"Living on Dreams and Spaghetti-o's"

I’ve always loved Martina McBride’s song This One’s for the Girls, especially the middle stanza:

This is for all you girls about twenty-five
In a little apartment, just trying to get by
Living on, on dreams and spaghetti-o’s
Wondering where your life is gonna go

This one’s for the girls
Who’ve ever had a broken heart
Who’ve wished upon a shooting star
You’re beautiful the way you are
This one’s for the girls
Who love without holding back
Who dream with everything they have
All around the world
This one’s for the girls

I was singing it to myself the other day as I unpacked and organized my new little bedroom and realized I don’t even have a microwave yet to be able to eat spaghetti-o’s!

I moved to a new apartment last weekend with Emily, a friend I met here in New York but who is also from Birmingham. I still live on the East side, just about 25 blocks south. I now have a 12-minute walk to work – no more daily subway! – and a FIVE-minute walk to Mercury Bar where the alumni group watches the Alabama football games. Now I’m not saying that’s why we loved the apartment (Emily is an Auburn graduate, after all), but it was a definite plus!

Emily and I both moved to the city with three suitcases each, so we were astonished at what we had accumulated in such a short time (10 months for me, one year for her), and exhausted after moving it all ourselves! I borrowed a friend’s car, and we made four million trips between my old apartment, her old apartment and our new apartment, hauling boxes, suitcases and the heaviest TV known to man up the two flights of stairs. We’re still barely settled in our bedrooms, so we haven’t even begun to think of decorating and furnishing the little living area and kitchen.

So, to answer the two most frequently asked questions about my living situation:

Q. Are you still sleeping on a couch?
A. For starters, I never did sleep on a couch! I had my own bed with a spectacular view, thank you very much! The answer is no, I have my very own bedroom now!

Q. How does it feel to have a door?
A. If feels kind of strange, actually! I’ve been leaving my door open and miss my old roomies being around! But, it is nice to shut my door and go to sleep.

A quick tour of the area - more pictures to come of the inside as we get it together!



My new apartment!

Saturday morning must be "wash the fire trucks day" at the fire station next door.

Beautiful blooms across the street.

A "panoramic" view from our corner - the Empire State Building is on the left and the Chrysler Building is the smaller pointed building on the right.