New Haven
So I've been here 10 days and I haven't finished unpacking. Part of the problem is I wasn't sure where I wanted my furniture to go, and I didn't want to fill up my bookcases and then decide I wanted them on the other side of the room. I think I've finally figured out where everything is going to live (except for the giant obnoxious garment rack I bought because I have no closets; no matter where I put it, I hate looking at it. I hope I can find a nice old wardrobe soon). Now I just have piles of books all over the floor that need to be put away. And a few plastic storage bins that will have to go in the one closet I do have, for the water heater. Also, I'm sure my couch will get repositioned again. I keep turning it different directions: first toward the kitchen area, then back toward the windows. Now it's somewhere in between, angled sideways but favoring the window-side. Even though I'm using my armoire to store my printer and computer stuff and it no longer houses a TV, I still feel compelled to face my couch toward it.
Anyway. Food. I will never go hungry while I live in this apartment. There are so many places to eat, and it seems I've been eating at all of them. I hope once I start work and get in a routine I will eat at home more. I'm burning through the cash. But I haven't even gone grocery shopping yet, and my gigantic refrigerator makes the contents look even more sparse than they are: a can of Ivo's food, a few hunks of cheese, an apple, a gallon of milk, and a vitamin water. There was a pint of coffee Häagen-Dazs in the freezer until I used the rest of it to make myself a milkshake yesterday after my lunch of leftover Indian food (I actually reheated and ate leftovers!). Now it just has a few bottles of nail polish in there.
So yeah, with all these places to eat so nearby, I will never want for food. Right next door on the corner, there's a Thai restaurant. On the corner in the other direction is a cool Indian restaurant in a diner(!). Across the street from the Thai place is a Dunkin' Donuts. Across the street on the other corner is a pizza place, and next to the pizza place is a Mexican restaurant (haven't eaten there yet). Across the street from the Indian place is a vegetarian place I haven't been to yet. Also a juice bar, I think. Or maybe that's a separate place.
If I ate meat I'd go to Louis' Lunch, the home of the very first hamburger (or so it's claimed). They grill the burgers vertically and if you ask for ketchup you will be kicked out. They only allow three things on their burgers: cheese, tomato, and onions. I feel I should support them for their ban on condiments but they don't make milkshakes or fries (you eat your burger with a side of potato chips, apparently). They do have pies though. I like pie. And I want to try their birch beer, though I guess I could pick that up at the grocery store, if I ever get to one.
Have to try the falafel place nearby, and Sally's (which competes with Pepe's for so-called "best" pizza ever, although I wasn't that impressed), and... and... a bunch of other places.
Yesterday I drove my car to Branford, about 8 miles northeast, to take it to a Swedish auto place. There was a woman in the waiting room/office who used to work at Sterling Memorial Library, and who was going to Chicago next week for a friend's BFA show (Columbia? AIC? She didn't seem to know. But weird, small world.) The mechanic drove my car to see what the shuddering thing was, but the engine had warmed up on my drive up there so it wasn't pronounced enough for him to diagnose. He wanted me to leave it, and said they could get someone to drive me back to New Haven and then come pick me up again. So I think it was his dad, this old guy with a grey beard (who the mechanic just referred to as "the old guy") who drove me back to town in an enormous red truck, the kind they use for towing and plowing. Then this morning he came back to pick me up, in my car. All it needed, apparently, was a tune-up and an oil change. Then I drove up the street to pass the CT emissions test, which I need in order to get my car registered in CT and the plates and CT driver's license and all that crap. Which is what I have to go do right now... as soon as I find out where I need to go.
And then I should go to the grocery store. And probably finish unpacking.
Anyway. Food. I will never go hungry while I live in this apartment. There are so many places to eat, and it seems I've been eating at all of them. I hope once I start work and get in a routine I will eat at home more. I'm burning through the cash. But I haven't even gone grocery shopping yet, and my gigantic refrigerator makes the contents look even more sparse than they are: a can of Ivo's food, a few hunks of cheese, an apple, a gallon of milk, and a vitamin water. There was a pint of coffee Häagen-Dazs in the freezer until I used the rest of it to make myself a milkshake yesterday after my lunch of leftover Indian food (I actually reheated and ate leftovers!). Now it just has a few bottles of nail polish in there.
So yeah, with all these places to eat so nearby, I will never want for food. Right next door on the corner, there's a Thai restaurant. On the corner in the other direction is a cool Indian restaurant in a diner(!). Across the street from the Thai place is a Dunkin' Donuts. Across the street on the other corner is a pizza place, and next to the pizza place is a Mexican restaurant (haven't eaten there yet). Across the street from the Indian place is a vegetarian place I haven't been to yet. Also a juice bar, I think. Or maybe that's a separate place.
If I ate meat I'd go to Louis' Lunch, the home of the very first hamburger (or so it's claimed). They grill the burgers vertically and if you ask for ketchup you will be kicked out. They only allow three things on their burgers: cheese, tomato, and onions. I feel I should support them for their ban on condiments but they don't make milkshakes or fries (you eat your burger with a side of potato chips, apparently). They do have pies though. I like pie. And I want to try their birch beer, though I guess I could pick that up at the grocery store, if I ever get to one.
Have to try the falafel place nearby, and Sally's (which competes with Pepe's for so-called "best" pizza ever, although I wasn't that impressed), and... and... a bunch of other places.
Yesterday I drove my car to Branford, about 8 miles northeast, to take it to a Swedish auto place. There was a woman in the waiting room/office who used to work at Sterling Memorial Library, and who was going to Chicago next week for a friend's BFA show (Columbia? AIC? She didn't seem to know. But weird, small world.) The mechanic drove my car to see what the shuddering thing was, but the engine had warmed up on my drive up there so it wasn't pronounced enough for him to diagnose. He wanted me to leave it, and said they could get someone to drive me back to New Haven and then come pick me up again. So I think it was his dad, this old guy with a grey beard (who the mechanic just referred to as "the old guy") who drove me back to town in an enormous red truck, the kind they use for towing and plowing. Then this morning he came back to pick me up, in my car. All it needed, apparently, was a tune-up and an oil change. Then I drove up the street to pass the CT emissions test, which I need in order to get my car registered in CT and the plates and CT driver's license and all that crap. Which is what I have to go do right now... as soon as I find out where I need to go.
And then I should go to the grocery store. And probably finish unpacking.