nycdilettante

Will you feel better?

I really need a vacation.  I need time to sit in my place and just...sit.  I need time to NOT have a project. 

Work is NOT cooperating with me.  It is a thorn in my side.  I mean it pays the bills...but I am stuck in the middle of proposal work, which is sort of like having your hair on fire 24 hours a day...

I find that troublesome.

I did find some time on July 4th to go out and buy another piece of electronic equipment.  I decided to keep the TV down in the living room area and ban it from upstairs.  So when I'm in my study (as I am now) I need some form of entertainment...but I still want to be able to listen to my ipod downstairs too.

(Yes, yes...I realize I can run speaker wire downstairs but I'm not THERE yet. Give me some slack...I don't have a boyfriend yet who can do some ambitious projects for me.  I've been told this sort of project is boyfriend territory.  It gives me another reason to look for a date.)

Anyhow...I continue to unpack boxes and work on completing my study.  And if these 2 proposals go out the on the 16th...I will be taking a week off to just sit in my condo and enjoy...

And watch cartoons....

My walk through

So...I had my walk thru.  I was a bit intimidated by everything...it's so hard to believe that next Friday at 6:30...I will be the owner of a condo!  The place looked great...only a few things needed attention...there was some caulking, some paint touch ups...all was good.

The kitchen is gorgeous...the granite is sparkley...the back splash is gorgeous.  I love it. 

I will need under counter lighting...and...well...the lighting fixtures...

I'm not digging them so much...they are the basic fixtures.  Any ideas for a cool pendant fixture that would work in a living room/dining room?  I'm thinking something mission style ISH...

Remembrance of things past

As of yesterday, I've been working here in NoVA for a year.  I can hardly believe it.  When you get older...time passes a lot faster than when you were 12 and you couldn't wait for your birthday or Christmas or whatever you were looking forward to.  Or maybe the world just moves faster now than it did in 1972.

Maybe it's a little of both.

At any rate...I do miss things about Brooklyn and NYC.  I miss:

-my friends

-the ghost in my apartment

-the notch in my bathroom door that was cut to accommodate the toilet sticking out further than the old one

-the Russian laundromat that washed my clothes for 50 cent a pound and where everyone called me Suzie (a name that the spelled differently on every ticket)

-the Kings Highway F stop

-the coffee I got every morning at Daddy's Cafe to drink on the train

-Spoon and the Lucky Deli where I ate lunch

-meetings at Medallion

-yoga at OM

-walking down Elizabeth Street in the spring, fall and summer

-getting a coffee at Cafe Havana

-local bars...Boat, Sample, Bar, Commonwealth, 821

-favorite restaurants...Joya, Cafe Havana, The Chocolate Room, Snacque, Nathan's, anything new on Smith Street or on 5th Ave in Brooklyn

Things I like about being back in VA:

-my kick ass salary

-hanging out with my old friends and meeting new people

-my queen size bed (in Brooklyn I slept on a futon for 5 years)

-my Dyson vacuum

-my digital camera

-Target and Big Lots

-being closer to my family

And...I am hoping to see Henry Rollins do his spoken word this Sunday.  Life ain't bad.  Not bad at all...

But I do wish there was a cool local bar out here in Ashburn.

Living in Style?

I know I moved into my apartment in November.  But I'm still putting pictures up and decorating, so today after I got back from my company picnic, I put more pictures up in my apartment.

This begins at Big Lots...where nice frames are often available for low, low close out prices.  I got a new framed picture for 4.99, as well as 2 nice Carr frames for these 3 note-cards I bought at Wegman's last week.  And this is what that looks like.

Do you spy a theme?

Then I decided I needed to re-do some things in the kitchen.  I had a blank wall and I just wanted to spice that up.  So...I went for black and white photos.  Here is my kitchen wall.

Okay that bottom picture should come up the wall a hair.

Then I FINALLY put up my guitar pictures in my bedroom.  So...here is the bedroom corner.

Hey...no jokes about the Bay City Rollers.  It's ironic...okay?

