From Brooklyn to Manhattan

Yahoo! New blog template, new apartment, and it's Friday at last!

I haven't been able to write an entry since my conference because right after I got back from DC, Javi and I had to start packing our things for the move to our new apartment!

As we were packing, I realized how many things you can collect while you're in one place for over a year. I remember when we first moved to Brooklyn, we only used 10 storage bins to move, and this time, we were using 30! I wonder how many we will have to use for the next move?

It's also strange how all the material contents of your life can be contained in plastic, grey containers. I also thought about how we can choose to either take with us or leave behind these material posessions, but our memories, knowledge, and wisdom... that stuff we keep forever.

So July 1st, Javs and I migrated from Brooklyn to Manhattan. In half a day, the movers had been able to transport everything from one apartment to the next. So even if I felt that I had to be at least a little sentimental about leaving our very first apartment together, I knew I didn't have to. I may have been leaving behind a physical representation of the beginning of our life together, but I was in no way about to let go of the memories that were brought forth from living there. Below is a picture of the Brooklyn apartment before we moved in all our stuff.

Now here's a picture of our new apartment! It's still a bit disorganized, but I'm excited to show all of you how much nicer the new one is compared to the old one!

After the move-in, Javi and I went back to work for Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday evening, our friend John arrived from Seattle. John has been a friend of Javi's since they were in high school. I am told that John was the valedictorian of their class, and that he was very much into Arnis (Philippine stick fighting) in college. If i'm not mistaken, it was a year or so after college that John decided to join the US Navy, and wherever he was stationed, he would make sure to call Javi to catch up on how things were going back home.

Now that John is a civillian, he spends time with his Filipino friends whenever he can. Last Fourth of July weekend, he decided to visit NY once again and stay with us. John is not a stranger in this blog, by the way. He has appeared here in the entry where I feature Anton and our trip to the Wine Library.

John arrived late Thursday evening, and we all decided to just stay in because the three of us were just so darn tired, and we were saving our energy for Friday's activities. Javi and I wanted to take him to Old Fulton Street in Brooklyn, where tourists go to eat delicious pizza at Grimaldi's, then enjoy desert at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

Javi's hands, with dripping ice cream. Sorry, Javs!

After consuming all those calories, John wanted to see what it was like to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, so off we went a-walking...

After taking five shots for every footstep we'd take, we finally made it over the bridge! :) Below are John's and Javi's looks of relief as soon as they sat down at a bench in front of NY City Hall.

More stories to tell tomorrow!