Aparment Move-In Tips:

1) Building IKEA furniture by yourself is not recommended unless that object is a small to medium-sized lamp.

2) Do not build furniture during the following times: after a hard day's work, when you are in a rush, when you are in a bad mood, when you lack the proper tools or tool-substitutes, late at night if you have to wake up early the next day, when you really would rather do anything else than build furniture.

3) Avoid allowing either yourself or your building partner to do most of the work. It will lead to an un-fun mixture of resentment and guilt. Better both your backs hurt and you both get back rubs than a one-way exchange.

4) Follow the instructions to the best of your ability, but don't get bogged down when you/IKEA f's up every now and then. It happens. As long as your furniture can still do it's job, you're good.

5) And this is the most important: make it fun. Make fun of the weird Swedish omni-sexual people on the instructions. Make fun of the fact that there are no words to go with the instructions. Try to think of everyday metaphors that you can equate to building in an entertaining way (i.e. sexual innuendo!). Think of it as time to chat with a good friend or a good upper-body workout or even just one of the few times in your life when you're building something that you will use everyday. Hey, that's neat.

Happy building, everyone, and let me know if you need an extra lamp... I may have one or two too many.

Aparment Move-In Tips:

1) Trying to carry a box to your new apartment via the subway is a perilous, painful adventure. I would not recommend it. Trying to do this with all of your boxes may or may not end in failure. I quickly gave up the endeavor.

2) Trying to move bags and boxes in a cab is a much simpler, though more expensive, endeavor. Eventually you have to weigh how much you really, really don't want to drive a U-Haul vs. how much you secretly realize you're losing expense-wise.

3) Building IKEA goods is a fun, inexpensive form of exercise. That is, until the wheels on your swivel chair require you bashing them into the base of the chair with a makeshift rubber mallet (i.e. the rubber heel on your nice black boots).

4) When you realize the glasses you bought during your first, overwhelming (and clearly mind-numbing) IKEA trip are comically tall and awkwardly shaped, decide it was intentional, and use it as a conversation starter. They will also come in handy for funny cocktails, milk (or protein) shakes, and, really, they do hold a lot of water. That's a nice feature.

Good luck! But, please, don't break a leg. Yours, your friend's, or the leg of your swivel chair.

My New Apartment

Signed my first lease today!

Very exciting.

I guess this means the "apartment hunting" section of The Stew probably won't occur for another year, but mayhaps I will recount the adventure that was deciding to lease this apartment.

Plus there's always move-in day! Hilarity can, and I'm sure will, ensue...

First Post!

Hello friends!

Welcome to Artful Stew, my new blog, and thus one of my first steps into the world of technology that we all need to succeed in life. Yes, because you cannot get a job these days without a blog, and also I thought it might be fun.

Well, as the title says, this blog is going to be a stew, which I figure is pretty open to interpretation. As I journey out into the real world, there are a lot of things that I will need to learn, a lot of things to add to whatever metaphorical stew I am creating via my life... perhaps we can call it my life stew:

1) Healthy cooking. Well, cooking at all, really
2) How to get a job, and also picking the right job if options present themselves
3) How to keep whatever job I am able to get
4) Apartment hunting and subsequent maintenance
5) Furthering my comedic/writing(ic) potential career
6) Enjoying NYC outside of a university setting
7) I don't have a seven, but it's my favorite number. Deal with it.

So these are things that I will probably post about in a humorous manner. Other topics may or may not include: NY Times Science articles I think are neat, tips/rantings for recent kidney transplant recipients, general musings, and possibly adorable links to puppies courtesy of the Daily Puppy.

Topics aside, this blog is about stew. Stew that is artful. Decide for yourself what that means, and for now, I'll keep the ideas a'brewin' in my noggin' of chunky, sloppy, gulpable, word chowdah.

Yes, that was a shout out. Holla!