Smartie Pants

I realize that this "costume" speaks volumes about our desperation to fit in on Halloween while on a very tight budget, but let me tell you that I consider finding a place in Manhattan that sells small hot glue gun sticks for all the change in your wallet because you're not willing to spend the $10 minimum to put it on your card, a complete success.

We even splurged and bought a pumpkin, with full intent to carve it into a festive masterpiece, but we ended up watching Vampire Diaries and over indulging on calorific delectables instead (with friends, which we also like to consider a success). It's probably not the most epic all hallows eve that this city has ever seen, but letting street children trick or treat directly off my pants was pretty magnificent.

9.30.2012

We made it! One year down, and only eternity left to go. I sure do love this husband of mine. We saved our beautiful wedding cake top all year in anticipation for the one year mark, sacrificing ice cream and frozen chicken space in our freezer much to Alex's dismay. And then, in the midst of the moving mayhem, we shoved it into my in-law's freezer and found ourselves cake less on our anniversary. So, being the stalwart traditionalist that I am, we celebrated in the Upper West Side at Cafe Lalo with the closest thing to cake we could find- some Tiramasu (the best in the world) and hot chocolate with marshmallows. Something I never thought I'd be saying one year ago, mainly because I never thought I'd be able to trick an exceptionally handsome someone into marrying me.

This past year has unfolded many an adventure, as well as one too many experimental pasta dishes for dinner.. And Alex has stuck by my side through it all.

They say the first year is the hardest, which I'd say is pretty accurate seeing as how Alex has had to deal with half woman half beast every morning for the past 365 mornings. But I'm also convinced that the best marriages consist of wise negotiations, and a truck load of patience. Luckily for me, Alex was pretty close to perfect at both as I slapped that ring on his finger last fall.

The celebration commenced at the M83 concert in the Hammerstein Ballroom, where our minds and the speakers were blown simultaneously to amazing and sentimental music. We could barely eat the free pizza afterwards, because our cheeks were so sore from smiling. 

I don't know how many more ways I can proclaim that I married way up, so thank you Alex for a wonderful year. Thanks for trying to remember to put the lid on the toothpaste more often. Thanks for suppressing most of those urges to buy new video games and putting food on the table instead. A big thanks for introducing me to Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider. And thanks for loving me all day, every day. I couldn't be more grateful for you.

Here's to one year!

Moving on up, to the East Side.. to a deluxe apartment in the sky..

Well, it’s not really in the sky unless you count being on the second floor. But it is on the Upper East Side in a beautiful neighborhood with restaurants, shopping, parks, and lots of dogs. Speaking of dogs, our place is also dog friendly! Even though we can barely afford peanut butter and jelly sandwiches right now (security deposit + first month’s rent + brokers fee = we might as well not even have a bank account because there’s nothing in it anymore) we love having a place we can finally call our own! We have given the phrase 'living out of a suitcase' a more literal meaning.. we like to call it- the sofacase:

We bid farewell to The Pod Hotel, and Alex managed to move all of our luggage to our new place by himself while I was at work- a true accomplishment. Our apartment is in an old pre-war building on 73^rd street- it has big windows, wood floors, and even a dishwasher- we can’t wait until we have actual dishes to wash. We don’t have a doorman, but we do have the next best thing: a buzzer to ‘buzz’ people in. We also have a wonderful blow up mattress which serves as our bed, dining room table, and sofa. We did have to make the trek to Target up in Harlem the night we moved in for the basics- shower curtain, bath mats, hangers, and then to the grocery store (we went to 5 before finding one with decent prices- $8 for peanut butter? Let's get real New York.), and then to Washington Heights for our air mattress- needless to say we were exhausted when we finally got home at 2 am.

But, there truly is no better feeling than laying your head down at night under your own (rented) roof, even if it is on an air mattress with a box as your nightstand.

Goodbyes

When you’ve got two weeks exactly from the day you’re hired to the day you start your job, it leaves little time to mourn over selling everything you own. The only exception was Lil’ Red, my best friend in car form who’s safely gotten me through many a snow storm in Sardine canyon- I was still writing the KSL car ad when I got a call on her, and the next day she was gone. I bought Lil’ Red in 2005- she saw me through high school, college, marriage, and a plethora of awkward phases in between. That car was a 4-door box of memories.

