Sick Sink in the City + Week of Celebration!

Well, not all weeks can be the most exciting.  I was sick most of this week, so not as many adventures.

I was, however, feeling better on Saturday and we made the most of the day.  We biked over to the West Side of the island to the Hudson River Park (beautiful).  We went kayaking on the river (for free!!).  

Then, we found mini golf - in Manhattan! We were stunned that there was such an establishment in the city, but I guess we shouldn't have been...you can find pretty much anything here.  No need to tell the final score, but I made two hole-in-1s, thank you.

That night, we ate great burgers at Black Iron Burger Shop back in the East Village, and then went to another funny stand-up comedy show at UCB Comedy Club.  All of that cost us about $30 for the day; not everything is overly expensive here, if you know where to look : )

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Another curious human sighting: Cat-Walker Lady.  I just...yeah, I don't know.

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This coming week brings lots of celebration and fun.  My birthday is on Tuesday (28).  We're getting together with new and old friends in the city for dinner.  Mom is coming on Thursday to check out our new home and to celebrate.  I'm so excited to see her and show her around.

Also, on Friday Matt and I celebrate our 5th anniversary (wow!!).  There aren't enough words to express how happy we are together.  We've supported each other in pursuing our individual dreams, gone on lots of adventures, and have created a life together that we love.  He helps me be my best self and I hope I do the same for him.  We've done a lot in our 5 years and I know the next 5 will be great as well.   We've had a lot of great role models and help in shaping our marriage, so to our parents and friends: thank you.

We'll go to a nice dinner on Friday but the big celebration will be in a few weeks when we go out to San Diego for a week : D

I hope this coming week is great for all of you!! 

Apartmentality

I really didn't expect to be living in another apartment after buying a house.  But, in this city, there is no way to have a house...prices here are embarrassing.  So, I've been looking for the silver lining in living in an apartment again.  

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Pros:

+ Only 755 feet to clean = about 45 min. and I'm done cleaning every room!

+ Close quarters means that we feel connected to our neighbors and community.

+ We don't have to battle bamboo anymore; no more yard work at all  : )

+ Someone else will take care of any broken things or repairs that need to be made.

+ I love our new kitchen.  Though it's a little smaller, the appliances are upgrades and all of our stuff still fits in and can be used.  

+ Our apartment is in the most convenient, dog-friendly neighborhood in the city.  We're close to both of our work places, close to the L train which connects us to lots of other trains.  We are right next to the East River and we love walking along the river seeing the Brooklyn skyline, the families that gather in the parks on weekends, and all the bikers and runners.  There are soooo many good restaurants close by!

Nonetheless, there are adjustments that have to be made and things to endure:

- The lobby outside our apartment smells like fish soup a lot.

- We have to be much more cognizant of our noise level (Charlie) so our neighbors don't complain.  No complaints so far.  We don't really hear our neighbors much either, which is nice.

- Laundry is a bit of a haul.  The machines are in our building, thank goodness.  Some people have to take their laundry to laundromats down the street.  Ours is very convenient considering that, but it feels like we're in college again.

- Not having a car means we have to carry groceries back from the store.  It takes some strategic planning.  There is a citibike stand right outside our grocery store so we've gotten used to riding bikes back from the store.  The other day I was riding back and I had gotten a few too many groceries to fit in the little basket on the bike.  I was going to make it work, though, and as I was riding along, I hit a bump and the turkey lunch meat flew out of my bag in the basket and into the intersection.  I just had to give it up, it was smooshed by a taxi pretty quickly.  Oh well...lesson learned - bring a backpack or don't buy as much food all at once.

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On a different note: 

Most fun thing we've done so far: We rode a ferry over to Governor's Island for the Come Out and Play Festival.  A bunch of field day games for adults that were free!  We played real life Settlers of Catan, Quadball (a mix between soccer, football, and rugby), and Ramp Shot (a combination of beer pong and cornhole).  We played like kids and had a blast!!

