NY so far

So I moved here in March 2009 without a place to live or a job. It had been something I'd wanted to do ever since college and one day I just had to go for it. And boy am I glad I did!



It's been rocky....and ugly.....and hard, but everything seems to be falling into place now. I finally found a decent job (it's my third attempt) and a great apartment all to myself! Well, my two little ones Pierre and Charlette live here too. :-)



The first apartment I lived in was in the East Village. That's a more edgy place in the city. They film a lot of movies/shows there and have a big gay population. People were friendly, and interesting, and dress pretty funky and stylish. It's an area where I hardly ever saw any kids and most of the bars allow you to bring in your dogs! It's a trip.....all these little dogs running around the bar. Very nice. I liked it.



The East Village is very expensive and the apartments are super small. When my roommate told me he was leaving NY, I had to start my search for one bedrooms there. Wow. You hear about it, but nothing takes the place of you actually standing in what is called a "bedroom" when it's clearly not even large enough for a twin size mattress to fit on the floor!

The biggest thing about the East Village (besides St. Marks....which is a way funky spunky street that I'll talk about later) is the huge existence of night life. There is seriously bars and restaurants on every corner and like four on every street. All pretty much tavern or art-y like with cool chalkboard signs out front announcing their drink specials. Oh, and don't forget the doggies in them just sitting there waiting to greet you.



But now I live in the Upper East Side. The area of NYC that is referred to as very residential, (where people live with families and lots of strollers) and is very very very posh. Every morning I walk up 77th street to the 6 train (I'm talking about the subway, but for some reason New Yorkers always call it "the train.") and wonder if Louie Vuitton has announced hault of further production. Every woman is a size two, dressed plain and preppy, and carrying a Louie of some sort. Well actually many of them are the same sort. And every morning when I see this I wonder are these women really happy or are they just being what they're supposed to be.....boring??



Another super wonderful thing about this area is how super fricken nice, courteous, giving, and respectful the businesses and residents are. Let me tell you. No one I've met at all has shown me anything other than genuine kindness and complete lack of being stuck on themselves. Okay I'm kidding.



I have 3 experiences to demonstrate this. First, one Saturday night I went out here with some friends to a karaoke bar. I had just sang and a guy came up to me to say hello. We sat at the bar talking and laughing. Making conversation, I asked where he lived. He told me Brooklyn...oh....I said...."I feel so lucky. I found this huge apartment here. I just moved and only live a block away." His reaction, and I quote, "I'm not going to go home and sleep with you." Uhhh....okay. Just trying to be friendly buddy. You might think he was making a joke; no. He proceeded to rant about how all these women he meets always just want to take him home for sex. Alrightly then......



My second example is equally weird. A few weeks ago I wanted to go get a beer after work. I walked around my neighborhood looking for signs outside places displaying their drink specials (I had become accustomed to this from living in the East Village) and I found one that said $2 Domestic Drafts. So I went in and asked the female bartender what beers it included. She said..."Oh no...our beers are $4." I told her about the sign and she said another bartender must had written that and again insisted they were $4. Okay....after another attempt to explain this to her (pointing at the sign none-the-less) she exclaimed "Okay...I'll give you ONE for $2 but that's all." She was doing me a favor after-all.



And now number three.........I've needed to do my laundry for about a month now...so I walked all around my new neighborhood looking for a Laundromat or Wash and Fold (that's a cleaners that does for you exactly as it sounds) that looked appealing. They are everywhere! Wash and Folds that is. So I settled on one around the corner on 77th and 2nd because it had a big red sign displaying "Wash and Fold Same Day Service 75 cents a pound." This is good....everywhere else is like a buck a pound. So yesterday I dropped off my goods. When I went and picked it up, the guy rang it up at 85 cents a pound. I, again pointing at the sign, spoke out. He said, "No .85 cents." I said "Sir...you have 2 large signs posted that say 75 cents and that is why I went here rather than anywhere else." "No. 85 cents." Well then, I said "you should change your sign." "Oh no....I don't need to change my sign. 85 cents."



So what has this new New Yorker learned so far????.....Well, a lot. And I'll continue to.........and I'll continue to write it all down for you to enjoy and comment on..........just know that I don't care that you live just down the street......... because I'm NOT going to go home and sleep with you! LOL