living solo 2 weeks in
- Loving it. Lots of freedom and space.
- So much naked time.
- Completed Seasons 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead (OBSESSED) and 1/2 way through Season 1 of The Killing (also obsessed)
- My OCD is out in full force since everything has it’s place and everything needs to be in it’s place.
- Set up my AppleTV and once again, obsessed.
- Going with no cable (Netflix & Hulu + AppleTV) and wireless. Stay tuned but right now, I like it.
- My wireless install man from Comcast was ridiculous, sat on my couch and watched Harry Potter with me and told me about seeing naked chicks and horders while he installs things.
- I am desperate to go food shopping but need to get paid #problems
- I haven’t found the trash chute yet and am too embarrassed to ask so I just bring things down to the dumpster.
- Ditto for the gym, which I’m going to look for this week
- Need to wrap up a few things then considering the apartment decorating done.
- Excited for next week, a full week of work and normal routine to feel like I really live there and am not just living in a hotel or something
How To Live Alone in NYC
by K.T. Billey
1. Drink lots of tea, especially if you work from home. Look out the window on breaks from YouYube, masturbation and work. Feel smugly zen.
2. Drink everything from a wine glass. Lack groceries in solid form, but enjoy liquids for their easy-to-carry handles and long expiration dates. Water, orange juice, etc. Nothing feels more luxurious than getting a milk mustache from stemware.
(Hot beverages, like the above tea, are exceptions to this. Unless you get science-fair curious and just want to see what happens. Then feel even more extravagant as someone who breaks IKEA and risks hemorrhage for science.)
3. Know how to masturbate. Well. Rather than complain about the neighbor’s loud vowel-panting, use it as an inspirational challenge. Erotic cross-alley duets are the charm of the city.
4. Be nude. Naked implies a lack that implies that clothes are our default state. Drop your towel in the hall. Step over it for the next two days. No one can make you pick it up.
5. Pick up the towel and be relieved. Clean to Fleetwood Mac til midnight and be immaculately tidy for three days.
6. Imagine a dating website based on what applicants consider to be meals—your soul mate also eats spoons of pb and honey for supper. Revel in the slobby agency of putting dirty dishes in the fridge when you don’t have time to wash them and want to maintain a cockroach-free kitchen.
7. Have baths with the door open so you can hear the music from your laptop in the next room. When your sister needs to skype for hours about her new boyfriend, put said laptop on the toilet lid and treat your skin to a good soak. Move slowly to avoid sloshing noises.
8. Get down to work with the Facebook equivalent of browsing the newspaper and making quips that are of no use to anyone. This is not time spent frivolously. Everything is relevant as cultural research. That montage of Obama orating “Call Me Maybe” could be the modern Rosetta Stone.
9. Get inspired by an episode of Golden Girls and go to bed. Time does not exist in a vacuum of accountability and surveillance, but set an alarm clock anyway.
10. Wake up and make tea. Salute the world with a goblet of Tropicana.
And now we breathe.
We made it through a whirlwind of a month and now we can relax and enjoy our summer.
Our Florida vacation was wonderful. Harper miraculously kicked whatever bug was destroying our lives the morning we left. She woke up all smiles, slept our entire flight, and was a joy the entire week. Her stellar sleep schedule was thrown off while we were away. That’s a joke, the girl still doesn’t sleep. But she slept even worse than normal. By our last few nights, Jeff was camped out on the floor and Harper and I had the bed. We do a great job at developing horrible habits. But when you’re horribly sleep deprived, you’ll do anything to get a few hours of shut eye.
Harper loved the ocean and the pool. Most days she’d take her afternoon nap in her stroller and Jeff and I were able to relax by the water.
We spent our first night in Sebring with Jeff’s parents. The next few days were spent on Marco Island, then we headed up to Sarasota and Long Boat Key for our friend’s wedding for the weekend, then back to Marco for a few days.
The wedding was, well, amazing. A wonderful Jewish ceremony, followed by cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, an amazing array of food stations for dinner (Philly steaks, to fish, to mac ‘n cheese), more drinks, a live band, and lots and lots of dancing. It was held at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
A few more pics from the week -
We ended our days watching the sun fall out of the sky.
I’m always sad to head home, but someone once told me, all good things must come to an end so the next good thing can begin. So true. Three days after we got home, we closed on our house.
Goodbye, 1498. 4 1/2 years spent under this roof. We shared a lot of special memories here. Belle joined our family, we got married, took some pretty amazing vacations, grieved loss, and most importantly, welcomed Harper to our world. I dreaded the final walk through with the new owners. How do you hand over the keys to the place you’ve built your lives around? Strangely enough, it was a piece of cake. The new owners were so sweet and I know they will be happy there.
Today we finished unpacking the last box in our apartment. We’re settled again, for now. Living on the 3rd floor with a dog and baby is a pain, but we’ll be fine. Silver lining, we’re getting a lot more exercise everyday. Thankfully there’s an elevator, but it’s a big complex and we’re smack dab in the middle. We’re also minutes from H’s daycare and not very far from our new neighborhood. My commute has been cut nearly in half (hallelujah) and while apartment living isn’t ideal, it will make us appreciate our home even more. We’re slated to break ground sometime in May (middle to end) and fingers crossed, we’ll be in by the end of August…just in time to plan a special lady’s 1st birthday in September.
I guess that about sums up the past month. We made it through two more April snowstorms and today we enjoyed a day outside in 75 degree weather (life in MN, ya’ll. Snow one day, flip flops the next). Tomorrow we walk for babies at the March of Dimes walk. Sven tells me we should have another gorgeous day. Can’t wait.
