Begin.

Today I am officially an NY nanny.

I have a love hate relationship with New York. Sometimes I love it. Mostly, I just want to visit it. Every now and then I hate it. Like when we're sitting in the car and we're at a red light for like ten minutes and cars are creep, creep, creeping into the otherwise empty intersection and then eventually we realize the stupid thing is broken. I hate it then.

But today I mostly liked it.

I drove in with Mom. We took our time about it, especially over lunch and that red light. We didn't really talk about how it was the last time I would see her until...I don't know. Soon she'll be in Florida and here I am in Long Island (LonGisland) and the rest of the family is mildly scattered, doing their own things. When did we all get so old?

So far though, things are good.

Of course, all the ways I am going to reorganize this house are running through my brain. The things I want to focus on drilling into the kids have begun aligning themselves in order of what irks me most (haven't heard the word please out of a child yet!) and believe it or not, I am best friends with this little dog, Willie Nelson. Don't ask me what breed he is. He's a dog, he's little, he doesn't bark and he follows me around like my Dean Kitty used to. This is love.

I've taken quarters in the basement instead of the room I originally chose. I have more space and it's bug free! I spent the afternoon with the kiddies and then T (my boss) took us all to a street festival in 'town' and we walked around for french fries and ice cream while listening to live music. Hipppies still sing Puff the Magic Dragon and that is definitely a good thing.

My three kids are cute and fairly well behaved. Unfortunately, this family has been suckered by Supernanny (and I use the term loosely)and a few of her philosophies that I seriously disagree with while at the same time missing a few crucial points that she is dead right about. My work is cut out for me.

On the plus side, they just moved into this house and it is a wreck as far as organization goes and I get to do whatever I want! Color me excited! The only serious downside up to this point has been the fact that I lost any minute tinge of cell phone service I had left. And I'm not afraid to tell you that I have T-Mobile and I would slander them openly to anyone who asked my opinion on their service. Their customer service is amazing but it doesn't do me much good when I don't even have enough reception to call them. BLAST THIS JUNKY PHONE AND ITS SPAWNING COMPANY.

I'll try to keep up here for all my lovely and wonderful friends who are so kind as to wonder how I am doing in this far away land. And if any of my New York peeps are reading this, please get in touch with me (FB!) and let's get together!

Love you Mom!