Hannah's at Nyack Now!

Niece Hannah Schmidt flew into town from Tokyo last Monday eve. After 3 days of visiting and shopping, I took her to Nyack College on Friday, Aug 26, 2005. The drive to Nyack was quite pleasant... almost 3.5 hours. I left the college at 2:15pm, after settling her in and getting her books, ID etc. But...once I crossed over into CT I was in a 45 mile back-up! No kidding , it took over 2 hours to get the 45 miles from the NY/CT border to New Haven. I tried 2 different routes too..both were bumper to bumper 10-20-25 mph. Summer's last gasp...people headed to the CT coast I guess. I've never been in such a long back up. Oh well, thank goodness for air-conditioning and a good stereo.. I even had 3 cookies from the Nayck cafeteria. Soda would have been nice...but then..there was little opportunity for any rest stops, so just as well that I forgot to pack my cooler.

At Nyack, a number of upperclassmen were on hand to welcome and move in the new students. My fully loaded car was unpacked and all her stuff was up on the 4th floor (with no elevators) in less than 15 minutes. It was unbelievable. Everyone was very friendly. It was great to see, since this is all new to her and she is so far away from "home." Her room is a corner room, with 2 views of the Hudson. One view is posted here. The other view is of the orange bluffs along the river north of town. Wonderful!

The final photo here is of Hannah and her new friend and room mate, Maritza. She lives about an hour away in NJ and her family is Mexican.

Going back to NYC (sort of)

So tomorrow at 6AM I will head back down to the city.... sort of. I will stop just north of the city in Nyack to help our neice Hannah move into college there...it's her first year. Big move (from Toyko!) ....lots of anxiety today. Hope I can help her feel more settled before I leave mid day / early afternoon. I want to stop at IKEA in New Haven on my way home, if traffic doesn't make me drive off into the ocean in Bridgeport. Rt 95 can be a real bear.. especially alone (no co-pilot) and on Friday afternoon no less.

Flyin' and hoppin' day

We flew, almost literally, over to the Berkshires today.... first lunch with my mom (and Hannah). Then shopping there with Hannah. Fast stop at Bridgman's ended up taking over an hour b/c, despite a phone call this AM, the person who knew where Hannah's boxes were tucked away was not home when we arrived and had not pulled the boxes out. The delay yielded a nice visit, an ice cream sandwich and pickings from the garden, tho!! Not bad :-) Then we sped our way to Hadley for supper at Panera with Baird and more shopping. Spent about 2 more hours but we got about 80% of her list for college done. Amazing!! The shopping spree and picking out dorm stuff got her psyched about heading off to Nyack on Friday. Tomorrow is a day filled with other stuff...work and etc. So, banking and more shopping on Thursday, in between clients.... and then... Friday AM...off to college we go...he ho he ho......

Back Log

Wow.... I haven't posted in over a week on this blog. Opps. I have been posting on Broken Glass instead, I guess. This has been a busy week... helping J and B move into their new place. Also J and I went to Tower Hill Botanic Gardens Friday (photo 1) and then yesterday the family went to NYC, East Village area on a day trip (photo 2). So, lots has happened in addition to the regular day to day, work, eat, sleep, do laundry etc.

Tonight was a going away party for Laura D at Glen's house (photo 3). I have known Laura for several years. She and I worked with the youth at FBC together, among other things. Now she is moving back to the Boston area to share a place with her "sis" and to work for DSS. Gotta go where the jobs are I guess. It is sad to see her leave here but the Boston area has a lot more to offer her in many ways. We can always visit her there! Yipee....someone to hang out with in Boston.

Baird went to Boston tonight in fact.... to Logan Airport to pick up his neice Hannah. She is coming from Tokyo to go to college. I will help her get everything ready and I will take her to Nyack, NY on Friday for her first year of college. Jess's new school program in Athol ( thru UMass) starts that same day! Yup, it's another full week!

They are BACK!

Hey....it's true...Jess and Ben are back...yipee! They got into town a bit after 11PM Friday...after leaving Whitewater at 3:30 AM, WI time. That's like 18.5 hours on the road but they made it! After a bit of sleep and a big breakfast in Shute-Ho this AM (with the Aaron too) we headed down to the new apt at The Brook and began to clean and move some stuff in. Michael, Baird and Ben, along with some help from Ian too, got 2 car loads and 2 van loads out of storage! Jess and I got quite a bit of the kitchen unpacked and set up. Wow! More tomorrow with friends and family all pitching in and a cookout with Wisconsin Cheese Burgers after.....whohoo.

Greenfield: Closed on Sundays

I think I will make a new sign for Greenfield:
Greenfield: The Town That is Closed on Sunday.
Baird and I drove up there this eve to go to this little Mexican place with tables outside and it was closed..as was most of the town, so we ended up at Wendy's!!!! Imagine that!

Hey..good news..the 7 Russian sub guys got rescued today after spending 3 days deep underwater, snagged in an old finshing net off the coast of Japan. The Brits cut them loose. It was 5 degrees celsius in there....imagine, 3 days, all dark...laying still on the floor of the mini sub..breathing lightly to preserve the remaining oxygen...(right). I am having a mini panic attack just thinking about it!

As for the U.S..well...the shuttle is suposed to land in 6 hours! Pray is goes well this time.

That's about it for things on my mind tonight :-)

another week....

Thus ends another week. Hot...steamy...August. Today was really good....coffee with Laura D, who has decided to move back to the Boston area (Somerville) with her sister and work for DSS, then lunch with Polly and Pam (fun time at Bertuccis), and then LAOS meeting with 2 from the exec. committee (they both liked my ideas..we'll see where it all leads...stay tuned), and finally "coffee" with Baird and Ian to chat...mostly about how to get Sufjan Stevens here to talk before his Sept 7 concert at Pearl St. There was a client in there somewhere too. The only downer of the day was email from the "office" but I am putting it behind me. Life goes on, thank God. This AM, before I ever saw the "jab" email, I was thinking how folks leaving FBC is sort of like the dispersal in Acts... the people were driven out ( they by outright persecution) and it led to even more spread of the Gospel. Parallel: those of us who have begun to spread out feel the losses but we are also making new connections we might not have otherwsie; we are meeting new people from other realms of the Christian family within the Valley and it has been nothing less than reaffirming and even downright inspirational at times. In some cases we have even already been able to connect our new connnections with other new connections. Articles like the Harpers one are affirming on an even larger scale. So, all around....good stuff. Hey...Jess and Ben's new apartment is basically all set too...so...one more week to go and the next phase will begin for them. Yahoo!

The most astounding thing of the day was my BIG paycheck from one of the insurance companies: here attached. Worth framing I think.