There's A Light

I'm happy to report that I have a home. I'm not in it yet, but it's there. I looked at a nice apartment on Thursday, tried to bribe Tye, the realty guy, on Friday morning, and then he told me that he had someone else's application on his desk and that there wasn't much I could do except keep looking. My heart sank, because I didn't have time to keep looking--I needed to move now! I was at work, trying to sort my life out in snatches of internet time here and there. Luckily I have a very sweet manager, who has taken pity on me and let me get away with a lot! I told her that once my life is back to normal, I'll work twice as hard at work.

So anyway, I thought I was back to square one, but about an hour after Tye's email, he wrote back and said that the application he had on his desk was denied, and that if my roommates and I had our stuff turned in by Monday morning, he'd give it first priority. So we spent the weekend gathering our documents in order to prove our financial security and just to make sure we had all our bases covered I made my dad, against his will, submit everything on the list as well, in case our credit was insufficient and we needed a guarantor.

Meanwhile, I had promised my roommate a going away party on the roof, and I delivered. Sunday night we had a gala event, with lights, paper lanterns, tons of food, and no rain, thank goodness! Jen said it was the best party she's ever been to, which was nice to hear, after all my anxiety about it. I'm just surprised that in my state of craziness and lack of sleep I was able to throw a party at all. It was really fun, I have to admit. The theme was New York and so I made hot dogs, cheese pizza, Manhattan clam chowder, and a ton of desserts. E made these marshmallow-on-a-stick concoctions, inspired by Coney Island, with 4 flavors of marshmallows dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with coconut. Those were the hit of the party. It was really nice to just put on an apron and cook for people, and go up on the rooftop under the stars and take some deep breaths of fresh air and not think about moving for a little while. And everyone who came got a kick out of the story of the ceiling falling down, and they got to look in and gawk at the room of rubble.

So, to continue the saga, I delivered the application as soon as the realty office opened on Monday morning, and spent the day in agony waiting for Tye to call and say we were rejected, but he didn't, and by the evening I started to feel more and more relieved, because if he had rejected the previous application so quickly, ours must be okay. And it was. On Tuesday I started bugging Tye with emails and phone-calls and soon enough he told me that we had been approved! It was such a relief and a burden off my shoulders. We signed the lease on our lunch breaks, and I learned how to get a certified check from my bank, and we had it overnighted so that today we could pay the deposit and get our keys. (That was a really big check, by the way. Thank you to everyone who gave me money when I first moved here, because this is the moment it really came in handy to have 4 grand in the bank!!!)

But now the daunting task of moving lies ahead... I've spent the past few days packing up all of my belongings, and there are a lot of them. How can I possibly own so many clothes? It makes me want to give it all up and be a hobo with just a knapsack. But I keep telling myself that it will be so nice when its all over and I have a new apartment with all new appliances and nothing wrong with it. I'll tell you about my new place soon... It's in the middle of Harlem, not as pretty as this old Sugar Hill neighborhood I'm leaving, but I'm sure it has a charm that I'll discover. All I know is it's home, and I'm going there soon. Tomorrow I'm getting a U-haul and we're moving.