Oh No Nyc

I have a business idea and its annoying. The reason it is annoying is because unlike your traditional brick and mortar there is a huge amount of research going into what I want to start. I’ve already toured several other companies in the industry and I’ve already started scouting out space. I’m currently typing up a survey to try and get a handle on the amenities that clients in the business would like but... It is exhausting. But fun so I hope it works out, working everyday for someone else is boring.

So I’m all moved in sans furniture because I don’t own any. But I’m loving the place already, its a little noisy, a little weird, and there is an evil dog that lives across the hallway. I also happen to live across from Central Park and not just any part one of the nicer looking gardens with a sitting area that has statues. I spend my walk to work looking at animals and not having to fight people walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk. I’m planning on going to pick up some furniture tomorrow and really set the place up so I can finally invite my friends over to see it. I can’t wait to see how a furniture shopping run with my sister is going to go.

I have a nice little apartment that is easy to clean and fairly quiet. The annoying thing has been buying cleaning products and all the little things I need. To add insult to injury for reasons unknown everything I bought last week on Amazon was delayed. Because of the delay I don’t have curtains not even in the bathroom.

Went to work yesterday despite doom and gloom and the snowy apocalypse. Mainly because the incentives the job offered for showing up were too good to pass up. I thought it’d be a good idea to stop by my new place and setup the internet on the way because I had plenty of time. This turned out to ruin my day because high on successfully setting up my new 100mbps internet I set out into the cold and watched the children who were on a snow day build snowmen and sled down hills in Central Park. To say I was envious would be a horrible understatement but I had a job to do and continued on my merry way. 

Things took a turn for the worst when I reached the subway station, I saw a train stop and announce that all passengers must exit then it sat there for a few minutes and took off to parts unknown but probably in the general direction that I needed to be. No big deal I thought and proceeded to wait for the next train after 15 minutes everyone started getting anxious. After 30 minutes arguments began brewing and the obligatory jackasses began to play their music as loud as their phones were capable or engage in inane conversations via speakerphone. 50 minutes in a group of tourists wandered in and almost ran over a black guy who proceeded to berate them about racism and gentrification in Harlem, they likely didn’t understand much of what he was saying. Finally an hour and 15 minutes the train shows up and its running local so it takes extra time to get down to 50th street. 

At this point I’m over it so as I’m walking along I wander into a McDonalds because its cold and screw a diet. I order my usual which isn’t really my usual since I only eat there once every six months grab my food and head to the office. Lucky for me things were fairly quiet considering that the majority of staff were working from home. I did make an attempt at ordering dinner but it didn’t show up until 3 minutes before I got in my car to head home. All in all a perfectly fine day.

I did something I should have done in the first place when I picked out this apartment, I walked around the area. Previously I had only focused on the site with the public housing buildings because that was the route I took to get to the apartment. But after walking around literally one block over on the other side it blew my mind. I’m in a super calm area that has a ridiculous amount of stuff to do and is fairly close to several subway stops. I’m really looking forward to trying out this weekend brunch at this place around the corner which is actually El Museo del Barrio.

I typed a much longer and cooler post this weekend about the Nintendo switch, dog sitting, and cheap Soju but I lost it.

I’m signing a lease tomorrow, my first New York lease and its going to be in Manhattan so that’ll be fun and interesting, I’ll make sure to read the contract twice. To while away the time I picked up a Nintendo Switch and it is pretty much everything Nintendo said it would be, it plays games in your hand and on your big screen I’m a little concerned about how powerful it is because it seems to just be a miniature Wii U, on the bright side this thing is more powerful than an Xbox 360 or PS3. It also led to a conversation at the office where I discovered an executive of ours is a lowkey super video game guru who owns effectively all the systems.

This weekend I did watch a dog, he’s a good dog, I still want to fight him. I’m not sure maybe it is his passive aggressive attitude about everything that rubs me the wrong way. I’ve never seen a dog sulk away instead of begging for a treat. 

Cheap Soju, I bought a bottle of Chumchurum happy water or something. I knew this was going to be a problem based on the face it came in a fancy plastic bottle but I drank it anyway, I will now ensure I keep a couple bottles in my home at all times. It is liquor, it is decently strong, and it doesn’t taste horrible.

I’m horrible at writing things down.

I think I might have found the apartment for me, it’s in a nice location, really close to the Park, I obviously ran the checks to make sure it is in an Amazon Prime location it also has Foodkick availability. The problem is it doesn’t have Fios and getting there at night might involve shenanigans because the nearest train is quite clearly in the hood but otherwise its freaking amazing. Well I hope all turns out well I might look at a couple other places if this doesn’t work out but I’ve got my fingers crossed.

