Monday, May 28, 2012

I've got some real estate here in my bag

It seems summer has come to New York City, and it's arrived in full force.  I'm sitting in my living room with the fan on high, shades closed, ice bag on my neck, as few clothes as possible, trying to sit completely still.  I went for a run earlier and nearly died of heat exhaustion after just fifteen minutes. 

This weather reminds me of when I first moved to New York, almost a year ago now.  Seven of us from flight attendant training were sharing a dingy room at the Newark Howard Johnson for two weeks until our apartment lease started.  It was communal living then, hard core.  Two double beds meant if it was your turn to sleep in a bed at all, you were sharing it with whoever happened to be there.  Male, female, snorer, kicker, whoever.  And if you got the floor, you got stepped on by whoever had the 5am sign-in at JFK and had to leave at 2am.  Suitcases were EVERYWHERE, uniforms hung wet and wrinkly on hangers on any available makeshift hook.  Toiletries covered every inch of the bathroom sink, and there was no way to know which towel was yours, so you just felt around for the driest one you could find.  We had only two keys to share between the seven of us, so we had to come back after a trip and just hope someone else was there.  We ended up telling the front desk we'd "lost our key" multiple times.  I'm pretty sure they were onto our hippy-commune setup. 

On the day we left, only four of us were available, so we rented a car and lugged all the suitcases into the trunk and backseat--anywhere we could fit them.  Wifey--the youngest of us--braved New York traffic until we made it to our third story walk-up apartment.  And in that blazing heat, we heaved every last suitcase up three flights of stairs into this very apartment, though at the time it was entirely unfurnished.  Almost a year later, most of us have already moved out, and are getting ready to go on to the next chapter of our lives.  For a year, we were family--at training, at the HoJo, in New York.  We're at the end of an era, my loves.  On to another year of successes and failures and laughter and tears.  And lots and lots of wine.