New York: Day One

Last night, I made it into Penn Station fine, Lana and John met me and helped me get to a cab. Walking out of Penn Station into Manhattan streets with the hustle and bustle and lights and noise was quite an experience, kind of overwhelming. The cabbie was nice and it was only $23 to get to my apartment from the Chelsea area. Luckily, Mr. and Mrs. Yen were home and they graciously let me in the apartment and were extremely nice. It was awkward, but good. I unpacked and fell asleep.

Today started with my apartment adventure of the day: Showering. Let me explain.

The shower is in its own room, off from the kitchen. You enter and there is like a foot and a half space with a bathmat. Beyond that is a 3x3 ft shower stall. It was kind of difficult because the linolim floor was cold so I needed slippers in the shower room, but there was barely any room and I didn't want them to get wet.

After getting dressed I decided to make my way into the city. I got so lost. I somehow ended up on Austin St. in Forest Hills (the neighborhood past Rego Park) after walking in a circle past my apartment. I ducked into a Starbucks and pulled out my laptop. A $4 internet fee later, I found out the Forest Hill subway station was two blocks from where I was sitting. I took this pic walking down Austin Street during my first NYC adventure.

I was trying to be discreet with my camera phone, but I think the man on the left totally noticed. Had I waited 20 more seconds, I could have captured bag-head lady. My first NYC Crazy. She had apparantly been shopping and stored her belongings in a plastic bag, placed on top of her head while she danced and sang while strolling the streets of Queens. It was awesome.

I discovered that I need to make sure to bring reading material on the subway, it makes for really awkward situations. You sit there not knowing where to look, not wanting to just read the advertisements like a tourist, or stare at anyone.

After arriving in NYC I decided to walk to Grand Central to find a place to eat in Grand Central and grab a couple maps so I dont wind up walking in circles. I found food, but no maps. I walked around some on Lex and 3rd Ave in the East 40s and explored until I met up with Lana and Claire in the Upper East Side. We walked back to their apartment in Spaha and relaxed a little. Lana took a nap while Claire and I went on a short walk exploring Spanish Harlem.

This was me being touristy and taking pictures of the Main Concourse of Grand Central Terminal.

We are going to dinner at Itzocan Bistro (one of my favorite places in New York) and then going out and partying afterwards. I can't wait! I am kind of unsure about getting back to my apartment tonight, I can always take a cab though. I just don't think the subway would be a good idea late at night, not knowing exactly how to get back to my apartment from the Rego Park Station. I know I don't need to spend the money, but its my first weekend in New York!

Last Night in NC

The time has finally come. I am moving to NYC bright and early tomorrow morning!!! It has been one hell of a week, that is for sure. Hopefully everything will go smoothly tomorrow during my journey from Pittsboro, NC to Rego Park, NY. I am so exhausted... again. Since it is already late, I am just going to post a few pictures to sum up my day. I will have time tomorrow on the train to catch up with the past couple of days as I have not had the time or energy to write much lately. I am not sure when I will have Internet access again, hopefully soon! If not, I will be going into Manhattan on Saturday and I will bring my laptop to do some job hunting, facebooking, blogging, etc. wherever I can pick up a wi-fi signal.

A NYC beer at Bub's last night! Thanks James!


Ohh Piggly Wiggly... and Bible Belt paraphernalia

All packed up! How the F am I going to maneuver all of this stuff through Penn Station!

"But tomorrow may rain, so, I'll follow the sun" -The Beatles

Here I am. In Pittsboro, NC. My midway point (figuratively) between HHI and NYC!

Today was rough. Lots of moving. A few goodbyes. My car wouldn't start. Stressful. Lots of driving. Met up with some friends in Chapel Hill. Met new people.

Sadly, I wasn't able to say, "Goodbye" to Lindsey. We were running around getting stuff done and by the time we got back to my apartment, she had left for work. I feel really bad about it. Driving back to NC this evening was a whirlwind of emotions. I was excited about NYC, scared of NYC, sad about leaving HHI and friends, excited to see friends in Chapel Hill, excited to see my family (and pets) in Pittsboro, stressed about everything I have to get done tomorrow, etc. Somehow I still made it home before 3 am!

Here are a couple pictures from today's activities:

The storage unit, locked and loaded!

Passing South of the Border.. the biggest interstate tourist trap, EVER.

