<p>Thanks, cptofthehouse!</p>
<p>I don’t want to talk about the issue I just raised anymore. It’s too upsetting. I’ll let you all know how things went at the interview.</p>
<p>Donna, totally understand about the books. I can’t throw them away either! Browsing the books at my parents’ house and the houses of my brothers is also one of my favorite past-times. We paid $2400 to move our stuff across town ten years ago. We let the moving company do all the packing including the books. It was well worth it. If you do pack your own books - I recommend liquor boxes too. They aren’t too big. Check though what moving company policy is about things you’ve packed yourself. It was easier for us just to have it all be their insurance.</p>
<p>Very Happy, I didn’t see your post before posting just now, so I’ll add that I very much hope you’re right. But I know that for the next two days I’ll be anxious about it, and will be thinking about what to say if it does come up, that’s truthful and at the same time makes it clear that this isn’t a subject I feel comfortable discussing.</p>
<p>Last year, I realized that I needed more bookcases. Then I decided that I had better prune my book collections, rather than continue to add bookcases as I have a large house, and will be in trouble when we move to something smaller. So I started donating my books to Salvation Army. That was fine, until I started browsing in the book room of one of the SA stores that has quite a collection. Well, for every box of books I donated, I brought at least another back with me, in addition to VHS tapes that I got for $1. So much for that idea.</p>
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<p>Donna, it would definitely be worth looking in the yellow pages to find some local packaging supplies companies. I buy shipping cartons for my business. I am able to buy boxes for well under $1 each that they sell at places like Staples and UPS stores for about $5 each. And I often only buy 25 at a time: a huge purchase is not required if you drive by and pick them up. (They would actually sell me fewer than 25 if I wanted.) There shouldn’t be a problem fitting 50-100 book boxes in the back seat of your car. To give you some idea of the $$ involved, I’ll go to this place and spend $85 on 75 boxes and a huge 4 ft high plastic bag of cellulose packing peanuts (the expensive, biodegradable kind). If I went to Staples or some other store, the same purchase would cost at least $400. Probably more. So, in my experience, you should easily be able to find boxes at more like a quarter of what Staples charges.</p>
<p>I loved your eloquent description of your books and collections. I completely understand. :)</p>
<p>I love, love, love my books, and could never part with them, either. They’re like old friends. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t understand people who sell back their old textbooks.</p>
<p>I thought the interview last night went OK; I talked with the admissions committee members (four women and one guy) for about 45 minutes. They seemed to find me reasonably pleasant and amusing, or at least acted like they did.</p>
<p>There were no questions about my former name; who knows if they even noticed it on the credit report.</p>
<p>I was told that they’d make their decision and present it to the full board, and that I’d hear one way or the other by Friday or Monday.</p>
<p>But then this morning, I got a call from the management office to let me know that the board has already given its approval!</p>
<p>So I have the apartment, as of April 1. (Although it might take me a couple of weeks beyond that, at least, to get ready to move; my present lease doesn’t expire until May, so I’m not under any real time pressures.)</p>
<p>I can’t remember the last time I wanted something material this badly for myself, as opposed to for J. (Not counting wanting my surgery last summer to go smoothly, and many of you know how that turned out!)</p>
<p>I got there early last night, and the weather was so lovely that I sat on one of the benches they have near their garden, directly overlooking the river. It was beautiful. I’m sure that I’ll be sitting there for hours at a time, later this spring and this summer.</p>
<p>It took only about 35 minutes to get up there from my office after work, by taking the D train and then switching to the A.</p>
<p>I’m very happy.</p>
<p>Now I have to get my act together and start packing, etc. Amazing how much stuff (in addition to all the books) it’s possible to fit in a one-bedroom apartment when you’ve lived there for 10 years. I hate moving, but I’m looking forward to the destination!</p>
<p>Donna</p>
<p>Congratulations on your new home!
I was heading to the end of this thread to add something about boxes and came across your good news!</p>
<p>The boxes that copy paper gets delivered in are about the right size for books and you might be able to get some for free from a business near your home.</p>
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<p>That was my mood, too, when I picked my screen name many years ago!!</p>
<p>Donna, I believe you owe me a dollar. :D</p>
<p>I believe I do! </p>
<p>This is a New York Times article from last fall about the neighborhood:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/realestate/18livi.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/realestate/18livi.html</a></p>
<p>The photo at the top of the page shows a view not so different from the view I’ll have (although the photo is from ground level at the top of the cliff, and my apartment – I can’t believe I’m calling it that! – will be 11 floors above, and directly overlooks the river).</p>
<p>Moving back to the City will mean a lot to me. I’ve missed living there the entire time I’ve been away.</p>
<p>I hope J. likes the place. He’ll be home for his vacation for 10 days beginning tonight, and I can’t wait to show it to him. Plus, maybe I can enlist him into packing some boxes while he’s here. (The boxes I ordered arrived last night.)</p>
<p>I culled my books by telling myself that if I died tomorrow which ones would I like my daughter to read. Those I kept. Some I thought friends might enjoy so I thought to pass them on now rather than later. I bought some bookends and put pictures and pottery in the empty spaces. Now I don’t worry about the weight of walls of books warping my second story floorboards.</p>
<p>And I just finished “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” and I don’t think I can ever bring myself to part with it. Wonderful reading!</p>
<p>Congratulations! A lot of us were keeping our fingers crossed for you! Let us know if your social life improves- many people, like myself, moved out of big cities partly for our children’s access to suburban experiences and now that we are empty nesters, we think about returning. We’ll be wondering how it’s working out. Best of luck with the move!</p>
<p>Will you be in Castle Village as the caption in the article indicates??</p>
<p>When’s the housewarming?
I’ll come collect my dollar!</p>
<p>Hello. I just skimmed the thread so don’t know if I’m repeating this…We ran out of boxes while packing and discovered that the best way to pack books (especially large hardcover ones) was to take heavy duty twine and tie the books (criss/cross style) into a manageable weight. It worked out great because the stacks were not bulky and fairly easy to carry. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thank you all.</p>
<p>VH, maybe I’ll be in that particular place, and maybe not. I think I should leave my exact location unspecified, since I don’t want to make myself <em>that</em> easy to find!</p>
<p>I’ve always wished I could do the Snoopy dance, where he flings his head and arms towards the sky and bops along to his own happy little rhythm, but I think only a cartoon dog can pull that off. At any rate, I’m Snoopy-dancing in my head for you. Congratulations!!</p>
<p>I just want to add that I used to work at Borders, and we would get at least 50 boxes of books in every day, and we were always willing to give people the old boxes if they wanted them. Generally, they’ve been broken down and flattened, but they’re easy to put back together. Just call first to make sure they still have them and ask them to save them for that day.</p>
<p>Oh such wonderful news, Donna!</p>
<p>No more procrastination, there’s a purpose to your packing now!</p>
<p>Simply wonderful news!!! I’m very happy for you and look forward to hearing about the new home after the move!!!</p>