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.