Long time no write, BUT.......

Its been ages since I've written but that's because my life will be undergoing a major transformation as of March 1, 2011.  It will be the first day that I WON'T have to get up to go to work.  My last official day of work is February 28, 2011, which happens to be a Monday!  I'm finally retiring after 27 years at Polytechnic, and, 4 years or so before that at law firm Fisher & Fisher, Esq., and before, that  3 years with Savings Banks Trust Co. in Manhattan, and before that, about 5 years with Comercial Sert, S.A. in Barcelona, and before that - my first job was with Production Associates, Inc. in Manila! Phew! 

Now, I am planning to retire to Florida because one more winter in New York and I will literally turn into a block of ice.  Talk abut "The Winter of Our Discontent" !!!!
Why am I leaving arguably the greatest city on earth?  Well, sincerely, because, to me, it never was.  For too many reasons to count, but it never lived up to my naive hype about it, which was formed by the movies we saw in Manila featuring New York - Breakfast at Tiffany's, Barefoot in the Park, Sunday in New York and almost every picture of Doris Day with Rock Hudson and Tony Randall.  Hah! What a surprise I got when I finally got here.  Granted it was the middle 60's when Filipino nurses were butchered in Chicago, Civil Rights riots were occurring everywhere, the subways were graffiti laden ovens and dangerous, we had a major blackout and a subway strike within 6 months of my arriving here, not to mention one of the coldest winters in decades (the winter of '66), and I didn't know a soul here!  I never made peace with this city until 1984 (7 years after I returned from Spain (I left NYC in August of 1969)), when I finally found a nice little apartment on Second Place in Carroll Gardens and I must admit for about 3 or 4 years, I was finally having a good time here, and then I had to move because the landlord was selling the building. I moved a couple of blocks away to another apartment in Carroll Gardens which I really liked and the rent was reasonable ($500/month) and stayed there 16 years and then I had to move again because the landlord needed the apartment for his family, and that's when all hell broke loose.  After that,  I finally found an apartment, still in Carroll Gardens, though the rent was now almost triple the rent I was paying before, and though it was/is a sweet apartment, (lovely floors and painted all new and within seconds walking distance of grocer, cleaners, laundry and subway), something died in me and from then on, all I looked forward to was the day I finally reached the point that I COULD retire and leave all this behind.

I'm not naive to think that now my life will all be a bed of roses but I intend to be warmer in the winter and not deal with icy sidewalks, absentee landlords, and have to wake up before the sun is up to take showers in a freezing bathroom and wait on an icy subway platform for a train that is crowded and late or in a sweltering platform in the summer for a train that is crowded and late.

Friends advise or warn me (with all good intentions) that life is not all roses somewhere else (of course! no place is perfect and the alternative may be Perfect but I'd like to prolong that a bit) but if Florida can get humid, and has hurricanes, mosquitos and one may need a fan or airconditioner in the summer - well, if I lived in Manila for the first 20 years of my life - this is old hat to me!
I haven't found the definite place in Florida yet but a person near and dear to me is helping me tremendously with that by taking me there for the first two weeks of January of this year to have a look-see and now while I am finishing off my final weeks at Poly, he is going back to Florida for a few days by himself to see if he can finally settle on something he knows will be good for me, then I will consonsider myself lucky and can't wait to move there.  If that doesn't work out, I am even thinking of going back to live in Spain to some nice little city or town near the coast - SOUTH of Barcelona or even the south of Spain or maybe someplace like La Coruna.  Who knows.  I'm doing my best (with help) but looking on my own too and praying a lot and what will happen, will happen.  You know the saying "Man plans and God laughs" or as they say in Spanish - "hombre propone y Dios dispone"

The only really sad thing is that I will be moving away from the state where my closest and dearest relatives live - my daughter Frances and granddaughter Laura and son in law, but they, unfortunately, live in a lovely town upstate from NYC where it is all lovely but there are no apartments nearby and I would need a car to get around and back to the cold weather.  But they are being understanding and lovely about it and besides my Laura will get a chance to get out of the cold (no fan of it herself - she wears hoodies in my apartment in the summer!) and visit me somewhere where we can walk or take a short ride to the BEACH - our favorite place to be!!

So there you have it folks.  Another big change in my life, but it's time.  Polytechnic University, as I used to know it, has changed and moved on, and so must I.

I owe a lot of the help in my decision making to someone special and I am and will be forever grateful for everything he's done for me - however things turn out.  Fate is the hunter and I am prepared for this new adventure in my life.  I thank God for continued good health and pray that I don't slip on these icy sidewalks before I get a chance to leave.

I'll have to budget my life a bit more carefully but for many, many years, I've done more with less.  If I can turn a clean but slightly shabby room in a pension in Barcelona in 1969 to a cozy room where everyone wanted to hang out in, I can do most anything.  Almost.

Will keep you posted on where I end up.