Walking Around

It's a Saturday morning, and I've decided I'm going to "walk around". That's my best plan for the day. Oh sure, I'm supposed to stop by and drop off the key where I was staying. I've also been invited to a block party later today. But my primary agenda is to find out what this neighborhood is like. So to do that, I'm going to take a stroll. Probably not my last, but I'm excited it's my first.

Since I've gotten here, I've been pretty busy. I've figured out how to get to work and how to get groceries. Now I get to see the stuff that makes the city beautiful. The stuff you don't see as you are weaving through crowds to get to your job. I'm going to find what makes Harlem great (or, at least some of the stuff).

So...enough writing and more walking!

Apartment Living

So I’m now in my apartment. I started staying here last night, even though I signed the lease two weeks ago. With the job and the transition and everything, I just wanted a little stability, so I stayed with a friend, in her spare bedroom.

But now I’m on my own…somewhat. The apartment is nice enough. It’s a two bedroom. It’s first floor. It is 720 square feet. It faces the back of the building. That means that I don’t have a very nice view (pile of rubble), I don’t have any street noise. I may have some building noise, but I didn’t notice it last night.

Oh, here’s what else I don’t have…furniture. I’m writing this as I pirate unprotected wireless from an unsuspecting neighbor, while sitting on the floor of the corner of my “living room”. My butt doesn’t have a lot of padding on it, so the floor gets pretty uncomfortable pretty quickly, especially on these nicely re-done hardwood floors.

The apartment still smells like fresh paint. They gutted the bathroom and kitchen, so I have new appliances.

I got this place through a friend of a friend of a friend (who is my friend by now). She put in a word for me with her property management company. I also seemed to get lucky and call at the right time. Honestly, this was the first place I called. I totally expected to be rending a room from someone, not staying in my own place with no furniture.

When Richard gets here, it will get furnished. We also are going to buy some stuff. Apartment stuff. New York stuff. We decided that our furniture was too “Midwestern”. So, we sold it in a garage sale.

Here's my apartment view as I write this:

This is the kitchen/living room. The two are really the same thing. Eventually, we will put some an island or a divider of some sort to break up the room. You will see the cardboard box that is serving as my trash right now.

And this is the view down the hall:

You can see the other half of the kitchen, and then the long hallway that leads to our apartment door. I won't show into the bedrooms, because there are no lights in there, so you'll just see darkness.

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home!