On Wednesday

Yesterday I got a lot done. And by "a lot" I mean that I watched all of Game of Thrones Season 2 in a day... what resume can I put that accomplishment on? I also did a lot of packing and am finishing up all the music-making. When my mom and Kathleen and I did the road trip up to Vancouver in the summer of 2005, I brought along one mix cd and a disc of Jerry Seinfeld standup. How is that sufficient for a week and a half on the road? Spoiler alert, it's not! There were some songs on there I stillllll can't listen to because it's so clockwork orange, but there were NO songs on there that I don't immediately get taken back in memory to that gold Ford Explorer blazing down the roads in western Washington state and Idaho immediately when I hear them.

All that to say that I learned my lesson this time! I bought a 50-pack of blank CDs and for the past few weeks have been working on covering ALL the bases: not just full albums of Arcade Fire or Florence + The Machine, or mix cds in every genre, and emotion, but also tons of stand up (like almost 15 hours worth, including Daniel Tosh, Louis CK, and Chris Rock) but also instrumentals for when your brain needs the break, from movie scores to Disney musicals to a rainforest nature sound. This is the kind of foresight and expertise that only comes from the pain of previous unknowing. However, at this point, I think I have enough to last me in the event the car breaks down in Jersey and I have to walk home.

Yesterday after all day packing and Game of Throning in the heat, I decided to go relax in my favorite place in the city, at the Long Island City piers. I went around dusk and was able to get one of the lounge deck chair on the front and just watch the sun set over the river in the summer night. It was a perfect night and there were lots of people, still out even at 10pm, riding bikes and walking and playing in the grass.

I tried to imagine what it was going to be like leaving, and not being able to come here or see this view anymore, but I couldn't. Despite finishing with work, despite my room being packed up, I still can't fathom the reality of it. Tonight is going away drinks and I'm sure that I still won't comprehend it even then.

Romanian Garden

Well hello Neverland. Another great night's sleep (is it because I get to stay up until 4am and sleep til noon? Sorry, I just work best that way) and today I am completely free and clear to continue my quest to pack up everything. This has been the best packing session I've had in a long time. I've given myself a whole week, and I'm not bringing any furniture, so it's been a verrrrrry leisurely process. So leisurely, that I am already halfway through the entire Game of Thrones series... and getting closer to finishing!

Last night my roommates took me out to dinner. We went to a restaurant in the neighborhood (just two blocks over) called Romanian Garden. There are like 3 Romanian restaurants here (HOW does that happen?) and most of you probably don't know, but my best friend growing up (whom I am still very close with) is/was Romanian, and I grew up trying really hard to make myself understand Romanian (I did pick up a few phrases) and eating all that good Romo homecooking, so I was very intrigued to try the restaurant. I couldn't find any samales on the menu, a staple appetizer of shredded pork and cabbage, which was probably for the best since I always call them salamis on accident, but got stuffed peppers, and let me tell you, that minced meat and cream cheese IS Romania, so that place received a gold star for authenticity from me!

Also, something I LOVE about New York and will surely miss: the bodega cats! No one freaks out about animals, and all the small mom and pop stores and restaurants frequently have house animals around, and there was this pretty kitty hanging out, that actually followed our waitress around and sat with her when she sat to do some bookkeeping, I thought it was precious.

My packing is so close to being done I almost don't know what to do with myself. But there is still laundry, packing for the road trip, taking down wall hangings, assembling all the stuff together, blah blah blah and then have to scour this place clean before I leave! And a thunderstorm just started outside! Sounds loverly.

Namaste, World

If anyone was taking bets on if I'd get myself up and be productive, then I'm happy to report that those of you who had faith in me should cash in! Not only did I get to yoga last night, but I even went this morning too! Talk about aligning those chakras.

This is the exact studio I was in this morning

I'm going to the studio I had a membership at when I first moved to New York, and I absolutely love it. It's in SoHo, which really is one of my favorite neighborhoods, it's on the second floor and so zen-like inside, and has long, wide, sweeping warehouse-type windows and freeeee tea! Last night I did my first iyengar session, which I really liked, got out around 9p, got ice cream and walked up to Prince Street in the summer night. SoHo in the summer is just like the movies, with the tiny cobblestone streets, warehouse stores and apartments, echoes of delivery trucks, smells of Chinese restaurants, honks of taxicabs, and the Chrysler Building looming far in the distance. This morning I got up, had coffee and was on the subway by 9a, just past the rush hour and still early to feel the morning. I took an easy, basic yoga class and stuck around to align my head chakra (I totally made that up, I don't even really understand them) with hot tea. When I left, it was warm and nice and I passed Chinatown and decided to do a little shopping (gotta get those knock-offs while I'm here!) and now I'm home, having lunch over Game of Thrones (this show has only mildly grown on me) and then moreeeee packing, and my roommates are taking me to dinner tonight.

