29 August 2007

I got webbed.

That mean's I got the apartment!

[And also, farewell to the blog for a short while.]

After living for three months in utter uncertainty, my life seems to finally be coming together. I've landed both a job (a couple weeks ago) and an apartment (last night) in Manhattan and I move out of my current place in...2 days. Next time I am going to see how much closer I can cut it. FUN game!

Ok, so about my new place. It's a 3 bedroom with two other girls about my age on West 57th Street between 9th and 10th Avenue. Two blocks from Central Park, two blocks from Columbus Circle and the Time Warner Center (where there's a Whole Foods, many shops, and basically every subway I need to get where I'm going).

This place was the last apartment I looked at after a long day of scurrying all over town on Monday looking at hell holes. Monday I had woken up at 5am to catch the 6am Chinatown bus because I had a noon meeting at my new office. I met with my new boss and the managing partner of my new firm to discuss upcoming projects and what I should expect. Things went great. I think I will fit in well and will have a lot of opportunities in my new position.

The rest of the day I had decided to dedicate to apartment hunting once again. However, based on my last go-round, I decided to focus more on roommate situations. Most places were being shown in the early evening hours, so I had some time to kill between my meeting and 5pm. I ended up having lunch at Il Cantinori in the Village and then going uptown to meet Sarah for afternoon coffee.

Every place I looked that evening at had some sort of terrible living situation, be it a bad roommate or a horrible living area. My favorite was this place I went to in the East Village. It was really the only apartment downtown I looked at, and my appointment was in between showings uptown, so I took a cab in order to make it on time. The place was the top floor of a 7-floor walkup, and there were about 15 other people in the apartment looking at it at the same time. The room was decent but had no closet (which is KIND OF a deal breaker for me if you've ever seen the amount of clothes I own), but I was nearing the end of my rope, so I actually considered it. Until I saw who I'd be rooming with. Apparently it was with a raver from 1998. Or maybe the head of wardrobe for Da Ali G Show. I overheard him interviewing one of the other potential roommate applicants: "Do you have any diseases? If so, what kind? How many times per week do you have sex? How many times per week do you anticipate bringing someone back to the apartment to have sex?"

[Exit apartment].

The apartment that ended up webbing me was the last one I looked at. I was tired, stressed, and frustrated as I rolled up to the door. But as soon as I met the girl showing the place, we immediately hit it off and the apartment, while small, was very cozy, charming, clean and livable. Then I took a look at my would-be room, which has a loft area for either storage or a bed (I am planning on putting my bed up there so that I can use the main space for my favorite red comfy chair and a little entertainment area). Then I turned around and closed the main door to see [angels singing from the heavens and a halo glow emerging] a huge (by NY standards) closet. I let out an audible gasp and said "I just looked at a studio the size of this closet and they wanted $20 more rent per month."

Then we chatted in the living room a bit. I was told that on top of rent, that cable including HBO was a non-negotiable. We then proceeded to discuss every HBO original series that aired the night before- Big Love, Entourage and Flight of the Conchords. Then she talked about how it's rare that the three roommates are all home at once and how everyone basically keeps separate lives and values their privacy, but if everyone's at home they'll sit around and have a bottle of wine and watch Sex and the City, to which I replied, "I like red wine. Sign me up."

After I told Charlotte about this discussion she typed (in what I will assume was 'sarcasm font'): "Wow. I hope you fit in."

By the way, if you enjoyed reading about my previous adventures in apartment hunting, you'll like the expanded essay I wrote for Farmhouse Magazine, which should be hitting the internet September 1 at www.farmhousemagazine.com.

The blog is going on the back burner for the time being, since, in two days, I am out of DC, later next week I am off to Hawaii and immediately thereafter moving to my new place in NY. But I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to tell once I'm settled. Stay tuned...

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