Holidays in New Jersey

Well, December has certainly been busy.  My company had a blow-out party in Las Vegas for all the employees - tuxedos and ballgowns!  I looked amazing in a slinky navy blue number.  Then I had to use up 7 vacation days before the end of the year, so I just took a day here and a day there which got the rest of my moving, unpacking, and sorting under completely control.  The apartment is done, finished, and livable.  Still a couple pieces of small furniture (end table, small chair, desk chairs, etc.) to get/replace but most is completely finished.  Everything fit perfectly!!  It was like this apartment was just waiting for me.  And did I mention there are five lovely restaurants in walking distance and dozens just a short drive away.

Christmas was spent with my friend's daughter - as we do every year between one daughter or the other.  Each of them have two children similar to your ages, so I have a sense of how "grown up" you are based on how grown up they are.  And what you can do and how you must talk.  I know you will read these when you are actually GROWN up, at least I hope you do.  The whole idea is to keep talking to you both and someday you will find this site when you search the internet for your name (because EVERYBODY searches for their name!!)

I don't see many pictures of you anymore because your mom and dad don't post them on Facebook.  Maybe there is another site, but I haven't found it.  Meanwhile, Grandpa Nick posts your Halloween photos, so I have those and look at them all the time.

Well, have to get ready to go to Florida for the New Year, we leave tomorrow for eight days.  I DO love the fireworks.

I HATE TRUMP!!  And I'm going to be proved right that he was a terrible terrible choice for president.

But I love YOU TWO

Grandma Nici

Moving Day (redux)

I did it!!  I found a fantastic huge 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment in Bloomfield, NJ right near a train station, a grocery store, a post office, a drug store, a dry cleaner.....all the important stuff you need in walking distance.  There is parking for my car, a laundry in the building, a lovely garden, and a balcony!!  I moved in  yesterday and now will spend the next week unpacking!

I won't have a bed until next weekend, but that is ok - my friend has a blow-up bed I will use.  There is also no cable, but I can "borrow" internet and watch on my phone....not that I'll have time with everything that needs to be done.  Oh, and did I mention the four huge double closets?

There is a place for everything.  I am keeping a very small storage locker because I want to have the second bedroom available for guests or, perhaps in the future, a roommate.  With 2 bathrooms it makes it easy to have a roommate if needed.  There is also a place for my piano and I'm going to start playing again.  It has been WAY too long.

Opera season is underway - AIDA is this weekend - one I always love.  We saw Nathan Lane in "Front Page" two weeks ago, and "Les Dangerous Liaisons" before that with Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber.  The reviews were mixed, but I loved the show and thought the characters did a nice "slithery" job, which is what they are supposed to do!

Well, it's back to unpacking and figuring out how to get to work tomorrow on the train.  The adventures continue.

All my love

Grandma Nici

Moving Again!

Well, I was right.  Living together was not the best idea.  We disagree about so many basic things - especially politics right now (he is a BIG supporter of Trump, me, not so much).  I've started packing up my things again...seems they were only unboxed for about 2 weeks, really, and out as much as possible looking for a new apartment.

I had wanted to go back to Jersey City - it's right on good transportation and I can afford to live on my own.  It is too expensive in New York.  Unfortunately, all the apartments that look good on paper are awful in person!  Amazing how the realtors take such good pictures which aren't very real!

So perhaps I will go a little further afield.  My friend went out a little further and the rents are less and the neighborhoods are fantastic.  There is one about a half mile from his place that looks like it might be a good option.  Right on the train.  I have to find the time to go see it.

Have been doing a lot of Broadway shows in recent months.  I don't think I can ever move away from New York unless it is to somewhere that has an active theater scene.  Broadway, Lincoln Center opera and ballet, Off-Broadway fun stuff, lots of restaurants.  How I love it.

And I love YOU TWO

Grandma Nici

Italy

Oh my.  Italy was so amazing.  I know you have both been there, but going as an adult is just incredible.  We were in Rome, Florence and Venice - traveling between the cities by train.  I don't suppose I can possibly describe all the sights I saw.  We mostly did walking tours of the city, the churches and the museums, using private guides so we could ask all the questions we wanted.  We were so lucky to get great guides who were very knowledgeable.  There wasn't a single question they didn't know the answer to!!  My friend made sure the trip was first class, which was wonderful.  I have a feeling it may be the last really big trip I will ever make.  They aren't something I can afford on my own.  But who knows - maybe an inexpensive flight to Paris or Athens, stay at a pensione, or bed n breakfast somewhere and just take in the sights.  I could spend an entire day just in the Louvre museum.

