Update: I FOUND AN APARTMENT!!

View from MY NEW ROOM!

And not just ANY apartment - one with AMAZING views, high ceilings, a full kitchen, a spacious living room, and SUPER COOL ROOMMATES!

How did I pull this off?

Craigslist.

I seriously cannot believe these girls were on there - they are so nice and awesome. So basically, the apartments my friend and I were looking at were TERRIBLE. We tried to go the cheap route but all the places we were looking at were NASTY, so I had to take matters into my own hands.

I used Craigslist to find the place I'm living in this summer - it was sooo much harder to look for an apartment living in DC, so this time around, living in NYC and all, I had higher hopes. Sunday night, I went into a panic and searched listings on the site - I must have emailed like 8 of them that had a few girls looking for a roommate. (Obvi only the seemingly-cool ones!) Unfortunately, going this route meant that I would not be living with my friend, but I couldn't live in a crummy place! Sometimes with housing you have to be selfish.

So this afternoon, I went to look at a place my friend had found. IT WAS AWFUL. Like right by where the highway enters Manhattan. And the quality was disastrous. I was freaking out.

Living room (it had just been someone's birthday). 
And that's only part of it!

Luckily, one of the girls from a listing I had actually emailed last night had responded to me earlier today and I was scheduled to see the place later tonight. This was just going to be for me - my friend was not pursuing other options on her own to my knowledge - so I felt kinda uneasy, but I really needed to find a place to live that wasn't a shithole! So I went with a very open mind.

Boy am I glad that I did.

This place is a palace. LITERALLY OUT OF THIS WORLD! Like, I cannot believe that places like this exist in Manhattan! When I walked in, I LITERALLY could not believe my eyes. It is like a real home! And the girls are really really awesome - I can't wait to live with them full time. We all got along great and are going to go for a wine and dine night sometime in the next week to get to know each other better! It was honestly too good to be true - I had no choice but to commit there on the spot. I did not want this to pass me by.

So after I left, I immediately felt like crap because I knew I had to tell my friend what I had done. Fortunately, she was sooo understanding. We ended up wanting different things anyways - my preference was more location while hers was by far price - so it kinda wasn't working out anyways. She gave me her blessing and said that it would be fun to pregame at each other's places (once she finds out where she's living). AND turns out the girl moving out is vacating the apartment in 2 weeks, so I can start to move my stuff in whenever she does and start living there sooner than September 1!

OH I AM SO HAPPY!