Pen-Elayne on the Web

One Window Closes, Another Opens

2026-09-30T21:32:00.000-04:00

The window for so many of my work colleagues is closing today, and summer appears to be making a brief comeback so we were able to open the windows again for the first time since before the nor'easter, which Mango loved. I'm starting to make headway in catching up on work stuff I'd postponed due to my English vacation, and hope to nail all that down by Friday. I'm also trying to offload the partners I'm supposed to be transitioning, but they're having a difficult time delegating my successors so they're still on my plate for now. Mostly I'm just glad to be working from home today in the relatively fresh air and quiet neighborhood, watching post-season Yankees baseball, and looking forward to autumn!

You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello

2026-09-29T21:27:00.000-04:00

Not the best day. My morning express bus was canceled and the local bus so crowded that the doors hurt me when they opened. I was only 20 minutes or so late, luckily. Then I attended a lovely breakfast to bid an in-person goodbye to all my fellow executive assistants leaving the firm tomorrow, and almost all of them either thought I was retiring as well or at least wondered why I wasn't. I'm starting to wonder that myself. I tried to settle into my new workstation on our brand-new floor, but the tech betrayed me. The IT guy made sure all the updates that had never been pushed to me got installed, and we still had issues. Two hours in we finally identified the cuprit, the wired mouse that wasn't compatible with the workstation. So I lost pretty much my whole morning but gained a wireless mouse in the process. A win? Homeward subway commute crowded as well, and I'm afraid about an hour ago I developed severe pain in my left calf as though it were about to cramp but never did. The pain lasted at least five minutes, and I've now put Voltaren on it to calm it down. Conclusion: my day really mucked with my IT band. I need to sleep...

Time Time Time, See What's Become of Me

2026-09-28T20:50:00.000-04:00

With a fairly organized home office I was able to get through my main objective today, nailing down everyone's fiscal year end timesheets and preparing for tomorrow's expense submissions. Sometimes the transactional stuff can feel quite soothing, but I guess I'm just too tired by my new responsibilities to enjoy it. I still feel like I'm a bit underwater, and tomorrow so many fellow exec assistants are retiring (plus I've relocated to our brand-new floor) that I can't seem to summon up the energy. Thank goodness Mango keeps me entertained, and autumn is well upon us if it ever stops raining...

Finally Caught Up

2026-09-27T21:20:57.742-04:00

Well, at least with personal finances. Still working on the job stuff, but now that my home office is once more inhabitable I'm hoping that won't take too long. We went nowhere today in the nor'easter that still barely touched us, fortunately, but a few miles south of us the Yankees game was canceled, and the Mets went down in a flicker of flames. As this is an international break weekend there was no actual football so we watched a bit of the American brand, played in Rio. The only thing confusing me more than that is the annual Video Music Awards where, as usual, I know way too few artists and I feel more and more like an Old. But I'm not that upset considering the alternative...

Mostly Nor' and East

2026-09-26T21:17:00.000-04:00

The big nor'easter is upon us, and I must say we totally lucked out here in Bronkers. I wasn't about to cancel our appointment for our COVID-19 and flu vaccines, and I didn't have to. We even did our shopping at the strip mall with our favorite conveyor belt sushi place, and all we seemed to get throughout was a bit of rain and very little wind. So we basically danced between the nor'easter and were home for the worst of it. We even missed our temporary power outage, but had to reset our analog clocks and reboot our computers upon our return. Not too shabby! The baseball season in New York continues to dwindle to a whimper, certainly where the Mets are concerned, and the Yankees didn't play today and might not tomorrow. Good time to go analog! Lots of comics to read, and a lovely orange kitty to cuddle. I'm more than ready for autumn!

Dolly Day

2026-09-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

Again, probably only in the US, as "9-2-5" only works as a pun in countries that put the month before the day, and I think we're one of the only countries that does that. Nonetheless, Happy Dolly Parton Day, the first of many I'm sure. I tried to be kind today but work made it kind of difficult. Still, all's well that ends well, at least for this week. I have to keep reminding myself that, at my age, I'm there because I mostly want to be, even as my work friends drop off one by one. At least I have a cat around the house again to bring me joy for the next couple weeks. Now to batten down the hatches...

The Coming Storms

2026-09-24T21:23:00.000-04:00

Lots of cautionary tales are starting to make the rounds about a big nor'easter hitting our area this weekend. Naturally Saturday is the day we made our appointment for our COVID and flu shots, and we have to go food shopping, so that's still the plan. Meanwhile, I said farewell to the 16th floor of our firm's NY headquarters, as the business unit on that floor (including the partner I support) is moving to our brand-new 10th floor starting next Tuesday, the next day I'll be in the office. And I'll be busy saying farewell to a lot of coworkers in the next week; I'm starting to think I'm something of a sucker for not taking the early retirement package myself, being past retirement age, but I still want that steady paycheck a little while longer. And as the weather cools I'm starting to feel it in my bones and am very grateful for the temporary presence of a warm kitty body.

