UPDATES

So I found out that I was approved for the department. Yay! But sadly, I can't move in until after next Friday. Boo! Ah, no matter, what's one week, right? As long as my current apartment is still standing by the time I leave, I will be very happy. (By the way, it was POURING water in the first floor again the other day. Perhaps from the 2nd Floor. They will never fix the problem, either. And I read this morning that one landlord got sentenced to 5 years for failing to fix damage like that. And today it is leaking into the kitchen).
I'm so looking forward to moving I can't bear it much longer. I just packed up nearly everything I own and purged much of my past. It was fun, and a little sad, to watch some of those memories disappear into the garbage. Yet... we must not attach ourselves to the past, or to material goods, because life is continually moving forward. Best to realize the impermanent nature of all things, to fully accept it, and to live life accordingly. According to the values you establish for yourself. Okay enough preaching.
I'm a little concerned that the BF will be home all the time. I love him dearly, but I also cherish some alone-time at home. It's necessary for proper reflection and spiritual rest. Today I'm home alone for the first time in a long time. Lately we've spent every day together while looking for apartments and trying to escape our living conditions. He is working, but from home right now. Hopefully soon he will get one of those jobs that lasts a few weeks (he's freelance, by the way) and requires he stay a little late now and then. I hope it for my sake and for his, because he needs some more work these days. Then he will make twice what I make, or more. Bastard.
And it's Spring! I love Spring. The signs are rare in New York, but they are there if you look. I'm thankful for the few trees and flowers that bloom in the city, even if they are carefully contained and accounted for.
The other day I noticed that people in New York (including myself) hate to stop moving. This is unfortunate, because they are stopped every few minutes by a stoplight or crosswalk or some other obstacle. Walking through pedestrian traffic is like navigating a river; you follow the flow, which is inconsistent in speed but not motion. Imagine if the river stops flowing every few minutes. It would splash and splatter and protest. Just like New Yorkers. Pedestrians will find every opportunity to keep moving during the red light; oncoming traffic will honk in frustration; bikers just weave in and out of impossibly tight and potentially deadly traffic jams, nearly picking off nearby pedestrians. Have you ever experienced Manhattan at rush hour? I do, every day.

APARTMENT! (oh, and my birthday)
This year, well, this year wasn't much of a birthday year. It was a bit overshadowed by the apartment search, and apartment searching is hell. Well, hopefully our hell is over, since we've applied for a place this morning. It's okay, but I can't say it's a palace or anything. The place itself is small and cute; it is on the 6th floor of an elevator building that a friend of mine conveniently lives in. There is good light and nice hardwood floors that are not warped, and the ceilings are high. The kitchen is a good size; it's all a good enough size for us really. We are small people and don't take up too much space. Best part is, there is laundry in the basement and the super lives in the building. They are not hand-off landlords. My main concerns are the street noise and the fact that there's not really any quiet or green space. The lobby and elevator smell like piss. It's a borderline shady neighborhood. It's actually an "up and coming neighborhood," (meaning white people like us are moving in, driving up rent). There is a little lefty coffee shop with lots of entertainment. There's a food co-op. There's one nice little restaurant and a bakery. There is a supermarket, a library, and some bars. I particularly like the mexican place. And the apartment is right next to the train (!). When (assuming all is well with my credit) I move in this weekend, I will put the place together and put up pictures.
Ah, but how I long to live in the country again! My ex-boyfriend regaled me with tales of his garden and all the wild critters in his backyard. Oh how I miss it!! Some day soon I will return to Michigan and all it's natural beauty, and if not then I will at least get out of this stinking trash heap and move somewhere clean.

I have a nasty habit of neglecting my blog when life happens. “Life" being the juicy, dramatic events that would make this blog such a fun read. Alas, whenever anything interesting occurs I neglect to report it. I would make a terrible journalist.

So, here are the past few weeks in brief: I’ve been having a great time at the job and I still love it. It's been almost a full 4 weeks. I’m closer to choosing a graduate school, after a great deal of stress and worry and interviewing people and visiting campuses. Now I just need that official “you’re in” notice from the place I plan to attend. Oh and I had to turn down a kickass scholarship to a great program, but for the kickass reason that I have a great job in the field that will pay for half the tuition and offer me valuable experience along the way. My new roommate yelled at me, which threw me off balance for a while because I don’t tend to live with people who resort to such pettiness. I was victim of a postal scam. Looking for apartments has caused one giant, lasting headache, and we haven’t found anything yet. I finished my first website! Well, a website, not my website. But I made it! Oh, and my birthday is coming up.

Whew. Now that that’s out of the way, here are things I planned to post about but never did (although I may post about them yet):

Poverty and race in New York City
Spirituality and money
Surprises and why it’s important to keep and open mind
Working in the US

In other news, I just came to realize that I have a thing against the letter “z,” and I don’t know why? Why am I so insane, why?