I feel like I should do a sequel to the previous blog post: literally days after writing it God provided housing and more work!
Housing I got through the Redeemer website: I’m moving tomorrow to an apartment in way north-western Manhattan. The rent is cheap, I get to live with a Christian girl, and I get a huge furnished (!) room with a queen sized bed, dresser, closet, bookshelf, couch, table, and TV through the end of the year. It even comes with sheets, towels, and a laundry basket. God is so incredible; it’s a better situation that I had hoped for.
For my new job, it was another lesson in God’s timing. The evening of final dress for the Drunkard I was thinking about how I would have no work starting the next day. Low and behold I checked my email at the end of the rehearsal and I had an email from a director of a new play asking me if I would design the set for her show! The company is a group of former Columbia students who produce new works and hire under-30 upandcoming artists to work on them. The play is set in Oxford in 1925 and is about a group of students questioning the meaning of life (it’s kind of similar to Dead Poet’s Society; one commits suicide at the end). It’s a good play and the company is awesome—I’m so grateful to have a new show and to get to meet new people. We don’t open until the end of October, so I have lots of time. I’m going to be mainly responsible for finding the furniture pieces we need; not sure how that will work yet, but I know it will work out somehow.
And if that weren’t enough, last weekend I was thinking how I needed some money and I got an email from a WM alumni set designer Jon, who I had met with my 2nd week here to talk. He’s designing The Sound of Music and needed an assistant for the day to build the model for him. So I went to his studio for the day on Monday and built model pieces for him and got paid 150 bucks for it. It was lots of fun, and Jon was very complimentary and encouraging about my work.
So God is taking very good care of me. I’ve had lots of free time recently, since The Drunkard opened a week and a half ago, but it’s been good. After the opening, I went to meet Sarah, the director of my new show, at the theater and we had a good talk, got a basic floorplan figured out, and I went grocery shopping and came home. And proceeded to get very sick: headache, sinus congestion, major chest congestion, and exhaustion. I pretty much just stayed in my room for the rest of the week. I spent a fortune on medicine and lay around watching TV on my computer, building model furniture (which was good prep for working for Jon!), and sleeping, for lack of anything better to do. I watched every episode of Merlin ever made (thanks James for the recommendation; I don’t know what I would have done without it!) and lots of other random episodes. I’m looking forward to getting books sometime soon, because I’m kind of TV’d out.
I was out for about a week, then got better in time to assist Jon on Monday, and since then I’ve been still recuperating, and working on moving. I’m spending time every day practicing my drafting handwriting and drawing, trying to use time while I have time to make myself a better designer and artist. On Tuesday I went to a show called Way To Heaven with members of the Redeemer artists’ small group. It was excellent and afterwards we hung out at an outdoor burger joint called the Shake Shack and talked. It was great to get to know them better.
Yesterday I decided to go job hunting up by where I’m moving to. Instead it turned into an exploring adventure. I started just north of Columbia University, explored that campus (which is gorgeous). And then slowly walked about 80 blocks down the Upper West Side over the course of the afternoon. Saw several now hiring signs which I may go back to. Went to starbucks for coffee and pumpkin bread. Wandered into several cool stores, including a couple gourmet groceries. Went to a skincare place called Lush which is amazing and hippyish and fantastic and I hope to buy things from when I have money (Remus check it out there’s one in Tysons too).
In the evening I went to the first meeting of the Redeemer girls’ recent grads small group. About 12 people showed up and they are wonderful. I’m really excited to get to know them all; they seem really sweet and interesting and we all are really excited to study the Bible together and get to know each other. There’s several actors, 2 culinary school students, a writer, a couple fashion industry people, a middle school volunteer, an investigator, and several others. I’m psyched for the group: we spent the evening eating delicious food, introducing ourselves, starting a Bible study of 2 Timothy, and sharing prayer requests. It will be so great to have a group of friends my age in the city who are going through exactly what I am.
Today I’m spending time packing and taking stuff up to my new apartment. Tomorrow I get to officially move in. And Saturday Daddy is driving a carload of my stuff up here. I can’t wait to see him! And it will be great to get more stuff so I can stop living out of a suitcase. So yes, that is my life as of the past few weeks.
