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February 01, 2006
More New York Stories, OR I Get All Angela's Ashes on Y'all
Apparently, I'm in a New York state of mind. Or this is what writing about partying like it's 1999 has done to me.
I moved to NYC a month after I graduated from college and a few days after my 21st birthday.
I knew NO ONE.
I moved to NY because I wanted to work in publishing, be a writer, and hell, as you all know, if you can make it there...
In any case, I wanted to be as far away as my hippie-soaked roots of Santa Cruz and hillbilly-booted feet of Redding could take me.
So I showed up and lived in a residence hotel. Which, if you have lived in ANYWHERE and ARE NOT 21 when you are making life decisions, you know is where the hookers and drug dealers and art students live.
And I got lice. And also some kind of unidentified bug that lasted FIVE MONTHS and that bi-weekly trips to CVS that I couldn't afford only finally RIDded me of. If I get cancer of the scalp one day, it will be from RID.
Anyway, my parents set me up with a $3000* certified check to help me find an apartment and a job and whatnot, only? The crazy banking circuit of NY? They wouldn't accept my $3000 CERTIFIED check until I had proof of residence. Which you cannot get if you pay no utility bills and share a bug-ridden shower with the hooker down the hall.
So every week I would get an advance on my UCSC Alumni Mastercard for $300, enough to pay my weekly rent of $250 (highway robbery!) plus incidentals. Like, you know, FOOD.
And every day I would eat:
Breakfast - 1 H&H bagel plus Coke plus NY Times - $2.50
Lunch - 1 cart vendor pretzel plus Coke - $1.75
Snack (on alternating days) - A bag of those AWESOME smelling, MEDIOCRE tasting cart-roasted almonds - $1.00
Dinner - 1 cart vendor pretzel plus Milky Way Lite - $1.75**
I was so nervous about money that I would walk EVERYWHERE, wouldn't even take the subway, no matter how far across the city I was going.
Instead, the rest of my money all went to Kinko's at 104th and Broadway, where I faxed my resume and PRAYED that something would come through.
And really, I think I was too earnest for publishing. Much like I am really too earnest for lawyering, but someone THANK GOODNESS finally saw that earnestness can stand alongside strength comfortably and I have a job for this summer.
Anyhoo, finally, six weeks later, Morgan Stanley offered me a job, even though I had a tongue ring, which my boss told me I needed to hide, and then a sublet and bank account could follow.
And you know, in retrospect, I can't believe I did it. How did I live like that?***
But at the time? Walking around that great big city. Even when I was coming back from an interview where I knew my cheap Express suit hadn't fooled anyone, I was happy. It wasn't Angela's Ashes. It was heaven.
*Paid it back, that's what kind of daughter I am, can I get a woot-woot?
**And yet I was surprised, when I finally had a job, place to live and joined a gym with a scale that I was down to 90 pounds?
***Also, before you tell me millions of people in straits worse than this EVERY DAY, and my story is a cakewalk compared to poverty, let me tell you I know. I mean, I don't really know, obviously, but I have been and plan on continuing to do something about that as long I as I live on this earth.
Posted by jen at February 1, 2006 12:00 AM
Comments
there are so many similarities between this and my move to NY story, wow is it making me think of times long gone. when my housing form at NYU got lost so i show up for grad school with no place to live and just hoping a spot opens up somewhere in university housing in the first month. slept at the Y. slept on someone's floor... were you there when i was there. you must have been, no? (1990-2003)
Posted by: carolyn at February 1, 2006 04:43 AM
You are a good daughter. My dad has learned that the word "loan" is synonymous with "gift." Also I am not surprised you were down to 90 pounds. What is it about being young that makes you do things that ten years later you would never dream of doing?
Posted by: Dagny at February 1, 2006 06:21 AM
Oy. I love these installments! :) And man, we're all crazy at 21. I should share some of mine. :)
Posted by: wenders at February 1, 2006 07:58 AM
Eeek. 90 pounds. That's way too skinny.
I'm not brave enough to ever do anything like that. Are you kidding me? This is why I stay in school, so I don't have to deal with that sort of stuff.
And once you're a lawyer! Hell, this summer alone. You'll never have to do that residence hotel bit ever again.
Posted by: Gloria at February 1, 2006 08:41 AM
Hi Jen,
Firstly, "woot-woot".
Secondly, I'm not surprised you were down to 90 pounds... Pretzels are not the most adequate of diets... Well, Aussie Pretzels at least (which I have carefully documented a size comparison for you here):
But 90 pounds is okay. Depends on your frame.. some ppl look a little skinny, other ppl make me drool! :)
Posted by: dan at February 1, 2006 10:20 PM
are your pretzels bigger than that?
Posted by: dan at February 2, 2006 10:58 PM
Dan! Yes, yes they are! I can't believe you took a photo like that.
Posted by: jen at February 13, 2006 08:36 AM
Hello Jen!
I can't believe you took a photo like that.
Weeeell, it is uncommon for me to use any actual pictures of me online. But I wouldn't expect you to have known that.. so, I'm unsure of why else it would be synonymous with EMF lyrics. :)
Posted by: dan at February 13, 2006 11:29 PM