Back in Brooklyn

I got back to my apartment after 2am last night so I'm really wiped out today. The camp reunion was a lot of fun, although at times I was an emotional wreck. Not having a job to come back to and with my roommate out of town I just couldn't imagine leaving Virginia, family, friends and Jake to come back here alone. It was rough but everyone at the reunion was so super encouraging. I was so tired after coming home on the bus last night I actually fell asleep with the keys still in the apartment door. Not good! This morning the cable man came and set up cable and internet for me so I've been in my pajamas all day trying to recover and get this foggy feeling out of my head and chest. I guess all the fun of the weekend is really catching up on me.

Pastor Kenn Nilsen, my friend Sarah's dad and my former boss at camp recommended I try to find a year-round job at a Lutheran camp up here in NY. I got really inspired thinking about it and sent them an e mail this morning. I also decided to go ahead and start working at Talbots, the place where I temped the week before I moved, until something that is a good fit for me comes along. That will be a paycheck for rent day and I can build up a business wardrobe. I had my sister call one of the managers I worked with and am waiting to hear back. I told her I could start tomorrow so that would be really terrific! Retail isn't my favorite but neither is unemployment.

I added two new albums to my Kodak website: One of the apartment hunting/moving process and one of the fantastic camp reunion. The link is on the right side of this blog.

Thanks to everyone who put up with my tears and anxiety this weekend. You were all right, I'm fine. I appreciate everybody's faith in me.

Keeping At It

Courtelyou Rd, where Vox Pop, the grocery store, library branch, and the laundromat are.
E 17th St, about a block down from our house. These houses are huge!

Tuesday evening I met up with a very old friend: Courtney from way back in my music camp days. She hasn't changed a bit. We went for dinner and beers at a little bistro called Picket Fence on Courtelyou Rd, the same street where my coffee shop is. The food was Delicious and not too expensive and they deliver so once I am making delicious food money I will probably get food from there a lot. I had a hamburger and sweet potato fries and tried a Brooklyn Lager, Gee's favorite beer in America! All were terrific.

Yesterday I woke up and got ready for work, and called the temp agency. No dice. I went back over to Vox Pop and started trying to think outside the box. I researched portrait studios and applied on the online generic form for Sears Portrait Studios. Not sure where there are any Sears here so that might be a dead end. Other portrait studios seemed to be singular artists, not the kind of place that will let me take Christmas card pics for families. I also checked Craigslist for ads about babysitting and nannying. There were many more Nannies than Nanny wanted ads. Then I looked at local independent bookstores. I emailed a couple and then saw a website for Strand Books. It looked amazing, downtown on Broadway and right off of the Q train that runs by my house. The employment section of the website said they had regular job openings and to come in and apply. I walked back to my apartment, put on my job-gettin clothes and went to check it out. I thought I was so clever and that when I got there they'd be so happy to have an applicant. "Oh there you are!" they'd say with open arms as they rushed to submit my direct deposit form and w2. Sadly, when I got there and smiled winningly at the clerk and told him I was there to apply he directed me to the 3rd floor where they have an application station. Apparently a lot of people apply to work there. The application went really well until the end where they had a literary match test. Matching ten authors with books they had written. Unfortunately the books listed weren't the authors most famous works and I bombed it. I DO read!! Ugh. I put my pretty little application on a big fat stack of other applications and headed home. I'd really like to work at that bookstore, friends. I looks like a cool work environment where I could do a good job at something I care about. They said if you application is accepted you'll hear in about a week so keep fingers crossed. Then I came home to charge my cell phone, called the temp company again and ventured out to do laundry at the laundromat.

I need one of those urban wheely carts you see sometimes. Lots of people here have them to get their things back and forth from the laundromat or grocery store. I had to carry my basket the two blocks to Courtelyou. I went to Mr. Soapy where there are no chairs and lots of broken-down machines. It was not a lot of fun.

This morning I got up for work again and again got a 'I'll call you if' from my temp counselor. So here I am back at Vox Pop. I just gave my card to two young mothers who were chatting about babysitters though. I was nervous and felt like a creep interrupting their conversation but it can't hurt to get my name out there. I have references and experience and I'd much rather find babysitting work by word of mouth than Craigslist. After being so brave and forward I treated myself to a bagel with cream cheese.

Since when is the idea of a new wardrobe upsetting?

