A very nice change of pace

A year ago I was sitting at a remote hostel having Thanksgiving in Canoa, Ecuador.  My friend Diego and I just finished our second surf session of the day and we found ourselves drinking wine, staring into the beach and thinking life can't get better.

Then it does.  A year later, I'm visiting my friends Jason and Carrie in Vermont at an off-the-grid farm, which is their latest caretaking gig.  About five years ago, I met the two in Los Angeles for our Peace Corps staging event.  Throughout the years, I'm glad to have stayed in contact as they traveled from NYC to Palau to Shanghai.


If you list where they've traveled, you would say they find great places to go.  I think they make the places they go great and Vermont was no exception.  The food was amazing and the company even better.  We hiked untouched snow, went fishing/canoeing, built a snowman and continued to fill out our days and evening.

Among the many things I learned...

• How to use snow shoes
• How to use gaiters
• How to play 31 (cards)
• How to play Chinese Monopoly
• How to play Bananagrams
• How to split firewood with an ax
• How to use a chainsaw
• How to sharpen a chainsaw

Among all that, I came with little notice on a holiday and they also drove out over an hour to pick me up/drop me off.  It makes me thankful that I have friends like that.

Updated with pictures!

Ice cream for dinner, one of the many benefits of being an adult!

I love being an adult, I get to have ice cream for dinner :)

Plus I get to have my own place!  This is two weeks after moving into a place in NYC (I was living for a week in a hostel looking for jobs, exploring the city, and finding a place to live)

The place I ended up finding is a small studio in Queens and it's about a 35 minute ride to get to work, which is over on Wall St. in Manhattan.  I guess I'm starting to grow up because when I sign a lease now, I feel happy (that I snag a sweet place) instead of getting depressed (that I'm stuck somewhere).

I can't believe that just a couple weeks ago I only had two backpacks and now I'm almost settled in!  Big thanks to Josephine for helping me out with her car in a crazy Costco run! :)

There's a small kitchenette, which I've used to do some cooking already.

I put together this bed from IKEA; it looks simple, but there were so many parts and it was a little difficult building it solo.  I love the swivel LED lighting; there's something about functional and clean designs that really intrigues me.  I still need to put up some posters when I get a chance.  I'm thinking of getting another "upside down world map" poster similar to the one I had in San Diego.

I plan on programming a lot (as a side hobby) now that I'm settling in.  I can't wait for Android's Ice Cream sandwich to come out.  I've also looked at the things I own in a whole new light; how often do I use something?  Depending on the frequency, I should spend my resources accordingly.  At least that's my justification for getting an Aeron chair...

First Snow and First Visitor!

I'm getting settled into my new place.  I have my mattress, sheets, and most of my kitchen setup.  I still need furniture, curtains and Internet, but I'm working on that.  I'll probably rent a U-Haul this weekend and buy a lot of stuff at the IKEA in Brooklyn (I went there today to scope it out).

Today I also got hot water!   It's helpful since it snowed early (about 4 inches of snow in a couple hours).  I was in Target one minute picking up stuff for the place and when I left it was snowing!    Luckily I had my gore-tex shoes on to walk through the slush.

Work has been great; the people are nice and I'm learning Crystal Reports (it's a pretty powerful tool).  I feel like this is a place where I want to be for years.

I've been going to a few meetups (Android Developers, Reddit, and I'm trying to get into NY Tech, but the list fills up too quickly).

Last but not least, I had my first visitor on Friday night!  A Peace Corps friend is in Jersey for work so we'll be meeting up again tomorrow.

Anyways, that's my update.  I'll try to write something more interesting once I get more settled in.

Excited for next week!

Next week is going to be packed.  Here's my list of to-do's:

Monday - I start my first day of work at Mental Health Association of New York City!  I'm a little rusty on my SQL so I'm brushing up on that right now in case I need it.

Tuesday - Reddit meetup at Peculier Pub after work.  I used to go to the Reddit meetups in San Diego (it's a web site where users can upvote or downvote links/posts to make them appear on the top).  The people there were fellow geeks and it was easy to relate to them.  We would do random social events like go play kickball or meet up at breweries.

Wednesday - I'm meeting up with a friend (that I know through an ex) and we're going to Costco and getting supplies.  It's also the day that I'm moving out of the hostel and into my new place in Sunnyside!  I'll need to call utilities and Time Warner to set things up.  I've been tethering my Internet, but today I hit my 5 gigabytes per cycle cap and now the speed is throttled.

Thursday - I'm checking out a "Discussing Ice Cream Sandwich" session with the New York Android Developers meetup.  I'm hoping this won't be like the San Diego Android group that consistently flaked.

Friday - I'm thinking about hitting up the Museum of Modern Art, but don't really have anything planned yet.

Weekend - I've been trying to get into a soccer pickup game or league, but the waitlist keeps going (about 40 people in, another 40 in waitlist).  I'm also going to try to get a bed and some furniture this weekend.  Maybe rent a zipcar or something for it.

So excited!!! :)  I'm also thinking of hitting up the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers meetup and see if there's a rock climbing gym nearby.  Lately I've been really interested in doing more design (photoshop, illustrator) and want to see if there's any classes for that.

Sometimes I forget...

