the end of (another) hiatus

So it's been another crazy ridiculous couple of months, and blogging has ONCE AGAIN taken a back seat to the rest of life. I have been simultaneously searching for a job and a new apartment.

After sending out about 30 resumes with no response whatsoever, I got an interview and was hired about a month ago as a proofreader for a real estate marketing company. They don't really do marketing in the traditional sense here. When a building or piece of property goes up for sale, the seller hires a brokerage company, and the broker hires us to create an "offering memorandum," which is a book with anywhere from 30 to 150 pages full of information on the property, and is intended to convince potential buyers to purchase it. So, really, I would say this is more of a graphic design firm, it's just that they only design one thing.

Then I spent about a month trying to find an apartment. October 1st is probably the worst possible move-in date. Returning college students snatch up everything good in September, and then no one's moving out in October, so there's very little to choose from, especially if you have a low budget. But I did manage to find a nice place right in Williamsburg (only a block from the Lorimer L stop!) a week before the lease ended in my old place. It's a really cute, fairly big place in a fun neighborhood. It's around the corner from the Alligator Lounge, only one of the best bars ever, so designated because you get a free pizza with every beer you buy--and it's a good-sized pizza too, none of this "personal pan" nonsense.

However, even though I'm pretty much settled into both my job and new apartment, I still won't be updating this regularly for a bit longer, as internet is not yet installed at home. I am going to try to start a new, short feature that I can update here while I wait for internet at home, though.

So here's the plan: Every day, I see something surreal or funny or just smile-inducing (most often on the subway), so I'm going to start writing down all these little moments here for all to enjoy.

Moment numero uno:

9:15 a.m., L train: A young (maybe 21-22?) guy gets on the train wearing a too-small tuxedo with a bubblegum pink bowtie. (Who wears a tuxedo at 9:15 in the morning?? And with a bowtie--a pink bowtie--no less? Fantastic.)

Moments later, same train: I spotted a billboard for a palm computer, upon which someone had scribbled "GO HOME, GET A LIFE, AND STOP CHECKING YOUR EMAIL!" I could be really pretentious here, and claim it as a cry against our constant need to be plugged in at all times, but I'm more reminded of a postcard in the first "Post Secret" (postsecret.blogspot.com) book that says, "I hate billboards so much that I have started to vandalize them." Made me smile, in any case. Sometimes I really wish I had a camera in my cell phone so I could document these things visually. Pulling out my big, wonky digital camera is too conspicuous.