what a week!

well, a week in and I'm forced to disclose a troubling reality... a week of living in New York is all it has taken for Danie to develop an addiction. It's true, and it's serious, though hers is not one of the quotidian vices to which the young and vulnerable often flock. No, Danie is addicted to craigslist. Each morning, as she reaches for my computer, I can only imagine what the day may entail. As I reflect on the past week's exploits, and more consciously recognize their relentlessness, I begin to understand why I feel so lethargic this morning. When I last posted, we were waiting for our Ikea furniture to be delivered so that we could get off the ground (so to speak). Since that post, we've devoted each day to getting settled into our apartment and making it feel like home. The best way to convey our whirlwind of travails then, I think, will be in outline format, focusing on the highlights. So, the day by day is as follows:

Last Wednesday: arrived at our apartment with 3 boxes, 4 suitcases, a backpack and a purse just before midnight local time. Spent the next 45 minutes or so hauling our luggage up five flights of (humid) stairs, where we finally laid to rest on the infamous air mattress.

Thursday: afore mentioned, state line-crossing Ikea trip.

Friday: apartment-bound from 10am-5pm for our various deliveries. Spent the day cleaning our apartment, and the evening assembling our Ikea bedframe and our Ikea kitchen island-table hybrid.

Saturday: had an extremely successful Goodwill trip where we found a (brand new) Target-home coffee table for a fraction of the original price...we don't mind a minor ding on one corner, but we do appreciate $150 tables for $24.99. As it turns out, coffee tables are really heavy, and so are more fun to buy than to carry home. That evening we assembled our coffee table and our Ikea dresser-nightstand hybrids--with limited space, multipurpose furniture is appreciated.

Sunday: visited somewhere between 4 and 6 grocery stores, each of which had some valued special. Among the culprits were staples and heavyweights Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, as well as our new local favorites Key Foods and From Farm to Market. We also saw an, at times, awkwardly small stand up comedy show that evening. The comedian had the ability to transition remarkably quickly from hysterically funny to unimaginably creepy. Overall, worth it.

Monday: Danie found a great deal on a huge Ikea dresser, listed on craigslist, only 6 blocks from our apartment. After negotiating a bit, we rendezvoused with the seller where we were again faced with the now perennial dillemma: "okay, now how on earth do we get this enormous piece of furniture home?" After being turned down by a couple of his cohorts, one (perhaps a bit green) mini-SUV taxi let us hang our dresser out of his trunk while Danie rode shotgun and I ran home to meet them, where, as if I wasn't sweaty enough, Danie was waiting for me to help carry our new dresser upstairs.

Tuesday: more craigslist wheeling and dealing pays off. we found two different bookcases for sale, both at about a fifth of the original price, and both ready for immediate pickup. However, because of the sellers' distant locations, we had to hire movers (also advertised in the furniture section of craigslist). Though so far our frugality had trumped our interest in hired help, I will admit it was nice not to have to shlep the bookcases upstairs. Plus, even with the movers our bookcases were extremely reasonable.

And so a week into the move we're a bit tired, calloused, and sore, but our spirits are high. Though we haven't seen many of the tourist attractions or local hang outs, we are on a near first name basis with most local grocers, hardware store owners, and Danie has a very active craigslist account. Jokes aside, our prioritization of getting settled in is paying off as our apartment is now very homey and we feel really comfortable in our neighborhood. Plus, now that we've got our base assembled, we can more confidently venture out into the entropy that is Manhattan.

As promised, pics of the assembled apartment can be seen here.

Cam