Tarantino

There should be a book written about us..

Or maybe just skip the whole book thing and go straight to feature film... and none of that Lifetime movie crap. I'm talking the real deal, tell it like it is, never made up- always entertaining, full length movie.

Because, really, these sorts of things don't just happen on a regular basis to regular people. Right? Or maybe they do and I am just stuck in my own little world thinking we're some kind of special.

Back in the day when my big bro Matt and I had to drive from ABQ to El Paso for our monthly braces adjustment, we would spend much of the drive either jamming out to unnecessarily loud music, or listening to comedians.. And I remember a Dane Cook joke where he starts off by saying he's gonna "Tarantino" his joke.. And by that meaning start from the end, with the punch line in all of its climactic glory, and then go back to the beginning to bring some understanding to the epic moment that is leaving you with a question mark over your head. So I think that's kinda what I want to try today.




Once the hacksaw broke we had to come to terms with reality... That sucker just isn't gonna fit.




Right?? That's a pretty good one.. Maybe? Sorta? Are you on the edge of your seat, glued to the screen? Good. Let's take it back to the beginning.. :)

We arrived in NYC on the 5th to a tiny, but livable apartment. That is one of the tougher things about moving to NYC from out of town. The real estate market here is nuts, and if you don't happen to be lucky enough to find one in person, or to be able to fly out to ok the place before you sign- you really wind up needing to place a LOT of trust in your broker. We had imagined something quite different to what we wound up with. Our "900sqft, 2 br apartment" is more like "600sqft apartment, 0 br- just a  room with no closets and a tiny little "closet-sized" room adjoined to serve as a second place for sleeping." Haha.. remember how I said I was yet to be emotional about the move? Well.. moments after the broker left, I broke down. I think it was all just a lot to take in.. Nic and I literally were walking in circles trying to find where this extra bedroom was meant to be, where we were meant to move our sons belongings into.. But it turns out the floor plan feels a bit more like a kitchen, separate dining, living and a walk in closet... When it's meant to be eat-in kitchen, separate living room that has french doors leading into the bedroom that has a tiny little second bedroom attached. Not sure if that made sense but I have no other way to describe it.

To make things quite a bit better we met some amazing people on our first day here. First off, was George. The gentleman from across the street that offered to take us out to lunch almost immediately upon meeting us (not kidding!) at an Italian restaurant down the street.. We happily agreed since we were both starved and knew Hudson must have been feeling hungry too. Turns out, aside from a few years in his 20's-30's, he has lived in that same Brownstone home his entire life (he's 70 years old!) and every day he sits out on his stoop chatting with the people that pass by.  He knows this neighborhood like the back of his hand and he has been nothing but a complete joy to get to know. Such a sweet man with an incredible life that I highly look forward to hearing much more about.

We also met with Tyson and Alee.. We had oddly enough already met them via Skype at some of the meetings we had with the Downing's regarding the church plant set to take place in NYC in 2013, but this was the first time getting to actually see them in the flesh. They cooked us dinner and it was a wonderful evening. They are not NYC natives so it has been fun exploring our new city together since then. We already feel so connected with them and really enjoy their company! Thank you, Jesus, for good friends!

We camped out on our air mattress while we enjoyed getting accustomed to the city life for a bit over a week before the rest of our things arrived. The moving company, however, made the story a bit of a frustrating one. Even before they picked our things up we knew we had made a mistake selecting them as our moving co. These guys were absolutely unorganized, unprofessional, and extremely difficult to deal with. Such a huge bummer when you're really excited about moving but duhn, duhn, duuuuhhhnnn-- the big bad moving guys are holding your belongings hostage while they try to bully you into paying tons of crazy fees.

Anyways, we got our stuff and quickly began to realize that we hadn't quite downsized enough. I swear, with every load of boxes they brought up I thought, surely this has to be the last of it! And then Pako would round the corner with another heap of things I would need to sort and decide what to keep and what to send to the thrift store. It is just shocking to see how many things we have. I mean, really-- do we need all of that?!

