Internet at home is out again for the sixth or seventh time over the course of the year. It probably has to do with the recent snow/ice storm and the wire connections on the roof (which were sketchy at best). Add this to the loooooong list of reasons why I cannot WAIT to move out of my dump of a studio next summer (other pertinent ones being the overheating, lack of legitimately hot water, and the constant fear that the elevator's going to break down. I'm tempted to put the orange walls on there too, I'm starting to get really sick of them).

So right now I'm sitting in the Dunkin Donuts around the corner from my building. Thank god that I have a laptop. I'm also at the window counter people-watching, so it's not all bad.

These past two days have made me realize that I hate how dependent on the Internet I am. Every so often I think about getting rid of the Internet at home altogether but at this point I'm 99% sure that it would never fly. I flipped out yesterday at around 5 when I wanted to check my email and couldn't, and embarked on a two hour trek to every coffee shop and Starbucks in the vicinity. I got so upset at the lack of free wireless access that I ended up just going shopping instead, to try and distract myself. (Tangentially, holiday sales are the best thing EVER. I got a great jacket marked down to $10 from $68, which definitely put me in a better mood.)

I suppose being disconnected from the world is good in a way. It'll get me to edit down my essays and study the 75 Newsweeks I have sitting in my apartment. But at this point I just want my damn cable box to start working again. On a day like today I'd rather be in bed writing this entry than sitting on an uncomfortable wooden stool.

That's a pretty to-scale image of what the sleeping situation in my apartment is like right now. My cousin came down from Westchester yesterday and decided to join the party so now I have three -- count them -- THREE -- people living with me in my studio which was cozy enough for just one person.

They're all leaving tomorrow so it will be back to me, by myself, for the first time in what seems like an eternity. We have to get through tonight first, though. God help us all.

This evening as I came back from work, I got off of the elevator of my building to find the super kneeling in the corridor between my apartment and the guy who lives across from me. Turns out, the guy has been using his apartment as a storage unit, because the place was packed wall-to-wall with STUFF. You can't get into the main room in the studio, nor can you get into the bathroom. I've never once seen who it was living across from me, and now I guess I know why.

Apparently the water had been running for days in his place as well. Maybe that explains why I can never get a shower temperature that is anywhere between scalding and ice cold.

Yeah, I'm seriously scared to leave my office this evening.

I know I have been MIA lately, a bad commenter, a bad LiveJournal friend and a bad updater.
And it's all because I have had to endure the nightmare of hunting for an apartment in New York, which, if you can believe it, made me even more emotionally volatile than searching for a job. It's been three weeks of pushy brokers, shitty apartments that were described on Craig's List as "cozy," and multiple emotional meltdowns on the phone with my parents that caused my cell phone bill to skyrocket to almost five times what I normally pay.

But it's all worth it, because after this weekend,
I WILL BE LIVING HERE:



(My paint skills suck.)

Yes, friends, I will be living on E. 10th Street and 1st Avenue, smack in the heart of the East Village, in an adorable studio apartment. The paperwork is going through this week and by Friday at the very latest, I will be on the top floor of this building, with access to a fire escape and with views of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building on clear days.

I couldn't stop grinning at work today (which, by the way, has been going amazingly. I absolutely love everyone I work with and am finding what I've done so far to be really interesting) because I was SO EXCITED about renting my first real apartment in this city. I can't wait to start shopping for furniture and decorating and making the apartment my own.

And I'm even more excited about not having to move out at the end of the academic year.
HEY 2-YEAR LEASE, WHAT'S UP?!