I know, I know. It's Spring now, so what right do I have to post something about winter? Well, I'm sorry. I'm late. But, without any further ado....
Never a dull moment in New York. That’s what they all say. We’ve had a good host of humorous moments here in the city (as you all get to read about), and there probably won’t ever be an end. So I’ll keep supplying them.
So, one January evening, Christine complains that her key is sticking in the lock of our door. I say I’ll look into it and possibly switch keys with her so that I’m the one who has to deal with the sticky key. Of course I didn’t look into it. The next morning rolls around, and I remember the key thing as I’m leaving for work. With a loud sigh, I go back in and try both keys in the door, with both working. I don’t think anything of it and leave for work. I’m too annoyed that I was delayed 23 seconds to care.
Fast forward to an hour later, and my phone rings. Who could it be? Yep, it’s Christine. The key is stuck in the lock. She’s been trying for 5 minutes to get the key out, and it’s surely stuck in the lock. After some discussion, she gets her keychain off the key and locks the other lock and heads to work. I head up to our apartment to get the key out, not wanting to give free access to our room. I get there, and I have to take the entire lock off the lock and spray Pam (the cooking spray, not the person) in the lock hole to get the key out. You better believe that dang thing works better than new now, though. Moral of the story: grease your locks, people.
It’s cold in New York - so cold that when our cheapskate landlord doesn’t feel like turning on the heat, we have to walk around in parkas and mittens. We have two radiators in our place – one that we leave on all the time and one that we normally keep off, because when the heat actually is on, it’s ON. So, in order to stimulate some heat throughout our apartment, we turn on the second radiator one fateful day (can you see where this is going?) to allow some steam heat to warm the place up. Christine’s mom and bro are in town, so we leave to go to the museum for the afternoon, having high hopes that we can return to a cozy apartment.
Christine and her mom arrive first to the scene. A faint sound of a fire alarm can be heard in the hallway, but nothing is thought of when they go to the door, because, if the fire alarm was going off in our apartment, then surely the neighbors would say something or try to check it out. Nope. They don’t check it out. They’re in their own world, and when the door opens, a wave of steam and smoke-like material pours out into the hallway. Visibility is down to about 2 or 3 feet, so Christine has to hold her breathe and blindly feel her way into the apartment to shut off the steam heat. A pool an inch thick of condensation is lying at the base of our kitchen table. Pictures and windows are completely steamed over. I get a call with a single sentence: “Eric, get home NOW.”
I know “this kind of stuff happens,” but seriously? What else is going to happen here? All for the sake of comedy, folks.
With more cheery notes – it has snowed a lot this winter, and the snow fall is pretty beautiful in New York. On one such snowy Saturday, Christine and I made the trek through the concrete jungle to spend time in Central Park. Our goal was sledding, but we forgot one key thing for that: a sled. So, we did what all New Yorkers tend to do, and that’s try to use a garbage bag. The snow was a little too thick though, and after trying to smooth away about 15 feet of snow with the weight of my behind, we gave up on the sledding escapade and turned towards more important things, like building a spectacular igloo.
We set off to work mid afternoon, with hopes that our efforts could finish before sundown. We worked tirelessly hauling snow and packing ice into the perfect formation for an icy oasis. We lost feeling in our hands 15 minutes after we started – but we pushed through till the end to make it happen.
What became of our attempts turned out to be one of the greatest sights that these weary eyes have ever taken in The warmth of our own igloo rejuvenated our spirits. There were a group of kids building an igloo across the field from ours, and ours was totally better, like no comparison.
Ok, so I promise I'll update more. Stay tuned.