Settling In

2026-09-23T20:12:00.000-04:00

Both me and the cat, that is. I still feel like I'm treading water, but at this point it's just a matter of getting used to the new work normal until the next work normal comes around. Nothing I haven't handled before. Mango seems to be calming down just a bit; it's so wonderful to have an actual lap cat, even if it's just temporary! All the laundry that had accumulated since England (and Philly) has now been taken care of and mostly put away, the last week of the regular baseball season is well underway, and there's a definite nip in the air now, which excites me as autumn is my favorite season. Bring it on!

Too Much Movement

2026-09-22T20:37:00.000-04:00

So lots of my work colleagues are leaving at the end of this month (fiscal year end), having taken an early retirement package which was tempting to me but, you know, a steady paycheck for the next couple years still beats 8 months' worth of severance. In any case, this has meant trying to get up to speed on my new assignment, staying on top of the folks I'll be passing on to others, and today I just found out our entire floor will be moving to a new floor opening in our office space next Tuesday. The partner I support on that floor should be all set with his designated space, but I can't secure mine until at least Thursday when reservations open (no doubt while I'm still on the bus like today, delayed around the Met for 10-15 minutes due to the UN stuff which you wouldn't think would affect anything on the west side). At this point I'm just kind of waiting for things to slow down before I feel like I have a handle on stuff again.

Shifts and Changes

2026-09-21T21:21:51.353-04:00

Lots of stuff going on at work, having to do with a seismic shift in colleagues leaving at the end of this month. I'm losing three partners, one of whom I've supported for almost a decade, and gaining a new one, with whom I met online today to discuss her needs. Amid all this transition I still have to get my usual stuff done for the folks I currently support, and I'm still majorly catching up after being out for a week and waiting on others who are currently out themselves. I do so love the end of the fiscal year. But I'm slightly better able to breathe today than yesterday (even though Rob's cough is worse) so I think I'm finally ready for tomorrow morning's commute. That is, if I can get some sleep without a lovely marmalade kitty settling in atop my legs.

And Another Thing...

2026-09-20T19:18:00.000-04:00

This stupid head cold. I'm sure the travel exacerbated whatever I picked up in Merrie Olde, but now it's been passed on to Robin, and of course it's almost autumn with its attendant allergens, and I hope we're not also allergic to Mango but who knows? So lots of sniffling and exhaustion today, and whenever one of us gets some rest it turns out Mango enjoys plopping himself down on our legs. Not good when, like me, you can't count on your legs not suddenly cramping. Have I mentioned how much I missed having a cat, and how precious and adorable he is? He'd better be considering how we're both feeling.

I'll Rest Tomorrow

2026-09-19T21:14:00.000-04:00

So much Mango, so in our faces. I missed having a kitty, but... so, so much Mango. So much food shopping after having not shopped for two weeks. So much exhaustion from dealing with "Hot Tub Hector" playing his music way too loudly (Mango loves open windows). Just... just too much, I guess. Tomorrow we go nowhere and do nothing.

Hot Mango Flush

2026-09-18T21:52:00.000-04:00

What a whirlwind day! The last for awhile I hope, I can't stand this pace. I had to keep my calendar tight, as company was coming at 1 or so and I had my eye doc appointment at 3, so I sped through the meeting scheduling and timesheets and so forth, had an early lunch, and left things fairly accomplished by the time my cousin Marvin, his son Jonny (my godson), and Jonny's cat Mango arrived. Wow, what an amazing kitty! I've never had an orange one, and this one does seem to follow the stereotype of orange cats not being terribly smart. But he's resilient and determined and very affectionate (a lap cat at last, hooray!) and alas, fairly unrestrained. We'll have to see how we can reach a compromise as I lead a somewhat slower life than Jonny. Oh, and the eye exam went extremely well and I walked a few blocks up from there after I got out and found my feet do feel better. So there's that.

Treading

2026-09-17T17:47:00.000-04:00

Things are, as usual, never dull on the job. Due to this cold as well as wanting to not walk around very much on my sore feet, I worked from home today and found out that my support assignments will be changing as of October 1, as so many colleagues are leaving at the end of the fiscal year. Lots of meetings and discussions about this, all while still trying to catch up on other things like suddenly having to schedule tons of year-end meetings for four of my current partners. My inbox is manageable again, but I'm less caught up on the workload than I'd like to be. Glad I don't have a commute to throw a spanner in the works! Lots of stuff around the house to do as well, because our little furry lodger arrives tomorrow, so I'm caught up on most of my finances, the wool-wash is done, Rob's unpacked, things are straightened out and put away (I'd almost forgotten how to cat-proof things), and all I need now is some more relaxation and a good night's sleep.

