Urban Martha Stewart
How do you define an adventure? Does it involve travel, work or perhaps romance? Adventures in Europe took many twists and turns in all those areas. Unfortunately, New York adventures are off to a more mundane start. The apartment search currently ranks in the top three of my life frustrations. Commuting is also not so thrilling, though I have been fascinated by the people I have encountered. (Can I be a professional people-watcher?) From the Pakistani textile salesman I met on the train on Tuesday, to the thousands of young professionals I see wearing flip flops to work each morning, the commute reveals an interesting cross-section of people.
The funniest interaction I’ve observed took place last week. The doors of the E train opened at 42nd street and on walks a guy wearing baggy pants, a doo-rag and baseball cap and head phones. Yours truly thinks, “Hoodlum.” (I know, I know, it’s bad!) But when a young businessman just barely squeezed through the subway door at 50th street, my opinion quickly changed. “You’ve got dirt on the back of your shirt,” Mr. Hoodlum says to Businessman. Businessman seems confused about what to do with this information. In response, Mr. Hoodlum helpfully adds: “just wash the shirt in a bit of cold water and the stain will come right out.” WHAT! Who offers laundry advice on the subway? My “don’t judge a book by the cover” lesson was well learned for the day!
I’m apartment news… I’m heading backwards. Today I got beat out for an apartment that I hadn’t even seen yet. Ugh!
posted by Erin at 2:03 PM
3 Comments:
It's nice to be wrong sometimes, isn't it? I was volunteering at the AHA Heart Walk this weekend and had a similar experience. A homeless guy was digging through a trash can for empty water bottles to take to recycling. Since the other volunteers disappeared into thin air when "trash time" was announced, this guy not only walked around with me to empty out the trash cans, he also helped clean up the area around the overflowing cans, replaced the bags with new ones and carried the heaviest bags over to the dumpster for me, "because a girl as pretty as you shouldn't be carrying trash". I think I actually blushed at that comment! At times like that, it feels good to be home. :-)
On another note - good luck w/ the apartment hunt this weekend. I've been having the same issue with buying a car. Ich werde die Daumen fuer uns drücken!
don't lose heart- if nothing else you can start looking for refridgerator boxes. I hear they're quite spacious :-)
unless, of course, it's from a german refridgerator...
Hi Anuradha,
I will find something soon, but thanks for the offer to talk to your uncle. Daniel and Heather have been great about letting me crash with them.
So you have really decided to sell your car? JP lives in CA, or else she might just take you up on your offer:-)
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