Keeping Moving

I got back to DC last night, and I sent a check this morning, so, if all goes according to plan and we don't all end up quarantined, I'm moving in a couple of weeks to the borderlands between Boerum Hill and Park Slope and, I guess, Gowanus. And undoubtedly reading The Fortress of Solitude shortly thereafter. My commitment at this point is only through the end of July (though could extend a whole year after that), so I'm retaining the same one foot out the door stance (admittedly, an awkward way to stand), at least for a little while longer. After a weekend of Craiglist-induced hiking around Brooklyn in sandals (because I wanted to look cool even if they made my feet hurt), it feels satisfying, even if I remain somewhat ambivalent on so many levels.

Among the other places I looked at, however, were what I thought would be the top-contender, but turned out to be a co-op with borderline creepy old-person-decor (there were framed photographs from probably the turn of the 20th century), a twin bed inexplicably propped up on cinderblocks, and a word about how they usually keep the kitchen "spotless;" another place with a falsely advertised "beautiful" room in a really nice part of Cobble Hill . . . with 5 19-20 year olds and windows that faced walls; and an 8-foot wide walk-through where one clearly paid (and oh, how one would pay) for the "Prime Park Slope" location. There were a couple of others that were less obviously wrong, but ever so slightly too expensive or commitment-heavy (i.e. would have involved buying a couch), and a final one that required a credit check and then didn't end up showing me the room and now has me worried about identity theft (even though I'm pretty sure that that's difficult to do with only a credit report to go on). Also - at almost all of them, it seemed like the people renting the rooms were willing to give them to me on the spot if I had a check - this is very unlike any craigslist search I've done before, and, having just read an article in the Times about how Americans are not relocating at the moment, I might have been alarmed.