Movin' on up...

Kevin and I have tossed around the idea of moving up to where Paul and Andrea live for quite some time. Ok... I'll be honest, it was really me nagging Kevin to move up by Paul and Andrea. It isn't that Kevin doesn't want to live by Paul and Andrea, it's more about the fact that 1) he doesn't like change and 2) He does not want to get our couch out of our apartment after the ordeal it took to get it in... picture it: Paul and Kevin, dead of summer in July, hot stairwell, nine flights of stairs that become more narrow as you go up, one large couch, and velcro sides for the slipcover velcro-ing to the carpet in the stairway every time they set it down- yes, they were manly men who accomplished this fete in about one hour- Andrea and I were swooning with pride over our manly men after this very daunting struggle- the first manly task of my new husband. 

Ahhh- sidetracked again. Ok, back to the point... Tamara, a friend of mine I met through Andrea, lives right by Paul and Andrea and she has the most beautiful apartment. She hooked me up with her super and I called about an apartment. He said over the phone that he didn't have anything but I could come in and fill out an application. I went last Thursday and once he met me (something Tamara told me he has to do before he will show any available apartment) he gave me a once-over an decided I was suitable to live in the building. He showed me a beautiful studio that I immediately fell in love with. The super, whose name is Mike, is the icing on the cake for this apartment building. It's like having a grandpa taking care of where you live. He is very sweet and knows everyone who lives there. He even introduced me to his wife and sweetheart of a daughter, who is in fifth grade.

I filled out the application and took it over on Friday. Mike was a little upset that Kevin didn't come because he wanted to meet him. I took Kevin over today, he was also given a once-over, and Mike gave his smile of approval. He introduced us to everyone we met in the building as "the new neighbors" so I guess we are in. We hear officially tomorrow.

I was feeling pretty confident about our decision to move and then Saturday night at 430am I was awoken by two pops I instantly recognized as gunshots. I looked out the window but I couldn't see anything. I could hear people running and yelling so I decided to go back to my warm bed and big, protective husband- who slept through the drama. The next morning I left to babysit around 7am and there were a swarm of cops outside of our building with a web of yellow tape. This makes a total of three shootings in the 21 months we have lived here. That is an average of one shooting every 7 months. I must say, I love many things about Harlem, including the street cred we get for living here, but the shootings are a little too frequent for me. Getting back to the point- I took the shootings as a sign that we need to move. My mom tries really hard to be comfortable with us living here, but after she visited for Thanksgiving and a man was shot dead and lying in the street in front of our apartment while she stayed with us, I can understand her excitement over our potential relocation. I'll let you know when it is official!