Happy Almost New Year!

So here I am...still in a fairly comprehensive mess, but that's because I haven't cleaned up from Christmas yet. 

This apartment is so great...everybody loves it and is congratulating me for getting out of Chelsea.  You walk into the front door and the kitchen is on your right.  Oh, this glorious kitchen!  It has an icemaker in the refrigerator, a dishwasher tht actually works, and a ton of storage space...and it doesn't get covered in grease and the stove doesn't get unbearably hot when you cook on it.  Plus the floors are level!  (I made some very odd-looking fried eggs in Chelsea because they kept slithering to the edge of the pan because the stove wasn't level.)  Then the living room has a big picture window out to the street and tons of light during the day.

My bedroom has plenty of room, with a good sized closet and another of those picture windows, the bathroom has tons of storage, and right outside the bathroom there's a sort of half walk-in closet and a linen closet.  This is wonderful!

The neighborhood is slightly sketchy, but gentrification is moving toward me at a great rate.  There are housing projects all around, but also lots of luxury apartments...you can tell, because while my corner deli (open all night!) has a lot of cheap beer, they also carry premium brands and black olive tapenade.  The supermarket closest to me is pretty terrible, but perfectly fine for everything except meat...but there's a good one four blocks away which I went to explore today which has everything else I need.  I also have a gourmet store two blocks away and a Duane Reade one block away.  And if I want specialty stuff...you know, an actual butcher and an actual fish store and like that...Essex Market is about nine minutes away by bus.

Transportation is admittedly a bit of a problem on weekends.  The M21 bus, which is the crosstown bus, doesn't run on weekends, and the M9 (that's the one to Essex Market) has a truncated schedule.  However, I can always go over to Avenue D and catch the 14D, which hooks up with all kinds of transport, so that's reasonably OK.

My cable is hooked up, and it's somewhat cheaper (FiOS rather than Time Warner), so I can sit here in perfect peace and watch TV with my trusty ashtray.

I did have a few bad moments when the super (Jimmy...a lovely guy and a friend of friends) came by soon after I'd moved in to tell me someone kept smelling smoke, but he caulked a couple of things, and I use my air purifier, and that's the last I heard of that...and Jimmy kept reassuring me that this is NOT a non-smoking building.

We had a lovely Christmas, even though it nearly killed me.  The week before Christmas I had to do all my shopping in one day (which I do NOT recommend...either the amount of shopping or the timing), and then Sarah, bless her, got all the stuff for the nieces and nephews...but I still had to wrap it all and mail it out Express Mail.  But it all got done.  Then we had our traditional Lobster Fest on Christmas Eve, and our proper Christmas night meal, and our friend Henry brought the tree over on Christmas Eve so we could trim it between lobsters.  Unfortunately, Moon Unit has discovered the tree and thinks it's the best fun ever, so I have to keep an eye on her...she likes to knock the ornaments off and bat them around the floor, which is not particularly good for either the ornaments or the cat.

Meanwhile I put my mother-in-law in a taxi on December 26th to get her back to Penn Station, and then came back and SLEPT for about three hours.  Then I got one full day off before I had to go to my ambulance chasing lawyer pal for Wednesday and Thursday.  Today I went to the good grocery store (I lead such an exciting life).

Tomorrow night I'm either going to my pal Jiggers' place or to the Bistro for New Year's Eve, looking absolutely gorgeous...Sarah bought me these amazing red velvet pants for Christmas which I just love.  I'm going to wear them with a black turtleneck, ropes of pearls and black heels.  Get me...

Oh, and did I mention that there's a post office around the corner and a library across the street?  Talk about convenient...

Now to eat dinner, and I think I'll find something to watch on TV.  Hoo boy...this is GREAT!

Have a wonderful New Year, everybody!

Love, Wendy

YAHOO!

I'm sitting here in front of my very own computer, with my very own ashtray in my very own living room.  Hog heaven!

As you can imagine, what with not being totally unpacked (totally? try mostly) and my mother-in-law arriving Friday and people for dinner Saturday and getting the nieces' and nephews' gifts into priority mail, I'm a complete banana.

Let me get through the holidays, darlings, and I'll give you the full rundown!

Meanwhile, merry and happy whatever you celebrate and I'll give you a full rundown next week.

Love, Wendy (exhaling happily)

Last Night in Chelsea!

Oh, my God.  I have packed ALL the artwork, ALL the books, and borrowed a cat carrier from Sarah.  All I have to do now is the kitchen and bathroom.  And the movers are coming at 9 am tomorrow.  I swear, I flat out refuse to move again...EVER.

Let's hope the cats like catnip...I got a catnip toy to help persuade them into the carrier.  I'm not looking forward to that one.

Look for me in a week, gang...I can't get my cable and computer hooked up until the 15th, damn it.

Moving twice in two years is not to be recommended.

Love, Wendy