Missed and Not Missed

2026-09-16T20:57:45.039-04:00

Nice to watch a couple NY baseball games, even though the Yankees lost in extra innings and the Mets are being clobbered as I type. I've missed baseball, apparently the Yanks clinched while we were away. The Emmys were also televised, probably the first year I can remember not being able to see them. Most of the rest I haven't really missed, especially work. I came back to 200 emails, but I'm not complaining as a fellow exec assistant who had been on PTO returned to over 2000! By the time I logged off, with this head cold still kicking my butt (I've cancelled my plans to come into the office tomorrow), everything in my inbox was under control again. We caught up on all the "special" Jeopardy episodes, and now have only three regular-season shows to watch, but not today. Time for more medicine!

Homeward Bound

2026-09-15T21:53:00.000-04:00

We had our last English breakfast (just toast and a crumpet for me... okay, and a banana and two small not-worth-it pancakes) and by 9:15 AM or so we were off to Heathrow by cab (no more trains for awhile!). The check-in station was confusing, but once we got our bags checked by an actual human instead of their machines and spoke to another actual human who allowed Robin to steer me around in a wheelchair, off we went to our gate in plenty of time. Because I used a wheelchair I was able to pre-board, and once again we lucked out by being in a row of three seats with no additional passenger so we could stretch out. This time I watched a few movies (Mandalorian and Grogu, eh; Hoppers which was sweet but frenetic and definitely skewed on the young side; and Encanto which I could rewatch forever) and we ate well, and were back on the ground mid-afternoon in time for our driver to navigate rush-hour traffic and deposit us home a bit after 6 PM. No more dumpster, so the first thing I did was move my car back into its usual spot for the squirrels' acorn target practice. I dumped all my laundry and got out of my suitcases, and did a bit more trundling about to get everything ready for working tomorrow, by which time maybe this head cold will dissipate somewhat?

Last Round

2026-09-14T20:47:00.000-04:00

I still can't walk well, and unfortunately our friend Jane's lovely flat was way too far away from the train station, so between the walk there and back I was absolutely shot. Maybe one visit too many? On the other hand Andy had a car, and even though he took us to dinner scarcely three hours after our big carver's lunch, it was nice not to have to walk anywhere. Hope I sleep well tonight, tomorrow's going to be a long day!

Round Town

2026-09-13T18:09:00.000-04:00

Ah, west and wewaxation at wast! Interestingly, I found that the two small toes on my left foot which had been giving me so much trouble lo these many days really liked walking on cobblestones, so the problem definitely has something to do with my gait (probably the IT band thing). We stuck close to the hotel, slept a lot which we both needed, I bought my requisite touristy t-shirt, and we enjoyed a terrific sushi dinner. Tomorrow we wind things down again with one last round-trip train ride before packing for departure on Tuesday morning.

40 Up

2026-09-12T18:05:00.000-04:00

This evening we got together with Robin’s old college friends, and as ever it was delightful. In the morning Debs drove us around other neighborhoods in East Sussex we hadn’t seen from the bus on Thursday, so that was fun and really solidified my desire not to drive in England once we’ve moved here (the roads are way too narrow for my liking), then we had a good long rest, which my poor legs needed, prior to the evening feast with Andy and the two Janes. We’ll see Jane and Andy again separately on Monday but this was the big restaurant outing, and it was simply lovely. Tomorrow we rest and maybe shop for a bit depending on my mobility…

Distant and Closer

2026-09-11T15:09:00.000-04:00

We didn’t actually take the 25th anniversary of the September 11th tragedy into account when we made our vacation plans, but I’m very glad to be away from the US and mostly offline today. I cannot forget the tragedy seared into my very being as a New Yorker a quarter century ago, and don’t need the almost fetishized reminders. I’d much rather commemorate Leah Adezio’s birth date, as I miss my late best friend every day. But today, with the distance afforded by being in the UK, it was easier to feel the joy that comes with family, especially the youngest generation. Today we visited Robin’s sister Carol and brother-in-law Graham, and the branch of the family of which she’s the matriarch. Just about 80% of the fam showed up at Sandra and Robert’s home, including Tracy and Graham, Georgina and Keri with their young ones Freddie, Rosa and Elowyn, Matthew and fiancé Kristin, and Naomi and little baby Elsie. I made repeated eye contact with 9-month-old Rosa and even got to hold her a bunch of times without her crying, and Rob drew pictures for Freddie and Elowyn (two extremely precocious, talkative, and exhausting kids) and a couple of the adults as well. I’ve already volunteered our babysitting services after we move here. It’ll be so wonderful to have kids around! We had a lovely time, and Robert even drove us back to the hotel to save wear and tear on my poor feet and legs. I could use a few quiet, non-mobile days now!

