new yorkers: an empire state of kind?

the other day i say to chris, "i think people are nicer in new york, than they are in chicago".  i didn't say this without thought,  i had been caught off guard by people in subways, cafes, on the street, who are just personable, friendly, and happy to help me.

of course chris replies "is it possible that they aren't actually nicer, but they are just more everything, because there are more people and they are more extreme in every way". hmmm, that would mean that they're really mean too... oh no!

i don't think so, i just haven't seen it. 

the day before i leave chicago, i get into a fight with a man in the alley behind my apartment.  he tells me i'm the dumbest girl in the world and that his son went to school with barack obama, he keeps going as i just pretend he isn't there.  so maybe i have a chip on my shoulder. maybe chicagoans deserve to be a little cranky, i mean, the weather for one thing, the politics for another, the cubs, i could go on...

it also occurrs to me that maybe i am different. maybe because i'm happier and more carefree, people find me more approachable and easier to be nice to.   i've only been here for a few weeks, and i've helped out a lot of strangers, mostly elderly people, asking for help.

one young man, a tourist, with a french/african accent, asks me if i am american, i say yes.  he asks, "what does this bull mean?"  (there is a huge statue of a bull in the financial district) i am actually able to share with him my knowledge from the amazing Columbia Guide to New York 2007!!  "the bull is a symbol of power and money"

speaking of money, i still haven't found a job. can you get paid for being happy and carefree, wandering new york, blogging.  let me know!

a puff of smoke

it's monday afternoon, about 3 o'clock, i hop on the f train, transfer to the a, transfer to the 5 and get off at bowling green. (this sounds tedious, but it's really quick, actually) this is battery park, and awfully familiar. i am conquering the financial district today, but i guess i didn't realize that i had been to battery park before. i am immediately excited because the blossoms on the trees are oh so beautiful, and they weren't here when i was here last, and it was also dark then. not today. today is a bright and sunny, blue sky, warm enough to take off my sweater day.

tourists are promenading along the promenade, and i feel like one of them, because i'm wearing tennis shoes with jeans. ( a new yorker would never wear such a get-up.) i'm also carrying the columbia guide to new york 2007.... and not working on a monday. (so when exactly do i stop being a tourist)

(an unnamed couple having a moment)

i wander for a while, sit down, and then i stand up and decide it's time to get financial already! i walk to wall street, where it seems like everyone and their hedge fund manager is outside smoking a cigarette, i mean really, i didn't stop to take pictures of the new york stock exchange because i thought i'd be enveloped in a puff of smoke. get me outta here! cough!

i pop into a borders to sit down for a minute and put a mailing address on a birthday card. i'm back out and i fall in line with the suits that were just released for the day, and i'm looking for a mailbox. i figure i'll find one if i just fall in line... and then there it is... as plain as day...not a mailbox - ground zero.

i'll be honest, i was not looking to visit the site of the world trade center. i'm that person who visited auschwitz and secretly regretted it right after. and 9/11 was a mere 9 and a half years ago, there is no way i want to visit the very spot it took place.

i'm standing here looking at this huge area. things are moving, in and out, construction workers, trucks, equipment, there is so much productivity. this may sound wierd, but i really feel, as i'm watching all of this movement, a sense of rebirth, and even... hope? is that a platitude? cliche? probably, but there is a sense of a new beginning here, and frankly that's kind of the theme of my life...

