Bubbles

Today Zack and I went for a run in Central Park. At noon. On one of the hottest, most humid days so far. Yup, bad idea. We walked back, which meant we got to observe the street performers. I adore street performers, and I try to make sure there's always a dollar or a few quarters on me if I see something cool. I was running, so no dollars, unfortunately for the performers. But I digress. We noticed two guys blowing those huge bubbles, you know, the ones between two sticks, with a piece of rope? [Here's a cool video if you don't.] I started to take a picture, and one of the guys noticed me and asked if I wanted to take one inside the bubble. Psshhh, of course! It took a couple tries, but he eventually got the bubble to form around me. It was one of the neatest things, to see the world through a floating, soapy film. Everything looked so pretty, full of rainbows and sparkles and wonder. After the bubble popped, the world went back to being normal and un-Disney looking. But I still remember the sparkles. Sometimes we need to see the world through a bubble.

Taking Chances

This week has been filled with discoveries for me and much-needed encouragement for Zack.

I'll start with Zack. Last week was frustrating for him. He didn't do as well as he was hoping to on quizzes, and got behind on essays for bar prep. He also didn't sleep through the night at all, and got stressed and worn out like I've never seen before. Yours truly finally got fed up with the tossing and turning all night, and the cranky husband all day, had a few un-Proverbs 31 woman moments, and then went out and bought him Melatonin for this week. He has successfully slept through the night, and done better than needed on his checkpoints this week. I'm pretty sure he's awesome and that he's going to ace this thing, he's not so sure, but after some small victories this week he's coming around to my way of thinking.

My week started out just as poorly as Zack's. Monday morning my beloved iPhone fell. I picked it up without looking at it. It wasn't until I left for work that I saw the chunk of glass missing from the screen.  This presented a dilemma, since we were planning on letting our contract with AT&T expire in 2 months so we could switch to Sprint (unlimited fast data) and get the iPhone 5, due out in September. Well, now I had to find a phone, and renew a contract for 2 years, which meant paying the cancellation fee in 2 months (we can't stay with AT&T, no service in our apartment). Oh, and all on one tiny income in one of the most expensive places to live. I was feeling understandably down until I found out what a broken, used iPhone was worth. Within seconds of posting an ad on Craigslist, my phone blew up and it still hasn't calmed down. I sold my broken phone for enough to pay for an upgrade, and I had people offering me $50 more than that. I wouldn't have promised it to the first guy who met my asking price if I'd known what a hot commodity I held. After my relative success, I decided to do the same thing for Zack since we've already had to extend our contract, he gets his new phone tomorrow. My phone is still going off constantly. I finally just shut it off. It's amazing how crazy people on Craigslist are! I had someone offer me $60 less than what I was asking for Zack's phone, and when I texted back to say I had offers for my price, he upped his offer by $10. Really, dude?

Back to my original predicament, I ran to J. Crew (I don't just work there, I pretty much love everything there) after work today and picked up a gorgeous little iPhone case. No more taking chances! Well, with my phone. Because me walking anywhere in Manhattan in taking a big chance. I proved that by walking out of the J. Crew store and going the wrong way, and then not realizing my mistake until I was two avenues over from where I needed to be. Whoops. I realized my mistake next to an F train station. I've never taken the F train anywhere, even though it's the closest one to our apartment. I'm always a little nervous and excited about taking a new route on the Subway, fortunately this one worked out to my advantage. There are some areas and routes that are not frequented by tourists, and you know where these are because you'll inevitably see that one crazy kid walking between cars while they're moving. I was on one such route. I get beggars and performers going between the moving cars, but not those people who move from one car to another, just to sit down, heave a sigh, and open their paper. What sense does it make? Some New Yorkers are plain crazy and weird, as opposed to the midwestern-transplant New Yorkers, who are awesome.

The more I live here the more I am inspired to be more than just creative, to be artistic.  Walking through the West Village tonight and seeing all of the artists reminded me that I found my sketchbook and pencils while moving, and left them out intending to use them. Writing has helped me channel some of my renewed creative energy, but I'm excited to try other expressions. I really want to get back into painting again. Watch out, I'll be sporting a beret and dreads yet.

A Month and Then Some

It's been a month and then some since we've moved to New York, and it's crazy to think that much time has passed. In all honesty, living in the greatest city in the world has become mundane. It isn't that the awe-inspiring man-made canyons of glass and concrete have become less stunning, or that the rich histories are no longer meaningful. It's that you forget they're there.

