Apartment hunting trip NYC July 7th - 11th

Before I move to NYC I needed to get an apartment, so I went on an apartment hunting trip.

Sarah didn't think it was a good idea for me to go by myself on the first trip by myself and I truly welcomed her company.

I packed a bunch of luggage and then my Mom drove over to Sarah's place we picked her up and went on our way.

Sarah is a much better traveller than I am, having I am sure spent more time in airports than I have. Not to the say that I haven't got around at all either (I have flown quite a bit as well); But we were flying standby the entire route and I have never done that before.

I think from the start I was a little nervous and not very comfortable. But we made it to Seattle in one piece and the next standby flight was in the morning. Went to the airport but unfortunately we did not get on.

Later we went back again for the next standby flight.

I was a bit nervous at this point because I had a day scheduled the next day with a realtor to look for a place and I did not want to miss my appointment. I tried my best to hide it from Sarah but... I am a pretty transparent individual unfortunately. I could feel my stress and I knew it was getting to her. But there was nothing I could do. She could read me and I know wanted me to just relax and be "normal", but I just couldn't.

Things were not going super well already.

We looked into alternative ways to get to Newark, but thankfully we got on a flight!

Once at newark I got all of my baggage and went to the Taxi line, unfortunately I wasn't the smartest guy around and I got pulled out by a guy who asked me if I wanted a Taxi.

not the brightest idea.

I ended up with a $185 "Gypsy" Taxi ride, and that really increased my stress even more because I felt I got taken advantage of; which I found out later I did.

The next day we looked at apartments. Initially I asked the realtor only to look for "no-fee" places, but I ended up looking at fee places as well.

In the end there were 3 places I liked. The first one I put in the application early that day to see if I was approved, and I got a call back later that day that I was.

I found one place I liked more, however the application process was much longer. They wanted information about everything it seemed. I met the minimum requirements but they said I needed to wait till Tuesday to be approved, as they needed to verify everything. I even asked if I could pay a bunch up front to be approved and they said still I would have to wait till Tuesday.

I was becoming very stressed out at this point, so I just walked out and signed papers at the other place.

I have never been this stressed out in my entire life, it was terrible.

We then went to this Italian restraunt where the food was fabulous! I was still in this daze; huge stress level and I was trying not to affect anyone else. Mandy (my cousin) and Sarah spent the whole time talking. They really hit it off and Mandy really liked Sarah.

It was fine with me as I just needed to relax for a while. What I didn't want to happen was Sarah's experience with me this trip to taint her opinion of me forever, and that also bothered me.

The next day we went to got the bank check(s) and got the place ready. After all of that we went to the Library and got some food. Then to central park. my stress level was still up and I could tell Sarah needed some time apart but... after a while I just sat on this fake rock and looked up at the sun and de-stressed. It was somewhat effective and I started to feel a bit better.

Then we headed back to Mandy's place and I sat in the Garden. By the evening I was feeling better again!

We had an excellent dinner made by Mandy and headed back to Juneau the following morning catching all of our flights.

After I got back in Juneau I talked to Rob and we went up Persevearance, then met up with Jake and saw Hellboy II, which was enjoyable.

Mission successful.