nycyoulater

Well, we have made it. All of our stuff is up the 3 flights of narrow stairs and we officially "moved in". I expect we'll be unpacked in time for spring cleaning.

My dad and I drove the big yellow truck cross-country and met up with Andrea, Felix, and Glen who stayed behind to close up shop and then flew out here on Saturday. I think it is safe to say that they had the harder time of it, living without furniture or regular conveniences while trying to manage a baby and a full schedule of house cleaning. Felix came through it OK I think though he put some serious wear and tear on Glen and Andrea who were like zombies when we met them at the apartment. I had it much easier by far. My only difficulty was trying to keep my ass from going numb or my neck from getting sore during the bumpy bouncy ride, or trying to keep my armsa and legs from freezing solid from the arctic wind coming from the AC for 1200 miles. We had beds (or couches) to sleep in every night and wireless internet too. We stopped for meals at rather regular intervals, had a bag full of goodies to munch between meals. The sound system in the truck was fu so we attempted to listen to an audio book for ab out 5 minutes before giving up, same with the radio on the next day. All in all, the drive was not too bad. Dad drove day 1 and 3 and I drove day 2. I think the unloading was a lot harder than the driving, for sure. I wish we had chloroformed and packed up a couple of our truck-loading helpers. Hey, free trip to nyc.

So, with wireless internet at each evening stop I had high hopes of blogging the trip as a serial. We can all see how that ended up. The first night we got in at about 2am. That was in Toledo at grandma's house. The second night we arrived at the Days Inn in the Poconos at about 11pm, but the "wandering wifi" was so damn slow it was painful to use. We finally arrived in Park Slope at about 2pm. Our internet isn't getting installed until the 6th, but luckily someone nearby has left their wireless open with no encryption. I think it's OK for me to borrow it for the next couple days so long as we don't do anything bandwidth intensive like downloading shows. The Tea Lounge just down the street also has free wifi.

So, this morning Felix was ready to go at 7:30am. He was probably ready much sooner but I wasn't. Andrea is still trying to regain her sanity from three days of sleep deprivation. I packed Felix into his stroller and off we went in search of my Sunday morning cup of coffee. First we went to one of the gazillion little grocery markets near our house and bought some Felix necessities so we could easily feed him through out the day as well as a couple odds and ends for the rest of us. It's great having all these little markets but we need to find a bigger grocery store that offers better prices. There are a couple that are a little further away (haven't checked prices yet). The little places are great when you need something quick, but not what we should be using for daily or weekly shopping trips. Anywhoo, we loaded the groceries into the stroller and one bag around my wrist, walked for ab out 5 blocks back past our street and found as place thats open 24hrs (remember, its 7ish on a Sunday/holiday weekend) and got me a large coffee. I think it was $1.25. Not bad. Caffeine in hand, and Felix happily munching on a banana (then a nectarine), we headed on our real walk. We went back up our street, past our house, and on to Prospect Park, which is a block and a half away from us. Walking through the park, it looked like there had been some serious partyin there last night and a lot of the guests were still there! Seemed strange. Then I realized what was going on. This is Sunday before Labor Day. I'm sure that there were lots of people grilling out in the park yesterday and the people I was seeing this morning were staking their claims on the BBQ grills for today's grilling. See, grilling is only allowed in specific areas of the park. We walked on, further into the park.

Nearer the middle of the park is a huge open area with rolling berms and slopes. The park was covered in dogs. Ah, the Sunday morning dog people were out and their dogs were mostly running free. Coffees in hand, poop-baggie dispensers at the ready, the dog people of Brooklyn were letting the dogs out in force. Everyone was very well behaved. Those are the two things you see all over Park Slope: Babies in strollers and well behaved dogs. Back to the park. There is some water at the park, some ponds and streams. At one of the ponds there is a fence or gate the runs out into the water, creating a small dog beach and swimming area. Wet, well behaved, dogs.

We walked around a bit, saw some of the waterfalls Glen had mentioned yesterday, and headed home. Felix was asleep by the time we reached our front stoop and covered in nectarine pulp. I was tempted to leave him there so I could bring in the groceries but instead I just left the stroller. On my way back up with the stroller and Felix we ran into our downstairs neighbor, whose name just so happens to be Felix too. He has a daughter that I think is a little younger than our Felix. We said good morning and he said, "How was your first night in New York?" "Oh, it was OK, I think." "What about this little guy?" "You didn't hear him?" "Thick walls," he said with a big grin. I guess so. You probably only hear him crying if you are on our level or perhaps if you are outside and the window is open.

Back up in our apartment, the place is a disaster, but a sort of nicely controlled one. Everyone else is still in bed. I cleaned Felix up and after he played around for a while I was able to put him down for his nap. Finally, he's able to get a regular nap.

My dad seems to have taken well to the neighborhood. He said, "Some part of me envies you living here." "Yeah," I said, "the part that doesn;t have to carry furniture up 3 flights of stairs." Actually we weren't too rough on him. He mostly stayed in the back of the truck and handed stuff down to us, only being pulled in for heavy heavy lifting when he, Glen, and I carried the credenza up. It was heavy, but not nearly as difficult as we thought it would be. It turns out the most fearsome furniture we moved up was the queen mattress, which I had to use brute force to bend in unnatural ways to get it up the last flight of stairs. As I described it to my dad, we had to "taco" it. Never miss the opportunity to use the word taco as a verb.

So we are effectively moved in. All we need to do now is get our essentials unpacked and situated and then set about arranging and decorating, etc.

I think dad really likes it here, except for all of the walking. Apparently his hips give him trouble when he walks too far.

We are now New Yorkers. Even dad, who is an honorary New Yorker since he seems to enjoy sitting out on the stoop and watching people go by.

Today has started out fairly well.