My Field Trip to Bloomberg

          On Monday I had the chance to go to the Bloomberg L.P. building.  Bloomberg is probably the largest financial news outlet in the country, so I guess it's kind of a big deal.  It's the company former Mayor Bloomberg of New York started back in the 80's.  Of course, I was there for a reason.  It was a field trip for my public finance class.  Our professor, who isn't actually a professor, he's just visiting this semester and teaching this one class because he's an expert, used to work there, so he got us in.  So for two hours we sat in a conference room and had a discussion about bonds and the market with two guys who work there, which was marginally interesting.  My favorite part of the trip, though, was walking through the building on the way to that conference room.
          We started out in the lobby, which was pretty standard, besides some weird wooden sculptures along one wall that looked like what I imagine pterodactyl nests wood look like (I don't understand art).  The lady at the desk took our picture and we got a little visitors badge to hang around our necks.  We walked past the security guards, who scanned our badges, and this is where things started to get awesome.  Past the guard station we came to an elevator bank that was dark except for some purple light coming from behind white wall panels that would fade out as others lit up.  We got into an elevator and went up to the 6th floor.  We exited into another purple elevator bank and had to walk to the other side of the building to catch an elevator down to LL2.  As we walked, I saw some amazing things.  First of all, the walls are all white marble.  I know this because I felt them, like a weirdo.  We walked past a help desk, which let me to believe that the building is so big that even people who work there get lost.  Past the help desk, the hallway curved around and opened up into a huge commons space, with orange and black chairs and tables scattered across the white floor.  There were little kiosks everywhere with organic potato chips, Oreos, oatmeal, juice, soda, and just about any other snack food you could think of.  Oh, and all that stuff was free if you worked there.  As the hall curved around more, it narrowed again and we walked past a fish tank wall, and I thought, "of course there's a fish tank wall."  As we walked a little farther, we walked past two glass walled conference rooms with white letters on the outside that read "Boston" and "Philadelphia", raised up and set back a little from the wide hallway.  On the landing of the steps that let to those conference rooms, there was a coy pond.  Yes, a coy pond.  A coy pond in the building. With real coy. I could see them through the glass walls that extended about a foot above the ground, just swimmin' around in there.  Thats where my mind exploded.  We walked into another elevator bank, went down to LL2, got some free soda, and sat in a conference room with white tables and grey walls.  The whole place looked like it was from the future.  Ultra modern, with screens everywhere displaying charts and stock exchange data.  It was quite an experience.
          Now, don't get me wrong, I would never want to work there.  I think working in finance would be terribly boring.  But the building was super cool.  And it added some descriptions to my new definition of "rich" that has been forming since we moved to New York.
          "Rich" is having a coy pond in your building.
         

Sunday, Sunday

          What's this?  Two blogs in one week?  Yes, yes this is me making an effort to take this more seriously.  I have a lot of trouble writing these because, as I said when I first started this, it's hard for me to come up with things to write about that people will actually want to read.  Living here, while it's not becoming mundane, now seems less extraordinary.  The city is still awe inspiring, and I see buildings or streets or scenes every day that deserve more than just a fleeting glance.  But now I live here.  I have daily and weekly activities, and most of the time I might as well be living anywhere else; my thoughts and actions, revolving around school or work or whatever else, would be mostly the same.
          So, I thought I'd just write about my day and see how that goes.  I'm afraid it will be terribly boring, but I'm going to do it anyways.  Today is Sunday.  Ok, that's a good start.  Sunday for us means church, even though for the past month or so Kyha has had to work 10-6 on Sundays, so, sadly, no church for her.  We've been going to Hillsong, which we like.  The music is great, of course, and so is the preaching.  However, I take Sundays off of bike riding, so I have to leave our apartment around 8:15ish to catch the 2 or 3 train downtown to Time Square station, where I transfer to the N, Q, or R train to Union Square in order to get in line at Hillsong by 9:00 so I can get a good seat at the 10:00 service (yes, there is a line for this church, which is the worst part).  Every Sunday after church, in an effort to make my life more like all of the New York based movies and TV shows I have ever seen, walk two blocks to a little diner called Joe Junior.  It is wonderful.  Wood paneling on the walls, a TV on mute hung in the corner, a conspicuous bag of garlic nailed to the wall above the old metal cash register.  Every week I sit at the bar and order the same thing, pancakes with two eggs over easy, and no thanks, I'll just have water to drink.  And every week I go in there with the naive hope that today will be the day the waiter makes my life complete and says "Goodmorning.  Just the usual today?"  But, instead, I politely decline a menu and say I'll have pancakes with two eggs over easy.  Maybe next week will be the week.
          I'm usually done eating around noon, which means I have two hours until I have to be at work.  It's about a half an hour walk across town, but I fill the time with some exploring.  I'll duck into antique shops or book stores, sit in a park and people watch, or just walk around.  Today I went to the Stumptown Coffee on 29th street, since Kyha is such a big fan of theirs.  It's attached to a fancy hotel, and their seating area is the hotel lobby.  So after the hipsters behind the bar kindly made a tea for me, because I'm boring, I went into the lobby to read for an hour.  Now, this is not your typical hotel lobby.  It's poorly lit, I suppose for effect, with dark couches and armchairs placed close together in such a way which assumes that the strangers sitting in them will want to talk to each other, when actually nobody wants to talk to anybody.  It is New York, after all.
          After that I walked to work, where I did work things, and then I rode the Subway home and had dinner with my lovely wife.  Now I'm sitting on my fire escape writing this because the weather is perfect.  That was my Sunday folks.  I'm going to go to sleep now.

