Another weekend of Apartment Hunting

I spent the entire weekend in New York. We wanted to get started early so I splurged on Amtrak this time. I LOVE Amtrak. It's the classiest train ride ever. I don't know why they even bother having a first class carriage, because the whole train really is first class, compared to Septa and New Jersey Transit.

I took my green sweater to crochet on the way there. The woman next to me talked about how she used to crochet and she had been meaning to start again. That seems to be a comment I get a lot about knitting and crocheting. Then I inevitably mention my thesis. It's found its way into my repertoire of small talk.

New York real estate is the biggest headache ever. We didn't sign a lease yet, so by New York standards, the trip was unsuccessful. The whole idea of a four person loft didn't work out. One of the girls didn't come and wasn't answering her phone. Laura and I tried to see an apartment with a broker -- and the tenant answered the door. She had signed the lease the day before. It wouldn't have worked, though, because the second bedroom was the size of the closet in my room in my parents' house.

But we saw this awesome place in Park Slope, Brooklyn. A girl Laura knows in moving out, and she's going to talk to her landlord about renting it to us. That way he doesn't have to go through the hassles of either a broker or Craigslist. We are keeping our fingers crossed. The bedrooms are very small but there is an enormous livingroom, a sizeable kitchen, and outdoor space.

I stayed over at Laura's house in Connecticut. She has a huge collection of DVDs and I chose a spy movie to watch with her and her sister. I got out my sweater and pattern book, which I had lugged around all day in my backpack in the rain. Now the book was wet and kind of wrinkly. I hate it when that happens, especially to books I like, and ESPECIALLY to my knitting (and crochet) books. After a couple of minutes, I came to the next part of the pattern. I was supposed to put markers on the sweater. Not only did I not have any markers with me (although I'm sure I could have imrpovised), I have no idea how to place markers on crocheted garments. I know how to do it when knitting, but I just can't figure out the crocheting equivalent. And there were no instructions in the book. I'll have to figure that out tomorrow. In other news, it's my sister's birthday today. Happy 20th birthday, Devon! She opened her birthday present today and says she loves the hat. She wore it for two hours even though it's not really winter in Australia anymore. What a sweet heart.