Cheers!
I'm writing this from my bed, in my new bedroom, overlooking my new back garden. I wake up to birdsong every morning, and am using my hours before work to stretch and do yoga in our sun-soaked living room. I also drink a cup of tea to start my engine. All in all, it's bliss. Strider took the move pretty hard the first day. He'd never travelled on the subway before, and dumping him in a completely new environment was rough. But he is a trooper and bounced back by the second night. His new favorite place is on top of the refrigerator, beneath our cupboards :) My kitchen is divine! Truly beautiful. Large, open, plenty of light, and a DISHWASHER!!! I used it for the first time the second night I was there to clean a bunch of kitchen tools before I put them away, and it was glorious to hear it hum. And the entire apartment gets so much light that I am constantly popping into a room to turn the light off only to realize the light is completely natural! Heidi is a fantastic roommate. I'm currently living out of boxes, which I know is rough for Heidi's sense of cleanliness and order, but I'm slowly and surely making this place my home. Hearkening back to college days, my first meal at my new home was cup-o'-noodles, but I put it in a dish to be all fancy and adult :) I'll post pictures of our living room and studio space at another time. Probably do a "before and after" type post, as I have some grand plans for some of the rooms. I'm actually quite excited!
Cheers!
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One of the things I wanted when it came to moving was time. I didn't want to be forced to find a place just because I was on a deadline, and I didn't want to hurry and do everything in one day. I got my wish. And I wish I was at my new place already!!
I thought I'd never want to leave my current apartment or neighborhood. But I am so in love with my new pad I just want to spend all my time there. However, my lease isn't up until the end of the month, and I have a rm staying with me through that time - I can't just pick up and move everything until our pre-agreed upon time. Funny how sometimes when you get what you want, it's not always what you thought... I'll leave you with a few pictures of my gorgeous new place (my new rm took these). I was up there the other day and spent the morning sitting out in the backyard, enjoying the sunshine and birdsong. I look forward to many more mornings like that. You know how my last post ended with me wanting to move? Funny story - I am! This has been in the works since last August but, for one reason or another, kept getting pushed back as my needs kept changing. But in the space of about a week, everything solidified and a lease was signed. Whew! There really is nowhere else like the NYC real estate market. Take a journey with me back to August last year...
My roommate (and dear friend) Carolyn was headed to Texas with her bf to work the school year at Magik Theater, a children's theatre in San Antonio. I briefly considered joining them. However, I really am not one for children's theatre, and even though it's a higher standard of living at a lower cost, I knew I wouldn't be happy away from NYC. I decided to stay and as my lease was up at the end of the year, I'd look for a larger, less expensive place and get a rm. A few weeks after deciding this, I found out I was up for lottery housing I'd applied for when I first moved to NYC (and completely forgot!). Lottery Housing is when a new parcel of luxury apartments is going up and a certain percentage of those apartments need to go to lower income people. In essence, I would have been able to live in a lavish, brandspankin' new, 1bedrm apartment in my current neighborhood for dirt cheap. I couldn't believe my luck! After endless hours of paperwork and crunching numbers, I submitted EVERYTHING they required, only to be told I didn't make enough to qualify. WHAT?! I talked to my financial people and we re-submitted. This time, I made too much! WHAT??? It was frustrating because the people running the lottery kept changing their minds - when I gave them what they'd asked for, they wanted something else. They weren't forthcoming about what they NEEDED and HOW they were looking at my income. They had only ever asked for my year-to-date info, so that's what I gave them, but they really were projecting out to the end of the year, which is something I could have provided them better than their guessing. Long story short (too late), after 3 appeals and re-submissions of paperwork, the final answer was that I was over their income limit - by $900. Seriously? At this point I was too exhausted to fight it any further (keep in mind this had gone on from August 2013-Feb 2014). Thankfully, I have a terrific landlord who was willing to do a month-to-month deal with me, which kept me from going crazy from stress. As this was the case, I decided I wanted to take my time to find something that I loved and could settle down in for the foreseeable future. Apartment hunting, as I mentioned, is a different beast in NYC altogether. Most places you can walk up to the leasing office, say you want to live there, fill out the paperwork, and done. Not so here. Everywhere goes through a broker (if you're lucky, the landlord pays the broker fee - which was my experience w/ my first apt here). If the landlord doesn't pay their fee, you are saddled w/ a hefty bill on top of the first AND last month deposit AND the security deposit. It makes my stomach flip just thinking about how much money goes into renting an apartment here. (I had even considered purchasing a place, because at these prices, why not rent to own instead of renting and that money just disappearing every month? But in the end I decided that wasn't the wisest course