Last week at work

I extended my last day of work to next Wednesday, the 29th. I took a couple days off in order to spend more time with Shane and to help him pack up for his move. He left today after a rainy morning of filling a rented minivan with all his stuff.

I rented a Zipcar this morning so that Shane could pick up his rental car in Jersey across the GW Bridge. It was much cheaper to rent a van outside of New York, even including the rental of the Zipcar. I got to drive a Mini Cooper, which was pretty fun.

The weekend was good. Shane came back from his hometown of Rochester on Friday morning, and we spent the day packing up his stuff. His sister Alana and her husband Rich came into the city that night. Saturday we went to the Lower East Side, where Shane was getting a tattoo. We walked across the Village to a hat store, where Shane had bought his famous suede cowboy hat, because Alana wanted one like his. It definitely looked a lot different after years of wear; new, it looked kind of corny. Alana ended up not buying a hat, but I got a little hat with a visor for the walk in the sun; it was beautifully mild but still rather sunny. We went home to snack, have a drink, and play checkers. Then we went for a walk to Fort Tryon Park. It was getting dark, but the view of the Hudson and the GW Bridge were nice at dusk. We went to dinner at Shane's favorite Greek restaurant near school, where we had Greek sangria and flaming cheese to the shouts of the owner, "Opa!" Sunday the three of them went to the Yankees game; I didn't go because Shane could only get three tickets, but that was fine since I had chores to do. That night we had dinner with Shane's friend Brad, who had written the libretto for the musical they co-wrote, The Manson Family Follies.

On Monday, which I also took off, I went to my meditation class (which is going on all this week), and then Shane and I packed some more. He and his friend Dave played at school that evening; they sounded really good. We had dinner with Dave back in the neighborhood, and packed up some more.

That was my weekend. Yes, I helped Shane a lot, for which he was grateful, and he would do the same for me if he could be here next week when I move.

I signed the lease for the apartment today! I have two prospective roommates, but it's New York, so nothing is a sure thing until you've got money in your hand and a signed legal document. Finding roommates won't be half as difficult as finding an apartment, so I'm not worried.

Dave and Shane said last night at dinner, that it's the end of an era for them; they and another good friend had moved to New York to play in a band about three years ago, and now they have moved or will soon move out of the city. But it's definitely the end of an era for me, too, short though it has been. It'll be hard living in New York without him; for the past six months we've spent so much time together. We're going to miss each other a lot, but we're planning to visit each other as much as possible, and we both feel good about staying close. It is the end of one stage of our relationship but only the beginning of what will probably turn out to be an amazing adventure.