The Internets

          For the first time ever, I am writing this blog from our apartment!  Yes, we finally signed up for internet service.  Yes, we've been going without the internet for the past two and a half months.  We also don't have a TV.  Or a microwave.  Or cars.  And I guess thats not that much to live without.  A lot of people live with a lot less.  I thought I wouldn't miss TV, but it's been hard sitting around not knowing who the mother is on How I Met Your Mother, or what's going on on The Walking Dead, or what happened in the apparently amazing final season of Breaking Bad.

          As far as living without a microwave, that's been less hard.  I don't even think about it anymore.  If I need to heat up some leftovers, I just use a stove and a pan, like they did in the olden days.  We also don't have anything at all in our freezer ever, so no microwave burritos to warm up.  We wouldn't really have any room for a microwave on our counters anyways.  Living without a car has been something I've gotten used to sort of automatically.  It's pretty easy in New York, with the subways and buses.  And a lot of other people feel the same way only a quarter of the people who live in Manhattan own a car.  And even if I did have a car, I wouldn't want to use it with all the traffic and difficulties finding a parking spot.  I still think biking is the best way to get around, even though it's freezing outside now.  I actually made it home from work on my bike in half an hour on Sunday, which is a few minutes faster than it would have taken me on the subway, but that's only because it's like a half mile walk from my work to the nearest subway station.  I do miss driving sometimes.  I think about driving to Spokane or Pullman, with some gummy worms and an iced tea from the gas station and the music on, and man that sounds fun.  

          In other news, there is only like 5 weeks left in the semester, so I'm going to be writing a lot of papers.  Kyha got a raise at work, and now has a set of keys to be responsible for opening and closing!

          Ok, that's it for now.  If you need me, I'll be catching up on all of the Netflix time I've been missing.

Park Avenue

          It's happening already.  I told myself I wouldn't be that person who starts up a blog and then slowly neglects it until it no longer has any relevance.  But that is what has happened over the past three weeks.  My excuses are that we had some awesome friends come visit us!  And that school mid terms happened.  It was great to have Russ and Kaitlin here.  Just to have somebody to hang out with was nice.  I'm actually doing work in school besides just reading.  I mean, there is still the same amount of reading, but now I also get to write papers.  Work is also still happening.  As far as jobs go, it's a pretty good one.  And I'm learning stuff, like that all the red wine produced in Beaujolais is always made from Gamay grapes.  But I did have to look up how to spell Beaujolais, so I suppose it's hit and miss.

          I'm trying to think of other things that are new and interesting, so I won't talk about the weather, even though it is getting colder here.  I'm going to see how far into the winter I can go before I have to hang up my bike and buy a subway pass.  One thing I do like about riding my bike is that I get to ride down Park Avenue every day to school.  More millionaires and billionaires live on Park Ave than any other street in the whole country, and it is quite a sight to see.  Doormen wearing hats and white gloves out in the street with their whistles calling cabs for their tenants.  Girls with big sunglasses and little dogs in their purses. Rolls-Royces and Maseratis, the owners of which sit in the back while their driver drives, of course.  Little boys wearing suits that are probably more expensive than all the clothes I own, probably purchased from the Armani for Kids right up the street.  Yes, there is whole Armani store just for kids.  Theres even a J. Crew Baby store over on Madison Ave, which is right next to Park Ave, in case your snot nosed kid needs a $198 cashmere blanket to throw up all over (I just looked them up, $198 dollar cashmere baby blankets actually do exist).  I mean, the amount of wealth is unreal.  I often wonder what these people do.  I suppose most of them probably work in finance, doing whatever it is that people in finance do.  

