Happy Mother’s Day!
I got to talk to my mom very late last night (or very early for her – depending on how you look at it). I scored a $10 African Phone Card and called from the hotel lobby of Times Square Marriott. It’s always good to hear my parent’s voices. They still feel so far away but talking on the phone makes it a little easier.
It was pouring rain when I spoke to them and they were about to get ready for church. They didn’t have any big plans for Mother’s Day but had their fingers crossed about an apartment that they might be getting.
Last night was the first time I’d spoken to them since moving to NYC. I filled them in on more of the details of the move – including a couple of minor heartaches that I hadn’t written about yet. As I have shared before the move had all of the expected hardships – the heavy boxes, the four flights of stairs, etc. Those were things I accounted for in advance. What I wasn’t prepared for were the losses that I hadn’t forseen. As Damon, Greg and I unloaded the truck and migrated possessions into my new home, we came to my beautiful bookshelf. The bookshelf was a Christmas gift from my parent’s a couple of years ago. It is the last wood-working piece my dad made. It was beautifully crafted and stained. Just like Elizabeth’s curio cabinet, it was the one thing that I really wanted with me in my new home.
No matter how Damon and I turned it, there was no getting it in the apartment. We made it down the hallway and up the stairs but because of the design of the alcove outside my door and the length and width of the bookshelf – there was no way of getting it inside. Fighting back a terrible lump in my throat we tried again and again to finagle it but it just wouldn’t go.
We decided to step away from it for a few minutes and just continue with boxes. As we neared the end we tried again to think of different ways to get it inside – without sawing it half. I finally resigned myself to the fact that it just wasn’t going to work. About that time an older lady (who we’d been passing in the stairwells all day. One of her sons was moving out from an apartment on the 6th floor.) asked me about the bookshelf and it’s future. I explained the situation and she offered to take it – instead of us leaving it on the street. The son she was moving out was getting ready to start at the New City College and badly needed a bookshelf. I said they could have it. I told her that the bookshelf meant a lot to me because I’m a huge reader with a large personal library and my father had made it for me. She asked my dad’s name, so they would remember who had built the bookshelf. I said, “Danny.” She looked surprised and then smiled. “That’s my son’s name. My son that starting at New City College. His name is Danny.”
“It’s meant to be then,” I said.
She was very grateful and the gift of the bookshelf brought a smile to her face. She had looked sad all day long and she went on to explain that her mother had died the night before. Because it was the first of May they had to get her son out of the building and into his new one, so they were all trying to postpone their grief long enough to get through the move. They were loading up his boxes and just taking them to the new apartment before driving that evening to Virginia for the funeral.
Greg manned the truck and passed along boxes as Damon and I continued working them up the stairs. We were all inhaling Gatorade in the back of the truck when Danny and his brother moved the bookshelf out of the building. I’m grateful I was distracted with deciding what needed to go up next that I didn’t see them take it away.
The mother brought both sons over to the truck and they introduced themselves. Danny was very happy about the bookshelf and thanked me again and again.
Both Greg and Damon sweetly asked later if I was ok with parting with the bookshelf. I lied and said I was fine. It meant a lot to me and it was very hard to part with…I was just glad that it went to someone who could use it.
The sting of losing the bookshelf helped dull the pain of having to part with my sofa, the last item in the truck. Because its dimensions were so similar to those of the bookshelf, Damon was almost positive that it wouldn’t fit. We gave it everything we had. The sofa was twice as heavy as the bookshelf and it took all 3 of us to get it up the four flights of stairs only to discover that Damon was right.
It was getting late and we were all beyond the point of exhaustion. We worked and reworked ways of turning it before I finally said that we should just let it go.
That first dinner at McDonald’s was a quiet one. At one point Greg asked me if I was said about losing my sofa and bookshelf. I would have cried if I had answered, so I just nodded.
That evening, when I spoke to my brother, I told him about the bookshelf. It was late and I was about to get in bed, so I didn’t have the strength to go into the details. The next day when I would relay the story to Tim, Elizabeth, Mama Dell, and Ken – I could hardly do it without crying. I was surrounded (I still am!) by boxes and boxes of books. Anyone who knows me…knows that I LOVE my books. I treasure them. I love the stories they contain but also the look of having them around me.
As I shared the story with my Mom & Dad last night, my Mom saw the silver lining. She said she knew that I would come up with some new and creative way to house them – even if it meant turning the boxes they are in on their sides and making a make-shift bookshelf.
I do have a couple of ideas…once I get money coming in I will take a trip to IKEA. Their furniture is designed for BIG CITY/small apartment living.
On a much lighter note…
Last night I was able to take in the SOLD-OUT mega musical, The Monty Python’s SPAMALOT starring Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria and Chris Sieber. The show opened on St. Patrick’s Day and I bought a single ticket the day before it opened. I had a feeling, because of the cult following of the show, that it would become the season’s hottest ticket…I was right. It is almost impossible to get tickets now – unless your purchasing months in advance. I’m glad I thought ahead enough to get a ticket when I was still in Atlanta.
The show was simply staged and incredibly funny. It has been a good 8 years since I saw the movie, The Monty Python’s Search for the Holy Grail, but the stage show was constructed in a way that it roped in everyone – whether you have a Python history or not.
Visit: www.montypythonsspamalot.com
Today I was back at the Bronx Zoo with author and illustrator Susan Stockdale. The event was GREAT success. The weather was better. The day started off a little chilly but slowly the sun broke through and started warming things up. The crowd really picked up thanks to Mother’s Day and the nicer weather. Within the first hour of the signing Susan sold and signed all of the copies of CARRY ME. She continued signing and selling her other title, NATURE’S PAINTBRUSH (Simon & Schuster). At 2pm as we got ready to leave another 30+ copies of CARRY ME we unearthed from somewhere in the gift store’s back room. Both Susan and I were incredibly disappointed. Because it was Mother’s Day and the theme of CARRY ME, we could have easily have sold through the stock they had.
Susan was a great trooper. She signed all of the copies on hand and people continued to buy books up to the last minute she was there. Though she had a bus to catch, Susan and I stayed a little longer and tried to accommodate as many people as possible.
When we wrapped the signing up and then headed back across the zoo in the direction of the subway. We were walking fast but took in glimpses of as many animals as we could. Once on the subway I helped navigate us back to Manhattan and to Penn Station where Susan could catch her express bus back to Washington, D.C.
It was a very successful event and the staff of the Bronx Zoo seemed very pleased. Hopefully they will continue to stock Susan’s books and hopefully other Peachtree titles.
Tomorrow…it’s back to unpacking boxes and brushing up my resume.
