The last few days it’s finally started to feel like fall. Because I’m an adult without kids, it hadn’t really hit me that summer had ended, despite the new TV shows and the new choral season. But long-sleeve shirts have gradually reappeared in my work wardrobe, and when I leave therapy or come out of the subway for chorus rehearsal now, it’s dark. Somehow I thought that with Daylight Savings Time not ending until November this year, the day wouldn’t actually get any shorter until then.

Yesterday afternoon we took the subway up to see the neighborhood of our new temporary digs. Matt’s going to be working for Barnard starting next month, and his new boss has managed to scrounge up a temporary apartment for us until May while we look for a more permanent place. It’s really going to be a godsend.

So we got out of the subway at 110th Street and Central Park West. It was chilly – I was cold for the first time in months. After checking out the outside of the temporary building where we’ll be living (we didn’t acutally go in), we went for a walk. The area around Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues was a little depressing – not much besides some scattered bodegas and cheap take-out. But then we walked over to Broadway and the area came alive. Restaurants, coffee shops, pastry shops, a library, the Columbia bookstore, a couple of supermarkets. We also walked past Suite, a gay bar we’ve been to a few times, which we’d forgotten was there. That was reassuring.

We don’t know if that’s the neighbhorhood where we’ll ultimately look for a lease – we might want something further downtown, at least below 59th Street. But in the meantime, it’s nice to know that the temporary neighborhood is decent.