I survived 24 hours alone in New York friends! Wow. I went home via the Met grocery. I picked up the Katy necessities: Triscuits and cream cheese, cereal and milk, ice cream and cookies. When I got home I unpacked the groceries and then unpacked several boxes and really neatened up my room! It looks great now. Laura DeWitt came over for dinner and we had Italian delivery and I got some leftovers to have. We caught up and she spent a lot of time admiring our gorgeous apartment. After she left I did a couple chores (note to mom: Yes, I ironed a shirt. Don't pass out!) and then settled down to watch Hancock and half of The Golden Compass. Thank goodness for NetFlix. I changed my shipping address and put Hancock in the mail so I hope I can get a next one really soon. A nice thing was all the people who called me yesterday afternoon and evening. Thank you! I love you! It made me feel much less lonely.

Today I got up and put on my business clothes and took my laptop in my briefcase downtown to see the counselor at the temp company. I met Laura DeWitt at her work to get printed copies of my resume along the way. THANKS LAURA! It went pretty well. I managed the Subway just fine and found the building too. The temp visit went pretty well. I apparently did excellent on my computer skills tests and she said I wouldn't have any problem but I'd need a more corporate wardrobe. Yikes! I was wearing my dressiest interview clothes. It was black slacks, black pumps and a Burgundy buttoned blouse, tucked in. I don't have any suits that fit and only one or two skirts of inappropriate length. And I'm BROKE! I sure hope Laura has something in her closet. Not even sure what is more corporate than slacks. She didn't have anything for me today but she asked me to call her back this afternoon. For now I'm relaxing at Vox Pop with a great big mocha.

My silent apartment.

Gosh I'm nervous. This morning Jake, Laura and Katie got in a car at 7am and drove away from me. I'm all alone in the big city!! I won't lie. I definitely cried and called my mom. Happily I found a coffee shop with internet where I am sitting right now! Its real funky, called VoxPop and the clerk gave me my coffee for an IOU because I didn't meet the card minimum. They're playing reggae and on one wall it says Viva La Revolucion. I have so far ordered cable and internet ($91 per month! Yikes!!) gotten the address of Wachovia so I can deposit a check (financial district: Manhattan. Not close by at all!) and written three blogs!!! Are you all so relieved to hear from me? I'm happy to have found some friendly faces and some blessed internet. Next I'm going to take my temp agency tests, grab some groceries on my way back to the apartment, find my Passport or Social Security card, and shower. Maybe I can make it to Wachovia and the temp agency all today! I hope I can get home before dark but if I do what will I do there? No internet, tv or even an iPod! Somebody come and visit quick!

Coney Island Baby

Don't we look amazing in these pictures?

Saturday morning we got up late and began unpacking some boxes in our pajamas. Jake and I set up my bed and dresser and hung some curtains and my room began to look just like home to me. Outside our windows is the Q train to Coney Island. It makes me happy to see all those trains bound for Coney Island going by. After a few hours of unpacking we decided to take that train and go have hot dogs on Coney Island. We got off the train at Brighton Beach which was a really cool ethnic neighborhood called 'Little Russia by the Sea' on signs. We walked from there to Coney and it began to rain.

I was so very excited to see the Wonder Wheel and can't wait to ride it though! We went to Nathan's World Famous Hot Dog Stand and all had delicious, if a bit expensive, lunches. Not long after that the day before caught up with us and we all needed naps. We took some trains back to our neighborhood and got some rest. Laura and Katie went out with their friends The Mollies from Peace Corps, and Jake and I ordered Chinese and watching Finding Neverland on my computer.

JUST GET OFF THIS FREEWAY!

Thursday evening Laura arrived in the evening and with help from Cyndi, Kris and our parents we managed to load almost every little thing into the U-Haul. It was packed tightly with a love seat, a chair and a half, two beds, two mattresses and box springs, my dresser, shelves, lamps, crates boxes and loose clothing in the dresser drawers. It took us probably an hour to load but we were proud of the neat and efficient job we did. Then we met all went to Melting Pot and met Amy and Jason for some goodbye pizza, wings and beer.

Friday morning we all got up as early as we could. We boarded Jake's dog and Laura's friend Katie met us and we hit the road. Laura and Katie took Laura's parents Buick and Jake and I were in the U-Haul. It was a long cloudy drive to NY. Everything went pretty boring at first. Jake and I played 20 questions and Catchphrase and talked. Laura and Katie had gotten a head start on us while we were taking Oren to the kennel so they were about an hour ahead.

