Category Archives: Non-Travel

Brooklyn to Illinois, Part II (Or, Do You Know Where the Jack Is Located?)

If you’ve read Part I of our trip from Brooklyn to Illinois, you know that our road trip had hit a snag before we had even left the city.  (Or, more accurately, a snag had hit us, in the form of a huge bus.1)  We figured we had probably just reset our moving karma and the rest of the trip would be cake, but, alas, it most certainly was not.

First, the good: On Friday night, even with the delays attendant to being hit by a bus (dealing with the police and the rental car company and then hitting rush hour because we had been delayed in the city), we made it to our goal town of Weirton, West Virginia.

Weirton, WV | source

Now, the even better: On Saturday, we traveled on to Indianapolis, only about 5 hours away, and visited some friends (also former Brooklynites) who live there.  We hadn’t seen them in over a year, so it was nice to spend some time with them and their son (who had turned two since we had seen him last and acquired a huge vocabulary).

Everyone had been warning us about the impending snowstorm, and we were compulsively checking the weather.  The last thing we wanted to do was be stranded on the highway in a minivan full of 95% of our worldly possessions during a snowstorm, and we were trying to determine the best time to leave Indianapolis to avoid this fate (or if we could leave at all on Sunday as planned).  When we woke up on Sunday, we found a few inches2 of snow on the ground (and on our vehicle) but there didn’t appear to be any ice at that point.  The weather showed snow continuing to fall in Indianapolis for the rest of the day, but the remainder of our drive looked pretty clear. Continue reading Brooklyn to Illinois, Part II (Or, Do You Know Where the Jack Is Located?)

Brooklyn to Illinois, Part I (Or, That Time We Got Hit By a Bus)

Moving is pretty much always the worst. If it’s not a rival moving van blocking the service drive you have reserved (which happened during my second Chicago move), it’s your movers perilously hoisting your couch over an indoor courtyard (which happened during my move to Manhattan).

Our move was more complicated than a normal move since we weren’t simply moving to a new location. It sounded easy enough: sell the furniture, donate some stuff, ship some things.

Of course, it was more difficult than we had imagined. We had trouble finding buyers for some of the furniture, and then we had to schedule the service elevator (a task which proved more difficult than I thought was warranted). We were more emotionally attached to some of our stuff than we had expected, making the donation process difficult. And shipping things required either renting a Zipcar and driving to the post office or using a hand truck to move boxes down the Fulton Mall (both methods which we employed), and then waiting in line at the post office.

Photo Feb 25, 12 18 04 PM
our IKEA bed, heading downstairs to its new owner

But we persevered, and, by noon on Thursday, less than 24 hours before we were to begin our move, we had just a pile of boxes sitting in the middle of our living room, destined to be loaded into a minivan and driven to my mom’s house in Illinois. Continue reading Brooklyn to Illinois, Part I (Or, That Time We Got Hit By a Bus)

10 Things I Will Miss About New York

With our time in New York quickly drawing to a close, here are 10 things (not people, obviously, as I will miss all our friends & co-workers!) I will miss most about New York, presented in no discernible order and with the acknowledgement that this list is pre-coffee and therefore probably incomplete:

1. Having the ocean only a short train ride away

beach!
The Rockaways

2. Seeing the Statue of Liberty on my commute every single morning

Liberty Island
Statue of Liberty

3. Eating take-away from Cong Ly outside

Grilled Pork Bun from Cong Ly (not pictured: outside)

4. Spending cold/rainy/generally inclement days wandering around MoMA

"limbs unfurled for action"
MoMA artwork

5. Absolutely everything about Brooklyn Bridge Park

DSCN0108
Jane’s Carousel at Brooklyn Bridge Park

6. Living near an amazing yoga studio

https://twitter.com/malayoganyc/status/421075784447426560

7. People-watching in Washington and Union Squares

random pianist in Washington Square Park
Random pianist in Washington Square Park

8. Shopping at the green markets

colorful tomatoes
Tomatoes for sale at the Union Square Greenmarket

9. Browsing at the Strand

I had to grab this image from the Creative Commons; my only picture of the Strand was of a BarBri book for sale, which no one wanted to see. | source

10. Waking up to a view of the skyline

photo
Oh, New York.