A CHRONICLE OF MOVING
FROM 167 HICKS STREET TO 101 CLARK STREET, BROOKLYN
11/7/89: Sign Cadman Towers waiting list with deposit of $225, #377 on list.
6/8/94: #225 on Cadman Towers waiting list.
2/21/96: Spartacus was #89, moved in, I'm now #183
6/1/96: Write for waiting-list for 55 Pierrepont Street; no response.
1/9/97: #160 on Cadman Towers waiting list.
11/3/97: Waiting-list verification from Robert Colby, Property Manager.
2/3/98: Pick up waiting-list application for Cadman Plaza North (don't reply).
2/3/98: Pick up current-application price-ranges for 101 Clark Street.
2/3/98: #87 on Cadman Towers waiting list.
2/1/99: #82 on Cadman Towers waiting list.
4/29/99: #78 on Cadman Towers waiting list.
2/15/00: #68 on Cadman Towers waiting list.
3/29/00: Apply for low-rent one-bedroom on West 42nd Street btw 11th-12th Aves.
1/5/01: #61 on Cadman Towers waiting list.
8/17/01: Apply for 11L, give $300 application fee (later returned).
6/12/02: #23 on Cadman Towers waiting list.
8/22/02: Apply for 5E, give $300 application fee.
9/17/02: #7 on Cadman Towers waiting list, looking at 5L offering.
9/30/02: Apply for 4F, but Kathy doesn't have keys yet; she'll call me.
10/4/02: Kathy calls 12:30, I look at 4F, then she tells me I'm NUMBER TWO on list, and the next apartment available is 20K! And that #1 on the list was in a formal offering cycle for ANOTHER apartment! So 20K is mine to accept! I DO!! She drafts an offering and hands it to me. I phone Joan Millman to see 20K!
10/5/02: Charles and I see 20K at 7PM: great space and view and cooperation!
10/10/02: Piñeda phones: internal-move-list refusal has hired a lawyer to get him IN! I should complete my application, but it may take six months to take the department's decision to completion. I'm totally crushed.
10/11/02: I hand everything in and Kathy says it all looks OK. Now I wait.
10/16/02: Someone calls to check my income figures but I don't get name, call 10/17/02 and Marsha at Topher's answers and says it WAS her who phoned before.
10/31/02: I leave note with Cadman Towers: Will be away November 2-16, 2002.
11/16/02: Back from trip to get phone message and letter from Pineda 11/14, scheduling me for an interview with the Sales & Transfer Committee at 6PM 11/20.
11/18/02: Pineda says the 2000-2001 New York State returns should be OK for the meeting, but he can't tell me anything else about anything.
11/20/02: Sydelle Brooks and Sheila Marks welcome me to interview, and John "Rick" Brown joins us a bit later. One says something about "it being decided in your favor," and again Pineda says he can't tell me anything about the process, but when I ask when I'll hear next, he says "Oh, certainly within a week." OH!
11/23/02: Go to Joan's 3PM to be shown a letter, hand-delivered to her last night by Pineda, saying the apartment is MINE! She sells me 1) wood floor, 2) entrance-hall light fixture, 3) bathroom vanity, 4) stove and refrigerator, 5) storage unit above bedroom door, 6) venetian blinds in both rooms, 7) carpeting in both rooms, and 8) bedroom mirror for my check #1159 for $1000. I phone 1) Spartacus, 2) Vicki, 3) Mildred, and 4) Sherryl to tell them.
11/24/02: Tell 5) Charles, 6) John, 7) Rita, 8) Bob Lambiase, 9) Bill Petersen.
11/25/02: Phone Pineda: he's sending me letter to replace 11/22 letter which I get today, apologizing for messing up the numbers. Tell 10) Shelley, 11) Carolyn.
11/26/02: Phone Joan: she has to give keys to Pineda, leaving today. Pineda tells me I can't get keys until closing on 12/2. I'm still feeling in limbo.
11/27/02: Get Ikea catalog from Spartacus; get address-change forms from PO.
11/28/02: Tell 12) Ken and type up these 2 pages by 4:15PM, doing nothing much.
11/29/02: FINALLY clear up all desk and table; order cards and address labels from Drake via Internet after two hours. Watch TV tapes and play FreeCell.
11/30/02: Get groceries, manage highest of 83.8603 at 5:45PM; this by 6:50PM.
12/2/02: Museum of Sex till 4:45, then to 101 Clark with Charles at 5:20, in at 5:30 and sign MANY papers and GET many papers, and finish at 5:56 with an apartment that "HPD ruled in your favor," but he doesn't know what the guy may STILL do, but Charles said that "Possession is really MORE than 9/10 of the law in these kinds of cases." We look at apartment with NO lights except in hall and bathroom and kitchen, I water the two plants she left, and I do some measurements and we dine at Henry's End.
12/3/02: Take John over 9:30-10:15, and he approves: put bookcases in living room angle, computer in bedroom corner, big mirror on flat left-of-entry wall, water THREE plants that she left, he approves of carpeting, saying "You should move most of your old furniture over and see how LITTLE you can get along with." He loves views, says apartment looks surprisingly small, and is very dry. Carolyn says she'll buzz downstairs and I'll phone Spartacus to go over about 1:15PM, which is right now. Phone Alvarez, the painter, and agree to meet him in the lobby at noon tomorrow for a painting estimate.
12/4/02: Change address at HSBC and deposit check for $10,000, available next Wednesday. To 101, Pineda not in till 3, to Bill's in 12A to borrow a vacuum cleaner to suck out any dust in the heaters before painting. Cut thermostat off, take screws out of drying rack, take down cable and cut off end when Joe the Super says that's what to do, replacing end at Radio Shack. Get two duplicate sets of keys for me, one to painter, Pineda cancels order to change mail-lock.
Then talk to Pineda at 2:30: he gives me outdated apartment manual, asks for my notarized form and other form, says Time-Warner has to connect cable, but when I call Millman to ask about her two cables, I'm told she's "in conference" in the city for the next three days, won't be available till weekend. Pity, but I'll leave word on her machine. Call Sherryl to try to move Sunday's meal from 5PM earlier so I can attend Millman's farewell party 6-8PM at 101. Nice touch.
12/5/02: Biggest (and first) snow of the year, so I spend much of day starting my year-letter, pleased by getting my calling cards in the mail. Watch TV and play FreeCell much of the day, doing nothing on the move, though one of these mornings I wake with the idea: get mirrored storage cabinets across parallel walls to contain boxes AND books, show a clean face, and make place look bigger.
12/6/02: Long list of things to do: got $10,000 cash and found my Schwab check cleared ALREADY, so I give John his November payment, making him happy. Paid Alvarez who's doing the job himself: "Helper didn't come in yesterday, so I told him not to come in today." Get return-address labels in mail so I finish ALL the year-letters and mail 38 Christmas cards at 7PM before going to hot-tub MAN eve.
12/7/02: Back to 101 to measure balcony for patio furniture and front door for furniture-fit, then meet Spartacus at 10:45 to get 11:30AM bus to Ikea, getting in at 11:58AM and looking at rugs and curtains, then lunch 12:58-1:30, a great bargain, and put together a PAX system for $1640 but THEN wonder if the 93" cabinets can be ERECTED under a 96" ceiling, getting over-shopped by 3:30 and taking bus back with Spartacus and back at 5:30 to talk to Mildred & Carolyn and Mary Vilaboa, who's depressed about losing mind. Find cabinet takes 95.9 inches, so I have to measure ACTUAL clearance tomorrow, deciding to REMOVE carpeting.
12/8/02: To 101 to find Alvarez finishing up, approving my removing carpeting, not knowing where to get new, measure EXACT 98 inches so I decide to get SHORTER units to make any future move, even WITHIN apartment, that much easier. Look at Bob Lambiase's etageres but refuse them for the reason he wants to get rid of them: they're tarnishing. Take over first bagful of stuff: champagne glasses!
12/9/02: To 101 to vacuum and find rugs are 1) wrinkled in TWO places in living room, 2) indented on BOTH sides of bedroom floor, 3) stained in more than two places in each room, so I go to Joe and he says guy is coming to look at ANOTHER apartment 1:30-2, will bring me samples of NEW carpeting, and it'll be cheaper if HE removes old carpeting and puts down new in the same operation. Ask him about ice in center of balcony, and he asks if they're finished with my line yet, and when I say no, he says he'll take engineering up (asking my permission to enter) tomorrow to look at it. Doorman says he'll put up a signal if Airborne Express delivers me a package today. Mail two letters in mailbox RIGHT OUT DOOR!
Then back with two bags of porno-packaged tapes, GETTING Airborne box, but carpet guys aren't there yet. I wait and read in lobby, but they're not there by 2:35, when I leave for lunch, and remember ONLY at 2:50 my 3PM appointment with Carolyn! Get a patty melt to go, eat half on way, eat half on way to 101, where they LEFT already, leaving only NYLON samples from $18-26/sqyd, and I find some decent colors, then back to phone Mildred and three other places, and rather decide on nylon.
12/10/02: FINALLY take two bags of books to Montague Books, and get $12 for 12 books, an offer of $4 on first-edition "Long Days Dying," "selling from $40 to $60, but everything depends on DUST JACKET!?" Take $12 cash rather than $18 credit. Also change address with Harriet Moschel when I reserve for me and Spartacus for Pope's party. Note to check 1) mail, 2) door-listing for my name and code, and 3) "No" days for Ikea delivery which I'll probably order with Charles tomorrow: cabinets, chairs, lamps which aren't furniture & are CARRIED!