For now it is off to get some sleep. Oh, how I wish I could sleep late tomorrow.

Last Night in HHI

Whew.. what a day! THIS has officially been the most productive day I have had on the island... and it is my last... go figure. Mom arrived around three and we have not stopped going since! We made a couple trips to the storage unit and got what we needed packed in there so that all we will need to take there tomorrow will be my couch, love seat, dresser, bed, and mattresses.

Not the best picture.. but you get the idea. We have everything that is going back to NC packed in my mom's car with the exception of my TV, old computer, and a couple random little things.

Lindsey joined my mom and me for dinner at Amigos. Oh, how I will miss their Carnitas Tortas... It was fun! They have both heard a lot about each other so I am glad they kind of got to know each other a little bit. Lindsey also came by my apartment later on with Amber and they took a whole bunch of stuff I was planning on just dropping off at a thrift shop.

I feel much less stressed, maybe just because I have been so busy. There is still a lot of stress to be had concerning this move, but I feel very accomplished with what we completed today. After looking at everything i have in boxes to go to NYC, I am kind of freaking out about how I will get it all there. I suppose I will have to go back through and minimalize again. I am sure I will have to ship some stuff too (which kind of sketches me out for some reason).

My poor dog, Lady, had to have a toe removed yesterday. She is an old girl, I feel bad. I also got some bad news today concerning someone I used to work for. I can't go into detail as I have been asked to keep it private. I am keeping that person and their family in my thoughts though as we had a very close work relationship.

Tomorrow is going to be ridiculous, so I should probably get some sleep.

Good Night Hilton Head... one last time :-(

Exhausted!

I think today falls somewhere near the top of the list when recounting Chip's Most Productive Days on Hilton Head Island. I got all of the paperwork filled out for my storage unit with the help of a kind lady named, Theresa at Public Storage. I also went by Piggly Wiggly to get laundry detergent (deciding packing a mountain of dirty clothes wasn't such a great idea after all) and shirts for Lana and Claire. I also ran a few other errands (Walmart, Bank, etc.), not even stopping for lunch... unless you count my white chocolate mocha from Starbucks as a meal. I was also going to swing by the Coinstar at Food Lion and finally cash in my $360+ in change I have saved over the past year and two months, but realized they charge 8%. Not a big deal when you're cashing in $10 here and $15 there, but when you have well over $300 in change, you're paying almost $30! I found that to be absurd and decided against it. I got some change rollers from the bank and decided to take on the task myself. After not much time, I decided it would take me a good 87 hours to roll it all and I have a lot of shit going on. I will probably go to Coinstar tomorrow and fork over the $28.50 or whatever it was I calculated. Instead of rolling change, I opted to take a load of stuff to my new storage unit to at least have a little bit of it out of the way. Here is what I have so far:

It doesn't look like much, but my little Sentra can only hold so much. If nothing else, that is 6 boxes and my office chair out of the way.

Maggie swung by my apartment after she got off work to get my key to Salty Dog and to say, "Goodbye". It was really sad and it honestly took a lot not to shed a tear, especially seeing the tears welling up in her eyes. I hate goodbyes!

My friend, Adam, told me soon after I met him that one of the worst things about living here was that there was always too many Goodbyes. I have seen friends come and leave in just a year, and it has been sad every time one of them has left. Now that I am the one leaving, saying, "Goodbye" to so many people downright sucks! I feel like when I left Boone I was one of the last to leave from the group of friends I spent most of my time with. I also felt like it was past time for me to leave that small, mountain, college town. With Hilton Head, I feel like I could have decided to stay throughout another season. Sometimes I wish I had of chosen to do so. I guess when you are chasing a dream, the timing for your emotions isn't always perfect.

For now, I am going to take a nice, hot shower and wash off the nasty chlorine from the indoor pool and jacuzzi at Hilton Head Resort and start last night's two hour episode of Brothers and Sisters until I fall asleep.

Unemployed!

