The other night I was riding the 2 train uptown to chorus rehearsal. Sitting across from me was this guy who just had to be a Jewish lawyer. He looked the part. He was intently studying a pile of paper, wearing glasses, sweating, balding (in a bad way), and chewing a pen. If Woody Allen had a younger cousin and he was a lawyer, it might have been this guy. I sent contemptuous thoughts his way. Hah, you overstressed law firm slave! I thought. Glad I’m not you!

At one point he pulled something out of his pocket and I realized it contained an ID card with his name and – bingo – the name of a law firm. It can be fun to play detective, so later on I decided to look him up online.

[Originally I linked here to his online attorney profile, but I’ve decided that wasn’t very nice. See comments.]

Wow – Yale Law School, Highest Honors at Oxford, a Fulbright Scholar, and a former clerk for the First Circuit.

Some credentials, eh? You never know who’s riding the subway with you.

I’ve mentioned this in passing, but I haven’t officially announced it, so: Matt and I are moving in together this summer. We’ve been together more than a year and a half now, and we started talking about this almost a year ago. Since Matt’s moving to a new building anyway, and since my landlord (who bought my building several months ago) is planning to either sell my apartment as a condo when the lease comes up or raise my rent, and doesn’t mind if I end my lease early, it seems like a good time. Matt’s a residence hall director for the New School (I bet you didn’t even know the New School had residence halls), and he gets his own apartment in the building he runs, but he’s switching to a different building in a couple of weeks. We’ll be living on West Eighth Street, right in the Village.

I’ve lived with Matt de facto in his current apartment since last fall. I sleep there every night, most of my clothes are there, my weekend newspaper gets delivered there, etc. Officially moving in together will be slightly different, of course; it will officially be our place, and I won’t have that buffer zone of my Jersey City apartment if I ever feel like spending some time alone. But I’ll have my computer, all my books and bookshelves, my CDs and DVDs, the rest of my clothes, and all my little tchotchkes that make a place home. Plus there’ll be a spare office on the floor above us that we might set up as a little “study” for me if I ever feel like having a quiet space.

In general, there are three big plusses to this move.

One, Matt and I will be living together!

Two, I’ll be living in Manhattan. Finally. Long, longtime readers of this blog will recall that for many years now, I’ve wanted to leave Jersey City and finally move into Manhattan. It’s comical how many times in the past I’ve written something here like “I’m moving to Manhattan. I mean it this time,” and didn’t actually do it. Well, I’m doing it.

Three, the apartment is rent-free. Yup. Living in Manhattan, rent-free. Living in the Village, rent-free. And it’s a great apartment with a nice view, and a large kitchen by Manhattan standards. So all the money I’m currently paying in rent, I will instead put toward my student loans.

Matt gets the place next Friday (and two days later the Pride Parade marches right down our street), and during the month of July I’ll be moving in my stuff and selling the things I no longer want.

I guess it’s normal to be nervous, and I am. But I’m also excited.

Andy writes a very funny review of the audience at a concert he saw at Carnegie Hall. The concert was sponsored by MidAmerica Productions. Matt and I performed in a MidAmerica-sponsored concert at Carnegie Hall a few months ago, but Andy’s story is much more entertaining. Seems like the yokels take over Carnegie Hall whenever MidAmerica sponsors a concert there.

Related, from last week’s Times: At Carnegie Hall, All May Not Be as It Seems.