Oh fuck you Ghosts and Ghouls.  That wasn't even fair.  The zombie spawned right below me.  Oh what?!  You gotta be kidding me; as soon as I jump across the crevasse a ghost spawns, killing me instantly.  I need another beer.

Frogger, I can do this.  Jump, jump, jump, easy peezee lemon squeezy, jump, die.  WTF?!  I made it across safely.  Nothing even hit me.    Maybe that was a glitch, let me try that again.  Nope, the game is just stupid.  I need another beer.

And that's how I lost $15 in quarters, but played a variety of old school arcades from some bicycling newspaper delivery boy game to Rampage (where you're a monster that destroys the city).  The beers were good and it was a fun night.

Even though tonight I was out with a couple of new friends, it's the first night where I felt a little lonely.  I know that the feeling will pass, but I kind of wanted to see some of the new places with old friends.  I get kind of sentimental like that; I like sharing experiences with people and the more they mean to me, the more I want to share the excitement that's going on.  And it's been a long (exciting) week in NYC.

Sometimes I forget how supportive friends and family are.  It's not that I don't appreciate it.  It's that I don't realize the magnitude of the support they've given me over the years.  I guess it's right, you don't realize something until it's gone.

I miss my old roommates Wayne and Martin; I wish we were going to get beers at the bars here.  I miss Adrienne, an ex-girlfriend that later became a great friend and still shows her support through numerous text messages a day.  I miss my friend Sara, whose always up to some outdoor activity and always there with an open ear.  I miss my family, especially my older brother Mike.

Anyways, I know I'll meet new people and create new memories.  I just wanted to say that I do miss everyone.

Found it!

Sunnyside, you are my neighborhood.  I stepped off the 7 train and immediately liked the area.  There is a warm, neighborly vibe with local supermarkets, parks, and small restaurants all nearby.  The people are ethnically diverse from Hispanic to Asian to Irish.  This is easily reflected in the stores, as I can just as easily walk down the street to get a pizza or a South American desayunos.

They say that in New York more than anywhere else, you need to make up your mind quickly.  Apartments drop off the market as quickly as they come up.  This one was posted less than 24 hours earlier.  I called and met with the real estate agent (not a broker) early this morning.  By the time I sent the email to when we met, it was less than 3 hours.

The place is in an apartment building located on the first floor and only three blocks from the train.  It is just far enough so that the train doesn't make any noise and only about a 35 minute commute to work.

As soon as I walked in, I fell in love with the place and knew it was my new home.  It was modern and clean, yet small and comfy.  It was large enough to fit a queen sized bed and desk, but not so big that I would hate cleaning the place.  It would be a tight fit for guests, but thanks to how much is always going on in NYC, I doubt that anyone would be staying inside much.

I'm very happy and can't wait to move in already.  This is a place that I could see myself saving up for and eventually buying (and with this cost, I might be able to do that!)  I'm still a far way from getting settled in, but I feel like I'm making a lot of progress every day.  I'm getting to know the neighborhoods, how to navigate the train like a champ, and trying my best to make friends.

I don't plan on spending much time in the studio, but when I do, I want it to be completely comfortable (a feeling that is difficult to get with roommates).  I want to be able to escape from the city and just be at home.  It's rare to find someone that I think is chill and a good fit (which isn't to say that I haven't, my previous roommates were awesome).

Yesterday I met a friend of a friend (I knew her through Peace Corps and this was her friend from John Hopkins) and although she fit that description of being really cool, the location (hour and a half one way commute for me) didn't work out so well.

Anyways, I'm glad things are working out so well.  I'm still waiting approval on the place; I did fingerprinting yesterday and that should clear me for work tomorrow or Thursday.  That in turn should move the process of officially getting the place since then I'll have an income.  I should be into the new place by October 26th!

Just because

The last few days have been hectic.  My first night I ran around from Flushing to Astoria to Manhattan's Wall Street (where I'll work).  The second day I visited Brooklyn (Williamsburg area) and met a couple of cool guys at Barcraft (Starcraft 2 tournament) in Midtown.  Yesterday I visited my future work to get finger printed, went to check out Harlem, East Harlem, the Upper East Side, and a friend of a friend in Flushing.

I've been doing this mad tour of NYC so I could find a place to live.  Statistics and numbers are great for getting an overall idea of a place, but nothing beats walking around and relying on that gut instinct.  I found myself thinking "I could live here and be safe" probably too often so I came up with a new test, "Would my family feel safe if they visited?"  That put a whole new perspective on things.

One of the places I saw was in the Upper East Side, a studio/1 bedroom that was for $1600 a month.  The location was great and the building was beautiful.  I love the brownstone walls and the high ceilings.  I did my calculations and I could barely pass the rule that rent should be no more than 1/3 of after-tax income or 1/4 of gross income.  I thought about it long (as in I fell asleep for 4 hours and woke up with a decision).

I'm not going to get it.  Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.  It's very tempting, but I don't need to live in a hip neighborhood.  I just need a safe place that isn't an hour or longer for a one way commute on the train.  I need to be more resourceful, should play it safe for the first year and save up what I can (or at least use it on funner things than a place!)

The previous days I've spent with a destination in mind.  Tomorrow, I'm following the locals on the subway.  Wherever they go, I'll go.  There's gotta be a place that is affordable and safe.  I just need to find this local secret!