my moral standing is lying down

So! This kind of snuck up on us because we weren't really sure whether we'd try to stay here or not, and we didn't really know what Mark, our roommate of 3 months, would be doing... but thedreamerworld and I have found a 2-bedroom in Astoria.

Mark wants to live with 2 of his friends and so he'd definitely be moving out if we decided to stay here. But then Judy and I wouldn't be able to afford this apartment and it had taken us 3 months to find another roommate with Maryann still paying most of her share of the rent even though she'd already moved out. Considering how difficult it might be to find a third roommate for a long-term lease, Judy and I opted to look for 2-bedroom apartments closer to Manhattan.

My priorities were decent sized bedrooms, good closet space, not a tiny living room, and preferably near the R/V subway line (if near the N/W line then also within a 20-minute walk of the R/V line because the N/W line is elevated and in the winter I'd rather have access to the underground line too). Judy wanted it to be within a 5-minute walk from a supermarket, and hopefully near a bustling neighborhood/shopping area.

Well, after only our 3rd day looking (only our 3rd apartment too), we found the perfect apartment. It's equidistant between two of the stations on the R/V line and within a 15-minute walk to the N/W line. It's 3 blocks from a supermarket and busy shopping area. It's got decent sized bedrooms (even though they're smaller than what we've got now, respectively); both with bigger-than-usual closets (though also both smaller than what we've got now) -- and TWO bathrooms (which is kinda weird and superfluous but whatever, I'm not really going to complain).

I'm really shocked we managed to find something that's pretty much exactly what we were looking for, and SO QUICKLY.

You know what's ridiculously funny, though? WE ARE LITERALLY THREE BLOCKS DOWN, ON THE SAME STREET as Maryann!!!

The downside: broker fee. Which, whatever; that's the price of doing business. The long-term downside is significantly higher rent for smaller bedroom space. We're paying for location. I'm absolutely aware of that fact and don't resent it because it's part of what I want. We could try to find a place farther away from the train, like Maryann and AJ, and have a slightly lower rent. But being closer to the train (and closer to the city) is a priority for me, and that's what it's worth.

This does mean, though, that I'm going to have to really cut back on frivolous spending. No eating out, bringing lunch to work, rarely going out for drinks, etc. There's no way I'm going to cut out Rangers games at MSG, but I'm definitely going to stick to a friend's 400 seats because I absolutely cannot afford anything else. I may also have to push back the Berlin trip to the fall and cancel the Vancouver trip altogether for this year. Which is disappointing, but I'm absolutely committed to going to Berlin, especially considering the contributions I received for my birthday toward that trip!!!

I'm not going to discuss game 4 because I was super depressed after the Hawks lost and the night was only saved because Maryann, Cathy, Jethro, Liz and I hung out talking for another hour. =D

ETA: OH YEAH! If you're interested in helping me move on the last weekend of June, there's a free meal in it for ya, just like last time. =D

Thank you again to idreamedmusic for the milk & cookies which I'll be saving for the flight to Berlin.

And thank you to surya74 for the cocktail, which I am imagining to be refillable since every time I go to my profile it's still there. So I'm definitely going to have the cocktail often. I may will need it to get through the NHL playoffs if the Hawks don't start getting their act together!



...and speaking of the playoffs:

Habs forced the Pens to game 7, which is AWESOME. I'm crossing my fingers for a repeat of their upset against the Caps! I'm not a huge fan of the Habs Gomez, but it would give me GREAT pleasure to see them defeat the Pens and go on to the Eastern Conference finals.

A few of the latest injuries have been pretty bad -- Salo in the last Hawks game took a slapshot to the groin and has a ruptured testicle. ;_; And Boucher on the Flyers was fallen on by a teammate in a flurry around the net and has a knee injury. Which is really sad because I've come to really like watching Boucher play. His flail-y style is all old-school and fun to watch.