of action...for now.) After weeks of dealing with various brokers, getting stood up by brokers (more than once! WTF?!), and seeing places that didn't fit my criteria, I was fed up with looking. A glimmer of light appeared on the edge of my apartment hunting horizon, when out of the blue my friend Heidi said she'd love to live with me. Not only had I been hunting for an apartment alone, I was of the persuasion I'd get a place then find a rm, another massive hurdle in and of itself. But I could see myself living with Heidi. And it'd be so much easier with a partner in crime with whom to work! We pooled our ideas about what we wanted/needed in a new place, and the search began again. Heidi was out of town while I started looking (again). By the end of the second week I was tired and annoyed, but decided to see ONE last apartment before giving up and letting Heidi do the next round. I hauled myself up to Hamilton Heights and when I stepped into the unit, I immediately knew this is where we needed to live. Spacious and sun-drenched, there is so much room and it has a very homey feel. It's an old building owned by the Russian church next door. There are only three units in the building, and the first floor unit is being renovated. The upstairs couple has lived there for 15 years! I really liked the owner upon meeting him - very straightforward and honest, which was refreshing, to say the least. The kitchen is huge and sunny, with plenty of counter space AND a dishwasher!!! To top it all off, we have access to the back garden and patio. I'm so excited we are moving in right in time to enjoy summer days and warm nights outside. And there is plenty of room to have friends and guests over, which is a major blessing. It's a little higher in price than I'd wanted, but I believe it is worth it. I can't wait to start moving in May 14th! Though I'll miss all the bars and restaurants in Hell's Kitchen, it'll be great to have space and a place to settle down, become a little more domestic, and truly relax and unwind after work each day. Pictures to come when we move in!! (and if anyone wants to help, pizza and beer is on me.... :) Remember that time when I felt confident in my ability to overcome any 'roach problem I may face here in the concrete jungle? I hearken back to my first post, written a little over 2 years ago. Well, many things have changed since then. I graduated college, performed Shakespeare, booked jobs, quit jobs, built a sizable resume, was hired on in a full-time capacity at an off-broadway show, and, apparently somewhere along the way, lost my ability to conquer 'roaches in any situation. Even dead ones. Let me elucidate.
It's 12.45am. It's been a long, exciting, fulfilling day off, and I am ready to get some shut eye. I settle down on my lovely, new, queen size bed and, of course, CAN'T fall asleep. I toss and turn. Stry gets up, gives me a back massage, goes to eat, snuggles some more, then wanders off. I toss and turn a little more. Fluff my pillow. Look out the window. My eyes find their way down to my compilation of Shakespeare's plays in my window sill. How long have I left that there, I wonder. Then, from the glow of outside light gleaming into my darkened abode, I see something that SHOULD. NOT. BE. I hastily reach for my light, but, alas! It's unplugged! I leap off my bed and race for the light switch. At that moment, I hear Strider vomiting in the bathroom. Torn between going to help and comfort my little love and confirming in the unforgiving light that which I know is lurking on the window sill, of course I go to Stry. After cleaning up the floor and comforting my boy, the moment has come. I dash to my bedroom and vault onto the covers, scrambling over the pillows to face my enemy. A Giant. Ugly. Long Limbed. Possiblyatonepointflyingbuthopefullynowdead. Devil in squirm-inducing form. Yes, dear readers. A cockroach. When was the last time I met a nefarious foe of this ilk? Too recently, dear readers. Too. Recently. Pretty sure (but not QUITE sure enough), the beast was dead, I hasten to the kitchen to retrieve my handy-dandy dust-buster, thinking to suck the intruder up. But, AH! It's TOO BIG! Too. Big. What to do? My mind flips through all the various people I could call for help. Friend's in the city? Won't get here fast enough. Strider? The furry little cutie already failed in protecting me once. Rebekah? She'd be freaked out, too. Boyfriend? Don't have one. Mom? ..... So yes, dear readers, as you may have guessed, I called good ol' mom. Very good ol' mom in this case, because not only did I wake her up (sorry about that), but when I tried to let her go back to bed, she asked if I wanted her to stay on the line while I dealt with the bugbear. (Which, of course, I did :) 9 minutes, folks. 9. Minutes. That's how long it took me to get the brown/black bug from the windowsill to the toilet, to be flushed away for(hopefully)ever. And that is why I am writing this (long overdue) post, at 1.48am. Because, even though I've dragged my bed to be an island in the middle of the bedroom, I'm horrified about what might go crawling in the night. I'm grossed out, because I'm SURE that dark specter had its creepy legs ALL OVER my pillows and blankets. I'm exhausted because I just had a fright and adrenaline coursing through my body for the third time today. But can we just take a moment to appreciate that every time Stry throws up, an evil, giant bug does NOT decide to appear? Anyone? Just me...? Last week I found out I'd been rejected for the lottery housing I'd been in the running for since August last year. Major bummer. I really thought I'd get this awesome and affordable 1 bedroom in a brand new luxury building in my same neighborhood and I'd be set for my future here in NYC. Hah. Silly Julia.
