The night after "moving day"

Email written to all my friends and supporters, : )

Hi everyone,
Well.........I've moved and it was quite an experience. I think I might have to live here forever, since I never want to do this again. The two gentlemen who came from the moving company were less than gregarious and somewhat annoyed that when they arrived in Jackson Heights, they had to keep moving the truck around the block to let traffic pass. At one point the police were out there, practically screaming at them to move the truck as they had traffic blocked all the way down the street. The one man looked at me as if it was my fault there's no parking in JH and the streets are narrow! They also weren't happy that there were too many doors that needed to be held open.

If I ever decided to move again, I don't want to be there when they do it. Some things are best done if you don't have to witness them.........like watching as a pile of boxes crashes down to the ground because the mover is trying to shove them all onto the elevator. Really...I didn't need to see that. It was at this point I was so very happy that I hadn't had Nick and his friends move my stuff in a U-Haul! OMG....that truly would have been a nightmare!

Today with Erin's help I made some progress getting the place livable. We shifted around boxes that I can't unpack as I have no where to put the stuff once I unpack it...however, those boxes are now in a variety of places, not in one big pile in the middle of the LR floor. We went to the grocery store...and more importantly to the liquor store as I needed to try out my wine glasses. Unfortunately, when the cable guy arrived to hook up my cable/phone and Internet, he couldn't because my building is not "cable ready" as was advertised. He needed to get into the basement, which was locked and the super was somewhere in Brooklyn.........and now I will be cable/phone and Internet-less until minimally, next Saturday.

Those of you who know me well, understand that I have a bit of an Internet addiction and this is causing me no small amount of anxiety. Hence, I really did need to try out the wine glasses. Tonight I'm at Erin's. We couldn't get my DVD player to work and my bed was piled with stuff...and at least here, I can feed my Internet addiction for a little while. I'll be able to check email at work, but not visit my favorite places, or incessantly read the news...all things I like to do. Tomorrow I'll move the cat....that should be fun....not. She's going to have far fewer places to hide then she's had in the past. I'd better leave her a spot under the bed to hide out in for when company comes to visit.

Well, that's it from me for tonight. It really is going to be a great apartment...and you are all invited to come and visit! I hope you're all well and will look forward to catching up again either from work, or when I ever get back on line.

Love,
~Susan~

A day-glow green tee shirt

While thumbing through a catalog tonight I stumbled upon a tee shirt that made me laugh and that I might just have to order. It’s an interesting day-glow green color, which means that I might never actually wear it, day glow green not really being my color.

When I was a very young we used to watch the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz on TV (this was pre-video era), and I was terrified by the Wicked Witch of the West and those evil looking flying monkeys. To this day, I close my eyes when that part of the movie comes on. Years after the movie was made the actress who played the Wicked Witch did some sort of coffee commercial…..and I never liked those commercials because it was the Wicked Witch doing them.

The tee shirt says,

Don’t make me break out my
Flying Monkeys
I just thought that was so funny! (Maybe it’s just me though. Possibly some of you won’t find this funny.)

My old bedroom window

One winter Sunday morning back in February 2006, I wrote and posted a piece titled “My Bedroom Window.” I wrote it while looking at the window across from my bed, describing what I saw right down to the smallest detail.

The Curtain….“There is also a lovely curtain, of the valance variety, hanging on a curtain rod from the top of it. It’s made of a sheer white material that is sort of a V shape, the lowest point of the V hanging just in the center of the window. A trim of clear beads about two inches long each, hang down from the edge and sparkle as the sun touches them. Seeing the sun glint off the edge of this curtain is my favorite part of living in this bedroom.”

A String of Shells……..“Hanging down from the left hand side of the window, in a long vertical line from the curtain rod, is a string of shells tied together on fishing line. I strung these shells together years and years ago on a day spent at a friend’s beach house. For maybe 20 years this sting of shells hung from my kitchen curtain rod in the house I use to live in. Now they hang from my bedroom curtain rod and will hopefully hang from yet another one, in another place, at some other time in my future. I love this string of sea shells. They remind me of the summer, of the beach and the ocean, and how wonderful it is to sit by it, close your eyes and listen to the surf as it rolls onto shore and to smell the scent of the ocean salt in the air.”
Hydrangeas……….
“A pretty wreath of pink, blue and white hydrangeas with green leaves, hangs between the top of the window frame, and the top of the wall, which is actually one of the many ceiling peaks in this attic room.”
A Dream………
“I have managed to fix one window in my life exactly the way I want it to be. It’s calming to look at and is really not overly *girly*, despite my description of white lights, beads and flowers. Sitting in my bed and looking at this lovely window, in the middle of the Robin’s Egg Blue wall, makes me feel encouraged. I do however, often wonder where the other windows in my life will be located though, but figure I’ll find them eventually.”

Tonight I took down the curtain with the crystal beads, the string of shells and the wreath of Hydrangeas and packed them in a box. I feel a little sad now that it’s almost time to leave this room, and so grateful to have had it. I will miss living here with my brother and my niece. I’m going to hang the crystal beaded curtain and string of shells on my new kitchen window and will find the perfect spot for the Hydrangea wreath, in the new apartment I’m going to in Jackson Heights. This is an exciting and yet poignant time for me. Time to finally move away from home and for the first time ever, live all on my own. It’s been a long time coming and there were times when I never thought it would come to pass. See, this is what happens when you set goals and work to achieve them…..they somehow happen……..