Spring Forward

Finally – an actual current post! We are somehow already in mid-March and just waiting for the weather to, any day now, give in to spring.  We have endured our first winter in the city – colder than expected, but less snow than expected was the general consensus.  We’ve had a successful but very busy Q1 so far.  Patrick upped his courseload and has been studying fervently.  I’ve taken on a lot more weekend shifts than usual and work is always very stressful this time of year.  As a result, it feels like the two of us have barely crossed paths in the last few months.

But what a difference a little time away can make! We took a stretch of days off and took the train to Connecticut to a beautiful beach cottage.  We have finally had some time to catch up on sleep, reading, random projects – and without any jackhammers or sirens at all! It’s this cottage you can thank for any of these posts actually going up.  We came up on Sunday morning and we’ll head back home tomorrow, but for now we’re spending lazy days lounging around and looking out over the water and walking on the (still very cold) beaches.

It has been a unique beach stay in that we got a snow storm last night and got to see snowy white beaches.  We also had some high tides and waves in the middle of the night were under the house and absolutely freaked me out, but nobody got swept out to sea after all.

This place is pretty much our dream house – we could even do with just the first floor, thank you.  Take a look and enjoy! We will definitely be back in the summer.

The Fall

September was a month of getting settled into our new apartment and new schedules.  Patrick spent most of the rest of the year with his head in the books.  I’ve just been staying the course, staying busy with work.

We did have a fun break from our usual routine with a visit from the Trautt family.  They came and stayed with us for 10 days in October, before the weather got very cold.  They were all lovely houseguests and we had a great time.  Really wish we all lived closer!

The weather definitely got colder, and we keep hearing it will get colder still, so we’re learning how to bundle up a little more seriously than we’ve needed to in the past.  This includes puffy coats for everyone.

The colder weather also gave me the push I needed to finally figure out (thanks, YouTube) how to knit.  So far it’s just scarves for me, but it’s a start at least.

November was more of the same, and in December Patrick finally completed his first semester – all As! Woo! So now the expectation has been set.  He has been on a break from school since just before Christmas and I am thrilled to have my husband-friend back.  We’ve fit in a bit of exploring but mostly decompressing.  We went and saw the big tree at Rockefeller Center, though we didn’t do any ice skating.

We did decide to get a tree for our place, even though it seemed like it might be a tight fit.  We picked it up a few blocks away and walked it home.  We even mixed it up with the multicolor lights this year rather than white – big year of change for us!

We took the train and visited my parents in Lancaster the weekend before Christmas, returning on Christmas Eve to have the holiday at our new home.

We stayed in for New Year’s Eve but got a fun surprise when fireworks started going off at Central Park, which we were able to watch from our living room window.  Super convenient!

Our Piece of the Pie

We had some very generous support from our family and friends that allowed us to get an apartment we love in an amazing neighborhood where we feel safe and happy.  Success!

Our new apartment is a studio with a lofted sleeping area on the second floor of an old brownstone.  We are right in the middle of Manhattan on the Upper West Side, one block from Central Park and walkable to just about anything else we might need.  We’re close to the subway station and it’s a quick ride for Patrick to get to school at Columbia and for me to get to work in Lower Manhattan.  We got a great deal, the apartment is rent-stabilized, and we are not going anywhere any time soon.  We love it.

We’ve learned a lot about what we can actually do without.  We’ve done several rounds of purging, only to find that we’re actually willing to get rid of even more.  The small space we live in is less of a constraint and more of a good challenge. It has been really liberating to live with less! Some would think of it as good practice for one day living on a boat.

Some Catching Up

I guess we dropped off for a bit there.  We’ve had a whirlwind of activity and we’re finally starting to catch our breath.  We’ve written a couple posts here and there that have never gotten actually posted, so we’ll go ahead and get to it and hopefully bring ourselves up to present tense at some point.

Patrick was accepted to Columbia University in late May which set a whole series of events into motion.  For a few weeks we were unsure whether he would be able to start in the fall or would have to defer enrollment until a semester or even a year later.  Then a position opened up with my company in the New York office.  I interviewed and got the job in June.  By mid-July we had purged a lot of our belongings, packed what was left into a pod and shipped it off across the country.

We took our time driving, stopping to say goodbyes to family along the way.  We stopped first in Carlsbad to spend a little time with Norelle, Travis and Pleasant and touch the Pacific for one last time before setting off.  After a stop-off in El Paso we made our way to Patrick’s hometown of Corpus Christi.  We got a chance to visit with friends and family for a few days then took off for New York.  We took three days to make the drive so we wouldn’t be too overwhelmed by the process, stopping in New Orleans and then in Knoxville before arriving in Lancaster, PA where my parents are currently living.  We used Lancaster as our launching pad for our move, even though it is three hours away from the city and not the most convenient drive to make frequently.

Our move was not easy.  In fact, it was the most challenging time (to date) in either of our lives.  Thanks to the help of friends and family with every possible aspect of the move, we finally secured an apartment and moved in on September 1^st.  Patrick started school three days later.

Since then, we’ve had our heads down, with Patrick studying all the time and me working.  When we’re not doing that, we’re out getting familiar with our city or in trying to get the place organized.  More to come!