A Mile or More in My [Running] Shoes

My move-in process is finally winding down… I forgot what an exhausting process it is. I’m finally starting to feel settled, and will feel even more settled once I get some pictures on the walls and I make the trip to Ikea to pick up the few pieces of furniture I still need to make my house apartment a home. 

Moving into a new place has meant going through the arduous task of changing my address for every conceivable account my name is on, finding my new neighborhood grocery store and go-to bodega, adjusting to the commute (which is MUCH shorter than my previous commute - not much to adjust to really…), restocking my apartment with those little, seemingly insignificant things that you find too insignificant to actually pack up and move, and getting used to the actual apartment and the new noises. 

I think the one that struck me most (perhaps due to the weather that rolled through New York last night and was still raging this morning as I left for work) was the noise thing. My other apartments were high rises and they were both in the thick of the Financial District. The only discernable noises there were the taxis honking outside, the slamming of a neighbor’s door in the hall, and the occasional roar of a bus as it passed. In my new apartment up in Harlem, I’m finding an abundance of new noises. The tick-tick-tick of the radiators, the occasional creak and settling of the old hardwood floors, the noticeable absence of honking and street noise, and last night, the clear (and very welcome) sound of falling rain. All of these things have endeared my new apartment to me and I’m finding that it feels like home much faster than I expected it to.