Living the Dream

My apartment is behind that tree, I promise.

When I moved to New York a little over a month ago, I had a few interviews lined up, but no solid job prospects and stayed on my friend's couch for almost two weeks. I had planned to sublet a room temporarily while I looked for a job, and I found a great place on Central Park North that I moved into on July 11th. The sublet is only until August 31st (my birthday?) however, so the pressure was on to find something more permanent before then.

I probably don't need to tell you how crazy competitive the New York housing market is, and most people won't even show you a place if you don't have a job. Luckily, I got a great job working at W.W. Norton as a designer in the college division, so all that was left on my list of life goals (for the moment) was to find an apartment.

Well, last week I did that too!

Everything moves so fast here: I went to see a place on Sunday, put a deposit down on Monday, found out I was approved the same day, and by Wednesday I was signing the lease papers. It's such a relief to know that I won't be homeless come the 31st (happy birthday — you're homeless!), and even more exciting that I'm moving into a place I really love.

The apartment is on Amsterdam Ave. btwn 106th and 105th streets on the upper,

upper west side. The neighborhood is technically called Manhattan Valley, but I rarely hear that term used here. It's definitely not Morningside Heights or Harlem, so to anyone not familiar with the ridiculousness that is New York neighborhood naming conventions, it's easier to just say the Upper West Side. It's an amazing neighborhood, and I'll be only a few blocks away from where I stayed when I came here in January/February of this year.

I'll be two blocks from Riverside Park, three blocks from Central Park, five blocks from Morningside Park, right across the street from Mama's Pizzeria and four subway stops from Trader Joe's. There's a laundromat literally in the ground floor of the building, a Duane Reade one block away, a 24-hour deli on the corner and a Dunkin' Donuts half a block away. There are a ton of great restaurants that I can't wait to try, Chinese and Mexican places that I can't wait to order delivery from and great markets and coffee shops super close by.

My move-in date is August 21st, which gives me some overlap time to slowly move the things I have over to the new place, while still having a bed (and Internet!) until the 31st. I'll be going back to Ohio on Labor Day weekend to grab the rest of my belongings, but most importantly I'll be returning WITH MY CAT. I can't express how much I've missed that perfect specimen of a feline, Mozart, and I think she'll be very happy in her new home. A few of the windows in the apartment overlook an alleyway, and when I was there three pigeons were hanging out on the windowsills. I imagine they will keep her very entertained, and the place has a railroad-style layout with a long hallway perfect for playing fetch. It's been lonely living in a new place without my best friend. I really hope she likes being a New Yorker as much as her mom does.

Until then, every spare moment I spend daydreaming about how I'm going to decorate my adorable new place. Everything seems to have happened so fast and I'm trying to let it all sink in, but I'm officially a New Yorker with a real New York job (!) and a real New York apartment (!!). I know it's corny and emotional, but I can't stop thinking about the part in Willy Wonka (probably because I saw it twice in two different parks?) when Willy turns to Charlie and says:

"But Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted."

"What happened?"

"He lived happily ever after."