Let The Buyer's Remorse Begin

I seem to have an apartment in New York now. It's a complicated thing: I'm making just enough money that, rather than being forced to take anything I could get, I was forced to make some interesting decisions. Essentially, I had to balance out some sort of calculus between living alone/having roommates, being in a cool place/being remote, and having a large place/having a tiny one. I could get any two of them, but not all three.

I canvassed my friends (especially the women) and the loudest cry was "no roommates!" (My friend Briallen said "no roommates after thirty," but I think she hasn't accounted for the New York economy; most of my friends are in their thirties and have roommates, and it doesn't raise any eyebrows. So I'd amend it to "no roommates after forty." Which still makes it a relevant decision.) This left me with the choice: 1-bedroom in the 100s and up, or studio somewhere closer to midtown? Since I've spent my last three years in New York above 150th and taking 45-minute subway rides, I thought, "Why not do something different this time?"

So I have a very tiny place of my very own, in one of the coolest neighborhoods in New York: Alphabet City (which you can sort of think of as "The part of the East Village that actually gets subway service"), around 12th and Avenue A. The apartment is laughably dinky, but I do most of my writing in bars anyway--and it's definitely bigger than the place I lived in up at 157th. The chief advantage, to my mind, is that I'm right near the L train at 14th, which is unique in that it goes all across both Manhattan and Brooklyn in a straight line--meaning that I can get pretty much anywhere starting with the L and then taking whatever else intersects with it. I'm near a park, and I'm a quick drunken stumble away from Doc Holliday's, my favorite bar in the area. Throw in 24-hour bodegas, a laundry right next door, and a whole host of shops on St. Martin's (that's what they call 8th, for some reason), and I stand to be a very happy guy--even if it looks like I'll be sleeping on a convertible sofa.

So that's settled. I move in August 1st. Now I can finish up my book, and then get back to regular blogging. Thank goodness--looking on Craigslist for newly-available apartments is as cracklike as checking email; there's always a new listing if you've been away for an hour. Today I have my life back.