The Big Apple – Time Square…
It’s vacation time and tourism is in the air. Well this trip isn’t purely a vacation – it’s a “moving” trip. Our daughter and her family are moving from the hustle and bustle of Wall Street to a more quiet and suburba life across the river in Jersey City. Well, it’s still close enough to the City to be considered part of NY for me, but crossing the river and the state line, makes it seem like you’ve moved farther away that you really did. They have a beautiful view of the Mahattan skyline out their bedroom window including a perfect view of the Statue of Liberty which is pretty awesome at night.
I must say with the traffic we ran into coming here and seeing the traffic once we got here, you certainly can’t tell that gasoline is nearly at the $3.00 gallon mark. I don’t think many people are slowing down too much. And what can I say – we did drive here too.
We spent the last two days working on “the move”. Try getting a over-sized UHaul truck down a crowded alley behind Wall Street. You have to realize my husband was driving the truck and you have to realize my daughter was giving the directions. For those of you who know us, you should get a huge grin out of the mental picture. We only caused one street brawl, blocked traffic for about 2 hours, and ran into one NYC fire truck. All in all – not bad a day!
Today we went back to the “old” apartment to make sure it was spic and span enough to warrant the refund of the much coveted deposit money. Should have been an easy task, but for some reason, nothing we ever do seems to be easy. It’s about a 30-45 minute walk/subway ride back to the old apartment. I tell you this so you can appreciate the walk home….(read on…) We scrubbed and sanitized every inch of all 400 square feet. (Yes, 400 square feet.) However, we needed a mop to finish things up and sent my husband out to find one. You also need to realize there is not a Wal-Mart on any corner in Manhattan. So he was forced to pay $15 for mop at the local drug store.
We mopped the floor til it shined and thought we’d just leave the mop there for the next tennant; however it did not make sense to Jeff ( husband & purchaser of said mop) to leave the mop there and then go buy a second mop for the new apartment. So to my shame and embarrasement, we strapped the now dirty mop to the side of the stroller. Also strapped, tied, stuck, or otherwise attached to the stroller were pizza pans and cookie sheets that didn’t get packed into the Uhaul, 3 purses, one large college duffle bag stuffed with all the refrigerator condiments (ketchup, hot sauce, mustard…you get the picture), a copy of USAToday, a subway schedule, 3 umbrellas, and a paper towel holder. Let me remind you we did have a one year old who was supposed to actually sit in the stoller and yes, we really did have the mop riding on the side.
We had been cleaning and were wearing the grubbiest clothes we could find, no make-up, and hair slicked back with pony tails and hair clips. So we were certainly a pretty sight when we walked out onto one of the busiest places in the world - Wall Street, New York, City. But there we were dirty, tired, carrying a baby, and pushing our carefully packed stroller down the middle of the financial hub of the country!
So the next time you see a couple of “bag ladies” pushing a shopping cart or other wheeled-aparatus down a busy, heavily traveled street, please be nice. They could just be plain ole Kentucky folks in for a vacation of sorts!
