantage. Usually, my looks mean Spanish-speakers who are lost or confused ask me for help. Well...ok, Spanish never put me at much of an advantage in LA. Not speaking it, I can tell any non-speakers, is a huge disadvantage in, say, Mexico. Maybe being a forest for the trees issue, I knew I was glad to know Spanish but never stopped to think of it as a blessing. Maybe that's a sign of me being ungracious. I love the language. I love how it's used.... I love having another avenue for self-expression. And there is a chip on my shoulder for the "This is America, speak English!" people. But now that I'm some where far away from my parents and it's come in *really* handy maybe I ought to write to my parents and thank them for making me learn how to speak it. Believe me, I wasn't happy to have to speak Spanish at home when the TV was in English and I got teased at school for being a Spanish speaker. My mom would speak to us in Spanish and we typically answered in English until she got annoyed enough to refuse to acknowledge us unless we spoke in Spanish. (If you're wondering, I've never gotten one extra dime for speaking a language my coworkers didn't speak. It's never put me at a hiring advantage and even when I was the only person around handling work in Spanish, I never got any special recognition for it.)
But there are a lot of Spanish speakers in the neighborhood and even if I can't understand every word said at every speed, I've spoken to no fewer than three people today in Spanish and it's made several things easier. I got yummy corn on the cob from a vendor on the street (though it was boiled and came slathered in mayo rather than the butter I'm used to), the Cubans let me into their restroom before selling me tasty food and it turns out the woman who owns the apartment I'm in has been in New York for more than half of her life but is originally from Columbia. She speaks English fluently but with an accent and we ended up speaking chilaquiles which is the word my parents used to use long before the word "Spanglish" showed up.
Of course, I heard many other languages while on my little walkabout. No way I could know what they are. But if I haven't mentioned it before, I'm a big city girl so a cacaphony of tongues is actually comforting to me. (Hm. It's after one am and there's a siren going off as it sounds like an ambulance is making slow progress a block away. Doesn't bug me, I spent two years almost two blocks from a major hospital. But I did notice in Long Beach the ambulances and police tried not to run their sirens after midnight. They would if they had to... Ah well. more agressive out here.)
So I met the four ladies currently here. P owns the place but is typically here only a few nights in the middle of the week. I'm subletting from A who leaves for Montana this weekend. G will be here through the month and then goes to Barcelona (her home! Which she maintains is therefore less romantic than it sounds.) And L is also subletting a room. At least I think that's it. The room I'm in is quite spacious and includes a little add-on of a sunroom. So I think guests would be well accomodated, all I would need is an air mattress. Easily acquired, should anyone want to come over and make use of it. (HINT! HINT!)
I've been given full run of the amenities. That's a little dangerous since it includes a TV with cable. Yep, for the first time in many moons I watched The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on TV. The advantages are mild compared to the disadvantages. Bigger screen = eh. Better is not having to buffer whenever the signal is in a snit. But my attention span is so crappy (likely because of the Web - 6.5 years spent flipping through Web sites encourages skimpy attention) that it was hard to get around wishing I could pause the live program or rewind it to go back to something I missed. While I've recently started thinking getting a TV mightn't be so bad, I've realized it's not just a TV that I would need. To be a good consumer of TV one also needs cable, a DVD (& VCR), and TiVo in addition to the idiot box. Eh. Besides the Comedy Central, I'm really just interested in PBS, History and Discovery and some stuff from IFC. So, eh. I've gone my whole life without owning a TV. It's not like I'll be suffering for not having it some more. In any case, I just need to avoid getting sucked into more TV viewing. I'm wholly responsible for my discipline or lack thereof so I simply must avoid yet more distractions. Even if wifi is a lot of fun.
Oh, and the wifi is the unsecured connection I found. Since I need to access my financial stuff I feel I need to put up more protection. I'm not sure how much I risk from ID theft if the wifi is unsecured, but better safe than sorry, I imagine.