And then, an hour after Lil’ Red’s new owners drove her away- the check engine light came on.

Of course it did.

After visiting the mechanic they had a hefty bill to pay, after that I realized that I gave them extra tires to Alex’s old Audi instead of snow tires, then the bill of sale I gave to them had issues, then the title was mailed to the wrong address and never made it to their house. Everything that could go wrong, did. And in the meantime, we were working full time and trying to plan our move and move out of our house. It was crazy, and by crazy I mean completely insane, but in the end I learned a great lesson in kindness, and patience, and couldn’t have sold my car to greater people.

Speaking of moving, we couldn’t have done it without all of the help from our family and friends- lifesavers! They were there until all hours of the night cleaning, packing, lifting, loading and moving boxes.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we have the best friends and family anyone could ask for. And even though saying goodbye wasn't easy, we'll still see them on holidays, and via unflattering angles on Skype. 

281 West Center Street

A few weeks ago (before we knew that we would be moving), I asked our friend and photographer Sami to come and capture a few photos of our little green house on Center Street in Logan. If I had the time or the skills, I would devote an entire scrap book to our home entitled, "Our First Place" but I figured I had better leave the capturing of memories to a professional.. no one wants to remember our giant laundry pile which overtook our guest room for almost a year, or our sink which practically shouted, "No, there is no dishwasher here be it mechanical or human."

We have had so many memories from our upstairs apartment in this quirky old historical house- from our shower with two doors, to our faucet knobs that turned backwards, and especially the secret rooms with hidden doors- we sure miss it all a whole lot.   

 

I'm so glad that we will always have these photos to look back on, and remember how much we loved this little green house. But for now, we're on to create more memories in our new NYC apartment, and even though the closet won't be able to hide our laundry piles, we're still excited to make our overpriced shoebox whose rent in any other city could pay a mortgage and support 3 kids soon to be apartment a home!

 

And then we found out our hotel actually does have a rooftop terrace.

 Ha, of course it does.

We also discovered that all of Alex's hair can fit into a bun (as seen above), and I'm not sure which discovery he was more excited about.

Just living that New York dream.

Right now, I'm looking out at New York City from our rooftop terrace, drinking an ice cold coke and admiring the city lights while I think about how amazing this place is.

Just kidding.

I'm laying on the bottom bunk (yes, you heard right) of our overpriced hotel bed waiting for the (insert expletive here) internet signal to disconnect again. We don't have a view (unless you count the brick wall I can touch from our window), but we do have a shared bathroom and a 10" flat screen TV with cable so that's almost as exciting. 

While I'm sure your imagination is running wild, here's some visual entertainment for you:

We do have a sink across from the bunk bed latter, which is overall very convenient because who doesn't want to brush their teeth from a latter?

If you'd like to know how to move across the country in two weeks, start a new job, and pay too much in hotel bills because you were naively unaware of how difficult and expensive it would be to find a shoebox of an apartment, then you're talking to the right person.

This 'adventure' has been nothing short of adventurous. When we got here last Saturday, our friends Bryce and Laura generously let us overtake their entire living room with an air mattress that we semi-consciously purchased at a bed bath & beyond after our red eye flight. Not only did they feed and house us, they did it for a whole week. Let me just tell you, that is a considerable square footage sacrifice for any New York apartment. We could not be more lucky and grateful for such wonderful and generous friends!. Not to mention our entire life is crammed into four extra large suitcases which were also strewn about their living quarters- a complete aesthetic nightmare if you will, but they couldn't have been more gracious and kind about the entire situation. We are way too blessed in the friend department.

My first week of work has been great, just the typical 'I'm new and have no idea what I'm doing or where to find any post-it-notes' kind of week. Basically, I design multimillion dollar apartments, and we are homeless. Irony at its best.  

The good news is that we finally found an apartment last week (hallelujah- miracle!) and have just been trying to get our ducks in a row before moving in (aka still trying to wrap our heads around the brokers fee we'll have to pay) which will hopefully happen this week! 

The miracles, blessings, and stories we have to tell from these past couple of weeks will keep our future children entertained for days, I'm sure. The best stories are the ones you never expected to tell, and right now our lives consist purely of the unexpected.

 If nothing else, at least this will be entertaining.