The big news in our house is that we are moving back East - and soon! We had thought we wouldn't be able to move before early December, but a wonderful apartment materialized in the most serendipitious manner. Now the movers will come on October 16th, and we'll settle in Brooklyn some time before Halloween.
Here's the story.
We had found the listing for an upper duplex of a brownstone through a parents' group I'm on, and so we sent our friends Karen and Dulcy to meet the landlords for us, and check the place out. They reported back that the apartment would work perfectly for us. It even had a washer and dryer, which is hard to come by inside an apartment - most realtors told us we'd be lucky to find a shared one in a building basement.
Karen described the block as "iconic Brooklyn" and "criminally leafy." Karen and Dulcy live right near by, as well a smattering of other friends. And Josh's cousin Isabel and her husband Mark are also just a few blocks away.
We tried not to get too excited about it, but after Karen sent the pictures, we couldn't help but pin our hopes on getting it.
So we called the owners, Betty and Saul, a married couple with grown children living with their own families nearby, and made our pitch. We even sent the link to this blog so that they could see that we were pleasant enough, ordinary folks (who, granted, are a little obsessed with their criminally adorable daughter, to borrow Karen's phrasing). The owners were very kind and polite, but made the decision that any other landlord would do in their position - they decided to give the apartment to a couple whom they had met in person.
We were crestfallen.
For about three hours.
Then we got a call from Betty to say that the strangest thing had happened. Her daughter-in-law had spontaneously stopped by the apartment in the afternoon, and Betty had relayed the drama of the day, and the outcome of their decision about whom they would rent the apartment to. Betty happened to mention where Josh worked, and the daughter-in-law inquired about his name. When Betty told her, she said, "I went to Hebrew school with Josh! Our mothers are still very good friends!"
Not only was the daughter-in-law Lynn, from Josh's hometown, but I had actually met her myself. Lynn is married to a rabbi, and when we were still in New York, we had attended services at her husband's temple. So we had also met Betty's son!
And, if that weren't enough of a coincidence, apparently Josh's mom had told him about this apartment becoming available a couple of months ago, but he forgot.
He will - rightfully - never live that down.
So Betty was calling us back to tell us that if we still wanted the apartment, it was ours.
And we danced around our apartment, like ninnies!
And so our time here - two years, and three months - is done. Lila, who turns two on Thursday, is about to become a New Yorker.
My parents left Pasadena when I was two and a half and moved to New England. I have fuzzy memories of our backyard, the view of the mountains, a pet turtle, and the 1972 earthquake that sent us packing. I do wonder what, if anything, Lila will remember of Southern California. I have complicated feelings about our time here, but not necessarily about the place itself; the weather, the healthy lifestyle, the environmental priorities, are all admirable. And we have certainly met and know people here that we will miss.
But it turns out I'm not the relentless adventurer I imagined myself to be before I had Lila. I don't want to challenge every boundary I encounter. I want to live in a more familiar world, and for us, right now, that's New York City.
As for Lila, little does she know what awaits her with winter, subways, alternate-side parking, stairs, and skyscrapers. She'll meet lots of old friends for the first time, get to see a lot more of her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and discover the city that, to her parents, feels like home.
We can't wait.
