The Blind Leading the Blind...Amongst Other Things

 Sorry it’s been such a long time since my last post. I’m constantly tired…perhaps I have mono….meh doubtful, I think it’s just New York sucking away my soul, but I mean that in the most positive of ways of course.

Night 1

Well I’ve finally moved into my own apartment but not without losing some dignity and more importantly, money, along the way. I have now officially moved five times and to be completely honest, if it weren’t for Joss and numerous cab drivers, Hux and I would be on the street with a sign saying, “Will make biscuits for lodging.” So thanks to all of you.

   My apartment is wonderful but has gone through several   transformations in the past few weeks. I moved in on January 31^st so I’ve had enough time to have it clean, to messy, to complete nest dwelling in shambles. It’s a great location, happy to be there, enough said.

Ascetic Monk Space

Since I haven’t written in so long, I am going to try to briefly catch you all up to speed on my happenings in New York with the hopes that the next posts will be more frequent in arrival and more in detail.

OK SO.

Since my relocation to New York, I’ve been shuffled around quite a bit. One saving grace has been the presence of my good buddies from Charleston: Kimbo, Brandon, and Kelsey. All of us are a bit green, a bit naïve, and a bit stubborn, so that can make for several interesting adventures.

Currently

We’ve been trying to do brunch fairly regularly as we all have busy schedules; although, to be completely honest, we all have about 5 friends total so we’re going out together, brunch is really just an excuse. Anyways-great brunch spot:

Juliette

Off Bedford in Williamsburg

Brandon and I got the baked eggs. It was AWESOME. Delicious weird concoction. Kelsey got the omelet of the day and didn’t enjoy it. She’s a bad orderer but we love her anyway. Kimbo, per usual, got the Eggs Florentine. Also good, but nothing compared to the baked eggs. The atmosphere was great. We sat in an indoor patio that had a glass roof so there was a lot of natural light, a preference of Kelsey’s.

Patio at Juliette

  After brunch, we meandered a bit and looked for furniture. Here is   where the blind were quite honestly leading the blind. Attempting to find the Meeker Ave. Flea Market was pretty much ridiculous. I made up an address in my head. We walked there, realized we were lost, even though Meeker is right by the freeway, pretty hard to miss. Yeah well we trudged through the snow for about 45 minutes somehow. None of us had on snowshoes or anything even remotely close to being appropriate winter wear. The route we took was snow laden but we continued on in the hopes of finding amazing flea market treausures. Finally got to the Meeker Ave Flea Market only to discover that it was not so great. Not only that, but what was I thinking? How do I intend on moving these things much less paying for them? After that, we went out separate ways too tired to attempt another expedition.

Three kitties
at the Flea Market

Speaking of furniture, I have very little. I have a bed that I bought off Craigslist that evidently doesn’t have bed bugs…which is good. Bed bugs are bad, right? I also have a wardrobe that came with the room that is serving as both wardrobe and dresser. I have a little shelf that I found in the trash that I hung up and am quite fond of because it was free. But most importantly I have a bedside table.

The bedside table was also a purchase from Craigslist. It was about $25 and in the picture seemed ideal. The girl I was buying it from seemed nice and not like she was going to abduct me once I arrived at her apartment. I asked if she could meet me at the subway station but she said no which was a little disconcerting; however, I now know why. She lived a mile away from the subway. Walking there it seemed a bit long but okay not a big deal. Once I picked up the item though, my journey truly began. I have no gloves right now. I always lose one along the way. I’ve gone through three sets of mittens/gloves since I have moved here. But I digress, walking with an approximately 10 pound table wouldn’t have actually been that bad but I was walking in the snow for a mile without protective hand gear! Truly, a story that your grandparents will tell. By the time I got to the subway I was near tears. My fingers felt like they were bleeding. I got in the subway and there was only a large door style entrance. A nice polish man tried to help me but being as stubborn as I am I declined. I pushed the table through subway and soldiered on. By the time I was home, I knew I had developed bruises on my thighs from walking with it in front of me. Many of you may ask…Alex, why didn’t you just take a cab? Good question. The cab would’ve probably only been about $8.00 but I figured I didn’t deserve to take a cab. I mean I was paying for the table; a cab was out of the question. My logic will always prevail.

