I Heart Pigeons

Seth and I met for lunch at this Dumpling Bar. Dumplings aren't my favorite thing, but these were pretty good. Even better... we enjoyed Watermelonaide to drink. I decided I'd look up a possible recipe for this drink and I found a little information from a message board:

Have you tried Watermelemonaide yet? If not, try it!! I just made some with ½ a big watermelon, two big lemons, and three oranges. Yummy nectar. Watermelon juice is the most alkaline of any fruit or vegetable! Because of this, it can help overcome acidic conditions of the body. It is rich in protein, A,B, and C vitamins, enzymes and chlorophyll, and easily digested by most people- even those with poor digestive systems. Watermelon juice help to eliminate uric acid and dissolve accumulated deposits from a poor diet, making it ideal for those with arthritis, gout, and Uremic poisoning, which are all caused by an excess accumulation of uric acid. Watermelon juice flushes a lot of acid from the system and renews the blood. When this happens, the skin starts looking and feeling better! If you feel that watermelon juice is too sweet for you, you can dilute it with water!!

From there I linked to a blog and found this interesting idea of "Juice Feasting". Supposedly it even cures Diabetes. Curious? There is a link to the Juice Feasting blog and website you can check out.

After enjoying lunch with Seth, he headed back to work and I headed off to enjoy the below 90 degree weather! As I walked through Union Square, I was handed a flyer, which is constantly happening. This one was interesting. I'm not really sure what the statement is that he's trying to make, because I just don't have enough information!

Both sides of his board were blank... and he said nothing, just handed out the white cards as he listened to music in his earphones.

As I said, I don't have much information about his cause...

As I made my way towards Madison Square Park, I'm not going to lie that I was a bit nervous walking by this crane... One fell when I was here at Spring Break and another when I came back in June. I-yi-yi.

I spent the afternoon sitting in the shade in Madison Square Park enjoying a good summer read! (Current Read: P.S. I Love You by Cecilia Ahearn... This rarely happens, but I think I like the movie better.)

Sculptures in the Park. There were about 6 different ones by the same artist. They change every summer.

Flatiron Building

Someone is ALWAYS up to something... In Union Square, as I waited for Seth to get off work for the weekend, I spotted a group of loyal pigeon lovers. They were giving out free shirts and stickers if you discussed pigeons with them. Huh.

Teachers of Tomorrow

After doing some research, I found out that my school is on the list for Teachers of Tomorrow. This means I'm employed by a high-needs school and can be eligible for a grant at the end of the year... Below is more information from the website:

http://www.teachnycprograms.net/tot/main.php

*NOTE: It refers to the previous school year...

TEACHERS OF TOMORROW

The Teachers of Tomorrow program is a joint collaboration between the New York City Department of Education and the New York State Education Department and is designed to recruit and sustain well-prepared, highly motivated certified classroom teachers who serve in schools which have been designated as high-need. The TOT incentive program provides tax-free grants to teachers who dedicate themselves to the students in these schools. Eligible teachers could qualify for awards of up to $3,400 annually for a maximum of four (4) years. This grant is only for teachers who are employed with the NYC public schools and you cannot apply for this grant before you are hired.

Applicants for the 2006-2007 school year will be contacted shortly regarding the mandatory July meeting date. Be informed the July meetings will be held during the first three (3) weeks of July. Additional dates may be added.

Missed the Undie Run

In last week's issue of Time Out New York, I found out about the Underwear run through Central Park. It was the kick off event for the Triathlon last weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch it... I'm still really bummed about this. The more I think about it, the more I can't wait for the event next summer, but instead of watching, I want to run! It's only 1.7 miles. Plus, when else do you have permission to run in underwear through Central Park?!

http://www.nyctri.com/Chipotle_Underwear_Run.htm

If anyone is interested in watching or running, let me know... we'll start watching for next year's information and a good pair of underwear for the run! :)

Sushi and Trivia

As I mentioned in the last blog, I met a fellow teacher who has been going through this horrid process of finding a job in the city. She's also looking for an upper elementary position... unfortunately, we laugh about this, I kind of took one of the jobs she was trying for! She'll find a job though, she's an excellent teacher with great experience. From what we've found through our research, schools start hiring like crazy come August. Current teacher in the NYC DOE have until August 7th to leave their schools. Some principals don't start looking until they know exactly what they need to find... and some just save it for the end of the summer. (ALL of it sounds crazy to me... nothing like what is done in Kansas.) She'll definitely find a job, but it would have been cool if it was in the same school!

We've spent a lot of time together the past week - met at a pizza lunch thrown by our recruiters to give us the chance to meet other teachers who are going through the same thing we are as we transition into our new lives in the Big Apple. This was followed by two career fairs - one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx. Then we met up for a late lunch/early dinner and happy hour on Tuesday. Wednesday was filled. First with searching for children's books at the Strand Annex (great book store in the city and the main one is located right by Seth's office). Teachers can't pass up 50% off books! (The Annex is closing down in August.) We met Seth for lunch and then headed up to Herald Square to do a little shopping. After shopping, Central Park.


