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let me geek out on you a sec

9/30/2012

ok. we all have a little geek in us. me? i'm a tiny bit of a trekkie. not full on, but a tiny bit.

so, the communicators they all wear make them "speak" the same language. no matter if they're speaking english, klingon or telaxian. i'd imagine none of them learn eachothers'.

by that logic, if an entire episode was spent sans communicator, wouldn't they all just babel at eachother?

blogged from my iphone

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the rain in new yourk falls mainly ...

9/28/2012

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the rain in new yourk falls mainly on your pants.

my walk to work this morning involved rain boots, a rain jacket and an umbrella. i guess i'll just have to get rain pants. or a forcefield.

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being social

9/25/2012

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i've been spending a lot of time on social media lately. because i've had a lot of free time at my desk. i'm sure you've seen me on facebook, twitter and pinterest. :{/ mustachioed man is totally judging me.

so let me give you a few presents:

beware the bacon shortage and stock up on these

this is obviously not reality blogging, but it passes the time

this might be a spank bank. so if you're into that ...

i know this guy and that makes me feel old

i'm totally going to say i'm uninterested in the new myspace and sign up for it anyway

this just in: i'm really bad at tweeting #socialmediafail

you too can meme the boo boo

this is so much better than a birchbox

i'm less opinionated than these people. but i appreciate the effort

snooki is just a bill sitting on capitol hill

now you, too, can while your day away not shopping at these s i t e s.

(ps — there are multiple links in some sentences/words. have fun with that)

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i'm not sure what you want me to do, target

9/21/2012

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no, it's not another apartment post. though one will be coming. and soon (ish).

nope. this one's about advertising — you know that thing i do to make money? i saw a bus shelter ad for target the other day and am trying to figure out what it wants me to do.

if you can't see it, i was in a cab. sue me. i'm not gonna hop out and take a photo.

it says "falling for luscious locks." and there are three round brushes in the model's hair.

three unbranded brushes. target usually tries to sell me something they sell so i'll go into their store and give them my money. and they want me to come in for that one thing i saw and fill my cart with all the fun things i see there.

are they trying to sell me hair? i don't think they sell that. well, maybe jessica simpson clip-in extensions. and i'm not gonna buy those in a million years

i mean, i know they sell round brushes. but why isn't there a shampoo or hairspray or hair dryer or barrette in this ad?

why aren't they selling my anything?

oh, and we all get it: "falling" and it's fall. so do consumers. because everyone does it. stop it.

stop it now.

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what a difference a day makes

9/15/2012

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the apartment is trucking right along. i unpacked the bedroom today.

i hired a handyman to come on thursday. the ac and cable guys come tuesday. i ordered a piece of the same sectional i have, so my couch will be longer but not chaisey.

and i moved the buffet so that i'd have room for an island.

i even hung shit on the wall, removed the closet doors and hung curtains in their place — hinging them together to make a screen out of them.

i DID have a couple snafus, though.

i dream of hanging shoe racks as curtains on one of the windows. so i went to home depot for a stud finder, knowing it would weigh a lot. they sent me home instead with butterfly clips. (i think they were butterfly clips. three 1/2 holes drilled later, and it didn't work.

i also bought bed risers for under bed storage. the legs of my bed are too wide for them. so i tried to cut a groove with a utility knife. yeah, no, they're going back tomorrow.

the handyman is going to have his work cut out for him ;{

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moving in day

9/15/2012

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what did i do while guys shoved shit into my new apartment? i guarded the truck.

not from passerby or thieves, but from cops and meter maids.

not sure if you can see it, but there's a "no parking" sign there.

even a sign that proclaims that if you dare to idle over 3 minutes it's a $2000 fine.

one that says "no standing at any time" is being obscured by the truck.

without supervision, i was left with this:

furniture in the wrong rooms. boxes stacked so i couldn't even get to my fridge. my purse. my toilet.

they really wanted to leave because of the truck situation.

and i was overwhelmed. so i let them. crazy sauce.

several hot and sweaty hours later, i had this:

and it's all laid out according to my plan.