...so i'll go with it.

accidental exlporation!

i officially began my journey to "discover new york, one borough at a time", on monday in the financial district, but the day before i did some impromptu exploring in the upper west side:

chris and are awake at 7am to go to a church called redeemer. a few of his company mates attend that church, so after service we are at brunch with them at mermaid inn. (makes getting up early so worth it). it is such a sunny, gorgeous day, we sit outside on their patio. i'm having the steel cut oatmeal (dee-licious) and green tea (one lump or two? they have sugar cubes at this place), they're discussing (and tasting) the difference between frittatas, omelettes, and egg casseroles.

they all have two shows afterward so, at the suggestion of their stage manager i make my way to the 77th street sunday flea market! now, i don't have the patience to look through racks of random clothes, but if i had my own home right now (i'm subletting) i would be in heaven. they have the most amazing home goods for a great deal. and a little haggling never hurt anyone either. (i too was nervous about haggling until i read this: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/bargaining-skills)

after dreaming about the day i can fill my home with baskets and mirrors and antiques, i am wandering, looking for a place to print out more resumes, and babysitting flyers. go-go-gadget blackberry map, and i decide that i can just walk to a fedex office. i start out and get distracted by this shop called therapie. difficult to describe, but i think i'm in love with it. you walk in and there's all of this beautiful stationary, but they also have a large selection of high and low end hair and beauty products. (including devacurl a few dollars less than you'd find it at ulta; a curly girl's dream). they have a little loft area with undergarments and their accessories, i buy what is called a "comfy bra" for $9, ( my regular bras give me acid reflux, and this has worked wonderfully for that) they also have an overwhelming basement toy area. i'm not going down there.

after this, i say "tia focus!!!" and i continue to walk toward fedex office and find myself in a very familiar space. "i've seen that urban outfitters before" i say to myself. i text my pal andrew " i think i'm in you neighborhood" he texts back "stop! what? don't lie... it's not funny... wait for real?" i don't think he knows i moved here. we meet up for about 5 minutes, until he has to run off to a meeting. sigh.

it was nice to see a familiar face.

more on monday's adventures to come. it's time to get up and make someone hire me.

what i've learned about my fiance; ms. frizzle and julie and julia.

chris (or ck in some circles) and i have been together for almost 3 years and we have been long distance the entire time, until a week and a half ago. now we are a 10 minute bus ride away from each other. which is amazing and wonderful, and a whole lot of other adjectives. best of all, it just feels normal. i have always believed, and even more now, that distance is the perfect test of commitment. things have not always been rosy for us, (we have had miscommunications, heart-wrenching fights and taken breaks) but the bottom line is that i'm supposed to be with him. he's a dream come true! that said, i am learning new things about him everyday, for example:

the kid can NOT relax: he teaches on his days off, (after a week of 8 very physical shows) and his idea of relaxing is watching a show that makes my heart race more than ryan's bootcamp, "24"; and playing a very disturbing video game called "modern warfare". very bloody. not relaxing.

while i'm not relaxing with him, i'm looking for a job a bit more vigorously. today, i'm sitting in starbuck's making a flyer for babysitting, trying to make my text vertical for those little rip-off tabs at the bottom, and a nice lady stops and asks for my card. gotta love people who look over your shoulder at your computer screen. (i mean that with all sincerity because i do it all the time).

***

my true-blue-friend-til-the-end Lindsay gave me this amazing guide book called the Columbia Guide to New York 2007. So yesterday I dig it up and find some very interesting information! for instance, did you know that the island of manhattan was "bought" from native americans for the equivalent of $24! and also there is a magical bus in china town that will take you to boston for $15! yowzers! (as i'm typing this i realize that i'm picturing ms. frizzle and the magic school bus taking me to sensational, yet educational destinations)

anyway, i decide to be very "julie and julia" and make my way through this guide book, visiting each burough and neighborhood. dining, visiting museums, seeing the sites and blogging about it along the way! i will get through it by the end of the summer! i start monday in the Financial District! which i hope is more exciting than it sounds.

purging, and why i'm doing nothing right now.

there comes a point in the moving process when you just start to throw away everything. (that tiny sewing machine that i used for making small purses out of placemats one Christmas - trash; that bag of old cassette tapes, including hanson's mmmbop single - trash; old notes from jr. high and high school still in their fancily folded glory.... hesitation... deep breath... trash!) after you've been to the salvation army a couple of times, and just really don't think anyone will have use for the recordings of your old voice lessons, the only place for it is the trash. i've never been a minimalist, but i must make room for blessings to come. i've even parted with my shoes that i bought in prague (the soles are finally so worn that i slipped on concrete.) and i've even cleaned out my e-mail box, unsubscribing from hanes.com's weekly e-mails and other guilty pleasures.

