Another week has passed. Since I started my job the pace of my life has picked up quite a bit. It used to be that time was passing slowly and I was able to fully experience each day of living in the city. But now it’s going faster and days are starting to run together a little. I’m starting to drink more coffee again. Some days I feel like I just wake up, go to work, come home, and go to sleep. And then get up to do it again. Working on making that not be the case. I want my job to be part of my life, but not to define my life. I’m trying to get up 2 hours before I have to leave in the mornings, because that gives me time to shower, eat, have devotions, and drink a cup of tea before leaving for the day. Makes me a much happier and more alive person.

The job is going really well. The bosses kindly granted my time off requests for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I’ll be home for a week for each holiday. I’ve spent most of my time fitting frames: putting the mats, art, glass, and frames together and securing them into the frames in a dust-free manner. It’s more complicated than it sounds—I have to push myself to make sure that each piece is perfect and I don’t let anything mediocre get by me. On Monday I started learning sales, so soon I’ll be splitting time between fitting in the back and coming out to the showroom to help clients with orders. The sales process is much more complicated than it was at Michaels; we have a much bigger selection, but mostly it's because the shop runs entirely on a paper system; no computers involved. So the order tickets are written out by hand and have to be very detailed and accurate. It’s a lot to remember and I’m sure I’ll be bugging the other sales people with questions for a while to come, but I’m excited to be branching out from fitting. The shop got really busy right after I started training, and I ended up doing my first sale much sooner than I had anticipated, but it went well and jumping in with both feet cemented things faster than just standing around watching would have done. I’m working extra hours this week to make up for some of the time I’m taking off; so I’m just getting today off and am working Wednesday. It will be good.

On Saturday evening after work I met my friend Stephanie on the Lower East Side to go see Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the Metropolitan, directed by Alex. We went to a fantastic Indian place for dinner, each getting their special which included a complimentary glass of wine, appetizers, soup, entrée, dessert, and coffee. My main dish was a lamb curry, very tasty. The show was fun, it was great to see Alex and the theatre again! It was the first preview, the first time the actors had performed in front of an audience, and it ran 3 hours. When it was only supposed to run 2. It dragged in some parts, the timing will get ironed out over the course of the previews, but overall it was a great show, inventively staged. The script is a typical 19th century piece, with lots of random moments and vignettes and characters that don’t feel like they contribute to the plot, and a wild ending where everything is resolved at once. It was cool to see.

I had a lovely day off today. I slept in until 10am, then cleaned the bathroom, which sorely needed it. After it was sufficiently clean I took a lovely long bath, accompanied by my new bar of soap from Lush (it smells divinely and is a dark turquoise color) and a sandalwood scented ‘bath bomb’; basically bubble bath for the new millennium. :-P For lunch I made pasta. I bought this amazing Italian expensive Tagliatelle yesterday at the Garden of Eden (a gourmet grocery near work) and cooked it today and mixed it with the delicious fresh pesto I made last week from my basil. It was phenomenal; some of the best pasta I’ve ever had.


This afternoon I went downtown to do some shopping, and took a lovely walk through Greenwich Village and Chelsea. Such great neighborhoods; I really love it down there. I bought a coffee travel mug so that I can start making coffee to take to work instead of buying it, bought the new Josh Groban CD Illuminations that came out yesterday (I am listening to it now and quite enjoying it!), and picked up some food at Trader Joe’s. I’m not doing real shopping this week, I just bought enough to get me through Saturday. Hopefully I’ll have eaten most anything that could rot while I’m away by that time.

When I got home I made banana muffins with walnuts while I listened to the CD. And now I’m sipping a glass of wine and writing to you wonderful people. I cannot wait to come home on Saturday and enjoy the holiday and the food and the family. Very excited about it.