Anyways, people here are rich.  Its time for me to go to class.

Big and Small

          It's a weird thing when a place feels big and small at the same time.  The city is starting to feel smaller to me.  I have a pretty set routine.  I go the same places, work and school, at the same time every week, just like everybody else.  I ride my bike the same way most days, because I know I'll make it to where I need to go on time.  I do deliveries at work, but a lot of them are in the local neighborhood, and I go to a lot of the same houses and apartment buildings with the same doormen.  I go exploring every once in a while, but I've been to most of the neighborhoods in Manhattan, just not all of the streets.  So my routine sort of confines me to a few places, and in that sense, the city is starting to feel smaller.  I guess it's not surprising, because Manhattan is only a few square miles bigger than the city limits of Lewiston (I looked it up).  The only difference is, there are 8.2 million people here.
          I've been thinking, and since I've moved to the city I cannot remember a single time when I've been somewhere I couldn't see another person (besides our apartment and the bathroom, of course).  Every street, every subway car, every business, every floor of the library, there are people.  Even in our apartment, I can hear people yelling outside, or our neighbors shutting their door, or those idiots who ride their four wheelers up and down the street at 40 miles an hour.  Where did they even get those four wheelers?  It's an odd feeling, never feeling alone.  I think that's why people here do such weird things out in public.  No one is every truly alone, but on the street or in a subway car surrounded by people you will never see again, in a sense you are.
          I think that's the biggest difference for me so far.  Back home, sometimes in just one trip to Wal Mart I would see three or four people I knew well enough to talk to, and another three or four who's names I knew.  Here in the city, I see literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of people every single day that I will never see again in my entire life.  It's something that's difficult to describe, and I don't know if it has any sort of effect on me, but it sure is weird to think about.

Routine

          I think we are finally getting into the swing of things.  For me, school has been going steady for a few weeks now, and I'm really enjoying it.  It's quite a bit different than undergrad.  I don't have a whole lot of assignments, but I have a whole lot of reading; usually between 30 and 80 pages a week for each class.  Some of it is interesting, some of it is technical and not so interesting.  Classes are a lot of fun though.  Most are around 8 students and are about half lecture, half discussion.  Also, I joined the committee that publishes the quarterly student urban planning magazine, the Urban Review.  I'm not usually the type of person to join student groups like that, but it will probably look good on a resume.
          I've also been working regularly, every Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.  I'm learning a lot about wine, like how to lift cases of it, how to stack four cases of it on a hand-truck, and how to take that hand-truck crosstown on the subway for a delivery.  Really, though, I am learning quite a bit about wine and winemaking and all that.  I get to taste some sort of wine probably twice a week.  And, I can buy bottles at cost!
          Kyha is still enjoying her job.  Of course, she is a super talented barista, so earning the respect of her coworkers was not a problem.  She made a latte art swan the other day, which was awesome.  Oh, and she brings home muffins and sandwiches and things for me to eat.
          Also, my bike is finally here!  My legs are tired, but it's been nice riding around the city.  I can get from place to place quickly, and it doesn't cost $2.50 every time I ride it (like the subway).  Riding in the streets hasn't been too bad so far.  There are bike lanes on the major avenues, but some drivers don't really like bikes, and they let you know with their high speeds and their horns and whatnot.  I'll let you know if I get hit or anything.
          And of course, we had our first visitors from back home!  Brooklyn and Lexi stayed with us for a few nights.  Really, they came to watch Cami perform on America's Got Talent (thanks to Cami and Eric for procuring tickets for us, and them), but it was so great to spend time with them for a few days.  Next up are the Moodys!
          Thats about all that's new for now.  It's my day off, so I need to go to the bank and run some errands before Kyha gets off work.  Luckily I have my bike to get me there.

