Decisions

Craig returned from his travels in one worn out piece last night. His day trip was a success! Now he just needs some more sleep. Tonight we're getting our favorite Chinese take-out from East Villa and taking a load off. I hardly slept a total of 6 minutes the previous night, or so it felt, and the same applied to him: we're just so anxious! It's good anxiety, the kind that motivates us to get a move on our move. He spoke with the boss there and my job will indeed relocate me right alongside him, which financially will lessen some of the burden. Both people already situated for the project actually live in Manhattan, which we may need to investigate further. It's a possibility that living in Brooklyn, while fine and perfectly reasonable, would also decrease the depth of 'the experience'. Maybe we should think Manhattan, think less square footage, more character, neighborhood, experience. We're flying the second weekend of May to scope out prospective apartments, trying to bear in mind that for the first time in either of our post-college careers, we will be living under the same roof for a span of 3 years, possibly longer. In other words, we'd better select something that will make us happy long term. This translates in our explosively excited minds as, We get to paint! We get to accent walls! 3 years for us is about as permanent, for being temporary, as it will likely get, at least, for the time being. I've got such romantic notions of living in New York City, and for those who feel it's going to be less desirable once I'm actually in it, I implore: let me have my fantasy, please! I take peeks into lives of contemporary literati who work, breathe and love in New York City, and their muses are neverending! A subway ride, a walk through SoHo, a cup of coffee at a corner cafe. The mundane things that become reality once you live there versus visit. Surely it won't be smooth. Surely it won't be as simple as jumping in the car, driving out of Atlanta, arriving in Richmond and starting from scratch like that. Surely it will cost us an arm and a leg. But we've got two incomes! We've got each other! 11 million New Yorkers survive in the heat of it, the passion, the cold, the calm, the chaos: won't we be okay? Surely we will. I'm aching with anticipation. I'm more alive and spirited than I feel I've been in months, not because things have not gone well in Richmond, because they have, but because Richmond was to serve as the stepping stone to get us to New York, and it has. It's real now, no longer a projected possibility or even probability: we're moving the first week of June. We're moving to New York City. Have I said that yet?*I mentioned a while back that I had plans to take a writing class here in Richmond. That did not pan out, for a number of reasons: financial being at the top of the list. But in New York City, there are such plentitudes of options for me in this respect. Gotham Writers' Workshop is something I've admired from afar for as far back as I've been tampering with fiction. Workshops are expensive, but nothing I can't save up and treat as a goal. Need I illustrate the beauty of the phrase, I'm taking the subway to my writing class in Manhattan? Doesn't that just spill of magnanimity toward my betterment? The fear of failure is something I must pitch over my shoulder while we're there. What better exposure to the creative heartbeat of this country than to live in New York City? Clearly I'm beside myself with increasing amounts of pleasure over this. And what contributes further to the experience about to unfold is the support of Craig, as well as the success of Craig. This is about to become the most significant career victory for him, on professional as well as personal achievement levels. Defining the degrees of my pride would require a whole different morning, a whole different vocabulary! I'm beaming. He continues to impress and amaze me, and there, to be exactly in the next room and knowing it's happening, and being able to contribute my own abilities to that project as well, will be nothing short of incredible. Time management must become my new best friend. If I intend to be a smashing success at work, as well as in my free time, continue to enjoy the kitchen, decorate a positively attractive and comfortable home for us, shape up my health, stuff in 6 or 7 hours of sleep a night and have the time of my life living there, embracing the term New York Minute is imperative. We've got just one month to prepare ourselves for what will become the most intriguing experience of our short lives. May all the forces of nature, technology, human and otherwise be with us as we proceed.*In the meantime, as a last effort to relax before the fun really begins, we are waking up as early as 4 a.m. Saturday to drive to Washington D.C. to catch a plane leaving for Florida. Greeted by a group as large as 18 people, we will partake in a weekend of beach, sun, beer, friends, entertainment, poker, genuine vacation at its finest. We don't return until the following Tuesday. 3.5 days before the busiest month of May we've ever seen...