What Happens When Your Roommate Doesn't Let the Exterminator in the Apartment to Spray

First off, let me explain that minus the small furry friend who last made his final (fatal) appearance in October, our apartment has been pest free.

Until recently.

I found out awhile ago that my roommate doesn't think that the exterminator's spray works, so she hasn't opened the door the last couple of months when he's been in the building to spray. To this I say, you know what else doesn't work? NOT spraying. But that's just me.

So not surprisingly, lately I've seen a few little baby roaches scurrying off into the corner of our cabinets here and there, but we keep everything really clean, so I haven't really thought much of it.

Til tonight.



In case you can't tell, that smudge on the top of my wine glass IS A ROACH. A LITTLE BABY ROACH, who decided to go for a swim in my wine glass when I left it sitting on the counter. Oh my god. I'll skip the description of the moment I took a sip and realized out that what I saw in my glass wasn't sediment.

(Do you like how I call it a little baby roach, to soften it up a bit? It's not really working. I'm still about to vom.)

My Charge Thinks I'm Hilarious

"Emily, you're a riot! Now bust me outta here."

Kick Ass

It's quite possible that I might step in a pothole while crossing the street (again) and almost get hit by a bus (again), but y'all - TODAY I was the winner of the surviving-life-in-Manhattan game.

What's this, you're wondering?

This is the microwave I bought off of craigslist (I heart craig) for $20. I made the previous owner wrap it up, like that would somehow deter anyone on the street who might want it, but it must have worked, cause I made it home.
I carried that baby down a flight of stairs, down the street a block and a half, RAN with it to catch the bus, and then hauled it up five flights to my apartment.
FO' REAL.
Of course, now I can't feel my arms, but that's not important. What's important is my new (used) $20 microwave!

And I figured out the reason why lately I seem to be gaining weight here in NYC. It's not the late night chinese food or the 250 calorie daily chai latte.
It must be 'cause my MUSCLES weigh so much, right?

RIGHT?

You Can Take the Girl Out of Texas...

Y'all. I'm a little conflicted.

Truth be told, proud Texan though I am, I've spent many years of my life losing my Texas accent and denying my redneck East Texas heritage. I gave away my Ropers before I ever graduated from high school. For those of you who don't know what Ropers are, I'm guessing you never put on your best pair for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo...more times than I, I mean you, will admit.

But late Saturday night at the end of a vodka-filled birthday party for the boyfriend of a friend, I found myself dancing in the living room with the other stragglers who were still there. But y'all. I wasn't just dancing. I was two-stepping. Only after being asked to demonstrate, of course. And I'm pretty sure I taught everyone else how to two-step, too.

Yeehaw!

Addiction

I know it's wrong, but I just can't help myself. I am addicted...
to The Next Food Network Star! Thank god the finale was tonight. I usually don't watch much tv when my roommate's home, since it's right outside her room and I feel like it bugs her, but since she's been out of town the last two weeks, I've logged more than my fair share of hours in front of Paula, Giada, and Rachael. But tonight the marathon was over, and my favorite won! Although I don't actually cook myself, I love watching other people who can do more than boil water. Now if I can just find someone to cook for me in person...

It's probably a good thing that my roommate gets back tomorrow, since I have lots of school work to do in the next two weeks, and no time to spend with my F.N. friends. I know they'll miss me.

In other news, I put a deposit down on an apartment that is available in my building next month. Turns out I closed on the sale of my house in Austin the same day. So, in what universe did I think it was a good idea to trade my three bedroom townhouse with garage and w/d in Austin for a 6th floor walk-up with no laundry and one bathroom in Harlem? And for rent that is twice my former mortgage payments? I heart NY!

In Case You Were Wondering...

Thursday in New York was gorgeous. It was 80 degrees, and I went to Riverside Park and walked for an hour, watching people walking their dogs, kids playing ball, cherry blossoms in full bloom... so beautiful. Made me so happy to be here.

