Alterations

This past week amazed me. I felt so, so, so completely different from how I've felt the past three years. I felt solid, content, calm, complete. Commuting two express subway stops has a great portion to do with that, but so does the environment: formal, quiet, subdued with polished amenities and cold water from the water cooler and windows!! And Manhattan. I haven't left Manhattan Island since last Thursday! We're now joined at the hip, me and Manhattan, in stride with one another. I've eaten out every lunch since adapting to my new environment, but I've aimed to eat as healthy as I can, primarily vegetarian (in fact, I haven't eaten meat all week) and it's been nice to eat out with Craig or with co-workers or all of us together, like a real staff, traveling on foot to some deli or cafe and enjoying an hour out of the office (something else that has refreshed me tremendously!) In fact, Friday, my friend Niki (thanks again, Niki!) suggested swinging by Barnes & Noble over the lunch hour, and as typically happens when someone points out the obvious to me, the obvious being Oh, yeah! I can run errands on my work lunch hour?? I am still bowled over at that revelation! So, I was able to pick up a Photoshop book to catch me up to speed on the years and years I've missed of Photoshop upgrading, alongside digital photography, which did not exist the last time PS and I were colleagues in college. So the above posted photo was a hastily altered pic but it was fun to "lens blur" on the computer versus using my f-stop with the Nikon. I know, I know. Classic photography should shoot out straight from/through the lens. But what's wrong with a little computer play? And note, it took me all morning and into the afternoon to absorb and understand the jargon which enabled me to alter the photograph in PS, which means my consumption of new knowledge needs sharpening. Time does wonders to the brain, both good and bad.*I've avoided posting about this because if I do (which I'm about to), I fear jinxing it. Late last week I phoned Craig at his desk extension, reminding him to phone our apartment management company to extend our lease through January (because we still have little idea of what's to come). He touched back with me about half an hour later and informed me that our management company had a unit available in its SINGLE building down in the Gramercy Park neighborhood. We've eyeballed this building for years, because it's so near the areas where we consistently find ourselves eating and drinking. So happens, the Open House was being held the next day. And so we went. It's on the 6th floor of a walk-up on E. 21st Street between 2nd and 3rd Aves. Need I say more? We went through the process and it is now ours. We move November 8th. NOVEMBER EIGHTH. That is, cough, minutes away. Weeks, days, whatever - we have bound ourselves to quite the adventure! Moving ourselves from E. 92nd to E. 21st won't be an easy task. BUT. The apartment is amazing (for New York). The kitchen has countertop space. It has countertop space. It has enough countertop space that I can chop an onion and brew coffee in a coffee pot and still have room to breathe! Nice. The bedrooms, at least the way the girls who live there now have it set up, feel like more normally-sized bedrooms. Yes, it's the 6th floor of a walk-up. But guess what? We will be within walking distance, WALKING-NOT-CAB-DISTANCE from virtually every single restaurant, bar, store, and so forth, that we love. So much to the point that I feel like this will be a dream that will be crashed by some bad news, like, No, kids, we didn't get the job in Brooklyn, we are moving you to Kansas instead. (Sorry, Kansas, I have no bones about you.) We're taking a risk, signing this lease. We sign sometime early next week. But. BUT. Adventures with Craig make my life worth living. The second tier to this is that immediately following our move is our trip to Europe. I know. We're insane. We make weird decisions. But they always pan out so well. I can only hope this moving one does. The Second Avenue Subway construction is terrorizing our entire neighborhood now. The street slicing has progressed south into the 80's. Miserable. So we're getting out. So happy. So exciting, such a new life alteration. I can't wait.*