9/26 – Arrived in the city around 8:30 p.m. with a friend who was letting me stay with him in my old company’s corporate apts while he was there on business. I’d stayed there for work several times, so I didn’t really feel like I was doing anything out of the ordinary. We were there from Sunday night to Wednesday morning. I kept having to remind myself (out loud) that no- I wasn’t on a business trip, I was living here- and I’m sure the verbal reminders throughout the week weren’t annoying to my friend at all: “Yes Angela,  you’re living here. It’s done. You’re here. You can stop talking about it now.” 

I spent most of the first week in NY really hungry because a.) the corporate apartment obviously doesn’t come stocked with groceries and b.) I’m a newb of the city. My friend and I did discover a pretty good deli though, which was located right across the street from “World’s Best Deli” which I found strange because a deli we had walked by even earlier claimed to be the world’s best. I DON’T KNOW WHO TO TRUST!  All three delis had the same stock pictures of falafels and hot dogs in the windows.

9/27 – I got up for my first day of work, and my usual non-punctual self left the apartment about five minutes later than I wanted to. I stepped outside looking as NY-business casual as I could. It was super rainy that day, and I was proud of the fact that I’d had my mommy pack me an umbrella… until I opened it and it was completely broken. Then it started to rain harder and as I walked down the street to catch a cab the wind picked up substantially. About five minutes passed of me walking in the rain, fighting tears, I’m going to be late and soaked by the time I get to work- ohmygod I’m going to get fired- ohmygod please, please let me catch a cab soon- ohgod this is a terrible first morning! By the time I got to my destination I was 10 minutes late and looked like a wet dog. Luckily, everybody at the office is ridiculously nice and I had a great first day. Note to self: buy umbrella.

9/29 – I checked into Hotel 3030 on Wednesday night. It should be noted that throughout this week I’ve been living out of one very densely packed gym bag and one very densely packed tote bag (which my over-sized laptop was shoved into), plus a large plastic bag that I had some shoes stored in and my rapidly accumulating dirty laundry. I threw my 50 pound bags onto my bed, scanned the room to appease my irrational fear of bed bugs, and cabbed it over to my friend’s apartment in Harlem to hang out. After a few hours of talking and toking, I headed home in what ended up being the smelliest and scariest cab ride of my life. This taxi driver was seriously awful and in my head I thought of how pissed I would be if I died in the cab- which reeked of b.o. and rancid cheese- before I got to move into my apartment.

9/30 – As I type this I am sitting in my hotel. One more night here until I move into my apartment, which I have this crazy paranoia that for some reason I won’t be able to move in to. People keep asking me “how’s it going?” but living in fancy apartments and hotels all week is like a heightened reality and not really reflective of living here day to day, so I can’t give a realistic answer. Until I have those keys in my hand I refuse to believe that I am a bona fide New Yorker…

Part 2 coming soon!