And the long day continues…
It was almost eight by the time that the maid wrapped up and we were in the process of loading the car. When we went down to the lobby to get the car loaded we ran into a ton of people on their way to the halloween party and everyone kept asking us to go. We finally caved in and decided to put in an appearance.
We love the Eleven80 Halloween Party, it is awesome. It is Eleven80’s biggest event of the year. A lot of people were really disappointed that they didn’t get to see Oreo compete in the dog costume contest this year. He won last year and has a really cool pirate (salty dog?) costume this year that Dominica’s mom made for him. He is the only dog that always has a custom made costume. He looks so adorable in it. He was far and away the favourite to win this year but with him being in Peekskill there was no way for us to get him down to Newark in time for the judging.
We stayed at the party for maybe half an hour. It wasn’t very long. We did not venture in very far and only made it to the ramp of the bowling alley. We got to see several people just before leaving so that was good. It is really starting to hit us tonight that we are leaving and really have been here for a really long time and know a lot of people now. This is our third Eleven80 Halloween Party. We were invited back for next year’s party and we will definitely make an effort to come visit. Oreo would love to be back for an evening and show off his costume.
We hit the road around nine thirty with a very loaded car full of plants and food from the apartment. It was almost eleven when we arrived in Peekskill! We had not been planning on having been out this late. What a long day. We are not sorry that we delayed and stopped by the party, though, as it was really good to get to say some goodbyes.
Dad and aunt Sharon were still awake when we got to the house although they sure were not going to be awake for much longer. Oreo had really been missing us all day and spent the day following dad around like, well, like a lost puppy. We unloaded the car and visited for twenty minutes or so and got to get a first look at how the painting has been coming along. The upstairs looks awesome. The nursery is all but done and the master bathroom is done and bits of the master bedroom are done (there is just a master bedroom and the nursery as far as bedrooms go.) They are hoping to complete the master bedroom tomorrow.
Dominica, Oreo and I arrived back at Eleven80 in Newark at one thirty in the morning. Wow were we tired. We pumped up the air mattress and did some quick, last minute packing to be sure that we were ready for tomorrow morning and got to bed sometime around a quarter till two! The alarm was set for five thirty so this is a very short night.
No sooner than we dropped off to sleep on the not very comfortable air mattress than the phone rang, it was ten after two in the morning, from the valet saying that our car was double parked and blocking the street and that they needed our keys. We had dropped off the keys so we were pretty confused. I got out of bed and searched around the completely empty apartment for a few minutes before Kamil, the concierge, found where they had fallen behind a computer monitor on the desk and had disappeared. So our short, less than four hour night was now a much less than four hour night with an interruption in the middle of it. Tomorrow morning is going to be rough.
There is very little for us to do in the morning. We are both going to shower, pack up the few clothes that we have here, deflate the bed, load the car, get Oreo ready for his daycare halloween party and get Dominica off to her final day at work. (Her finaly official day. We’ve decided that if she feels well enough come Monday that she is going to work Monday and Tuesday of next week. Those are the two busiest days for her office when they will miss her the most. Then she will take her three bereavement days and that will round out the week. It will be a full five days later before she could work again and there is no way that she will be able to do so that close to the baby day.) Then, as soon as Dominica leaves for work I am orchestrating the check-out of the apartment. That is just a brief walkthrough to determine any damage, stains, missing parts, etc. in the apartment for which we will be charged. Very quick and easy. Then I will take the PATH from Newark to the WTC for the last time.
After work tomorrow we all just head to Peekskill and shift completely to our new home!