Norah Explores Manhattan

Norah and I were invited to accompany our friend Christy on an apartment hunt in Manhattan.  It was very exciting.  I am amazed by how tight the market is.  Manhattan apartments are shockingly small - I stayed in my cousin’s in the same neighborhood 10 years ago and experienced that shock back then, but what shocked me this time was how high in demand these small apartments are.  Christy received a phone call that an apartment had been leased when we were minutes from touring it.  I think it is so bizarre that New Yorkers have to work with brokers (note the plural) to find apartments.  These brokers are sort of like realtors only they don’t offer you a bottled water or diet coke, drive you around in their air conditioned SUV or buy you lunch.   This is incredible to me when they typically make 15% of your entire years worth of rent.  A broker might even even say unhelpful things like “don’t waste my time,”  “there are no more apartments in Manhattan,” or “apartments always look smaller when they’re empty.”  Actually all three of those incredibly lame comments were from the same lame broker.  Christy in her wisdom had appointments with three brokers in one day and I think we saw about a dozen different apartments in all.  Fortunately there was one apartment that had everything Christy and Jace wanted in their new home:  

Location:  Amsterdam and 72nd (Amsterdam is Christy’s favorite street in the Upper West Side)

Character:  Hard wood floors, high ceilings and beautiful molding in a “prewar” building

Bedroom:  The bedroom is large and has lots of natural light

Closet Space:  There are three good size closets

Good Kitchen:  It very well may have more cupboards then their current kitchen

Living Room:  Good layout for furniture

Bathroom:  A little small but very attractive

Amenities:  Elevator and Doorman

After a long day of apartment hunting we ate at the Shake Shack and met up with Hillary and Lincoln.  Norah and Lincoln were happy to see each other again Norah held on to those fries from the shake shack for quite a while.  The funny thing is that we didn’t even order those fries.  She made friends there who shared. 

Hillary and I took the kiddos to Central Park where they could catch up a bit. The next day Hillary showed me around Manhattan while Christy took care of her apartment application details.  Hillary had free tickets for a circle line cruise that she shared with me.  Norah looks a little grumpy in this picture.  It is pretty accurate. After the cruise we took a bus up to Time Square.  I had exact change for the bus but I didn’t realize you couldn’t pay cash – you needed a metro pass.  It was pouring down rain and we were already getting wet and I was feeling a little distressed as I walked off the bus in shame when a nice New Yorker told me to get back on and paid my fare.  It made my day.  That experience along with the guy in the cafe that gave Norah whole milk for free and the lady who found Hillary’s wallet and arranged to return it to her gave me a great impression of NYC.

Hillary took me to 30 Rock so I could pay homage to Liz LemonNorah and Christy were inseparable.  Norah is a pretty friendly baby and usually happy to meet anyone, but this was special.  Norah would actually cry if Christy walked away from her.  When Christy set her down Norah quickly held her arms up to be picked up again and when we were on the trains she preferred to sit with Christy over me.  I’ve never seen Norah do that with ANYONE before.  It is so unprecedented that I seriously think they have some special spiritual history together.  Maybe they were BFFs?   Multitasking