I leave work with the glorious late afternoon sunshine streaming in rays between the buildings and warming my head. It’s windy, but the bitter chill is missing from the air. Spring is actually on its way at last! I walk a couple blocks to the subway, resolutely marching past the pizza shop with the perfectly crispy crusts and decadent toppings. Another day, I tell myself. I enter the subway tunnel and pile myself into the car along with the hundreds…
I think I promised to tell you weeks (or was it months and months) ago how I was surviving my new job. Time has flown and here I am on my third week in, still alive and kicking although I could be dead in a ditch for all you guys know. I have been too busy to write- too busy moving and staying alive and eating pastries and vegging when my energy gave out, which it does about every three…
Here’s the thing. I knew church in the city would be cool. There are several well known options I had visited and loved before I even moved here, options such as The Brooklyn Tabernacle and Redeemer Presbyterian. The trouble isn’t so much not having a church to attend, but rather, having too many options to make a choice! Do I attend the one that’s closer by, or the one with more comfortable pews (come on, you think about that too),…
…Except I kind of was. I spent the last couple of years poring over articles and pictures of New York City. I read all kinds of guides for making your finances stretch and the best neighborhoods to live in and the hot spots to visit. I read listicles and blogs and books about the city- I mean, I even have a NYC coloring book! I think you could safely say I had done my research. So while these things didn’t surprise…
I sit at the table in the food court in Flushing, unfamiliar yet comforting smells and sounds swirling around me. Directly across from me sits a pretty young woman, earbuds in, absorbed in her reading as she deftly makes her way through her bowl of slippery noodles with her chopsticks. My own deftness is lacking, and I wince internally whenever I drop a particularly large noodle back into my soup, and glance at her surreptitiously to make sure I haven’t…
Well, here I am, tucked into my cozy little Airbnb room late at night, my first night alone in NYC. My lands, it has been a crazy past few weeks. I have found gray hairs all over my head (Well, I found one on each side and one in the middle, that counts as all over right? I mean, I’d only ever had one before that, so three new ones is a lot for me!) and I have basically spent…
Dear Packing, I know people aren’t supposed to like packing, but there is something about fitting everything just so into a box that is immensely satisfying to me. I guess it’s like solving a puzzle, which is one of the best Sunday evening activities (I know, I’m 85). It sure makes this whole moving process a lot easier, all except the books. I started packing my books three times before I could leave them in the box. I’m just gonna…
So there’s something you should know… …In case you didn’t know already. It’s true- this pineapple is gonna go find some New York City stripes. And yes, I’m as surprised as you are. The whole thing is a massive series of surprising events for me. I’ve been dreaming about living in the city for so long that I’m pretty sure I won’t think it’s real until several weeks in when I’m sitting on my lumpy bed eating cabbage and nothing…
I leafed through my February issue of Bon Appetit, looking for something to make that I wouldn’t have to shop for, something I magically had all the ingredients for. And then I stumbled upon the Arctic Char Tostadas, which can also be made with salmon, a fish which was lurking in my very own freezer. “Aha!” I thought, “Something I can whip up out of my own larder.” Well. Three grocery runs later, I finally gave up trying to get…
I’m sitting at my favorite local coffee shop- favorite because it’s actually open until a decent hour of the evening unlike most shops. I can loiter here till almost midnight if I please, which is just my cup of tea. And I’m having a cup of tea, or actually a whole pot of tea, and a double-chocolate cookie the size of my face to balance out all the healthy effects the tea might have on me. I’m a firm believer…
Update: We have winners! Congrats to Alyssa R for winning Mansfield Park, Vanya for winning Garlic and Sapphires, and Shianne Kropf for winning Canterbury Tales. The only thing more fun than finding a perfectly delicious book is forcing all your friends to read it as well. (Don’t ask my friends if I am annoying this way; I already know the answer.) Anyway, I think my friends’ “To-Read” lists are all quite long enough, so there’s nothing left to do but…
In November I had the opportunity to pack myself into a car with four other people and drive the many hours first to Bainbridge New York, then down to Queens for several days to practice my au pair skills with Roman and Mimi on their business trip. Now, spending 24 hours in a car with two kiddies and then babysitting them for several days in a wee New York apartment may not sound like the most fun to you, but I…