Are we in heaven? Oh wait, we're in Brooklyn!

Here I am in the Big Apple. Yesterday was so exciting I hope I can accurately remember all the things that happened.

We got up as early as we could stand, showered and dressed in business wear. Laura had been up a while before me searching apartment listings and had a list of names and numbers for us to call. I texted all my New York contacts to ask which temp agencies were most respected around here. We had hoped to walk in and present our resumes with a smile and a handshake, but unfortunately all the agencies I called wouldn't even speak with us before we submitted our resume online. I'm not real happy about that as without the face-to-face meeting our Virginia addresses will make us seem crazy.

Once we were dressed and ready we walked over to Starbucks to get coffee and start making calls. We set up several meetings with realtors there and decided to head over to Brooklyn before making too many more.

After an uneventful train ride to Brooklyn we were in the neighborhood of our first apartment viewing. The apartment was on Empire Blvd . It was an ugly commercial street but it was very close to Prospect Park. It was next to some businesses like Western Beef and The Gaseteria. It was ugly. The building was non-descript at best, the apartment itself hot and tiny and the views were of a warehouse rooftop and a BP station. Yuck. We looked for less than ten minutes, thanked the guy for showing us and got going.

Laura called Dave, our realtor for the next apartment who told us he was busy at that moment but to hang around the neighborhood until he was finished with his appointment. We took a train over to Beverley Road and got out. The difference between this neighborhood and the last were like night and day. It was around 2:30 so there were tons of moms waiting on corners for different schools to let out. There were churches, houses, apartment buildings and lots and lots of trees! We felt right at home and marvelled at how nice it seemed, especially compared to dumpy Empire. We found the address easily. The building is a yellow 1920s looking apartment building on a wide street of other apartment houses, included one across the street with fairytale towers on its corners. Lots of charm and character already. Since Dave hadn't gotten back to us yet we began to walk around the neighborhood, looking for the closest market etc. We walked several blocks until we came into a vibrant West Indies neighborhood. Jamaican restaurants and food stands, a Caribbean fruit market, tons of Caribbean vendors and music that Laura knew from St Vincent for blocks. Clearly we were really excited. We stopped at a Caribbean indoor flea market and Laura bought a St Vincent bandanna and then we headed back to the building to meet with Dave. We were already in love though.

When we arrived back at the building there was a lost and sloppy looking girl milling about outside. Dave saw us and let us in the front door and she followed. She told him she thought she had an appointment to look at apartment 1G with someone and he directed her to the superintendent's apartment. We followed Dave to the elevator. The lobby of the building was huge, all marble, and had a fireplace. The apartment was on the fourth floor and it was beautiful. High ceilings, hard wood floors and easily twice the size of the first. It had two bedrooms, one of which was significantly smaller than the other but opposite the large bedroom was the 'living room' which was identical in size. The kitchen had more counters and plenty cabinets in it, the closets were big and there were four of them. The bathroom was a vision in peach and black tile. The windows faced the back of the building looking out over trees. We loved it. We wanted it. And just when we were getting really excited the lost looking girl wandered in. Suddenly I got very competitive because I didn't want anyone else looking at our perfect apartment so we went with Dave right away to sign the papers. We had to have it. Sloppy girl didn't deserve it.

So that, dear friends, is why we don't have ANY pictures of our new apartment on East 17th St Brooklyn.

We plan to use the living room as one of our bedrooms and the small bedroom as our living room. We loved our neighborhood, we loved our realtor, we loved life. We didn't love that girl. We followed Dave to his office where we paid a deposit, and had our credit run. We applied and paid and pending Laura's parents credit check we have it. We were on the edge of the seats in the office. It was so exciting and we were nervous. After that we walked around Brooklyn and saw the park and the library and got ice cream cones from the Mr Softee truck. Then we met our friend India for hamburgers and happy hour.

After all that we finally took the trains back to Manhattan and back to Drew's apartment. We were absolutely exausted.

Today we are off to take measurements and pictures and then have a little fun.