Movin' On Up

I’ve got almost everything stuffed into medium sized boxes ready to stick in the truck tomorrow. Jack has been climbing up and over those boxes and reaching heretofore unreachable heights on the dining room table. He seems very pleased with his newfound athleticism. I’ve been worrying, probably needlessly about the effect the move is going to have on him. The Brighton Avenue house is the only home he’s known and I don’t relish the idea of taking him out of a familiar environment to someplace strange and new. On the other hand my guess is that he is too old to have developed an attachment to a specific place. Anyway, I’m bringing the couch and rug so the new apartment won’t be so unfamiliar to him.

Packing up hasn’t been easy. The house was full of memories that I hadn’t had the time or inclination to address over the last 18 months. Sorting through old pictures, clothes and boxes full of stuff has led to a lot of bittersweet nights recently. I know in my heart that I’m doing the right thing by moving to the next stage of my life, but it’s still hard. It’s going on four years in that house and I’ve become attached to the place. It’s the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere since Becky and I left the Bronx in 1992. For some strange reason I’ve also become attached to Staten Island. Despite the fact that I have choked down more red tomato-sauce based products there than I ever dreamed possible, I’m going to miss the place. So much of the rest of New York has become overrun in the last ten years by snarky hipsters and wealthy yuppies. Staten Island is one of the few places in the City that still feels like the New York I remember from the 1970s. Maybe it’s all those Italians that walked over the plank from Bay Ridge and stopped off for a generation on their way to Jersey. Whatever the reason, living on the North Shore of Staten Island made me feel in touch with the harbor and the City in a way that Brooklyn and Inwood never did.

I have reservations with both Budget and U-Haul for tomorrow; I figure that at least one of them will have a truck for me. I might be off-line for a few days until I get the cable hooked up and my internet access back.