When I found out, I was pretty upset - I'm not sure "devastated" is quite the word, but definitely crushed. Suddenly, I found myself reeling under a tidal wave of confusion about what I'm even doing with my life. I dub those 32ish hours my Quarter Life Crisis. I am so thankful for my friends that I chatted with at length; their input and sharing really helped me come to terms with my situation and feelings of confusion/over-whelmedness over this crazy little thing called Life. I also discovered (much to my chagrin), I can't do everything. GASP! WAH?! I know. It surprised me, too. I've always been Ms. Multi-tasker, taking on everything all at once. Well, I realized this week that I don't NEED to tackle my projects in one fell swoop; and, in fact, I've been needlessly over-stressing myself by doing just that. Let me elucidate. This week, I'm taking on a slightly higher position at work - filling in for a woman who's on vacation. It involves a lot of detail, and I've been super nervous about the whole thing, but also very excited. I also found out I didn't get the lottery housing and (for some reason) decided I needed to 1. Find an apartment and 2. Move in by April. What?! Instead of focusing on my top priority (successfully filling in at work), I was pulling myself in all sorts of crazy directions and getting engulfed by the stress. Thankfully, the night before I took over, I got my head on straight. I realized it's OK not to cram my life trying to do everything all at once. I'm the one putting these ridiculous pressures on myself - and needlessly! Something that's come up frequently the past several week is that "busy" isn't necessarily good OR productive. I can't begin to describe how true I've found this to be! I'm endeavoring to give myself grace and peace, and not worry about everything all at once. I found this picture on pinterest, and found it incredibly apt for I can't claim this year hasn't started with a bang! I'm proud I've spent this whole first month living up to my word for the year - New. I learned to throw knives, am working a steady job that I love, learning office skills, doing aerial silks, I even got run over by a car! Wait. What?
Sometimes people come into your life and bring radical change with them. It's funny to look back and see the surrounding circumstances that made a specific meeting between two people happen in the first place, and where that initial meeting has lead. Such a friendship has been forged with one Australian former roommate.
This girl has an amazing way of experiencing life to the fullest - often bringing me along for the welcome wild ride. She's sampled more of NYC living in just a few months than I have in almost four years. I suppose she sees it all differently, and is here specifically to immerse herself in American life for a year. Whether she's extraordinarily lucky or simply knows how to ferret out adventure, there's never a dull moment in her company. Case in point: I just had a night out on the town like you see in the movies (minus the drug use in a seedy bathroom). We were out celebrating her birthday a few days early, starting with a few "sneakys" at her apartment. -Side note: I have become infatuated with Aussie slang. I should compile a list; I think I will be using it all the time. Sneakys are a drink or two before heading out for the night - I guess it'd be like pre-gaming. We also took a "roadie" with us (a drink for the road). Is there anything better than drinking alcohol from a water bottle in public? It brings back fond memories of college days with friends in the park. - We make our way downtown to Lead Belly's. I'm always keen to try new places, but have a devil of a time finding out good spots for myself. This girl always somehow finds the cutest places with fantastic ambiance. Lead Belly's was no exception. Super adorable inside, with live piano player and saxophone background music. The food was delicious (albeit a bit pricey for the tiny portions), and we quite enjoyed ourselves. It was here we were met by another Aussie friend of hers, a most agreeable young woman. What a summer it has turned out to be! I have been so blessed to have been working consistently for the past few months on some really terrific productions - none which excited me more artistically than getting the chance to play one of my dream roles, Rosalind in As You Like It. I grew so much as a performer and as a woman, and the run was over all too quickly. It seems the past month and a half I've made it a mission to find out about myself and grow in as many new ways as possible - it's been very exciting to see such personal growth.
Here are a few pictures - when my computer isn't being completely stupid, I'll post more. I love my city. It's amazing and hard and stunningly beautiful. I too often get caught up in the grind of pursuing my career, that I forget what a privilege and joy it is to live in such a magnificent mecca.
I thought I'd share some shots of it with you - the city itself, things I've been doing, zany adventures, etc. |
AuthorActress, Singer, Dancer, Food Enthusiast, Animal Lover, Writer. Archives
June 2017
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