New York or bust

This is my first blog about my adventures in New York City and I'm not even physically there yet. Whenever I start a journal that's centered around a trip or an event, I like to begin early on to sort of capture the events leading up to the start of whatever it is. For something like this, however, I could have started months ago, years ago even, because this has been something I've been planning since I split with my ex two years ago. That should put into perspective how exciting this is for me, to have it all be finally falling into place.

In the past few months, I went from a very casual and cautious approach to my relocation, to an all-out now or never, do or die sort of approach. First, my cousin needed a roommate, so I was "definitely going up because I had the whole apartment thing figured out and all I needed was to save first and then get a job." Then, that fell through, but I found out that I could transfer with my job potentially so it was "let me wait until a job opens up with NY 1." That just wasn't happening though and I started to despair a little that it would be mid year before I could do it. Then, I got an offer to sublet somewhere, so I jumped on it and was about to quit my job when the sublet fell through. Then, in the space of a few hours, I decided that I shouldn't let that stop me. I shouldn't have been letting anything but lack of funds hold me back, otherwise I saw myself continuing to make excuses for why I wasn't just packing up and moving. I had the savings, I had the drive to do it and most importantly, I had a network of friends and family in place that would be there to help me through just about anything.

So, in short, my cousin is letting me stay with her until I get a job and can get into an apartment or a room share. Luckily, the first place I interviewed with, a rather unexpected job with Technicolor, called me back and wants to have me work for them for a while on a freelance basis to see if they want to hire me full time. Admittedly, it doesn't immediately sound like a job offer, but it doesn't exactly sound like a bad thing either. For once, a cover letter of mine gets noticed and then, for once, the first interview alone gets me called back. That sounds better than nothing at all.

At any rate, I'm gearing up for a whirlwind first weekend in the city. I fly up on Saturday afternoon, and already have dinner plans with my friends. I'm excited to see everyone but it's going to be a semi-uncomfortable few weeks as I lose those few creature comforts I had having my own space in folks' house. I'm bringing up only two suitcases full of clothes and a laptop to get me through the first week while I settle in the job and figure out if I can afford my own place or if I need a roommate, if I want to find my own apartment or if I want to grab a room share situation.

The lap top is key because I can't bring my desktop obviously if I'm just flying but I found this amazing site called Logmein.com. With a free account you can download software onto your home computer that will make it so you can log in to your computer from anywhere with an internet connection. I'm doing a trial of the professional version now though, which allows you to hear the audio, drop and drag files from the home computer to the remote and share your desktop with anyone you want. The audio is key for me, of course, because I'm a musician and I need to hear the audio files on my home computer.

My desktop can stay where it is for now and I can access it from the city and do whatever I need to. Print resumes, for example, or work on my music.

So, that's that and I'll update again as I get closer with impressions and of course, once I touch down in NYC. Wish me luck all.