InstaBlog September 14, 2013 at 07:55AM

Our first laundromat experience. Felt a little awkward walking in and not knowing what to do, feeling silly because I'm looking for directions or something. Turns out it's pretty easy. Just put your clothes in and pay the money. And wait for a dryer. Then put your clothes in the dryer and wait some more. And then wait some more. I guess it's culture shock, doing laundry this way for the first time, and knowing some of the people here have never done laundry the way I've always done laundry. #laundry #nyc #laundromat #firsttime #instablog

InstaBlog September 09, 2013 at 09:57AM

There is construction everywhere in New York. It seems like every block has something being worked on. Scaffolding, plywood tunnels, or sidewalks completely closed. Even our building, on the bottom right, has scaffolding around it. It's all over, and although I know it's necessary, I wonder how much more beautiful the city would be if all the scaffolding was taken down for just a day. #nyc #newyork #construction #instablog

Complaining

          So, as you all probably know, we moved into our apartment a week ago.  You also probably know that we sold just about everything we own before we moved out here.  So over the past week, I have been slowly trying to buy some simple basic furnishings so our apartment will function like an actual residence and not like an oversized camping tent with a sink and a toilet.  But this has been difficult, because there are no Wal Marts in NYC.  I'm not joking, there is not a single Wal Mart in the city.  Back home, if I needed something, my thought process would go like this: "I need (insert anything).  I'll go to Wal Mart".  In fact, most of the time it wasn't even a thought. Wal Mart was implanted in my subconscious as the place where I could get just about anything I needed.

          So, since there are no Wal Marts here, I must go to other, smaller places to get the things I need.  Of course, this isn't bad.  I would much rather support small locally owned stores than the despicable corporate giant Wal Mart.  The problem is that I just don't know if I am going to find what I'm looking for.  I know I sound like a whiney baby, but it really is a drag when I walk to three different stores over the course of two hours looking for a regular sized laundry basket and come up with nothing.  Usually, I end up going to multiple stores to get multiple things.  Clothes hangers at Deal$ (get it?  The 's' is a dollar sign) on 116th, the 99 cent and more store on Malcom X blvd to get a crescent wrench, the CVS on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd to get deodorant, and the deli down the street on 112th to get milk.  And maybe I'll walk up to the thrift store on 125th to look for a little table or a shelf.  And I still haven't found a laundry basket.

          The moral of this story, as sad as it is, is that I miss Wal Mart.  Hopefully this ridiculous feeling will go away soon.

No More (Almost)

          It is finally official. We now live in the city. It took us almost a month, but now we are here, in our own apartment, and we don't have to take a bus back to New Jersey until Thanksgiving at my aunt's house. Looking back, it doesn't seem like we've been away from home for three and a half weeks. Even with all of the difficulties that go along with moving to New York, time has moved quickly, for me at least. To be honest, I haven't felt truly homesick yet. Everything over here is still so new and exciting. Of course, I miss my close friends. There are times when I think of something funny to say, on the subway or walking down the street, but there is nobody there to say it to. Thinking about it now, I realize how lucky I am to have so many great friends. Friendships that seem to have plateaued at the pinnacle of friendship. Friendships that define friendship. I feel like it is unusual to find so many wonderful people in one spot, and all where I happen to be. I wonder if I will be so lucky over here.

          Anyways, enough with all of that. Like I said, we have moved into our apartment! Of course, it's an ongoing process. We do have a bed, and two wood chairs that I bought the other day from the City Opera thrift shop. But we are still missing a few essential items, like a table, a couch, a dresser, a garbage can, ice trays, laundry baskets, and a mop. So our place is a mess right now, but we're working on it.

          Oh, also, remember how last time I said I got a job at Whole Foods? Well, I'm actually not going to work there. The day after I told you about that, I got a call from another job I applied to. It's called Appellation Wine & Spirits. It's a wine shop specializing in organic and biodynamic wine, and I start today. Yeah, it's fancy, but I'm actually going to be the delivery guy, which isn't that fancy. But, (unlike at Whole Foods), I will have a set schedule every week, and I won't have to wake up at 4am to go throw frozen fish around. Plus, employee wine tastings!

          Kyha still likes her job. The people she works with are still cool. They even let her get off work early on Saturday so we could go see the Lion King on Broadway (with the tickets my awesome sister bought for us), which was incredible! Also, I think Kyha is really glad we don't have to ride that bus back out to New Jersey at 10:00 at night.

          I'm also going to complain about the humidity over here. It is awful. The subway stations are awful. I'm not used to just standing around and sweating, constantly. Seriously, I'm not a sweater, but I've been doing an uncomfortable amount of sweating. Luckily we don't pay for water, because I'm gonna be taking a lot of showers.

