I vote, “Aye”

I’m still bummed that the New York State Senate voted on Wednesday not to permit gay marriage in the state (although New York still recognizes as spouses gay couples who marry in one of the states where it is legal), but it’s still worth watching state senator Diane Savino’s floor speech. I really don’t understand how anybody could listen to that and still be against gay marriage.

The Hunt Begins

The gym and my yoga studio were closed over the weekend for the fourth of July holiday, but I got plenty of exercise walking all over northern Manhattan looking at rooms for rent. I met several cool people, and some strange ones, but ultimately decided that I can’t really contemplate living with another person right now. I’ve made appointments with a bunch of Realtors (must! capitalize! the! R!!!) to see if they can show me anything that I might want to live in.

My mother, who actually leaves me alone most of the time, has decided that she wants to help me find an apartment – in New Jersey. Suddenly she’s giving phone numbers and having me call people. I’ll do it, but if the price is the same for an apartment in New Jersey as one in Manhattan, why would I stay in NJ? What does the Garden State have to offer me anymore? Most of my local friends live in NY, and I do want to live in the city at least one time before my eventual untimely demise.

I have had friends who searched for months before finding what they want, so I know that I may need to exercise patience and caution. I have been looking all over (craigslist, real estate agencies, yahoo real estate), and think I stumbled across my first scam! Whoopee! There’s no way that a one-bedroom apartment in The Magellan costs only $1,000. Here’s the real web site for that property. One-bedroom apartments in that builiding are more likely to cost $2,000+. I wrote back the contact person saying as much, and also forwarded his initial response to me to The Magellan. Wouldn’t it be great if their gratitude extended to renting me a 1b for $1,000? Great, but not likely. I won’t hold my breath!

I’m at the point where my real estate search is still fun and interesting, as opposed to tedious and annoying. Plus, all this walking has got to be good for my legs!

At last, an upside

There are few bright sides to getting unengaged after having been engaged for six months. Luckily, I have found one. I am probably the foremost unmarried, unengaged local expert on New York/North Jersey weddings, not counting people who work in the wedding industry. I spent six months reluctantly planning a wedding (which would have kicked so much ass anyway), making innumerable phone calls, sending out a googleplex emails, and reading a brazillion web sites and blogs. All of this led to the creation of a pretty fantastic spreadsheet which, several months after my broken engagement, I was able to fish out of my Google Docs trash and place in a more benign, but also rarely-visited folder.
At work, I seem to get a lot of questions regarding weddings, wedding web sites, venues, costs, vendors, etc. These people have no reason to know that I know this stuff, but somehow they always ask the questions when I’m around. If I were more self-centered, I’d think it was some sort of retribution (why, universe??? I recycle), but I tend to think it’s just their good luck.
So I DO know the going rate for a wedding band (no less than $4500 for a good 4-piece band), the busiest month for weddings in NJ (October), and how much you can expect to pay for a sit down country club reception during prime wedding season (Friday: ~$125; Saturday night: ~$145). I know where on the reference shelves to find that book about wedding venues in the area, since we all remembered seeing it but nobody could recall the title. I know which Manhattan bridal boutiques engage in ridiculous markups, and which are relatively honest (because, let’s face it, the same dress should not cost $200 more at another store).
I just hung out the other day with a friend who unfortunately needed to get a divorce after a brief marriage. I know that this is a really rough time for her right now, and as bad as it was for me last year, I can’t help but thank my lucky stars that my ill-advised engagement did not culminate in marriage.

I don’t know why

but it seems that the world just sucks today. Horrible things happen all the time, but for some reason, things like this and this have really gotten me down today.

What is wrong with people?