Old Foto Friday

I arrived in New York City with all my stuff  Saturday, September 1, 2007, making it six years ago tomorrow. My apartment was on floor 6. Thankfully my building had an elevator, but not a fancy one with lots of space. So moving required unloading stuff from the truck into the lobby, into the elevator, out of the elevator, then eventually into my apartment. It was also the only one in the building, so occasionally we'd have to wait while residents needed to use it.

So I was possibly a little tired when this picture was snapped.

So Far in Portland...

I left Saturday afternoon in preparation for my 6am flight to Portland for a bike facility and design conference. A few things that have happened:
--nearly dying in the humidity while walking around downtown Kansas City
--having a mild heart attack and being on the brink of tears when I thought I had lost my wallet
--realizing that purchasing a travel pillow was the best investment I've ever made
--getting to my seat on my flight from SLC to PDX and having a gentleman offer to trade me seats so he could sit with his wife. His seat was in first class, and I'll tell ya, first class is not at all like regular class. You get a blanket and a pillow and they don't care what you do.
--taking a cab from the airport to my hotel
--riding in the run during Sunday Parkways
--seeing people on bikes using the infrastructure. Super cool.
--Powell's Book Store
--riding the streetcar, standing in the rain, walking the city streets
--realizing that attending a conference in Portland means you get a lot of vegan and gluten-free food options

Old Foto Friday

When my roommate Rosemary went to Italy for six weeks, she rented her room out. Sometimes you don't know what you'll get, but Stefanie was pretty awesome. She was adventurous and obsessed with Tina Fey (and who can blame her, Tina Fey is awesome). She introduced me to the Upright Citizens Brigade, a comedy troupe in lower Manhattan that saw the likes of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler come through the door.

On Sunday evenings they had a free show, called AsssCat. Since it's free, though, a lot of people want to attend and you generally had to get there early and camp out for most of the evening. Stefanie met these awesome people her first week standing in line, and when I showed up the second week we took this picture.

You never know who you'll meet standing in a line for a free show in New York City. But these girls are all super cool and  normal. I even keep in contact with most of them. New York is pretty awesome.

Some 'Splainin' To Do

Today I went to lunch with some friends from church who work in Topeka. Half of us know each other from church, while the other half were co-workers of a friend who were not members of our church. They all live in Lawrence, so when I said I live in Topeka but go to church with them, they questioned why I traveled so far for church. I simply said, "Because I'm single." They looked sort of surprised, and questioned why that meant I had to go to church in Lawrence. Was I banned and or not welcome from going to a church here in Topeka?

I stumbled upon some sort of explanation, but thankfully someone else offered a much better explanation than me: it's the same church, but the congregation is made up of single people and/or students. I choose to go to this church instead of my regular one in Topeka for social reasons.

There's been many other instances where I've used jargon common to people in Utah and Idaho who are surrounded by a large amount of Mormons. Sometimes I forget that people here in Kansas have no idea what I'm talking about when I say ward, YSA and FHE; even the term Bishop has a different meaning to people of different denominations. I find myself trying to find ways to explain it in well-known church vernacular, such as congregation instead of ward, and using the actual words instead of the acronym. It keeps me on my toes.

Ticket Stub Tuesday

I'm going to Portland next week for work. It's basically all I can think about. Mainly because I love cities, I love traveling, I love new places, I love staying in hotels. Em and I made a visit to Portland during Fall Break 2011. On our visit, since we were tired from walking, and a theater was right across the street from our hotel, we stopped in to see The Ides of March. This movie had a lot of buzz because Hollywood loves George Clooney and not only did he start in this film but he also directed it and produced it and wrote the screenplay. The movie, however, lived up to its buzz.

Running Buddy

I've always been a solo runner. Like my general attitude in life, it's easier if I can just get up and run when I want and not have to coordinate with someone else. However this also means there is no outside motivation or accountability to anyone other than myself. And that means I don't do a whole lot of running.

Amber, after our Color Vibe 5k in June, got the running bug and got us signed up for another 5k. We're doing the Glow Run 5k in Lawrence in October. I haven't been running since our last 5k. This morning, however, I took advantage of Amber's motivation and running schedule and met up with her at Gage Park to do a morning run.

We set her Nike app to a 5k distance, and it turns out that running with a buddy is awesome! It actually speeds up your time, as Amber ran her fastest 5k she's ever done. I found motivation to run. And we were able to talk during our running and walking spurts. It was kind of awesome, and I'm already looking forward to our run next Saturday (despite the creeper in the park following us in his car).

We unfortunately have different schedules during the week, so I'll be on my own to keep the motivation going Monday thru Friday.

Old Foto Friday

My sister came out in February 2008 to visit me and attend a Matchbox Twenty concert. This was my first time seeing family since moving to NYC in September.  I got time off work so I could show her all the cool stuff there was to do in the City. February in the City, however, can be quite chilly, and our walk across the Brooklyn Bridge was a cold one. (I have a picture of the two of us together that we asked a stranger to take, but I can't find it....)

When we parted ways at the airport security station, I went into the bathroom and had a good little cry in a stall. Even though I loved living in New York and knew it was where I was supposed to be, there were times when I really missed my family. It was a difficult time with work and such and I liked not having to focus on that for the week Em was there. I quit my job at a production office right after that, and it was actually a really great choice.