Arrival in the Big Apple

I always thought that blogs were for technologically-saavy people only (does not apply to me), but I wanted a way to chronicle our adventures in New York during Jermaine/Jerry/Jabu/King's residency (and maybe beyond - who knows?).  So I am giving blogging a try.  Most of the pictures will be from my phone, so I hope that they come out ok.  I'll admit that I tried WordPress, but couldn't figure out how to format it nicely or how to save a draft of a post. Oh, and blog name was inspired by our family name (Augustus), made plural courtesy of J's college buddy, Tau Flagg, on a wedding card (we really did read them all!).  Totally welcome all feedback, tips, and requests for post topics.  Here goes....

Most, if not all, of you know that Jermaine will be starting his first year of a three-year residency at NYU Medical Center.  If he tells it, I chose to move out here with the kids; I say that I didn't have a choice because I didn't want the kids to barely see their dad for 3 years (he wouldn't get much time to come home and the prospect of multiple cross-country trips alone with two kids was not appealing to me).   So here we are!

In the past few weeks, we have survived:

Mila helping out at the garage sale

• Downsizing from a 4-bedroom house to a 2-bedroom apartment.  We had lots of help - thank you to everyone who helped with garage selling, packing, getting rid of stuff, etc.!

Our movers - I took this picture to explain to Shay what happened to our stuff.
He kept asking if they were taking it to the airport.

• Saying good-bye to all of our families and friends (sometimes multiple times!) in California.  I won't lie: there were tears!
• Cross country red-eye flight with 2 young kids.  After a rough start (Mila was babbling (loudly!) in the beginning), the kids slept most of the time, though we parents didn't.  Holding a wiggly infant/toddler with a preschooler leaning on your arm is not a comfortable sleeping position.  Wine helped a little.  I liked flying Virgin America and ordering food and drinks right from my seat.  We chose to be in the very back of the plane, and the flight attendants were sitting close by and were very nice to us.

She had to check everything out

Big boy on the plane

• Landing at 8am EST (5am for us), then coordinating internet installation, mover delivery, unanticipated fridge and air conditioning repair, and assembly of a toddler bed and crib.  I was so hungry and sleep-deprived at the end of that first day that I wanted to catch the first flight back to California.

Some Chinese delivery and a few hours of sleep really helped.  Much more to come soon!

View of the East River from our living room window