A Warm Welcome (Part 1)
I have decided upon what I am going to do with my, not so new, tumblr account. In the last few days I have taken, what I would consider, one of the biggest leaps of FAITH in my entire life. The leap, you may be wondering, was a move from the small, unchanged, niche of my small town life in Allentown, PA to Brooklyn, NY, a bubbling hub of people, culture and life! The reasoning behind my sudden change was, not only restlessness or what some may say is my mild case of ADHD, but also a chance at following a dream, which for me is adventure. Cliche…I know! But, I have a desire inside me to experience many different things in the world. I had an itch, so I scratched. Now I am here in the City at 5 AM writing this to you the reader because in my 5 days here in NYC, I have collected more stories then in 1 year in Allentown…true story! This brings me to the title of today’s entry “A Warm Welcome”…
On August 4th I packed up my Budget truck, a 16 footer, as opposed to the 10 footer I had requested, and prepared for my journey. After bidding farewell to my family I was on the road. At that moment I knew my life was about to change dramatically and the adjectives that best describe my feelings were: enthusiasm, excitement, elation, and ECSTASY…a quadruple ‘E’ word threat. When you put these 4 words together watch out, who knows what the outcome might be (my guess is a mild case of ADHD). Now, my drive here in the extra large truck I soooooo did not want to be in was SMOOTH! Real smooth…in fact surprisingly smooth! All pleasantly good signs from the stars or the universe or God or whatever creator name tickles your fancy. I got here double parked, got my key from my new roommate and began to unload my life! The process of unloading went quickly for my one man team of ME…in my haste to move here I neglected to ask for help and my roommate left for work. Good thing I only live on the second floor. So, my room was filled to capacity with boxes and so began the unpacking process. This began at 1 and lasted until about 5:30 PM at which point I had decided to go get some Tilapia and cook up some dinner.
Dinner was PHENOMENAL and afterward, I suddenly realized I had accumulated a bunch of garbage that needed to be disposed of. So, I cleaned my dishes, collected the garbage and proceeded to the door. It is at this very moment where I had a thought to get my key off my dresser, but in my haste to dispose of my garbage I NEGLECTED to do so. Now, when I taught Kindergarten a year ago and a child would do something ‘wrong’ I would ask him/her why they made such a poor choice…in this scenario I made a very POOR CHOICE! Little did I know that the doors in my apartment have automatic locks, you know…for security purposes or to lock fresh new citizens of the City out, which is exactly what happened for the next 6 hours of my life…From 6:30 PM to 12:30 AM I was locked out of my own brand new Brooklyn apartment on my very first night in the city. At this point deep breaths and meditation ensued or it may have been heavy breathing and an immense amount of perspiration.
My next move after deep breaths and meditation…was PANIC! It was 6:30 I only had on flip flops, gym shorts and a tee…did I mention that I left my phone inside the house as well!? What a predicament. So, I talked with the local patrol man one of NY’s finest and he told me to get a hold of the super. Which I did and he was of no help because he has no extra set of keys. Plan A Cop and Plan B the Super out the window.
My final act of desperation, Plan C, was to spider man the fire escape and try and break in through my windows…which wasn’t happening because they were locked. Although, I was quite impressed with my ability to subdue my fear of heights and climb 20 ft. off the ground to make an attempt…going up was easy, coming down well let’s say a 50 year old woman grabbed my dangling legs. Funniest part…my crotch in her face! And my random thought: on my first night in Brooklyn : )
More to come…