Do you like how I do two recreational exercise classes and I feel credentialed to run a small third-world country? (Maybe second!) Me too. It's amazing what not sitting at a desk 9-5 will do to you!

The Cloisters and Packing

Well, well, well, what have we here? First weekday of no work, and already I'm up to no good. My day starts with yesterday.

I took myself up to the Cloisters, the last vestige of New York City I had any desire to see and cross off my list, and man, I'm really glad I went, they... were... beautiful! The Cloisters were built in the 1930s to look like real medieval cloisters farrrrrr in uptown Manhattan, on that upper peninsula of Inwood along the Hudson, and it's where the Met appropriately hosts medieval art. Along the river in the summertime, it was just so beautiful, and a little nostalgic, and made me miss Europe. I wish I had gone sooner, but then again, I only recently found out being a student at Columbia gives me free museum access in New York, so it's better this way. There was even a special exhibit on the unicorn.

The walk to the Cloisters

A view of the Hudson river from inside the Cloister walls

 The entrance to the museum.

 Inside, an entrance to another room

A replica of a Cloister chapel... or something. I didn't get too close, tours annoy me

A unicorn tapestry! I was yelled at for taking a picture in that room right after that. "Oops"

 The Holy Grail. (Unofficially). Don't try to tell me it's not, we all saw Indiana Jones!

On the subway ride up I was listening to Of Monsters and Men, a band from Iceland that was at Coachella. The whole album kinda reads like a concept piece of a Viking voyage, and looking at this book made me feel like it was a page straight from a song, so I lolololol'ed

This reminded me so much of Sleeping Beauty, I had to take a picture. There's a scene where the three fairies are trying to figure out how they will protect the princess after Maleficent delivers her evil omen, and in order to not be overheard, they shrink themselves down and hide in piece like this to discuss their plan...

 

The Cloister courtyard

A medieval medicinal garden

Courtyard with ivy

After this, I went to Herald Square area for awhile before coming back home, eating, and then starting in on packing. I already got the process going on Saturday when I went through all of my clothes, jewelry, shoes, etc, to start The Purge and get rid of anything and everything that could be spared. It was hard to be as generous as I wanted, but as I told my wardrobe and shoerack at the end: "Don't get too comfortable. You've only survived Round One."

So I'm slowly whittling things down, last night got into the packing. I put on music and went through things as I packed them, and played dress up in more of my clothes as I tried to determine what I still wanted to keep. Because I only came to New York with two suitcases of clothes and a curling iron, most everything I have here was also acquired here, and it was weird to go through the books I had bought (like the whole Harry Potter series), remembering each crowded trip to The Strand bookstore, and every bookmarker left in them (like a picture of me and Ronnie from the Michael Jackson birthday party in Brooklyn in August 2010!), or the book Jayna bought for me at the book fair our work did once, and new hire documents for the job in New York, and then the job at Columbia, and I was able to reflect on literally my entire time here, and I was relieved to find that, while I had fun and I'll miss this, I'm happy to close the books on this adventure and call it a day.

When I started to see the dawn coming through I figured it was time to pack it in. I showered at 4am, watched an episode of Game of Thrones (slowly but surely) and went to bed around 5am. I woke up at noon after having had one of the best sleeps I've had in months, and starting back in on the packing and sorting today. If I don't make it to yoga this afternoon, I WILL go tomorrow morning!

...maybe.

Fourth of July Eve

My head is all shades of confused. I kept thinking today was not only Friday, but also my last day of work. Instead, it's Wednesday, and I got off early, and I have tomorrow off, and then have to go to work on Friday... then have a week off, and then drive out of New York and what the heck is going on??

Today started off with a going-away breakfast for me hosted by work, which was actually really nice and pleasant, and so many people showed up! Whenever they asked what I was going to be doing or why I was leaving, I tried to divert the question by bringing attention to the road trip, which really worked! Suddenly it was all Atlanta-this and New Orleans-that. I also packed up most of my things to bring home, which is probably why today felt like my last day.

