Last night, I invited a good friend over to see my new apartment, have some dinner, and catch up. Given that most of the last month has been spent on settling and moving in, selling the original couch, and having my parents over, we’ve had no time to really invite anyone over to see our place until now. My friend had her bike stored safely downstairs in the mail room, and as she entered the building, she said she felt the building was too fancy for her to be entering. And as she entered the different parts of our new apartment, she marveled over everything from the windows to the light to living room rug. “This is the nicest apartment I’ve ever been in in this city!” she exclaimed. She was wide-eyed as we were on the roof overlooking the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building, and One World Trade downtown.

The funniest thing about this apartment is that for New York, yes, it’s a big one-bedroom, but for the country or the world? Not at all. Even things like having a pool on the roof in our building or a gym in-building are no big deal and are expected in better kept apartment buildings in the middle of the country… like in Arkansas, as my friend from Little Rock likes to remind me. She’s still in shock to this day that the last apartment we were in on the Upper East Side was as small as it was.

It’s all relative as we always say. I’ll be honest, though; every day I am in this apartment, other than the days my parents were here, I think I love it here more and more. It feels really nice to have real space again and actually have different living spaces, and a real hallway.