As the saying goes, “every temp job must come to an end” and mine did. Someone famous said that. Ahaha. As you can see, I’m making good use of my newly re-instated unemployment.
The job definitely ended on a good note, my boss liked me, and I liked me in the job. I think I was a lot happier and a lot healthier then I’ve been at any other job. It truly was a God sent opportunity.
So as usual, I let myself get WAY behind in updating this AGAIN. I’m gonna attempt to tackle at least some of the past couple months and their events. After all, I did turn 25 and that has ushered in a whole new era. Haha. No really, I’m a grown-up now.
Ok, I’ve not noticed much of a difference in myself, per se. God sure is making me think though. I recently started reading Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz” and I’m pretty sure it’s changing my life at this very moment. (Slowly of course) Also, I started listening to The Beatles again, primarily. I forgot how much I loved their music. Seriously, try to sit still while listening to the White Album. Just try. Bottomline: I’m 25, my brain is growing rapidly and I can’t stop moving. That’s what one can apparently expect at 25. Ahaha.
Rant over.
Back to the blog:
By some Wal-Mart sponsored miracle I did my taxes online this year FOR FREE. I’m telling you that’s the best price to pay for anything. The software they had set up nearly cost me my sanity though. My 9,000 W2 forms to input didn’t help however. I spent about 3 hours in one sitting I walked away from the program to maintain a thread of sanity. I kept getting to the final step and getting error messages saying I couldn’t file either my federal or state forms. AGH!
I came back to the program about 2 weeks later cringing at the perceived mountain of issues I had to climb before I could officially file. Word to the wise: Queens IS considered NYC. So there. Once I logged on to the online program, I had absolutely no trouble finishing my taxes. It was a Tax Time Miracle! I seriously thought I had hours of trouble shooting ahead of me. Nope. Literally 30 seconds and I was ready to file. Amazing.
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day the roommates and I created an Irish inspired meal. Everything we ate was “Irish.” I took a leap and made my first ever Bundt cake. It had Irish Cream Liqueur in it; that made it Irish. Haha. It turned out super tasty. I was pretty proud of my first stab at a Bundt cake. We also had Irish Soda Bread and Potato Leak Soup. Love me some Irish carbs. Also in March, I had a really great opportunity to share a meal with two gentlemen who head up the Dalit Freedom Network. It was an amazing chance to listen to and share ideas with two very influential men that are on the frontlines, fighting human injustice. Not everyone gets to spend time with people like this, people so automatically inspirational. I thankfully did, with the help of my friend Ilyse. What a night. I learned so much about the plight of the Dalit people and have gained a more mature view of the world and the real problems in it. File that under “Things I didn’t think I’d get to do, and am thoroughly glad I did.” : )
I have been spending a lot of time with friends who are moving to NYC soon. Several have been in town to visit either finishing up grad school or just now deciding to move. I’m so excited there’s a “new class” coming to town. I can’t wait to welcome them with open arms. I had dinner with my friend Evan from undergrad who’s coming to town shortly. I had an awesome picnic in Central Park with Britannie who’s finishing up grad school in San Fran. Jess, Pattie, Natalie, the list goes on! Yay for friends in town!
I had my 25th Birthday at a lounge in the Garment District called “STITCH.” It had a cool little upstairs balcony area overlooking the rest of the bar where some friends and I had a celebration.
We had some cake and good conversation. It was pretty dark in the space so I didn't get many good pictures. Here's an ok one for ya. It was fun to have friends from every part of my life in one place all hanging out. I had a great time and am so grateful to those who came out to part-ay.
My friend Megan who lives in Boston came to town for my birthday festivities. I thought that was so nice of her to come in for the celebration. We had fun adventures while she was here. These pictures were taken in Central Park. The second picture is one of many I took of the turtles we saw in the pond. They were so cute!
We walked around in Central Park for several hours then walked all the way to midtown to eat dinner with our friend Jana. Nothing like a good, long day of walking around the city.
And this, I just had to share… While at the grocery store today I was pleasantly surprised by a serenade in the frozen foods section. I got to enjoy the smooth sounds of the harmonica from a gentlemen picking out ice cream. As I stood gazing at the Gardenburgers he played a familiar tune while perusing the frozen treats; like it was as natural as breathing. I love New York.
I started my temp job a few weeks ago. It’s been great! My boss is a really nice man and the work is definitely manageable. Thank God.
