October 31, 2010

Hello, New York

In my last entry describing a trip to the Bay Area, I promised you, dear readers, to very soon update you on my whereabouts that notably involved both a new time zone and a new apartment. That was almost three weeks ago, a tidy sum of time that almost no one would consider to mean soon, let alone very soon. But this is the sort of inconsistency and distressing failure for which I (and this site) have long been known. Better late than never.

As you may recall, the exact point at which I last left you was while waiting at LAX after having just flown in from SFO. I had a red eye to New York's JFK airport that midnight and my parents had driven up from Orange County to deliver my luggage for the trip. Things got off to an inauspicious start when the stuff I had brought to San Francisco did not seem to want to fit in the luggage that would ultimately accompany me to New York. After a disastrous bout of unpacking and repacking in the airport parking lot, I finally got things condensed down to four bags. But they were an exceptionally heavy four bags and both my checked-in pieces would ultimately clock in over 50 lbs, meriting additional charges. Worse still, the ones to be carried on were so heavy, being packed with enough electronics for a small store, that moving anywhere on the airport was an excruciatingly painful experience. Of course my gate was at the end of the American terminal at LAX.

The flight from LAX to JFK overnight would mark the fourth night in a row in which I did not sleep in a bed. (Regrettably, this would be a salient theme in my early New York existence for far longer than I would have wanted.) After arriving the next morning and somehow managing to corral my luggage into a cab, I spent the day gathering essentials. The movers were not due until the next day, so my first night was to be spent alone, in the dark, and on the floor—literally. (Much contemplation of my consummate worthlessness in this miserable charade known as life was undertaken, obviously.) Exhausted, jetlagged, and having slept only a few hours in great discomfort the night before, I spent my first night in New York on a recently acquired twin-size air mattress that was at least half a foot too short for me. So much for having my own place again.

My slovenly state would not improve much in the coming days. This was largely caused by a most tragic discovery the next day: the movers had broken the side rail of my bed frame. And by broken, I mean snapped in half, rendering the entire damn thing useless. The next two weeks would be spent in a sleeping bag on my futon surrounded by trash, boxes, and general chaos, while I attempted to get my life together in some semblance of order before having to start work and made provisions to purchase and have delivered a new bed frame.

To be honest, almost a month in, that process is still ongoing. I only last week acquired my bed frame, after one failed delivery attempt, and am only today purging stacks of flattened cardboard boxes. Moving is always a disaster, and worse when it's combined with a full time job and very low amounts of liquid capital. But it's never taken me this long to get organized. At this point, it'll probably be at least three months before I am settled to the degree I was in Chicago. And that level wasn't even very high to start with!

So, long story short, my time in New York thus far has been rather hectic. But I suppose that is to be expected from a city famous for its frenetic pace of life. And personal degeneracy aside, being back in a city after months spent in Orange County has been terrific. God, the suburbs are dull! Hopefully in the next few weeks I can finally fall into a routine, including writing for this site.

But if the last three years are any indication, I wouldn't count on it.