On Friday, we went to become official New Yorkers, on paper. My drivers license from Virginia is being revoked since I'm not longer a resident, so there was some urgency. On Thursday, I worked late into the night (not really, after pulling late second and the occasional third shift in Virginia, 9pm is nothing to complain about) and earned myself a three day weekend. Friday morning I cleaned the apartment, which badly needed attention since both of us had been feeling under the weather, and then met Zack in Herald's Square. I don't go to the touristy areas of Mid-Town often, or ever if I can help it. I'm usually only in the Upper East Side where we live, or the East Village where I work. I've hit SoHo every now and again to shop, and the FiDi once or twice to run errands, but that's about it. Zack's bar prep class meets right across the street from Penn Station, only a couple blocks from the Empire State Building, and just a few more to Times Square. This was actually my first time in Herald's Square, a small islet of green in the middle of a thoroughfare, where you can dodge the crowds but not the noise. After enjoying our lunch in said small haven, we walked to the Manhattan Mall and stood in brief awe of the shrine that consumerism created. Zack had been to the DMV before when we sold our car, but I was working then, and he didn't really remember where it was. He knew it was on the 8th floor, so we checked out the elevators in the Mall. It's in our best interests to note here that our iPhones were both unusable. The first elevator wasn't working, we pushed the button, the door closed and it would shake, but not actually move. After three of these efforts I'm rather glad it didn't move. The next one would only go to the second floor, fat lot of good that did us. We circled the mall a few times before finding an information desk. The sweet lady at the information desk kindly told us we had the right floor but the wrong building, it was the building next to the Manhattan Mall. When we finally arrived, there were easily 150 people in line in front of us. We waited in line for almost two hours, before finding out that my paperwork was incomplete and I have to come back another day, oh joy, and then proceeded to wait another hour and half to get Zack's license after they took his picture. Three and a half hours were utterly wasted. We called it a "Kingdom of the crystal Skull day", as in, it never happened.

If Friday was a fourth-Indiana-Jones-movie-that we refuse-to-acknowledge kind of day, then Saturday was a Raiders of the Lost Ark day. We woke up early, made it out to beach at a decent time and we've discovered a much faster way to get to our favorite beach on the subway, it actually cut half an hour out of the travel time. We love the Rockaways, especially since it's a free beach, and on our unlimited subway cards, it doesn't cost us anything extra to go. It's a surfing beach with decent waves, so we always get to watch surfers do their thing, but this weekend was a big surfing festival. The beach is long enough that it's never crowded, but this weekend the surfing-only sections were packed. It's amazing to watch people on their boards stand up and ride a wave in. Zack and I now have a life goal to learn to surf, we're looking into lessons here to get started. It just looks cool! The beach was the best it's ever been, and our burned skin unfortunately tells us we enjoyed it a little too much. Or a lot too much, as my poor shoulders are saying. totally worth it though. The section we were on has a deep tide at the beginning of the water, but as you walk in there is a huge sandbar, and a long stretch of waist-deep water and perfectly sized waves. The ocean was just cool enough to be refreshing, just what we needed after this awful northeastern heat wave.

We finally forced our burned bodies to part ways with the beach and headed back to Manhattan. The famous subway series (Yankees vs. Mets) is going on this weekend and we wanted to try to get tickets. We didn't know what scalpers would have, but we also didn't want to spend $65 to get altitude sickness in the nosebleed section, so scalpers it was. When we got to Citi Field, cops were everywhere, probably expecting fights since it's a local rivalry. Unfortunately, having so many smokies around meant scalpers were laying low. If you've scalped enough tickets, you know the profile, and we tracked down everyone who had tickets for sale. All three of them. That's right, literally 3 people were selling tickets. They all had incredible seats; 4th row behind the Yankee dugout, or club seats just below the press box behind home plate. Unbeatable really, but we didn't have the asking price of $200 (1/4 of the actual price) in cash on us, so we finally turned around and went home.

A friend we know from Wisconsin was visiting New York with a group of her fellow interns, and we'd said we would try to meet up in Times Square, so we decided to just head there early and do some shopping. I forgot how incredible Times Square is at night. We got on the big screen, met a guy who told us we were going to have the most beautiful babies, and I got my favorite chicken pita. I'm addicted to those things, but why they cost $3 in the Village and $7 in Times Square I'll never know. It was great to hear a Wisconsin accent for a moment and ever so briefly catch up with someone from the homeland. After saying goodbye, Zack and I decided to walk to the Manhattan Mall instead of taking the subway. It was a gorgeous walk. I forget where we live in my busy life, forget all of the things that make this city so great and so unique, compared to every other place on earth. I forget why we wanted to live here, why we were drawn to this monument of man's accomplishments. Saturday night, walking through Mid-Town, seeing the colored lights on the Empire State Building, I remembered.

Hollywood Debunked

After living in NYC for a month [yes, a month already!] you start to realize just how many different perceptions you have about New York from every movie and TV show. Well, here are a  handful of the silver screen's favorite myths, debunked or verified as the case may be.

1. [As seen in 95% of all action, superhero, thriller, and disaster films] - The Manhattan skyline is routine levelled.

Hollywood really has it out for New York; every imaginable evil, from extraterrestrial demigods to ice hurricanes, and even giant gorillas, has been visited on the city since the dawn of hollywood. I think we can all safely say debunked, since last time I looked I was in a canyon of sturdy skyscrapers, and have yet to see a post-apocalyptic desert. I'm keeping my eyes open though.

2. [As seen in FRIENDS, How I Met Your Mother, Friends with Benefits, Seinfeld, and others] - New York apartments have lovely, open kitchens.

