Do you ever feel frozen in a moment?

Today - that is how I feel.

frozen.

In a moment.

Frozen - not wanting to get off the subway at that stop.

Frozen - not wanting to walk through that door.

Frozen - not wanting to make that decision.

Frozen - all alone.

Frozen - in a moment.

Frozen - ALONE.

My new Apartment and moving...

Here are some pics before we moved in...

Well - I AM ALL MOVED IN!! Still a lot of unpacking to do...but mainly clothes and you all know i have A LOT of CLOTHES!!

Thanksgiving weekend I spent packing, packing, packing and moving, moving, moving.
To kick the week off I lost my debit card. So I had to cancel it. To get the $ I needed to pay the movers and to rent the storage unit I had to wire my money from my credit union to my bank of America. Well, on Saturday when the movers were to come - my $$ was still not available. I freaked out and my mom and dad Western Unioned me enough $$ plus some to move. The movers were originally scheduled for Sunday but they called late Friday nite asking if they could come Saturday instead. I said yes - stupid me - knowing that my bedroom was TOTALLY NOT PACKED! My only saving grace was that they were not coming until 3pm. Well Saturday morning rolls around and I am truckin away with my packing, bedroom almost done - Walk-in closet NOT TOUCHED and the movers call and say can we come NOW???? It is noon. I was like uhhh sure. It all worked out in the end though and I am happy the move got done on Saturday instead of Sunday because then I had the whole day Sunday to get things situated and all i have left is the UNPACKING OF THE CLOTHES.

I got rid of so much stuff too it feels good - i was just going through my closet going NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE and just chucking stuff in bags for the Salvation Army. I did that with tons of stuff -more than just clothes. It was time to purge a lot of shit from my life!!

I will post up pics once we get everything completely settled and cute!

I am sooooo excited...it is so nice to be home from work in like 20 minutes. I get extra sleep in the morning. I can just jet across town and not worry about having to take the train all the way to the bronx late at nite. It is so nice...I am happy.

(all i have left to do is go out to the BX tomorrow to clean- YAY!)

It is Like Heaven on Earth...

so quiet sitting at my desk...

Apartment Hunting in NYC

So it wasn't as bad as what I thought it was going to be when we started out...

When we started we were looking at 3 bedrooms and anything in our price range was either in the ghetto or the size of my walk-in closet in the Bronx. Seriously one 3 bedroom that Jen and I went to look at had 3 rooms that maybe could be bedrooms if ummm you wanted to sleep on the floor - i am not even sure you could fit twin size beds in those rooms. It was crazy.

Then Valerie decided she was going to stay put - so Jen and I started looking at 2 bedrooms. And things started to look up. The first ones we saw were small but livable and in our price range. Then we kept looking at more and more and more but they were brokers that charged an enormous fee however they kept on getting better and better. We finally found one and we put an application in. It was nice and roomy - however it was on the 6th floor and a walk-up. NOT FUN! But we didn't end up getting it because we needed a Guarantor that did not have the same last name as either of us - HUH???? Then we just kept on looking...and we finally found one. It was perfect and there was no fee! We had to pay first, last and security but we were in and accepted. Jen and I were new proud rentees of an apt on the upper east side around 80th and York. We were pumped! The best part was we got the keys the moment we signed the lease so as of Mid-November the place was ours.

NO MORE BRONX or LONG ASS COMMUTE FOR ME!!!

Fantasy Football League Outing

On Sunday we had our first ever 855 Fantasy Football League Outing. We had set ourselves up for a Sunday afternoon of beer drinking, wing eating, and football watching. Most of you that know me - know that I am definitely game for the first two out of the three....but as for sitting and watching football all day...well i figured as long as i had enough beer.

The crew was meeting at Blondie's on the Upper West side at 12:30. It was also Brian's Birthday that day so Carolyn, Andy and I met Brian at the Red Lion at 10:00 for a some Birthday wishes and a little bit of Liverpool Soccer. Brian received the best birthday present ever from the bartender - it was this watch out of the lost and found and when you hit a button on the side a flame came out of the face to light up someone's cigarette - Andy was enthralled by the watch.

Carolyn, Andy, and I headed out of the Lion to head to the upper west side only to see Steve-o on the train. Andy, have already had a few beers that morning, was going to pee his pants - I really was waiting for him to drain himself on the train...it was amusing.

We got to Blondie's and settled in - Peter was already there and we got settled into our reserved booth. There were WAY too many TVs with WAY too many games going on - I was overwhelmed and needed beer and wings. Out of our League members 6 of the 10 of us showed up - Me, Carolyn, Steve, Peter, Todd and Lee. It was an interesting mix of people. But fun and we should have another outing soon. And of course all of us were totally interested in our fantasy scores so I kept calling my mom in Iowa and having her go to the computer and update us with the scores. Thanks mom.

