a blended life

This week: Bronchitis happened. Not pretty, but I'm breathing again today. ~cheers~ Also this week: Hot, miserable, disgusting heat. Subway stations are even hotter. It's like living in South Florida but there's no relief--only the really big stores have a/c. Most of the time you just have to tough it out. And I'm not tough about it. People keep saying, "At least it's not winter!" Whatever. I'm sure as soon as it's winter they'll say, "At least it's not summer!" Also: My job is over. Half of the teachers working there, including myself, decided to not extend our employment further into the summer. Remember how hard it was for me to decide to go to Disney World and the hours I spent on that decision? I probably spent double the time on this work decision and poor Jacob had to hear about it for days. I learned several important things during my brief, temporary summer job as a teacher here:           1) I still really love tea...

In many ways, today was ridiculously bad. But I thumbed through my phone pictures at the end of the day and reviewed a few events that gave me peace. I felt like the hand of God was with me today, helping me see some of the beautiful parts of this new planet we live in, also helping me forget some of the inexcusable parts (like litter and Penn Station.) Does the period go inside or outside of the parenthesis--that question will have to wait until I care more. I had to return to Target this morning to pick up a bag I left yesterday. The view from the parking garage made me smile. Queens is on the left, the East River is in the middle, and Manhattan is on the right. I'm in Manhattan but staying north in Harlem. Neighborhood distinction is a real big deal here. You aren't from Brooklyn, you are from a specific part of Brooklyn. After the hours of bad day (keys locked in car, clothes left at laundromat, parking ticket, stuck in traffic, Siri got me lost again, etc), Jacob ...

I had to delete something out of my last post, so I'm going to explain it here. I have a knack for making friends with choice individuals (no sarcasm here) who aren't afraid to speak their minds with me. I'm extremely grateful for this and don't take offense, especially when I know I'm the bonehead. And I cherish these delightful relationships more than I know how to express adequately. So if you show up in my blog, nameless, pat yourself on the back and know that you have one friend in New York who is grateful for your feedback. Moving on now. This week was a big turning point for us in many ways. Some good, most not. WORK My job isn't going well. I love to teach in general, but there is literally no part of this job that I look forward to. The boss (who we refer to at home in other, less favorable titles) can only be described as a true sociopathic &$%#*@#. I've never worked for one of these and never care to in the future. It wouldn't be s...

Remember a few months ago when I read that life-changing book about getting rid of junk that doesn't make you happy? And I live with a bunch of junk collectors who think everything makes them happy? The concept of making decisions based on what brings joy has governed a lot of my choices lately (keeping in mind that life is crammed with non-joy activities, like living in a NYC heat wave). Being in New York has presented us with more options than we can handle in our pea brains, so we choose things based on "Does this spark joy? Does it make me happy to do this activity/eat this pizza for the 3rd time today/look at one more apartment that will inevitably be wrong?" I'm really glad I've taken this approach. At the end of the day, though we be sweaty, miserably exhausted, with blistered feet and heat stroke, we feel fulfilled. I'm going on and on for two reasons: 1) Many of you have asked what fun things we're doing here. Answer: things that spark joy...

We still don't have a place to live. Airbnb is saving us, oh blessed airbnb. It's quite fun to search through other people's apartments online--I think I would use this website as a replacement for hotels in the future. Not that we will ever be able to travel after paying rent here. Our last application was declined because we are students. Landlord doesn't want students. Landlord only wants fixed income. We were declined in the past because we had kids. Um....discrimination, people. It's alive and well. We have started becoming very upfront and bold (for lack of a better word) about our approach with realtors and landlords. "WE ARE A STUDENT FAMILY. WE HAVE KIDS. WE ARE WHITE. WE ARE RELIGIOUS. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THESE THINGS, YOU MAY KINDLY TELL US BEFORE WE GO THROUGH YOUR RIDICULOUS APPLICATION PROCESS." I should feel worried and I don't. I should feel a little more concerned about the future and I'm not. On the plus side, we'...

Visiting the Big Apple is an experience most people really enjoy. Living here is an entirely different bag. I read an article recently that my sister sent me about families that live here and the best way to describe it is HARD WORK. Everything requires a LOT of effort. I don't want to detail everything about our move here and personally don't want to relive some of the disasters and horrifically lost-in-the-hood moments we've had. I definitely don't want to talk about the time I showed up on my one-way ticket, finding out that my sublet reservation and canceled and the car rental place wouldn't rent to me (credit card expired...oops) and pretty soon I'm on a street corner in Queens with nowhere to go and no way to get there. Not my favorite moment. So here's what I'm going to do. I will start listing, in listy form, some of the exciting and not-so exciting events of the past two and a half weeks. I will also stop when I get tired and probably not ...