This week I’ve been reading two books: The Autobiography of George Muller and Three Cups of Tea. The Tea book is the true story of an American who is building schools throughout Pakistan. Quite an incredible book so far; fascinating and inspiring. The Muller book is a loan from Mommy and is the story of a German pastor who ran a bunch of schools and orphanages in England in the 1800s based entirely on donations and trust in God. Also very inspiring; it really drives home the fact that God is eager and willing to provide for His people physically when they trust Him. Every page that recounts how God sent the money for things that were needed exactly when it was needed reminds me of all the amazing provision that God has made for me since I moved up here. Same story: He has provided incredibly every single thing I have needed, exactly when I have needed it, and often much more than I need. I feel I have come to know and trust Him so much more since being up here. Having to rely on Him so entirely and directly has taught me so much about how much He loves me and has a perfect plan for me. Yesterday I read a psalm that perfectly describes my situation:

“Lord, you have assigned my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.” Psalm 16:5-11

Well my first week at work went really well. I am really liking the job, the shop, the people, the hours, everything. God has been so good to not only give me a job when I needed one, but give me a job I really enjoy that pays exactly what I was looking for!!!

My schedule is Thursday through Monday, 39.5 hours a week. So far I’ve exclusively been doing fitting; that is, putting the art into the frames with the mats, etc. Eventually they’ll train me to do sales as well, but right now the shop is behind and it’s the Christmas rush, so we’re just focusing on trying to catch up.

I’m really enjoying my coworkers: it’s really cool to be spending significant periods of time with people around again. I’ve gotten used to spending a lot of time by myself, and I actually enjoy it, but it’s good to spend time with people, too. The ones I’ve spent the most time with are:

Karina: she’s from the Dominican Republic and is in charge of inspecting all pieces before they are given back to the customers. She’s been very nice to me, we’ve had a couple good chats about books, jobs, college, etc.

David: he’s from Australia, and reminds me of Phil Joel because of his accent (half the time I’d swear it’s an NZ accent) and because he has long curly hair. We get along well; he likes to tease me about everything from the fact that I think LOTR is the best film of all time to that I’m reading Gone With the Wind (“has he said ‘I don’t give a damn’ yet??”) to the music that I like to the fact that I mumble and talk to myself a lot.

Justin: he’s a musician, mostly bass guitar. He likes to talk about his band, lots of interesting stories, and talk about music in general. We have discussed the sad fact that classically trained musicians are not taught to improvise, whereas jazz musicians are. I wish were better at improv-ing.

Jeremy: my immediate supervisor. Originally from Denver. Very good framer, he makes it look easy. He’s been walking me slowly through how they do different tasks at the shop. We haven’t talked much, but he’s pretty cool.

Deb: works up front in sales. She’s a grad student at FIT studying art management. She’s very friendly and we like to talk at the lunch table.

G: works in the back cutting mats and glass for all orders. Works occasionally as a DJ, loves music and likes to play it loudly while he works. Very friendly.

They are good people and I’m really looking forward to getting to know them better. The only problem I’ve had at work so far has been figuring out when I can get off for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Had a conversation with the boss on Monday about it and have revised my tickets and hopefully will get approval tomorrow. Prayer would be appreciated on that one.

On Saturday night I went to the Follow Me Down cast party, which was at the sound designer Greg’s gorgeous apartment. Seriously gorgeous apartment. I arrived an hour late, but there were still only 2 people there, Greg and Patrick, the playwright. We chatted and Greg mixed us drinks from his incredibly well-stocked bar. He made me a whiskey-based cocktail whose name I can’t remember, but it was delicious. Apparently it’s one of the oldest mixed drinks in the US, enjoyed since before the Civil War, and very popular in the ‘20s. Wish I could remember the name. When more people arrived, most of whom had colds, he made us all Hot Toddy’s, the best ones I’ve ever had. They were seriously delicious. I left the party around midnight so that I could get up for work the next day.

We made a disturbing discovering on Sunday: we have mice in the apartment!!! Only seen in the kitchen as of yet, but they are gross. We’ve found them in the sink, and running on and around the stove. I bought traps and they’ve been sitting out for 3 days loaded with delicious peanut butter, but we have yet to catch any more of the little creeps. Hopefully they will die soon. It’s really gross to think of them scampering everywhere.