So I’ll go back a bit and update…
On the subway one morning I read about an Academy Awards party that was taking place at a comedy club in the city. All you had to do was email a reservation request and you had a spot to sit and watch the awards ceremony on a big screen. The announcement promised fellow movie geeks, food and drink specials (with an Oscars theme), trivia games and prize giveaways. So I made a reservation, of course, and on that Sunday night I showed up to see the broadcast. I felt so VIP, when I got there people were standing in line trying to bribe the host to get in without reservations. I gave them my name and got right in. (Wow, all I did was email, and it was free. Duh.) I felt like I was actually at the awards in LA. There was a huge room in a shape much like the Kodak Theater. It was full of people and a big screen to watch on. It was too fun for a big movie geek like myself. A room full of people shouting, booing, and generally reacting to the TV like it was a Superbowl game was a dream for me. As I told my friend who joined me, “This is like my Superbowl.” I even helped myself to a “Tropic Thunder Daiquiri” and joined in the festivities. I especially liked being in a room were I could give Hugh Jackman a standing ovation for his opening number, scream out “I got my upset!” when Sean Penn won, and generally make remarks at things like acceptance speeches and badly dressed actresses. I was with my peeps. Haha, too much fun. So I didn’t win any prizes, but my friend and I decided we’d be back next year and order the Chicken Meryl Streeps as an appetizer. Geekity geek geek.
The next night, my uncle came into town with the Indiana Pacers and kindly got my friend Kaylie and I tickets to see them play the Knicks. We had great seats for the Monday night match up and were excited to see Mr. Will Ferrell in the crowd that night as well. There was a pretty good turnout for the game, thanks to a better showing from the Knicks recently (Sans Isaiah Thomas). The Pacers lost their battle to the Knickerbockers to the chagrin of my uncle and the liking of the crazy Knicks fan sitting next to me. Many foam fingers in the shape of guns (apparently), bags of cotton candy, French Knicks fans and those weird noise maker distracting things later, Kaylie and I had a funny night full of future inside jokes to laugh about. I also had a good chat with my uncle after the game. Fun times.
A couple nights later was Ash Wednesday, (the start of the Christian Lenten season). I was on the load-in crew for the service in Union Square. I had fun weaving though pews with power chords but found myself a bit of a sneezing mess as I kicked up dust (which I’m allergic to). The service went well and officially started the season of Lent.
The next morning I woke up with the start of what was to become an epic cold. A cold to end all colds (I wish). Why does each cold you get seem to be worse than the last? Boo.
Before the cold hit a high point, I managed to have some fun. I went to a party held by Banana Republic at their flagship store in RockefellerCenter. My friend invited me to a promo party which, by the looks of it was to generate some sales. We got a gift bag, food, drinks, live music, and an extra discount from just about anything in the store for the event. It was fun. I didn’t end up spending any money (I didn’t have) but liked the “free” gift part. Anyhow, I enjoyed the refreshments and in our gift bags they gave us lip gloss from Benefit and some free iTunes downloads as well as coupons for other great stuff. Sweet. Free is a great price!
Well, ready or not, I went up to Boston and Providence to do a little visiting and theatre watching with my friends Pattie and Megan. I took the "Bolt Bus" (boltbus.com) on Saturday morning to Boston. I met up with Megan in Boston and we took the commuter rail to Providence. We caught a quick dinner with our friend Pattie and then saw Pattie in a show called TheSecret Rapture by David Hare at Trinity Rep Theatre in Providence. We were so proud to see her in this role with a bunch of equity actors in a professional theatre setting. She is about to graduate with her MFA in Acting from Brown so we wanted to support her and see her professional acting debut (At least I think it was her pro acting debut). She did a lovely job.
The next day, in Providence I was able to catch up with a couple other friends from college, Vichet and Ben. Vichet is now studying acting at Brown and Ben was visiting Brown as a prospective MFA acting student. They are dear friends of mine from college and it was so fun hanging out and catching up with them.
We went to Vichet’s favorite study/dessert place in Providence and had some amazing Italian desserts. Sunday night I saw a production of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, produced by Trinity Rep, as well. I realized I had never seen the show and I really enjoyed it. The acting was great and the play is a theatre classic. The playwright was the first black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. She was such a talented woman that tragically died too young, from cancer.
On Monday I was scheduled to travel back to NYC but a snowstorm hit the Northeast and set my plans on end. My bus to NYC was canceled so I took my time getting back to Boston. Megan, Pattie and I shoveled through what seemed like a mountain of snow to free Pattie’s car. We eventually dug a path and got ourselves safely to a nice, long lunch at a fairly empty restaurant. It was so nice to hang out with my girls.