We had gotten our directions from Google Maps and Laura and Katie arrived at our new place and called back to us on the NJ Turnpike to clarify some points with us. We pulled into the toll line at the Holland Tunnel and were so close to arriving around 3 at our apartment giving us plenty of daylight to unpack and return the truck. What a good moving day we were going to have. When we got up to the window though the toll taker told us that trucks were not allowed in the Holland Tunnel and we would have to pull forward to the waiting police officers for further instructions. Oh no! We pulled up and the police asked us to open the truck!! Yikes. When opened the only thing visible was mattresses. He asked what else was in the truck and I told him housewares and that we were moving and thankfully he let us go without actually searching it. This is great news and was helped, I think, by my girly behavior when opening the door latch on the back of the truck.

The officer told us we would have to redirect to the Lincoln Tunnel and made it seem to us as though it would be simple and evident when we got there how to get to Brooklyn. He also made it seem like the tunnel was very close by. We followed his directions to get to the tunnel. We trucked along a bit and I got out the handy dandy road atlas mom had stuffed into the truck cab that morning. Of course we missed the tunnel the first time by and ended up way out in NJ, but we got to see the Meadowlands! We stopped at a service station for directions, turned around and finally found the tunnel. We could feel that we were really close to getting there now!

When we finally got through the mayhem at the tunnel we found ourselves in MIDTOWN MANHATTAN. Also there were no signs for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel or any other thing related to Brooklyn. At all. And we were in a U-Haul! Yikes! I used the map to get us from the tunnel to the other side of Manhattan. The streets were gridded and things were pretty simple so far. Well not simple, we were driving a box truck in midtown Manhattan after all. Now we needed to find a bridge to Brooklyn. I found the Williamsburg bridge on the map and managed to direct Jake there but when we found it we were beneath it. We turned back toward Lower East Side Manhattan and snaked through one ways to get to where the bridge began. We followed signs all the way up to a nice jersey-walled dead end. So we backtracked, backtracked, lefted and righted until we got on the bridge. The bridge led us to the Brooklyn/Queens expressway at rush hour. Awesome. THEN there was a break in the Jersey walls where you had to cut across to go to Brooklyn or stay in the lane we were in to go to Queens. We couldn't possibly make that cut in the U-Haul so I told Jake, its ok, we'll find a way off this freeway and turn back once we were in Queens. That opportunity didn't come to us until we had already hit the Bronx. We got off in the Bronx and then I learned that a general road atlas will not help you find surface streets to get you to your apartment in Brooklyn. I called Laura pretty frantic and she guided me through Queens into Brooklyn.

Now we just had to take one road to a stop light and turn left into our neighborhood. Hallelujah! We could just TELL we were going to be there really soon! We followed the road and just like Laura had told us it led almost right up to our neighborhood but just before we got to where we could turn a car pulled up beside us and shouted that we couldn't go that way. No commercial vehicles and we would definitely get a ticket.

Before I go on I should tell you about the mood inside the cab of the truck. I have a terrific boyfriend and I love him so and he loves me too. However, we came very close to killing each other on Friday. Everything was funny when we couldn't go through the tunnel. It was cool when I accidentally directed us to the Meadowlands. Things were tense through Midtown and nobody was happy around the Williamsburg Bridge but by the time we got on the expressway to the Bronx I was crying and I definitely screamed 'JUST GET OFF THIS FREEWAY' in the kind of tone people usually reserve for phrases like 'SOMEBODY SAVE MY BABY' or 'YOUR HAIR IS ON FIRE!'. So by the time this man shouted up to us that we, once again, would not be able to follow the directions we had to get to the apartment I was just plain desperate. I told him we needed to get to Beverly St and when he told me we'd have to take a service road I shouted down ' Can you LEAD us to Beverly St????'

And he did. He lead us off onto the service road and almost all the way to my street. He got out at every couple lights to come back to the truck and tell us where he was going next and he wouldn't take any cash from us. What an angel.

When we finally got to our building it was dark and Laura and Katie had been there hours, unpacked her whole car and eaten supper. We double parked the U-Haul and unloaded it into the lobby. Laura and I decided to return the U-Haul so that Jake could have a break and so that Laura could use the maps and her superior knowledge of the area to save me from feeling lost anymore that day. So after all that I actually DROVE the U-Haul in New York City myself. Something I never thought I'd do. When we got back to the apartment we were all exhausted. We had some beers and champagne and chatted and played Catchphrase. Then we went to bed for our first night in our new home.

Packing Day Break Time

Oh gosh I have no idea HOW this truck is going to hold our things and Laura isn't here for at least three more hours and all my things are in the yard and Jake's not getting here until tonight and there's so much stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaeeeeehhhh!

Time to stop, eat some food for the first time today, and breathe. The power and gas are on for tomorrow and the truck is in the yard. Things are definitely getting taken care of. Oh, looks like its time to take the chair I'm sitting in out to the yard. Yikes.