homework

here is your homework for the subway appreciation course. click here and begin your journey of appreciation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TohBp6zT1rw


yes i saw this in real life.

extra credit or further research
http://www.blackviolin.com/

mary louise

well louise wasnt all i had anticipated. bummer. she was just as depressing as the first day i met her. i dont know if i can be her friend. she hates her life and i do not need to be around a long time new yorker who hates life in the city and only wants to know about life in dallas and makes me dream and think about that. now i am worried that she knows where i work and she is going to be my new york stalker. she is married. she wants a divorce. this also creates a problem. 1 because i am not going to out right condone and tell her go for it drop him. 2 i dont want to be her sounding board/ shoulder to cry on if she does go through with it. well i told her she could call me. she has such a lack of motivation in life it will probably take a while for her to get back to me. and she was weird. and crazy. and i could deal with anne ross and her craziness because she does have a sparkle in her eye (most days) and she is open and interested in being encouraged in her joy that comes from her saviour. so i dont know what exactly to do about mary louise caldwell, but i guess we will cross that bridge when we get there.

six week break down

so everyone told me to expect a six week break. down. it. came. and it went away nicely as well. so. i just need you to understand that this is my first time away from home for an extended amount of time. it is hard to believe that with all the camps and excursions i have been on and my ability to appear extremely independent, but i have never been away more than one month. so i never thought that the distance would really be that big of a problem. but here i am 1554.85 miles away unable to be there for the pool, scarletts birthday, thanksgiving, and so so much more. it is weird. some of you may be able to relate, but i was really encouraged by my longtime friend chelsea and her momma who was in town this past weekend. it was nice because they have already been through this and still go through it as the years go by. so anyway just thought you should know my emotional state of being.

so as a pick me up, i got to go to DC to see two of my friends from program. Colleen was in DC for an interview and she was staying with Jennifer. I tried to get Colleen to come here, but a broken leg prohibited her from the ambulatory needs of the city. so i went to her. on a bus. vamoose. it was fine. no big deal. and we got to go see the capital and go to the national gallery of art. it was a nice day trip. fun for all. then we went and had lunch with Jennifer and we drove around in Georgetown as well. pictures coming soon. i think you will like them.

also i called the brooklyn childrens museum for the 8th time today and finally got in touch with Sue Bender the Events supervisor. So now i know i have an interview next tuesday at 10 am. i am going to wow her.... hopefully. my friend jillian (who lives here and who i student taught with in denton) she sent "good vibes" my way for the interview. i ask that you send something a little more powerful directly to the good LORd for me.

so i guess october 1 passed as fast as it came upon us. before you know it we will be sitting at a table drinking coffee or something amazing of the like.

in other news...

ok things i need to tell you about are.
1) i have an interview coming up at the brooklyn children's museum. i dont know when, but i am excited. it is a part time job, but it is still a good thing. it is a party coordinator position. yippee. we will see
2) louise caldwell called back. i am meeting her on friday night. we will be talking about possible organizational needs she has. we talked on tuesday for one hour and forty-five minutes. does spelling those words out help you understand the length of that conversation? it was long, but ya know it was funny. i like her. so we will see what i am getting myself into with her.
3) it is getting colder. i am wearing my favorite cozy red jacket from gap that i love. i could live in this jacket and i wish this jacket created enough warmth for the whole cold winter that i will encounter, but we all know that won't happen.
4)that being said, i bought my winter coat. at nowhere else than the good ole burlington coat factory. i am so excited about this coat. it is black and long. like to my ankles long and has an ENORMOUS collar. i will take a picture in it and you will be jealous you don't live somewhere in need of such an amazing coat.
5) i am done babysitting for susan. no more tuesday/thursday babies. bummer, but good.
6)something to look forward to... subway appreciation 101. i know you can't contain your excitement for an online course.
7) my parents will have a pool soon. that is exciting. i am going to miss the first pool party.

pictures.

we got stuff. well dana has stuff. i have a bed. and my favorite computer i have ever owned. pearl.mac



isn't this the quaint little spot you imagined in your head of what our outside entrance looks like? well whether or not it is, this is what we got.



a shot of our front entry. in case you want to know what the door looks like that we rarely enter through.



a new marketing scheme kelsey and i came up with for heinz 57 ketchup.... maybe people will drink whole bottles of ketchup and buy in 6 packs. just an idea.



the streets of BK that i walked on a saturday shopping excursion



the common vista as you look out the window at the target bistro. a bustling brooklyn below and beyond.

onlyinnewyorkcity....

well there are somethings in this world that you would ONLY SEE/ENCOUNTER IN NEW YORK CITY. i have two to share with you today

one: this lady at the paperie told me that she had turned her kitchen into a library. that is correct. she presently has no refrigerator. is that not the craziest thing you have ever heard. i said what if you want like ice cream or a yogurt... she said her diner down stairs from her apartment was her kitchen, and that she didn't want to sit in her lonely apartment in front of the TV eating her delivered dinner. i think this is a valid point. 

two: an encounter from nikki

at a pretty big subway station today nikki was walking through to transfer to her train, and a man was walking past her and said " can i have a drink of that?" referring to the lipton ice tea bottle in her hand. she had to have him repeat himself because it caught her so off guard. so he said it again "can i have a drink of that?" nikki kindly gave the man the drink and told him he could keep it.  i mean really. who dose that. 

onlyinnewyorkcity....

mary louise caldwell...

