Tomorrow we will be in New York, and I am terrified.
Suitcases and bags are packed. Dana has been listening to 90s Russian disco for the second hour, Lera is jumping on the bed, hands pressed against the ceiling, surveying our domain.
How did we get here? We counted all our cash, figuring that at this rate, we'd be working for food until the end of the summer.
We received our last paychecks - $126 each. Doubts aside, time to get out! The monthly rent for our cozy motel room expires in exactly a week.
After a month on a starvation diet of carrots and homemade soup (by the way, baby carrots are great, we ate them by the bag instead of chips), we feel ready for adventures, because it definitely won't get any worse.
Our search for a new job looks like a frantic calling of all acquaintances from the outside - and in reality, it is.
The leader of our favorites list is Myrtle Beach. I really want to be by the ocean, by the water, salty or fresh. Williamsville is a huge, flat, man-made desert, a land of untrodden shopping malls. In a half-hour walk, you might be lucky enough to meet a lone lawnmower - and even he stares with such surprise, as if the last pedestrians in this dehydrated North American shopping prairie died out a hundred years ago. And it seems that all the cars flying along Transit Road are heading to the sea. Everyone is going to the sea. Except us.
However, I digress.
We evaluate the road to Myrtle and get discouraged together: whether by plane or bus, it will almost completely eat up our meager savings. And we also need to rent housing immediately. If only we could arrive and start working right away... To hell with pride, bury the hatchet:
- Vadim, could you call your pizzeria? Do they have any vacancies?
A few minutes of waiting and blissful hope. - Nope, he's fully staffed. He promised to "ask around," but don't believe it, they always say that.
Myrtle Beach is off the list.
New York is emerging as the most promising option, and I want to go even to remote Lake George, where my bro has been hanging out for a month, more than that. Since we have a democracy - two against one, the Confederates get the majority. New York, wait for us.
Lera brings good news from her evening walk - Mike agrees to take a day off and drive us if we pay for gas. What a mercenary a... well, actually, it's all fair.
By the way, we quit the hotel, and Mike got fired with a bang - on the same day. For different reasons, but the coincidence is a joy to all the local gossips.
We decide to give Mike our security deposit for housing - about $200.
Finally, with all professionalism, we lick the room clean, flip the coffee-stained sofa cushion stain-side down - voilà! The room is perfect. We get our deposit back.
Note to the hostess: when moving, it is important to think about two things - housing and work. Thoughts about housing should prevail, unless you are ready to romantically sleep under a park bridge on your own suitcases, in the company of squirrels and homeless people.
Buffalo, thank you for the warm moments, and especially for the bike, Niagara, the terrible supermarkets with huge clothes (we entertained Dustin by climbing into one pair of pants together with Dana - I in the right leg, she in the left), my first traffic incident, the free chain repair, and the cheap chocolate cookies. Goodbye, I hope we'll see each other again.
