Six Months to Almost Furnished

To reiterate my previous post, I have lived in New York City for nine months and in my first Manhattan apartment for six. Today I am working from home to await a furniture delivery (yet again) and taking a late lunch to blog.

It has taken me six months to nearly furnish my 300-square-foot studio. The dilemma has been in working fulltime and finding the time to shop for furniture ... and in living alone and arranging delivery during weekday regular business hours. And with no car to pick up items held at the shipping centers, forget about it! I once saw a woman in the subway with a mattress, but that is one right of passage I am not willing to take.

FedEx and UPS don't deliver on weekends and if convenient in-home delivery is not an option with a particular piece, I have to find a day to work from home because my apartment complex doesn't have a doorman nor will the downstairs management and security offices hold deliveries. We have security guards and 24-hour video surveillance, but I think they pride themselves in not being doormen. They rarely assist in opening doors even if they see you through the glass, holding eight bags of groceries and fumbling through your purse for keys. I'm sure it's more of a security measure than an intentional attempt to be impolite, which is probably also the likely reason why they won't hold packages.

But security policies grouping a woman with eight bags of groceries fumbling for her keys with a potential burglar is like conducting a random search for terrorist toys on an 84-year-old White woman in an airport. While profiling can be humiliating and wrong, there is also a thing called common sense.

In addition, all deliveries must be announced (announced = going to the management office and filling out a delivery acceptance form and then taking it to the security office). There have been two occasions when I didn't know when FedEx was coming so I didn't fill out the forms and security turned FedEx away - thus creating a "refused delivery" code and sending my orders back to the shipper. Huge inconvenience and subsequent frustration.

As for today, I am waiting for a new bookcase/cabinet to be redelivered as the last one arrived damaged - probably because it was shipped back to Missouri twice by FedEx when refused a la my failure to track the shipment accurately and complete the proper forms with the building security.

P.S. I think I'm also coming down with strep throat. I called the Village Copier to get some pricing on one-sheets for our marketing department and I was so hoarse, I had to repeat everything twice. At least I am on the couch with a blanket, my laptop and a warm mug of herbal tea close at hand.