I HAVE ARRIVED!

SO, I'm actually finally here. Does this make me a New Yorker now? I got here this morning with my two very overweight suitcases. I had to pay the fine on each of them-- yuk! I really thought I would be okay because I swear that the suitcases Vorrice and I took to Indonesia last summer for Amanda were even heavier. I thought the weight limit then was 75 pounds, but today it was 50 and I had two 60+ pound bags.

I spent my last couple of nights in Dallas at my parents as everything at my place was all packed up. I spent all day Easter with my family and even talked Beth into leaving Ryder with us overnight. I love that baby! He and my mom took me to the airport this morning. It was hard to say goodbye to Ryder. He most likely will not remember me when I see him in June ) :

I am staying for the next couple of weeks in a really great apartment in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It's a place some of my parent's friends from San Diego own, but they only use occasionally for work or vacation. It's really nice and in a great location. So, I'm kind of living in luxury for my first few weeks here, which is scary because I may end up spoiled!

The bad news is that the place I thought was going to work out for me to stay in May and June fell through on Friday. So, I'm back to square one on that. I think it will be easier to find a place now that I'm actually here. People seemed a bit hesitant to commit to sub-letting to a person they'd never met. I'm open to a sub-let or to going ahead and finding a permanent place. I won't be back in Dallas until late June to get my furniture, but figure I can live on an air mattress for a couple of months-- it seems like that's pretty common for people when they first move to the city. And I plan to buy an air mattress anyway- with all the different groups of friends coming to visit, it will come in handy!

I spent my afternoon going grocery shopping and doing a little exploring. I went to the big Whole Foods I've heard a lot about. I was able to walk there, but took the subway home since I had the bags to carry. This Whole Foods is the largest grocery store in the city. Crazy! I swear it was 1/2 the size of any Whole Foods in Dallas. But, I did find everything I needed and they had great produce and also yummy looking prepared foods. I'm sure I'll be back there! After that, I was on a mission for a new hair dryer as mine broke on Easter. I found one and then walked up Columbus Avenue pretty far as there are some cute shops along there and I was looking for a b-day present for a friend. It was fun! And the weather is gorgeous right now.

So, first day of work is tomorrow. I'm ready to get started. I'm glad I'm jumping into it immediately...I'm afraid that if I had the week off, I'd start to get lonely or miss Dallas.