The Players, the Moves.

Given some of the e-mails, I suppose I should take some time to introduce the main players here. MB is my awesome roommate. She's very saavy and very kind. Before we agreed to live together, we worked out a list of 100 or so qualities that we look for in a roommate.

Me: I love to vacuum and sweep.
MB: I hate to vacuum, but love to mop.

Me: I need a clean bathroom.
MB: Me too, every week.

We worked out dish washing, food in the fridge, expenses we want to pay for, etc.

I met MB through my friends, it's a rather sprawling network of close ties. We hit it off like old pals. MB majored in Art and is currently doing marketing for a wine company. She's staying with family in Long Island until my sublet is up (end of August.)

I'm currently in Lefferts Gardens, an appropriated name for a neighborhood around Flatbush in Brooklyn. Flatbush runs mostly North and South through Brooklyn, into Queens, parallel to Bedford Avenue for a ways, until Flatbush veers out towards Coney Island.

I'm about a 15 minute hike from the most "convenient" trains.
I have an arsenal of three or four transfer stops, and I'd say about four or five trains I use regularly.
The most common right now is the Q train. Unfortunately, the Q only runs every 15 minutes, so missing one train means one will most likely lose employment. It's about a 30 minute commute into Manhattan, accounting for stops along the way. One nice thing about the Q is it runs on the Manhattan bridge, so there's a good view of the city if you're not too wrapped up in a book or the opportunity to check your phone on the moving train.
I usually take the Q into Union Square, and hop on the L, which is a short track, it runs along 14th St until 8 ave (West of Broadway) and deep into North Brooklyn, a neighborhood called Bushwick that may as well be in Queens county. The nice thing about the L is it is very reliable, since it pretty much only takes Brooklynites into Manhattan and vice versa.
You can get on the L and ride it east out to Broadway junction and then get on the A to JFK. Or you can ride it west to Union Square, get on some yellow trains, or maybe take the 4,5, or 6 (green) up to the Met, in the Upper West side. If you wanted to go to the Upper East side, you could take the L all the way to 8th Ave and get on the A or the C (blue) and ride up to the Museum of Natural History, or even more north (Harlem, Washington Heights).

Another stop in my arsenal is West 4th, which is a train junction in the Village. If I get on the B at my stop here, it'll take me about 25 minutes to get to West 4th, where I can walk to a lot of trains, or transfer to a different line back into Brooklyn.

One of the annoying aspects of living off the Q, is that most transfers to different trains in Brooklyn are only available in Manhattan, so I have to figure at least two hours traveling time into any visit.

The L is much easier in this aspect, because you can ride the L to Lorimer and just get on the G (a lime green). The G never goes into Manhattan, but it runs like a curl into Brooklyn from Queens. The G is hardly reliable. Sometimes it's every 7 minutes, but I've waited almost 20 minutes for a G train. It's also a short train, meaning there aren't very many cars, so if you are relying on the G to get to work during rush-hour, you're in for an interesting commute.
The Q does not have any transfers to the G, but there is an option of taking the Q to Atlantic, another important junction, getting off the Subway and walking to the G stop at Fulton, a few blocks away. Of course, it's $2.25 to get down into the subway, so if you don't have an unlimited Metro Card, you've got to think about the expense.

I'm still jobless, but I sent one letter out today for a job. There was another opening at the Alliance Francaise, so maybe I have a second chance at that organization.

Now, while I have the chance to take the day for myself, I'm going to hop on the Q, ride it to Union, get on the 6 and go see this, and this, and most likely the Egyptian Wing.

Today is moody, looks like rain, which should inspire some prose through the glass windows. I've written a few pieces that feel substantial enough to polish further and send to some lit. mags.
That's all I have right now, or I'll only have a little under two hours to look at the art.


EDIT:: Scratch that. I'll go to the MET tomorrow, at an earlier time. The Paley Center for Media is open until 8, and I can just take the B up to Rockefeller. Sweet. I love New York.