Relocated.

We slept in our new apartment last night. This morning, I woke up & said Mike, listen! 

Chirping birds & the sound of rain coming down on our 5th floor fire escape. 

I can't even begin to describe what an unbelievably wonderful thing that was. You gain a real appreciation for such simple pleasures when you've lived a few hundred feet up for four years, 2 of which were spent next to the constant hum of the FDR. Something as simple as raindrops? Beautiful. 

We love, love, love our cozy new little home. We'll love it even more when we can walk through the living room without squeezing in between boxes & when we actually have a place to sit. In the meantime, I love looking out the back. It's green.

The past few weeks have been exhausting. Have I mentioned that already? The insomnia (anxiety-produced, I'm sure - Paxil, anyone?) + the litany of tasks that had to be completed have been quite the killer combination. The physical effects of moving are evident. I received three wounds - that bled. My feet are killing me. My back hurts in 12 different spots. I think every single one of my joints hurt. This morning I woke up with sore elbows. ELBOWS. My eyeballs hurt. I have a canker sore from slipping with my toothbrush (that really hurts). I'm sure I've lost brain cells due to sleep deprivation. Last night was 1:45am. Mike's alarm went off at 5:30am. Lovely.

I'll report back in a few days when we're all unpacked & don't have to eat out every single meal (darn.) because our fridge is blocked by boxes & our stove is covered in wrapped dishes. Not that I'm complaining. 

In the meantime, I think it's important to note that this week in particular, people have just been nice. I've encountered nice people everywhere I've gone - & it's not that New York City is a mean & scary place, it's just that people aren't typically soft & squishy nice. But this week - I feel really warm & fuzzy about my city, & especially my friends.

Examples:

On Sunday, friend Erin (also 2nd-cousin-once-removed-by-marriage) took pity on us & our empty fridge & had us over for dinner. She made Cafe Rio, the best beans ever (that will soon be posted on Wire Whisk), yummy rice, fresh limeade & cookies. Did I mention that she fed TEN of us? She did. Missionaries included. That girl will get blessings. We left with happy hearts & tummies. For added good measure, she brought us leftovers for our lunch on Monday as we were in the throes of packing (me) & working (Mike). Tuesday afternoon, I met with some nice friends at Pommes Frites for amazing Belgian fries topped off by (surprise!) cupcakes - because we were in the neighborhood. Taking a break (i.e. having an excuse to shower) & seeing my nice friends was nice. Afterwards, Kelsey let me borrow some sturdy storage bins to help pack up our kitchen. That was nice, especially since we only ended up with two casualties of war - just a few small prep bowls. Also nice - the fact that Erin & Ruth came to my at-the-time-empty new apartment that night & literally scrubbed my walls. These girls got on their hands & knees & helped remove all sorts of unmentionables from my new home. For THREE HOURS. If that's not love, I don't know what is. Another highlight this week -  the comment made by Louise on this post. It made my week. Also nice? The man at Home Depot who patiently answered all of my questions about light fixtures, spray paint + peel & stick flooring. He was uncharacteristically kind for a NYC Home Depot employee. Afterwards, I ran across the street to Rickshaw to pick up some lunch, & the nice woman at the counter recommended that I try their new melonade - i.e. watermelon juice. If she were just trying to make a sale, I wouldn't make special note of her, but it really was delicious & made be happy. Props to the Rickshaw lady for making a nice recommendation. After several errands & on my way home, my cab driver was kind enough to not yell at me when it took me 10 minutes to get all of my bags into the trunk, & we had a nice conversation winding through Chelsea, Midtown, Central Park & then the Upper East Side. He told me to have a nice day, & that was nice. And then - I met one of my new doorman (in our new apartment). His name is Ken, he calls me girl, & he gave me a kind orientation of our new building (43 units, we're the only married couple - 4 couples are "shacking up" & the rest are single, mostly women. The "elderly" people who smartly refuse to move out of their rent-controlled apartments live on the 6th floor. I met one of them - Andrew - & he told me I was pretty. We'll ignore the fact that he showed clear signs of dementia, but it was still nice of him to say). He even introduced me to our mail man named Lee, & Lee is very nice. Once back to our (old) apartment, friend Jill came over & packed up my kitchen for me. We put Wyatt in the sink, & he was perfectly content. Jill is a good packer, as evident by our almost-100% success rate. Jill is nice. Mike got home late that night, but he brought me a cupcake, even though I was snappy with him all day (all week). He's a nice husband. Thursday morning - friend Ryan came over at 9am & worked alongside our movers for about 6 hours, except we weren't paying him. I'm sure he'll get blessings from Heaven, but we tried to tide him over in the meantime with a burger from JG Melon. And then last night - friend Suzi let us invade her apartment at 9pm to use her internet - only for Mike to discover that we can pirate the internet from one of our kind neighbors (who apparently believes in sharing) until the cable guy comes today. Suzi was nice enough to let me stick around to watch the last hour of So You Think You Can Dance while eating Texas sheet cake that she made from scratch. Nice friend, good baker. I'm glad that she's a $4 cab ride/10 minute walk/one subway stop away.

Thanks, nice people. I like you.

I'm off to find my box cutter. I think I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.