So I moved in...

So I moved in! After 19 days of sleeping on the guest bed in Ellen and Kevin’s house in Mission Viejo, Carly’s princess trundle in Brooklyn Heights, the Bradley Inn bed for Beth and Corey’s wedding and then my aerobed in an empty apartment for a week, my things were delivered last Friday and I spent most of the weekend unpacking and getting settled. It felt great. There’s still a few remaining boxes and stuff piled up on my floor (where my future table will go), but it is coming together.

Adam was in town from Santa Monica and came down for dinner and to see my place the night before move in day “I just wanted to make sure you actually moved somewhere,” he commented wryly. He was referring to the Santa Monica/Venice/Pacific Palisades search which of course Suzi and Laurie can appreciate as well.

Stacy was here for move in day, and is pictured above laughing at my wardrobe that’s a good 70% comprised of sundresses. “Where are your pants??” she asked.

Antony and Jen also came by over the weekend– Antony bearing light bulbs, pastries and a welcome Brooklyn Bridge art book. Jen came down on Saturday and she and I unpacked my kitchen and fragile items for two days over the weekend and enjoyed the lovely bottle of wine she brought once I could find the box where my wine opener was!

When I first moved from New York 5 ½ years ago to San Francisco, I began living in corporate housing for 3 months that turned into 8 months in the blink of an eye. Buying food and buying plants and making coffee at home helped get me used to the fact that I was ‘living’ there not just visiting on a trip.

The San Francisco corporate apartment on Chestnut Street on the far edges of Russian Hill had the most amazing view, which I had no idea about until I arrived after a long cross country flight and first opened the door. The living room had an unobstructed view of the water and I would spend hours in the morning or a lazy Sunday watching shipping barges, sailboats and cruise ships pass to and from the Golden Gate, past Alcatraz Island to the larger bay.

The view I have now is equally stunning, and something Jen had forgotten about until she came over on Saturday “Look at the water!” I face the west and see the Seaport and lower Manhattan, the East River and New York Harbor and to the far left the Statue of Liberty. Like in my San Francisco apartment, it is one of those things that happen in life when you get more than you hoped for. While it’s ultimately water, trees and mountains not tall buildings on a city skyline that makes my heart soar, seeing water and boat traffic every morning and every evening is what I am most grateful for as I am starting to create a new home here.

Sunday night I was doing laundry and met neighbors in the elevator who were traveling to my floor to take the stairs to the roof deck. “Are you coming up to watch the fireworks they said?” Turns out there was a centennial celebration for the Manhattan Bridge. From my perch on the radiator in my living room I looked with wonder at fireworks exploding in the air right across the river, and was amazed.