Dinner was sushi in East Village. I've eaten sushi a couple times before with the guidance of a knowledgeable sushi eater... I've been wanting to try it again since I've been in the city, but don't really know enough about eating sushi to go on my own. Stephanie does, so she guided me along!


After dinner, we headed back to Brooklyn to join friends for Trivia Night at the Lighthouse, a bar on 5th and Carroll (about a block and a half away). Last week, Seth and I came in second to last with 11 points... we got lucky though; some random girl came in and gave us a few right answers. Last night, we weren't so lucky. A group of our friends had been holding the losing spot for two weeks... but we relieved them of their duty by coming in last with 3 points. We obviously need to brush up on our knowledge of everything!

Central Park of Models

I was tooling through Central Park with Stephanie, a friend I met who is also moving up here to teach. I had told her about the last time I was in C.P. and how I saw a photo shoot going on with a model who was all decked out in her and had an entourage of people setting her up and taking pictures. As we were enjoying ice cream and the view of the Mall (my favorite walkway, not a shopping center), we see this chick walking by with some very crazy-poofy hair. Turns out, another quick photo shoot. We took our places to watch on benches nearby. I didn't get up the nerve to ask them what the pictures were specifically for or who the model was, so I have no idea if this is for anything really cool or just some random shoot. Could have gotten a better pic if I'd had the nerve of a couple guys who joined us as an audience... they walked right up the stairs and stood with the crew as they were shooting pictures!

Hula Hoops: The Next Big Thing

A flea market takes place in Union Square about 3-4 times throughout the week. One of the booths, with 2 hippie-type sales people, was selling hula hoops a couple days ago. As customers approached their booth, they would show the sweet moves that can be acquired from owning a hula hoop. Check out the video clip - the girl was pretty good... Most people could hardly keep the thing around their waists. Makes me wonder just how much she really practices... "Hey come meet us for a drink for happy hour"... "Sorry, I can't tonight. I have to practice my hula hoop."



P.S. The reason I say it's the next big thing... two days later, in Central Park, I spotted another group of hula hoopers. They were movin' and groovin' with hula hoops and music as they advertised their assortment of size and colors of hula hoops.

Busy Ants

I've found a great place to sit and watch the city people move. I've always seen people in these windows looking onto Union Square from a shopping center in the southern edge of Union Square Park. Now, I'm not wondering how they got so lucky to be sitting in the comfy chairs while I'm standing/sitting on cement steps. When you come to NYC to see me, I'll take you there too!

Watching the people as they move made me dizzy. It never stops and the same people just don't come back. It reminded me of an ant hill. The ants swarm all over the place and you are sure you never see the same one twice.

A Little Case of Homesickness

Last year (and college years previous) I spent every weekend with my friends... staying out late, tooling around Manhattan (KS), watching TV, talking, and just generally hanging out. Now, I'm far away from all of them, and haven't actually talked to them on the phone much because of schedules and whatnot. I miss each of them terribly - especially when I see groups of friends hanging out in my neighborhood on a casual Saturday afternoon. I can't explain what they have, but I understand it. I, too, shared that with my friends states away.

It's hard... I'm not sure how you make friends. It's also such a slow process... college was so different. We were all together for the same purpose - school. We had nothing to do but hang out all the time. Friends seemed to come a lot easier. Plus, I had my friends of forever there. We'd all come together, bring new friends, and help each other make friends. Here... I'm on my own.

I spent the day hanging out alone in this huge city full of people. It made me a little homesick... which is to be expected since I moved so far away from my comfort zone and everything that I knew so well into something so big, different, and unknown.

PS: I did get reminded of Manhattan (KS) though last night. Seth and I were coming home from seeing the new Batman movie. As we came down 5th Ave, lights were flashing, ambulance, police cars, caution tape hung at the intersection in front of our apartment. A stabbing... Kind of scary thought, but as I thought about it, we did have many incidents outside of the Seth's college digs... and we do live near the bar scene as Seth lived near Aggieville in Manhattan.

Pieces of You I Miss

As most of you know, Seth and I spent the last year apart - him living in NYC and me in KS. During the time, I thought I'd be sweet and send Seth puzzle pieces with the letters I was writing to him... For each puzzle piece I would tell him something I was especially missing about him - his hugs, the sound of him laughing, making dinner together, trying a new bottle of wine, etc. I had a picture of us from our first visit to NYC together turned into a puzzle through shutterfly.com.

I kept up on sending pieces of the puzzle to him throughout the first half of the year... but with wedding planning and the stress of the State Tests, the KPA, and teaching, I kind of forgot about the puzzle. Although he didn't get all the pieces through letters throughout the year as I had planned, I gave him the rest of the pieces and we began putting it together the past few evenings.