And today? April 22, Earth Day?

It's 45 degrees, windy, and raining on and off. Welcome to spring!

No, it's SoHA, not SoHo.

I went to eat at this great Italian restaurant Wednesday night near Teachers College called Max SoHa, on 123rd and Amsterdam.

Savvy New Yorkers know that SoHo, the trendy shopping district in Manhattan, is named thus because it's the neighborhood South of Houston Street. But I bet you didn't know that Max SoHa is named for its location, too. That would be South Harlem, baby!

The best part of the night was when we were on the patio enjoying yummy pasta and wine after class, and all of a sudden we see a black Town Car speed up through the light in front of us and start driving on the wrong side of the road, into traffic. At the same time we see two guys start running from around the corner of the elementary school across the street, holding walkie talkies, chasing down another guy who was on the corner. Two police cars with sirens came out of nowhere; one got in front of the Town Car on the wrong side of the road to block traffic, and the other went up on the sidewalk where they were chasing the guy.

Hmmm... we're thinking, drug bust?

A few minutes later more police cars show up; they put one guy in the back of a car, but then run into the projects that are across the street. Another car pulls up and two guys in suits get out and stand around out front with the police. The guys in the suits are the detectives. (I know this from Law and Order, of course.) They stood around for awhile while more cops went into the PJs (what my roommate calls the projects), but sadly the drama was mostly over, since they eventually all got back in the cars, turned off the sirens, and took off. The best part was discovering which cars were unidentified police vehicles - like a crappy brown kidnapper van straight out of 1988.

Just another night in SoHa!

Good Ol' Boy Network, Alive and Well

I meant to write about this when it happened and didn't. Luckily salon.com's Video Dog feature saves the best video clips, and I just saw this again.
An escaped con in Louisiana managed to talk himself out of recapture by shootin' the shit with the cop who discovered him walking alone on railroad tracks.
I think the social justice brainwashing has taken full effect, because the first thing I thought after I saw it was that if the ex-con hadn't been white, the conversation would have lasted about 10 seconds before he was in handcuffs.

You can disagree, but you're wrong.

The cop actually says, "You know the bad thing about it is you're matching up to him."

UNFUKCINGBELIEVABLE!

April 15, I mean 17. I mean...

New discovery: The state of New York (along with a few other states) turns in their taxes one day later than everyone else. How do I know this? Because when I fired up TurboTax.com late Monday night, I saw the fine print that gave me an extra day. An extra day!

You know what you do with an extra day, people? You take it!
Which is why I just finished filing, at 11:25pm.

I'm fairly certain that those of you who know me (and who else would be reading this?) are not surprised by this news.

Oh, and reason number 258 that I miss Texas: NO STATE INCOME TAX!!

More From Before

This is NOT the picture where Letty said my bangs made me look like Peppermint Patty.



By midnight, a line had formed to get Kelly's signature on the C&K wedding koozies.



Hanging Out on J's farmstead in Bryan, America



Transportation, Country Style



What technique!



D/FW Airport - a Blue state after all?



Back to life as I know it - studying with Albert!

Back in the Saddle, Almost

It's taken me a couple of days to readjust to my actual life, and not the one filled with friends, Tex-Mex, and a washing machine in the laundry room I've been enjoying the last week. But I'm back, mostly. Still not quite recovered from coughing up $$$ on a new lock upon my arrival Tuesday, but a weekend nanny gig at the upstate farmhouse should make up for that. And they have a guest house with satellite cable. Woohoo!

Here are some highlights from my trip to Texas last week. I don't think I can go visit any more - cause it's too hard to leave.


Welcome to Texas springtime!


Summer toes


Bed buddy


Can you tell these people are related?

Back in Business

So, I'm back in NYC. And it only cost $125 to pay the locksmith to drill out the top lock to my apartment and let me in this afternoon.

Why didn't I have the key, you ask?

