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 I've been a little bit withdrawn and, hmm, encapsulated for the past month and change, and for the most part felt a strange aversion to opening up the cocoon around my emotional state.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

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

…but there is an adjustment period. I think it is important to support yourself psychologically as much as possible by putting yourself in a lovely area where you enjoy wandering around window shopping and drinking cups of tea at local cafes etc.

I have to agree with this — in my own experience of a neighborhood that was nice but where I clearly didn't fit in[*], when I was having the all-alone-in-the-world woes for other reasons, the location really didn't help with that. It's the kind of thing that's too easy to overlook when hunting real estate, I think.

[*] To wit, lots of middle-aged parents and small children and the occasional old ladies sitting on the sidewalk in lawn chairs glaring at me.

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

This is something I forgot about when clicking my replies. Take your time when looking. From what I've heard, the housing market is sufficiently suckish, even in NYC, that you don't really have to worry about All The Apartments Will Vanish Overnight OMG! So talk to the neighbors, the folks at the laundromat, and the teenagers hanging out on the corner before you make a decision. Oh, and visit the neighborhood at night, as well as during the day for the best readings on freakout levels...