.marleritaville.

• Stay at the Chelsea Hotel (To be accomplished 2/14)
• Visit the Museum of Natural History
• Attend the NYC Ballet or Metropolitan Opera (This probably won’t happen)
• See Strawberry Fields in Central Park
• Stop in at Tiffany’s on 5th Avenue
• Enjoy one more slice at Koronet Pizza on 112th & Broadway (To be accomplished 2/13)
• Take some high-quality photos of each apartment building I’ve lived in
• Visit the main public library at Bryant Park
• Take in any many glasses of wine at the Spotted Pig as possible
• Pull an all-nighter at the Lenox Lounge (again)

Unintentional additions:

• Have the best french toast I’ve ever had in my entire life (Accomplished at 202 in Chelsea Market)
• St. Patricks Cathedral (I prayed for a smooth move, exlax excluded)
• Survive another blizzard
  

Renting an apartment in New York City requires a special kind of strength, patience and sadly, financial fortitude. You pay 3 times as much for 1/3 the amenities. You’re lucky if your place as any closets at all, let alone ones that fit more than 3 outfits. Typical requirements include:

• 6 months worth of bank statements (which means your parents needed to have padded your account ages ago and you had to have the resolve not to spend the cash)
• A salary of 40 times the rent
• DNA sample (they must have seen Gattica)
• A Promissory Note for first-born children

I find all of this kind of hilarious because I see absolute losers on the street all the time and think to myself  “They must live somewhere….how did THEY get an apartment?”

Other states aren’t like this.

In Austin last weekend, we walked into an palatial 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartmetn in a brand new complex - and 2 hours later walked out with a signed lease. Did I mention the pool? No? Well there’s 2 of them. Business Center? Of course. Trash valet? Now it’s getting out of hand. OH - and a closet you could fit a twin bedroom set in. No joke.

I’ll miss NYC - but I’ll dry my tears with the warm terry cloth towels they have in the lobby of my new building.

• Booked my stay for the Chelsea Hotel for the very last night in NYC.
• Killing two birds with one stone - “dinner” at Koronet followed by raucous drinking at the Lenox Lounge during Valentine’s Day weekend

• Stay at the Chelsea Hotel
• Visit the Museum of Natural History
• Attend the NYC Ballet or Metropolitan Opera
• See Strawberry Fields in Central Park
• Stop in at Tiffany’s on 5th Avenue
• Enjoy one more slice at Koronet Pizza on 112th & Broadway
• Take some high-quality photos of each apartment building I’ve lived in
• Visit the main public library at Bryant Park
• Take in any many glasses of wine at the Spotted Pig as possible
• Pull an all-nighter at the Lenox Lounge (again)

In the 6 years that I have been living in New York, there are a number of things I have ached for desperately. Closet space. The absence of mice. Fresh air. Wal-Mart. Sanity.

However, one love left behind was 7-Eleven. It’s an odd thing to miss, I know. But something about 7-Eleven just. makes. me. happy.

Despite my brilliant stint as a barista at Starbucks - and the occasional jaunt to Dunkin Donuts for my caffeine fix, I can say without hesitation that 7-Eleven has THE best coffee in the world. I can’t pinpoint what makes it so - probably how fresh it always seems to be due to a high turnover rate, and the unbeatable $1.29 price tag.

Alas, there are only a sprinkling of 7-Elevens in Manhattan and most (if not all) were no where near walking distance to me. So, I have gone without.

Until today….

As I sleepily made my way morning walk to work (cutting down 14th street, instead of my usual route down 13th), to what did my wondering eyes should appear?! A bold “NOW OPEN” sign, in the brightest red, gold and green I had ever seen. “7-Eleven: NOW OPEN ON 14th Street”.

Oh, thank heaven indeed.

And lucky me, after this 6 year wait, I am leaving NYC. FML??

• The Asian Adjacent
• Protogoth

Plan ahead. It was probably sunny outside when Noah was building the ark.

-Someone wise