Getting Cultured..

Last night Valerie and I went to the New York City Opera at the Lincoln Center to see Carmen. This was my first visit to the Opera and as I walked down Broadway to get to the Lincoln Center I was chatting on the phone with my father and he yells "There's a Band" - a famous quote from Pretty Women when Richard Gere sweeps Julia Roberts off of her feet and takes her to the Opera - in which I reply to him "Mine are Broken" - another quote from Pretty Women when Julia Roberts is trying to use her Opera viewing glasses. Oh good Page family humor.

Anyways, Carmen was amazing. The performers were fabulous, especially Vanessa Cariddi who played Carmen or Carmencita. The Opera is performed in French, however they did have a screen with the English translation. I believe even without that it is an amazing Opera. Carmen is a typical love story. Carmen herself is a beautiful gypsy and every man that crosses her path falls in love with her. She falls in and out of love quickly, and her fate is sealed by this blazee approach to love. She woos the corporal Don José, leading him to mutiny against his superior. His infatuation causes him to join a band of smugglers, of which Carmen is a member. He is happy with Carmen for a brief period, but is driven to madness when she turns from him to the bullfighter Escamillo.

Several well-known pieces from this opera have taken on a life separate to the work: the Prélude (overture), the Toréador Song, and the Habanera.

The Opera itself was 3 hours long but it flew by and it was over before I knew it. I thouroughly enjoyed this experience and I can not wait to do something like this again. This is what living in NYC is all about, last nite I was at the Opera, the night before that I was at an amazing Halloween Parade (well it was kind of amazing - haha see previous blog).

I have decided that I want to go see the Nutcracker Ballet. Anyone want to join me? My mom used to take me every Christmas season when I was little and this year I am going to go (since I won't get to spend Christmas with my mommie).

A Freaky Halloween...

...but not like you are thinking. I mean we were freaked out and scared for our lives - not like scared - BOO! I got you. But Literally scared that we were going to get crushed to death by a crowded of surging and fighting people.

Michele, Christina, Carolyn, Andy, Cassie, Martin and I all headed down to the traditional Halloween Parade in the Village. We thought we found a Sweet spot to watch it on the corner of 19th. All along 6th Avenue there were barricades blocking the crowd from the street and the parade and on the corner that we ended up on there was also scaffolding set up. Carolyn and I got in between the barricades and the scaffolding and we had a great view. The rest stood right behind us on the other side of the scaffolding.

At the beginning of the parade the police were doing a decent job of crowd control (because trust me there were soooo many people there - i heard a report of over 1 million people there) and we got to see some pretty cool stuff in the parade - some of the stuff was just amazing.

Of course little Willis went with Carolyn and I to the parade and he was dressed up as a Ghost.

After awhile of viewing really cool stuff, the crowd started to get restless and the police on our corner had no control of the situation whatsoever. They decided to let a bunch of people cross 6th Ave (the parade street) - so these hoards of people were crossing thru the middle of the parade. Then the police decided to stop the people from crossing so the people were just standing there totally blocking our view from behind the barricades. At this point the crowd behind us started to get even worse. The whole time we could hear some guy cursing and yelling about people pushing but Carolyn and I being in the front we had no clue what was going on. The two of us were kind of seperated from the rest by the scaffolding. Andy told us later that the guy was back there the whole time just throwing punches and eventually someone retaliated....

Befor the retaliation - Carolyn felt things were getting out of hand and she called over a police officer - he just shrugged his shoulders at her and said there is nothing I can do. Seriously, not even a minute later a massive fight/mini-riot on our corner broke out. Carolyn ws already over the barricade and I followed quickly. We were semi-safe from the madness. I was just standing there looking at Christina and Michele squished against the scaffolding with panic on their faces and tears in their eyes. Andy was trying to block them and protect them as much as possible and he was right in the thick of it. I stood there yelling at them go under the scaffolding!!! And finally they were able to move and they got out....

My heart is racing right now thinking about it and typing about it. We were all scared shitless.

The situation just got out of control really quick and the police had no control over it. Poor Andy got accused by a police officer of being part of the problem and all he was doing was trying to shelter Michele and Christina.

Andy and Carolyn took off and Michele and Christina and I headed north on 6th Ave trying to get a glimpse of more of the parade, on our way we got stuck in the middle of 2 fights with some ghetto ass guys...So we bounced, made our way over to 7th Ave (which was just as crazy) and headed home and made it home safe. But All of us were shoken up, freaked and scared....

talk about a a scary and freaky Halloween.

(it really is too bad - because the stuff in the parade was really awesome - maybe next year we can figure out a better way to watch it...)

oh - i forgot, on the bus ride home i was a block away from my stop and BAM an egg hit the windshield - the bus driver swerved and slammed on the breaks. i think it scared the shit out of him. scared the shit out of me....