I think I started my first post with a quote from Dickens "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Today was just such a day. After almost exactly one year in NYC we are still trying to find our sea legs. I haven't made an entry in months. I have literally been too busy with two jobs to be creative or retrospective. But today was such an insane day that I felt compelled to pour myself a rum and coke and get put the events into my much neglected blog.
I will start with the fun:
Jeff rented a car and drove over to New Jersey to pick up his drums that he has had stored at a friends house for almost a year. Our wonderful friends at church have allowed him to store them at the at the church so that he can have them at hand. So the girls and I enjoyed the luxury of having Jeff drop us off (no walking) at the 72nd Street Marina for lunch. We got an awesome table on the edge of the cafe, perfect for people watching on the Hudson River promenade. We basked in the sun and enjoyed our burgers and Snapples while dissecting the people that strolled, biked, or jogged by. Just before we left Jordan said that she thought the woman sitting at the table next to me was from a news program on television. I glanced at the petite blond woman and gasped, "That is Kristen Chenoweth": The girls and I are huge "Wicked" and "Glee" fans so we are really big fans of hers. I had to fight Cameron for the camera but I won! Just as she was getting up to leave with her male companion I asked her, "Excuse me, would you mind taking our photo?" We had a brief conversation where she revealed her tale-tale voice and she snapped our photo! I think she must have initially thought that we recognized her and wanted our pictures taken with her, but we never let on!
Next we headed up the promenade and came across free kayaking on the Hudson River! FREE! Sweet! We waited for about 20 minutes in a lively line of locals waiting to find some relief from the afternoon heat. What fun! It was the honor system to come back in 20 minutes, although I must admit that we might have pushed the time by a few minutes.
When Jeff got back from New Jersey we rode around in the rental car listening to favorite CD's and enjoying the air conditioning. I do miss having a car, but that is not to say that I'd want a car in the city.
We ended the day at Chirpin Chicken sitting outside and enjoying our neighborhood.
Ok, now the flip side:
We signed our lease for our new apartment on May 1st. We asked our rental broker (brother of the property owner) when we would have access to the apartment. He said, "May-be as early as the 15th but may-be not until the end of the month." On the 20th was contacted him and asked if we could move in on the 29, so that we could have some wiggle room between the two apartments. He responded via text "k". We booked the movers and put down our deposit. On Friday Jeff asked the status of the apartment and if there was anyone we needed to speak to to get more move-in information. Chuck responded "am I not answering your questions sufficiently?"
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Jeff called Chuck this morning to see what we needed to do to get a key for our move tomorrow. Out of nowhere he said, "You actually need to speak to Jason, the property manager, to get your move-in specifics". JASON? WHO? Last week we asked if there was anyone else that we needed to speak to about our move and he made it sound like we were being paranoid for questioning his authority.
So we call Jason to tell him we have movers set for tomorrow. He informs us that we cannot move in until May 31st because he had made the mistake of letting tenants move their stuff in early and it hampers his renovations. Oh, my god! What? Do you know how hard it is to get a mover on the 31st or the 1st of any month? We are stunned. Speechless. We would never have booked movers if Chuck had not texted back "k". So we cancel the movers and lose our deposit. They don't have another opening until June 5th, so we are back to Yelp for a referral.
So now we are desperate for movers, if we can't move out we have to tell our current landlord who may already have our current unit rented with tenants slated for the 1st or 2nd. I don't need to go on. You get the domino effect.
So.... details of aftermath to follow.
