New in New York City

Well its been 4 official days since the move and there is little interesting to tell other than trying to get an apartment organized and trying to stay on top of the little bits of work I can while participating in the horribly inefficient vehicular travel to get stuff for the empty apartment.

Take a person that hates crowds, traffic, shopping and spending money and put him/her in NYC to furnish a two bedroom apartment from scratch. PAINFUL!

Fortunalty I had a freind and colleage who was willing to provide a refuge during the migration in what I like to call Fairytale Land; 30 minutes (with no traffic) outside the city. Fairytale land has a perfectly functioning family, lots of green space (think country estate), beautiful running routes right outside the door, waking up to birds chirping in the trees and fresh coffee each morning… not exactly NYC Manhattan living. While staying in Fairytale land I was able to get organized enough to get the following organized:

• Bed
• Couch (arrives on Wed)
• Kitchen table and chairs
• Cutlery, pots, pans, and other cooking type things
• Office desk, filling system
• Laser printer
• Bedding
• Towels
• End tables and night tables (they’re the same
• Lamps
• Alarm clocks
• Bose ipod dock (my little treat to myself.. well worth it.. it sits in the kitchen; and from the office/spare bedroom I can control it with the remote allowing me to conserve the calories I might other burn getting off my ass)

The time has gone reasonable quickly due to the comfort that I have been living in.. tonight is the first night in the apartment which looks remarkably furnished so far.. although the addition of the couch will be nice and a couple of stand up lights as it appears I have a deficiency as night approaches.

Today I was able to take the walk from Penn Station (Madison Square Garden) where I arrived from Fairytale land and walk up to the apartment, it seems to take about 60 minutes and the city and its awe seems to be on its way to blending into what I now think is normal but my walk home had such highlights as; the Empire State Building; Rockefeller Center; Central Park and I managed to find some street market on 61st where I picked up a corn bread and mozzarella sandwich thing.. DELICIOUS. I also treated myself to a street vendor hotdog, I don’t think that is going to be getting old any time soon.

I currently sit in a fish bowl as I have no blinds on the apartment and there are several apartments right across the street that no doubt can look and watch my fairly boring life right now. Shopping is painful, shopping for blinds or some sort of curtain seems to be an order of magnitude worse. Bed Bath and Beyond is only 3 blocks away so I will have to just bite the bullet soon and get something as I suspect being the subject of the nosey (albeit bored ones) will probably not be ignorable for much longer.

I plan to try and catch 4 or 5 shows from the Tribeca Film festival this week; as well as meeting someone… I think that sounds easier that it will be. Just saying ‘hi’ and getting a name won’t count. I will also try to head to a climbing gym to see if that bears fruit.

As part of this little boy in a big city experiment I will also try to provide some neighborhood highlights as I encounter them.. So far I have a bed and bath place close, which is good as carrying 4 garbage sized bags of purchases more than 3 blocks might have been even more awkward than it already was.. not that it really bothered me and people here seem used to the less regular.

Neighborhood highlights so far:

1. Great Mexican restaurant next door.. Actually ate there before we got the apartment so that was advanced recon I guess
2. Baker Street Pub - 3 beers to-date, I suspect it will climb quickly - food seems quite good
3. Little take out restaurant I stumbled upon my first afternoon here.. had a chicken and cheese quesadilla for $2.99 that was amazing
4. I can’t really hear traffic from the apartment

Here is a little sneak peek of the apartment today:
Main room with Russ and boxes

Main room with things a bit more normal

My room - guest will get the master room as they can then close the door and have a private area with bed and bathroom.. when they are not there it will be my office

My Office/Guest room - no bed yet - once i figure out if I like the bed I bought I will either order another one or ship it to the guest room and try something different

Main bathroom

Lots to carry in one trip.. The chair is in there for reference, as mentioned above the walk was somewhat comical but I got it all in one trip

Fairytale Land