Farewells

(New York New York New York!) I'm fatigued by the activity of the weekend. Friday my friends GR and LC took me to Ipanema, a vegetarian restaurant in the Fan District and we drank wine, ate broccoli bisque (LC and I did, while GR selected a vegetarian burrito, instead) and enjoyed one last girls night before I leave town. Chances are we may be able to sneak in another week night girls night, but likely not a weekend night, seeing as May is already packed with moving activity for Craig and me. We had a great time (I adore the Richmonders; they've taught me great things!) After Ipanema we dropped LC off at her boyfriend's apartment, and GR and I continued onto Sette for a bottle of wine and a string of amateur digital snapshots of each other standing beside our favorite bartender, or of one of us grinning dopily at the other. I'll miss having exaggeratedly dramatic or hilarious conversations with GR. Saturday morning Craig went to work, and I launched the Mother's Day Handmade Gift Project, which is not entirely exciting but will save us a few bucks and hopefully will make our mothers smile. While I set to work on the project, I watched Brokeback Mountain. The short-winded version of my review is that I do love the movie, however I managed to detect several flaws in the picture which I would attribute to why it was not awarded Best Picture by the Academy or Oscar or whichever award entity grants Best Picture to a film (I get them all confused; perhaps the Academy hands out Oscars?) First of all, the musical score left quite a bit to be desired. The same slice of score that served to introduce each new scene basically bored me, and didn't accent the love story as I hoped it would. Second, I realize I was multi-tasking, therefore my eyes were averted from the screen a good portion of the movie, however I paid enough attention to formulate the opinion that the chemistry between Jake and Heath hardly built itself enough to lead to their, shall we call it, heavy session of intimacy in the tent. Following that it seemed their chemistry improved greatly and my heart filled with their relationship's passion. I loved Michelle Williams; I thought she wore her heart on her sleeve the entire film. I loved Heath and Jake, but I loved Heath more; I loved his pain. I'm glad Craig's sister and her family bought it for me for my birthday (Hi EB! Thank you!) Anyway, after Brokeback Mountain and more crafting, Craig came home from work and we launched the Great Apartment Clean Out. Craig sorted his collection of sweaters in the guest bedroom while I yanked everything out of our closet and began to make serious decisions about clothes I've been dragging around thinking I will wear them someday. About every half hour, Craig would call to me from the other room, KB, come see this one! regarding yet another sweater he'd discovered with tags still on it that fit him well enough to keep. By the end of the sweater sort, he'd selected only four to donate to Good Will. But what could I say to him: I debated for a whole lingering minute the beautiful rugged blue stack of Abercrombie size 2's that I shall never squeeze into again before deciding dubiously to move them to New York, once again moving jeans I cannot fit into, just in case. We did manage to construct a Discarded Clothing Donation Tower against one corner of the guest bedroom, in addition to generating two very full bags of trash. We also delivered GR the old stereo system that Craig has not used since he lived in Hartford, since at that time he replaced his electronics with a new surround sound system which we rely on to this day for our home theater and music listening entertainment. We rounded off our Saturday evening with a viewing of Hostel (not worth anyone's time) and Domino (Craig loved this, but I drifted off to sleep; we kept it to watch again: stay tuned for a brief review if it's worth a second mention). Sunday we woke up and had one of our sweet and perfect mornings: everything-bagel sandwiches, coffee, and a Sunday morning movie viewing (if it isn't already evident, we did a lot of movie-watching over the weekend!) of The Family Stone, which, well - we loved. I loved it. It's a tastefully composed family movie filled with hilarious awkward moments and all star actors. After it ended, I felt completely lazy, like all I wanted to do was remain in a ball on the couch handmaking small gifts for our mothers and watching more movies, so I hastily hit the Movie Gallery across the parking lot from our building and rented Woody Allen's Match Point (wasn't as absurd and suspenseful as I hoped, but it was alright) and Fun with Dick and Jane (entertaining, but I wouldn't recommend it). Looking back at it, I suppose Sunday was so completely filled with relaxation that I can't imagine what could have left me so worn out; then again, mentally preparing for our move is even exhausting. There are still several milestone fairwells we must make: to my car, to my old iMac, to Craig's car, to Craig's bed, quite possibly to our love seat, to our golf clubs, to one of our two acoustic guitars. I've compiled an actual list but even that process was intimidating: watching as the items piled up. Saturday morning at 6 we fly Jet Blue to JFK. Craig has been formulating our path from JFK to Manhattan (we're staying in a hotel on E. 39th Street) via train and subway. Our first appointment with a broker (we have a Saturday broker and a separate Sunday broker) is scheduled for 10 so we may have just enough time to grab a cup of coffee beforehand. And after that, away we go with the search for a place that ideally will satisfy us for 3 years, a place to paint the walls, a place to call home in New York, New York. As painstaking as the process may be, each step of the way is one step closer to living out a dream. I still can't believe this is happening for us.*PS: I thank Alura for her fine and detailed editing skills: I thought the spelling of 'fairwell' looked peculiar...several lobes of my brain, including the one that knows how to spell properly, are presently inoperative while we prepare to move to NYC. (: Thanks Alura, you are honest and true! xo