Finally, even though I'm in EnWhySea, I have to figure out how I'll go about doing any sight seeing. I guess what I couldn't figure out how to tell people is that I'm not here on vacation. I mean, I sort of am, in that I'm some place new and very, very cool. But I don't mean to escape my life temporarily. So while it's been awesome that freaking *Everyone* has been full of advice on what I ought to see and do, that has to take a backseat to the first order of business: getting a job. Absolutely I want to see everything! Absolutely, I want to get to some Broadway shows! Absolutely, I want to eat delicious foods! In due time, in due time. first the job. Knock on wood, light a candle, send me some good mojo for quickly finding a kick ass job. Then I'll be all about wandering 5th Avenue, jogging through Central Park, visiting Coney Island, etc. Hopefully with you as company. }:>
Boy, it's late. gnight!
When I first told a lot of people that I was moving several of them were encouraging, saying I should fit in and that NYC is the sort of place they could see me getting along in. A few, maybe a couple, wondered how a laid back person like me would get by in a town so storied for its aggressive residents. I'd like to think I'm pretty calm - at the very least usually pretty low maintenance. I could be wrong, but it's what I shoot for. In any case, I'm one day in and so far, so good.
I finally had a full night of sleep which, with getting late local time, being a little wound up, and the time difference, meant I got up nearly at noon. I intend to get up much, much earlier tomorrow and for the foreseeable future. But it was nice to putter around and take in the apartment. The residents keep it pretty sparse, which I think is nice. After moving so much garbage even when I know I hate having a lot of stuff, I really have come to admire people who can truly live simply. In any case, the apartment is large - four bedrooms and a living room and spacious kitchen. Just one little bathroom, which was already a problem today. My friend's motto of "never pass up of a chance to go to the bathroom" will have to stay fresh in my head. I did that today and ended up having to run out two blocks to a tiny Cuban restaurant to use their bathroom. But it meant I had tasty Cuban food for dinner. And because it was across the street from a wine & liquour store and because I'm so pathetically enamored of good wines that it makes me sad to have a fine meal without any wine, I got back to the apartment with dinner and a bottle of Clay Station Old Vine Zinfandel. For $10 it was surprisingly good. I've had a cuvee from Clay Station that was really good and the zin appelation is Lodi - a region I am coming to trust for good zins.
Anyway, the girl I'm subletting from (who, by the way, is omigod knuckle-chomping hot) was supposed to be around to show me things I need to know like where the trash goes and where to buy groceries, etc. Also, she was supposed to hand over a spare key to the apartment. But her work got swamped and so she didn't get back until late afternoon. There wasn't much in the kitchen so in the early afternoon I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood to try to get some orientation and find out where a few things are. The street I'm on is one-way. With traffic flow the next street it crosses is Broadway, which is where the Cuban restaurant is. There are also laundromats and jewelry stores and hair salons. Against the flow of traffic (I believe to the south-ish), a few blocks down, is Roosevelt. It's one of those peculiar streets with a train trestle running right over with trains running on it all the time. It's probably not strange around here, but my California-based mind keeps spasming a little bit, trying to avoid envisioning the street after a moderate-to-severe earthquake. I wandered along Roosevelt for several blocks taking in the many shops, pubs, stores and fast food places there. That's where the grocers are, and I'll just have to get used to stores being much, much smaller. I don't know where one would even find a "super" market out here. The place I stopped at for some shopping had many essentials but not much of a range of items. Tons and tons of different kinds of breakfast cereals but only a couple of kinds of milk (with lactose and without - no rice or soy or almond). There's a different grocer for veggies and fruits, the best one being at a stand in the underpass of the train station.
You know, I've always been proud that I can speak Spanish, but never thought it was the biggest deal around. It's served me as a short cut in some places but I never noticed it put me at a distinct advantage. Usually, my looks mean Spanish-speakers who are lost or confused ask me for help. Well...ok, Spanish never put me at much of an advantage in LA. Not speaking it, I can tell any non-speakers, is a huge disadvantage in, say, Mexico. Maybe being a forest for the trees issue, I knew I was glad to know Spanish but never stopped to think of it as a blessing. Maybe that's a sign of me being ungracious. I love the language. I love how it's used.... I love having another avenue for self-expression. And there is a chip on my shoulder for the "This is America, speak English!" people. But now that I'm some where far away from my parents and it's come in *really* handy maybe I ought to write to my parents and thank them for making me learn how to speak it. Believe me, I wasn't happy to have to speak Spanish at home when the TV was in English and I got teased at school for being a Spanish speaker. My mom would speak to us in Spanish and we typically answered in English until she got annoyed enough to refuse to acknowledge us unless we spoke in Spanish. (If you're wondering, I've never gotten one extra dime for speaking a language my coworkers didn't speak. It's never put me at a hiring advantage and even when I was the only person around handling work in Spanish, I never got any special recognition for it.)