Today was my last day at Salty Dog. After battling my severe hangover all afternoon and well into the evening, I managed to enjoy my last shift. It was definitely sad to know that I would not be going back into work at Salty Dog, possibly ever again. There is a lot I will miss about that place. I will see a couple of my coworkers again before I leave, but there are many I may never see again and that makes me pretty sad. It is interesting how you cross paths with people, get to know them, and then you continue on your path through life with nothing but memories and the occasional phone call/email just to catch up which become few and far between over the years. I had a few notable customers during my last shift:

*Judy- a regular. She stopped by in the pouring rain this morning to say, "Goodbye", before I got there, and then made a point to come back by later in the afternoon to see me. It was really sweet and it is good to know that we are appreciated by our customers.
*Group of New Yorkers- They were a delight. When I mentioned that I was moving to Rego Park, they just went on and on about how great it is, and how there is so much to do and so many young people in that area. It was all really good to hear coming from people familiar with that neighborhood (except for the part where they mentioned the "Boulevard of Death").
*Douchebag- I personally think I am pretty darn good with customers and doing what I can to answer their questions and listening to their concerns. This guy was just a jerk. We have our Winter Buy One Get One (of equal or lesser value--clearly stated on all of our promotional signs) Half Off Sale going on. This guy wanted to purchase a $38 vest, $18.95 hat, and $15.95 t-shirt and get the most expensive item half off. I explained to him that was not how the sale worked but that the hat would be half off seeing as how it is the second most expensive item. He bitched and bitched and carried on, eventually deciding not to purchase the t-shirt in order to make a point that I had just lost a sale for the business (even though he was still dropping $40 on the other two items, I would get into the details, but who really cares). I could have given in to his request, but he was being completely absurd and I was not in the mood to let him have his way. Not to mention he and his wife were visiting for three months, I do not think a $16 t-shirt is going to break the bank. You deal with all walks of life in retail, that is for sure. It was kind of my, "Fuck You", to all of the asshole customers I've had during my time at Salty Dog that I have just done what I can to make happy.

Normally, finishing your last shift at a job feels exciting and liberating. After locking up and walking to my car tonight, I felt sadness and fear. I can now definitely see how people get "trapped" here.

My moving plans have changed slightly due to an approaching storm in NC expecting to dump a few inches of snow across the state. Instead of Mom coming down to HHI tomorrow and me leaving here on Tuesday, she is coming down Tuesday and I am leaving Wednesday. This only gives me one day in North Carolina, which is very stressful considering everything I have to get done while I am there. Fortunately I now have an extra day to get things done here in South Carolina.

Apparently Brothers and Sisters is REALLY good tonight. It is a two hour episode so it started at 9 and I was still at work. I will have to find time to watch it online in the next few days. Tomorrow begins my week of ridiculous stress and too many Goodbyes to think about.

Boxes, Boxes, Boxes

I am coming right along on my packing. All I really have left is my clothes, bathroom things, DVDs, and a few random other things.

Of the 16 boxes I have packed, the breakdown looks like this:

4 to NYC
6 to my Parent's house
6 to my storage unit

Not so bad! Some of those boxes are small and could be combined into one larger box, but for now... this is where I stand.

“Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity.” -Thor-Heyerdahl

In exactly one week, I will no longer be on Hilton Head Island!

After another discussion with my mom on the phone last night, we finally came to a compromise regarding the storage of my furniture, etc. in Hilton Head. I called today and reserved a 10x10 storage unit just a mile or two from my apartment. I got a decent deal and the lady was extremely nice. I made an appointment to go check it out and start moving stuff in on Monday. The next step is to secure a moving truck so that we can move my stuff from my apartment to the unit. In my brain, all i see is expenses, expenses, expenses.. but oh well, I guess that is the price you pay (literally) when you decide to pack up and move to the city of your dreams.

I also got a lot of stuff packed up today. I still have a lot more to pack, but I feel like I am making a lot of headway. I have a whole organizational excel sheet for every belonging (alarm clock, calculator, laundry bag), what category it falls under (kitchen, media, office) where it is to go (NY, NC), the details of where it is to go (Parents to be stored, parents and maybe shipped to NY) what box it is in (NC1, NC2, NC3, NY1, NY2), and if it has been packed. Excessive.. yes, Organized.. you betcha! This decision to store some of my stuff in HHI screws up that whole system. Instead of adding yet ANOTHER column, I simply started a new spreadsheet indicating where each box is going to be. I am having trouble deciding what I can live without for a week until I move out of my apartment here, which is also ridiculous.