I was able to catch a train to Boston with Megan. It was pretty apparent that I would be staying in New England for another night so Megan and I took our time in the snow/slush and stopped over at the Boston Public Library for some site seeing. Megan showed/explained the architecture and the history of the nation’s oldest public library and I took some pictures of the beautiful building. When the weather’s nicer, I want to see more of beantown. It was pretty frigid so we hurried along to do some errands. We went to the grocery store, then back to Megan’s apartment. Megan and her roommates, Shara and Rebekah, kindly allowed me to stay the night in their apartment in Boston before I would be catching the bus back to NYC on Tuesday.
On Monday night, Megan had plans to make dinner and watch The Bachelor finale show on TV with some of her friends in town. I was kindly invited to join the party now that I was staying the night in town. There was a massive amount of snow on the ground and it was actually kind of fun traipsing through it to dinner that night. I ended up getting to meet a bunch of great people at the party and had some great food too. I was so glad the snow made me stick around. Even though I don’t watch The Bachelor, I had fun watching the finale with a room full of witty 20-somethings.
Tuesday, I got safely back to NYC and went to meet my temp boss that I’d be working for during the next 7 weeks.
The weekend after my New England trip, I went to see a production of The Winter’s Tale by Mr. Shakespeare at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) with my friend Jana. The production got excellent reviews (as far as I saw) and was part of “The Bridge Project” starting at BAM with repertory productions of The Cherry Orchard and The Winter’s Tale. The productions are going to be brought on tour throughout the world. The cast included outstanding British and American actors (hence the name “The Bridge Project” as they used actors from both sides of the pond). Some of the actors included Simon Russell Beale, Sinéad Cusack, and Rebecca Hall from the UK; and Richard Easton, Josh Hamilton, and Ethan Hawke from the US. The show was directed by Sam Mendes (a.k.a. Kate Winslet’s husband).
I was in theatre heaven. I was in a small scale production of this show while I studied abroad in England so it was exciting to see it performed and by these actors in this unique circumstance. I feel like I got to see a part of theatre history. It's not every day you get to see great actors from America and the UK put together a project that's going to tour the world. The whole crew did an amazing job with the show. I was very impressed.
On Saturday I went to donate blood at a Blood Drive in my neighborhood. I ended up with two band-aids on either middle finger and no less blood for the wear. Turns out my iron count was too low. No worries. After my failed attempt, I met up with a friend and we saw a movie called “Taken” with Liam Neeson. Whoa. All I can say is we were cheering his character on like we were at a football game. haha.
After the movie we walked all around town, around Central Park, and down to a little Dutch café called Danku. Along the way I saw my favorite ad I’ve seen in a while:
Every time I see one of these, it makes me laugh.
Also, at the end of February, my friend Ilyse had a get-together for friends/anyone who wanted to learn more about the Dalit Freedom Network that she volunteers with. I was able to help put together a PowerPoint presentation about the work that the DFN does and about the Dalit people of India. It has been an unbelievable experience. God has really been growing me in this process.
It started out as an opportunity to help a friend out, by making a simple presentation to aide in her mission (and the mission of so many) to raise awareness and support for the Dalit people. Since starting this work, I realized I have become more passionate about finding a cause to fight for; something to truly get angry about.
As I have learned in the growing of my spiritual life, Jesus would not have me getting angry over things like subway card fare hikes, flaky friends, and loud neighbors. He wants me angry about the injustices facing so many people throughout the world. He wants us to take part in the battle to end things like sex trafficking, the lack of clean drinking water, and the abuse of basic human rights for so many. I am searching my heart for real anger. What makes you angry?
