The MoMa and the Lease

We woke this morning anticipating an early call from our new landlords detailing when and where we could sign a lease. Well, we would be kept waiting all day. Fortunately for us, we happened to be waiting in New York City. Even more fortunate is that through Steph's job we have free access to most of the museums in the area - a.k.a. free views and we don't have to worry about running in and out or not making the most out of the experience. I put together an album of pictures we took at the Museum of Modern Art. You can take a look at it here. The lobby of the museum has this awesome rainbow fruit stripes gum look to it. You remember that gum you just had to get in the checkout line at the supermarket because it had the fun flavors and the zebra mascot, but the actual flavor only lasted for about two minutes outside the door and was never
any good to begin with? This was the first real museum we both went to in New York, so Stephanie was really excited to take me upstairs and introduce me to "her friends." We went upstairs and took what I'd call the speed tour of the MoMa. Led by the hand from hall to hall we visited with Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, and on and on. It was all kind of dizzying. We didn't know when we were going to have to head out to sign the lease, so we headed to check out the current exhibit. I was pretty floored by the first piece. If you ever have the opportunity to experience Take Your Time by Olafur Eliasson I highly recommend it. The first piece we encountered was entitled Ventilator. I apologize that I took the video sideways, please bear with me. If it helps, you can turn your computer monitor on its side, or simply tilt your head 90 degrees to the left (in a slow motion techno club dance manner).

Basically, it's the coolest ceiling fan I've ever seen (pun quite intentional, I assure you). It would swing in these giant arcs across the room propelled only by a small bedroom fan. I have one of these at home I'm thinking of trying this with. If only my ceiling was a bit higher. The rest of the exhibit was mostly concerned with the eye and how we perceive images. The artist, Olafur Eliasson, utilizes light and mirrors to fool the eye into altered perceptions. In one long hallway the entire room is coated in bright yellow light, which, in effect, created a monochromatic filter for our eyes tuning everything into grey scale. Check me out in black and white:

My favorite room involved a nearly 360 degree curved wall which randomly changed colors and hues. It reminded me a lot of an iPod commercial. I danced in front of it a bit pretending I was Chris Martin or Bono, but people just stared so I stopped acting like... well, myself. The pics below were taken in the same room. There were too many pieces of interest to talk about here, but if you see one in the slide show and have a question about what it is or what it does feel free to ask. After waiting around all day, we finally rode the train over to Brooklyn to meet with our landlord at 6:00. Boy, we sure were strung along for a while. Anyway, everything worked out, except for the fact that I had to cram in the back seat of a car that would have already been too small with out the two car seats and the extra box of whatever occupying the space where I was supposed to discuss the lease and sign the paperwork. Seriously, these people in Brooklyn don't seem to appreciate the value of an office. I was never once allowed to go visit their office. By the way, I later learned that this car we were meeting in was one block away from their office. Bah. People amaze me sometimes.

We walked all around Times Square that night looking for a Ray's pizza. It's the one in the Iron Man movie. At about 11:00 that night we finally stumbled on one and it was glorious! Here's my first taste of Ray's:

Later on at the Virgin Records megastore I saw this microphone sponge and thought it was pretty awesome. Good night.

*This way you can pretend you're the fourth Jonas Brother while singing along to your favorite Disney produced pop song.

Union Square and the Apartment Hunt

Sunday morning in Manhattan seems to move just as fast as any other day. We began to make appointments to see apartments while we were still in the Tampa airport. For weeks, we had scoured Craig's List to find scam artists at it and real apartments come and go faster than you would ever imagine. Finally, Sunday morning we had a real stroke of apartment hunter's luck. I had called and left a message regarding an apartment and within ten minutes we had received a call back and were out the door on the way to Brooklyn. We viewed a number of apartments, but ultimately the one we fell in love with was the first apartment we ever went to in New York. We sign the lease tomorrow. That's it. Bang. Just like that. We had been in New York for less than twenty-four hours, and we had an apartment by 11:00 in the morning. You can check out some pictures we took here.

By noon we were starving, but we still wanted to walk the area a bit. We stepped into a local deli/grocery/convenience store and bought a sub. New York lesson #2: Real spicy mustard requires accompanying beverage. (In case you missed it, probably because it was only inferred, New York lesson #1 was: always have your umbrella handy.) Back to the hotel we rode. Back over the Williamsburg bridge and through the bowels of the city subway. We emerged at Lexington and 49th street greeted by the sight of The Barclay a block away. Now we wanted to celebrate our good fortune. We headed down to Union Square, via Subway of course. Have I mentioned how much I've enjoyed the walking and mass transit? I've even gotten used to the speed with which you are required to dart through traffic in order to continue on your way. We spent some time in the park at Union Square shopping the street vendors and listening to the street performers play. I bought a pair of shades from a lady for $5.00. The nose bridge piece disappeared somewhere around an hour later. He he. Oh, and there's three giant shoe stores and a Forever XXI we had to visit (obviously not for me on this one). We learned that New York lesson #3 was to have comfortable walking shoes. Steph traded in her flip flops for this cute, yet functional pair of tennis shoes. Once again, we were starving. We at at a little paneraesque restaurant where everything was served on foccocia. Not really what I'd had in mind for my first New York pizza, but it was still pretty good. We'll go to Ray's (as seen in Iron Man) later this week. Steph indulged me and we went to The Strand across the street. I have never seen so many books, and I work in a bookstore. I think Sinatra put it best, "I'm in heaven..." A few bargain book purchases and an hour later, we headed out past the movies where we were dismayed to see tickets went for $11.50 a person. We can't even pretend to be students as our student IDs are from Florida State. Oh well, you win some you lose some. Now I'll have to watch all of my movies illegally online. Just kidding.

We headed back to Brooklyn to walk the neighborhood again, this time at night. Our street was really safe and quiet; snug would be the word. We walked for about thirty blocks and took the G line back to the city. Someone was really looking out for us today.

Us in Union Square.

Rocking my new aviators.