July, 2004
Thursday:
So good to finally have a little rest! We've finally moved into our house...Mona, Greta, Wyser, and me. We're splitting the rent four ways and we lucked out finding this house right up the street from Staten U. Just one more year and all of us will be graduating. Then it's on to grad school for the four of us. Moving is hard work as it is and it's even HARDER on a hot, humid, sticky day like today. I'm beat...but I'm also sooo happy and excited about this place! A new phase in all of our lives are just beginning and we're all kind of excited.
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Friday:
Have most of our stuff unpacked.
I spend all day organizing everything. Called Sharon and Dad and gave them
my new number and address. Also called Grandma Baker in Iowa. I hope to
have my computer hooked up tomorrow, so I can e mail everyone again. I
also called my friends last night, my friends from high school from the
original BSC to let them know I got moved in all right and to give them
my new address and number. Actually, Kristy, who's right up the block at
Fellowdean, came over yesterday afternoon and helped us with a lot of the
heavier stuff. I was sooo glad to get that last box moved in here!
We didn't eat until around
nine-thirty last night and it was a takeout pizza, which we ate out on
the porch. Kristy ate with us and we four residents treated Kristy in payment
for her helping us move in here. Another great thing about this house...it
has a big wraparound porch and you can see the Statue of Liberty from it.
While we were eating, we watched it turn on for the night. Liberty still
continues to take my breath away. I think of my great-great grandma Syraria
Wegenstein and the courage she must have had coming here from Germany to
start a new life from virtually scratch. Grandma Baker tells me she was
one determined woman and that she became a successful tailor against all
odds. Back then, society wasn't as civilized as it is today and women were
kept out of a lot of professions. I guess sewing runs on my mom's side
of the family since Syraria, Grandma, my natural mom as well as I like
to sew.
Even now, I'm headed outside
to the porch to view Liberty. Greta and Wyser hit the sack early tonight
after we ate another take-out meal of Chinese. Mona's upstairs in her room
reading. I'm now out here on the porch writing in this journal and looking
out over the New York Harbor at the Statue of Liberty. I love how she isn't
some skinny model, but a real-looking woman with fat hips and hands and
a real-looking face.
Well, tomorrow is our shopping
day. The four of us have to head on to Shoppers Food Warehouse and a couple
of other gadget stores tomorrow and load up on daily essentials. Funny
how you don't think of things like toilet paper or soap until you move.
Thank the stars I remembered where I'd packed my soap so I could shower
after another hot, slimy day, but none of us remembered where we'd put
the toilet paper, so we had to open up ALL the boxes, which were piled
in a huge mess in the living room and kitchen, so we could dig it out.
I know I had to pee three times today since I drank about a liter of coke
and several cans of Sprite. And being on college budgets, we're going to
need cheap frozen dinners by the end of the week.
I hope we get cooler weather
next week, because I'm getting tired of the heat. Our air-conditioner should
be on by Saturday or Sunday at the latest, thank the stars above Liberty.
We just have to buy a filter and install it in there. Meanwhile, this heat
is making me drowsy, so I'm going in and turning in.
Saturday:
Another busy day. We got
a lot done. Did the shopping, working our way from one store to another
along the city. One of the great things about living her in New York City
is that everything is sooo close by. Just hop on the train or a bus to
go just about anywhere. Mona had her carry-on cart and so did Wyser, so
we were able to load stuff on and bring it all back and forth. I think
the bus driver on the route started to get to know us, since we took three
trips back and forth to lower Manhattan. On the way back, we passed by
the World Trade Center site and we saw that they are starting to build
a new one there. It won't be the steel and glass skyscraper it was before,
thank the stars. It'll be mostly brick and concrete and a single tower.
There's also going to be a memorial at the site where the first World Trade
Center was. The new one will be down about two blocks.
By late afternoon, we got
the shopping done, at least the stuff we'll need for now. We have a little
list and might add to it from time to time. And best of all, we now have
the AC on. Mona put the filter in; I put the plugs in and voila, we got
COOL AIR. I'm here, nice and cool in my room, writing this. It's still
stifling out there, but the weather report says it'll probably dip down
into the mid-eighties by next week. Good, because this week, we're all
on our work breaks, but I go back to work on Monday at the campus bookstore.
And I also got my computer plugged in about an hour ago, so I was able
to e-mail everyone.
Stacey says it's been hot
up in Vermont too; she's at Aberdine U. getting ready for HER senior year
in undergraduate school. Did I tell you she's majoring in engineering?
I wouldn't be surprised also if she winds up valedictorian again just like
she was in high school; she's the brightest of all of us in the BSC. She
also plans to go to graduate school after that. Go, Stace!
Dad and Sharon e-mailed
back right away and say it's been hot and humid in the old town. That's
what all of us call Stoneybrook, since my BSC friends and I grew up there.
I haven't been back there since last Christmas; it doesn't look like I'll
make it there again until Thanksgiving this fall. Oh, well.
Things are slowly falling
into place here. I'm looking around now and am relieved to see my room
neat again. I've even put up some of my posters, the one with the Statue
of Liberty over my bed and the one of the New York City skyline. I also
have the picture of me and my friends up on my dresser, several of them
in fact, of us at different ages. One is of us the summer after eighth
grade when we took that trip across the US of A in the RV and the other
is one Kristy's mom took after our high school graduation in our caps and
gowns. I still get tears in my eyes sometimes remembering our high school
days, both bad and good. I'm so glad all of us have stayed friends, despite
the fact that we're scattered all over the States. I'm about to get in
bed with a good book, so good night; talk later!
More later! Let me know what you think; don't hesitate to R&R away!