very simple

It’s too damn hot outside. It finally seemed to cool off a bit last night after a freak thunderstorm that came through the region (on the radio at about 4:30 yesterday afternoon, we had a "wind and hail" warning. Hail! in July!), and went down to the 70s. But today, it was in the 90s again. Which is nothing compared, to say, the southwest right now, but it still makes it really difficult to get anything done.

I’ve finished my first week of Italian classes, and I’m certainly starting to get the hang of it. I certainly won’t be fluent by the end, but I think that after four more weeks, I’ll definitely be functional. Now I just need to square away the rest of the aspects of this trip (there’s nothing quite like the bureaucratic black hole that is non-attorney staff at a law firm). I still don’t have a departure date, a visa, a place to live…you know, the essentials. But I can’t stress about it, because it’s not like I can go apartment hunting in Milan.

I should, however, start making a list of all of the stuff that I’m going to need to bring, arrange, etc. I’ll definitely need to forward my mail, stop my paper, turn off the cable, and do a whole bunch of other stuff that I haven’t even thought of yet. Oh, and clearly I need to go shopping (not that I ever need an excuse for that!).

I think my anxiety about this trip is manifesting itself in other ways though. For instance, today, I rearranged my hall closet so that it was roomier and more organized. Last weekend I replaced the toilet seat and handle on my toilet (they had previously been completely functional but boring white plastic), with a retro black seat to match the bathroom and a shiny chrome handle that (sort of) matches the rest of my bathroom fixtures. Oh, and I also spend last Saturday trying to figure out a better spot for my bicycle. After I took it out for a ride, I realized that the spot that I had it in made it really inconvenient to use frequently. Particularly since the prior setup required taking the front tire off so that it didn’t block a doorway. It’s basically in the same spot, but turned around and it seems to work. This was after significant trial and error, and the realization that the only way the bike was ever going to fit in the foyer would be if I mounted it on the ceiling. Damn you, doors that allow me to move from room to room.

Oh, and I finally called the reupholster to come and pick up my ottoman and chair. I only bought the fabric about 8 months ago!! It had become so bad that every time I saw my dad and stepmom, they’d harangue me incessantly about it. My dad would call me randomly just to ask if I had called the guy. I should point out that the ottoman was stained and the cushion had actually split on the chair, so this wasn’t just a cosmetic, oh, I’ll get to it sometime thing. It’s been needing to get done pretty much since I moved in. My apartment does feel mighty empty though.

I’m off to go do some italian homework. while sitting directly in front of my air conditioner.

Ciao!!

(and yesterday). My apartment is very drafty. The bedroom is the worst, thanks in large part to the air conditioning unit that is sitting in one of my windows – So much air was getting through, even with the cover that I put on, that my shades were actually fluttering (fluttering!) this morning. Not much I can do except put plastic window seals on all the windows. Unfortunately, when it gets a little warmer out, I have the reverse problem…

One of the quirks of living on the second floor of an 80-year old, 18-story building. Steam heat. They need to push enough heat through from the basement to keep the top floor heated to at least the minimum legal levels – Which means that when it’s not absolutely frigid out (like it’s been for the past few days), it can be a furnace in here. So the draft becomes a plus. Heck, I’ve been tempted to turn on the A/C.

Really, though – having to walk around my apartment wrapped in a blanket isn’t that big a deal. And I’m generally a naturally cold person too (so this may be partially in my head). But hey! I took some pictures of the apartment last weekend before I ventured out into the snow. I’m almost done furnishing (ordered a headboard and some more rugs from pottery barn today), but otherwise, I think I’m just about done. Here you go – they’re pretty self-explanatory (ignore the socks I forgot to pick up before taking the pictures!):

Now I just have to get around to hiring someone to reupholster the chair and the ottoman, and then I can decide that I hate everything and want to redecorate!

Ok. Not so much a week, but more like some random stuff that has gone on since the last time I posted.

I got a really unpleasant bacterial infection and now I’m on Cipro. Yum. You know it’s good when they’re giving you the stuff that they give to Anthrax victims.

