Cross your fingers...

for a feature length resurrection of our favorite family.

It's only in talks, but one can hope right?

Just to get us all pumped, what's your favorite AD quote/line?

Granny shoes anyone?

My mom never usually comments on anything I wear, unless I ask her for a compliment, which I am never shy about doing. But the night I flew in from the airport, mind you it was past midnight by the time we got to our house, she asked me to pull up my pant leg. I was actually wearing boot cut jeans which usually hide the shoes I wear, which is why most often I wear straight leg jeans. As I was pulling them up, she literally gasped and yelled out, "those are granny shoes Alysha, I can't believe you are wearing them". I tried to defend myself by explaining that no, these are classic Clark Wallabee's and are all over New York. But it didn't matter, her mind was set. My feet looked like a bigger version of her mother's.

But I knew what I was buying. I actually liked how they looked sort of
orthopedic in a hip way. It didn't help that my best friend was routing
me on. We are sort of bad for each other that way. So I bought them. I
wore them around Brooklyn the last few months I was there and really
fell in love with them. I have never owned such a comfortable pair of
shoes, and seeing them on the feet of other girls gave me a sort of
giddy feeling.

What she did make me realize  is that a lot of shoes I like right now have sort of a vintage/old lady feel to them. And yes, I too have these shoes, in black, although I really like them in this color. And  of course just to get a reaction, I asked my mom what she thought. She hated them. But if the snow would just let up, I could actually wear them, and show her how cute they are, especially with my new dress.

I also have been coveting flat derby shoes. These are a lovely pair from Impulse Seattle. I surf ebay once in a while searching for a less expensive pair, but haven't had any luck.

And on one of my last days in Brooklyn, I saw a girl wearing these shoes with skinny jeans. I am not kidding, they looked so cute together.

If you are really in the market for some old lady/vintage inspired shoes you should check out this website. I especially love their selection of candy colored pumps. Thank you Russ for pointing me to it.

 

We're Diving in

Yep. We just put an offer in. This giant 1700 square foot house could someday be ours.

If there are two things I have learned after living in New York, we have no need for a McMansion, and any neighborhood we choose can't be worse than our last.

weird but...

I miss the crowds. I miss the energy. I miss the people.

Part of what I enjoyed so much about New York is the underlying excitement of doing regular things. With so many people, something interesting always happens, there is always a story to tell. Take going to Target as an example. The Brooklyn Target is probably one of if not the busiest Targets in the nation. At any time of day, the check-out lines are at least 15 minutes long, stuff is always all over the floor or out of stock, and every time you ask someone for help, they immediately tell you they don't have it, without even giving a thought. But I love going. And almost all of my friends do too, and its not easy to get to either. Target is an event, even to the point of having dinner at the pizza hut express.

Second example. Movies. The screens are small, a $10 ticket is a good deal, you have to get there at least a half hour early, and no matter the film, you can always expect from the back of theatre popular Brooklyn catch phrases like "ohhh no he didn't" during scenes that most viewers would be crying.

This week I ran to our local Target, Barnes and Noble, and even went to a movie for the second time in a year. I went with equal expectations as I would have back in New York, and I was disappointed. The Target was clean, well stocked, and my guess only had a total of 40 people inside the store, including the staff. I walked in and out of the aisles without anyone ramming into my cart, I didn't have time to read an US weekly because there was at least 5 cashiers open, and the food wasn't at all enticing. And the movie. Tom loved that their was only a total of 12 people in the theatre, it was quiet, we walked just a few feet out to our car, but for me, something was missing, the energy just wasn't the same.

I'll get used to my new way of life. The ease, the calm, the nice people, it will all eventually feel like home. But for now, I'm bored.

Our Last Two

It just wouldn't be fitting if things ran smoothly for us, even for our last two days in NY.

Packing the truck was quick and painless though, especially for me, I just hung out inside taping up odds and ends. We we were lucky enough to have a bunch of our closest friends help us load the gross amount of boxes and junk we have accumulated over the past 5 1/2 years, it always sickens me how much stuff we collect and don't use. I can't imagine packing anything bigger than a 500 square foot apartment. We celebrated our hard work with pizza and soda, and stayed up past midnight telling stories and remenising. We hauled our luggage over to the Riches, we couldn't imagine spending our last couple days with anyone else, and crashed on their air matress. Around three in the morning we awoke to Luke vomitting in the crib. This was the first Luke has ever thrown up continuously. We stayed up with him almost the entire night feeling helpless as he rolled around moaning and whimpering. By morning, he seemed to be feeling much better, relieving us all. The idea of spending our last day with Luke sick was very depressing.

After getting dressed we headed over to Tom's restaurant, a favorite of ours, ate waffles and said our goodbyes to the staff. That afternoon Katie and I set out to return our cable box. Sparing the details, we spent an hour and a half getting lost only to get there and have to wait over an hour just to drop it off. Not exactly how I would have liked to spend my last day. Meanwhile Tom worked diligently trying to sell our car. We had to rid of it before we flew out Sunday evening. He dropped the price a few times and waited around for people to come see it, but the luck wasn't on our side. After giving up for the day, we cruised into the city for one last stop to H&M, Pinkberry, and Fabulous Franny's. By the end of our errands, Tom seemed to have caught Luke's bug and was to nauseous to carry on a conversation. We flew over the brooklyn bridge in silence and I dropped Tom off so he could run inside and most likely vomit. I spent the next twenty five minutes driving around the neighborhood looking for a parking spot. This as always is frusterating, but tonight, I had a girls night going away party for me that I had been looking forward to for weeks. I finally parked, got Luke out and as I walked the two blocks back to Katie's I too felt so nauseous I could barely walk. Katie was ready waiting for me, Tom was green and laying on the bathroom floor, and the only energy I could muster up was enough to fall onto the airmatress, only getting up to run to the bathroom after smelling the chicken noodle soup Chip had just warmed up. I threw up several times, then Tom. Even in those moments of misery I just couldn't believe we were really spending our last night in Brooklyn huddled over the toilet and laying on the bathroom floor while the party sadly carried on without me.

But we recovered. By morning we were able to go to church and say our last goodbyes. We got back to Riches at 2pm, only three hours before we needed to take off to the airport. Instead of spending that time with our friends, we spent it cleaning the apartment, packing our bags, and yes, desperately trying to sell the car. Tom finally confirmed a few appointments to see the car at 4:30, just a half an hour before we needed to leave. We really didn't have a plan B, we had to sell it. but with ten minutes to spare, Tom walked in with the plates and we all cheered. Just enough money to cover the cost of our refrigerator repair.

The Pulfer's and Clifton's, our longest NY friends picked us up for the airport and we said goodbye to our neighborhood for the last time.

My emotions are still to fragile to recount anything except for the facts of our last two days. When I am feeling a bit more stable I will attempt to document our feelings of leaving behind our favorite city, first home, best friends, and so many memories.