Home Sweet New York

Street View of Our Apartment

Damn, the Big Apple made our move here really tough; pouring rain, no place to park near our building and a car loaded to the brim of stuff to unload and carry up a flight of stairs, but I still thought  we are in "The City," the city where dreams come true and all I would immediately become all nostalgic, so yeah it was hard, but so worth it! Tom was truly a white knight through the whole scenario, grabbing as much as he could, trekking across the street and up the road in the crazy rain, then climbing up the flight of stairs to the apartment, all while I kept watch out over the car, our belongings and hoped to sweet Baby Jesus a cop would not issue us a ticket for parking in front of a fire hydrant. Luggage was unloaded quickly, especially considering the circumstances, a legitimate parking space found, a change into some dry clothes, a bottle of wine opened and all was well with the world once again!

This is our fifth rental from Airbnb and so far this one has proved to be the most difficult and complicated one yet; in fact up until we arrived we weren't sure if we were actually going to be staying here or in a hotel. A few days prior to arriving they had sent us a lease agreement separate from Airbnb and after reading it and the information they wanted from us, well we wouldn't sign it; seriously it's a holiday rental, why would they need my social security number? Or wanting us to sign off on a property inspection before we actually even saw the property? But we do have to give Airbnb some serious props here because they handled the situation like a boss, calling the landlord and letting them know they were violating the terms of Airbnb and we didn't have to sign it and promising to find us a place to stay if this one didn't work; the way they handled everything and their follow through totally put us at ease, which we both really needed, I can't speak for Tom, but I was in mild panic mode for a bit.

This Upper East Side, walk-up apartment is small; seriously if you blink and you will miss it and it has plenty of little quirks; my least favorite place so far and the most expensive, but hey, that's New York, right? We've been pretty spoiled, especially after the DC place, so when there wasn't an iron, paper towels, garbage bags or even a coffee maker I was disappointed to say the least. Oh and the funniest part, you have to unplug the fridge to plug in the microwave; this didn't fly with us, so by day two the table from the living room had been moved to the kitchen and the microwave moved to the other wall; I don't like to think I am high maintenance but I really do like the simple things of life to work smoothly and with little effort. Plus side, there is a coffee shop right around the corner and that held us over for a couple of days until I could find a non-glass french press (non glass so it won't break during the travels); thank God I had the sense to tow along our tea pot with us for the past five months, seriously, functioning without coffee is not an option for this family.

I am becoming an expert at hand washing dishes at this point, that's right, we are back to no dishwasher! Oh the crime! This is also our first place without a washer/dryer unit in the home, so I have to go to the laundromat; I know most New Yorkers send their laundry out, but I air dry so many pieces and I am a little freaked out by a stranger handling my delicates, so I make the trek a couple of blocks and Ethel and I hang out and read, well I read, she chills on my lap while we wait for clean clothes. While others call it laundry we refer to it as quality mom and fur daughter time.

We are located on the Upper East Side, sandwiched right between Central Park and Carl Schurz Park which makes up for the myriad of flaws the apartment holds; knowing that within a ten minute walk I can be at the Met or strolling along the East River, the location is absolutely perfect. Plus, Ethel has a doggie daycare on the corner, so it makes picking her up and dropping her off quick and easy while we are out touring the less dog friendly aspects of the city. My favorite feature of the location and Tom's worst nightmare, we are right off of 5th Avenue; I promise I am going to try like hell to not break the bank while we are here!

Which speaking of breaking the bank, parking tickets! We didn't even make it 24 hours before we received our first one for parking too close to a fire hydrant. Plus the whole moving the car four times a week for street cleaning, let alone finding a place to park to begin with was kind of freaking me out. In fact I had a minor meltdown when I went out to the car to grab a few items we had left in the night before, found the ticket, hopped in the car with the hopes of finding a a new, non-ticket spot to park and had to drive in this crazy mayhem; I hit my breaking point. Poor Tom receives this sobbing call from me as I am scouring the neighborhood in search of anywhere to park and as I pull up to switch and give him the driver seat, a spot right in front of the building opened up. Yay Universe for throwing me a bone right when I needed it! Needless to say, having a car in the city was way too much for either of us to handle and the amazing Anne and Aaron offered up their driveway in New Jersey and we were elated! Seriously, our lives became so much easier without having to stress about making sure the car was moved and in the constant search of a parking space; Aaron and Anne have kept me sane and for that I am so grateful! Thank you to both of you!!

View From The Fire Escape

We've been here almost a week now and we have settled in nicely; adjusting to city life, the hustle and bustle and really enjoying catching up with friends. I promise lots of exciting adventures this month and I can't wait to share them with you all, so stay tuned for all our Big Apple adventures!