In the span of two weeks, they’ve filmed not one, but two John Lennon-related movies on my street. There’s the one that I think is this one, but only because I thought I saw a number of folks lip syncing. They were set up for three days straight, in their hippie-60s gear. Before I started rooting around the internet, I thought it was some weird Hair remake. Then there was the one that Yoko Ono tried to prevent from filming, because, you know, they’re doing a location shoot recreation of her husband’s murder right in front of the apartment where she still lives. Freaks. Plus, Jared Leto is way too cute to have gained a whole bunch of weight to play Chapman. That was yesterday. I suppose this is what I get for living near the Dakota.

Oh, and I have to go to Mexico tomorrow (today?). For work. Just for a few days. I keep telling myself that, and I’ve truly only packed for travel through wednesday, but with the sickness, and the tiredness, and the cipro dizziness, I’m not exactly psyched in any event. Even though it does mean warm weather. Mmmm. Warm weather when I’m taking crazy antibiotics that require me to stay out of the sun. But hey, while I’m gone, my dad’s going to hang the shelves that I finally ordered for above my desk. Thanks Dad!! So that’s exciting.

We got our first measurable snowfall today, and within about 20 minutes it had turned into slush in my neighborhood, throwing off my somewhat ambitious morning when I walked outside and managed to step ankle-deep in one of those “invisible” puddles that always seem to form at NYC curbs. Oh well. Spending the weekend vegging in my apartment was just as nice.

Just the fact that I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything (OK, fine, I did do laundry this morning), or have to pack for another trip, was the nicest little break I could have gotten. Sure I still have some work to do (but I can probably get away with doing it tomorrow in the office).

I actually cleaned my apartment this week…well, “clean” is probably too strong a word – I tidied things up. Threw out boxes, hung real window shades on Wednesday night (meaning that my neighbor can no longer see directly into my living room), and packed up all the “contractor” stuff that needs to go to my parents’ barn in the country (I just don’t have room for paint cans, milk crates, plaster, etc.) I still have some recycling to throw out, but I’m thinking that the magazines may go in a box to my brother. I think he’d enjoy several months of New Yorkers and Entertainment Weeklys.

Anyway, I swear I’m going to start blogging more regularly now that I’m home. I promise. really.

Had the day off today for Yom Kippur. Of course, I’m still in Rome, so I didn’t get to go to temple, but I did fast (and just finished dinner). While I was reading the Times online today, I did my periodic perusal of the real estate listings to see if there had been any new apartments in my building put on the market.

There’s one which has an identical layout to my place, but has the crappiest furniture I’ve ever seen (and yes, I realize that this is just "stuff" from the realtors so that people can gauge what furniture will look like, but you’d think they’d pick something not, so, fugly, or lay it out in a way that didn’t cut off half of the living room).

And then I saw one thatt’s new to the market, and I’m pretty sure the building was still renovating it before I left (it’s a flip to market – the sponsor renovated it themselves to sell it for the first time). And instead of the standard kitchen renovation that the building has done to all vacated apartments to date, which involves standard sized (and ugly) white appliances and weird sink that is only two inches deep and sits on top of the dishwasher, I notice that they’ve got my stove! and the special extra-small dishwasher (of course they didn’t splurge for the one that actually matches the rest of the appliances, but still!)…the fridge has a similar look too, but it’s not the same (it can’t be, since my model was discontinued about 30 seconds after I bought mine). It’s a different layout generally, because it’s a 2-bedroom apartment, but it made me laugh.

I did notice when I was in the stairwell before I left that there was a box for the same stove that I had bought – now I know where it went!

I suppose enough building handymen (not to mention the super) saw what I did in my kitchen in all of their trips in and out to approve things and got inspired to do something a little bit nicer than what had been done to date.

heh. what’s funny is that I spent months obsessing over how to do the kitchen so that it wasn’t as space-wasting, inefficient, and ugly as the ones the building had done themselves. I guess they agreed with me.