Progress

          Things are finally happening.  After three weeks of being in limbo - riding the bus back and forth from New Jersey to the city, frantically racing to be the first to put an application down on an apartment, and filling up my documents folder with specifically tailored cover letters - it is all over.  That is, I got a job, and we got an apartment.
          First, about my job.  I am the newest member of the seafood team at the upper west side Whole Foods Market.  I start in "a week or so", and from that point on I will perpetually smell like fish, so I hope Kyha is ready for that.  I'm really excited.  All the people I have met there so far are great, and I think I get to wear one of those super stylish double-breasted white chef's shirts.  I think the manager said I might have to work at 4:00 AM sometimes though, so when I start complaining about that, remind me that I just said I'm really excited.
          As for our apartment, we couldn't be happier.  It's in a great location in Central Harlem, four blocks north of Central Park, on the 5th floor of a great old building with an elevator, all for only $1,200 a month.  WHAT!  1,200 dollars!?  I know, what a great deal right!  Ok, sarcasm aside, it is a lot of money.  But, this is New York, and realistically it's about as cheap as they come.  Aaaand, for the area we're in it's a steal.  Aaaaaaand, it's pretty big!  I mean, it's actually small, but compared to most of the other apartments we looked at, it's big.  We signed the contract and got the keys today, and we move all of our stuff in on Sunday.  Then, I can finally take that stupid (Almost) out of the blog title!
          Oh, I also started school today, which I keep forgetting is the whole reason we moved all the way over here anyways.  It was great!  My class today was "Introduction to Planning", and I loved it.  There are only ten students in the class, and we all sit around a big table and pretend we're professionals who know what we're talking about when we discuss things, and it's fantastic.
          I am overjoyed to finally be able to settle down and have our own apartment.  My aunt and uncle have been amazing, housing us and feeding us and transporting us, but I'm ready to get some routine going.  I have all these visions of what I think life in the city will be like.  Hopes.  Expectations.  Assumptions.  Dreams.  And from now on, this blog will probably be about how everything here is different than I thought it would be.

More of the Same, Plus Some New Stuff

          We still don't have an apartment.  We didn't get the first one we applied for because apparently somebody else had an application in before we did.  But oh well.  Now we're back on the prowl.  Today, while Kyha was busy bringing home the bacon, I looked at five apartments, and applied for one.  Tomorrow I'm gonna go looking again, and every day from now until we find one.  Yaaaaaay.  In other news, um, I still don't have a job.  I do have an interview for the seafood department at Whole Foods on Friday, though!  I've been taking a ton of pictures, so maybe I'll upload those sometime soon.  A guy on his motorcycle sped through a red light, hit a van, and died at the scene of the accident today about a block from Kyha's work.  I saw a Rolls-Royce on Monday.  And there are still people everywhere, all the time.  Things are never dull in the city.

It's been, one week since you looked at me

          Well, it's officially been a week since we moved across the country.  For me, it still feels a little bit like I'm on vacation.  We are still living in New Jersey with my aunt and uncle, who have been more than generous in feeding us and keeping their pool heated (like I said, vacation).  We are suppose to hear about that apartment we applied for in Harlem by tomorrow.  I still don't have a job, even though I've applied for like twenty.  No joke, probably like twenty.  Kyha, on the other had, got a job in like three days at an awesome coffee shop called Ground Support down in SoHo.  She's there right now.  The worst part about this past week has been the hour and fifteen minute bus rides into the city that cost $25 round trip per person.  But, it's better than paying for gas and parking.
          The highlight of our week, though, was getting to watch Cami Bradley dominate America's Got Talent at the Radio City Music Hall.  The Bradleys were kind enough to get us some tickets, and we can't thank them enough.  It was such a memorable experience.  Besides that, I've been walking around a lot.  I mean, a lot.  I have blisters and everything.  I went to the public library, which was super awesome.  I ate falafel from a food cart, which was also awesome.  I saw a guy peeing on the sidewalk in broad daylight, which was less awesome.  Right now, though, I'm just praying for a job interview, and that we get that apartment so I can take that stupid (Almost) out of the blog title.  Oh, and Kyha asked me to do the laundry while she was at work... so I should probably do that.

