Instead of apologizing for the extreme lack of updates to this newborn blog I’m just going to dive in and give a general update as to my adventure in New York.
I’m coming home—or, more appropriately, I’m returning for a visit—seeing as legally New York is my home now. I signed a lease. All right—this whole overview thing isn’t working. I’ll start from the beginning. Bear with me—I have trouble being brief in anything I do.
I have a home! Erin and I are now the proud leasers of an apartment in New York City. We recently adopted our 2nd floor prewar walkup and couldn’t be more proud to rent such a fine place. I fell in love immediately and after a suitable period of courtship Erin grew to love him as well. We lucked out (as seems to be the trend here in the big apple) and met an awesome broker who took us around Astoria. Her name was Rashida and ten minutes after meeting her she taught us how to trick the parking meters in Astoria into thinking a penny was actually a dollar worth of quarters. With her help (and perhaps slightly questionable morals…) we haggled the price of our apartment down from an already discounted price to an even lower monthly rate. Also, we are in a rent controlled building, which means that even if the real estate market recovers soon and rents return to what they have been in the past (or even more seeing as our neighborhood is “up and coming”) ours won’t increase as long as we hold the lease. The apartment has 2.5 bedrooms (the .5 room will easily fit a desk and a full-size futon for guests) with lots of closet space, 10-foot tall ceilings and crown molding everywhere. It is truly beautiful.
I built a bed! I went online and found platform beds that would run me upwards of $300, so I built my own for half the price. I hitched a ride on the subway to Home Depot, had them cut down the lumber to my specifications at the store, and then hired Julio in the parking lot to take my material and me to my apartment in his white windowless van. I then went to the discount fabric store at the end of my street and bought some padding and fabric to go over the platform, and then I bought a memory foam mattress online that shipped in three large boxes. I then decided to build drawers to facilitate storage under the bed, so I took another trip to home depot. This time I hired Cesar and his Jimmy. He was a lot cheaper than Julio, and much more talkative. He was also slightly racist. I have his business card, and the next time I need something hauled across town, I’m calling Cesar the racist Peruvian.
I got a job! This actually happened before the apartment and the bed—I’m currently working as a host at Ruby Tuesday on Times Square. I’m the only male host among a sea of hostesses, but it makes me money and this city is expensive. I like to look at it as me doing my part to power through gender barriers still left standing in the twenty-first century. After I get a little more settled I’m going to try to find a reupholstering shop that will let me hang out and learn the trade, but for now I’m contented showing people to their seats.
I’m coming home! I got another job—an acting job! Of course, I had to move to New York to get a paying gig in Oklahoma, but c’est la vie. Greg White and UCO’s Broadway Tonight are flying me in to star in their in-house production of the musical Summer of ’42. Rehearsals start in late April and the show itself runs May 20-23 at Mitchell Hall. I already have a sublet for my apartment and am excited to spend a month with friends and family, though I’ve hardly been gone long enough for any of them to miss me back on the homefront.