Debunked before you can even say the word, and with some bitterness on my part. Our apartment has a large kitchen for Manhattan, which I will never not find shocking, since it's the size of my closet in Lynchburg. Those kitchens are great for filming, but they're nothing more than a fantasy unless you're just that bourgeoisie, and that's really bourgeoisie.

3. [As seen in Step Up 2, Friends with Benefits and a billion YouTube videos] - Flash Mobs happen.

Step Up 2 was actually set in Baltimore, and YouTube isn't based on Rodeo Drive, but this holds up as a bit of modern-day gritty glamour that Hollywood bestowed on the Big Apple. And it's actually true; we saw our first one this weekend! It was one of the coolest things we've seen so far.

4. [As seen in FRIENDS] - People have nothing to do but sit in coffee shops all day.

More true than not, actually. New Yorkers work hard, but they don't work a whole lot.

5. [As seen in How I Met Your Mother, Hitch, and every chick flick ever set in New York] - New Yorkers take taxis everywhere.

Debunked. Taxis are incredibly expensive, and if you have the money to use one regularly, you'll just have a limo or town car, since it's actually not that much more expensive and it's so much better. Depending on traffic, the subway can actually be faster as well. Taxis are typically filled with tourists, out of town business folk, and New Yorkers who just bought TVs or dropped their life savings at Trader Joe's (easier to do than it sounds, trust me!).

Secondhand High

I started writing this post on Sunday, when we had visited a new church, caught up with an old friend who lives here now, and got a little relaxing in. But then we went for a "run". We made it east to 5th ave, which borders Central Park on the East Side of Manhattan. 5th ave, however, was an impenetrable mass of Puerto Ricans. We really need to be better about knowing what's going on in the city. Apparently it was Puerto Rican Heritage Day, and they were celebrating with a huge parade and festival. Kudos to them for celebrating, and the food smelled amazing! But as we struggled through the twenty blocks of crowd and fenced off avenue to get to the park, we started smelling something else. Something not legal. Zack and I now have to tell our future kids that we never intentionally experimented with drugs.

We made it in to the Park finally, enjoyed a quiet afternoon in our favorite Sheep Meadow, imbibed a little sun, read a few words here and there, Zack might have even studied.

We both love the random people you see in the Park. Creepers we are, admittedly, but the people watching is unbeatable. Sometimes it's just plain cool, like yoga enthusiasts balancing each other over their heads. Other times it's watching kids buy beer, or parents on their iPhones while their kids run wild. "Siri, make my child behave". Not likely, but it's worth a shot.

We both have settled into nice weekly routines. My commute is officially a half an hour, but only 12 minutes is on the subway, the rest is a pleasant walk through the Upper East Side. Zack's is a bit shorter, his bar prep class is actually right by the Empire State Building. Typically his class meets on the 18th floor of the Hotel Pennsylvania, and he gets to look out at the tiny, befuddled tourists. I get to see the progress of the new One World Trade Center building, so we call it even.

Speaking of tourists, our favorite favorite New Yorker pastime is to laugh at them for is trying to hail cabs that already have a fare. They stand on the sidewalk, trying way too hard to look nonchalant, cursing and then finally becoming animated after three or four cabs pass by them, never putting it together that the cab light was out on each taxi.

Zack has utterly and completely fallen in love with the city. I love the city too, but today it turned my umbrella inside out.

Compare, Contrast, and Write More Lists

I didn't mean for a week to go by without posting - the whole reason I'm blogging instead of journaling is that I thought a blog would make me more accountable to actually write.

Anyways, last weekend I went to Wisconsin to surprise my little sister for her high school graduation. It was a great, if short, trip! I was upgraded to first class for free on both flights, and now, like Jerry Seinfeld, "I can't go back to coach, I'll know what I'm missing!"

It was great to see family and friends again, but there was also a bittersweet twinge in my heart. Just a couple months ago I thought we were moving back there. I would have my horses around me, fresh air, friends and family and familiar places. Maybe even a kitchen with counter space! It would have been so comfortable, so nice. Just driving on the old familiar roads was a good feeling.

New York is amazing, there's no place like it, but it hasn't yet become comfortable for me. I think once we find a church and good friends that will change, already just having a routine has made the transition better. I do love it here, I'm not trying to complain, but I'm still a little homesick.

Yesterday we went for a run, and explored Central Park. It's so beautiful, and if you know where to go, it's not crowded. We're going to go back today, soak up some sun and see the sights. There's also talk of a picnic in the Sheep Meadow - our favorite little area of semi-secluded greenery. The tourist there surprise me. It becomes a little offensive after a while, the way they take pictures of everything and stare at the carriages and pedi cabs and street musicians. It's only a couple blocks from our 63rd street home base, I'm really surprised we haven't been there more by now. There are so many little trails and twists and turns. Neither of us wants to go in there with a map, but we just might have to.

Our apartment is almost completely unpacked! Over the weekend we should get the last few pictures on the wall and knick knacks put away. I'll post a few pictures once it's all completed. It's so small but I think we've used the space well.