Stephanie, the girl who I’m subletting from who’s on tour, is in town this week and she spent a couple nights at the apartment to visit Ashley. So I got to meet her, she’s very nice, and the three of us made a big pot of chili and cornbread Monday night and ate together. It was fun.

So I started an experiment when I was home, based on a New York Times article about long hair. It recommended that the best thing for your hair was not to wash it with shampoo and conditioner, but just to rinse it under hot water and massage your scalp, and allow the natural oils of your hair to keep it soft and glossy. The idea makes intuitive sense to me: it seems reasonable that our hair should be able to keep itself presentable naturally; I mean, what did people do before shampoo and conditioner existed? The article talked about how shampoo strips the natural oils from our hair, and so we have to put in conditioner to restore oils, but these dirty our hair so we need shampoo again: a self-perpetuating vicious cycle. So I’ve spent the last 3 weeks without washing my hair once. I rinse it every couple days, massaging my scalp a few times (which is the most amazing feeling in the world—try it!!). The first 2 weeks it was pretty oiling and felt kinda gross, because it was rebalancing. But now it’s quite nice: my hair is smooth and glossy and clean, without the use of products. And it seems to be less frizzy, even when I brush it. The only thing I miss is the smell of the products; still trying to figure out something to do about that. Not that my hair smells bad; it smells fine, but I miss the lovely scents of shampoos. Any suggestions? In Gone With the Wind, Scarlett rinses her hair with cologne water. I know there’s such a thing as rosewater, too. Maybe I’ll experiment. Not sure where I would get such things, though.

So this week has been focused almost exclusively on getting used to the new job. It’s good to have a regular job again with a regular paycheck. I’m not used to the 40-hours-a-week thing anymore, but I will get used to it again. Same with being on my feet all day. I will adjust. And when I do, I want to start reintroducing good things into my life.

Starting with more design work. I don’t have another show lined up, but I need to spend time again developing myself as a designer, which is the whole point of taking this time off before grad school. I need to draw, to draft, to read, to go see shows, and to do a couple paper projects of shows with full drafting and models that show what I can do. I need to go to museums and galleries and immerse myself in art and culture and everything else that contributes to good design.

I also want to start spending time with/making friends. Making coffee dates or happy hour dates with small group girls and others. Doing things with friends. I’ve started to feel the need again for spending time with people who really know me. Nobody up here really knows me very well; that needs to change. I know it’s a long process, but I do want close friends again.

I also want to start fun social activities that broaden me. I want to get involved in dance classes, after I have a little bit of cash saved up from the new job. Or a yoga class. Or a judo class. Or all three. I want to run again or get a gym membership somewhere that will get me back into regular exercise.

I’ve really enjoyed cooking here. Tuesdays have become my grocery and cooking days. Last week it was poppy seed chicken, French onion soup, and apple pie. This week it’s Thai red curry chicken with rice (a delicious recipe of Eileen’s) and pumpkin bread. And bruschetta from my fresh basil and tomatoes and Italian bread. I’ve been faithfully experimenting with inexpensive red wines (Remus, I finally finished that French one—it wasn’t too bad). I bought more flour and sugar yesterday so I can continue baking every week. I love cooking, just like I love drinking tea or coffee, watching movies, and reading.

I’ve become very good at living on my own and enjoying solo activities, but now I need to include more social activities. And really try to develop friendships and build a community of people here. I know that takes time; it took 3 years at school, but I need to do it. For starters, I’m going to see the play Uncle Tom’s Cabin with my friend Stephanie on Saturday. We’re catching dinner beforehand and will hopefully have a wonderful time. I’m really excited.

Lately

I had a wonderful visit home. My train arrived on Sunday in the early afternoon and Mommy and Daddy picked me up at the metro on their way home from church. We were all together for lunch at home: Daddy, Mommy, Melanie, Remus, and me. It was so good to see them all again, to see Tuffy, and to just be home (it had been about 2 months since I was last there). We had a fabulous hamburger lunch, stuffed ourselves silly. Mommy had to go to her CS Lewis group’s meeting for dinner, so Daddy took the 3 girls out to the Lebanese Taverna in Tysons, which was great. I’d never been, just heard rave reviews, but the food was excellent, very tasty. Again, stuffed myself silly.

