life after Ellen

My routine has changed. I no longer drink coffee with my roommate in the morning, watch Ellen, workout or job search. Well, I still job search and drink coffee, but I hardly see my roommate and I rarely watch Ellen. I recently started a temporary, part-time job which takes up a considerable amount of my time. I working on a research project at NYU. When I'm not in my data collector role visiting NYC schools in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan, I'm working in the office doing data entry for the project. I love it! Not only do I get to set my own hours, working as much or as little as I want, I am also getting practical experience to put on my resume. I took a class this summer on program evaluation, and now I'm getting to see what I learned in practice not just theory. I'm hoping this experience helps me figure out if I really want to be a program evaluator.
In the meantime, my job search continues. I got a call on Wednesday to schedule an interview. It's my first interview since August. I'm very excited. I also applied to two very promising jobs at my grad school. While they aren't exactly what I forsee as "in-line" with my career goals, they do offer a few benefits. Namely great holidays and tuition exemption. The second benefit would allow me to continue to take grad classes- for free!
When I'm not traveling to boroughs to visit schools, I'm at NYU. When I'm not there, I'm usually headed to one of my 3 tutoring jobs. I still try to go to the gym after tutoring. Basically, my life is now back to a craziness that mirrors the fast-pace I love about this City.

This is my excuse for nearly a month of no new blogs.

Can you really go home?

I went back to Texas a few weeks ago for a wedding. I didn't send out my usual "I'm coming home" email. I knew it would be a big family weekend. (Luckily you can always go home to family). I also knew most of my time would be taken up by all the wedding festivities. I was right. It was a lot of fun. The bride was a long-time family friend. My sister was a bridesmaid in the wedding, and the rest of my family was invited to participate in most of the wedding aspects. While I had no official role in the wedding, I designated myself the party-girl from NYC. From Friday through Sunday my family went to the pre-party, the rehersal dinner, the post-party, the wedding and, of course, the reception. It was fairly surreal seeing this girl get married, knowing that she's probably more of a grown up than me now. She's got a husband, a house, a job and a dog. I have none of those things. But that's fine by me. After all, I'm single and loving living the life in the City. I stayed far away from the bride's tossed bouquet.

I finally got to see some of my friends on Sunday night. I went to visit two different friends at their houses, but that was such a weird feeling. Scheduling time to see your friends... it makes the friendship seem a little less natural and somewhat forced. I began to question whether I can still go home and just hang out with my friends like I did before my big move. I got my answer on Sunday night. While I was disappointed that I didn't get to see everyone I would have liked to see, I realized that I did get to hang out with some of my favorite people. And it wasn't weird or forced. It was like I lived there and I am still part of them and they are still part of me.
So to my Old Monk friends, thank you for being home.

at the Yankees game

This was my third time to go to the ballpark. The first time I was high up in the stands, fearing the hights. The second time I was in the bleachers enjoying being close to the ground, but unable to see much of the game. Yesterday we had tickets in almost the exact same spot as the first time we went to the game. Especially ironic since both of those were games against the Bluejays.
So I took a deep breath and prepared myself as I faced my fear of heights. I will admit, these seats were still much better than the bleachers. It was fun. Though I only stood when they told us to stand for God Bless America. I feel much safer sitting in my seat.















This picture is from the April game, but I had the same view yesterday. I was sitting up on that third level. Trust me, it's high.

getting to the Yankees game

On Saturday my roommate, her boyfriend and I all headed up to the Bronx for the Yankees game. Since our move, we are now conveniently located just off the train that takes us directly to the stadium. So we squeezed on to the subway and crowded next to everyone else in Yankees gear. I took a deep breath as I braced my claustrophobic self for the ride up to the stadium. Just a few stops and we would be there.
Unfortunately for me, the subway conductor was not very cooperative. Just two stops away, it was decided that our train was going to run express, thus by-passing our stop. So we joined all the Yankees fans who filed out of the train essentially leaving it empty. We waited as the train remained in the station. Then an announcement was made saying the train would stop at Yankee stadium. After some confusion, we all got back on the train. The announcement was made again that it would stop at the stadium. So we waited on the train. Still the doors did not close, and the train did not leave. After a few minutes of waiting there was yet another announcement. This train would not be stopping at the stadium. Once again, everyone got off the train. Several minutes later, this much cursed train left. We didn't wait long before the next train arrived, running locally and delievering us to the stadium.
I guess it could have been worse. I could have been stuck on the second train in the middle of the tunnel. Talk about claustrophobia...