Too Much to Tell

I apologize for the delay in updates, but Slim and I have cut down on all non-essential item (such as internet) until we find gainful employment. My internship ends Friday, so I am beginning the perilous journey of job-hunting.

Slim is having luck meeting head-hunters and has gone on a handful of interviews. Unfortunately, none have panned out, but he's receiving excellent feed-back on his resume and interview skills. The market's tougher than tough right now, so it's a waiting game.

The internship provides a lot of great resources for networking and opportunities to meet accomplished people in many fields, so I'm leaning on those introductions to help out in the long-run.

On a limited budget, we're experiencing the frugal side of the city. It's pretty entertaining. I believe we have rented every possible video from the New York Public Library on 96th Street or are at least well on our way.

On a recent walk, we stumbled onto a magnificent promenade on the East Side of town. A quick six-block walk east led us to the Carl Schurz Park. It is much less crowded than the well frequented Central Park and almost as close to our apartment.

The park includes a community garden, fenced-in big and small dog parks, a great view of the river and a nice track for biking/running/walking.

It feels like a much more "New York" place to be, if you're looking for the real deal. A lot of kids, people playing sports and little old men feeding the birds. It might be my new, favorite place.

The park is such a great find. I hope we can brave the cold to head back out, though. It's a nice, crisp 27 degrees today, with 13 mile-per-hour winds from the river that makes it feel like the skin is peeling off your face. It kind of hurts.

My "Da" hopefully arrives next week for a nice visit, and he night even guest blog about the experience! I hope to keep everyone informed on a more frequent basis, maybe it can be my New Year's resolution. Happy Holidays!

A Banner Week

It has been a busy week in New York since my last post, and I am living in the middle of it!

To lead off, the Yankees won the World Series! It was a fantastically charged evening. Cheers from fans that enjoyed it a little too much were echoing down the street until 2 a.m. Every open door down the street was blaring the game and fans were rooting for their favorite player.

I missed the parade but everyone was talking about it. From the bar under our apartment in the seventh inning:

Last Sunday was a fantastic time to be out in the city. The New York City marathon was two blocks from our front door. We walked to the blocked off street to find thousands of fans lining 1st Avenue cheering the runners on and music blaring in the streets.

Some runners marked their running gear with their names and the supporters cheered everyone on by name! There was more energy in the air then I'd ever felt here before. If you're not going to run it, watching is the second best thing (maybe the first best because you don't have to run 26.2 miles).

We had a friend running in the race, so I made signs and waited to cheer her on at mile 24 at 90th street on her way through Central Park. We waited for about 20 minutes, and I lost my voice yelling for every runner that went by.

Every street was full of supporters screaming for the runners, from Red Hook to Williamsburg, the Bronx, Harlem and along Central Park. Each area was stationed with music and cheering crowds.

GO SHELLEY!
Halloween kicked off the week of festivities. The parade rained us out, so we headed to a house party in Brooklyn. House parties are a little harder to pull off in the city, by the way.

Our evening portraits before we left for the fun, Slim as the evil Jack-O-Lantern or something:

Swamp Thing!!!
Nobody got this, by the way. I got: Mother Earth, a bush/shrub, Spring, a lady in a burka that fell into the a pile of leaves/a homeless bag-lady.

It's been a busy week, but surprisingly fantastic. I love the energy in the city.

Movin' on Up!

We finally moved in to our new apartment and are slowly furnishing the space. Moving large furniture items in a highly populated area using public transportation is impossible! We have to coordinate our plans for furniture around weather, money and human strength.

If we don't rent a U-haul to move the items ($20-$40) or have them delivered ($20-$30 delivery fee), then we take the subway/cab/ferry or walk. Moving large or heavy items in these over-crowded areas can cause quite a ruckus. Slim and I do not want to risk driving in the city either, so the U-haul's out.

We found chairs for the room, but how do we get them home?! We haven't figured that out yet, so we have two barstools. Hopefully, there will be more to come.

We found fantastic resale shops in our neighborhood (http://www.housingworks.org/social-enterprise/thrift-shops/), so we're keeping an eye on them to get the ungettable get.

To our future guests, ask Rachel about the manual labor you'll be treated to when staying at Chez Grace & Slim.

A Sigh of Relief

Slim signed the lease for a studio apartment on the Upper East Side (Yorkville, technically) last week. We payed the deposit and are scheduled to move in on the Oct. 15. This seems legitimate, but New York has fooled me before.

We stopped by to view the apartment Saturday, and it is a typical New York apartment: small. the good news is the neighborhood is fantastic and the location is great. It is a quick, three block walk to Central Park!

The east side Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir three blocks from our front door.

My sister arrives this week, and Slim heads back to Texas on Monday. We spent the weekend visiting events with Open House New York and walking around our new neighborhood. More pictures to come once we're in to stay.

We took a gondola ride to Roosevelt Island and participated in a free, guided tour if the south part of the island. It is a fantastic part of New York, and the gondola ride is beautiful.

The hospital at the southern part of the island:

The view from the promenade walking to the South Point Park.

The views from the gondola ride to Roosevelt Island.

Update

A quick update for family and friends: Chris has looked at about 10 apartments and we're waiting to hear back from two in Brooklyn. He has appointments to see four more today. We hope these work out, because we've moved three times this week.

Thank you for the generosity of all the good thoughts and especially to the people that have put a roof over our head when ours caved in.