Monday I slept in till 11, then spent the afternoon with Mommy, everyone else being at work/school. We went to La Madeleine for lunch, and then wandered around the town center. For dinner we made a feast: beef tenderloin fondue with Remus’ soufflé. And lots of wine. Again, stuffed to the gills. The power went out at the end of the meal, so we sat talking in the dark, lit only by candles, and drinking wine. It was lovely.

Tuesday morning Mommy and I made ourselves some Irish Coffee, which was very tasty, then had a long debate over the effects of slavery as seen/not seen today. We took a walk through the neighborhood and then dashed over to DSW to buy me some new black working shoes. I chose Sketchers, open like heels with Velcro straps. They’re still giving me blisters, but I’m hoping that will pass soon. Tuesday night Daddy, Remus, and I watched Remember the Titans. I can’t recall what we had for dinner.

And Wednesday I came back to the city. Mommy took me to the metro and I got back to my apartment around 8pm. And collapsed, watching Julie & Julia, and going to bed. Thursday was mostly a re-organize my life day, including applying to a framing job I saw on craigslist. I got a call from the shop in the afternoon to schedule an interview for the next morning. Which I duly went to. And got a call that afternoon calling me back on Saturday for some shadowing, which I went to, and got the job!!! And my first day was Monday. So now I have a full-time framing job at the nicest frameshop I’ve ever been in. God is soooo good. I was getting worried on Thursday and Friday because I was paying my monthly bills and money was getting tight. And God threw this job in my lap. So good of Him, as ever.

My excitement this past weekend was that Remus came to visit! Her bus arrived Friday night, late because of traffic, and we barely made it to our first activity: a Flamenco dance show. I had gotten free tickets through a friend, and we quite enjoyed the show. The woman dancing was very good, but old, which gave an interesting edge to the performance. At first we were both very unimpressed, but with each successive dance the show got better. Afterwards we were both starving, but elected to save our money and head back to my place to eat, about an hour away. But we got back and made breakfast burritos and drank a very-disappointing wine I had bought that day: it was not very good at all, even though it was from France. We talked for a while and then went to sleep.

Saturday we slept in and slowly got going. We went downtown so I could do the shadowing for my job, which ended up taking twice as long as expected. But Remus was very forbearing, and wandered around the neighborhood with my map while I was in there. When I finished we met up and wandered around Eataly, this new mega-gourmet Italian grocery store. It was cool, but insanely packed; almost felt like an amusement park. For lunch we headed over to Little Italy, where I discovered that I do NOT like gnocchi AT ALL (the texture is unbearable); which was sad. I do however, like mozzarella and sausage pizza, and Remus liked the gnocchi so it was ok. After lunch we walked through the Lower East Side to Jujomukti, my favorite tea lounge, where we shared a pot of tea and talked for a while. Then we walked through many meandering paths to Greenwich Village and wandered around there. It’s such a cool area—we liked it a lot. We picked up cupcakes at the Magnolia bakery, and some wine at a wine shop, and then subwayed back home around 8pm for our evening festivities. We picked up food at my grocery, and layed out our dinner: fresh warmed Italian bread with Jarlesburg and Edam cheeses, green pepper and celery with hummus, 3 mangos, and our lovely Chilean wine. We watched The Devil Wears Prada as we ate, the split our 2 cupcakes (chocolate and carrot cake, respectively) into halves, poured ourselves more wine, and watched Rebecca. Remus is still scarred from childhood torture regarding Mrs. Danvers. We finished the bottle of wine, and then proceeded to debate the relative merits of India and China until almost 4 in the morning. At which point we called a truce and went to sleep.

