The Good:Will was a trooper and, along with his buddy Steve, unloaded all the furniture and unpacked about 3/4 of the boxes so when the kids and I arrived our apartment looked somewhat homelike. We are now almost all the way unpacked. I won't say organized because we are no where near that, but the boxes are pretty much all gone.
The apartment is bigger than expected. I think. Or maybe it's about what I expected. There are some really weird things about it that I'll chat about later but for the most part we brought just the right amount of stuff. Only one thing is being kicked to the curb and that was something we brought just in case it would fit, which it didn't, but it's no great loss.
Our neighborhood is lovely. Really, really lovely. With a teeny little "playgarden" right next to our building, two huge parks a five minute walk away (not counting Central Park which is about 7 minutes away) a small pocket garden around the corner and the beautiful grounds of St. John the Divine across the street, we really couldn't ask for a better spot in the city to call home. Also, at the end of our street - the public library and a Bubble Tea place. Man, Bubble Tea. Who knew? I'm addicted.The kids are pretty happy. They are enjoying the neighborhood and the city and don't seem freaked out at all. But we do need to find some friends. Stat.
Will picked us up from the train in a town car. Very Mr. Big of him.
The Bad:
No dishwasher. Ugg. I know, I know, lots of people don't have a dishwasher. But you see, I've lived most of my married life without one and having one for the past four years has been, well. really wonderful. So I'm just ignoring the ever growing pile of dishes for now.
While the walls of the apartment are freshly painted, they are painted in a horrible yellowy beige color that makes us all look a little sick. I hate it. Will hates it. I think the cat even hates it. We can paint and I have a feeling that, once we are really settled, at least the living room will get a fresh coat. Because, yuck.
Our "First Day in New York" plans turned out to be a little too adventurous and we ended up walking way further than planned in the mid day heat. Thank goodness for a stroller and a rock star eight year old. It could have been much worse.We seemed to have lost a box. And not just any box. The box with all my YARN in it!! Other than the project that I was working on on the train, everything is missing which is a little irritating. We're guessing that it got placed in the storage unit by accident. I hope so because it also had some small treasures tucked into the yarn for cushioning and my heart is breaking a little at the thought of all those memories (and all those stitches) lost. But on the up side, I now have a good excuse to order some yarn from here that I've been dying to try.
The unusual:
So far we have run across -
A man on the subway carrying a purse. Not a man bag. A purse. And very comfortable he looked with it too.
Another man with blue sparkly toenails. His girlfriend did not have painted toes, however. Maybe they ran out of polish after he did his.
A full mariachi band with instruments, hats and chaps playing in the subway car between stations.A guy sitting in the park sipping tea and wearing a big black cape. Kinda hot for a cape. But whatever.
The wonderful:
Last night we went for an evening walk and couldn't help but notice a huge line wrapping around the block outside St. John the Divine. As it turned out, the New York Philharmonic was playing a free concert there. Not wanting to subject the patient crowd to two tired kids we wandered into the garden behind the church and found that they were piping the music outside as well. A few minutes later we were having a picnic (of Capri Sun, Pringle's and some interesting fried cheese pie things - it's what they had at the nearest shop) and listening to music while Evelyn treated us, and everyone else, to a spontaneous (and kind of hilarious) "ballet". The perfect end to our first day.