12/10/02 (continued): Then the rug people call to ask if they can come tomorrow, and I phone Joe to ask him and he says OK, they can start tomorrow. Then Eileen's SON phones and after much talk I say "I'd originally said $10,000, but I DO understand your position, so I'll say $6,000." He pleases me when he said they'd agreed on $4,000," so I figure we can compromise, and he says he'll talk to his lawyer about drawing up something for us to sign, and he'll get back to me real soon. Call Spartacus and Mildred to tell them that before going off to "Man of La Mancha," which Stokes Mitchell sings very well and even Mastroantonio grows on me. Back to watch television tapes and bed about 12:30.
12/11/02: Up early, talk more to Mildred, call Charles at 10:30 who panicks to hear we have to meet by 11:45, but he's there EARLY and we're out to Ikea where I spend $1813.27 plus $250 delivery charge for TUESDAY delivery. Get back to apartment to find they've LAID the rugs. I feel good about it. Then have dinner and talk to Marj about an hour, then play FreeCell to 1:40 & type this to 1:50!
12/12/02: About 7AM the real EXISTENTIAL PROBLEM hits me: WHERE am I going to put all the STUFF I want to move: bookcases, computer files, filing cabinets; how much WALL SPACE do I have compared with 167; how much AREA, how much VOLUME? Type this after paying $1109 carpeting balance on Visa at 8:30AM. Finish the floor plan either today or tomorrow, finding not enough ROOM for everything!
12/13/02: Mildred comes to 101 about 3:30 and says living room is too LONG and NARROW, and mirror shouldn't be on the END wall to EMPHASIZE the discrepancy in size, but along the balcony-facing wall to make THAT dimension appear larger. Arnold also doesn't like my idea of a sofa sitting in front of the end mirrors, which would destroy much of the space-enlarging reflection, but the sofa in front of bookcases against the end wall would permit the window to be reflected to BOTH sides of people on the sofa. They quibble about EVERYTHING, but all admire the view. They leave about 4:30, too dark already to vacuum.
12/14/02: Bundle 104 reels of magnetic reel-to-reel tape and put them out for John to help me take down, though he puts on pressure by saying "I expect to see LOTS thrown out in the immediate future!" In reaction to ALL I have to do to move, I start FreeCell about 1:30 waiting for Ikea to answer, and play ALL day except for eating lunch about 5 and dinner about 10:30, winning 178 games and losing 38, 216 games, not able to get my average EVER above 82%, so I just MUST shut it off for bed, without Times.
12/15/02: Get Times while going to gym at noon, take down four bags of books that I recorded on the DISBOOKS list, then point out my apartment location to Steve at MAN on 70 Washington Street. Stop at Biblo Books at 5, attracted by their "Books Bought" sign, and they WANT art books! Home at 5:30 to read Times and do puzzles and eat a cream-cheese sandwich for dinner about 12:45AM, not really hassling myself about wasting time, listening to TV where the subway strike isn't going to start IMMEDIATELY, and go to sleep instantly.
12/16/02: Make a 19-item do-list (see NOTEBOOK-1) and try to video apartment with a battery that WON'T charge but that immediately has NO charge, so I put it on to refresh at 11:10AM, hoping it'll work NOW. Trying to copy files I find that the BERNOULLI doesn't work, and leave a message with Dr. Data to see if he's still in business. Get a call from Furniture Assembly and Brenda knows the Pax wardrobes with mirrored doors, saying they have to be attached to wall or to each other so they won't fall over, they don't come day of delivery but schedule soon, and each cabinet is $55, and with the Kampe TV stand to assemble and put casters on, the total estimate is $456!!! I call Paul at 101 again, leaving word again, and Carolyn will come to 101 at 10AM with me tomorrow to meet the Ikea delivery scheduled between 10AM and 2PM, and I just have to be in the apartment.
12/17/02: 5PM: Yesterday I kept going at the do-list: 1) made the mympths file, 2) made diskette copies of JV and MY, 3) printed the Taylor index, 4a) got the call from IKEA, 5) Carolyn called to say she'll come on Friday, 6) gave Carolyn A the Actualism Intro, 7) was told the HSBC checks would arrive in 7-10 business days from 12/6, and in fact they were waiting for me at 101 today, 8) phoned my new address to Schwab, saying I'll get checks in 7-10 working days, 9) and 10) and part of 12) and 13) were transferred to today, 11) took the videos and disks to Arnold and got my insurance video, 14) got new (cheaper) insurance on 101, and must phone to terminate insurance on 167 when I leave, 16) found that counter-clockwise, elimination was first and clockwise, assimilation was second, so that it IS in alphabetic order, 17) bought L-arginine after leaving Arnold's and having time before seeing Carolyn, 18) found I needed Gemfibrozil and put it on the list for today, and 19) reserved the Beard dates and told Ken to phone. Had lunch, then agreed to meet Spartacus at 5:55PM at the BMT for "Nicholas Nickleby," since I was pretty "worked out" by then, but the movie wasn't very good and dinner at Betsy's wasn't fish and chips because they were out, but I got to Brooklyn Diner for dessert and saw Carol Channing on her way out! Back to get to bed at 1AM, knowing I have to be up and breakfasted by 9AM. To sleep easily, but up early, content, and got out of bed about 7:55AM to have breakfast and make out a NEW list that has SEVEN items: 1) Ron: Carolyn coming at noon, 2) Pick up RX with bottle from Chin at 9AM, 3) take knife and newspapers (which Arnold made me VERY angry with saying while he talked to me over FreeCell, and I just didn't want to HEAR any more from him, like "the shelves aren't going to have their needed pins and you'll have to spend a lot of money getting them from Sid's" 4) Vacuum, to Bill, 5) JV to Vicki, 6) Video 101, 7) review Arnold's tape. Cross off 1) because Carolyn isn't coming, but pack a shopping bag with toilet paper, a knife and a razor blade for packages, Carolyn's Christmas letter, newspapers, magazine to read on the folding chair I take in the other hand, and the receipts and delivery rules from IKEA, and the video camera. Get there at 9AM, getting told by Joe that Paul's on vacation until Thursday, and I tell them to let them up: I'll be vacuuming but the door will be OPEN. Start vacuuming, delighting in how well the carpet looks cleaned, opening a window a bit to cool the apartment from the broiling radiators, STILL too hot in the 20° windy cold outside, taking about three minutes of videos of the place, the view, and what I've already brought in. Just finish with the living room at 9:50AM when a Russian knocks on the door and says he's the delivery from IKEA. Find on my message at 167 that they PHONED me, but since I didn't answer the phone, they HOPED I'd be at the apartment. Arnold phoned, too, to say that I should have left HIS phone number, blah, blah, blah. I make ready for their 10:10 entrance and they're FINISHED by 10:20, asking me to sign, getting all the items checked off, and I'm FLABBERGASTED by the idea that the things are actually HERE! Keep on vacuuming til 11AM, then start scrubbing the wooden entryway, continue into the bathroom, then say to myself: "Stop me from cleaning MORE!" Down to ring Bill, who asks me to come up, and I sit in his overdone apartment while he tells me about his alcoholic dead ex-lover who put him off booze, many half-empty bottles of which he wishes to give me before or after the party. Up to 20K and he falls in love with the door-boxes, saying they'll make good screens for one of his plays, and I unpack one chair and unwrap the cover and like the colors and go back to his place and I take the box down the few steps to discard it, and ask Joe whether Carlos could do the assembly too, and he says he'll have Carlos call me. Then I'm down to get my HRW package AND my HSBC checks, walk RIGHT into Chin's office to get the prescription, leave it off at Rite-Aid, get groceries, and home to FIVE messages, including Terry inviting me to Hoboken elegant-dinner on Sunday, and Rite-Aid saying "Medicare can't pay until 12/21!" I call them back, they call back to say it was a computer error. Put things away, play a bit of FreeCell, and Bill Robertson calls, offering $5000, which I accept with great pleasure, phoning Spartacus and Mildred and John to tell them, and then wolf down some hamburger before meeting Charles in "The Producers" seats.
