Still Alive

It's been a busy last week, but we're still here and doing very well. The three-day weekend came at a good time for us to process all the changes of the past couple weeks and enjoy some down time. It was another perfect weekend, really. It started off with an outing to see Mary Poppins on Broadway Friday night. We had been talking about wanting to go, and I was able to get tickets on Friday for that production. It was a really amazing show--I know it's not the most "mature" storyline, but the acting was incredible and the overall quality just superb. I would go back to see it again.

It was playing at the Amsterdam Theater right off Broadway, so after getting the tickets, I explored the Times Square area. It's a very touristy spot, so there is a TON to see, and a lot of people trying to see it. I hit the Toys R Us with the ferris wheel inside as well as some of the other big stores. I also got the cutest dress for the different outings Zach and I will get to take this summer. Absolutely love it--I've had my eye on it for a while, and it finally was on sale enough for me to get it.

So, that was Friday. Saturday, we went out exploring--first back down to Midtown to do a little shopping. Then we took the Subway to Brooklyn in search of a couple furniture stores Zach had seen. We found them and looked around the area known as DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass). I wasn't altogether impressed, but we can at least say we've been to Brooklyn now.

Once back on Manhattan, we picked up some lunch and ate at the edge of Central Park, watching the people pass by. New York is great for people watching--there are just so many people here, and because of the tourism factor, they're often from all over the world. You never know what you're going to see!

We ended up walking all the way back home from there, kind of the long route--along the edge of the park and then cutting across the middle and up to home (that's nearly 70 blocks up and quite a ways over), so our feet were really tired by the time we reached home. Still, it was a really great day, and we did see a lot. We walked all along Madison Ave., where the famous designers have their stores. That area is a lot more residential, so it was very quiet, and since the weather was so nice, a very lovely walk. We also saw a lot of Central Park, which is a beautiful thing.

Sunday, my family drove in for a visit, and we showed them around our area a little more. The boys played frisbee in the park around the corner, and I thought just how nice it is that we have some green space not to far away. We walked back to the edge of Central Park and got a good laugh out of the venturing sporstsmen, trying out their rollerblades on the long hills in the park. Then we walked back and got dinner on the way at Ollie's, which is becoming one of my favorite places near home. They have any Asian noodle dish you can imagine, and pretty amazing General Tso's Chicken, one of my favorites. It always makes me think of college and getting Chinese with the girls.

We came back to the house to crash. Seven people more than fills up our apartment, especially since we don't really have anywhere for people to sit right now. It feels pretty inhospitable to tell people that they have to climb 5 flights of stairs to come see you and then offer to let them sit on the exercise bike, since that's the only real seat. Still, it's always fun to have visitors.

Monday was another beautiful day (after all the rain last week, it's amazing to have three in a row!). Zach and I went to Chinatown in search of another furniture store. By chance, we heard about a weekend brunch at a restaurant on the West Side that was a good deal. We were able to meet up with a friend of Zach's from law school and his wife for a nice long brunch. His friend is also working in the city this summer, and it was so nice to see a familiar face! After brunch, we decided to find Century 21, a discount clothing store that we've heard a lot about. Wow... you really just have to experience it for yourself. It's huge, and there are some really great deals, you just have to search for them. It wore us out (or at least wore Zach out).

So, that was the long weekend, and the week has just flowed out of it, it seems. We've had much better weather this week, so it's been nice to be out and about, doing things. Hopefully it holds for the weekend.

Tonight we are going to a reception at the Boathouse in Central Park for Zach's work. I'll try to put up some more pictures soon.

Internet and A Very Long Post

So, we finally got Internet this afternoon. The saga would be far more than you want to read. Suffice to say that our building was constructed in 1901, and hence, all the wiring of any kind was retrofitted. This means that no one knows exactly where the telephone line goes after it leaves your apartment. Crazy. Anyway, all I know is that it's up now, and I am grateful.

The post below was written on Monday, but I'm going to post it anyway, since it talks about the fun weekend Zach and I had exploring and helps the pictures make a little more sense. Enjoy!

