Grant McCabe, Aug 25, 1915–Mar 22, 2008
Rest easy, Grandpa. Love you.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to the very brilliant Jamie, who today (at the mere age of 30) made director at Merrill Lynch. Go you! You so deserve it!! Wooo!
Crushed
Last year, Jamie and I were meant to go to Costa Rica. We were set to leave on April 25 at 11:45AM (arriving at 6:34PM) and and return on April 30 at 6:10PM. We had to cancel. Jamie had to work.
Merrill Lynch reimbursed us for the travel expenses we couldn't get refunded, but we still had to miss out on Costa Rica. I was somewhat heartened by the fact that when I went to cancel my ticket, I was told that I actually could reuse the credit for other tickets. I thought: okay, so in the next year, this will happen.
When we decided to get divorced and it became clear that we would not be going to Costa Rica together, I started peeking around, looking for someone to go with. My cousin, Emily, and I finally decided that this was going to be our trip, and she checked that she could get time off of work - which she could - and today I finally made the call to Continental Airlines...
... only to find that they will not let Emo use the ticket at all. It's James or nothing.
I'm so disappointed. We were going to do it in February, between our birthdays (my 30th!) and it was going to be this big fun treat. I haven't been diving in AGES and we were going to do that, too. And the sun. And the beach. And mmmm.
Eugh. :(
New Apartment
I am moved in.
When I say moved in, I mean moved in. I am 100% unpacked and it looks like I've lived here for a year. There are no boxes. Pictures have been hung. Everything is mostly organized.
Dad arrived at about 1:00 on Sunday. We went to lunch, then realized we were missing the game, so we went to a sports bar to catch the Bears' defeat. :( After that, we did about two hours of packing - that's all that was left. I guess my packing schedule worked out okay after all. It seemed like this horrible insurmountable task but really? Not so much. It was okay.
Monday started early. We took a load of kitchen stuff over ourselves and then the movers came over an hour early. It was wonderful. It only took them about four hours to get all my stuff loaded up and unloaded at the new place. Everyone here was amazing. Totally helpful and wonderful. The maintenance guys kept us in the newspaper recycling bags and continually cleared the hall of cardboard boxes. The movers didn't leave until they were sure all of the furniture was in the right place. It went flawlessly.
On Monday night, I hurt everywhere. By Tuesday at about 3:30, we were done.
So, some pictures!
Continue reading New Apartment.
A couple pictures...
... of Dad on Father's Day. Love you Dad.
Further Pearl adventures
First off, this is awesome: 0tv.com - Mary Worth Series. (Cheers to Phil for this.)
Secondly, there is apparently a HUGE LAG in when my dad takes phone photos and when they get to me. I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that his phone is on maximum resolution but I don't know. Either way, grrr phone company!
I think there's another picture on the way, but it seems that Pearl is still having fun with my parents. This is what I received this morning (which I should've received last night):
Pearl thinks she is the star
He heee! :)
Congratulations Neil!
My brother is married! The idea is still very strange to me, as he is my younger brother and somewhere in my mind I still see him as a gangly 14-year-old. Actually, he's 26. And the newest member of our family is his lovely wife Shannon - who really did look radiant on Saturday. I had the pleasure of being a bridesmaid and singing in the wedding, and in spite of a cold, it actually went okay. Hoorah!
We left for Denver on Thursday and came back last night. Since our move to the United States, we've spent more time in Denver than we have in New York. This amuses me in some small way. Of course it won't hold true for very long, but still.
It was a very fun wedding. There was lots of drinking and dancing and the food was delicious and the company was wonderful. It was excellent.
Now that we're back, there's much to do. I need a mobile phone. Bigtime. So that's first on the agenda today. I need to make sure it's a GSM phone, which rules out Verizon, which people keep telling me is great for coverage in NYC. I'm thinking T-Mobile or Cingular. I still need to do a little research as to which is better. Everyone I talk to has some sort of opinion, of course, and (solicited or unsolicited) I've heard it all.
I also need to go pick up our bank cards from the bank. We have an account already set up here, although I don't think there's anything in it yet, and we have no way of accessing the money. So, yeah. That's next.
I also have a million other things to do. But, y'know, I'll figure that out as I get there.
Scoping out
My scoping-out-apartments mission was an abject failure.
I fell in love. Bigtime. With a building.
My mother just bought an eTicket and is racing to O'Hare as I type to try and get on a plane to LaGuardia so we can go see it again tomorrow at 11:00AM - I already made the appointment. She has only the clothes on her back and the knowledge that I adore her to death for doing this for me. She is my eyes. She is my objectivity. When it comes to property and living spaces, especially, she is my rationality.
I'm in love. James will be in love when he sees it, too.
I love you Verdesian building with your great apartments.
I love you mommy, for flying out to make sure I don't do something stupid and rash.
19:10 Edit: So. I had a think about this, and realised that, as much as I wanted to show my mom this and get excited about it, it really isn't the right time. That wasn't the objective of this trip. And I want James to be with me. This apartment is what I wanted, sure. But do I really think it's the only place in the entire city of NY that would be a perfect match for us? No. I don't think that at all. It was just the most perfect match of the stuff that's out there right now. Will it still be out there next month? Maybe! But other stuff might be, too!
So mom isn't coming (which makes me sad - but she was wonderful that she was going to come) and Jamie is understandably in a hard position because he didn't get overly excited on the phone due to stress (he had a horrible day) and the fact that he did want to see the place before we signed a contract. So I know he's going to feel responsible if we don't find a place I flip over when we come back in a month.
But I bet I will. I like moving. I like finding new places. I like the idea of not stretching our budget to the very limit (godDAMN that place was expensive). But more than anything, I like Jamie. I want to share this with him and be excited with him. And that my desire to share it with him far outweighs any enthusiasm I had for that building is indicative that I'm not really that head over heals for the place. And actually, I should wait.
So Mom's not on her way over anymore (thank you mommy for doing that - I'm sorry if I messed up your evening - I love you), and James is hopefully slumbering peacefully (instead of being here with me, where I could snuggle him after his hard day), so I am disappointed.
But not about that apartment. About not being able to be with the people I love.
My Dad is the best
Conversation with my dad, ten minutes ago
Me: Is mom there?
Dad: No.
Me: I need to talk to her.
Dad: Why do you need to talk to Mom?
Me: I don't want to go to my high school reunion.
Dad (in a completely uncomprehending tone of voice): Why would you want to go to your high school reunion?
I about lost it. It's true. Why would I want to go to my hs reunion??
Dad: prophet?
When I was at university, I decided that I was going to spend a semester studying abroad. My first choice was Australia. I told my parents that I wanted to go to Australia and study. They were less than happy.
My father, particularly, was against this. Firstly, he said, if anything happened to me, it would take them 24 hours to get to me. This, of course, is true.
His second objection was more selfish. He was sure that I'd fall in love with some Australian guy and marry him and never come home. This is sort of amusing because of course while I was studying abroad, I met James. Although I did come home, I ultimately did move to England.
I can now safely say, without a shadow of a doubt, that if I'd come to Australia, instead of England, and met some guy and fell in love, there is no way in hell I'd ever have come back. So, good on you dad. You were probably right.
