"isn't that a a great apartment? Fogetaboutit!"

As previously stated, the packing up and driving to the big apple was quite a horrible experience, but we thought it was smooth sailing just a few hours outside Manhattan...boy were we wrong.

Come to find out I actually didn't get bored of the Pennsylvania trees and landscape. They were quite beautiful and if not too hick-ish I would like to think about living here someday. Lyle was agreeable and apathetic all at once. Oh well.
Then it was dark (as in 8pm). Because New York is on the complete other end of the eastern time zone than Louisville is, it gets dark much quicker. That should make our winters here LOVELY. It was a little rainy on our drive through New Jersey. Not much to see there...it seemed more suburban than Pennsylvania that's for sure. Then GIGI (I called the garmin navigation system woman's voice gigi) directed us perfectly the entire trip UNTIL she said to go through NEWARK to get to manhattan INSTEAD of just taking the Holland tunnel. So here we are on the freeway with a fork in the road. Do we listen to our instincts and take the Holland tunnel or do we go to Newark the way Gigi says? Much to our demise we did the latter. It was a HORRIBLE experience. I felt like we were in Hollywood during rush hour. There were lights after lights with stop and go traffic. THEN we ended up in the GHETTO part of New Jersey (I can't even remember the name now) and Gigi kept telling us 5.2 miles until the next turn (yuck). About 45 minutes later, guess where we turned up? THE HOLLAND TUNNEL! I was so mad, Lyle was even MORE UPSET (of course--anything driving related gets him heated). Luckily Gigi got us through Manhattan quick enough (only 15 or 20 minutes) and BAM we were at the upper east side in our 2 week rental at 11PM...yuck. The next hurdle was to inconspicuously get our entire packed car full of stuff up to the apartment and still make it look like we are "family visiting from out of town". Yeah right! Anyway, Lyle was a champ and took most of the stuff up while I think I took up only two loads. We had a doorman who gave us some New York attitude and a very quick elevator (luckily).

Here's what the place looked like with all our stuff crammed in. I couldn't believe it! We had been shafted for sure. The broker we'd been working with (to this day) says "isn't that a FANTASTIC place? Fogetaboutit" He is such a salesman because NO it is NOT a fantastic place.
It is SMALLER than our future apartment and we paid equal to 2 months of our rent for two weeks! This was the worst mistake we had made so far. We didn't realize that we should have subleased from someone for 2 weeks instead. It was dirty, it was SMELLY with crazy incense. I had to hide the incense in the closet because it was giving me painful headaches!

Finally we got all of the stuff out of the rental car (by this time it is midnight) and Lyle ventures to midtown to deliver the car and take the subway back (so that he doesn't have to wake up at 6:30am to deliver it by 7am the next morning). He walks through the door at 1am (rental keys in hand) and explains that budget rental car didn't have a a drop box and that he had to park the rental car a few blocks away so that it wouldn't get towed or booted. After we unpacked just enough to get ready for bed we fell asleep just before 2am. Unfortunately Lyle had to set his alarm for (yes) 6:15am so that he could drop the car off by 7am in midtown. He said I was out cold when he woke up. Did I mention that we are sleeping on a day bed and trundle bed - SEPARATE beds, right next to each other? Anyway he crawled back in bed and we didn't even come to until about 11am. Then we got up and started "living in New York"...talk about a ROUGH start.
Granted the 2 week rental had nice qualities about it, but it was cramped, tight, and we had to sleep on different beds "next" to each other! So miserable. Only a week longer and we're outta there! Plus, (because I am a bad person and I judge things/people) I couldn't get over how weird this woman was and how bad her design style was. I mean, she is in her 40s, not married, she nannies, and she only has very few pictures up of herself (and only with her nanny girls)...kind of weird. I think she might even be foreign, who knows. Anyway, the weirdest part of this whole experience? We SAW her across the street at a local market?! What? You would think she was leasing this out for a few weeks because she is backpacking in Europe, in Tokyo for the Olympics...NOT IN NEW YORK CITY. Nope, she is probably living next door with her friend and living out of a suitcase for 2 weeks to make an obscene amount of money. Well, that made us fit to be tied. We were very jaded by this experience and by certain types of New Yorkers.
We chalk it all up to life experience and we are so willing and ready to help the next newbies that move to the big apple! Now we just have to make it to our final destination (our apartment) in a week and we'll jump the FINAL hurdle. PHEW!