Everything from the Highland Avenue house has been moved to New Jersey, the city of Glen Ridge.  I am living in New York with my friend, and going to Glen Ridge on weekends to start sorting, storing, and putting things away.  I must leave room for all of his stuff too - so I have thrown out, given away, or donated to charity an awful lot of stuff.  I sold all my tools and machines, my lawn furniture, dishes, glasses, pots n' pans, camping goods (yes, I had a tent, sleeping bags, and camp cots!).  I left my bed at Highland Avenue as I needed a new one anyway.  We will get one that suits us both I suspect, as I don't care much for his either!

I invested the money from the sale and am much closer to reaching my goal of being able to stop working sometime in the next couple of years.  I have so much I want to do.

I love you both very much my dearest ones.

Grandma Nici

SOLD!

The house where Taylor grew up is no more.  I sold it to a lovely Chinese couple who wanted to make it their own, and raise their own children.  It was a lot of work getting it ready but it sold in one day.  Since I had already promised to do certain things, I did them, but I think I got a better price because of it.  I closed on August 17, but I have 30 days to move because my friend and I are going to Italy and the new place isn't ready yet.

My friend decided we should move into his new place in New Jersey together.  He has arranged for a lot of work to be done on it while we are in Italy - painting, cleaning, closet remodel, etc.  He has been trying to sell his condo in New York City for a year, and maybe having somewhere to move TO will give him impetus to get it done.  Meanwhile, until he is ready to move I will move my belongings into that new apartment and live with him in NYC.    We will see how it works.  Although I've spent over half my time at his place the last five years, I've lived alone for a long time and not sure I want someone telling me what I can do and where I can go and who my friends can be.  Sometimes being a grown-up means actually being grown up and making your own choices.

I'm almost completely packed, at least, so it is just a case of finishing some painting and cleaning the whole house thoroughly after we return from our trip.  We leave for Italy on the 25th which is extremely exciting for me.  I've never been and am so looking forward to it.

I love you my dearest children

Grandma Nici

The Hammers are Hammering

WOW!!  Lots of work going on in the house.  The whole porch was full of stuff from Home Depot, and is almost empty now.  New doors are up, new sinks are in, new countertops are finished.  The carpets are being cleaned today because the walls are all painted.  Just the cleaning up needs to be finished.  Mostly everything is packed - I still need to pack part of my house but it is coming together.


My friend bought a place a little further out in New Jersey, and that's where we are going to put all of my things.  It's a good temporary stopping place until, and if, we decide to move to Florida full time.  I don't think either of us really wants to do that.  We want to be able to be in New York part-time and this gives us the chance to do it.  It's just a one-bedroom, but I think everything will fit.  Both it, and my house, will close on the 17th of August.  I won't be moving until the middle of September, so it is close.


But - better news - we are going to Italy starting August 25, coming back September 6.  That will be the trip of a lifetime for me.  I've never been there and it's on my Bucket List (the list of things you want to do before you die).  Rome, Florence, and Venice.  I am so very excited.  I will leave a post of pictures after I get back and you will be able to see what I saw.


Meanwhile, I have a few boxes still to pack.....


Love and smoochy kisses,


Grandma Nici

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR

I was there when you were born my darling boy.  I watched you take your first breath and spent the next four years watching you grow up.  I have so many pictures, I will give them to you.

I love you my beautiful child


Grandma Nici

HOUSE!!

I did it!  I called the real estate lady in mid-May, she decided how much the house should sell for and she took lots of pictures.  The house sold in 24 hours.  Of course there is a lot of negotiation going on so I probably won't have to move until August, with lots of contracts and re-writing of contracts and figuring out how the new owners will pay for it and everything.  But it is moving forward nicely. 


Unfortunately I have to do a LOT to the house to get it ready.  I had agreed to make certain improvements based on how bad the tenants were leaving it.  I had to replace the first floor kitchen sink and countertops, the bathroom sink, door, and medicine cabinet, add glass shower doors, paint the entire first and second floor, add a door to Taylor's old bedroom, remove your Daddy's sound booth in the blue bedroom, and clean everything thoroughly.  This will take 6-8 weeks to finish. 


Then I have to decide where I'm going to move my stuff.  That's the hard part.  The house sold months faster than I thought it would.  I thought it wouldn't sell until fall so I would have time to find another place.  Now I don't, and I don't know where to move.  That will have to work itself out pretty quickly I think.  Of course, I can always put everything in storage with a moving company until I decide.  That's the quick and dirty option.


