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Saturday, 12 December 2009

  • What a Day

    I wrote a rant about my day, but it's pretty much unnecessary.  I'll leave it at today topped off a less than excellent week with regard to work.  (ETA: I just learned I'm working every day next week but Sunday.  I'll take it.)

    However, on the positive side I found a super-cute neighborhood today with a bakery I will definitely be checking out.  And I had coffee with an old friend tonight.  Which was really nice.

    Tomorrow I will go to church.  And I am SO looking forward to it.  I heard again about Trinity Grace so I think I'll definitely have to check it out.  But Redeemer is the destination tomorrow, I think. 

    I'm exhausted and tired.  <--- See?  And hungry. 

    I watched Bye Bye Birdie last night.  Wow.  I did not like it at all. 

    Ok. This is an absurdly bad post.  Better stuff coming in the future.  I promise.



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Thursday, 10 December 2009

Wednesday, 09 December 2009

  • Unexpected Adventures

    Yesterday and today were FUN days.

    Work was fine. Pretty slow, but a producer came in and liked a song I was playing on my iPod and asked about it. (It was playing over the house speakers.) It was a John Mayer song that he hadn't heard before. He thought I had an unreleased John Mayer song (which would be ridiculous). It's actually a track from "Live at ECSU." He offered to buy it from me for $20. LOL I didn't go for it. Pretty amazing how excited he got about it, though.

    After work I headed uptown to babysit for the Chos. (I wrote about them earlier.) The kids were awesome! We all got along well, they're really well behaved and very imaginative so we had a good time playing. They went to bed around 8:15 (or so) and I fell asleep on the couch. Jordyn had invited me to stay the night, I hadn't planned on it, but I fell asleep so quickly and didn't wake up until she put a pillow under my head and laid a blanket over me (such a mom move. Thanks, Jordyn!) This morning she got a call that one of the helpers at her Mom's Group called out so I subbed! More time with kids! Yay! On the way to the Mom's group we picked up a couple other people and all made our way to the bus stop. It was raining this morning - hard. Once we were safely under the shelter at the bus stop we all lowered and closed our umbrellas, Ezra's rain shield was lifted off his stroller, we were chatting and happy. A truck drove past and, as though we were in a movie, a wall of water came surging toward us, seemingly in slow motion. I'm completely serious when I say I could see the large balls of water that preceded the giant wave before it literally doused us all. Except me. Jordan was shielding me. Dear Ezra just sat in his stroller utterly bemused. Everyone started laughing. It was just TOO preposterous. After the Mom's Group we got food at Maoz Vegetarian. It was really good. I'm not a huge falafel fan, but these were mild (and probably "Americanized) and really good. When we got back to the apartment Lydia and Jordyn and I played while Ezra napped. It was SO nice to see them, particularly to see people connected with a Christian community here in NYC. I'm looking forward to getting to know their church. (Also - Jordyn sent me home with a cookie from Levain Bakery. Possibly the best cookie I've ever had. SO good!

    On my way home I and my wet and very cold feet stopped at Urban Outfitter for rainboots, socks and slippers. I paid entirely too much money for them and may well end up taking them back, but I felt better just knowing I now have rainboots if I need them. After 4 years of wet Boston Novembers holding my ground and not buying rainboots, I have caved after one cold, soggy day in New York. (There are more in this week's forecast. Ugh!)

    So what was supposed to be a few hours of babysitting turned into a sleepover, more babysitting, and a day of fun. I'll take it

    Tomorrow morning I head to the Redeemer office to fill out paperwork, then work tomorrow night.

    Also - this is where I've been staying this week:


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Monday, 07 December 2009

  • Day Off

    I had an unexpected day off (again) today. There was a .... mix up... with the scheduling. I know that I work tomorrow from 10:45-5. And that's all I know for the week. Poor my boss.

    This afternoon I went out with my roommate for some snacks, then watched "Never Been Kissed." Have you seen it lately? I was probably 17 the last time I watched it.

    I've noticed quite a bit of international traffic on my site lately. Hello South Korea and France!

    When I went out with Sarah earlier I wore my favorite red knit hat. I haven't taken it off since. (How myspace am I?)

    Photo 10

    I'm looking forward to reading more. One of the things I love about public transportation is that I can both travel and read simultaneously. I was in DC almost 5 years ago when I used that to it's utmost, but I'll take advantage again.

    Tomorrow I'm babysitting for some friends on the Upper West Side. I know them from my church in Boston. I'm looking forward to seeing them tomorrow. I haven't even met the youngest child yet, so that should be quite fun! Abe was the college pastor while I was there and preached a sermon that pulled me out of a really deep funk.

    This is an excerpt from a blog I wrote a few days after he spoke:

    "He also spoke about how sometimes we still work to earn God's favor. Whenever I hear someone talk about this I dismiss it because I know my salvation is dependent upon grace, not on anything I do or achieve. But what he said, in a way that made it finally click, was that nothing we do gains favor with God. Jesus already got all the favor for us. So, while I've always been assured of salvation, he assured me of God's pleasure, I guess. I'm slowly realizing that I'm something of a people pleaser. Maybe you already knew this about me. I didn't. And I think that also translates into my relationship with God. I want to please Him and I beat myself up a lot when I feel like I haven't done that. So it was really encouraging to hear Abe say he finally made that connection his 2nd year of seminary. Lia wrote a really excellent post about it too - much better than this one so I suggest you check it out. it's www.xanga.com/luckystar725 - i'm subscribed to her so go hunting.

    For the last 4 months I've been dealing with, I don't know, depression maybe. And I've felt like this extremely negative, sour person. It's been really hard, and I think it contributed to some of my school issues last semester. I've been avoiding God, kind of. Doing this weird dance of "I want your joy back, I want to feel normal again" and "don't look at me, I'm wretched." On Friday morning I woke up and felt like myself again. I was sitting at work, at my computer typing an e-mail to Lena and I could literally feel gladness bubbling inside me! It was incredible! And it lasted all day! Over the weekend I had swings of low points but there wasn't that darkness. I didn't realize it when I was going through it, but it was really dark. Like, at the end of the semester, when I was really stressed I could empathize with people who commit suicide. Like, it made sense to me. I actually thought, "Oh, this is why they do it." I never considered it for myself. Ever. But the fact that I could even think that it would make sense in someone's head is really troubling. But I think God's going to use it somehow. "

    He, and the whole church there had a profound influence on my spiritual life. Because of the teaching there I have a deep thirst for theologically rich preaching.

    I'm really hoping I won't have to work on Sunday. I'd like to check out Redeemer and there are a few other churches I've heard about since coming here that I'd like to see. I should look into week-night church services...

    Also - check out Ryan Costello at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/media/the-drop