A Very Long Post

Or, what makes a good weekend. I have decided: a good weekend is made up of five essential elements—Time with my husband, adventures, good food, shopping, and ice cream. Sunshine is always an added bonus.
By that definition, this was a very good weekend, which will explain this very long post.
But first, backtracking a little bit, I have proof positive that we really are getting settled in. Our little apartment is looking much more like a home, and while we certainly still have boxes around that are searching for homes, things are generally in much better order now than before. I have to say that for one as young as I have, and having lived in my own place only one and a half years, I have assembled more than my fair share of pictures, and since our new home is so small, they are more than adequate to fill up all the available space. You can see for yourselves in the pictures below. I think it makes everything more homey, and it was a great personal adventure and achievement for me to get them all hung myself. We now have curtains on the windows, pictures on the walls, and a general sense of organization, even if I’m the only one who knows about it. Poor Zach is always having to ask where this or that item ended up…

So, back to the weekend, it was an amazing weekend, though it started on a somewhat rainy note. I’m coming to the conclusion that you should really never be without an umbrella in New York, because the rain seems somewhat unpredictable and comes and goes as it pleases. Today, for example, it started out with patches of clouds, enough to tempt me out exploring. I had walked all the way from our apartment (on the west side of the island) to the edge of central park (in the middle) and sat down to enjoy some lunch when the drops started falling. I had not remembered an umbrella, so it was my fate to hustle back to Broadway, where I knew I could find a coffee shop to wait it out. By the time I got there, it had essentially stopped. But I don’t want to get too far back out at this point, because who knows when it will feel the need to start precipitating again.
Anyway, Friday night was quite rainy—the drizzling kind that’s just hard enough to complicate being out and about, but not hard enough to make you want to stay inside, especially for a Friday night. And so, we went adventuring until we found somewhere that looked like a good place for a sweet treat. We enjoyed a chocolate truffle dessert (like a chocolate mouse on a light cake base, covered in a chocolate coating) and coffee and watched people go by in the rain. The rain had picked up by the time we were headed home, and it’s somewhat cold out right now a well. New York, I have to remember, is a little farther north than Virginia.
Saturday morning, we woke up rather early and decided that, since the weather looked nice, an adventure was in order. We had talked about different things we’d like to do this summer, and decided that we were going to take a ride on the Long Island Rail Road and see where we ended up. We selected Long Beach as our destination, because it appeared to have a clean beach, and I was in the mood for some saltwater and fresh air. The trip itself was not quite an hour, and took us through Queens, Brooklyn, and onto Long Island. Long Beach is not a very busy or bustling town—kind of looks like it may have been left behind a little bit, but the beach was indeed clean and very nice. It was worth the trip for some cold sea water, fresh air, and peace and quiet. We walked a long ways along the boardwalk and then the beach before finding some lunch, which we ate looking out over the ocean. The ever-present Starbucks was a good place to sit and warm up with some hot coffee, but we kind of defeated the warm thing by going to get ice cream in time to catch our train back home. As the pictures show, it was a really beautiful day out.
Back in Manhattan, we decided to stay out, and found BBQ for dinner at Dallas BBQ in midtown. By the time we had finished, it had decided that sun was out of fashion, and rain was in order, so we popped in and out of a couple stores, finding some good deals on dress clothes for Zach on the way, and then finally decided it might be time to head home. We caught the train at Times Square, which really is as busy and bright as it looks in the pictures.
Sunday was another adventure, of a slightly different kind. We visited one of the churches that had been recommended to us before our move and, since we were downtown, Zach volunteered to take me to Macy’s and shop for as long as we needed to find some styles, etc. for this fall. What a man! I don’t think either of us knew what we were getting ourselves into. If you come to New York, you really have to see the original Macy’s on Seventh Ave. It takes up nearly the entire city block, and it holds 9 floors of shopping. There are 3 Starbucks locations inside and numerous other dining options, and every imaginable brand label, all arranged to promote optimum confusion. Maybe that wasn’t their intent, but it is certainly the result. Just when you think you’ve wandered the entire section of women’s clothes, you realize that there are at least two more floors full to consider. We were there for a total of 5 hours, I think, but we did accomplish a lot in the way of identifying some good styles, etc. to look for. I think that shopping trip will be a lasting memory. The weekend ended very quietly, and we’re into a new week now. So many more adventures to be had!

The view from the train coming over the bridge onto Long Beach

Me, enjoying the sun

Happy salt water

The Long Beach railroad station

Self Portrait on the railroad

Times Square

Times Square take 2

My decorating venture--this is the test layout for the wall arrangement

The final product

Me and my partner in crime

Some more decorating--the shelf is held up by Command adhesive strips. It's amazing what you can do!
Another little display on the other wall
My toolkit: A hammar, nails, small tape measure, pencil, and scissors (to cut down the matting on one of the pictures so it fit the frame).
This is the platform for our subway station--one of the few above ground.