What a trip these last few weeks have been. Let’s just say “Cold Season” decided to give me a run for my money. While I did feel like death for the better half of them, their have been some adventures mingled in to my days since mid-February. Last I wrote I was about to go see a play at Juilliard called “The Greeks: The Gods.” While the title makes it does sound like it may be quite epic, I assure you it WAS. It was over 3 hours of some ain’t-kidding-around theatre. Ok maybe there was some kidding around. All in all it was really a remarkable production. It included all the 4th year Juilliard acting BFA students in their veritable final project. There was some great acting and they all played, had fun, and clearly poured their hearts out on the stage (not literally, ahaha Greek joke for ya). I was a bit speechless when I left but I guess they don’t call it Juilliard for nothing. PS. That was Friday, the 13th, an otherwise uneventful day in the life of little old logical me. Which brings me to Singles Awareness Day, also known as Oregon’s Birthday (February 14)… A day my dear roommate prepared for by baking HUNDREDS of heart shaped sugar cookies. I awoke that morning to a thin film of flour/dough on every single surface of our kitchen and living room. For the love of others she baked for nearly 12 hours straight. Wow, I could hardly be up in arms at the state of the kitchen. You can still picture me with sleep in my eyes, my jaw on the floor, gawking at my powdery white kitchen and have a laugh if you’d like. Apparently she went to bed minutes before I woke up. (She was covered in flour as well). That morning I went to a Women’s Brunch held by my friend Danise from church. She hosts a brunch about once a month and they are something I always look forward to. We get together, eat some good food, study the Bible and just fellowship. It’s a great way to get connected to friends at church and stay social in this busy city. When I got home my other roommate was at work cleaning the kitchen up. She had some baking of her own to do. Red Velvet Cupcakes. They’re trying to kill me. That night the roomies and I pooled our collective singleness and culinary skills and managed to cook up one amazing feast. Now I ain’t gonna be coy, I ate, a lot, and it was t-a-s-t-y. That’s how I roll on S.A.D. (Singles Awar..ok you got it). That Sunday I sang on the Worship Team again at church. I’m so happy I get to be a part of that. We all get some creative input on the team and it’s so much fun. That following Monday was Presidents’ Day, as you may recall. A day that will live in infamy. It all started with an innocent visit with my friend Ilyse to work on the DFN project. I walked by Bryant Park to get to our meeting spot and got to see the Fashion Week tents. Outside there were tons of wannabe celebs standing around apparently working as decoys to the paparazzi. It was quite comical. I found out later that they were actually hired to get in the way of the paparazzi when they tried to take pictures of actual celebs. Not a bad idea. Pathetic but brilliant. Now I wish the aforementioned “infamy” of the day involved fashion week but this is me we’re talking about… I worked with Ilyse for a couple hours then promptly came down with flu like symptoms. It had begun. I was LITERALLY in the heart of Manhattan with thousands of Presidents’ Day tourists and I felt horrible. I was so nauseous, I said a quick good-bye then I did that thing where you carefully choose your path so that you’re connecting the dots between garbage cans and shrubbery. NO WARNING, I just went from zero to death warmed up in seconds flat. It took me an hour and a half to get home (I know, DEAR GOD). Should I even mention that it was like 5 degrees out and I had to stand and wait for a bus!? I learned not to take cabs when you’re feeling nauseous. ‘nuther story ‘nuther time. When I finally got home I climbed right into bed fully street clothed and let the illness pass. I had a fever so I had a lot of clothing and blankets on that first night and I fell asleep at about 7pm. At approximately midnight I woke up feeling like I was on fire. The fever had apparently broken and I was then way too bundled up to be maintaining a normal body temperature (in four layers and a down comforter). I probably looked pretty comical waking up in the middle of the night from a dead sleep into the lightening speed throwing off of my covers and then flying to the window to get some air. I was a hot mess. Nearly 48 hours later I was back in business but very tenderly. I still have no clue what the heck that was but I would never wish it on anyone. Luckily, when the bulk of the crappy feeling passed, I had my audition for the children’s theatre. I did a monologue and read some sides from the play. Apparently they liked me because I got a callback! I was so excited I got on the wrong train to go home. No worries, I’m safe. The callback was a week later and I’ll just jump out of chronological order here to give you the scoop. I thought the callback went very well. It was just reading more sides from the play. Only this time it was in front of all the other ladies called back for the same role. The artistic director told us he saw over 400 people and called the 9 ladies I was in the room with back for one role. That was a nice compliment. Well, I didn’t get cast but I got close. Aw well. One day someone will take a chance on me. On to better news: I got a temp job! My friend Michelle is taking leave from her job for the next 7 weeks and thought of me to help out in her absence. (How nice was that?) It is the definition of an office manager job and is on the Upper East Side. It will be such a blessing to have! With the state of the job market I am astonished that I get to have some work. It’s pretty unbelievable and is absolutely answered prayer. I have been going in for training over the past week and a half and I can tell that it will most definitely be a better work environment than I am used to. It is still a NYC office with a pretty heavy workload but the “boss man” is a nice guy, truly. Unbelievable, right? Haha. I actually start that gig tomorrow (3/9). Wish me luck! I have to end there for tonight. I have to go get ready for work!
