I'm, of course, still looking on craigslist because I'm fully prepared for the potentiality that we won't find anything that suits me tonight. Yes, tonight. At 8pm. I'm actually meeting with a broker that late. It was the first time she threw out and I said yes immediately, because it makes sense to go check a place out at night to see both the general feel of the neighborhood at that hour, whether safe or seedy, plus seeing it at night when every one is home will give me an idea of the noise level. I've wanted to do this with every place that I've moved into over the past few years but never either had the time or the inclination to do it. Some places it might have been a good thing, other places, like the house in Greensboro, it wouldn't have mattered how awful the neighborhood's behavior was after hours, I still would have signed the lease.
In Brooklyn, however, I feel it's probably a good idea because, though I'm avoiding Bed Stuy for it's well publicized seediness, I don't have a very good bearing on these other neighborhoods except the opinions of a few people here and there, none of which is consistent. I'm being shown two maybe three places, perhaps more tonight in Crown Heights and in Kensington. Kensington was a little off of my map but, come to find out, it's south of Prospect Park. I'm slightly apprehensive about the distance out from Manhattan but I've yet to actually ride the subway out there...might be time to Hop Stop it. (www.hopstop.com is the best website to hit metroplitan areas ever, period.)
The broker that I'm going with is the one that Karishma used to find her place (which is pretty awesome for the price). They're called Rapid Realty and they're not effing kidding. I put in a request for an appointment on their web site and they called me back in, I'm not kidding, two minutes. Seems promising. They have tons of no fee apartments where the land lord will pay the broker fee but at this point, I have the savings to throw at a broker's fee if I absolutely have to. Not worried.
Anyway, I spent the afternoon yesterday trekking it up to 44th street between 8th and 9th avenues to find a barber shop that I'd heard of that did cheap haircuts (cheap even by NC standards). I located it but I only had a little time to meet Karishma between her two jobs in Bryant Park so I decided I'd come back, once I'd found out if it was still there (this place has no web presence at all, so I wasn't entirely sure). Bryant Park was loaded full of people but Karishma already had a seat at one of the tables on the southwest corner of the park where we sat for a good hour or so just hanging out and people watching.
Karishma had never been to the public library, though she works adjacent to it every day. So we rambled around the building for a bit taking ridiculous photos and perusing the art on the ceilings and walls, even spending a little time in the Rose Main Reading Room being genearlly obnoxious and wondering how to get up to the second level. After having our fill of photos taken in the stairwell, we parted ways, she to her job and me to my haircut.
I headed back over to the Barber Shop on 44th street. When I arrived at the tiny basement shop, there was one man sitting in one of the barber chairs with his feet up on the counter. I asked if he had time to do a haircut and he said "Yeah, sure, sit down right here." in a rapid NY accent. It has to have been the fastest hair cut I've ever gotten. And this guy was old school too, finishing off my sideburns and my neck with an honest-to-god straight razor. Great experience all around. And inexpenisve too. I paid $10 for the whole deal and tipped him $3. Not bad since, I've heard a typical Manhattan haircut is around $25.
One last picture from the day:
clearly, you've never had a haircut on a military base - super fast and sometimes as cheap as $4!
ReplyDeleteYeah, apparently not. I guess I hadn't thought of that. But they only do one haircut right? bzzzzzzzzzzzz!
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