12/19/02: 5PM: Didn't do ANYTHING yesterday except write the Christmas card to Bill Peterson and watch Arnold's 45-minute tape of my insurance coverage, at which point I get MOTION SICKNESS and actually go to BED until 2:20, when I'm up to eat and then start FreeCell, and at 10PM realize that I'd 1) forgotten to attend the Shareholders' Meeting at 101, and 2) I'd somehow set up the VCR to record December 18, 2003, and had to reprogram what I'd missed. Watch some tapes with dinner, burnt chicken patties, and get to bed about 12:30 but can't sleep with worry about the move, so I take a sleeping pill AGAIN. Oh, yes, Carlos called and said he could assemble the cabinets on Monday, but he'd meet me in 20K "between 11:30 and noon tomorrow" to see what had to be done. So I wake at 7:30, not feeling groggy THEN, but feel TERMINAL after lunch and I need to get to the gym. Have early breakfast and change my address with: 1) Grand Circle, which will also change OAT's listing, 2) Dr. Dimatteo, 3) Scientific American, which will change address on my MARCH issue, which DOES take address changes FIRST on their menu, 4) New York by the 1/6 issue, 5) New Yorker by the 1/13 issue, and 6) Postmaster WON'T take address change over telephone: "Send the change on your letterhead," "I don't HAVE a letterhead," "Then just send a letter," "I don't WANT to send a letter, I want to do it on the phone," "We can't do it on the phone, "FINE, see if I ever pay your bill again!" and 7) e-mail it to Watson Guptill, hoping it's SKERNER OK. Get over to apartment about 10:30, no mail in the box from yesterday (and I get first-class mail at 167 TODAY!), and took over soap, paper towels, my towel, and a wastebasket for the bathroom, then put the cover on the armchair, arrange the room for cabinets, deciding I'll need the SHALLOW cabinets on the FAR wall and the DEEP cabinets on the balcony-facing wall because the FAR wall is too SHORT to do it the other way without needing to move one of the SHALLOW cabinets somewhere ELSE! Go down at 11:40AM, thinking maybe Carlos tried to PHONE me and got my message and thought I wasn't in 20K, but plump one says he'll tell him: he's probably running late. Back up to put the plants in the bedroom, watering them, and then do the glasses I brought today and the champagne and wine glasses I brought before, and rather now decide AGAINST inviting the people on the floor: if they drop by, that's OK, but I really can't HANDLE another 10 people. Took another chair over, but that only gives seating for eleven, INCLUDING the step-stool, and at last count we're THIRTEEN, though Spartacus says he'll just drop in, Stephanie S won't come till after 10, but maybe Suzie and Paul will drop in too. Then at 1:10 I'm just too HUNGRY to stay longer, there's no one in the maintenance office, so I tell Ron the situation, pick up the prescription (paying $20 for 45 days when it was only $10 for 30 days, losing me money, so I'll have to go back down to 30 days), and get a quart of milk that I forgot before and two more bottles of soda, adding to my list for the party: 15 hangers for coats, booze and soda and soda pop, and for the wall: two FLAT-ENDED extension cords for the two outlets which will be covered by the cabinets PERMANENTLY! Then after lunch feel fagged out enough to play FreeCell, stopping on a hard one, and last night I QUIT on another apparently impossible 26693. But maybe it'll go when I get to it fresh. Got home wanting a call from 1) Bill Robertson, 2) Carlos, 3) Spartacus, and got NONE of them, and left word with Spartacus and Mildred about having to change the configuration of the storage cabinets, telling them "Now I'll see how much negative you can say about my decision." Finish this at 5:15PM.
12/21/02: Yesterday, phone and leave message with Carlos, "He'll call you at noon," but he doesn't. No call from Bill Robertson, either. Do-nothing day. Today check with Carolyn who's coming here at 10AM. Pack one box, then when my back aches, pack TWO boxes with all booze and 20 hangers; phone Super to say I want Carlos to come up between 10:15 and 11:15, and I want someone to wash venetian blinds, but I'll see him there. Call Mildred who'll call me back about today's possible trip to Garrison, or I'll call her at noon, feeling increasingly put out by having no phone in the new place. Still piles of apartment-junk littering my desk and coffee table: GOT to get RID of all of it!
12/21/02: 1PM: Carolyn comes up with a cart, so I use HERS to load my two boxes of booze onto; she measures the sofa, stops for coffee, and at the end takes $100 from me. I stop at the office to find it closed. Carlos not in today says the desk. But papers have been moved in my apartment off the doors, so Carlos was probably ALREADY up to look at it. Plan the 5, 6, and 7 shelves in the three cabinets to take up the 18; put the booze away and drop and break the bottle of MoTai; out at 12:10 to have Mildred say we're NOT welcome in Garrison, so we're not going. As I start typing this Spartacus calls and we're going to Home Depot at 2:30, so I have to measure for light-switch plates and door-stop rubbers. Then start discarding more books, since "Saturday is a good day to leave them." We have to walk across two highways and under a bridge and through a parking lot to get to Home Depot, after taking 45 minutes to take two busses. Huge place like a lumberyard, and pick up neat white face-plates, four expensive 7-foot extension cords with flat heads, finally find coaster-knobs to fit on the three doorstops, and get black-paper temporary shades, and visa $47.33, while Spartacus visas $46.16! Slow bus back to Joralemon at 5:30, Times not out yet, so I'm up to apartment to screw on plates and paper-ream two of the door stoppers to make them fit, then start washing the inside windows, deciding not to put up the temporary shade yet, and get out at 7:15 to find the Times in, doing puzzles and reading by 12:15, but then can't sleep!
12/22/02: Try to get Carolyn, but then leave phone machine OFF when I go to 101 at 11:30 with two boxes of porno and some of Dennis's glass, and start on windows again when Carlos rings bell at 12:10 with his younger son, hems and haws for about 45 minutes and gives me an estimate of $150-$200 per piece (so SIX would be $900-$1200, MUCH more than Assembly people, but he's going to GLUE rather than screw frame together, which he says will make it stronger, and set little supports under the front so it won't sag. He'll start tomorrow at 7AM and says I should come at noon to see what they're like. Carolyn's bought an $80 throw for both sofas together, but couldn't find what she REALLY wanted, nor could she find large pots for the plants. I'm back at 1:15PM for lunch and type this by 2:15, feeling rather tired & having Hoboken dinner tonight with Sherryl.
12/23/02: 8:35AM: Bed, drunk, at 10PM and sleep much better until 7AM, and up to make expense list, a total of $21,217.03 spent, but subtracting $14,937.84, for the actual PURCHASE price, leaves a so-far moving-expense figure of $6,279.19. Make another list: 1) get cash, 2) Carolyn at 10:30, 3) Carlos at noon, 4) tabulate expenses, 5) gym, 6) get bupropion Rx, 7) throw out books, 8) Beard at 7PM, 9) laundry out, and Carolyn comes and "measured" my sofa at 84 inches rather than 8'4", so she has to return $80 cranberry throw and get two $40 ones, but also paid $30 for a POT!! She comes up after eating breakfast, I marvel at the amount of material Carlos needs for putting together my cabinets (with an older son that Bill drools over when he comes up to pick up his vacuum attachment and another cardboard box), and put the final screw into the back of the one complete chair. Back to get prescription, take it in, then back to throw out a total of six bags of books through the day, all taken away INSTANTLY. Then home to have lunch, get to gym, pick up prescription, and get laundry ready to take out and finish this at 6:25PM pleased with my progress toward my apartment.
12/26/02: 8:50AM: 12/24 I did nothing but watch TV (and worry) after Bill calls and brings up card table for 12/31 and takes boxes back (and then calls that one of the handles was LEFT in one of the door-boxes), and I take over stuff for 12/31 in two bags, with the boom-box for music. 12/25 I did NOTHING but play games: FreeCell till tired, then Taipei through the patterns, then back to MINESWEEPER for hours, stopping for meals, then watching TV until 1AM, LOST DAY! Determine to put out BAGS of books before starting index today! But after I put out SIX bags of books, John taking down two, all going fast, I call Bill and say I'll come to 101, but Carlos isn't working: he's working TOMORROW. And Michael 12/26/02 (cont.): in the office, who makes out a "window adjust" work order, says my fourth blind is SOAKING, and he WILL wash the slats upstairs AND hang them, for the $35 cash I give him. Carolyn gets mad at me because I can't decide whether to keep the $35 plant-pot or not, but when she asks AGAIN, I say to take it back, with the too-short cover and the pillow which she'd bought only to show me the PATTERN of the cover that now won't fit! She's helping, but GAD!! I call her later and essentially grovel for her continued love, close to tears myself. More mail, still not switched, and I leave a message with Bill Robertson "Who'll be home between 5-6" and hasn't called by 6:30, when I type this after a few hours of FreeCell which I finally get up to 85% and quit to pile up MORE books for tomorrow's load out. Watch Fidelio from the Met with earphones tuned to WQXR, and then look at more TV and bed tired.
12/27/02: 12:30AM the next day: up and decide I MUST do the HRW Pre-Algebra Student Edition index, and in 5:40 DO that, sending her four indexes after we chat on the phone and I suggest she wants the WHOLE index and the ADDED index, with both in page-number order also. Over to 101 at 3PM to see that the TV cart WON'T hold my 21" Go video, so Carlos said he can build a platform over THAT, but that the cart needs to CENTRAL casters, which I add to the list to take to IKEA, from whom I get a card today saying I should get the pickup by 1/3! But I can't take it, and Mildred says I can change it, and I CAN, to 1/15, when we'll go to Alamo and do IKEA and Garrison on a nice day. Carolyn comes in, by great coincidence, when I'm there, and picks up the cover to return, and says we shouldn't talk about yesterday any more. OK. Gym at the last moment, then back to finish index work and play FreeCell but gasp when I think maybe cabinet doors won't open TOGETHER because of poor hinging, but go over at 9PM and see it's perfectly OK, water plants, search through trash and find what I think is one of the packages for the screws for the casters which I hope I remember well enough to get the same ones of, and then get $37.37 worth of groceries---in addition to the two bottles of Asti I bought to take and refrigerate for 12/31. Back to more FreeCell and listening to WQXR and finish this in five minutes and get to bed! Added later: 1) Bill Robertson's call: he'll call Synoptic and get statement to me SOON and phones me when it comes, 2) Paul McLean calls from Homestead, 3) get ELEVEN plastic bags from Key with $37.37 groceries, 4) Carolyn will call Saturday when she wants to pick up other stuff, 5) I start two boxes to take to Biblo, noting to add "Long Day's Dying" for price-compare with Montague's $4.
