Five Days until our first visit

to New York! How exciting!!! I can't wait to see everything for the first time: The height of the buildings around me, being overwhelmed by Times Square, the vastness of Central Park, the Empire State Building, Ground Zero....it will all finally become real. And even though we're only going to be there for 3 1/2 days and we're just supposed to soak it all in to make sure it feels like the right thing to do, I've already sent out my resume to five great companies (using some personal contacts) which created two interviews while we're out there (one really big one!). I've also already contacted three apartment places so we can meet up with them. I needed to get the important stuff out in the open. This is a serious thing, and I want to make sure we can afford it! I've learned my lesson on packing up and just "going for it". Living in Los Angeles proved that the world works very differently than a day dream...

We've even started this web site blog before the web design is even done! We haven't even bought a domain or found a good host. I've been researching, though. I hear that "spymac.com" has some great packages. The web design will be very simple until other things get accomplished. I wanted to get our thoughts out before things get in motion. I'd love to look back on this some day to see how far we went.

Dave is 32 and is ready to start a new career doing something he actually likes! He's not sure what it is yet, but New York has SO much to offer- so many things to try! I suggested project coordinating in Publishing- maybe he can get a job at the same company that I'm interested in working for. It might help us both out at first (ok, maybe just me)...we'd travel on the subway and have lunch together, but I'd also be around to help him out. Plus, we'd both go into New York making a pretty decent amount of money!

As far as costs of apartments, we both know what to expect- between $1300 and $1800, depending on what area we want. I'd love to live in Manhattan, but I don't know how I'd feel living in the middle of the hustle of a huge city. Of course, there are probably some really cool parts that would be just like downtown Orlando like Greenwich Village, but I'll bet it'll cost you. We'll have to see.

I've heard you can get a larger place for a little less money in New Jersey, and you can take a train and be in Manhattan in ten minutes. I've heard Hoboken was cool, but a bit (over)trendy (i.e. boring) like Thornton Park is here, and Jersey City is being renovated and is still "undiscovered", so it's cheaper yet.

BTW: Three things that are in NY that I'm excited about...
1. Bikram Yoga!!!
2. IKEA!
3. A glass bead making place I saw on "Queer Eye..."

FIVE days...five days...five days...

David and I are thinking about relocating

from Orlando, Florida to Manhattan, New York this fall. We wanted to keep a journal of our thoughts, progress of the move if we decide, as well as keep blogs of how we adapt if we live there. I have absolutely no idea how this will turn out. Maybe we won't even make it there. Maybe we'll fit right in and make friends, money and finally, music. We're thinking we'll only live there a few years. Maybe we'll end up living there permanently? Either way, we want to document how we're doing, what we find, and how we both feel along the way!

Dave grew up in Rome, New York, but often visited his grandparents in Long Island, occasionally seeing the city with his parents. When he was 8, his family moved to California for a few years, then to Orlando in 1985. Dave has been obsessed with the Empire State Building since he was a child, studies architecture, has a Bachelor's Degree in History, and is a true musician. New York is the perfect choice.

I was born in New Jersey, but my family moved to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida when I was two. When I was 12, I drew up a blueprint with details of a huge company I wanted to own in New York some day called "Renee Studios" (Renee is my middle name). Each individual floor of the building would have everything a big client would need: a top modeling agency on one floor, a photography studio on the next, then an ad agency, a illustration agency, a fashion design studio, and so on. When I was 14, I learned that one of my cousins got a job in New York as a cut-and-paste artist at a studio. I begged and cried to my parents to let me move there to get a job. I didn't even know what a a cut-and-paste artist did, really. So when I was 23, I moved to Orlando, just 3 hours away from home, to get a "city" feel. That's also when I started my career in Publishing. I moved to Los Angeles for a year, but I was already in personal debt, and the cost of living and bad credit didn't help at all! I moved back to Orlando to reorganize.

Florida has one, big Educational Textbook Publisher. Harcourt. My place of employment since 1997 (minus the year in LA). I'd love to work for a magazine. I need to learn more. I need to grow.

I've only been to New York one time, and that was for a week on business in 1998, where I worked out of a studio and my hotel room. Everything I saw was out of a window. I do remember seeing the Flat Iron Building from the cab...I even took photos of what I saw and learned later that the cool building in the distance from my hotel room was the Chrysler Building! Ugh.

Dave and I started dating in December 2002. We had lots of light conversations here and there about our interests in New York, but spoke heavily about it for the first time during the long 4th of July weekend. See what happens when you give yourself time to think about where you are in life? We bought plane tickets a few days later and started planning our visit.