They started bringing up our furniture after getting the last of the boxes up and we were not too surprised to find that a lot of our things had been broken. A tall lamp, a book case, Nic's bike handlebars, too many glass items to count.. It's just so strange to me that this is what these men get paid to do. They are meant to be movers. And yet, they pretty much just carelessly threw things around. One box was so full of shards of glass it was apparent that they hadn't just bumped it, or accidentally cracked something- the damage made it seem like they had literally thrown the box to the ground. They should change their job title to breakers. Cause they're really good at that. ;)

After all was nearly said and done, they brought up the last piece of furniture, our beloved greenish yellowish couch. They had a LOT of trouble getting it up 3 flights of stairs and around the narrow hallways, but they finally got it to our door only to find that it wouldn't go through. They pushed, pulled, readjusted, and cussed. And they had absolutely NO luck. They weighed a couple different options before deciding that we were just going to have to deal with it on our own. The "boss man" told us to call a furniture doctor.. Apparently you can hire these guys to come take apart your couch and put it back together... So they left it in our hall. Thankfully we have they top floor, otherwise that just wouldn't have worked.  But anyways..

A couple days later, after awkwardly maneuvering around the inconveniently placed couch, and knowing that we weren't going to spend a fortune on a "furniture doctor" come take apart our couch just to have to turn around and pay them to do it again whenever we move out of this place, Nic decided that he was going to make that couch fit. He pushed, pulled, sighed, contemplated... And then decided to give the last possible option a try. Yep. He was going to cut those dang legs off the couch.

So out came the Bear Gryll's Gerber knife I bought him for Christmas paired with a hammer. He started to chisel away at the solid oak legs. He got through one.. and then started to get through the second one when the tip of the knife broke off.

Then he did what any reasonable man would do... he walked to the hardware store around the corner and bought a hacksaw.

This plan seemed to be working pretty well.. until the hacksaw broke. Turns out the hacksaw couldn't quite handle the task. It broke while he was hacking off the last leg and he had to take a hammer to remove the last one.

And once the hacksaw broke we had to come to terms with reality... That sucker just isn't gonna fit...



Haha.. How was that for my awesome rendition of a Tarantino story? I could probably do better. In fact, I could have probably chosen a better story to test it out on. But that is beside the point. I'm glad I did it. And I am sure I will try it again sometime. I'm sure you're thrilled to hear that :)

By the way- we wound up putting it up on the Free section of Craigslist, after all we couldn't expect someone to pay for the freshly battered couch. It was snagged up within 2 days.

This New York City lifestyle is really starting to grow on me. Even though I off loaded heaps of our belongings before we moved I feel like I get to continue purging through our things on a continual basis. Just one more thing to give away, each and every day. I love it.


I realized a few days ago, after perusing through some other blogs, that I am far from the average blogger. I am not good with keeping timely updates. I don't often post "tutorials" on how to be a better crafty lady. Or post how-to, step-by-step, directions on baking a delicious slice of heaven. (Although, there was that one time that I did post that one blog with all the pictures of the crafty things I completed.. That was cute, wasn't it?) I don't give tips on how to be a better mom, wife, or person in general. I don't keep logs of my work-out schedule or document trying out the newest calorie sizzling cardio. I don't keep you updated with my daily devotions or give reviews on the latest book I've read. Ultimately, this blog has never really had a direction, or a purpose outside of giving me a place to sort of document my life, our lives. Shed a little light on the how's and why's of this little Hansen family. And I am completely okay with  that.

And I still stand firm in my decision to title this blog, three or so years ago, Destination: Beautiful. Because although this blog has never technically had a direction.. It has always stayed true to the fact that no matter where this life is taking me, no matter what the Lord has had in store for me.. It has always been and will always continue to be beautiful.

The end.

Cheers, and God Bless.