We're here!

This post first appeared at Water, No Ice (www.waternoice.com)

My last post was written as we were getting ready to leave for New York; our stuff had been packed and either moved to storage or was on its way to Manhattan in the reliable hands of Fedex. We were staying at the home of our close friends and neighbors, Lata and Sriram, and pigging out every night as friends in the area called us home for farewell meals.

It pays to think ahead

I spent the week tying up other lose ends. We finally decided to rent most of the furniture for the apartment, from CORT furniture rental. We picked out a "1-bedroom package" which contains everything one needs, and will furnish (my son) Dhruv's room with IKEA furniture later. They promised to deliver on Friday afternoon, which is the day we get there. I emailed the building to reserve the elevator for our move-in. It was a good thing that Fedex was also scheduled to deliver the few personal effects we were shipping to New York on Friday.

I also called and ordered Cable TV and Internet service, with RCN. They could've installed on Friday, but since we would not have a TV to test it with, I asked them to come on Saturday. I figured I'd buy a TV from someone on Cragislist on Saturday morning.

One small hiccup we discovered into the week is that Fedex seemed to running a day late. So I anticipated having to tell the building management that our boxes will show up on Saturday instead of Friday. I know they won't like that, because it may inconvenience all the other tenants on a weekend.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday making arrangements for keeping my plane with a friend, and for our cars with friends / relatives. Simple as this may sound, there was a lot of paperwork, insurance stuff, etc., etc., to get done before we could rest easy.

Aisle-seat fracas

Thursday night rolled around, and we boarded our JetBlue red-eye flight. It was a "full-flight" (what are the airlines complaining about? Every flight seems to be “full”) and we didn't all get seats together - Dhruv and I were in 5D and E, (my wife) Sandhya was in 4C (across the aisle and one row forward). There was a single woman in 5C, so I asked her whether she'd be willing to swap seats with Sandhya. At first she misunderstood -- and said that she needed the aisle. I explained that she'd get an aisle - we were giving her the same identical seat, just one row ahead. She stood up and was on the verge of agreeing, when she saw that the folks sitting next to Sandhya (4A and 4B) had a baby with them. I guess she had made up her mind not to move, and this gave her an excuse -- so she said "Oh, I don't want to sit next to a baby. I'm sorry." At this point, I gave up. New York attitude? I hope not...!

First impressions

We arrived a bit early, to crystal clear weather in New York City. It was cold, but bright and sunny. Despite being a bit bleary-eyed after the red-eye, approaching the Midtown tunnel on the Long Island Expressway, we had a spectacular view of Manhattan in the rising morning sun. The Empire State Building towering over all the others, and the Citigroup Tower, reflecting the sun brightly off its steel and glass facade... Waterside Plaza (the place where we’re going to stay, on the East River) itself was also clearly visible, making the sight memorable in a personal way. Our home for the next one year! All the doubts and lethargy seemed to blow away with that one breathtaking view.

We drove to a friend's place (the folks who also stay at Waterside Plaza, since our hotel room wasn't ready) and then I went in to sign the lease, collect the keys, and begin the move-in process.

My friend dropped us off at our "hotel", and we checked in. The Envoy Club (www.envoyclub.com) turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. At $165 a night, we got a large studio apartment with a kitchenette, large bed + living room, in a reasonably central location. Dhruv's school was a block-and-a-half away, and our apartment was a short 5-7 minute walk. It's not quite the typical hotel (nobody's reachable between 8 PM and 9 AM, for example), but should be ideal for families or people on an extended stay. 

Supervising delivery

CORT furniture showed up a bit late, but still within their promised delivery window, and with the exception of the dining table (which seems a little small), the furniture looks nice. They quickly installed everything, cleared out their stuff, and left.

The Cable guy showed up first the next morning, and he too quickly installed his equipment, had me test the Internet connection using my laptop (I didn't have a TV, remember?) and then he left.

TV-purchase outing

Sandhya and Dhruv showed up a little later, and I left them in the apartment and headed out to get a TV. I had emailed several people using Craigslist, and there seemed to be a promising prospect in the East Village, a short distance away. 

