Colds

Well, it's Saturday in early April and while I woke up feeling ontop of the world, by mid-morning I felt pinned to the couch in the throes of another spring cold. I think some people at work have off and on been sick, which leaves the air filled with it, so likely I grabbed a strain and brought it home. Regardless, I'm glad it's Saturday and will continue to sniffle through it and sip hot flavored tea to warm my insides. Craig worked almost all afternoon (from home) so it worked out alright that I kept the living room company. I caught up on TV programs from the week and finished (or, re-started and finished, rather) Rendition, which was decent, and I pushed up on an elbow to snap the photograph above which reveals sunshine pouring in through our kitchen window. Well, sort of, at least. Today was supposed to be rainy and cool, but the weather anchors around these parts never quite get it right, so here we wound up with a glorious sunny warmer spring day, all of which we spent pent up. Sometime later, if we do leave New York, I will regret these perfect days we wasted lazing around the apartment, but at the same time, that's why living right on Manhattan Island is good for us - if we already lose spending days because of illnesses or laziness wandering the streets and taking it in living in this borough, imagine how those days would multiply if we were in, say, Brooklyn and didn't feel like "coming into the City". So at least we've got proximity covered. So, our rent renewal letter arrived last week, and I'm happy to announce the change in monthly rent went from $100 per month last year to $0 this year. This must have everything in the world to do with the Second Avenue Subway Construction which takes place at the intersection of 2nd and our street, along with other neighboring side streets, or perhaps it's because we're such good tenants but I'm leaning more toward the former. See photo for evidence of inconvenience. The shoring and fencing forces us to cross our street and cross back to travel south on 2nd Avenue.


It's a pretty decent pain but considering the fact that the layout of our apartment verges on better than others (in our price range) that we've seen, the compromise might just be worth it. Plus, there's construction all over Manhattan Island, from the southern tip traveling all the way north! It's somewhat difficult to escape. Scaffolding and shoring become like second nature for city dwellers. Likely we will sign a third year and stay right here.*Our week coming up is a busy one, much of it work-related and some of it social-related. We've got tickets to the Last Opening Day of Shea Stadium for Tuesday, a work-related milestone event Wednesday, and tickets again to Thursday night's Mets game (hot seats on the 3rd baseline that we were offered generously). Monday, my beautiful friend Lauren and her theater company host their annual benefit to raise money for the company, but we're unable to go because of work- and other-related issues. Lauren knows we will attend in spirit, though!*This coming week also marks the last full week of me as a 30 year-old. The following week, the 17th, I turn 31. We have off that Thursday and Friday. Wednesday night we're going to kick my birthday celebration into high gear by eating at a hip Japanese restaurant called Sake Bar Satsko in Alphabet City (as seen on Three Sheets, of course!) Thursday morning we're going to travel to 11th Street Cafe for Lattes (the place we happily discovered last weekend), and then before noon we're going to tour the French Culinary Institute, where I hope to take the Craft of Food Writing course in the fall. For lunch, we're going to splurge on L'Ecole, the restaurant adjacent to the FCI where FCI students polish their French cooking techniques. Following that, the world is my proverbial birthday oyster, and we will let Manhattan embrace me as a 31 year-old happy to thrive in the Center of the Universe! Friday morning, we plan to grab bagels and coffee to go and hit the road in a rental car to head to Burlington, Vermont. Road-tripping with Craig has taken on a whole new meaning since we've been together full time versus the long distance status of us prior to Atlanta. All of our trips then hold such vivid spaces in my memory: Cape Cod (Mass), Mystic Seaport (Connecticut), Bar Harbor (Maine), the quiet cabin in New Hampshire, Montreal twice, all the weekends we traveled to New York City, day trips to Boston, Newport (Rhode Island), later on the Finger Lakes Upstate plus the Thousand Islands and the boat trip to Boldt Castle...but each of those trips concluded with the same sad ending of me packing my bags to fly back to Detroit, or later to St. Louis. Now, we leave together and return together. I may never be able to express to him how differently I cherish our adventures now. When we left for England last January, or when we left for Mexico in December, I experienced the sensation of excitement for a trip without the dread of the end of the adventure (while, of course, all fun trips do eventually end, it isn't the same sunken feeling knowing I get to come back home with and to Craig!) Anyway, Vermont will be so nice, relaxing, beautiful and cozy. We're excited for it.*Unfortunately, I'm re-writing the latter half of this post because the post I composed prior disappeared into thin blog air. I'm annoyed with the disappearing act and at the fact of trying to recreate all that I wanted to say, so with this, I'm going to sign off for the night. Craig is watching the Final Four and I'm just sniffling away here in the computer room - might think of popping in a movie. As excited as I was for March Madness, it isn't fun anymore without any glimmer of hope of winning money on our brackets - ha! So I will try to recover from this silly cold and watch mindless entertainment and hopefully tomorrow will bring a healthier KB.*