The Nesting Project

I’m in my new home and after a week in the new place, I can safely say I’m in love with it. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind, between pre-op tests for the upcoming knee replacement, and details around closing escrow, final inspections, moving details and the actual move, which happened as scheduled on Valentine’s Day. I thought it was amazing that the truck the moving company sent was pink. It felt appropriate for the day. A big shout out to Roadway Movers, who sent a team of the hardest working people I’ve ever met, led by Cesar, who maintained and supported his team’s maintaining great attitudes throughout the very long day.

In the days leading up to the move, each day hosting a smattering of doctor’s appointments or labs left little time for packing. I can safely say that without my long time house cleaner Carolina’s indefatigable work in packing the kitchen and then cleaning the empty apartment, I wouldn’t have had such an amazing experience. She packed the entire kitchen, then shifted to the cabinets in the bathrooms and the books in the guest bedroom. Even so, when the moving day came, there was still a lot of stuff to pack and that took time. More time than the movers or I expected, to be fair.

When we got to the new place, I was aided by my friend, Leah and my brother, Don, who watched the entryway to the garage as the late afternoon chill came on. My new neighbor Dick was kind enough to provide a chair and a blanket to Don and Leah, who took shifts sitting watching the 20′ truck being emptied by the Roadway Fierce Four. There is something so exciting about seeing your new home first in it’s empty shell state, then watching as the furniture is brought in and set up.

Upstairs, I was pointing for the furniture, and trying to open boxes and empty them so that the movers could take them away. Even though I had little to do besides order food at the right time and empty as many boxes as I could, by 8:00 when they left, almost eleven hours from the start of the day, I could barely see straight and my legs were throbbing with tiredness. Fortunately, Leah cued me that she was hungry – oh yeah, eating! She then chose the menu from a nearby place, Hungry Crowd, and went to pick it up. After the movers, she and Don had left, I found the bedding for my bed, made the bed, took my first shower in my new bathroom, and grabbed a bottle of water and my night time meds, dove into the bed, succumbing to the downy white duvet and sheets and pillows. I looked down and realized that a small cut in my thumb from opening tape on a box with my keys (rookie mistake)had blossomed with a huge droplet of blood threatening to dive onto the snowy white duvet. I leapt out of bed to get a bandaid (yes, I knew where they were believe it or not) and then returned to the room ready to take my pills. But where was my water bottle? It wasn’t on the night stand.

One thing about my new home is that it had belonged to a woman who had lived and passed away in hospice. Sorry to be reductive about her but I really don’t know a lot about my predecessor besides that. It’s one of the things you have to disclose about a property if the person has passed within three years. I thought about her and bringing Jimmie here, hoping that the two of them would get along. But here she was, messing with me on the first night. I jumped back out of bed, and began to scour the condo to find the missing water bottle. I went to the kitchen, and there on the far end of the counter, was a water bottle. Not the one I’d had, but one I’d left there earlier in the day. I brought it back to my downy bed, and climbed into the bed, pulling the covers over my legs, revealing…yes, you guessed it, the water bottle. I immediately apologized to my predecessor for attributing it’s loss, crediting my exhaustion.

Every day in a new place reveals more tasks to restore the amenities we’ve come to rely on so heavily. Internet, TV, music, things on the wall. I received the new internet equipment from Spectrum the day after the move, and in spite of following the set-up directions carefully, I couldn’t get a signal, so arranged for the technician to come help me out. Rodrigo was a doll and we went through the process of testing the various ports around the condo only to find the only one that worked was in the primary bedroom. He advised I set up a mesh network, told me which one to buy from Best Buy, and recommended a Xumo box for the TV. This luddite, me, not Rodrigo, had been thinking that it would be as simple as running a cable and getting a more updated cable box; anyone under 30 already knows we don’t do TV that way anymore. Within a few hours (in our instant gratification economy), I had installed the eero base and two stations to bring the wifi signal close to the TV, and ventured out to the Spectrum store at NoHo West to get the Xumo box. Old stomping grounds – our son attended Laurel Hall which is next door to the mall until an incident with a paperclip and a floor power receptacle in the fifth grade resulting in a long and colorful folklore about a fire in the brand new library as well as new schools for him. The old Laurel Canyon Mall sported a Macy’s and a public ice skating rink, and my main memory was getting broadsided in the parking lot by a woman trying to get to a sale at Macy’s during pick up hour at Laurel Hall. I was in her way.

The new NoHo West mall is spectacular and I look forward to becoming acquainted with the stores. It was a bit of a foraging moment to find the Spectrum store, but Eric was efficient and helpful, getting me out within about twenty minutes.

Getting the network working so that I could send my roomba out to clean was critical. And boy was she pissed when she started out. I could just hear her.

I had a lovely 1200 ft condo that I knew where everything was and everything was in its place. What is this shitshow? I have no idea what’s going on and there are boxes and crap all over the place.

She kept trying to get behind the wet bar where I was temporarily storing all the large boxes. Then she proceeded to keep butting up against the TV which was leaning against the hearth. She must have cleaned that hearth a dozen times. When she finally discovered the guest suite Thursday, she stopped halfway down the carpeted hallway and turned around in disgust. As my friend Susan said, “this reminds me of an old, blind hound when you put something where it isn’t supposed to be.” By the end of today, she had created a new map for herself. By next week the artwork will be up off the floor so she won’t be knocking that down.

On the second night, my wonderful sister-in-law texted me and said she was bringing over dinner. It was a wonderful dinner of mushroom ravioli and I’d darted down the street to Baskin and Robbins and got some ice cream sandwiches so I could contribute something.

Tablecloth on the table upside down, I had to locate the silverware and plates and throw them in the dishwasher before they got there. But it constituted a real meal in my new home!

Every day the condo has more semblance to a home and I’ve cooked twice. Don and I’ve been carpooling to our walks at the reservoir and I’m home by 7:30AM, with no commuter traffic to downtown. I returned the casserole dish to Terry and Don replete with lentil/sweet potato/spinach soup, courtesy of the New York Times Cooking app. I walked to Trader Joe’s that afternoon to get the ingredients I didn’t have, and so had a good day of walking at 12,641 steps. Next week I’ll be having that total knee replacement, so I want to get as many steps in as I can before then and get rid of as many boxes as I can before my good friend Caroline arrives on Tuesday to help me for a week. We had made a pact back in NY in the fall that she would help me and I’ll go back east to help her when it comes time. So nesting and resting for next week. Less of the latter. Two more days at distribution sites for the LA Food Bank this week, during which time I received this alarming/hilarious text from my little blind hound dog roomba. Not sure if it’s a comment or what. She’d clearly ready to quit.

The picture hanger whose company, Well Hung, is coming Monday to get me started. Matt is the real deal and has always done a great job for me.

Life is feeling very promising and I went to campus last night to see the MFA Y2 students and other undergrads perform in Troilus and Cressida at the Bing Theatre. Very enjoyable, and I also had the opportunity to run into several colleagues, which was a great bonus! Navigating campus as a crusty former faculty member was a little depressing. Note to self – reach out ahead of time to make dinner plans! This little gem was courtesy of one of my former colleagues who shall remain nameless. But it made me laugh a LOT.