I have a ton of things I needed to get done today that just didn't happen. I need to pay a visit to Palmetto Electric to let them know where they can send my deposit to, I needed to contact the guy in charge of my savings stuff to let him know I need some money to help me get by until I find a job (and I need to pull it out since I've already lost A LOT in the past year thanks to the 'Economic Crisis' with their company), I needed to get an oil change, and I needed to figure out what to do about patching the walls. I also was hoping to have all of my kitchen stuff packed and ready to go by the end of the day, but some of my stuff is dirty and since I can't run the dish washer or the kitchen sink due to our garbage disposal problem, I can let that one slide. I did however meet Anne for lunch at Harold's Diner which has, in my belief, the most greasy food ever. It was so delicious. Just another thing I will miss about HHI!

Jen set up a blog today, you can check it out under the Blogs I Read list. I hope she keeps up with it, I think it can be somewhat therapeutic.

Speaking of blogging, I can't stop reading Becoming A New Yorker! It has become my crack over the past week. It is so interesting to read about someone else who has picked up and moved to the city. While our experiences will be totally different, there are also a lot of similarities (moving to NYC without a job, knowing friends up there, love for the city itself).

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” -Lao Tzu

As many of you know, I am packing up and leaving this beautiful island behind for a new adventure in America's most populated city, the Big Apple! This is going to be a HUGE change especially considering Hilton Head (with a whopping population of 40,000) is the most populated town I have ever lived in, others being Boone (~36,000) and Pittsboro (120, hah). I am so excited about experiencing life not just a city, but the city I have wanted to live in for as long as I can remember. This has always been one of my goals of life and I couldn't be more happy!

The first question I always get is, "What are you going to do up there?", I reply with, "I have no idea." This is the truth, I have a roommate, Sean, and a place to live... but that is about it. I've been applying for jobs but haven't heard back from anyone. It is a little discouraging, but I feel optimistic about finding something once I am up there and have plenty of time to dedicate to finding a job. Worst case scenario, I will end up waiting tables for a little bit to earn some cash.

What do I want to do with my life in the city? I really have no idea. There are so many career paths I could see myself following, but with the economy being as shitty as it is, I won't be able to be picky at all. As of right now, I am mainly looking for jobs in the tourism/recreation industry (preferably not dealing with tourist though), retail (although I REALLY REALLY want a 8-5, Mon - Fri job), working with nonprofit organizations (geared towards something I have an interest in) and basically any basic entry level marketing position I can come across. I am also open to nearly any possibility. The main reason I want to live in the city is the culture. I love the idea of the hustle and bustle of everyday life of New Yorkers. I guess this is from living in the most laid back places imaginable. I also want to experience living in a place with diversity in its people, music, art, food, etc. I want to meet people. All kinds of people. People who moved to the city to chase their dreams, find themselves, or who have lived there their entire lives. I am also fascinated by the idea of relying mainly on public transportation. The one time in my life I had to rely on public transportation was second semester my freshman year at Appalachian when I had to take the AppalCart from campus to the most remote student parking area imaginable. It was hell. Anyone who ever had to rely on Boone's public transportation system can vouch for that though. I have used the NYC Subway and Bus system in the past and it is so convenient and easy to navigate, although I may be singing a different tune when I am commuting into the city from Queens rather than vacationing. Either way, it is so much better on the environment.

My fears about this move are getting mugged, losing everything, and not making friends. I am fortunate in that I have a couple of friends up there who have been living in New York for a few years. They're awesome and I can't wait to see them!

The details! I am leaving Hilton Head the first week in March and going to my parents house in Pittsboro for a few days, basically to drop off the majority of my stuff. Friday, March 6, I will be boarding a train in Greensboro, NC bound for New York City. I haven't ridden a train in the US EVER and I am kind of scared/excited about it. It makes me think of the olden days when the locomotive was the primary mode of transportation for long journeys. I like the romanticism associated with trains and embarking on a new adventure. Plus it is cheap and I can bring a lot of shit! (up to 6 checked bags and 2 carry-on's!)

I am going to miss Hilton Head and the people I have met here a lot! I've met so many people who have inspired me to be more active, more outgoing, and a better person overall. I will also miss the crazy nights at Salty Dog slinging shirts to out of control tourists followed by wild nights out at the bars, especially Riders, where you never knew who you would run into or where the night would lead. Then there are the warm, sunny days off! Relaxing on the beach with a book and my iPod or meeting up with friends and getting hammered at the Tiki Hut while watching people play volleyball and strolling down the beach.

Ahh well... there will be many good times to be had in NYC as well. For now I am off to Adam's Valentines Day Party and shennanigans...