here's a quick replay of march:
week 1: friends over for "packing sessions" (note: when these sessions involved wine, they did not involve much packing)
week 2: more vigorous packing waylaid by a sneaky cold that attacked my voice... and redbox movies.
week 3: a farewell cabaret composed of my favorite chicago voices (pictured below), including a wacky medley of my favorite audition songs.
week 4: working, wrapping up my glee club, sneaky cold morphs into coughing up blood, packing, selling furniture, community group farewell karaoke vegan party, cleaning, loading up car, driving to michigan, cleaning out my old things from parent's basement (to make room for the things i can't take to new york with me), driving through the night to get to brooklyn by morning (getting a speeding ticket in ohio (don't tell my mom)), getting mad lost in new jersey (at the very end of my journey when i'm starving and i've been up all night), and finally settling into my new neighborhood in Brooklyn's delightful Cobble Hill.

so, i'd like to say that i'm anxiously looking for a job, but i'm not. i'm exploring and sleeping, and i'm okay with that.

don't tell my mom though.

I'm blogging again!

It's been a long time since I have blogged. But, I think this is the best time to start since I'm
a. engaged which makes me extra reflective
b. moving to new york in a few months which makes me extra reflective
c. it's the new year and that makes me extra reflective

so hear are my present tendencies; my present adventures:

my birthday was yesterday! this is me doing some of my favorite things:

1. get up and notice that the sun is shining just for me
   
2. make a delicious tofu scramble with fresh asparagus, tomatoes and peppers
3. have a dance party in sunshine yellow pants
4. change pants and head to my massage (courtesy of my fiance), which is a dream come true
   
5. have lunch at aladdin's eatery (rolled dawali pita and hummus)
   
6. walk over to world market (if you join their explorer club they give you $10 on your birthday) and buy dark chocolate, stationary, a sympathy card and a bag of little candles.
7. walk over to borders to pick up "letters to a young artist" by anna deavere smith.
   
8. contemplate whether i can rightfully consider myself "young" anymore, while waiting for them to look for it. they don't have it
   
9. decide i could still consider myself young
10. drive over to anthropologie. (if you get an anthro card (not a credit card) they give you 15% off on your entire order in your birthday month, and a necklace with a little birthday candle on it.)
    
11. smell all of their candles. (it comes down to almond biscotti and white chocolate mousse)
12. buy the white chocolate mousse candle.
13. drive home.
14. sing some songs (i'm trying to find a good pop ballad)
15. go to community group where we talk about dreams (we're reading Genesis 37 and "go go go Joseph" keeps looping in my head)
    
16. celebrate my birthday with my community group and two vegan cupcakes from Fritz! (I didn't even know they had vegan cupcakes... trouble)
17. drive back home
18. find a perfect parking spot!
19. skype with faraway fiance, while burning my new delicious candle
20. fall asleep looking at his handsome face...
    

26 is gonna be awesome!

Frozen Lemonade

It is freezing today, literally!  There is ice everywhere and here I am grumbling about it.  Stepping carefully from my apartment to my car, grumbling.  Tip-toeing from my car to the bank, grumbling, even further to a voice lesson... etc.  'If I fall, I'm gonna sue everyone!'  I continue on like this stiffly looking down at the ground, balancing my weight on the balls of my feet, glancing up occasionally.   On my way to Green Grocer Chicago, I glance up and see a man in a black suit and long black coat with a brief case in his hand taking a running start to slide across the long patches of ice.  He does this repeatedly, and I laugh out loud and think, 'when life gives you lemons'...

How have you made the best out of bad situation?  I really want to know!  Please share in the comment section!