it's here
Things I Will and Things I Won't
So I'm thinking this is going to be my last post for a while. I just realized how much work I really have to do to get ready for the move on Saturday. And then I still don't know when the cable will get hooked up, which means I don't know when I'll have online access from home again.
And, uh, the Infinite Sock Project is being put on haitus for an indeterminate amount of time. I still pledge to knit all the Rhinebeck sock yarn this year, but...clearly March was not a good month for knitting.
Anyway. Oh, and by the way, I'm listening to the first Brooklyn Songcast Club's podcast (link via Cassie), and I highly recommend. Highly.
Anyway. I've been counting the days left in this craphole neighborhood. But I also want to recognize that this craphole neighborhood has been home for nearly four years, it's the first NY neighborhood that I lived in, and I want to give it some love. Not a lot, though. So here's my list of things I will miss, and the things I cackle with glee at the thought of never having to deal with again. And "miss" is rather relative, since I can come visit any time, and it's not like I'm never going to forge similar connections in Fort Greene.
What I Will Miss
1. My next door neighbor. I lucked out in living on the same floor as a very kind and considerate woman. We share a birthday. I'm never finding that again.
2. Carmine's pizza and the way they had computerized everything so I just had to tell them my phone number and they knew my address.
3. My morning guy. The one thing, really, that made this industrial cesspool feel like a neighborhood, was walking to the subway every morning and saying hello to the guy standing outside his business. At least, until he asked me, "How's Oliver?" Turns out Oliver is a dog belonging to someone he thought I was. But whatevs.
4. I'm sure, come next winter (unless it was like this winter), I am going to miss the two and a half blocks it took to get to the subway. And that my bank was right there by the entrance.
5. The guys at the T&A Deli. And the fact that I lived near a deli called the T&A Deli.
6. Uhhhhh. I think that's it.
7. Well, Zipi Zape. But I can go there any time.
What I Most Assuredly Will Not Miss
1. The noise. Oh dear god, the noise. Wait, I need to itemize the noise. #1 refers specifically to the auto shop noise.
2. The noise from the Noisy Noisersons, the Loudy McStereoblasters, the guys who listen to Tom Petty and I should not be able to tell you that, who live downstairs and tend to construct things from their ceiling at all hours of the night.
3. The noise from the trucks, the car alarms, the car stereos turned to 11 when they're parked outside my window with all the doors open so the whole damn neighborhood can listen to what sounds like the same damn song played over and over.
4. The sleazy guys outside the frontin' deli who leer drunkenly when I walk by.
5. That smell.
6. The dog shit everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. I know every neighborhood is going to have a problem with people not cleaning up after their dogs. But I have not yet come across another neighborhood where the sidewalks are practically lined with it. Every single sidewalk square on every single block: dog shit.
7. That Fresh Direct spurned my street when there was no other viable alternative within walking distance.
8. Lack of any decent drug store--my choices were the ghetto dollar place or the overpriced place.
9. Lack of any real nice place to eat within walking distance.
10. Lack of variety in delivery options. There's Carmine's, and up until recently Lily Thai--but the third time they screwed up my order...nuts to them.
11. The barely-there floors in this apartment. They may have been redone in the living room and office, but the floors in the dining room were not redone before I moved in, and they are in serious need of repair now. I am expecting one of the movers to put a foot through the boards on Saturday.
12. My lack of bathtub.
13. The yucky blue walls of this apartment. I have no plans to paint the new place. I welcome the coolness of the eggshell.
14. The L train. I ain't gonna miss the L train no more, no more. I ain't gonna miss the L train at all. I have to ride the L train maybe four more times total, and then that's it. No more. Except when I go to Zipe Zape.
