Tuesday, December 12, 2006

I'm In My New Place!

The move from Chelsea to the UES came off, largely, without a hitch. I owe most of that to my brother, Frey. He was awesome! He came down Friday night from Connecticut, helped me pick up the truck Saturday morning, and then carried what I'm sure seemed like a million boxes and pieces of furniture up and down many, many stairs for about 5 hours - all without a single complaint. He just dug in and helped me get everything I needed to done. In addition, he rallied up a bunch of friends to help, all of whom were essential. Thank you Frey!!

I spent much of the remainder of the weekend unpacking and getting to know my apartment-mate. So far, she could not be better. She has been warm, welcoming, flexible and out of the apartment for huge stretches of time. What could be better? We actually had several great conversations in between me unpacking my kitchen stuff, and together we helped reorganize the apartment. I also got to meet her Mom, a wonderful Irish lady from California who knits like nobody's business. I found this out Sunday night when my roommate dropped off her Mom after dinner and went to spend the night with her boyfriend. Her Mom and I ended up gabbing it up for an hour and a half, and she showed me the meanest knit-stitch technique ever. It was amazing; the yarn was just flowing through her fingers. Apparently, when she was growing up in Ireland, all of the girls had to take knitting, so by the time she was in 3rd grade she was already making gorgeous sheep's wool sweaters. Very impressive.

The only detriments of the apartment that have become apparent are the large windows and skylight in my bedroom and the enormous amount of light they allow to shine down upon me at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am, and the odd lack of privacy I've been experiencing due to the fact that I don't have a door to my bedroom. My room is at the top of a spiral staircase without a doorway, and initially privacy concerns didn't even cross my mind because my room was on a separate level from the downstairs area and my roommate's room. However, now I'm thinking it would be nice to have some kind of physical barrier between my room and the open stairwell. I'm toying with the idea of dark purple floor-to-ceiling thick velvet drapes. Yum.

Hopefully, I'll have a bit of time this weekend to do some shopping; both for my place, and for Christmas gifts for my family. I'm starting to get stressed about Christmas shopping. This whole past month was so trying, and now I'm way behind on shopping. Work has also been quite demanding for a number of reasons, but I'm hoping by the end of the week I'll have a bit of time to breathe. I'll give myself a few hours to relax, and then I'm hitting the pavement. No worries; I far prefer looking for gifts, than for apartments.

Here's an important question, speaking of boys, what do you get for the men in your life? My brothers and Dad are so hard to shop for. What are some great gift ideas for the boys/men we love?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been waiting for an update on your move. Glad to hear that went so well.

Gifts for dudes, though? I have no idea. I'm still struggling with this one.

Anonymous said...

Welcome home! :-) I love the idea of dark purple drapes.

As for the boys, I never have any idea. Red Envelope is usually a good resource, though. Although for my boys, hunting and fishing stuff is usually a better bet than fancy gegaws.

Buttercup said...

Red Envelope is a great site. My brothers are more into big ticket items, and some clothes. My little brother, Bacchus, is a little bit easier than Frey. My Dad, I never know what to get. But you know, after moving all of my crap, I can really appeciate the male indifference to collecting stuff - there's something to be said for that.

Anonymous said...

Do they read? My Dad every year gets the highest rated sports book of the moment. This year it will be the Unitas Biography.

My brother went to Ohio State, and every year they have very cool Tshirts for some thing that they did, some team they beat, or some other nonsense. Look up the schools that they graduated from/or like (im a case in point, I love Oregon, yet never even seen the campus) and get them something from the online bookstore.

Glad your in all cozy now.

Buttercup said...

Sparky, They do read, though they're quite selective, and my brothers watch a lot of sports. Thanks for the suggestion!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you're move went well!

Maybe you can get some sort of bamboo blinds for the skylight?


As for my Dad, I'm slowly buying him the entire collection of A&E's Poirot on DVD for each birthday and Christmas. Plus, I bought him a big book of NY Times Crosswords because he obsesses over doing the crosswords in the paper every day. I've already gotten him one of those crossword dictionaries.

Otherwise, he's impossible to buy for.

I think all the extended family is getting Maine saltwater taffy this year.

Buttercup said...

N. Mallory - I'm thinking bamboo blinds would be awesome. A trip to Home Depot is definitely in the works. I love salt water taffy!!

Anonymous said...

I love the ideas of rich purple velvet curtains! So much easier and CUTER than buying a stinky old door! You can hang them on a cool rod from Bed, Bath and Beyond or some such place!

Anonymous said...

I got my boyfriend one flying lesson and a spa massage gift certificate. Every boy I've mentioned the flying lesson idea to has been so psyched - "I'm manly and I flew a plane once!" And they're not too expensive for just one.

Buttercup said...

Ann - What a cool idea. Angelina-style!

Anonymous said...

Yay! Congrats! Glad the move went so well for you. I think purple velvet drapes would ROCK. Very sexy.

I always get my grandfather pajamas or gloves or a scarf. My brother gets sweaters, gift certificates, golf stuff, and the like.

Anonymous said...

hmmm, so what did you get me?

Buttercup said...

Lass - Good ideas.

Bacchus - Not telling.