BUT. i won't have room for the island. upon lamenting about this, a friend suggested i turn the china cabinet along the wall with the heater and mount the tv to the wall on an arm.

i think i'm going to try that layout today.

the other thing i'm upset about is the chaise to the sofa.

i can't lay on that sofa. i'm a tall girl.

my mom suggested i get an ottoman to put at the end of it, kind of like an extension.

not a bad idea. i think i'll take a look at west elm to see if there's anything that might go well with my existing sofa.

i really wish i could find a way to make the chaise work. any ideas?

i'll cook the winner a chicken dinner. (5 points if you know the reference.)

things i have left to do are finish unpacking, get an island, figure out what to do with the boxes, buy bed lifts, and hire a handyman.

i need him to do a few things: hang my shelves above my sofa, mount my tv to the wall, hang blinds in two windows, and build me a storage ledge over the front door.

again, any suggestions?

i'm going to attempt curtain rods on my own. if that goes well, maybe i'll go for the blinds. but the other stuff involves being able to put weight on things. and i'm not sure i'm up to that ...

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my new yourk

9/14/2012

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my new neighborhood smells like fried.

blogged from my iphone.

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spaced planning

9/13/2012

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when it comes to space planning in a crazy small space: measure twice, write it down once. because if you're like me, you get home and don't remember what all the measurements corresponded to. i did a lot of "feet or inches?" when i got home.

but, i'm getting ahead of myself. i'm downsizing. not by choice, but my location. i recently took a job in manhattan from north carolina.

and went from this ...

... to this.

how do i plan to have tomorrow's move-in go smoothly? well, i put some skills i failed at and then later retook for a passing grade to work. good work, i hope.

so, here it is: rachel's space planning 101 for small nyc apartments.

you'll need:
a tape measurer
graph paper
a pen or pencil
scissors
a ruler
a camera
patience/wine

frist thing you do is measure all your furniture in the 1200 sq ft lap of luxury that you're leaving. be sure to get the width, length, heighth and depth of every piece, including rugs. and if it has doors or drawers on it, measure with those open as well.

then you find a tiny small apartment to live in. when they hand you the keys, excitedly run over to measure every nook an cranny.

make sure you measure the wall space between windows and how much space a door takes up when open. why? the space between windows is positive space: you can use it — but there are a lot of pieces you can't put in front of a window. the space a door takes up is negative space: you can't use it — the door is using it. (although if it's an interior door, you can always remove it.)

measure the ceiling height, this is important to know when figuring out the btu output rating of the window ac unit you'll need. plus, most storage solutions build UP. since you can't build DOWN into the floor.

look around for odd spaces or spaces you'd normally not use. chances are you'll have to find a way to use them. measure them.

figure out how much space is between the window and the floor. and is there a strange, long 4 inch heating element that runs the length of your room? that affects furniture placement. measure it.

draw a rudimentary skecth of the room with your notes.

and take pictures while you're there for goodness sake. of everything. even if it seems elementary at the time.

then: draw your room to scale.

i did every square equals half a foot. if i did less, the room was too small for me to play with. more, and i'd need bigger sheets of graph paper.

you'll have to figure out your own scale conversion.

remember: you can always tape sheets together.

tip:
i found it helpful to number the feet around the edges for measuring reference.

i also used a ruler. it made me feel more professional.

then you cut yourself out your pieces of furniture to scale, based on your measurements and you're in business.

always remember door clearances and movement allowances. here's where I first landed:

living room

i was ecstatic. i'd found ways to bring a shit ton of my furniture.

then, i remembered i'd wanted to get an island or other counterspace for the kitchen.

remember the kitchen? yeah, tiny.

so, i needed to make sure i had space for this:

island from C&B

if i wanted that island, i'd be giving up the chaise attached to my sofa.

so be it.

