Lease: Signed
Check: Certified
Hands: Shook
Apartment: Ours

And with that, I'm finally starting to see things for my summer firming up. With school finished for the summer, I'm back to freelancing. My new apartment is signed on, and now it's just a question of moving in. A replacement for myself in my current apartment has been found.

Exhale.

The new place is fantastic. Exposed brick, all new floors, walls, fixtures, windows, the works. It's on Fulton street in Brooklyn; not the nicest location directly, but not bad. It's much like my old apartment in that respect. One block north is lovely, lovely Fort Greene, with tree-lined streets and adorable buildings (perhaps someday I'll be able to afford living in one). One block south lies the industrial badlands of Atlantic Avenue. On a smoother grade, heading west down Fulton leaves one through southern Fort Greene and then into the Atlantic Center area. Heading east leads past numerous cheap Chinese and fried chicken joints on a long trip through south Bed-Stuy en route to East New York. The block seems a bit better than my current one, and certainly on the rise. Maybe half the buildings on either side of the street are currently undergoing renovation and gutting for new, classy apartments aimed at people like myself, living on my parent's money.

The next block over towards the rest is dominated my a massive gray plaster-faced building in a modern style, with opaque black windows, surrounded by a nice high fence and with a small parking lot guarded by a security booth. It looks like the sort of building the military-industrial complex would build somewhere in the wild suburbs outside of Boston (hi, Gar). According to my new OCD landlord, the building was put together for high-tech business during the dot-com boom, but wasn't occupied before the bottom fell out of the market. Now, it has been re-tasked to serve as luxury condos, with your average place going for about $800,000. Guess once those places open up, there won't be any question as to whether this neighborhood's getting gentrified.

Oh, and I will live on top of a C train station. No more G train! No more G train! woot!

You want pics? I got yer pics right here.

Hmmm, someone's setting off fireworks outside. Lovely.