12/28/02: 8:50AM: Bed 12:45 and not really asleep by 2:50, so I take sleeping pill and pee at 7AM and up at 8AM to put indexing stuff away and balance checks and clear up OTHER stuff before breakfast. Then start on computer paper-files and get into travel and get VERY nostalgic as I put Cambodia, China, Florence, and French Caves and France-By-Car into packets, and phone Mildred and Sherryl (who says she won't come New Year's, but when I offer her my sofa-bed, she might reconsider) and Carolyn, who makes me think to phone Biblo and see if they'll stop off here. He says he will after they open the shop. I sort through about four dozen books and he comes up and considers about two dozen and pays $270! He included an extra $20 that he said the first-edition "Long Day's Dying" would be. Take the box of stuff in and Gail says Al told her about seeing my ANTLERS and she knows a woman who "decorates with everything from the Southwest, even has a chair made out of antlers," and she phones and motions "$100" in the air, and I ask for that and GET it, then phone her when I'm back home and she says she'll send me a check and maybe Gail's building has a van which can transport it. John and Mildred say "Well, you're really raking it in!" Then Carolyn wants to EAT (just after I HAD lunch) at 2:40, so I say she should eat and THEN ring me, and she's able to carry a bag with coffeemaker, cups, sugar, paper plates and plastic utensils, and napkins for the party. And I folded up the large table to take over today when we go. DOING AND DOING. And even invited Gail and Al to the party, and of course they know Joan's apartment: she sent them address-change!
12/28/02: 5:50PM: Just got back from 101: Carolyn repotted plants, not getting TOO much potting soil on the new carpet; I washed Dennis's glasses and the coffee cups and put them away after washing counters and stovetop. Then put the NON lights atop the shallow cabinets and the radio on and the chair overlooking the view, and just SIT and enjoy the emptiness. Carlos didn't put the extra layer atop the TV table, but Bill Peterson calls to say he met him in the hall and said he was done with the cabinets, but I had to take off some spots on the mirrors and lug the shelves into the closet. Put a cover on the table and Carolyn put one cutting in the huge heavy green vase on the table. Torchere in the bedroom operates off the light-switch, GOOD! Too early for the Times so I'm home and open more mail, lots of address changes already, AND the second month's rent to pay! Watch TV and put off Times until tomorrow. Take sleeping pill!
12/29/02: 7PM: Ate breakfast and loaded up cart with three table-leaves and three chairs and got to apartment to wash outside balcony windows, leaving streaks. Back with Times and read it till tuna lunch, then talk to Spartacus, do FreeCell and have my buttered popcorn while watching Tolkien again, then, though my forearms and back are tired, seeing as Paul's coming over tomorrow "in the middle of my move," I think to get rid of more books; and now check to see that John DID take down the two bags from yesterday. Call from Dana, coming Thursday with a hatchback for the antlers. Oh, and Judy (John said NOTHING to her, but he DID tell Joel!) said "Enjoy your new apartment!" when I took out my table-leaves, and I just managed to say "Thank you," which John said was my admission I WAS moving. Then decided to tackle cassettes, throwing out most of them, relabeling the ones I want to keep to make them readable from the 30-rack I'm keeping, and call Spartacus to hear HE wants them, with the tapes from Pope that I'll be discarding because I don't want to re-use his OLD tapes. Then feel TIRED so I just watch TV until 1:30AM and bed.
12/30/02: Write "dream notes" on my old "water plants" card, and figure I can just THROW IT OUT when I move. Make list of "areas to clear," surprisingly few, but I'm sure I can add to them. To Arnold's with two boxes (that fall off twice in the transporting) of Dennis's and Pope's and my cassettes and videotapes, and he gives me a penguin calendar and a lamp for the living room party tomorrow(!) night. He suggests moving the table into the bedroom, a good idea, but I still have to borrow Bill's vacuum tomorrow to make the place spiffy, since there are still streaks on the windows I washed to be distracted from. Don't know where the water came from, which I hope evaporates in the warm weather tomorrow, on the balcony, so I'm glad I put out the spare carpet square for people to wipe their feet on. Put the shelves into the closet, but will leave the venetian blinds in the hopes that Michael will put them up before the party, otherwise I'll put them into a closet too.
12/31/02: Before going to bed at 12:10AM I make a list for the party: 1) Mildred's apartment brochure, 2) Coffee, 3) Hooked on Classics cassettes for music other than WQXR tonight, 4) Nine invitations to the floor, which I just did now at 9AM, 5) Check to Cobble Hill, 6) Check to 101, 7) Milk, 8) Bowls for goodies, 9) Binox, 10) Make more ice, 11) rubber bands for "plant fork," 12) Bill's vacuum and move table, 13) TV table to radio area, 14) Vacuum and table back to Bill. Then can't sleep with thoughts whirling about the move, so I take a sleeping pill at 12:40 and still glance at clock at 2:10AM, not conjuring mympths, not doing Actualism, but drop off soon after and wake at 7:10AM and up at 8:45AM to type this after making and typing the invitations to the people on the floor. Lots of FreeCell last night, but I don't even feel GUILTY about it, except that I should watch TV TODAY (as well as go to the gym) to make sure I don't copy over it when I record 10PM-2AM New Year's Eve celebration on Panasonic since GO video insisted on making the month December 2003 when I went from 10PM to 2AM on the menu. Now I can print this to free the invitation pages!
1/1/03: 9:15AM: (12/31 continued): Box of party stuff (coffee, milk for it, bowls for goodies, butter and popcorn popper for popcorn if anyone wants it) over to 101 and borrow the vacuum from Bill again and, after putting the venetian blinds in the cabinet, put up with Carolyn's suggestions and talk of the plants while I'm doing it, and tell Carlos I'll be back at 3PM to talk of addition to TV table. Back to get gym stuff and speed through to finish at 3PM and Carlos comes up, but wants $900 in cash which I have to get from the bank on Thursday. Set up tables for stuff in bedroom and back to 167 to watch TV tapes TO DATE, setting up for rest of week, having had only two cream cheese toasts for lunch before gym and last of ground chicken for dinner at 6PM. Over at 7:20PM, leaving machine-message about being home at 2AM, and Sherryl (at 7:50PM) and Fred (at 8:45PM) call to say they're not coming, which leaves only Stephanie Marcus uncalled from. Fill three medium aluminum bowls with sponged-up water from the balcony, hoping for it to dry (which it does) before midnight for the fireworks (which don't take place at South Street Seaport, sadly), and put out bottles and bowls for the party which only starts at 8:30 when Carolyn comes up (bringing Linguica and Chorizo and two kinds of cheddar cheese) to fuss endlessly with the blinking lights, first terribly on the balcony windows, then just over the far cabinets, asking for something heavy to hold down the strings and I open the bottom cabinet for MORE bottles of drinks to put out. Spartacus comes up at 9 to say hello, eye blackened from his chalazion removal yesterday, bringing candy, saying he'll be back later, and John arrives about 9:30, bringing hummus and celery, tasty, and then Beverly from across the hall arrives with two wonderful couples from opposite ends: Toba and his well-traveled exhibit-manager wife from the west end, and the sweet wife of the distant husband and two-year-old from the east end. They're the hit of the party: liking my apartment, exclaiming particularly about the small storage space Joan built (try calling her home-number now to thank her for her card and to tell her of the approval of her apartment by my guests, and get only a fax-buzz signal) over the bedroom entryway, and EVERYONE likes the color of the carpets and the mirrored cabinets. Then Bill (with wonderful three-layer cheese finger sandwiches, AND a bottle of champagne) and Steve (bringing delicious date-nut-cheese finger sandwiches) come up about 10, Mildred later with a RED card and gingerbread, Arnold a little later, Stephanie Sweda about 10:15, mesmerizing the floor-couples and Mildred and John in the bedroom with her travels. Then Beverly invites Bill and me over to see her apartment, and out to see the couples leaving, announcing that Shelley had arrived, and she brings salmon rolls and dark chocolate which Spartacus loves. Finally Paul comes up about 11:35, getting a personal tour of the apartment he likes very much, talking of his mother, and sit with the whole nine (besides me) remaining toward midnight, when I open a bottle of champagne and can't get CBS on my AM radio, and we watch the Watchtower clock to see it click over to 12:00 and toast each other and out onto the warm dry balcony to watch REFLECTIONS of fireworks from the south in the glass towers across the East River, then in to have everyone leave rather quickly, Carolyn last, leaving her umbrella, but returning just as Paul and I get ready to leave, and I ask him if he wants to come to my place as we hug very warmly and kiss after Carolyn leaves, and he says "Yes," definitely, so we're over about 12:40AM and he strips (as I play two phone messages) and says he wants the bedroom rather than the living room-TV area, and we kiss and he's hard as he lies down, but though he tries to get me up, I just don't, and I try handing him off but it just doesn't work, so finally I ask "Any suggestions?" and he just murmurs "As you like," but after a few more tries he finally says he has to get back to his mother or she'll remark to his WIFE that he stayed out very mysteriously. He leaves about 1:40AM and I fall into bed and asleep quick!
1/1/03: Wake at 7AM, lie nicely till 9:15AM, then up to take two aspirin, dress, and type this until 10:35AM, writing in my calendar on 12/31 "Sex (sort of) with Paul," just so I can have ONE sex-entry in my lifelist for the year 2002, past!
