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!

San Diego

Wedding Photos

Click on the photos for a larger version and to scroll.