And this picture is JUST for my girls from college.  A little unicorn action for old times sake.

I lead an exciting life, eh? 

Selling Out to the Fat Cats

So...I went to IKEA and bought bookshelves.  I feel like an adult now...I have places to put my books instead of stacking them all over my apartment (which is what I did in Brooklyn).

Now I just have to unpack them.

Lordy.

In my new hood

Well...for the most part...I am moved into the new digs.  I am still sleeping at my friends house....due to my lack of a bed...but my belongings are now in the apartment.

The move was...brutal.  Three flights of stairs with heavy things and books.  I am NOT moving again until I buy a house. 

Seriously.

Tonight I am going to the apartment to bring in new stuff and clean and...

DO LAUNDRY!!!

The excitement level is HIGH.

I made it so

Well....my apartment in Brooklyn is empty with the exception of some cleaning supplies and a broom.  I am in Northern VA...tired from a fun weekend with friends...and trying to get ready to go out of town for business (training) in Massachusetts tomorrow.

Oh Lord...give me strength.

I will post more soon but here are some highlights:

forgetting my underwear and wearing tight boxer shorts one day

my truck did not want to run after I got it fully loaded

the Louis Armstrong house

the Ant Farm exhibition at the International Museum of Photography

a picture of Frank Zappa with his parents

Poolberg Pub and good friends

a huge notepad from my friends at Medallion

buying clothes at Old Navy

eating Australian food from 8 Mile

hanging with R&T in Central Park and riding the carousel

More after I return from Needham MA

Rental Truck

This weekend I amazed myself in the following manner. 

I got up on Saturday at 3:30 AM...got in a 10 foot rental truck...drove it to Brooklyn...on the "no trucks allowed" Belt Parkway for a wee bit...got lost...got found...loaded the truck (okay my friend JIM and Pete (who I don't know...but who is very personable and handsome) loaded the truck)...and drove back to VA...I was home by 6:30 PM on Saturday.

On Sunday...my friend Pete and Marvin, Debbie and Dani (she's only 1 years old but she helped) helped me unload the truck into my rental space.

I am still alive and my friends are not in agony from helping me.  All in all a good thing.

Now on Wednesday night...I go back to Brooklyn for my last hurrah with my friends Lori and Bill...hopefully Nora will come up also to hang out with us.

Now I just have to get through the next 3 days.

Deposit

Last night I paid the deposit on my apartment.

250$

Which is cheap if you consider the amount I had to pay when I got my apartment in NYC.

2500$

But, here is the part that cracks all of my friends up.

I have yet to SEE a model apartment or know where my apartment is located on the complex.

I figure as long as the bathtub is not in the kitchen....I'm golden.

Plus the fact I have a washer/dryer and a dishwasher in the apartment.

I'm pretty happy.

I lost my mind there for a second

On Monday I felt like my brain had been taken out of my head. And my friend Ann and Jim helped me realize that I cannot continue to go back and forth between Brooklyn every wkend moving stuff. Cause I'm losing it and work is even harder than it has to be because...I'm tired and stressed.

So...I'm renting a 10 foot truck from Budget and Ann will drive w/me to Brooklyn WAY early on Saturday Nov 6th. I will meet Jim, Karen and Aryka at my apartment in Brooklyn and we will load up the truck.

Then we will leave Brooklyn (as the NYC Marathon is the next day and so the Verranzo will be closed for the start of that) and on Sunday we'll unload the truck at the storage unit...which I PRAY will be big enough for all my stuff.

So...I won't drive up this wkend...so I won't be able to clean before Lori and Bill arrive at the apartment for our long Vetran's Day weekend.

I hope they won't be shocked at the dirt.

And that Melissa will forgive me for not coming up this weekend. Bless her...she is about ready to bring forth life and I haven't seen her in an age. I hope the baby arrives soon so she can...I would say relax but after you give birth...relaxing is not what happens. I guess so she can sleep...nope that may not happen so much either after giving birth....

She just needs to give birth.