1/1/03 (continued) 3:45PM: Went to 101 at about 1:45PM after talking to 1) Sherryl 10:40-10:55, 2) leaving word with Carolyn, 3) Mildred 10:55-11:40, 4) Spartacus 11:42-11:47, 5) John 12:25-12:40 here, 6) Shelley 12:40-12:53, 7) Fred 12:53-12:57, 8) Bill Petersen 12:57-1:10, 9) Steve 1:10-1:15, 10) Stephanie Sweda 1:15-1:20, and 11) Vicki 1:20-1:29. Collected trash and empty bottles and glasses, washed the glasses, packed a bag for things to take back: telephone, food for Fred's party, popcorn stuff, my milk, clippings and mail, and left at 3:15, videoing what I left behind, including putting out the venetian blinds and keeping Bill's table and Spartacus's lamp. TIRED! Raining out, and I plan to play FreeCell until leaving for Fred's!
1/2/03: Disaster of a day: did a few things before leaving for the bank to pick up $800 in hundreds to pay Carlos, and when I go to the office the door is LOCKED at 11:45, but Carlos passes in the garage and says he'll be upstairs in 45 minutes: nice coincidence. To elevator and MICHAEL is taking junk out for the trash, and he says he'll probably put up the blinds this afternoon. Then to the office to find that Joan DID pick up the introductory laundry card, so I have to get my OWN in the laundry room. Down to phone Bill on the intercom to return card table and step ladder, and a guy stands with an empty laundry basket and I ask if he's going to the laundry room, and we introduce ourselves and he's Dennis, Bill's NEIGHBOR on 12! No answer on Bill's intercom and I DASH for the closing elevator door and BILL holds it open, having gone to the laundry room! I tell him of the remarkable coincidences, and he affirms that the building is wonderful for that sort of thing. He comes back and chats until 1:30, waiting to see Carlos with me, but then he takes his stuff down in TWO trips and Carlos comes up at 12:45 with the addition to the TV stand for which he charges me $25 for materials (the cost of the stand!) and reaffirms that it needs two more casters in the middle or it will sag perilously. I chip off a side of the hall light switch in my efforts to get the paint off the toggle, desperate for SOMETHING to do before Carlos arrives. Then home, just missing mail, and have lunch and start on FreeCell, calling Spartacus about meeting for "Imaginary Friends" this evening at 8PM, and play FreeCell and play FreeCell and look up and it's 9:30PM and I've missed it! Notes on NOTEBOOK-2.
1/3/03: Down for mail and there's NOTHING from Synoptic, so I have to call THEM today, trying like mad to avoid FreeCell. Now to record dream and make a list of things I MUST do today, Grandma's favorite word notwithstanding! Phone for two travel brochures (South America and Bahamas cruise), Robertson at home and at the office (still nothing), Time-Warner, Padded Wagon (estimator will call me back), Ikea (that I MUST pick up stuff, even if I want it delivered!), Synoptic (no one there till Monday), Spartacus giving the idea of taking my CARRIER to Ikea, and he might go with me Saturday, Gail (Al may come over Sunday, but he'll call). Put up "final" stack for Al (except for Blackwood and Burroughs), then over to 101 to measure casters, find no phone service at 1:52PM, and bring back curtain and curtain-wire to return. Then get PRIME books out and make a list of them SEPARATE from the DISBOOKS list (page 12, following this) so that if the price doesn't seem "right" I can compare with, say, Strand, and find who's giving the better offer. Then Gail calls and says Al will come over about 4PM, which he does, and offers $250 for another stack, but giving unrealistically low estimates on the prime books. Then I get to, and see, "Imaginary Friends."
1/4/03: Arnold agrees to meet me (since it didn't snow last night) at 11:30 at Clark Street for Port Authority bus at 12 to Ikea at 12:45, return stuff, pick up stuff, have lunch, pick up stuff, and out at 4PM with two truck-loads onto bus directly and to Port Authority 4:45 to GROUND level, and wheel to street, where Arnold has to buy fishcakes, and into cab for $20 to get all stuff to 101.
1/5/03: Day at Metropolitan and Brooklyn Museums, read Times, nothing on moving.
BOOKS TO BE PRICED FOR SALE
Clarke,ArthrC. Interplanetary Flight (1st)
Collier, John Tom's A-Cold (1st)
Dahl, Roald Two Fables (1st Amer)
Eggers, Dave Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, A
Golding,Willm Scorpion God, The (1st American ed)
Halliburton,R. Book of Marvels
Halliburton,R. Glorious Adventure, The
Halliburton,R. Royal Road to Romance, The (larger)
Halliburton,R. Royal Road to Romance, The (smaller)
Halliburton,R. Seven League Boots
Milnes,Sherrll American Aria (1st)
Palliser,Charl Sensationist, The (1st)
Rice, Alice Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (patched)
Rilke,RainrMra Letters on Cezanne (1st)
Roth, Philip Zuckerman Unbound (1st)
Sasaki, Ruth Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang (1st, bought at $6.95)
Sheckley,Robrt Game of X, The (1st)
Sheckley,Robrt Is That What People Do? ($20 new; 1st)
Socarides,Chas On Sexuality (1st edition)
Sokol,MartinL. New York City Opera, An American Adventure, The (1st)
Sturgeon,Thedr Alien Cargo (1st printing)
Sturgeon,Thedr Ellery Queen's The Player on the Other Side (as Ellery Queen)
Sturgeon,Thedr I, Libertine (hard cover as Frederick R. Ewing)
Sturgeon,Thedr I, Libertine (soft cover as Frederick R. Ewing)
Sturgeon,Thedr Maturity (signed first, #428 of 750)
Updike, John Assorted Prose (signed 1st, bought for $10)
Watts, Alan Spirit of Zen, The
Wells,H.G. Undying Fire, The (1st)
White,E.B. Trumpet of the Swan, The (1st)
White,T.H. Mistress Masham's Repose (1st)
Woolf,Virginia Flush (1st)
Woolf,Virginia Freshwater (1st)
Wyndham, John Man From Beyond and other stories, The (1st)
Wyndham, John Planet Plane (1st, as John Bynon)
Wyndham, John Web (1st)
1/6/03: Watch TV and Gail calls to say they're in shop at 2:30, so I take two very heavy boxes over and bring four boxes back, bringing them up after getting groceries. Then someone from Synoptic calls to say he'll call later to fax me the agreement, but at 4:45 Bill Robertson calls to say he can e-mail it to me, which he does after I play two FreeCells and download from Juno. Call Mildred and Spartacus and John to brag about it, then try calling Synoptic but only can leave message at 5:25PM. Call Ikea to try to get WHITE bowl of Jokel instead of YELLOW. They give me case #! Decide that February 1 will be a good leaving date.
1/7/03: Sleeping pill at 1:10AM because of anxiety about moving, but decide I can leave boxes in the HALL before moving, which will be AFTER Games Group at 1/19 at 101, and SAY it will be 2/1 even though I might not be able to leave it "broom-clean," which means I have to contract someone to get rid of old furniture and old rugs until some days later, but they have my deposit to give me yet. Up groggy at 9AM and type this to 9:30AM, ready for work day except for Jaffe at 11:30 and Beard at 7PM. Pack two bags full of bags from the bedroom chest-drawer and the kitchen and take them down on the way to Jaffe (mailing signed contract to Robinson c/o Synoptic) who's very nice and supportive. Home to wish I could see Jorge outside and he IS, so I ask about possibility of clearing out my apartment on Thursday the 30th on the street, and he says he can hire someone if I call him a few days before: great! I take two boxes of stamps-stuff to 101 and put two more lamps together. Carolyn comes in and complains about the door; the plants are dying, she waters and feeds, taking AWAY the plant food I wanted to take home AND I forgot to give her her $25. Met MICHAEL on my way from the elevator, and he'll put up the blinds TODAY, citing Carlos' absence and his work for not doing it earlier. Back and find STACKS of boxes in front of Mansion House and take two stacks home, and in "unbungeeing" them, one snaps up and hits my CHEEK, rather than my glasses, and then ANOTHER whacks the old switch plate off the wall next to the door! Real comedy! Up and call Elec because my phone STILL isn't connected, and when I insist I told her 20K, she asks what floor I'm on and says they thought I was on ONE, so they couldn't do it yet, and now "someone from provisioning" will get back to me this afternoon, finishing this at 3:20 after FreeCelling waiting for Elec to answer. Phone for Jim at Heights Books at 3:30 and he says to call back after 4:30. Then pack eleven boxes of books, and I call Heights at 5PM and leave a message, then get called by Jim about 6:30, and he wants to come over then, but I'm going to Beard, so he schedules for 5PM Saturday. Then I get to the Beard dinner.
1/8/03: 11:35AM: Joan Small called at 8:55AM, waking me from a groggy two-sets-of-Rolaids-and-two-aspirin restless night with too much food from Beard, having gotten to bed about 11:15PM, after getting a message from Ken about maybe coming to the Games Group on 1/19. Dress and sit feeling poor, and she enters at 9:35AM and leaves at 10:45, leaving an estimate of $1,632.50 (roughly?), and I call Mildred to get the number of HER mover, which I'd called before and gotten told that Anita would be in tomorrow, and call the number back and again get told that Anita would be in tomorrow. Still going back to FreeCell! Denise finally calls and says she may send index pages around 1/23! Watch TV tapes most of day.
1/9/03: 6:30AM: Woke at 3AM to pee, 4AM with reflux, 5AM think about Village Playwrights expansion and GOT to get up finally at 6AM to write it out! Do so and read it to Bill Petersen (whom I wake, with a cold) who says it's ambitious, and Barbara Kahn tells of her previous bad experiences with that very thing, and Manuel leaves message when I go out to try Bruno's for bayonet-base light bulbs (try tomorrow) and check HSBC's call about increasing interest (but it was nothing flexible), and play FreeCell after calling Ikea to have them say they DELIVERED replacement white bowl. Asked Jorge for van, and he says Jesus will come up about 5PM, finally coming at 6:45, saying he'll do it tomorrow for $100!