The buyers are very nice, a young couple who will eventually start a family.  That means Taylor's bedroom will have a baby in it again.  I will miss the house terribly - it has all my memories of the two of you.


Love and smoochy kisses


Grandma Nici

Tax Day and Lots of News

It's Tax Day in the US.  We pay our income taxes and, hopefully, get a refund.  Or at least don't have to pay very much.  My house interest helps a lot, so I rarely have to pay anything but that's going to change I think.


My tenants are moving out in June.  They are building a house so have given me a lot of notice.  Hmmm, I wonder if my house can sell for more than I paid for it.  If not, I can't sell it because the bank will want all the money they loaned me to buy and I can't pay it all.  We will have to get an appraisal - that's where someone tells you how much your house is worth and that let's you set a selling price.  I'm going to call the same lady that sold it to me.  She will know what to do.  Meanwhile - it's time to CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN and sell as much as possible.  What fun!


Therapy is helping my foot.  Hurrah!  It's a slow process, but it is working and it feels so much better already. 


Love you my dear one!


Grandma Nici

Happy Birthday Emmerson and Grandma

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday to Emmerson on the 13th and to Grandma on the 14th.  We are just one day apart so we can celebrate together.  Hurrah!!!  Did you have cake and candles?  I did!


Another trip to Florida this month just to rest and relax - I love it.


I visited with a dear friend of mine who was in town on his way to China.  We had dinner together and it was just wonderful.  It's so nice to see friends you have known for years and years and years.  Why, we first met in 1991!!  Another piece of good advice, keep your friends close.  Don't let time or distance get in the way.  If you are good friends you should talk from time to time.  And see one another from time to time as well.  It will be as if you had just seen one another yesterday, even if it's been years.


I've decided to go back and start therapy on my foot again.  It just hasn't gotten any better and summer is coming which means I want to USE it properly.  We are talking about a big trip at the end of summer so there will be a lot of walking which I couldn't do now.


Hope you are enjoying school, just a couple of more months until summer vacation.


Love and kisses


Grandma Nici

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day and got mom something special.  We went to a lovely hotel in Pennsylvania that is very romantic since Monday was a holiday - President's Day.


My friend is going back to San Diego late in the month and I wish I could go too.  It's been chilly here this winter, although not a lot of snow, which is very good.


January really had a lot of snow late in the month, but it all melted in about 2 days.  We had almost 25 inches fall at once, then POOF, gone.  That happened a few years ago when you were living with me but it didn't go away.  We had to shovel and shovel and shovel until there was no place else to put it.


I'm still cleaning out and selling.  I think I have pretty much decided that when the tenants leave I'm going to sell, and I'm going to ask them to leave at the beginning of summer.  Lots of decisions to make!  The worst part is that you will never again know where I am.  I hope I can leave enough breadcrumbs that you can find me.  I won't change my phone number and will always keep my FaceBook available so you can contact me if you want to.  I do love you so much.


Love and kisses


Grandma Nici 

A New Year

Here we are starting a new year - 2016 - and what a good one it is going to be.


December saw me visiting my dear friend in Washington DC and I'm glad I did.  She is very energizing and reminds me I don't have one foot in the grave.  Then there was Christmas with the family, once again missing you both being there very much.  They we went back to Florida for the New Year which was really nice because we missing some of the cold.  Lastly - I HAVE A NEW JOB.


Getting that job was actually easier than I thought.  I didn't lose any pay because my old job was paying me almost until the new one will start.  I start the 19th, the day after Martin Luther King birthday so it works out wonderfully.


I am thinking really hard now about selling the house.  While I wasn't working these last couple of months I spent a lot of time cleaning things out...selling...giving away....putting stuff on eBay...generally paring down what I own.  After all - if I go to a 1-bedroom, how much will fit?  If I am renting, do I need a shed full of tools and a Bar-B-Que grill?  I've made some good money selling to neighbors and I'm going to keep going.  The hardest part is always clothes.  I have WAY TOO MANY.  But I've always loved new clothes and now sure it is going to stop.


But I want you to think too.  Start early putting away money for your future, for your education, for your wedding and children and retirement.  It is never too early to learn how to save.  Sometimes saving just means not spending.  Do you need two of something, or will one do.  Do you need a new something or can what you have take you through a little longer.  Do you need the best or will second best do just as well.  Don't settle - think big - then act on it only when you can.


Love and kisses my dear ones


Grandma Nici