Category: New York

The Unemployment Diaries

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Subway rider in winter

On the E train downtown, I took a seat near the door and turned on my Kindle. A small, dark man in baggy clothes who’d been behind me on the platform stepped on and stopped. I wondered if he was looking for a seat and scooted down closer near the door to make room on my right, but he stayed standing and looked around. He looked relatively clean and wore a dark jacket over a grey hoodie. He had on a North Face backpack. A bottle of Axe body wash was tucked into one of the side pockets. Continue reading “The Unemployment Diaries” →

Not Church, But Close: A Winter Sunday at the Met Cloisters

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Visiting the Met Cloisters

We’d been talking about visiting The Cloisters for a long time. But it’s one of those things – like its sister, The Met – that you feel you can put off until the day before you move away from New York because it’s not like it’s going anywhere.  Continue reading “Not Church, But Close: A Winter Sunday at the Met Cloisters” →

Chinese Mover Is THE BEST Affordable Moving Company in NYC

Betty2 Comments
Except I would probably call, because they don’t have a website.

Tom was right. Moving sucked. But Chinese Mover made it suck a lot less because we could move to our new apartment without going broke. At the end of it all, I thought I would write a review for them on Yelp, but I was like, “No, it can be so much more heartfelt than that.”  Continue reading “Chinese Mover Is THE BEST Affordable Moving Company in NYC” →

Old NYC: New York’s Past via Eighty Thousand Photos

Betty3 Comments
134-136 80th St. btw. Amsterdam and Columbus, circa 1911

At dusk on Memorial Day, Tom and I walked through Riverside Park to the waterfront and looked at all the boats and buildings. We took note of tall shiny buildings and the new(ish) constructions stretching from 80th St. down to the tetrahedron-in-progress that reminds me of the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas.

Tom pointed to the West Side Highway, “I’d really like to see them get rid of that.”  Continue reading “Old NYC: New York’s Past via Eighty Thousand Photos” →

Saying ‘No’ to Park Slope

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Tom on a stoop in the Slope.

Two weeks ago, Tom and I went to see an apartment in Park Slope. We had already seen close to thirty and Tom’s apartment theory states that the more you see the closer you’ll come to finding what you want (and not be afraid that you’ve settled – so yes, a lot like dating*). We had gotten used to saying to friends, “We’re only looking in Chelsea and Park Slope,” which gave off an unintended whiff of snobbery, but in practice, we were mostly looking in Park Slope since our budget, the same in either neighborhood, afforded us more space there. Continue reading “Saying ‘No’ to Park Slope” →

The Sunday Seven: On Loving and Hating New York

Betty2 Comments
“Who’s the landlord, Lewis Carroll?” asks my friend A.

Friday’s apartment hunt was slightly better. We saw units we could actually imagine living in, except in one the living room was too small and for another, the location was a half mile walk from any subway station. There had been one promising apartment on Carroll St., but it was taken before we arrived. And then there was the last apartment of the day, pictured above. Great location and new finishes. But obviously uninhabitable for people who like to stand up straight. Continue reading “The Sunday Seven: On Loving and Hating New York” →