On my way out I saw the Fedex guys coming into the plaza, laden with our boxes, which looked a little travel-worn and out-of-shape. My heart sank as I wondered about the contents inside - especially our nice wine glasses and China dinner plates. I decided to put those thoughts out of my head, gave them directions to the apartment, and set off on my TV hunt.

The address I was looking for turned out to be in the heart of the East Village. While driving by I noticed all sorts of interesting dining options in that area - Sandhya and I should go back to dine there. But back to the TV -- the building itself was a small and narrow "pre-war walk-up", and the person I was buying the TV from lived in Apartment 17, which turned out to be on the top (fourth)  floor - so after trekking up four stories on a narrow stairway, I finally reached the small studio apartment. The TV was huge (27") and it was a regular old tube TV, so you can imagine it was really heavy. They had apparently received a new flat-screen TV for Christmas, which is why they were selling this one. But their cable was plugged into the flat-screen, and so I couldn't test to make sure the monster she was selling me actually worked. I guess I'm the trusting type, and so I believed her when she said "It works perfectly. If you have any problem at all, you can have your money back."

The lady staying there was really kind to offer to help me carry it (I had been speaking to her boyfriend until then, but he decided to "step out" at that moment, so wasn't there to help) and we both lugged it carefully down the narrow and well-worn stairs. After carrying it down, I figured that if it didn't work, there was no way I was going to bring that TV back, lug it up 4 floors, to get my money back!

Thankfully, there were no mishaps, and 20 minutes later, I had it back at our apartment, where to Dhruv's delight, the TV worked perfectly.

Craigslist to the rescue again! I received several calls that day, from other folks whom I had emailed, and I continue to be amazed at what a vibrant "market-place" that simple site has created.

Unpacking with our hearts in our mouths

I returned to find that the Fedex guys had taken about half the boxes upstairs and were continuing to work their way up. Sandhya saw stains on some boxes - it was obvious that something had broken inside and leaked out. We nervously watched as more boxes came and were stacked randomly all over our living room. And then the moment we'd both been dreading arrived -- one of the Fedex guys casually started unloading one largish box, and it slipped from his hands, to fall to the floor with a sickening "crunch". We quickly read the sign on the side of the box: "Glassware, Dishes" - we both knew what was in it - our wine glasses, China dinner plates, and other breakable stuff. 

We began unpacking soon after they left, and for some reason, we both kept avoiding unpacking that one box - till late in the evening, when we had no other boxes to unpack. The wine glasses were closer to the top, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that all of them had made it unscathed. The dinner plates were at the bottom (the part that hit the floor) and as Sandhya unpacked, we kept counting - 3 safe, 6 safe, 9 safe, but unfortunately the last batch of 3 had broken.

41 boxes, two moving companies (Nor-Cal and Fedex) and the final tally - a few Corning bake-and-serve dishes, a couple of Sugar / Coffee canisters, three China plates, and few plastic containers. Not bad at all. Whew.

Home delivery heaven

On Friday night, Sandhya had ordered a whole lot of groceries using Fresh Direct (www.freshdirect.com) -- and that arrived on Saturday afternoon. From apples to eggs, Oil and Toilet Paper, it all came in neat little boxes. That's one big difference we're going to have to get used to - of having things delivered. We've always picked up and lugged stuff home in California - and without a car, with all the parking hassles, and given the easy availability and relatively low cost of home delivery, we are sure to use it a lot. Almost a bit like India, where your friendly neighborhood grocer would be only too happy to have a “boy” bring you your stuff at home.

Dinner in Little India

We walked into Little India for a nice dinner of Kathi Rolls at a small hole-in-the-wall called Rumali. It turned out really nice - the Kathi Rolls were close to the best we've had in Calcutta. Little India itself was really impressive - tons of Indian Restaurants - some quite posh, some a little more "value-for-money" and even one that advertised itself as "Kosher"!! And it's just four blocks away!

Looking forward to next week

We have a tour of Dhruv's school scheduled for Monday, and he'll start on Tuesday. I also begin my new work-related assignment next week, with a few meetings already set up. The weather has been great - Bright, Sunny, albeit rather cold. As I sit here, looking out over FDR and at the brightly lit Chrysler Building, we're both filled with excitement and anticipation at the coming weeks and months. The move has been quite smooth, and roadbumps, if any, have been very minor. Touch wood, and fingers crossed!!