With Brandon, Kimbo, and Kelsey, I have been going out a lot in Greenpoint. I love Greenpoint, it feels safe and wonderful and polish…however, fun fact, it is I think the second most toxic area in Brooklyn! That oil refinery I was living in with Clementine and Kendall…uhm, it leaked below Greenpoint for about twenty years…so good to know. Evidently, pregnant women and women of child bearing age should not swim in the waterway near by. Many people who have lived in Greenpoint their whole lives are prone to cancer.

Aside from toxic waste, Greenpoint has some really cute spots.

Palace Fried Heaven

We’ve going to this place we’ve named “No Name Bar” precisely because it has no name to speak of. It’s just small enough; drinks are fairly inexpensive and good crowd. I’m not telling the address though-it a secret.

One of the nights at No Name, Kimbo and Brandon and I were of course you know…hungry…around 4 am. So we stumbled into a magical land. A magical land called Palace Fried Chicken. I’ve since discovered that it’s a chain but I do not care. It’s the best fried chicken I’ve had in awhile…probably because I wasn’t eating meat back home. But holy Moses, this chicken was delicious, great hot sauce. It was around $7.00 for 5 pieces of chicken and fries. YUMNACIOUS. We ate it on the floor of Kimberly and Brandon’s kitchen.   Obviously, this isn’t my first fried chicken/floor/hot sauce situation.

Chwings at KP's

A place I have not been a fan of is The Manhattan Inn. The first time we went we didn’t know what it was called. We entered; there was a long bar, then this black curtain. We go behind the black curtain and there are tables and a white grand piano under a silver disco ball. People are dancing to disco. Not that I mind disco. Don’t get me wrong…but what does that sound like to you? A gay bar, my thoughts exactly. I’m still not convinced that it isn’t a gay bar although we’ve been back since. Shocker, Brandon loves it. I don’t like being confused as to whom I can give the eye to/hopefully procure a free drink from. I get annoyed. Don’t confuse me Manhattan Inn!

My Internships:

Well, my internship with the photographer is no longer. I set up a photo shoot with my friend Lee. She was going to model for him, for free, as a favor to me. Lee could only model for two hours. When I told the hack, he told me to fix it or forget. I told him she could model for two hours and then he wished me good luck on my journey. I’m pretty pleased with this. I didn’t enjoy going out to Bushwick in order to do data entry in this dude’s apartment that smelled odd. So…good riddance.

As for Soundscreen Design, love it. Love my boss Olivia. She is the jam/a fellow cat lady which is, I am pretty sure, why she hired me. Can’t say anything other than I love it. Check it out! 

Work:

My friend Katie S. got me a job at some clothing trade show. Little did I know that this was a huge event: Coterie. Uhm…Coterie was not fun. The girls I worked with were awful terrible people. I was far from Katie and Kimbo and it was just bad. The clothes that I was attempting to sell were terrible. Here http://www.shopstyle.com/browse/womens-clothes/Jaloux okay maybe it’s not the worst, but as friends of mine, you know I would not be selling that…so it was hard to sell it because I hated and because the day before (this past Saturday) was kind of ridiculous.

An Epic Saturday

A dear friend from Charleston, Eugenie, was visiting from DC. Because I had to work Coterie on Sunday morning, we all decided to make Saturday kind of like a Saturday night. And we succeeded. We went to Walter Foods on Grand Street for Brunch- great Chicken and Waffles and delicious mimosas and blood marys…so that was how our day began…

We then proceeded to John’s apartment but not before buying three Four Lokos and two bottles of Champagne. It got messy real quick…after around 4 hours of imbibing we went to Artist & Fleas, which was awesome. Got a cute pair of earrings with my pretend money that I seem to think I have.  But seriously, check out Artist & Fleas they have amazing clothes, jewelry and trinkets.  

Loko Oh No!

Quick note: We also went to American Apparel. I texted Brandon from outside: “I’m too drunk to be here.” Time stamp: 1:12 p.m. 

We meandered about, drank more, and went to Enid’s and then No Name Bar and then Manhattan Inn. Luckily, I stopped drinking at this point. Unfortunately, drinking for 10 hours no matter when you go stop drinking will give you a hang over, hence why the first day of Coterie was terrible, well that and the fact that I had to work with evil spawns of fashion Satan.