is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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1 Week.
On moving day I had three movers helping me, movers whom we shall call�for the sake of utterly reductive stereotyping�Cleetus, Hank, and Georgy. Hank and Cleetus were rednecky and used to hard labor. Cleetus had few teeth and seemed to be the boss. Hank was really nice and always ready to move furniture into precisely the right spot. Georgy was a teenager from Russia who hardly spoke English and he seemed somehow smaller even than me, and therefore ill-suited for his job. I felt bad for him all day. But I also felt bad for Cleetus and Hank, and myself, because even though Georgy was useful in helping boxes move from house to truck and truck to house, he didn�t read the labels on the boxes, so he was always putting the boxes in the wrong rooms. Even if I directed him to a room using pointing language, he often misunderstood what I meant. And he didn�t have a well developed sense of where to put the boxes, so he was always making stacks where seasoned movers wouldn�t make stacks, since they would intuit that major pieces of furniture would have to go along certain walls, etc. At one point I found him putting the mixer and food processor in the second bedroom. Keep in mind that these are kitchen objects boxed in their original shipping containers with pictures of what is inside. So I gave up trying to handle Georgy fairly quickly, as did everyone else, which meant that Hank had to do a lot of extra work, and then I spent much of last week moving heavy boxes into the right rooms.
Nonetheless, they did complete the whole move in one day, and I wasn�t charged anything over the estimate. (For some reason the moving company charged 110% of the estimate on my debit card in advance without informing me they would do so? I guess that often happens when moves are planned to major cities like NYC, where headaches and extra charges often occur? But why wouldn�t they tell me that in advance, so I could know how much money was coming out of my bank account? And why were they confused that I was miffed about that? � That�s just the tip of the iceberg of the frustrating rounds of calls I�ve had to make in the last two weeks to figure out what the heehaw is going on with my apartment and my money.)
I still have no gas, though I have electricity. It has been OK, though I think Gus would have liked it if we could have made coffee over the weekend. The gas man cometh on Wednesday. Cablevision comes tomorrow to install cable/phone/internet. Thursday I�m off to Philly to see Gus, pack up my office at QB, and attend a wedding in Bethlehem, PA.
Last week I moved, as you know, on Monday. Richard showed up on Tuesday for a conference. It was great timing (for me) because I had totally messed up my right small toe, and it was making everything more difficult. I still can�t wear any of my cute shoes (o! the difficulty). Over the weekend every time I�d try to get dressed to go out, I�d try on shoes, and Gus would overhear me in the bedroom going, �ow, ow. SHIT!� and then �ow, ow. SHIT!� And then I�d appear out in the living room in flip flops again, about a foot shorter than Gus.
The good news is that the Frozen Vodka Soak worked. It�s just that my toe only reached so far in to the dish of frozen vodka, and now that part of my toe is in great shape but there is a huge circular bruise area all over the rest of the toe reaching up into the foot region. It is getting better. I should be able to wear normal shoes in a couple of days. Next time I�ll remember to soak my foot in a deeper bowl of frozen vodka, said the crazy person. In the meantime at least the weather is right for minimal footwear.
Anyway, Richard�s arrival was well-timed because he helped me break down all the boxes I had managed to unpack, and he helped me get the couch into a normal position after it was abandoned in the most living-room-unfriendly position ever by my tired movers. And he swept up a lot of the packing peanuts. Then he took me out to dinner. All good. That was Tuesday night, after the long day of trying to get phone and gas service.
On Wednesday I spent hours trying to find a cable company while sitting on the stoop with my cellphone. Then I had dinner at Do Hwa with Catherine and Richard. I had a lot of kim chee, which made me very happy. Richard and I did some bookshopping, then had some cinnamon ice cream, and I sent him off to see a rock show and returned to Brooklandia.
Thursday provided me with more opportunities for unpacking and stoop-sitting phone-calling. Then I met my cousin Adam at Spring St. Natural for dinner. It was just like the good old days when he lived on Broome and Broadway and I used to stay with him for weeks during the summer. We even when to our bar Double Happiness afterward and had more drinks. It was like nothing had changed in that bar in the last ten years, not even the music. But I still like it there, because it has that hidden-basement feeling, and also the funny little nooks where you can sit with your crew if you get there at the right time.
Gus showed up on Friday. We ate at the BYOB Mexican place around the corner, and it is really good. I had an excellent plate of cheese enchiladas with mole sauce. Saturday morning Linda and Marilyn (who also came to town for the weekend) came over to investigate my new place and neighborhood. We tried to go to Tom�s Diner (of Suzanne Vega fame�there are signed lyrics on the wall) but the line was crizazy, so we went to a bar/restaurant called Beast instead. Then Gus and I went off to go shopping for man-pants, Linda and Marilyn went to some art events, and we all met up later, with Richard and Hermione, at Double Happiness, after which we had some yummy Vietnamese food, and then attended a birthday party at Bill and Yuki�s. Looong day.
On Sunday Gus and I went to the Bronx, to Wave Hill, to see an art exhibit based on the work/life of Thoreau. Our friend Richard did an installation in a cabin in the woods consisting of two camera obscurae that brought the outside greenery inside to the cabin. It was really lovely. There was also a piece by Ellen Harvey, of mirrors etched with landscape. It was pretty viewed in a dark room lit from outside. Gus also showed me where he grew up and went to school, etc., and we spent some time on the BQE. We rested in Brooklyn and then he drove back to Philly. I went to Gerry and Julie�s with Linda to watch the final episode of the Sopranos and eat banana coconut cream pie. Now it�s Monday and time to do some work and some unpacking. That is my story.
4:27 p.m. - June 11, 2007
J 2da D - 2007-06-11 19:16:37
Email me if you want a really, really harrowing picture of a toe. You know you do. Have you been to the Museo del Barrio to see the witnessing exhibit? Sounds cool. I'm going in the next month or so.
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jill - 2007-06-13 15:50:35
duuude. let's totally go together.
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