magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

after getting contact information together for the people i have to get in touch with in new york, i headed out. first to sharon. then to the train station in wassaic. and on into the city.

one of the responses that i received from my 'room wanted' posting on craigslist was from a group of three vegan nyu students living in a loft space in brooklyn. rob, the ringleader (at least insofar as their search for a new roommate is concerned), called while i was on the train. he had suggested in the email that we all go out for dinner together, which i thought was a great way of meeting potential roommates. especially when we share the same dietary outlook as a common bond. we made plans for later in the evening.

since i had a few hours until dinner when i arrived at grand central, i headed downtown to er!n's new place in the east village. it's a cozy one bedroom converted into two, in typical manhattan style. a friend of hers from cooper was over. we hung out a bit, i made some calls to other potential roommates. and then the walk cross-town in the cold to dinner.

we met at a vegetarian restaurant right off of the nyu campus. good, but i was a little turned off by the abundance of faux chicken and fish on the menu. the kids are cool. they are about sam's age, which is young, but i do have to keep in mind that sam is an adult now too, not the ten year old with whom i drove cross country. after dinner we took the subway out to brooklyn so i could see the space. it's a mid-sized loft, maybe a little small for four people, but comfortable. they just built walls for the bedrooms before the holidays, with some work left to do. the building was very recently converted, has new hardwood floors, new appliances, nice hallways, etc.

afterward i thought i'd meet up with chris, and so tried to figure out the quickest way to his apartment in bushwick (although i had stayed there a few weeks ago when i was in new york, i hadn't really looked at it on a map). after discussing for a bit i realized that he lives about six short blocks from the loft. that would be another plus to living there.

so i hung out at his place and we stayed up talking and although i was planning on heading back into manhattan to stay at er!n's it had gotten late and even colder outside and i decided to crash there.