1/10/03: Nissim from Miracle Movers comes about 10:15AM and in a half hour estimates move at $1440, asking whether I want "fixed price or time-spent," and I can't decide. In middle, Jesus comes in, John goes down to watch van, and I start moving boxes with Jesus until about 11 for first load, and 11:45 for second load, getting all in on convenient 101 dolly and Ron's help (though they won't let van park in garage, only outside!), and give Jesus $120, and he says I should call Jorge when movers leave and they come to clear out apartment on 1/30, which Mildred says is crazy because "It might be raining BUCKETS," and when I accuse her to Arnold of saying what HE would say, he denies he would say such a thing: "It could rain ANYTIME you schedule it!" Back to Bruno's at 4:30 after depositing second Biblo $250 check, but "delivery hasn't come yet" and I get phone number to check arrival, later doubting ANYTHING they get will fit! FreeCell while TV on in background to about 1:30, hating myself but doing it!
1/11/03: Nice day-start with Spartacus, bringing up and putting in white Jokel replacement and saving enormous box, putting Sunday's sodas in fridge and making more ice cubes, then back about 4:10PM to wait for Jim from Heights, who never phones, and I end evening with FreeCell to OBLIVION (see Moving Log-14).
1/12/03: 10AM: Though I'm to bed at 3AM, I can't lay (comfortable with clean body after shower after SIX days without gym-shower; and clean flannel sheets at last) beyond 9:10AM, up to take Joe's portrait of me (SAILING in wind around corners) to 101, venetian blinds STILL not up, and buy times and catch up with this, now hungry for breakfast and going to M.A.N. at 2PM. BUT it turns out that M.A.N. entered between 12 and 1!! So in defeat I start FreeCell and play MORE!
1/13/03: 5PM: Up energized and clean sink, eat breakfast, water plants (not roses, apparently dead), and wash dishes, and vacuum and scrub kitchen! Then Spartacus calls to say he's home for ten minutes, so I'm over to pick up Phillips screwdrivers (3!) and to Bruno's to get a sample bayonet bulb FREE, and pick up two $1 sandwiches at MacDonald's, and to 101 to eat and drink some lingonberry juice, and find bulb should SCREW in!! Start putting in shelves, which fit VERY nicely, but start feeling nauseous and have to LIE DOWN ON FLOOR at 3PM. Apartment-sickness? MacDonald's sandwiches? Flu? Something else? AND I left a message with Spartacus on my 101 phone, now working at last! Try more shelving, going well alphabetically and space-wise, though I thought I had 18 shelves but I only have 16, but I'm STILL feeling terrible, so I stagger home, getting New York Magazine from 101 mailbox, and more GCT brochures at 167. Phone them and they'll call mailing company again. Call Bill Robertson and he "apologizes for misleading me," but "they got stung in the past, so we only give check the day you turn over your keys." Pity. Try the impossible 26693 on FreeCell and STILL feel nauseous, hoping I feel better when Carolyn buzzes at 6AM, and stop this at 5:10, going to LIE DOWN! But when she buzzes I still feel awful, so I opt out, feeling better the next morning when she says it was only a 20-minute monologue with only 6 people attending! Watch TV and bed nauseous.
1/14/03: Back to Bruno's (which is called American Hardware on the receipt I get tomorrow) to pick up a sample screw-in bulb, only $2.99 rather than $4.99 for the bayonet-type, taking down two more bags of books, and work lots, feeling good about the cabinets, but start feeling poorly after a couple of hours so I'm back to phone people and watch TV and eat. Bed early and sleep well for a change.
1/15/03: Take over "Breeze" and fan and turn them on full-force on boxes, and then take wrapping off all the shelves, apartment getting cluttered, and spend a couple hours filling the first cabinet with A-J, "large" shelves and "small" shelves coming out even, and it seems I've put in TEN boxes and only have SIX to go, so the side cabinet will have room for GIGANTIC books at bottom. Ask Carlos if he'd been affected by the smells, but he said no. Take down two bags of shelf-wrappers and see Joe and tell him about leaving windows open and fans on, and repeat that I'd like the two (bedroom valve seems to work) valves replaced, and he calls Carlos to do it, AND ask what I can do to get Michael (German?) to finish putting up the blinds, and Joe calls him in and orders him to finish it now, Joe saying, "That's my job," and I thank him. Got to tip him too, I guess. Started packing the kitchen this morning, getting two boxes and a half filled, and I'll be SHORT on boxes, unfortunately. Get OLD-addressed mail from Schwab, HSBC's Pope's Burial account, and phone Eco-Voyager, since I want to keep that coming. Then when I send out NYS and IRS quarterly payments I change addresses on THAT too, ignoring the IRS's request for some FORM to fill out! REALLY! Still feel a bit woozy, but I think the effect is waning: I HOPE it is!
1/16/03: Start clearing out the kitchen and put four bags out from that, take two boxes of stamps over to 101 and find the blinds are UP (and down, since the apartment was DIM when I walked in, but the cold ozone did nothing bad to anything, so I raise the blinds up and put ALL the alphabetized books in, feeling much BETTER today, and bring 15 boxes BACK. Give myself the pleasure of more FreeCell and videotapes. I guess it was TODAY that Nissim called and changed my move from 1/30 to 1/29, "at 10% off," which I'll HOLD him to!
1/17/03: Packed four kitchen boxes and piles a large box with stamps and blocks and glass and bulbs and moved it over to 101, putting more books away, and having Arnold phone me and the phone DOESN'T work! So I go out and change Pope's account address to my new address, pick up a new prescription from Chin for 120 tablets for two months, rather than 90 for a month-and-a-half, charged for two months, and get groceries, then call Elec and get told they CAN'T ring in two places, then perversely they put in a "phone-doesn't-work" signal to Verizon, who calls me and says I have to talk to THEM, but I can't since they're closed on the WEEKEND. What a PAIN! Phone Schwab to be told they hadn't changed my MAILING address! Play FreeCell and Taipei and watch TV and get to bed at 12:30.
1/18/03: Wake at 6:30AM to pee and consider that I have ELEVEN days of packing between now and the 28th, since I'm moving on the morning of the 29th. That means I have to pack something like TEN boxes per day, hoping I have ENOUGH space to put them! Start in the library and have three or four boxes going at once: books, breakables, hardware, huge books. Actually pack EIGHT boxes and put out three bags (one being a packet of unusable cardboard), then have lunch and go to 101 with a bag of glasses so that I don't have to pack them, and my Peruvian box, so it won't get wrecked. Into 20K to find it FREEZING, and I may have KILLED the pachysandra! Try propping it up, watering it with warm water, but it looks pretty poor when I leave at 4:50PM, sunset bright on buildings, a GREAT advantage of looking NORTH rather than SOUTH. Put shelves in the window-far large storage cabinet, then DETERMINE to empty 15 boxes to take back, so I put part of EB 1911, Italy, Germany and part of France on the shelves JUST to empty the boxes. Store the other shelves, hide the porno, and pack 15 boxes in one batch with I combine with two LARGE moving boxes, and MAYBE I now have enough boxes at 167 to finish packing: something like SEVENTY! So with 35 by van and about 15 by hand truck, that would amount to 120 boxes, not even half Spartacus' 300, but enough for ME. Also dial 958 and find that "my" phone number is 596-0527, neither of which was Joan's, and it's odd that 5XX-05XX is the same with IT and MINE. Back to find a Frommer's 2000 guide to Orlando JUST on the day I decided to go to Florida in October with Paul McLean! And a DVD which doesn't work in my computer, to Spartacus, of "Lost in Space." Now to relaxing FreeCell!
Phone Laird and Avi, both of whom are delighted Paul and I may be coming to visit in November. Finally out for the Times, finish the puzzles by 1:30, and tired to bed without sleeping pill, but have no trouble falling asleep.
1/19/03: Up and start FreeCell, amazing!, and barely have time for breakfast at 11:30 before going to Key and picking up two bags of junk-food for the games group, and record my message saying to "phone 596-0527." Then Spartacus calls me to CONFIRM that's the number. And Barbara calls to cancel on that number. Gobble lots of junk-food while I'm setting up boxes for coffee-tables, putting the TV stand in the middle for a game-board-holder, and JUST finish getting everything in order when Rose comes in early at 1:45. Then Mark comes up, we chat, Blanche calls from downstairs, then Ken, then Vicki, and at 2:30 I remember Joan called to say she wasn't coming until after 3PM. We start with Vicki's Masterpiece Auction, which she wins after Joan joins us about 3:30, and at 4 we start Joan's Scrutineyes, which Mark HATES, and I, as a single team against three teams of two, win by a landslide. Then to Charades, EVERYONE having lots of fun, and all enjoy my apartment immensely. Down to Park Plaza at 6:30 for humungous dinners, and then back at 8:15 to watch the Golden Globe awards, then start FreeCell while listening to summaries and news and finally turn it off, dizzy at 1:15AM, getting to bed at 1:23, again without any need for sleeping pills.