Cancers Need Security

My horoscope said it correctly today -- I am a soul who needs security (emotional and financial according to the 'scope). My Zodiac DNA and my own personal experience shows that I do not live in comfort unless I have it. At lunch earlier with Seth, I was almost in tears because everything is extremely complicated with this move and job search. I know it will all be worth it when we get settled in and life falls into place, but I do look forward to the moves in our future (at least a couple years from now) being simpler - we can hope!

*Just so you aren't getting scared that there's trouble in paradise - the insecurity I'm talking about, feeling, almost in tears about, stressing about, etc. has nothing to do with our new marriage - love couldn't be BETTER! This is all to do with my lack of a teaching job, apartment imperfections, transitions, etc... Fitting more under the financial security than emotional -- but it does do a number on my emotions (ask Seth)...

The latest... We are in the middle of a huge urban area, New York City to be exact. This last year, I have been looking forward to having internet, having options, none of this "in the middle of Kansas, crappy internet" stuff... HA. I had it coming. Our area is in Timewarner Cable internet. Our lovely Landlord doesn't allow them to wire the building, so it's not available to us... We try for DSL, it's ordered, on the way to be hooked up this weekend, get an email... turns out... No DSL available. Now we're onto something new, more expensive, but our only option. Satellite internet. So here we come 2 year commitment of Satellite internet... PLEASE Rock our socks off!

Internet is on it's way... and I have a job fair tomorrow afternoon in Brooklyn, interview in the Bronx for a 1st Grade position on Monday morning, and another job fair in the Bronx on Monday afternoon... hopefully this Cancer finds her security.

Sumos in Carts

Thanks to Ethan and Jac, we have living room furniture... Sumos (aka very big bean bags that rock) Because of our small space, we thought a couch might be too much. Moving it up 3 floors of stairs didn't sound too appealing either. We look forward to watching Lost: Season 3 soon on our new living room seating :)

Words in the Sky

On our way home from Target on Sunday, I looked up to see planes leaving marks in the sky creating words. I'd never seen this before... so of course, I pulled out the camera to capture a first! Turns out "Heineken" was being written across the sky over and over again. (A message from the heavens?) Made Seth and I want to go get a beer on a patio and enjoy the wonderful Sunday afternoon.

Tour de Apartment Livingroom/Kitchen Area

Figured we'd post a quick video to give you an idea of what our apartment looks like. We still have moving to do, but we have a base for what the place will look like.

Vote for Bartlett Arboretum

Many of you saw the natural beauty of the Bartlett Arboretum at our wedding ceremony. You may have also noticed the tilled up dirt/mud near the pond. This was caused by major flooding - which has happened for many summers in a row. Many people are working with Robin to receive a grant to remedy the flooding issues. You can help too!

Visit this site and cast your vote daily! Hurry though, you only have until July 21st!

Go to: http://www.markhammarkofdistinction.com/
Vote by clicking on: Bartlett Arboretum, Robin Macy

For more information about the flooding at the Bartlett Arboretum, check out: http://www.savethearb.com/

Putting the Pieces Together

All the furniture pieces we got at Ikea came packed as pieces in boxes. So, last night, Seth and I began the fun of putting together the pieces. Quite enjoyable at first, as we had just received our next discs for Lost and were enjoying a few episodes on the new flatscreen 32" TV. Even when we shut off Lost and turned on Miss Macy's wonderful music to start putting together our new loft, we were still fairly excited about our task ahead of us. (www.bartlettarboretum.com if you are interested in purchasing your own copy of "Songs from the Garden")

After a few steps, we realized that our small quarters and frustrating pieces and instructions were going to make this loft-putting-together project an adventure... with a little less fun and a little more frustration than we planned. We did survive, and we now have a loft waiting for a mattress... it was over 3 hours of work and problem solving. All I have to say, We are NOT moving next year because I do NOT want to take this thing down and rebuild it again... and this thing BETTER BE WORTH IT.

It fit perfectly into the room between these walls... but that became a problem when we couldn't move it to screw the pieces together. Tight space for squeezing... Luckily Seth didn't realize this until we were too far along to change it. Ultimately, this is the way I wanted the bed to fit in the room, and he'd have been ok with it going the other way.

All the boxes... and Seth's new TV.

The completed project.

Also, thought I'd share some random pictures of the apartment and the views out our fire escape. Seth and I have already decided that this fire escape is about as good as a balcony and definitely a perk to the apartment... although I'll be sitting in the window sill - my fear of heights makes me a little leery of joining him on the metal fire escape three stories above the cement sidewalk! O and did I mention - we have a TINY (fitting) view of the NYC skyline... and I can check up on one of my favorite NYC buildings: The Chrysler Building.

View from the Balcony looking down 1st street in the "western" direction

View up 1st street to the intersection of 5th Avenue in the "Eastern" direction