Winter in Manhattan Odyssey: VRBO Man

     "Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory."  George S Patton

               Earlier in the fall, I had asked K if I may come down to Manhattan for my birthday weekend to play.  So, I made arrangements to meet with some people in regards to my “Winter in Manhattan Odyssey."

Original Hester Street Market, from its website

Today's Hester Street Fair, from its website

               Arriving really late Thursday after a long day at work, we slept in a bit, and on the morning of my birthday headed down to SoHo to do some shopping.  Most importantly, a lovely long lunch at a small restaurant we had found while playing tour guide for my brother and his family, the Kentucky branch of my family.  The Savoy was on Prince Street, and it was a pleasure both times I‘d been there.  (Alas, it’s now closed with the owners re-vamping the space and menu.)  Off to do a bit of Christmas shopping, as K went to work.  I was looking for an inside version of the Hester Street Market.  Found it, and also found the perfect Christmas gift for a co-worker.  Don’t you love when that happens?! 

               Now it was time for me to check out VRBO Man’s apartments. The arrangement we made was that I would go to his offices in the Grammercy neighborhood, pick up some keys for apartments in Midtown on the east side, and leave some identification as safety for him. (I brought an expired passport.)  VRBO Man would not be available as he was getting ready to head south for the winter.  Getting to the office was easy, building, okay.  The offices were interesting to say the least!  Five or six desks crammed into a room surrounded by piles and stacks of “stuff” (comforters and sheets, boxes of dishes, glasses, tea kettles, toasters).  Manning these desk were some  harried young men in constant motion, on the phones, totally ignoring me.  There were two rooms off this main one.  One was filled with paint, the cans obviously having been used.  In the next room were more desks, and I could see a man, about my age, on the phone, very busy.

               Finally, a nice young man asked if he could help.  He didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.  He passed me off to another young man.  This guy heard me, and I showed him the email on my I-phone for the addresses that I was supposed to be checking out.  He went into the second office and grabbed some keys.    He gave me the keys, with the addresses written down, took my expired passport, and off I went again.

Outside K's 42nd Street Apartement!

               I jumped on the “T” (having lived just outside Boston most of my life, I tend to call all mass transit the “T”).  One stop on the 6 line from K, not bad, I thought.  I love walking the neighborhood streets of Manhattan.  There are some incredible buildings mixed in with the concrete towers of which many are beautiful.  As I neared the addresses, I was loving the buildings I was passing.  Then I got to a very nondescript one with the address I was looking for.  That’s okay, I‘ve stayed in a few apartments in the East Village that started out that way, and the apartments were really cool.  Not so with these three.  To begin, I couldn’t get the key out of the door getting into the building.  A young woman coming out told me that that door was left unlocked.  After fighting with the key for a few minutes I simply took it off the key chain and continued onto the second door.  It worked.  (Thank God I had a couple sets of keys so I had another one for the outside locks.).  The apartments were clean, but I simply didn’t feel anything for them.  The light was non-existent in any of them.  And, light is huge for me.  (Part of the agreement I had started working out with VRBO Man was that with my given budget, I’d be willing to move among his different apartments depending on the availability.  In theory, I thought that would be a fun thing to do.  I was beginning to have my doubts.)

               Upon leaving the third apartment I literally bumped into the Young Man from the office.  He was showing the apartments to some people.  I told him about the key and he had already retrieved it.  Great.  One problem solved. 

               Back down to the office in Grammercy.  As I went back through the hallway with the piles of comforters (in bags at least), and into the office, again to be ignored for a few seconds, then with blank stares again, followed by confusion as to where my passport was, I realized that this was not the way, or the place, I wanted to started each weekend of my Winter in Manhattan Odyssey.  I simply emailed VRBO Man and said thanks, but no thanks.