I Guess It's Time For A Real Update

[serinde]

I haven't said much of consequence for quite some time (and have been poor at answering email &c, for which I submit a blanket apology). I've been a little bit withdrawn and, hmm, encapsulated for the past month and change, and for the most part felt a strange aversion to opening up the cocoon around my emotional state. Then, while in England, I had a terrible time trying to sleep; I assumed that I was just having time zone adjustment issues, but on the last night of the visit I finally realized I had been sublimating anxiety...I don't think we can call them attacks, per se; a whispering campaign maybe? Part of it is upcoming work drama (we are moving the Help Desk next month, and there is all kinds of ancillary chaos, destruction, and politics to go with it), but most of it has been about me, and where I'm going, and what I'm doing next. See, once it became clear that the housing market was having all the flow of treacle, I put it all out of my head with the figuring that I would deal with it after the New Year; and thus, once the holidays arrived, a giant pie of The Future Is Now was smashed in my face.

So I've been processing all that, and weathering variably-powered attacks of "what am I doing", "am I doing it wrong", and "lo, they shall find my abandoned corpse chewed by wild dogs", which I guess means I am finally taking the training wheels off the bicycle of my emotional maturity. Steve and I discussed the state of our non-liquid assets, and he is encouraging me to go ahead and get an apartment without waiting for the house to sell, so I am shifting into Serious Cat Is Serious About Apartment Listings mode (instead of just casually dorking around on Craigslist, making fun of the shyster listings--hey kids, did you know that Fifth Ave. just north of Washington Square is part of SoHo?).

[Poll #1324721]

So that's what's going on here. I'm still feeling a bit drained and of limited verbiage, but I wuv you all, every one.

Comments

[dagnycat522.livejournal.com]

Having done the NYC apartment hunt many times in the past few years this is my advice for hunting, although it is probably only applicable to the boroughs, as Manhattan is I suspect, a whole different country.

Yes, you can do it without a broker, on a budget, no matter what anyone says, but it is incredibly frustrating, and keep in mind that you are often dealing with owners who don't really know what they're doing/aren't professional/don't speak much English. I've done it twice, but both times were when my budget was smaller and I didn't really care as much about location or features such as being able to open the refridgerator door all the way.

I would go with a broker. The broker fee I paid to get my last apartment was the best money I spent. If you do wind up looking in Astoria or the surrounding Queens area, let me know. I know a bunch of people there who would be able to give oodles of apartment advice.