1/20/03: Turn FreeCell back on at 9:15AM and get three calls from Elec: "tariff laws FORBID ringing same number in two places, so they'll switch 522-0591 to 101 Clark on 1/29." Let's hope they DO it and it's SETTLED. Finally get the FreeCell up to 85% at 12:30, and catch up with this to 12:35PM, having put out one bag of garbage already, ready for a FULL DAY of packing boxes! But then sort through the mail and finally put out the Logitech Scanner, and only get started on boxes at 2PM. Mostly travel from the bedroom boxes and the bulk of the remaining books on the bookcases so that I can pile up boxes against the empty brown bookcases. Put out three bags in all, and, getting more and more tired, finally pack the tenth box about 5:30 (stopping for a light lunch) and, with relief, go back to FreeCell until 6:30, when I dress for the Beard and enjoy Beppe with Ken, talking to Anna Teresa Callan and the alphabetized Christina, Donna, and Grace.
1/21/03: Go back to FreeCell and essentially do it ALL DAY, though I do get out about 4PM to pick up the THREE prescriptions, together at last at Rite-Aid, which has gotten MORE expensive, and pick up the laundry and back to MORE FreeCell and some TV before collapsing into bed at 12:48 (symmetric) in morning.
1/22/03: Awake until 2AM, up at 3:15 to pee, again at 5:30, and then up from 6AM onward: no WONDER I feel tired when packing only ten boxes! Up about 9:30 for a breakfast, then wash dishes, then pack a few boxes before leaving for haircut at 11:15, getting it VERY short, then finish ten boxes by 1:30, exhausted, mostly stamps and slides and the rest of the books. Lunch of the last of the tuna and the lasagna square left from Monday's Beard. Then this to 2PM, done for the day?
No: rest in bed till 3:30, then take two boxes over, plants still "dead." Get mail and package from AARP with one bottle Formula 105 missing: credited tomorrow.
1/23/03: Talk to Carolyn and she suggests I might NOT have to get rid of carpeting from my apartment! Call Hector and he AGREES, saying "You can leave anything, because we're going to gut the apartment!" Call him on the 28th to arrange for him to come over at 5PM on the 29th to END 167 Hicks apartment! Finish 2002 Lifelist by 3:20PM and start printing it out, feeling UGH! Then I have to print the SORTED 2000 through 2002 lists, all 45 pages, and that goes on until after I finish dinner (or a late lunch, though I had a ground chicken patty broiled as if it WERE dinner) at 5:35PM. Cold days, and I even put on a second pair of warm socks, though still having only one radiator out of three on in my apartment. And my hands are cold as I type this, going to pack boxes now even though I'm severely tempted to go to FreeCell "just for a bit," until of course I dip below 84%, at which time my impulse is to play it out until it goes ABOVE that, which sometimes never happens before I just have to cut it out and get to bed! Crow to EVEYONE how delighted I am about not having to DENUDE apt!!
1/24/03: 8:10AM: VERY productive evening yesterday: 1) packed FIFTEEN boxes, and 2) put out FIVE old packing boxes and the old stepladder out into the hall to be discarded, and 3) emptied the large closet, putting MANY empty and full printer-paper boxes onto shelves along with other empty good-to-keep boxes, and have to get rid of THOSE by moving them into larger boxes? This goes from 5:40-10:45PM, almost not wanting to stop, but then have sandwich and cherries for dinner with pills, watch some TV, and bed about 1:30AM. Wake couple times, then up at 7:50AM with only 6.5 hours in BED, let alone SLEEPING. Think of MANY things: want to go to FIT today, then "Sweet Bird of Youth" with Spartacus tonight, and AT LEAST TEN major areas to clear and pack in the FIVE days of pre-packing left! Starting to PANIC?! "Only" about FORTY boxes left: will I have to unpack MORE at 101 and bring MORE back here? GOT to take stuff over today, like PICTURES from the walls. When I take the pictures over (ripping box-handles as John helps me down the stairs with the awkward box), the TOILET is still stuffed from Sunday, and very smelly. Call Bill, not home, and Bob (from phone numbers that John got from my address book, since I know HIS number) tells me MAINTENANCE will do it: he doesn't even have a plunger. Leave message for maintenance and flush a few more times and moan about really dead plants, then back to pack under-mattress large posters in a cylinder and put large stuff that will fit into large flat box, and then carry over Joe's "Promenade" distemper and the large flat box in the cold wind, getting the pages for HRW's teacher's edition, and home to FreeCell until meeting Spartacus at 6 downstairs (taking down two boxes from hall-stack) for dinner at Alicia's when Teresa's doesn't have the duck Spartacus had set his mind on, and then to "Sweet Bird of Youth" at Heights Players, very competently done, but home after midnight! Watch the good "Journey of Man" until 2AM. Bed.
1/25/03: Up to shit at 9:10AM, having not wakened ONCE during night, saying a lot of good for being tired, and count about a dozen areas to handle during the only FOUR days of packing left, and have breakfast and type this at 10:30, deciding to do the INDEX before anything else! But, oddly, I have my indexing work marked for the 27th, which couldn't be, and from 9:55AM-2, 2:45----AH, but now I see that it was DECEMBER 27th for the PREVIOUS phase, and now see that I worked on the index from 10:30AM-2:40PM, finishing before lunch, after putting out an old HRW bag into the hall with the pages I don't need at this point. Then after lunch I pack five boxes, and then Sherryl calls to say she wants to come over "4ish" to see my new apartment before I move, so I pack a box from the fridge and set out the box of smaller paintings, and rip the side of a large plastic bag so I can put in the four lampshades I want HER to carry over for me to 101, since she insists on meeting me HERE before going there, but she doesn't want to climb the stairs to see my box-jammed apartment. Over about 4:15, getting VERY annoyed with her cane-sensitivity, having her say "Don't trip me," when I CLEARLY didn't intend to trip her, and she can't walk on uneven pavement, can't go down sloping sidewalks, can't do this, can't do that, and I can SEE why Vicky would be terribly impatient with her, which poor Sherryl "can't understand" when I talk to her Sunday evening. She drinks seltzer and I put stuff in fridge and we sit and look out over the sunset-view, then out at 5:55 to try Isobel's (nothing she wants: too-heavy meals), then Henry's End (well, she COULD have the Caesar salad and some pasta dish), then Noodle Pudding (but while she endlessly studies the menu outside, three pairs of people enter AHEAD of us so there's a twenty-minute wait for a table), then Mezzo, where we have the $15 prix fixe that's not bad, but I make the mistake and pay with iDine card when it's only on IGT! She dallies over dessert but mercifully decides NOT to have coffee after I "prematurely" ask for the check. Out about 7:45 with her to the subway, then buy Times and go back to apartment to bring cart and Times and videocamera back to 167, doing both puzzles by 11PM, finishing the Times and put it into the scrap-pile, then watch some TV and get to bed about 1:30AM, counting meals (8?) left in apartment, going-to-beds (3), and areas still to pack, still up at about 12, forgetting various unpacked areas at various confused times.
1/26/03: Up at 9:30, grateful for sleeping pills, and take LAST shower, and put out only three boxes and the movie projector, but pack at least FIFTEEN boxes, admittedly many of them printer-boxes that I filled with videotapes and small stacks of "current" stuff that would fit to fill them, ending with TWENTY of them in all. Then meet Spartacus at 1:30 to go to the Municipal Arts Society tour of the periphery of the WTC, including the seven (though two companies have since withdrawn) models for the new projects, and then I go see the Anne Liebowitz "Rewarding Lives" show at the Amex building (publicizing who has the Amex cards, with some sexy guys) and home about 5:30PM, four "productive" hours gone from the day. Then get to the entry-closet where I accumulate EIGHT boxes with INDEX CARDS in them (though one DOES have IRS files), some of them empty. Keep going, FINALLY thinking that my boxes may OUTLAST my stuff (rather than my stuff outlasting my boxes). Thought I'd not packed the photo mailers for use when I finished the (battery-less, so I'll be lucky if ANY of the last 28 shots come out) Mamiya roll from long ago with 8 remaining photos taken from some forgotten trip, but look and I HAD, but luckily I saw the slide-boxes at the top of one of the top "slides" boxes, and THERE'S the packet of mailers, and I'm so happy to have found them I have to crow to SOMEONE, so I call Spartacus, but hungry at last and have half the last steak about 7:30, reading in Scientific American, my last unread magazine, waiting for two New York...s tomorrow, and get to the above-hall storage area, the LAST to be looked at, and THERE'S Dennis's pink-petalled ceiling lampshade, so I phone Sherryl about 8PM to refer to our conversation in 101 last night about her not liking overhead lighting, and she goes ON and ON about her "problem" with Vicki, and we're off about 8:45 and I continue wearily until about 9, when I watch "Hound of the Baskervilles" until 11, then Ebert till about 11:45, when I plop exhaustedly into bed, taking a sleeping pill because I just don't want to HASSLE going to sleep!