well as i mentioned i met an interesting character at the paperie last week. yes her full name is mary louise caldwell but you can call her louise for short. she is from amarillo texas, and was so glad to have met another of her kind. the main thing you all need to take away from this encounter was the fact that i actually got to give my business card to someone! that is a monumental experience making the whole thing worthwhile. but anyway. this lady is in the store and me being the nice little retail worker i am simply ask "is there anything i can help you with today ma'am?" well that was the beginning of something that i never thought could happen. I don't know how exactly it came up other than that I hadn't lived here long, but within about one minute or even less i knew this woman's name and origin. and she knew i was sally from dallas. then she talked to me/ at me for a solid hour. Now in retail especially at a paperie in new york city, you rarely help one customer for more than 30 seconds. just a simple oh that way, oh its right here, oh well thats all we have, or whatever the appropriate response is to the busy new yorker. so the fact that this woman sat down on a table and took off her hat and set down her groceries on behalf of me and my TEXAS heritage, this was quite out of the ordinary.

Well the thing that she talked about that got me to thinkin, was that she had lived in the city more that 25 years and had moved here right after college with some friends. She wondered why i had moved here. But there was a deep level of desperation and depression in her eyes. I mean to the point it seemed that I was the reason she was continuing her life that day. So it just made me very thankful that i have a deeper reason to be in this city, but it is so easy to forget, so easy that i forgot until i am here writing these words. I mean not that i have totally lost purpose in life, but its just so good that i don't have to worry about looking back in 25 years thinking how did i waste my life in THIS city with THESE people. I do have a hope and a future and God has prepared a plan for me and it is prosperous. Anyway cheers to that.

so louise gave me her number as well. i called her, but didn't touch base. she hasn't called back. I wanted to call her, because i did enjoy her to the level i enjoyed Anne Ross the first time I met her. and i always will have a void in my life without anne around. (who called wanting her car keys because she is having her car shipped to Arizona. little update within an update). So i was thinking i might just see if this lady wanted to be a possible NYC replacement of my sweet anne. i will let you know....

Nikki is going home tomorrow to Kemah. Her house, that is on the water, got hit pretty hard by Ike. So you can be praying for her and her family. They need it. She doesn't have a return flight, but she plans on being back in about two weeks. A dear friend of her's payed for a plane ticket home. That has left me home alone for 6 more sleeps on my air mattress and then dana will be here with furniture, MY BED, and my lovely computer Pearl.

a time line

so we have been here two days shy of one month.
we will be getting our beds in just 10 more days!!! we are counting down the days!

i would say that i am very thankful for my little part time jobs and content to be here for now. i have applied for lots of jobs and had NO responses, so I am just having to be ok with that right now.

We (nikki and my friend kelly) are signing up for a community group at Apostles church. We are going to a prayer night at someone's apartment tonight as well. So we are just trying to meet some people there and get involved.

Everyone keeps asking if I am settled in, but i honestly just think that this is all so surreal still, that it is hard to believe that this is life. I mean i am here living life and the days are passing by and it is great, but ya know it isn't "normal" as i know "normal". well what ever normal is this doesn't feel like it, but i am enjoying it and life is good and fun and here i am so what am i going to do about it now. not that i want to do something about it, like it is bad or anything, but it is crazy that i am here without all you people, doing something that is totally different. i met this lady yesterday, she was a little odd, but i am going to have to tell you more about her later, but she relates to these thoughts i am having about what i am doing here. so look forward to a little story about Mary Louise Caldwell....from Amarillo, Texas.

pics of our stomping ground

the street we walk down to the subway Eastern Parkway

cute brownstones along the same street

new york avenue. the cross street. 

gotham city. its dark. its not that great of a pic, but it was pretty in real life. 

gimme gimme i need i need...

mexican food. oh the luxuries of tejas. and tex-mex. well we made our own tacos tonight. i was concerned when i had to ask to guy at the grocery store if they even had taco seasoning, but all was well when i found it with the other mexican food items. so although i did burn toast the other day attempting to broil bread in our gas oven and setting off the smoke alarm at 7:30 am...tonight we successfully and deliciously created tacos in our quaint little kitchen. here is a pic of the spread

a little weekly update on life

so apparently the biggest parade/festival in brooklyn was monday and guess what I was at work! i missed the whole thing. all i got to see was the trash on our street walking home, and the people leaving our part of town on the subway. oh well. nikki made me feel sad that i was missing it, but there will be more in this big bad city.

well i went to this interview at an inn here on the upper west side, but i am not going to do it. i would have been sacrificing half of my life to do something i dont totally want to do, but i went to see if it was something amazing that would have been worth the sacrifice. so ya know here i am. i do have a more consistant and committed schedule for babysitting for my friend susan. I am thankful for her and the opportunity to babysit for her. the only problem is that she wants me at 8AM and they live an hour away... so an early morning. i guess i can handle it. ;) kate's paperie is still going well. i worked sunday and monday and that was pretty much a drag since it was a holiday weekend and there was no one there, but yesterday was much more fun and busy. i got to set up some displays, and take another down. so i actually had something to do.

our other roommate dana finally moved in, and with her came some exciting kitchen tools. she got a knife set, a drying rack, a trash can, a couple of pans and a spatula. woohoo. she also got this old sideboard off the street. it is funny, kinda retro and someone installed a record player in it, and it has red fabric in the doors. but it is great. so we are going to be furnishing this place with super finds like this! and stuff practically comes to our door step since the trash pile is right outside our door. seriously.

one more thing. i think we have decided on a church. i really like it. it is small, but comfortable. it is called apostles, and it meets in this big church near union square at 14th street. www.apostlesnyc.com here is the link if you want to see.