Well, I do have the key. In a drawer in my room.

Why didn't I have it with me? Good question.

For the 7 months I've lived in this apartment, my roommate has never locked the top lock, so I don't carry the key.

So, why didn't I just call my roommate to get the key?

Well, that would be because she's inTulsa til the 24th. That would be Tulsa, OKLAHOMA. Yep.

So, what did I do about the top lock that had to be drilled out?

I paid him $95 more to put in a new one, of course.

Welcome back to New York!

Who Was I Kidding?

So, nobody thought I was going to do all that in 29 hours, right? If you did, you don't know me very well. Let me tell you what happened.
1) Sleep
Well, I set my alarm for 6:00am, asked my roommate to wake me up at 8:00am just in case, and ACTUALLY... slept til 10am.

2) Bathe
ACTUALLY, I bathed BEFORE sleeping, just in case I didn't get up as early as I planned. JUST IN CASE, you know.

3) Travel for an hour to get to Lehman HS in the Bronx, spend an hour there, travel an hour back

Um, skipped this step all together. I figured those teachers probably wouldn't miss me taking up their conference period anyway, right?

4) Finish a rough draft of a project I was supposed to turn in today

Um, yeah. Almost.

5) Meet my study group to go over articles for class that I will have read in the two hours of travel time

Met study group and pretended I had read the articles. Turned out our class didn't talk about them anyway. HA!

6) Attend class 5:10-6:50 and 7:20-9:00

Weeell, I skipped the second class to work on the project I hadn't finished. Haven't finished.

7) Eat Chinese take-out at my friend's apartment across from Columbia and watch this past Sunday's Grey's Anatomy episode that my friend Albert recorded for me

Skipped this one, too. Instead walked home from the library, stopped in for some ice cream at the bodega (as a reward for almost finishing, of course).

8) Go home

9) Pack
I did that today, instead of working on my project.

10) Sleep

Should I bother? I'll get less than four hours, at this point.

11) Get up at 4:45am, haul my suitcases down four flights of stairs, and hail a cab to get to the airport by 5:30

Actually, need to get up at 4:30am. Trust me - I ain't sleeping through THIS alarm clock.

12) Depart NY LaGuardia at 6:45am
T Minus 6 and counting!

T Minus 29 and counting...

People, I'm supposed to be at LaGuardia airport in 29 hours. Between now and then I have to
1) Sleep
2) Bathe
3) Travel for an hour to get to Lehman HS in the Bronx, spend an hour there, travel an hour back
4) Finish a rough draft of a project I was supposed to turn in today
5) Meet my study group to go over articles for class that I will have read in the two hours of travel time
6) Attend class 5:10-6:50 and 7:20-9:00
7) Eat Chinese take-out at my friend's apartment across from Columbia and watch this past Sunday's Grey's Anatomy episode that my friend Albert recorded for me
8) Go home
9) Pack
10) Sleep
11) Get up at 4:45am, haul my suitcases down four flights of stairs, and hail a cab to get to the airport by 5:30
12) Depart NY LaGuardia at 6:45am

All that - in the next 29 hours. Um, better get started.

See ya soon, Austin!

Date Night

Y'all. My social life here in NYC is a blur! It's like one person gives my number to another, and I keep getting calls to to come over and hang out at different people's apartments, and they even pay me money. AND last night I got to hang with an 11 month old who is totally into trains. Bonus!



PS - I'm nominating this place for Best-Use-of-a-Huge-Wall. These are all framed photos they've taken of places all over the world they've visited. I am overwhelmed at how much there is to be jealous of in this photo: the places they've visited? the pictures they've artfully framed and hung? Or the ginormous wall in their apartment big enough to hang them on!

When Babies Grow Ears

Y'all, I don't know what's going on here. I think when the sun comes out, the babies grow extra ears!



And the hippies lay out nekkid. And the girls make out in public. Wait - those things happen in Austin, too.