i'd even fallen into the same trap in my bedroom. i just turned the wardrobe the other way.

bedroom

so, i threw that bad boy on there.

it looked nice, it looked like it fit.

so i went to bed.

then i woke up in a panic.

of course all that furniture wasn't going to fit. the apartment would be unlivable.

because I had't taken into consideration me.

i need at least two feet to walk, more comfortably three feet.

i'd be crawling over shit with that plan.

so here's where i netted out:

but each and every time i liked a design, i took a pic. i tried scenarios with more furniture than i ended up with and scenarios with less.

but i knew it when i saw it. and we'll see if my multiple games of tetris paid off as guys shove shit into my apartment all day tomorrow.

look for more small space solutions coming soon. 'cause i've been freaking out ;)

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juxtapartmentalize

9/13/2012

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this.

this is where i used to live.

1200 sq ft. 2 bed, 2 bath.

screened in front porch. storage locker. parking space.

full-size fridge. dishwasher. central air.

closet space. washer/dryer. actual kitchen and dining room.

let's bask in it for a moment:

master bed

livingroom

full size stove and oven

master bath

guest bed

dining room

dishwasher

guest bath

i got the keys to my new apartment yesterday. i ran over in a joy and left dejectedly in a snit. i measured every nook and cranny of that tiny-assed bitch. just so i could stay up all night and figure out what to do with all my shit.

take a gander:

the living room

the only bedroom

the kitchen and dining room sans dishwasher. (sans full sized fridge too)

the only bathroom

i'm really hoping i got my math wrong on the square footage, so i'm not even going to mention it. i DID, however come up with a nifty way to space plan the furniture dilemma away. (i'm hoping i did the math RIGHT this time.)

i'm gonna take a second and share that with you too. in a later post. I'M gonna take a second. not give YOU a second. geez.

stay tuned.

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never forget

9/11/2012

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today of all days, memories can rip your heart out. as a nation reflects on a crazy, scary, gut-wrenching day that we'll never forget, i want to share a different day with you.

it's not my day. it's my dad's. he says there are three days, three events, that are burned into his memory and he will never forget. like my generation and many others, one of those is 9/11(01) when our nation lost our naivety. one is november 22, 1963 when we were kicked out of camelot. but the third is the event i want to share with you today.

because today, of all days, we need a smile. we need a triumph. we need to hold onto something. we need a moonwalk.

it was july 20, 1969. my dad was 21. at chapel hill. he was in a frat. he still had most of his hair. and it would be years before he met my mom. years before i'd be daddy's little girl. and long before his mustache would go salt and pepper.

and he sat in a darkened classroom watching a flickering television as man first stepped on the moon.

the moon. that thing we look up at every night and imagine a man made of cheese that cows jump over.

that rock that has captured our imaginations for eons. men walked on that.

and my dad sat in a room with students and professors alike watching it happen via the magic of television.

the entire room was hushed. breath was collectively held. as people expereinced the triumph of man together.

he says the room smelled like erasers and chalk. he said he can still feel the grain of the desk he was gripping as a man took that one small step that can still be seen in the chalky surface of the moon.

he says he can remember what he was wearing. and what that pretty girl next to him was wearing. and the pencil she was tapping.

he says he can remember the swelling tension in the room as the entire nation watched with pride as we won a race.

the pressure build as mankind took that giant leap. and the collective exhalation that left everyone in the room smiling. left everyone excited. happy. the exhalation of celebration.

he remembers all that the same way i remember exactly where i was at 9am on 9/11/01. and i know that someday, a man will walk on the moon for me. because i need that. we all need that. we need a man to walk on the moon. we need our eraser-smell and breath-exhalation. we need something to hold onto.

never forget.

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<<Previous

let me geek out on you a sec

the rain in new yourk falls mainly ...

being social

i'm not sure what you want me to do, target

what a difference a day makes

moving in day

my new yourk

spaced planning

juxtapartmentalize

never forget

Rachel

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