Finding Home

I feel so proud of myself! All the things that I've been doing, being independent and taking care of myself. Waiting in the longest lines I've ever seen in my life. But they mean business in Manhattan and those lines move! So it may rap the full length around Whole Foods, but don't get cozy and set your basket down because the line doesn't sit still. They've got something like thirty plus checkouts just for express and everyone of those registers is manned. What a difference from Maryland. I washed my laundry for the first time, in the building. Those are some hardcore machines down there. I was worried the dryer would be some dinky wimpy thing that I'd have to pay for two cycles to get my stuff dried. Everything came out toasty hot and super dry. Two bucks for a full load, washed and dried, isn't bad, and those machines can handle more. I could get two loads in the dryer, but not the washer. Oh well, I only really produce the one load. I also washed dishes yesterday, cold wash unfortunately because we still have a broken water heater. I need to ask John to call Soto as soon as he's up. He wants hot water too. My room is nearly done, all the yellow has been painted. I've got pretty much everything in here now and I've hung all my art on the walls, including the three mirrors I own. I really didn't set out to have so many, I just kept falling in love with all these pretty little mirrors. They're all hung so high I can't really look in them anyway. The one official mirror I wanted hasn't been made yet, I've got the mirror glass in my closet and the frame hanging empty on the wall. I kind of like it like that. The trouble is I also created a painting for that frame, and still don't know what will win... Ooh, I just had an idea, I have another fun, empty frame that I want to make a portrait for. But that frame needs to be stripped or repainted or something. The colors are appalling. I have a rather incredible resource only two blocks away, a place called Junk. They have this entire section that is all empty old frames. I can make a whole slew of pieces designed for special frames.

So the other thing I'm totally excited about is I have an interview today. I just hope they pay between $11 and $13 an hour, because I've worked out I can survive on that amount, but anything less would mean staying in perpetual debt. At 11 an hour after tax and rent I'd have about 600 to go to other expenses. It's 80 for the unlimited pass for a month, then groceries, and initially I'll be putting what ever I can towards my credit card to knock out that debt. The place is American Apparel on Housten st, which is a pretty cool location and not too complicated to get to via subway. I do have to transfer once.

I biked over the Williamsburg Bridge yesterday which was more of a work out than I've had in a very very long time, but it was great! The view was, is there anything like it? amazing. They have special completely separated lanes for bikers and pedestrians which made my day. Man that bridge arches high, I had the bike on the easiest gear by the time I got to the top and just took my time getting there. Pretty much as soon as the incline began John was out of sight. He is significantly stronger than me to begin with and he's been doing this for a couple years. He was sweet, though, before we reached the bridge he would periodically look behind and ask if I was doing okay. Also ate at Momofuku (which for some inexplicable reason is pronounced momofuko) for the first time. The food is more than a bit weird, but good. It has a heavy Korean influence which covers all the weirdness on the menu. Kimchi, sweat meats, and things like little octopus salad. I liked everything but the octopus. Which kind of surprised me. Usually like that sort of thing.

My room is nearly complete, and that feels so good! Next goal is to get the rest of the apartment looking livable. And a piano... I ache for a piano. I am also looking forward to getting my jewelry out of a box. I miss it. The last stuff to be unpacked is all my decorative room junk. I haven't done it yet because all of the surfaces that that stuff belongs on are currently covered in things like tools and lights that haven't been hung. The lights are because I really don't know what to do about them. After all I have ceilings that are at _least_ twelve feet tall. There are a couple pipes and wood beams that I can drape them through, but just not settled in my own mind how I want to handle them.

Let me just add as my closer that dragging my bike back up three flights of stairs blows. The down bit, not so bad, up is awkward and hard.