Snowtober

Yup, that's what some people are apparently calling the 10 inches of slushy snow that pummeled New York on Saturday. While yours truly was traipsing about the borough of Brooklyn hunting down housing. After my umbrella was sufficiently destroyed, my feet soaked through, and my jacket so wet that I was literally shaking with the cold, I called my housing hunt quits for the day after having only made it to 1 viewing out of 3 scheduled appointments. As I fumbled into the subway station, umbrella-less, and shaking snow out of my hair, dropping my credit card and my ID (they were still in my cell phone case from the night before, just general lack-of-togetherness on my part in the art of putting things back in their proper places, really) in the process, a rather hapless-looking older man asked if I could swipe him in. I gathered my belongings, and told him I'd see if I had enough on my card as I wasn't sure I had 2 more entrances available. Sure enough I didn't, as after I got myself in, a measly "$1.15 remaining" blinked on the screen. A full $1.10 too short. I apologized to the man and kept walking. What could I do? I was already in.

A few minutes later, as I chomped on some trail mix I'd bought, I saw him coming down the subway platform - someone else must have swiped him in. I  congratulated him on getting in, and asked if he wanted some trail mix. (Yes, I felt bad about having left him standing there by the turnstile.) He accepted my offer and we munched on trail mix in silence. Then he walked along his way. Until a few minutes later when he came walking back towards me, with a sheepish smile, and handed me his umbrella. "Thanks for the snack, but you're all wet, you need this." I protested, told him it was fine, I'd be home soon, didn't he need it? But he insisted. So I took his offering and thanked him profusely. And that umbrella kept me dry between my subway stop and my apartment.

It really is crazy how nice humans can be to each other for really no reason at all. And in other news, Happy Halloween all!

It happened again....

 {View from my office of a cold, bright winter sun cutting through the freezing 39 degree air}

...I had an entire post written and I hit backspace with my cursor in the wrong area of the page and now the whole effing thing is gone. But that's okay, it was a pretty whiny post complaining about the fact that its supposed to snow this weekend. And we're still in October. You really didn't miss much.

 I have forgotten - to be honest with you - that this is Halloween weekend. So I hope you all have a ghoulishly fabulous time gorging yourself on sweets! I'll see you on Monday!

ew!

 {Image via}

I forgot to set my alarm this morning so I slept in gloriously late - and I woke up refreshed for the first time in a week, so it was totally worth it. It's rainy and cold outside today - supposed to drop to the high 40's - but this image is most certainly going to propel me to take myself into the gym after work! It's been nice, these past few days of getting back into a gym routine - 30 minutes or so of weight training is most certainly doable, and I'm finally starting to see the benefits of the advice that one start slow when getting back into actively working towards a healthy lifestyle. Heretofore I was always a jump in head first kind of girl - an hour of cardio plus weights at least 5 days a week...no wonder burnout was such a standard. Slow and steady may indeed win the race, but I think the bigger gain here is that I am looking forward to doing this exercise again, and to trying to clean my body from the inside out. Happy Thursday all!

wishy washy

 Yesterday, as I returned mentally from my visit home and mused over the fact that, for the first time since I moved to Manhattan a year ago, I did not feel my usual rush of excitement upon stepping out into the New York air, I thought once again that I might be done here. Awoken by my alarm at 5 am, clinging to my gym-time as one of the only moments of selfishness I would get, stepping into the cold morning air, and then hitting a wall at work by 11 am of sheer exhaustion as I continued to doggedly email potential Brooklyn rooms, I wondered if it was worth it. At all.

Being home had been so easy and comfortable and familiar. I had been surrounded by so many friends who are family and family who are friends, I had returned to my cocoon of "the usual" and it had felt so nice, and so easy, and so carefree. And here I was back in the city that really is a beast, with its constant rushing, it's only-extreme weather, it's pulse, it's dogged understanding that no matter how hard you push and how hard you work you will always only be just making it. It just didn't seem anything other than exhausting and I wondered why I was fighting so hard to remain here.

And then this morning, as I walked from the gym to work in my new shoes, as I mused over how quiet the gym had been in its near-emptiness this morning, as I traipsed up the street which was still fairly empty (for Manhattan, anyway) and as I thought on how my weekends would be just as delightfully sparsely populated once this move to Brooklyn comes to fruition, and I remembered why I came to New York. I didn't come to find comfort, that's for sure, I came to find me, and to find something different, and to see what it is that makes me tick. And even if this is my last span here, and my original three-year tentative plan downgrades to just a two-year plan, I certainly have to try living in the one borough which I can't help but feel will combine the proximity to the greatest city in the world with the smaller-neighborhood feel that holds so much comfort from San Diego. So, if I just keep at it, something will work out with housing, and maybe once all the moving stress and renting stress and money stress starts to be alleviated, New York won't seem like such a beast after all. Maybe. I almost forget how I felt when I first got here and was only in awe of the potential of the city.

I'm baaack!

 {Image via}

My weekend home was truly incredible, very relaxing, and very heartwarming. I was able to see the vast majority of my family and several very close friends, I got to reconnect with a dear, nearly life-long friend and see her new baby, I got to spend time with the people who matter. I ate too much, laughed a lot, and was able to really get rid of my cares and just be for three days. I now feel refreshed and contemplative and able to continue on in the daily goings-on of life in New York. I even got up and gymmed it again today - in the new pair of fabulous gym shoes I was spoiled enough to have purchased for me while home. Yup, I'm a lucky girl, nothing is truer than that. I hope this weekend treated all of you well!

If anyone needs me this weekend...

 {Image via}

I'll be here.

I'm taking a quick sojourn home this weekend, to see family, catch up briefly with as many friends all at once on one night as is humanly possible, and walk along the ocean with my feet in the sand as the city I briefly leave behind will grow ever-cooler as fall progresses. I won't be back until Tuesday so I hope this weekend, and Monday, treats all of you wonderfully!

raining 'n' pouring

 {Image via}

The rain has NOT let up for going on three days it feels - and while that is lovely in theory, it really is the pits when you walk everywhere (except for the times when you are dripping wet in the damp mugginess of a subway car). Even moreso when you forget your tennis shoes at the office and thus are walking home in slip-on flats, with pants that are immediately soaked to the knees and all sorts of pebbles and grossness from the NYC streets miraculously finding their way into said slip-on flats. There is little that refreshes me as much as removing my wet clothes and shoes did last night. And? Even though when my alarm went off this morning I, for the first time, debated just turning it off and turning back over, I made it to my final gym session for the week. For which I am SO proud. And for which I also reiterate my previous statement that the "force yourself for 3 days and it will stick" rule obviously does not apply to yours truly. Still, we are one day closer to Friday so good luck on this Thursday everyone!!