Soul Stealing Weeks and Triumphant Weekends

Last week was a BEAR! but it ended with a phenomenal weekend.

I did nothing last week outside of work, we ordered-in 2 or 3 times! I spent every last drop of my energy keeping my mouth shut, rather than letting the hot lava of uncensored truth come spewing out all over my boss's face! Whew! It was ugly. But somehow, somehow, I made it to Friday in one piece and still employed. (My week ended with a frantic search for dry ice, because my boss had decided to take her dead cat out of her freezer and finally bury her properly in Connecticut, yeah that kind of week.)

Friday night I left the office early with Gus for a quick drink at her place before we embarked on our weekends. Hers involving endless pre-wedding appointments and mine a food and real estate quest.

I decided to be more open minded about potential areas to live in, so I booked an appointment for D and I to head out to East Williamsberg to see a new 1 bedroom apartment. To be fair, I also scheduled an appointment to see a studio in the East Village later that afternoon. Along the way I planned for us to stop into the Brooklyn Kitchen for a mini-muffin pan for my cheese puff recipe for Sunday, to Trader Joe's for wine and to the East Village Meat Market for our dinner. On top of all that, I booked a consultation with a new broker for us. Ambitious? Crazy? Maybe. But miracle of miracles, we did it!

There were some definite snags along the way. We started our journey with a jaunt on the L train to Brooklyn, unfortunately, the train was running limited service and would not go out to the stop we needed. Hello shuttle bus. Ugh, I hate buses under the best circumstances, let alone when I am being packed-in. We finally made it to our stop (in Bushwick, not Williamsburg) and proceeded to walk to the 1 bed apartment. As we walked, the voice in my head was screaming NOOOOOOOOOO! I was trying to keep an open mind with the jaws of death at this point! No stores, no people, empty lots...... We did keep going and the apartment itself was quite nice. Large bedroom, decent living room, great kitchen, balcony, roof deck and even, gasp, a washer and dryer hookup.

Now, under normal circumstances, this description alone would be enough to give me an orgasm, but somehow all the things that matter to me loose their luster when they are located outside of my city. If it had been closer, if the neighborhood had been more vibrant, perhaps then I would consider it, but as it was, there was just no freakin way.

We climbed aboard the crowded bus, made a quick stop at the Brooklyn Kitchen (a great little shop) and dropped back down the rabbit hole, emerging once again in the soft light of Manhattan.
Next stop, East Village!

We wandered down to our next appointment, finding ourselves 30 minutes early, we decided to grab some lunch at a diner next to the apartment entrance. It was nice to catch my breath for a minute! We popped-out to view a small studio in the back of a building on Avenue A and 12th Street. It was small, but had a cute separate kitchen with new appliances and a great skylight that opened it up. We were both quite taken with it, despite the vast size difference, the EV studio still out-shown the Brooklyn giant. God I love this city!

We wandered back out onto the Avenue and headed up to the Flatiron district to meet our potential new brokers. At this point, I must say that I am incredibly impressed that my man has not only hung-in-there, but has not tried to cut anything short! No complains! What a catch!

We met the brokers, they gave us a few reality checks with a dollop of hope and scheduled viewings for November. Time to head down to T.J.'s and our final stop at the Meat Market.
We walked in the light drizzle that had started, still warm from our hours of wandering, and I for one, quite happy. We bought our wine and wandered down to the Meat Market. Foiled! It was closed.... the one thing we did not get to. Oh well! We boarded our bus and headed home. We ate take-out, watched some bad TV, and passed clean-out.

What a perfect Saturday! Just like last week. There is no way the entire weekend could go as planned, right? (last Sunday, we had a post-bliss blow-up in NJ, oh well)

Sunday dawned, and we prepared to go up to Harlem to Abyssinian Baptist Church. We made it, despite the bitter cold and wet weather, had an ok time (D enjoyed it, I fell asleep), bought some groceries and headed home. D helped me get the house ready for my EWI guests and then went to the movies as I began to cook. How nice to have the house to yourself sometimes.

My mini-macs were unspectacular, but it didn't matter, the wine and laughter flowed and I think the small group of us had a great time. D came back hours later to catch the tail-end of our festivities. I cleaned-up and we collapsed on the couch. Another well executed day!

The dull, misery of the week was conquered by the frenetic, joyful frenzy of the weekend, and though I don't feel well today, I still am filled with some excitement and I think the energy of the weekend is going to spill into this week.