No, the move didn't kill me.......

......but it came pretty damn close!!!!  Moving day was July 30.  By the time it got here, I was bone tired.  No wonder people don't want to move when they get old!!!  It's awful.

The truth of the matter is, it went as well as could be expected.  I was unable to sweet talk my way into getting early access to the property, so 5 P.M. on July 28th was the next time I got into the new place.  I had thought I could live with the old carpets, just getting them cleaned, and live with the paint job for a while.  That day - remember, it is two days before moving day - I decided I couldn't.  The long and the short of it was that the movers, the painters and the carpet guy were all in the place at the same time.  For a while, I thought I was going to start World War III - the painter was Polish, the carpet guy Lebanese, and the movers just plain touchy - but it all got sorted amazingly well, and I actually slept in my own - new - bed on the night of the 30th.

And it has been more or less chaos ever since.  Mariah and Mar came up from Seattle the next day, and for three solid days after that did nothing but help me unpack.  They were the kitchen and dining room detail.  Joanne and Howard were on the book detail, Susan came to pick up the remaining boxes (she's moving too).  And now, it is done.  Stick around for the pictures.

Meanwhile, regular life went on.  I worked as much as I could between crises.  (Since I couldn't sleep, there was a lot of work being done in the middle of the night, but hey, whatever works....)They've hired a new crop at work, and so we did our usual Golden Door Chinese Restaurant welcome.....

I never got to know the last few crops of "newbies" very well, but these are all living in my corridor, so there is more interaction.  I like it.

1. Sharon, my realtor and now, I hope, new friend, took be to dinner to celebrate my new home....

We went to Seasons in the Park, located at the highest point in Queen Elizabeth Park.  It has been there forever, and is a very classy restaurant.  Loved it!!!!

Played bridge, of course, and even managed to to to the theater a couple of times with friend Tom.  I protested, but he dragged me to All's Well That Ends Well at Bard on the Beach, which, considering it was done in flapper costume, with lots of text subtracted and lots of music added, I liked surprisingly well.  Lillian Hellman's The Childrens Hour?  Not so much.  It was playing at Jericho Beach, put on by one of our favourite theater groups.  But what a dismal play, my god, Tom and I were both happy to leave at intermission.  (The fact that I was bone tired did not, of course, help anything!!!)

I managed to read a few books in the last month too, surprisingly enough.  Rereading, actually.  I found all these books in the process of moving, and once picked up, they couldn't be put down.  Fowles (The Collector, The Magus, Ebony Tower and The French Leutenant's (how do you spell that?) Woman, all even better than I remembered them.  Henry James, The Golden Bowl - not so much.  And T.C, Boyle, one of my favourite modern authors (he wrote The Tortilla Curtain, a great book) - I never finished East is East when I tried to read it last time, but this time could not put it down.  (sometimes it is a blessing to be an insomniac!!!)  Now I'm on to Henry James again, this time stories, including The Turn of the Screw.

Friend Robin decided to have a party.....

As always, she did it with class.  And although I don't usually like parties unless I am giving them, I actually had a good time.

And now - drumroll please - at long last pictures of the Tugboat Landing neighborhood and my new place....

As you can see it is all industrial modern, a style I don't generally like.  But it is in what was an industrial area - it was once all MacMillan Bloedel property - and, well I think it sort of works here...

....so, this is part of my deck.....

....and part of my ever changing view.....

....and my entrance.....

...my living room, awaiting reframed tapestry over the fireplace.....(the last remaining bit...)

... dining room....

....my bedroom.....

....guest bedroom (it has your name on it.....)

And the Juke Box Man, my first official non-working visitor....

....and that's it, my friends.  I am moved and unpacked and am hugely happy with my decision.  I am glad I didn't leave it any longer - I am not kidding when I say I'm exhausted - but it was the right thing to do.  Now, the fun part.  I have already found my local grocery store, liquor store and microbrewery, and still looking for the dry cleaner, bank and sushi place (there are dozens, I just have to get the right one....)

Visitors welcome....

Unsettled

Moving will do that to you, I guess.  Everything one picks up is a memory.  Or almost everything.  Sometimes its "What the hell is that?"  Or, often, "What did I save that for?"  I get that "stuff" is only meaningful to the person whose stuff it is - no one else cares.  But my memory is so bad that this "stuff" is what seems to tether me to the earth.  You know, I read this when....We were [fill in the blank] when we bought this.  And, of course, David is everywhere...

So, in spite of the fact that I am bone tired - moving will do that to you too (I am definitely getting too old for this...) - my nights are full of weird dreams about people I haven't thought about in years....

Back on Planet Earth, played bridge with Robin today (and yes, I have time to do that.  I've moved often enough to have it down to an art), and we played well together, a real partnership.  Robin and I have known each other for 40 years, but there were times when we didn't see each other so often. It is a joy to be renewing our friendship with these weekly bridge outings.

And tonight, joined friends Heather and Jack, and colleague Susan, for a National Theater Live in HD outing at the movies.  You know my motto:  there is no such thing as a bad night at the theater.  I must say, though, this came as close to a bad night at the theater as it gets.  It was a new version of Everyman, written by Carol Ann Duffy.  You know some version of this, death comes for Everyman, who, in running from death, realizes the hash he has made of life.  Great premise, and not bad writing.  And, actually, great acting.  I loathed the staging, however (as did we all); the director should be strung up by his balls.  Or, as Jack put it so much more nicely, "It wasn't very subtle, was it?"  But dinner with the folks was great - I hadn't seen Jack and Heather since coming back from Palm Springs, and both are looking and sounding great..  Okay, I take it back, there is no such thing as a bad night in the theater! 

As promised. pictures of my new abode.

Here they are...

This is the front of the building.....

 .....the living room...

......the second bedroom.....

 .....the kitchen.....

.......the dining area....

 

 .......the master bedroom and bath....

 .....and, the real selling point, the patio....

 Keep in mind, this is as staged by the realtor.  The final results will be different.  The view, though, remains the same.

More anon.