 Real Life Settlers of Catan

Bikes, the 'burg, and puppy snuggles

Coming so close on the heels of the last post, I'm going to (try to) keep this one shorter.  Just a few snapshots to highlight things from the last half of the week:

I haven't *gasp* written much about Charlie's transition to apartment life.  As you can see, he's doing alright.  He loooves seeing all the people and dogs around and he does well navigating through crowded sidewalks.  We wish the squirrels and birds were a little more afraid of him so that they would get out of the way a little sooner.  To him, there are just a lot of squeaky toys running around.  Our neighborhood has a lot of trees and grassy areas, so he doesn't have to relieve himself on the sidewalk.  He really hates walking over the cellar door covers in the ground and will jump out of the way to avoid them, which can be annoying when people are walking really close.  But let's face it I find walking on those doors unnerving too, so I don't blame him.  The dog park is about 7 blocks away, so we've been going there a lot this week.  He's living a pretty good life.

We went to the NYC Philharmonic concert in Central Park on Friday night with some people from the church we've been visiting.  A perfect night and lots of fun.  Crazy story...we met a couple from the church.  The wife, Emily, also grew up in Atlanta, went to Peachtree Road UMC, went to Duke, and knows my cousin Wil.  Small world!!!  They have an adorable French bulldog pup named Rocky that they brought with them to the concert.  Hopefully we will get to know them better, maybe have a puppy play date soon.

Great food tent festival in Brooklyn.

Look at the view!!

And the awesome food!!!

Look at these safety studs!  We both ventured out on the Citi Bikes some more.  It's getting much easier to navigate and I feel more comfortable doing things like riding to the grocery store.  Also, what a great (and cheap) way to see the city.  We rode on Saturday night down the East River promenade to the Brooklyn Bridge and back.

As we were riding, we came upon this scene under the FDR highway where a line of Asian women were all dancing.  There was no audience, this wasn't a performance of any kind.  It looked like folk dancing of some sort...I had to stop and snap and pic.  Just so interesting.

Next week's topic: Life after a house (pros and cons of living in an apartment again).  Have a great week everyone!!!

Week 2 1/2

Sorry this post is late!

Week 2 has been a settling kind of week.  We settled into more routines and have continued getting familiar with city life.  I met with coworkers to do some planning for school.  Well, not some - a LOT.  We have to get the first few months of curriculum planned for all subjects before school starts.  It's tedious, but it will be awesome to have things ready to go come Sept.  I really like the two other first grade teachers, Amy and Sam.  They are co-teaching in a self-contained classroom (50% regular ed., 50% special ed.).  I learned that I will be called "Anna" this year by students, not Mrs. Sink.  I understand that using first names helps students feel comfortable, but it's going to take some getting used to!

The rain this week put a damper, so-to-speak, on some of our plans.  I waited for about 5 hours on Wednesday to get free Shakespeare in the Park tickets.  These are high-class performances and it's a VERY popular event, as I found out.  Tickets went on sale at 12 pm and people camped out overnight to get a good spot in line.  I did not, however, because I'm not that crazy dedicated, but I did get there at 7:45 am to find myself dangerously close to the "big rock" which signifies that you probably won't get tickets.  

 My view for the morning.

The line was ridiculous, but the nicest setting for waiting I've ever experienced.

I did get tickets, to my delight.  Maddeningly, though, that evening thunder and lightning ensued in earnest and didn't stop until just after they cancelled the show.  Ugh.

We went to see a comedy show on Thursday night.  It was a small venue, but we saw TV star Adam Devine - the male nanny from Modern Family and guy from Workaholics!

He was very funny and nothing like his MF role.

The 4th started out wet.  We went down to the financial district where there was a street festival going on and got some free food in the rain.  Luckily the rain cleared up, so later we went to see the Macy's fireworks on top of the FDR highway right in front of the barges where they were shot off on the East River.

 

We had some more visitors this weekend.  Kasey and Alex came to visit on Saturday.  We went to see the 9/11 Memorial and new World Trade Center building.

We also tried to go visit the Statue of Liberty but didn't realize how much in advance you needed to get tickets.  So, a shot from Battery Park had to suffice for right now.  

Matt's Uncle Eric and Aunt Cindy were in town too and we got to visit with them.  We had two very good meals with them during their stay and enjoyed talking and laughing.  

We went to the Braves-Mets game last night.  It was not a pretty game, but it was a beautiful night for sitting outside.

All in all, life is good!