Stations

First, Happy Father's Day to our favorite Fathers!*At last, after an extended hiatus, I'm returning to the chronographic sphere in hopes to begin to recapture the past two weeks as well as look forward to what's to come. I apologize for the weak imagery above (a small photo borrowed from a page devoted to transportation of one kind or another), but I wanted to post something which depicts a fairly significant portion of our days, albeit temporarily, while we await mobilization of our project staff's office in Queens. Presently, as it stands, we not only live in a temporary empty apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan (which I will cover in depth later on, particularly the emptiness) but we also report to a corporate office space in the Met Life Building which is attached to the ever-powerful, ever-hussling Grand Central Station Terminal. While there are unimportant details regarding our inabilities to function in such temporary environments, both at work and at home, I do treasure this time that I've been given to experience living and working in Manhattan. In the morning, we get on the 4 or 5 express train and in two stops, we're at Grand Central, a divine adventure indeed. Before I go any further I do want to back track and remember the intimate particulars of our move to New York City.*As of June 3rd, we were still not completely out of our Richmond apartment. The movers had arrived June 2nd, packed us up, loaded the truck and drove off with our belongings, all of which were to be stashed in a storage facility for the duration of one month plus two weeks. However, June 3rd found us scrambling around, wiping countertops, finishing floors and with a room full of furniture (okay, so it was actually only a bed and a futon) which were to be picked up by our summer intern and a new hire in their trucks to be put to better use (we can in no way fit everything in our new apartment here). My very wonderful friend G had come upstairs with her wonder pup Mister Boy (Mister, this may be your first appearance in here, for which I apologize, but you're never far from my heart!) and she helped in any way she could (she had also helped us the day before with miscellaneous odds and ends; thank you, G!!) The intern and new hire were running a bit behind schedule, which, granted, had me frantic. But everything was accomplished, teary See You Laters were exchanged between G and me, and Craig and I were off to the airport with as many bags as each of us could feasibly transport between the two of us. Without too much struggle, we checked in, found our gate and sunk into a couple of chairs only to learn our flight would be delayed two hours due to weather. I think Craig thought that this would send me spinning into even more frenzy, but I felt calm. What could we do? We were still going, just later than anticipated. And as promised, two hours later we had boarded the plane and were in the air on a one way flight to New York City.* Upon landing at JFK, we collected the cumbersome amounts of bags from the claim area and followed the ground transportation signs to a long line of people waiting for cabs. The cab situation there is such that there are lines of them and the lines of people eventually will all end up in their respective cabs when it's their respective turns. Our last experience at JFK, we jumped right into one, but Saturday nights, cabs must be in high demand at JFK. Nevertheless, from our cab, I called my parents and announced to them proudly that their daughter had moved to New York City. I suppose it was a bit overeager to stake such a claim before even having a set of New York City keys in hand, but I declared it nevertheless! And in the span of 45 minutes or so, we were pulled to a stop outside a high rise building in the Upper East Side, to become our temporary arrangement for the month of June. By this time it was about 7:30 p.m. and my friend, my dear, talented, amazing friend from college, Lauren (I'm transitioning to first name usage from here forward for story stabilization purposes) had already invited us to dinner at our earliest convenience, as soon as we settled into the empty space and so forth. One thing we needed to do was purchase an air mattress from wherever air mattresses can be purchased in Manhattan. As luck would have it, we were able to, with the helpful suggestion of my friend Liz from Richmond as well as the coordination efforts of Lauren, locate a Bed, Bath & Beyond in the 60's, which had a Queen-sized mattress just waiting for us there. That errand accomplished, we returned to the apartment, washed up and headed out, on foot, to meet Lauren and her boyfriend Jeff.*Through all of this, I hadn't completely processed what was happening. I mean, it felt real enough, yet opening a door to a hollow place filled only with echoes of sound felt strangely surreal all at the same time. Anyway, we found Lauren and Jeff seated outside at Cilantro, a Mexican eaterie they had selected for us. Seeing Lauren again after so much time was like walking right into yesterday. That's what it is to have such sincere friendships with people: time passes, but your relationships do not. They linger to be refreshed with each next encounter. So, we enjoyed a relaxing dinner with Lauren and Jeff, then stopped for wine to take back to Jeff's apartment in the 80's. These two will, undoubtedly, become important fixtures in our New York City experience. They already have, and it's only day 15 (we've seen them several times since). We didn't stay too late, because Craig's head was beginning to nod a little and my eyes were definitely heavy. But it was a beautiful beginning to what will inevitably be the best experience in my entire life.*I've gone on long enough, and I do so apologize for the mechanical means by which I've written this morning. I'm out of practice, quite rusty. And we would not have internet access even now if it weren't for Jeff's gracious loan of a laptop to us (we already have internet service in our empty unit). I've got much, much more ground to cover, but as I say that, Craig is showered and ready to head out for a gorgeous sunny summer day in the City. Mark this as my effort to reconnect, my effort to somehow begin to narrate what has already proved to be an incredible, stressful, yet amazing two weeks in New York City. It gets better, I promise.