Aging Grayfully

I really wanted one of my little guys to say the word "yellow."

"What color is the sun?" I asked.

"Red," he replied.

Almost.

"What color is lemonade?" I asked.

"I don't know!" he said enthusiastically.

Not quite.

"Aha!" I said triumphantly.  "What color is my hair?"

"Gray!" he shouted.

Oh, no.

That one hurt.

Winter Temps

Winter and cold weather have arrived. Both remind me why I loved apartments in NYC so much... they were so, so warm.

So warm, in fact, that we often cracked a few windows in the winter. We opened the windows all of the way when guests visited. I think Nelly, the rapper, was talking about apartments in Manhattan when when he sang "Hot in Here".

I thanked Con Edison daily for operating America's largest steam system and keeping us toasty until April. I once feared that New York apartments would be like my first college apartment - freezing and insanely expensive to heat. But, thankfully, that was never the case. Quite the opposite.

Oftentimes, Ben and I relaxed in the Caribbean temperatures of our place while sipping strawberry daiquiris. We lathered ourselves in tanning oil and donned sunglasses to enjoy the snowy view right outside our window.

SantaCon

Last December, we participated in NYC's funniest event... SantaCon!

SantaCon invited people of all ages to dress as Santa Claus and parade around the city. Santas followed a planned route via Twitter. The route included different bars, restaurants, city landmarks, and tourist destinations. All perfect places for Santas to mingle and take pictures.

Thousands and thousands of Santas traipsed around the city during SantaCon. Santas stumbled off buses, popped out of subways, took over the Brooklyn Bridge, snoozed on park benches, caught taxis, and marched down the street. Big bellies and white beards dominated that day... because nothing says Christmas like 5,000 Santas outside of City Hall.

Kids and tourists loved it. New Yorkers, though, played it very cool. Apparently, it takes more than 5,000 Santas to shock them.

Ben waited for the subway by our apartment.

Reed and Ben on the subway. 

Reed's beard was M.I.A. He went for a more chic and modern Santa look.

More Santas at the other end of the subway car.

Ben and I posed for next year's Christmas card.

Ben... one of many in his legit, store bought Santa suit.

Me in my homemade Santa suit.
Amazingly, all cotton balls survived. My gluing skills are unmatched.

Santas everywhere!

SFF (Santa Friends Forever).

Santas took over Battery Park in lower Manhattan.

Santas grabbed lunch at a restaurant.

All Must Go: Chapter 5

This is the last chapter of the saga, All Must Go. It has to be the last chapter because, besides our bed, we were out of furniture. It doesn't take long to clear a 330 square foot apartment.

We sold our Ikea Billy Bookcase and TV stand to a young couple from Queens with two kids and a baby on the way. Ben and I helped the husband load their new belongings into their van, happy to know our stuff was going to a good home.

The TV stand, which amazingly survived two moves.

The bookcase, which also survived two moves, was more than just a bookcase. It was an "everything-case". Since we only had eight tiny cabinets in the kitchen to hold all cookware and food, the bookcase caught the overflow. Our bookcase held (in alphabetical order): bitters, board games, books, bourbon, cameras, checkbooks, DVDs, headphones, picture albums, umbrellas, wrapping paper, and anything else without a real home. 

How those pressed wood shelves never bowed or broke is beyond me... must be the Dutch engineering.

I almost forgot! We had one piece of furniture for sale for $0 (that's right, free!), but it never sold. Not that it would have survived a move of any kind. I lovingly present... our dresser. 

Our infamous dresser. It balanced precariously on a stack of books and always leaned a little to the right. The base of the drawers fell out every time we laid something, like a sock or a pair of underwear, in them. The front of the bottom left drawer popped off whenever we touched it, which always raised Ben's blood pressure. Wherever the dresser sat is where it stayed. 

Don't let the dresser's sleek facade fool you... this puppy was a ticking time bomb and could have collapsed or imploded at any given moment.