I'm really starting to like it here. There's the living alone bit, which brings new joys with each day. I'm afraid I may have passed into total weirdo territory though what with the talking to myself and the yelling at the TV and the singing and the flayvin. Oy. I'm a crazy old maid only without the cats. And I only don't have a cat because I can't take care of anyone besides myself. So I'm crazy AND selfish.
But I'm not complaining. I'm loving it. It's a cliche and it's lame but it really is different here. I've met my freaking neighbors for crissakes. Sunday afternoon Ryan had rented a car to go out to Ikea and when he got back he loaded up the last (I think!) of my stuff from his apartment and drove me and it back to Brooklyn. After he left and I was hauling my Lite Brite and my bag of never used beauty products upstairs and a guy I'd seen once before came in the building and introduced himself to me, "Hi, I'm 3L." "4R, nice to meet you."
Then tonight as I was coming home the girl who I know lives in the apartment below mine was also getting in and we reintroduced ourselves as well (I had met her my first week here when I was trying to make dinner and realized I hadn't moved the can opener, so I made like the bold independent woman I am now and knocked on her door. She was quite nice although we didn't actually talk since she was on the phone at the time. She has an electric can opener.) and we got to chatting quite a bit. In true New York fashion I went in and checked out her apartment and then she came upstairs and checked out mine. They aren't as similar as I'd thought they would be since mine was renovated about a year after hers.
I also joined the local video store (cause I'm all about sticking it to the man) and man oh man that place is a trip. It's as if Marisa Tomei's character from My Cousin Vinny ran a video store. The best part was, when Marisa was explaining how the late fees work (basically the fee is the same as whatever you paid for the rental) and then she said it probably wouldn't matter since I seemed like the kind of person who always returned things on time. Ah, Marisa. Apparently my big freckley Irish face says "I am responsible." The freckles lie. (Case in point: Yeah, my last entry with all my big talk about cliffs and water would've been more impressive if I'd followed it up with, oh, more entries. But you see, I couldn't. Because I'm a lousy deadbeat whose cable got turned off. Coincidentally, that was also the moment when I discovered the one flaw in having your cable TV and internet service from the same company. I mean, Jesus, holy medieval times, Batman. I had to read a book.) But the friendly neighborhood video store makes me want to be a better person. I mean, this is the kind of place where, if they're closed, you can drop off your movie (and any late fees) at the corner deli across the street.
That corner deli, by the way, is home to more of my homies. It was the first place I went to when I moved here, I bought frozen dinners and deli sandwiches there during the long weeks before I got my gas turned on. It seems to be a local hangout of sorts and I felt distinctly "outsider". But Monday afternoon I stopped in for some Diet Pepsi and lunch fixins, wearing the Yankee hat I got a few weeks ago by filling out an application at the stadium for a credit card I'll never qualify for. Suckers. A kid came in and was ragging on the cashier about the (cough*choke*cough) Mets. I not-so-discreetly flipped up the brim of my hat, to cover the Yankee logo and the cashier saw me and laughed. "Get the hell out of here. Take that off!" And the kid gave me a high five.
And if all that isn't enough to convince you my new neighborhood is the ginchiest, let me tell you about the grocery store. I have the coolest Key Food in the city. I stopped in on Tuesday evening after work to pick up some veggies for dinner and when I got there, Mr. Mister's Kyrie was playing. After that it was on to Talk Talk - Talk Talk (have you heard any Talk Talk lately? that's some good shit) and, as I was leaving, the Thomson Twins - Lay Your Hands On Me. The whole store was bopping and wiggling and trying not to sing out loud. Or too loud. Good times. Wish you were here.
goyvin.
Posted by: justsomeonewhostumbledacrossthissite on April 28, 2004 04:37 PM