the helen update: #1 leaves the nest

What a whirlwind.... 10 days ago, Tommy found an apartment and yesterday we helped him move in! After the roller coaster of him waiting to hear if he was approved, he signed the lease on Friday, packed on Saturday and moved into his "HUGE" pad (by NYC standards) in the east village yesterday with a view of Freedom Tower from his bedroom window! Bittersweet for all of us, and of course I had to take photos all the "lasts" which were happening too fast over the past week. After the Sunday chaos of unloading on a busy corner, into what looked like a pretty low-end building with a sketchy lobby, the entrance right next to a cool graffiti door...then up 3 long flights into the brand new renovated bachelor pad where his keys WOULD NOT OPEN THE DOOR, he had his first lesson of city living! The building super was luckily nearby and got us in, but Tommy had no idea he needed to 'talk care of him' so Tom slipped him a $20 and while we were at lunch (Katz Deli across the street), Tom enlightened him about some of the unspoken protocols of living in a city building!! He then needed some time to unpack and wanted to get a little organized on his own, so Tom, Juli and I went for a walk in the amazing neighborhood where there were street fairs underway and the San Gennaro Feast was in full swing on a beautiful sunny day. Juli was ready to abandon all her college choices on the spot and try for NYU so she could live in the city asap! After a lot of walking, Tom hopped on a Citybike to go for a ride around the 'hood and Juli and I searched for a salon so she could get a haircut. While she was with Fillipo who was definitely 'slow and steady', I headed back to pick up the hopefully-empty-by-now suitcases from Tommy. When I got there, he had gotten some awesome decor items free from a neighbor who was moving out, so I helped him 'set up house' and we just hung out til Juli got there. We were all exhausted after a long day, so we all went down to load the car back up with the few things that were going back to NJ and we had our little 'photo session' outside and as we proceeded a block to the car Tommy said "I guess I should have locked the door" and I almost dropped the stuff I was holding!!! "YES, GO BACK RIGHT NOW!!" and I grabbed everything from him and he started to run back "home" and I shouted "BYE HAVE FUN!!!" (a little relieved we didn't need to have a big emotional goodbye hug on the street which would have mortified the teenage girl with the new fabulous hair) and when we got in the car I told Juli what happened and she just shook her head and we both started laughing. He is a really smart "man" with a good job in a big office building in Times Square who passed 2 of the 3 CFA tests already, but I think he is about to learn a lot the hard way!