A Plethora of Bungalows with Faux Tudor Solar Panels

2026-09-10T15:17:31.307-04:00

I slept a bit, then breakfast, then a bit more sleep. My feet hurt a but less but I have a lovely little infection at the base of one toe, so when we finally got going I went into a Boots (my fave British chemist) and the pharmacist suggested a warm water soak with some tea tree oil. Most of the day was spent on one bus or another traveling around the south coast of East Sussex scoping out possible towns for our retirement bungalow. So many faux Tudor houses! But we have a good idea now of where we want to end up and, after all, that was the point of the visit. It’s just relaxation and foot soaking from here on!

Too Much Travel

2026-09-09T16:52:00.000-04:00

The landlord sent up the roofers to our apartment not two hours prior to our departure, but the place is all locked now, our car is still along the side of the driveway as the dumpster hasn’t moved, our downstairs neighbors will take care of wny incoming packages, and the car service arrived early so we were on our way to JFK with no issues. I was able to walk to our gate without too much foot pain, but was glad I opted for a wheelchair on the Heathrow end. Because even though we had no seat mate on the plane and were able to stretch out over the three seats, we got no sleep at all on the overnight flight. So not having to walk to baggage retrieval was a blessing. We were on our way to Canary Wharf in short order, but by the time we arrived my feet were killing me. Still, my UK work colleagues were lovely and I couldn’t refuse a brief tour around the extremely fancy office. Alas, the trip across London to catch the regional rail down to Lewes was exhausting, so many escalators and lifts and not having slept didn’t help. We also had a few issues with out hotel room, but all sorted now Rob’s college friends Debs and Jane came over for dinner, by which time I was too tired to care about anything else Need sleep now…

The Hardest Part

2026-09-08T14:53:54.550-04:00

We’re all packed and waiting for the car to pick us up and take us to the airport. But of course there are still last-minute hitches our of our control, like some weird tech issues at all English airports affecting all incoming flights (last we looked ours was still a go) and the landlord sending up the roofers again to vacuum up all the detritus from the rafters, which took over an hour of privacy away from us Still, I’m hoping for the best and trying to get into relaxation mode I should sleep pretty well on the flight!

20,20,24 Years To Go

2026-09-07T16:45:48.204-04:00

Happy blogiversary to Pen-Elayne on the Web! The world and I have both changed quite a bit since 2002, sometimes we keep making the same mistakes, sometimes we make worse ones, and every now and then we learn from them. I plan to keep trying to make daily entries for the foreseeable future, but we'll see how things go in England and beyond. The landlord and his helper came by for a surprise inspection of the roof from the inside rafters, making me doubly glad we cleared those out last week! That shook me up a bit (and rudely roused Robin from his morning nap) to the point where I couldn't concentrate on packing for our trip; good job we have at least all morning tomorrow. As of now I think all my clothes are sorted except my travel outfits, and I still have to go through earrings, but first we need to make sure we can sit together (we can't reserve seats until 24 hours in advance), and tomorrow Robin sets the phones so they can work in England while I take care of last-minute job stuff. As half my brain is in travel mode and most of the other half is already overseas, you'll forgive me for not making more of a thing about this blogiversary. Next year for sure!

A Banging Time

2026-09-06T20:33:00.000-04:00

Are we home yet? The roofers have just about stopped their banging. This has dragged on for a full week, thanks to them not being around last Tuesday through Thursday, and I've never been so happy to be away. A decent night's sleep at the hotel, followed by a lovely brunch this morning that lasted way shorter than we thought it might, so we Uber'ed it to 30th Street Station and waited a couple hours for our train, running into our cousins (the groom's parents) who were taking an earlier train, for the traditional Jewish goodbye that lasts a bit longer than the Irish one. Yesterday we'd had trouble finding seats on the southbound Amtrak, and figured if we stuck with the redcap we'd have better luck with the northbound train. Alas, although we got seats they were hardly together. Lesson learned, it pays to be fleeced a bit if you want to sit together. I just hope we can get adjoining seats on Tuesday's flight to London! By the time we got back to New York, I wasn't thinking straight enough to remember the subways weren't running to our neighborhood, so we walked through Macy's and waited for the express bus home, which detoured a bit due to street fairs, and we finally got home about an hour ago to, as mentioned above, the sound of banging. It should all be over by the time we return from across the pond, and I'm looking forward to the relative quiet!