The view off the 125th Street platform

Some Pictures

I'm sorry there aren't more yet; it has been a busy week trying to get things straightened out and wandering around trying to find an internet connection, since ours won't be set up until next Wednesday. Hopefully this weekend will provide an opportunity to get some really good ones wherever Zach and I go to explore.

Raygen--I think she thinks her aunt takes too many pictures
Alexandra--she absolutely would not look at the camera
Raygen is very helpful with a broom an dustpan; guess we'll see if that lasts past the age of 2
Alexandra and "Aunt Beth"

Zach was feeling a little contrary... or perhaps just totally exhausted

Stuff everywhere... still working on moving in.

Our bed, saving us from the plight of air mattresses...

Of Fossil Fuel and New Beginnings

There are a lot of things in life that we as humans never think about… and we don’t usually know we haven’t thought about them until we’re faced with a new situation—a stimulus, so to speak, to discover a host of new questions to consider and new topics for thought. Some of these may be profound, and some of them are more deeply rooted in the simple steps of everyday life. Yes, there are many things about everyday life that we’ve never thought about.
For example, if you move to a new place, but were unable to move your bed with you, where do you find a new mattress so you can stop sleeping on an air mattress? This was my dilemma yesterday, the first day of life in the big city. Now, I suppose it might have been different if I had moved somewhere with friends or family close by—a recommendation would have been easy to come by. But I can’t imagine the look I would have gotten if I had walked up to the first person I saw on the street outside my apartment and asked where I could find a good mattress… Yeah, not the best way to make friends. There aren’t any big department stores around here either, and even if there were, I have no way of getting the mattress to my apartment by myself, so, it was a necessity to find somewhere that would also deliver said mattress. I had my challenge cut out for me, but was definitely motivated by the stiffness that was growing for every night on the air mattress.
So, I thought about my options. No internet connection, no clue where the nearest place was to find an internet connection, and rain coming down outside. Thankfully, the last renter left a phone book in the apartment. So, armed with a phone book and a comprehensive guide to the city (so I could figure out how I would get to any of these places), I flipped to the furniture section of the book. Lesson learned: it’s always a little better if your phone book isn’t out of date. Several of the more promising places had moved already, so they were out. I made a short list of places that looked as thought they might do the trick, and then figured out where they were located and just how many rides up and down the city it would take to see them. List in hand, I called around to see if I could narrow a price range. Desperation will make anything sound appealing, to a point. At least I knew by the time I hit the road what I could expect and how to mentally compare options.
One of the purchases I made in VA with NY in mind was a pair of Pink, polka-dot rain boots. When you have no car, rain boots are a necessity. They were particularly helpful yesterday, providing both much-needed protection from the general wetness and a splash of color to cheer me up. It managed to stop raining part way through the afternoon, but the sky was grey and cloudy all day. That didn’t hinder me from success, though. Long story short, I visited two mattress stores, and found a great deal at the first. The process involved a significant amount of waling, but nothing my boots and me couldn’t handle. I am happy to say that we now have a mattress, delivered to our apartment this morning. I employed my growing knowledge of the city on my way home yesterday to stop and pick up some sheets so that we will be all ready for our first comfortable evening tonight. Hallelujah! It will be a welcome relief, not to mention nice to have somewhere other than the floor to sit, since we have no chairs. What an adventure.
I realize that I took for granted a general knowledge of where I was living. I mean, even moving to college, it was pretty well defined: the grocery store was around the corner and the Wal-Mart was a few miles down the highway. Not so with this move. Since I don’t know anyone here, I’m not sure who to ask for that kind of information. And even if you know that something exists or where it is, there’s the question of how you’re going to get there. So, it will take some getting used to, but I think we’re settling in nicely.
Last night, after Zach got home from work, we went out to try and find a dry cleaners for his work clothes. Fifteen blocks later, we decided just to take his stuff to the place around the corner from us and see what happened. So, it was back to the house, where we created some lovely salads and settled in for Jeeves and Wooster. That’s one of our favorite ways to relax at night. Only, something was missing. Ice cream. One thing we have learned about the city, is that there are little delis on nearly every corner, so it was just a trip to the end of the block for some Ben and Jerry’s (all they had) Fossil Fuel ice cream. It was absolutely wonderful—enough chocolate to satisfy, and so tasty!
So, that’s the start of our life in the big city. I'll have pictures soon, once we get the Internet thing worked out ;-)