I received some bad news the other day. I spend too much money, not enough to put me in any kind of dire financial straits but enough that I get tired of my conscious nagging me. Starting next month I’m going to make a conscious effort to cut down on Ubers, unnecessary food purchase (extra etc on everything), and possibly funnel a little more money into my savings account. I’m currently putting away a little over 26% of my money into savings and I think if I really sit down and tighten the belt I can get that up to 30%. Also to make myself hyper aware of my actual buying power I’m moving my rent money to a different account entirely.  I’ll put 3 months rent into an account and set my direct deposit to send a rent’s worth of money to the account each month and set it all to auto pay my rent monthly so I stop thinking about it. I might also automate the mortgage on my rental property this way as well. Then I can settle down and really look at what I’m working with and how my spending can get a little silly. Using this app and really auditing my bills and things I found out I’ve been siphoning small amounts of money off to basically toy investment products like Acorn, Robinhood, and Prosper to name a few. I’m torn on if I should remove the money from these services they’ve made a tidy little side savings but they aren’t really making me any money and its making it harder to budget. I’ll probably pull all of it aside and put it back into my savings going forward. Hopefully I don’t get an alert this time next month to remind me I’ve spent 1k on food and Ubers.

The weather in NYC has been absurd this week swinging back and forth between highs up to 70 degrees, fog, 50 degrees, then 60 degrees and finally a rainstorm. Its like you’re damned if you do and you're damned if you don’t. Friend of my came up with the fun observation that people dress for the date and not the weather because a significant amount of the population wandering around when it was 70 degrees out were carrying the warm clothes they stepped out of the house with expecting normal weather. I ended up in the opposite situation, I took my behind up to Harlem in just my dress shirt because hey it was 70 degrees that day how cold can it get? It got cold and I found myself wandering home and riding a subway at barely sustainable temperatures. I pride myself on not getting sick and I was wildly worried that I’d catch a cold, I didn’t but you never know. This leads to today where it is beautiful out when I wake up and everyone I encounter this day reiterated that account of the weather. That is until the heavens opened up and a downpour begins and I at this point refuse to leave my apartment. This all leads to the present where I’m hungry haven’t gone grocery shopping and have given up on being productive. This is when I remember I’ve received a shipment of the Cacoa Soylent flavor. This stuff tastes exactly like chocolate milk, I’m a fan. I’ve usually tolerated soylent and even enjoyed some flavors like Coffiest but this Cacoa is the best. Hands down the ultimate snack drink of all time I just doubled up my order of this stuff. The Nectar flavor aka cereal milk isn't as good, or maybe I’m just not a fan but its clearly inferior to the chocolate so now I’m going to give the Nectar away to people even though I know its not a great way to be a brand ambassador but I don’t want it anymore and I don’t like wasting food. 

Still out stomping around the city looking for an apartment. I spent a lot of time between 99th and 108th on the east side today, it was fun. The apartments I saw all seemed like small 2BRs converted to larger 1BRs. I now refuse to live on anything higher than the 3rd floor unless there is an elevator. Also nobody should use granite on their windowsills. Otherwise it was quite productive and I learned my budget is at the cusp of 100 dollars making a huge difference in the quality of living spaces. It didn’t hurt that my agent was genuinely interesting and knowledgeable and was always able to point out a nice store or useful location in each neighborhood we traveled in. Hopefully next week I find something that doesn’t break the bank while simultaneously making me feel like I’ve found the deal of the century. Special shoutouts to the guy selling pitbulls in front of one of the apartments I was viewing which probably saddened my agent.

Today I went out and tried looking for a new apartment in New York. I wasn't ready. First I didn't give myself enough time, with only a couple of hours before the start of my work day I did feel a tiny bit rushed but it seemed ok in the end. The greatest success of the day had to have been including a good friend along for the ride, when someone can look at a situation objectively and remember to ask the good questions that fly out of your head as soon as you see large closets and decent lighting. I did find a unit I liked but the problem is the area isn't what I'd hoped it to be. My friends are spread out over a sizeable swath of the city and this neighborhood would definitely end up being the most suspect I'd have to travel through at night. Granted my current job gives a black car that drops me off at my door at night but that might not always be the case. So I'll continue searching for something in my price range that is also where I want to be. My personal safety isn't something I think about too often but when I get the feeling there might be a problem then it's real. I hope I find something soon though and next time remember to take pictures of not just the apartment but the area in general. Also special shoutout to my sister for finding potentially the coolest apartment so far.

I’ve made a startling discovery thanks to my Apple Watch, because of my new job I don’t move around much. For the vast majority of my life I’ve been able to maintain a certain base level of fitness thanks to being active during the day. Now that I’m working a night shift not only am I not moving around in my office much but I’m also not walking anywhere to get lunch or take breaks. So in the interest of not letting things get out of hand I’ve joined a gym. It has been awhile since the last time I’ve gone and I do miss my muscles a little I plan on taking it easy. You have to walk too much in this city for me to be murdering my legs and such like I used to. I’m hoping for some positive results in the next 90 days and coupled with a renewed dedication to a mostly Soylent diet it should be too hard.

My gym has a theatre room, pretty much just like how I had my old elliptical setup in the theatre room in my house in SoCal, I’m excited. Well not really because I probably should focus more on strength training than anything because (Summer is Coming)

Excuse the prune fingers, I was in the shower, one of the few places you can truly be warm in this city.

Feeling like it is entirely too late for me to be awake.