Sunday we got up and decided to spent the remaining time we had together (Remus’ bus left at 4pm) up in my neck of the woods, instead of going downtown. We went to The Cloisters, which is a branch of the Met, an amalgamation of European religious architecture and art, set in a GORGEOUS park right on the Hudson. We could not have had better weather: it was sunny, crisp, and gorgeous. The park was absolutely stunning, the trees were in their fall glory and there were blooming flowers and gorgeous views of the water and the Jersey cliffs. We walked for a bit, then went to a café for breakfast, which reminded me of some Western national park’s lodge. There was a brunch menu that was very overpriced, so we settle on coffee, bacon, and a basket of muffins to split. The bacon was decadent, and there were 6 muffins which we split, also delicious. After we finished we walked up to and around the Cloisters building but didn’t go in due to time. Instead we walked back to my place, grabbed Remus’ stuff and subwayed downtown to where her bus was. We arrived in time to visit a street fair for Remus to make certain unmentionable purchases, and then we stood in line at the bus stop and poof! She was gone. We had such a fun time together: I am so glad that she came up to visit. Other people should, too (hint, hint).

I went to church for the first time in 3 weeks on Sunday evening, then made my way slowly, very slowly home on the trains packed with Halloween revelers. Monday I was up early and headed to my first day on the new job. It was a good first day, nice and easy. I worked 12-6pm, laying into a pile of 50 pieces of art that had to be matted and put into ready-made frames. Didn’t quite finish, but made a good dent in the pile. My coworkers were all very nice and friendly and I found a new coffeeshop around that corner that was very good. After I finished work I went home to eat dinner and then headed downtown again for the strike of my show Follow Me Down. I arrived before the show finished and stood out on the street in the near-freezing weather until people came upstairs to let me in. We worked for about 2 hours, all the actors lending a hand, and got most of the major things done by 1130 when I dismissed them. I then carried my chair and lamp that I had lent the show back home on the subway.

Tuesday I went in to finish strike with the director, but discovered that it was just to be me—she had to work. So I repainted walls and door openings, and swept and moved things to get the theatre back to pristine and empty condition. One of the actors sweetly came in the help me in the afternoon; there’s no way I would have finished without him. We carried doors back to storage and chopped up all our extra wood into disposable sized pieces outside (new experience: cutting lumber with a jigsaw in a subterranean outdoor stairwell in the city). We finished around 430 and I headed home and went grocery shopping.

And then proceeded to cook like my life depended on it. I made a big pot of French Onion Soup, recipe courtesy of Remus. It took forever—like 2.5 hours—to make, but was it delicious. I also made a big dish of Poppy Seed Chicken for lunches at work, and an apple pie. I finished cooking and finally sat down to eat my soup around 10pm. Then I watched about half of When Harry Met Sally, which has been recommended to me forever and I finally was able to stream from Netflix. It was good, but I didn’t think it was as phenomenal as everyone said.

And today I’ve been enjoying my last day off until Tuesday. My new work schedule is Thursday through Monday every week, so weekends have been relocated to Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I slept in this morning, took a lovely shower, cleaned my room, and did various necessary tasks like job paperwork and writing this blog. I just enjoyed a pot of espresso and am about to heat up a bowl of soup. Tonight I’m going back to my Redeemer Bible study for the first time in a couple weeks. Tomorrow it’s back to work for a 9.5 hour day.

I just reread a bunch of the early posts of this blog. It’s funny how different my life was as recently as June, July, and August. I had no idea what was going to happen, was loving my job in Williamsburg, and searching for internships. I was young and idealistic; now I’m old and cynical. :-P Not really, but I do feel that I’ve changed and grown up a lot in the past 5 months. That’s one of the great things about blogs: they capture us as we are at a moment in time. At later moments in time we can go back to reread them and see how we’ve changed.

I’ve been reading Gone With the Wind on the subway this week. Such a fantastic book. Several hundred pages, but so well written that you never get board. I reread Jane Eyre a couple weeks ago, but now I may have to desert my new-found love for Mr. Rochester for an even newer-found love for Rhett Butler. We’ll see. I may do a comparison blog once I finish the book.