We got out at 2 and when I was ready to leave, it started pouring outside, so then I stayed another 45 minutes just trying to wait it out and finally just left while it was still raining. I used the extra hours to TCOB (take care of business) and got so much done, I'm proud! A stop by FedEx, a stationary store, the Asian market (the only place I know of in the world that still sells vanilla Coke), the post office, Central Park, Trader Joe's, then home to find what I thought was a jury summons, but instead was a juror qualification questionnaire. Funny how I've lived here over three years and then I get that the week before I leave. Welp, they're going to be in for a surprise, AREN'T they. Happy 4th tomorrow.

Thirteen Innings Later...

With Sri in NYC for the summer, we pre-planned a few funtivities, including going to a Mets game, because neither of us had been. The only reason this was a borderline crime for me is because I went to high school with Lucas Duda, their left fielder / first baseman. When I think of Lucas, I mainly remember him sleeping in AP Stat class, so it's nice to see he woke up long enough to make it to the major leagues! Also, my roommate has season tickets to the Mets, so it really would have been inexcusable not to make it to a game.

The seats that Sri and I bought from my roommate were great! They were up some levels, but behind home plate, and gave us access to the indoor Promenade Club and bar, which was reassuring considering the flash flood warnings all day yesterday.

Sri and I were settled into our seats when someone from the Mets in a suit came down into our section looking for me. He asked if I was Kristin, friends with Khary and I said "yesss....?" Sri was wearing a San Francisco Giants shirt (old habits die hard) so I thought maybe this would be like that Seinfeld episode where they try to make Elaine take off her Baltimore Orioles hat because she's behind homeplate and in the line of the camera. Instead, he said that Khary asked them to do something for us, and left me and Sri with Mets giftbags with Mets swag, and my bag included a boxed baseball signed by Lucas Duda! I was soooo surprised and thought it was sooooo nice of my roommate! I couldn't get over it.

Sri and I had a great time, the weather held up for us, it was a beautiful night, and we were a little more concerned with the San Francisco/Cincinnati game score up on the board (1-8, ouch) until the Mets started picking up steam against the Diamondbacks and THIRTEEN INNINGS LATER the Mets won 5-4!

On the way out Sri and I tried to get a picture of us in front of the Home Run Apple from the old Shea Stadium with the Citi Field logo in the back. Sri explicitly explained this to everyone we asked, and like 5 people later, we finally had it!

Since Lucas was out with an injury and not playing anyway, guess we'll have to come back again sometime soon...!

The Rumours Are True

I'm moving back to California!

I've been wondering how to say this, and especially when. I'm not sure what I've been waiting for, past maybe clarity and some answers to the slough of questions bound to come with it. And the months passed and at this point I had to throw up my hands and say that I might not have any explanations or prime reasons to drop the news, and now I find that today is July and I will already be back by the end of this month! So it's now or never. And as a matter of fact, this is my last week of work! ...and it feels weird.

New York City has been a fabulously fun place to live in, to party in, to work in, to be 24, 25, 26, and 27 in. I couldn't have really asked for more from it. And I am absolutely, completely, 100% satisfied with my time here... I really feel I did absolutely everything I wanted to do, could have wanted to do, ever wanted to do... from taking in street fairs and festivals, trying clubs and bars and restaurants up and down Manhattan and beyond, and participating in the community, joining sports leagues, etc etc! But I've been feeling a call for a new direction and if I stay in New York, I will be too distracted and busy to ever find out what it is / could be. A good friend of mine who recently went through something similar and relocated from Madrid to Miami put it very eloquently when she said to me: if you feel that you are supposed to leave, then there must be something great waiting for you somewhere else- and you'll have to take that leap of faith to go search for it. So that's what I know, and that's what I leave you with.

Whenever people ask me what my plan is after leaving New York, I don't have answers. I just feel like this with life in general:

I do have some ideas, some aspirations, some dreams, some thoughts. But I'm just going to have to hit the reset button, form a battleplan, and then let the chips fall where they may. I'm not necessarily returning to California because I want to retire there, but more because I need a homebase in which to recuperate, heal, think, and then rest up for the next step, whatever it turns out to be.

The EXODUS begins on Saturday, July 13th... and yes I am road trippin' this bad boy home! Details will be forthcoming.

...that extra 'u' in the title is for British Shannon. Lose a sister, gain a sister! (Silver lining!)