InstaBlog August 12, 2013 at 02:40PM

One of the most surprising things I've noticed since coming to New York is how dirty the subway stations are. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though, because like 5 million people ride the subway every day. I'm not complaining or anything. I'm still gonna use the thing, and I don't think it's an unhealthy amount of filth. It just seems that every time the subway is featured in a movie or tv show it looks so clean and pristine. But I suppose that's because movies aren't real life. #nyc #newyork #subway #instablog

I ♥ Harlem

          Two days of apartment searching are in the books.  Thursday and Friday we caught the bus into the city, Thursday around 2:00 PM and Friday around 10:30 AM.  Its about an hour and a half ride, and the bus drops us off at the Port Authority Bus Station, which is a huge multi-story building full of buses, subways, people, and noise.  My cousin Christopher met us there.  He's lived in the city for like 14 years, and if wasn't for him, Kyha and I would probably still be lost in some subway station somewhere.  Christopher navigated the labyrinth of subway stations and streets as we walked all over the city looking at the apartments we had found on Craigslist.  He told us what was good and what was bad, and steered us city newbies away from the places that would be regrettable.

          In total, we looked at five different apartments, and yesterday we actually applied for one!  Yes, it is in Harlem, but before your mind flashes to images of broken windows and drive-by shootings, you should go take a walk around East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  That place is sketchy in every sense of the word, and makes Harlem seem like heaven.  Garbage everywhere, broken sidewalks, big dirt yards surrounded by chain link and barbed wire.  I was just waiting to get attacked by a pack of ferrel dogs.  Oh, and the apartment building we viewed looked like a place they might stay at on The Walking Dead.  All that to say, we're really hopeful that we get the place we applied for in Harlem.  Its super nice.

          Overall, being in the city has been amazing.  I feel like I've seen so much, even though I know I'm only scratching the surface.  I'm a nerd, so I think the old buildings and churches are awesome.  The subway blows my mind, because its huge and goes everywhere (and, fun fact, was opened in 1904).  We've seen some crazy things too.  Most of you have probably watched the video Kyha posted on Facebook of those guys dancing on the subway (if not, you should go watch it).  On Thursday, while Christopher and I were waiting for Kyha to use the bathroom in the Port Authority, I watched a man dig through the garbage and come up drinking the last little bit of Kyha's iced coffee from Starbucks, which she had thrown away just minutes earlier.  It was a nice reminder that so many people have so much less than we do, and even though apartment hunting is stressful, and my legs hurt from walking, and we won't have a lot of stuff in the tiny little apartment that we eventually get, we have what we need and we have enough of it, and everything is going to be fine.

          We're taking today off from the city to hang out with my aunt and uncles in New Jersey.  It'll be nice to relax for a day.  On Sunday we'll go back to New York.  We're going to look at two more apartments, and Kyha is interviewing for a barista job!  Right now, though, I'm gonna go sit on the porch.  It's nice outside.

Start

          The truth is, I've always wanted a blog. I've never started one up though, because I've always thought it was a little pretentious to think that my life was worth writing about, and to assume that people would want to read about it. Not because my life sucks or anything, but just because everybody else has their own lives too. And I do the same stuff that just about everybody else does, so why would anybody want to read about me doing the stuff that they do already. But now, Kyha and I will be living in New York City, so I thought maybe that might push the excitement level of our life up just high enough for people to want to read about it. Or, it just makes me more pretentious for thinking that just because we live in New York City people will want to stop what they are doing to read about the things we do. But, I'm going to go ahead and take that risk and start this blog up anyways.

          Of course, I should say that we don't live in New York just yet. After a strenuous 24 hours of trying to catch a standby flight from Seattle to Newark (made a little less strenuous by our friends Russ and Kaitlin, who graciously allowed us to stay at their place when we didn't get on the last flight of the night), we finally made it across the country. We are staying with my awesome aunt and uncle in New Jersey until we find a place in the city. Right now I'm sitting on their back porch. The crickets and cicadas are about as loud as a rainstorm. I used to live in North Carolina, and I'm realizing how much I missed the East Coast. I asked Kyha what it's like to be this far away from where she's lived her whole life. She said its hasn't sunk in yet.

          We're planning on going into the city tomorrow afternoon to start searching for an apartment. For those of you who said you wanted a blog post (mostly Kyha and my mom), here it is. For those of who didn't and are still reading this, thank you.  I kept it short just for you.  I'm sure the next one of these will be more interesting.

Corey