Brian's NYC

There is no Ikea in New York. There is one, however, in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. They are kind enough to provide free shuttles back and forth from the NYC Port Authority on the weekends.

Ashley and I thought we were thinking ahead by leaving 45 minutes before the first bus left one Saturday morning. We were going to get to the terminal nice and early, get a spot at the front of the bus.

It seemed like the line to get on the busses (thankfully they had more than one) went on for a quarter of a mile. Luckily we were still able to get onto the first batch of shuttles out that morning, and arrived at the Ikea in Elizabethtown at 10:30AM. Elizabethtown has the biggest Ikea I have ever been in. Don't know what the biggest won is like compared to this one, but man, it was like a walkathon trying to get through that thing. The showroom wasn't that bad, and was kinda fun, actually. They expanded their displays to include ideas for businesses, and the selection of products was out of this world. Then we went downstairs into the marketplace. By this time, the place was starting to get a bit crowded, and everyone had a cart, including us. They might as well have put us all in bumper cars, because we couldn't even go three feet without bumping into someone (or something...woops.).

Well, SIX HOURS and $700 later (we bought a couch, calm down), we left the store with our home furniture delivery scheduled for later that week. We knew we were going to have to shell out a small fortune for the home delivery, but we didn't anticipate still having to carry our non-furniture purchases back with us. We had SO MUCH STUFF. We couldn't even take it carry it far distances, let alone carrying it on the subway through two transfers, then five blocks to our apartment and five flights up in our building. So we sprung for a cab.

This cab driver was our first taxi experience in the city since we moved, and we were both frightened for our lives. I think even the water glasses were scared they were going to die! But I gotta hand it to the guy, our driver got us from 59th to 93rd with only an $8 cab fare, in about 4 minutes flat.

So now I am sitting on my brand new Ikea couch with my feet propped up on my coffee table watching Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveShow from HBO, the candle still burning on my IKEA dining table. Don't worry, pictures will come soon.

What doesn't kill me in this city will make me stronger!