MON, 1/27/03: Peed about 5AM then lay THINKING about all I have to do in the TWO days of packing remaining before the move on Wednesday. Do Actualism 6:50-7:20, making lots of notes to clear my mind, and up at 7:20AM to take down the bedroom shade for the THIRD-TO-LAST time, and start catching up with this at 7:30, and it's now 8AM and I start looking at my index-cards. Decided to have MANY open-top packing boxes filled with SMALLER open-top boxes into which I put stuff I'm WORKING on or MUST HAVE, which will be filled LAST and opened FIRST on Wednesday. Note that I'll need a screwdriver to remove towel holders and tie-holders and other things from the walls, and find THAT in a top box, AGAIN a stroke of packing-luck. Put aside the plant-watering card: pity Carolyn won't pick up her plant until Tuesday, and I'm thinking to take over MORE of my plants since I've killed Joan's bequeathed three. MORE to pack or take over myself. Have a LAST note of 1) checking with 101 to make sure I'm still on for Wednesday's move, and 2) making a moving-packing check-list to intimidate the movers into moving ALL my boxes without pilferage. Write a Village Playwright note for Tuesday: Don't BOTHER to Xerox sheets, just READ it to group and ask of 1) Bill to coordinate and SCHEDULE room for "other Tuesdays," 2) someone for PUBLICITY coordinator for flyers, notices, press releases, etc., and 3) is there an Internet expert who'd be willing to oversee a Web site? Make a note for WEDNESDAY: 1) gas bill off? 2) electricity off? 3) phone switch? 4) insurance off! And add to my note for MONDAY, TODAY: 1) take Dennis's lampshade over, 2) call Denise with questions, 3) Carolyn Anderson at 11AM, 4) Blue Smoke with Mildred at 2PM, 5) check with Nissim on Wednesday, credit card, and large boxes, 6) get CASH from bank, 7) keep floor plan UNPACKED for use on Wednesday, and 8) schedule Time-Warner to TV hookup Thursday or Friday (in case free installation DOES end at the end of January!). Stacks of things to look at and do when I finish this at 8:10AM, hungry for breakfast, radio blaring from SOMEWHERE near! And then see I'm just a few lines from bottom: fantasied to Spartacus that "I could finish everything TODAY," which MAY be true today and HAS to be true tomorrow, except I must have SOMETHING to do while they're moving me WEDNESDAY!
5:35PM: Just took the Bernoulli drive off and checked to see that the COMPUTER still works OK. Another phase terminated. Then played FreeCell a frustrating bit, finally accidentally shutting the POWER off, then putting it back on and playing up to 90%, and then transferred the four indexes (with a glitch!) to Denise from 7:40-8:15, now to send the final bill for $2000! And too tired to THINK of packing more today, having packed (AT LEAST!) ten boxes and put out three bags, including the Bernoulli in its original carton! TIRED!! Start watching TV and stop for dinner-making, which I have 9:45-10:05, finishing watching "Me and Mrs. Jones," with Robson Green not as fetching as previously, and bed at 11:15, taking sleeping pill.
1/28/03: 12:25PM: Woke at 2:20AM with REFLUX and pee at 2:28, getting rid of terrible taste. Pee again at 6:30, quite dark out, having snowed, and up at 7:15 to get to putting more things in boxes, mainly the "tall-object" one in the kitchen, and videotape until the battery runs out, so I make a note to bring back the charger from 101. Put out bags and go through about half the black-compartment file, throwing out lots, then at 10AM phone George to report the radiator leaking from above---ANOTHER reason to be glad I'm leaving, because part of THAT ceiling in the living room has come down ALREADY, and water drips on the radiator cover and evaporates. Take Dennis's lamp to 101, washing dishes and clearing the floors and closets for moving in, patterning the existing boxes onto index cards, of which I need more at 101. Leave the plants where they are in case Carolyn wants to see them. Back about noon, getting only HSBC statement and Rudolph brochure ($9,975 for 11 days!!! WAY above the $5,000 I'd fantasized it being---REALLY a rip-off, but do I still want to do it? NO, it'll be $15,000 with the Salzburg extension and airfares, and I can't afford ALMOST $1000/day trips!), no magazines to fill my empty magazine-reading pockets. Still lots of stuff to put away, bringing back THREE boxes (Digiview monitor box which Dennis's lamp had been in, the large Ikea box they'd sent the white lamp-globe in, and an empty kitchen-move box I'd left undone in the kitchen on Saturday when Sherryl was there, so I confidently feel I'm OVERBOXED, though I've been using a SURPRISING number of unexpected boxes. Now 12:35 and bit more packing to do before lunch at Craft at 2. Boxes and last remains, and leave about 1:15 and get back at 4:15PM, much too late. Scurry about packing more, taking newspapers and magazines down when I leave for Village Playwrights at 5:25, for a TERRIBLE screenplay by Fatone which others seem to like, and he pays $10 for his four cronies. Back at 8:30 to an orgy of catching up, dusting shelves, putting open the FINAL boxes to receive what's left, finding stuff in the closet, the bathroom scale, more games that I just NOW squeeze into two varied-sized boxes, and make a trip down with more newspapers and magazines, and a trip with two old TV antennae, an old pillow, and two bags of papers, STILL leaving my white-trash bag and my garbage bag left to take down, with a bag of plastic bags I no longer need, hoping I won't regret leaving NO newspapers for packing lamps and speakers. Finally finish this at 12:40AM, having had dinner LATE at 11:15-11:30, hoping for not ANOTHER reflux, while watching "Transcontinental Railroad," which I've only a half-hour left, maybe finish tomorrow? Now for a sleeping pill for only SIX & A HALF HOURS SLEEP before the move tomorrow, with 2" snow predicted!
1/29/03: Bed 12:55AM! Sleep AFTER 2AM, not VERY nervous, but still not able to sleep. Look at clock at 3:05 and pee at 6:15, toilet FINALLY clearing, I hear with relief, having been clogged since my shit at 9PM, trying at LEAST six times without success. Up at 6:55AM and pee and dress, putting on all lights, and buzzer goes at 7:05AM, Patrick and Asaf coming up at 7:07 and making me sign off for 30¢/pound and their arrival at 7AM. They have to park across the street! Pick up the phone here and it's DEAD! So I can transfer phone machine as early as possible. John's bathroom light is on at 7AM so I can ask him about Carolyn's phoning him to get in for plant and tell him about my 522-0591 transfer. Put the radio on, they're down for boxes, and I finish this page at 7:20AM, printing it!
MOVING LOG, done on the Alphasmart until transferring it to the PC about 9:15AM February 10: 1/29/03: Bed at 12:55PM. Sleep AFTER 2AM, and look at clock at 3:05. Pee at 6:15, when toilet FINALLY clears, and it's been blocked since 9PM! Up at 6:55. Was I just typing that I'd gotten up at 6:55 when the buzzer rang with early movers at 7:02AM? Catch breakfast while watching TV while they move boxes, and then I have to rush to keep ahead of them: they tape shut loose box tops, make me the boxes I have the forms for, and get bubble wrap to wrap my lamps, wrap my speakers, and put lots of long things in my carved-up broken box ANYWAY, though I don't know where they put lots of the BIG stuff. Move and move and get out of the apartment at 12:02PM, to Ron at 101 who starts the elevator, and they make a U-turn on Monroe Place and back in, with the truck pretty nearly full! Call Carolyn, who comes over and I piss by not using her as she'd wish, but Beverly brings over seven-layer cake, twice, and coffee for Carolyn, with milk and sugar, neither of which she takes, and I have to eat BOTH pieces of cake. They move in until 2:53, when Patrick writes me an invoice, after calling Nissim to verify it, for $1300, and when I try giving the guys $20 each, they say I have to give it to Patrick, who says they have to divide it equally, but when I want to give $120, Patrick grimaces and says "It's usually 15%" and I calculate 15% of $1300 is $195 and grimly add $75, so the total bill is $1495, where the estimate was $1440, so I guess it's OK. Carolyn helps me unpack about six kitchen boxes, then we're to the gym to pick up her carrier at 5:25, then to 167 where she looks at the plants, then John comes over and we chat until 5:05, when he's sure Hector will be late, and Carolyn leaves and I read until I hear Judy's voice and they'd been ringing me since 4:55 and I didn't buzz back because I'd forgotten and taken the extension cord that connected the buzzer to the amplifier next to my bedroom! But it worked out, Hector and the contractor covered the place with up-to-the-ceiling tiles in the bathroom, completely new kitchen, sanded floors rather than rugs, a wire-mesh window that wouldn't open when they tried to find where the moisture comes from in the hall and my front doorway, and then my $5000 check, when they say it'll take them 45 days to convert the apartment into a two-bedroom for a lawyer who's getting a divorce and wants a new place, renting for $1800, while the basement finally went for $1050 a month, after the agent said to Eileen, "Either you want a rented apartment for a cheap rent or an empty one for a high rent." Leave at 5:25 and give plates back to Beverly with thanks, and Bob Lambiase invites me to his place for dinner at 6: breaded meatballs, buttered rolls, refrigerated Valpolicella wine, where I finish the cold bottle, and cut raw vegetables. We chat nicely and I leave about 7:30 to get a message from Bill: I call and he insists on coming up for a minute, and I sense a present, so he comes to present a toilet "plummer" with two condoms wrapped around it, and then call Spartacus before I can find a replacement wire for an apparently broken white-telephone end, and WE chat, then when I'm getting ready for bed Sherryl calls at 8:50 and I say I hope to get to bed at 9 and up at 6, at dawn because I haven't blocked off the window, to get 9 hours to make up for the less than 6 I got THIS morning. Read New York and New Yorker sitting on the pot not shitting, and type this until 9:32, tired and REALLY ready for bed, apartment not so hot in the BEDROOM as in the kitchen, so we'll see how it is without the window open. TIRED! Oh, yes, Mildred called and insisted I phone reconfirmation to Chanterelle tomorrow, while Spartacus asks WHY I made a possible conflict with Time-Warner from 10-2, and I say "Stupid" twice for him, but refuse to repeat it a third time. YUGH! Take notes before bed.
