5/11/04 Natalie's Graduation Day!!! and Overnight move to Astoria!!!:

This was to be the longest single awake period of Natalie's entire life to this point.

It started with an early morning rise to get dressed and ready for her NYU Graduation ceremony. She would be graduating from the college at which we both met over 2 years ago. She successfully majored in Urban Planning and Architecture Studies (which was my minor). She had found a job with an income well above minimum wage and a place to live in New York City within the past half month, gotten the keys to her new place yesterday, and would begin moving into the place this evening. This was a busy girl that had a lot to celebrate! And there were a great deal of people present this afternoon, following commencement ceremonies, to celebrate it with her.

Here's Natalie reading cards and accepting little gifts from friends. And I don't care what Tricia says... this is a GREAT shot of her. She WILL think otherwise.

Natalie's Best Friend Sean and her Father, Charles.

From left to right: Natalie's Dad, Natalie's Sister (Alexis), Richard, Me, Natalie, Tricia (Suitemate), Sean, and Jess (Roommate).

A second shot adds Natalie's mother on the far left.

Conservative Natalie, Tricia, and Sean in the back.

Sexy Natalie, Tricia, and scared off Sean in back.

The ladies.

Anyway, the Coleman's treated all of us to a lovely late lunch/early dinner at Serafina on Lafayette St. at Great Jones St.

Then we realized that Natalie's father had to quickly get back to JFK airport. He had interrupted a business trip in Bermuda to see his daughter graduate from college, and he was to fly right back to Bermuda immediately following dinner. Dinner went a little late, and the pressure was on to find a quick way to JFK. That's when I stepped in.

I made a quick but strong case for using the subway to get to Penn Station, the LIRR to get to Jamaica Station, and the new JFK Air Train to get to the terminal he was leaving from. It was rush hour and the trains ran frequently enough that we didn't need to look at a schedule. Meanwhile any form of in-road transit would be slowed to a crawl by rush-hour traffic.

We had 45 minutes to get him to JFK with a reasonable amount of time to check in and board. We did it in 40.

So, the escalator at the Air Train station at Jamaica gave us a photo op.

We all rode the Air Train together. We let Mr. Coleman off at his stop. He thanked us for getting him there in time (and I think he was impressed by Air Train) and he was off. Then Natalie and I headed back to her dorm.

Empty Air Train car means... Jungle Gym!!!

We took Metro North up to New Canaan and began to pack the car full of stuff that needed to go to Astoria. I got to see the house Natalie grew up in for the first time.

They have a beautiful property in the back, including a crescent shaped pond, but it was very dark.

The Kitchen.

Natalie has long loved frogs, and the evidence of that fact radiates out from her room, including this artwork.

They are working on the house a bit, including this front door.

Natalie's Room.

Where I would have had Debate and Speech trophies, she had Gymnastics trophies.

She had an incredible collection of two different things: 1) Frog paraphernalia. 2) Loony Toons paraphernalia.

Heads of loony toons characters decorated the wall around the mirror.

Stuffed animals, mostly of frogs, were littered about, overflowing from every shelf.

Though cluttered, it was a really cute room. And if my room had been unmoved since my adolescence, mine would have been a match in terms of its goofy factor.

The basement was HUGE. It included many rooms. The main room, which seemed to be the old playroom, now featured a pen for the dog and a giant frog stuffed animal holding a red ball.

The basement refrigerator was littered with magnets from many places.

Another room is Natalie's mother's graphic arts workshop. That's what Natalie's mom does for a living. She is the packrat of the family, and had an impressive array of stuff to offer Natalie for her new place.

The workbench.

Still another area of the basement had hanging clothes lines, old furniture (including the bed frame we were taking to Astoria), and other shelves.

In the very back was still another room, this one a tool shed and workshop for Natalie's father, who is very handy.

Bedding was selected from a few good choices.

Looking back at some of the basement.

Another view.

It's an impressive collection of stuff. Apparently, Mrs. Coleman is fond of yard sales.

We got the bed frame, the coffee table, and the mattress on the roof of the car, held down with rope and bungee cords. We got the table and its legs along with the desk in the back of the Jeep.

We even got a microwave, a sewing machine, bedding, pillows, and other assorted kitchen necessities in the car all at once.

Natalie also had some Birthday/Graduation presents to open.

This one was a cookie jar in the shape of a.... frog.

Another room of the house was added above the 3-car garage: The Family Room. I would call it a Den. They called it the "Great Room." I thought they made it up. They thought I was crazy for never having heard the term.

It's a great.... room.

We set about our way, on our first official road trip together, headed for the city. But first... gas.

JESUS H. CHRIST.

Because we got a late start after the JFK trip, and it took time to get up to New Canaan by train, and because it took a while for the three of us to pack the car, it was already 1:30 or so in the morning when we pulled up in front of the new Apartment to unload. We did so as quietly as we could, and thanked ourselves repeatedly for getting a place on the first floor of this walk-up building. A single story would have killed us right here. The neighborhood was fairly deserted save for the occasional dog walker or gussied up loner coming back from a late night at the club. But the people we did see did not give us the impression of sketchy activity, which was a good sign.

Then, with the car empty, we drove down to Union Square, to the Dorm, to PACK AND MOVE. This was a tough decision. We parked the car in a spot that was only good until 7am. So do we A) Keep going. B) Sleep now until 7 and pick it up in the morning after moving the car C) EAT now for energy and then pack and move in the early daylight hours hoping to pack the car before 7? D) Die.

We chose A. None of the other alternatives seemed to outweigh the desire to just be done with this. So Natalie had to pack her clothes and we had to empty her desk and literally take apart her computer and peripherals in dead silence because her roommate and boyfriend were sleeping in the room! So we couldn't use any more light than filtered in through the semi-open door to the common area. One bag or handful at a time we moved the clothes and computer parts out of the bedroom, tiptoeing as if we were hiding in an attic from the Nazi's. It slowed us down a little, but by about 4:30am, we had packed the car with two groupings of bags. One grouping was destined for Astoria. The other grouping was stuff to be brought back to New Canaan for storage.

This is when everything was bagged and sorted according to destination.

We pulled the car up to the front of the building.

And we packed the car once again to the gills.

By the time we got back up to Astoria, the sun was rising and it was about 5:30am. We moved most of the stuff from the car into the apartment.

We took about a 30 second break, and decided that we had to keep moving. So we went back to the restaurant where Natalie decided to take this apartment in the first place, and had breakfast to give us a boost of energy, to get us back up to New Canaan.

Continued Tomorrow on 5/12/04.