But there are a lot of Spanish speakers in the neighborhood and even if I can't understand every word said at every speed, I've spoken to no fewer than three people today in Spanish and it's made several things easier. I got yummy corn on the cob from a vendor on the street (though it was boiled and came slathered in mayo rather than the butter I'm used to), the Cubans let me into their restroom before selling me tasty food and it turns out the woman who owns the apartment I'm in has been in New York for more than half of her life but is originally from Columbia. She speaks English fluently but with an accent and we ended up speaking chilaquiles which is the word my parents used to use long before the word "Spanglish" showed up.
Of course, I heard many other languages while on my little walkabout. No way I could know what they are. But if I haven't mentioned it before, I'm a big city girl so a cacaphony of tongues is actually comforting to me. (Hm. It's after one am and there's a siren going off as it sounds like an ambulance is making slow progress a block away. Doesn't bug me, I spent two years almost two blocks from a major hospital. But I did notice in Long Beach the ambulances and police tried not to run their sirens after midnight. They would if they had to... Ah well. more agressive out here.)
So I met the four ladies currently here. P owns the place but is typically here only a few nights in the middle of the week. I'm subletting from A who leaves for Montana this weekend. G will be here through the month and then goes to Barcelona (her home! Which she maintains is therefore less romantic than it sounds.) And L is also subletting a room. At least I think that's it. The room I'm in is quite spacious and includes a little add-on of a sunroom. So I think guests would be well accomodated, all I would need is an air mattress. Easily acquired, should anyone want to come over and make use of it. (HINT! HINT!)
I've been given full run of the amenities. That's a little dangerous since it includes a TV with cable. Yep, for the first time in many moons I watched The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on TV. The advantages are mild compared to the disadvantages. Bigger screen = eh. Better is not having to buffer whenever the signal is in a snit. But my attention span is so crappy (likely because of the Web - 6.5 years spent flipping through Web sites encourages skimpy attention) that it was hard to get around wishing I could pause the live program or rewind it to go back to something I missed. While I've recently started thinking getting a TV mightn't be so bad, I've realized it's not just a TV that I would need. To be a good consumer of TV one also needs cable, a DVD (& VCR), and TiVo in addition to the idiot box. Eh. Besides the Comedy Central, I'm really just interested in PBS, History and Discovery and some stuff from IFC. So, eh. I've gone my whole life without owning a TV. It's not like I'll be suffering for not having it some more. In any case, I just need to avoid getting sucked into more TV viewing. I'm wholly responsible for my discipline or lack thereof so I simply must avoid yet more distractions. Even if wifi is a lot of fun.
Oh, and the wifi is the unsecured connection I found. Since I need to access my financial stuff I feel I need to put up more protection. I'm not sure how much I risk from ID theft if the wifi is unsecured, but better safe than sorry, I imagine.
Finally, even though I'm in EnWhySea, I have to figure out how I'll go about doing any sight seeing. I guess what I couldn't figure out how to tell people is that I'm not here on vacation. I mean, I sort of am, in that I'm some place new and very, very cool. But I don't mean to escape my life temporarily. So while it's been awesome that freaking *Everyone* has been full of advice on what I ought to see and do, that has to take a backseat to the first order of business: getting a job. Absolutely I want to see everything! Absolutely, I want to get to some Broadway shows! Absolutely, I want to eat delicious foods! In due time, in due time. first the job. Knock on wood, light a candle, send me some good mojo for quickly finding a kick ass job. Then I'll be all about wandering 5th Avenue, jogging through Central Park, visiting Coney Island, etc. Hopefully with you as company. }:>
Boy, it's late. gnight!