It's now been just over a year.......

Hard to believe that it is now over a year for me since moving to NYC. We are still enjoying it but some things have changed.  We are feeling pretty ready to make the move out of Times Square/Hell's Kitchen/Theatre District to a more sedate, non-touristy neighborhood.  I think spending the five weeks at the ashram in India really made a deep impression and my nerves are definitely feeling a bit more jangled with all the activity that goes on in our immediate neighborhood.  So we are looking to move to, most likely, the Upper West Side. Certainly considering other Manhattan neighborhoods but the UWS seems to have the most of what we are looking for. We are also likely going to buy a place assuming interest rates stay as low as they are.  After crunching some numbers, it's clear it would be cheaper to pay a mortgage and maintenance fee rather than the level of rent we are paying now.

I am also back to reading books, and have learned to say 'NO" to all the magazines and newspapers.  Just finished Erik Larsen's In the Garden of the Beasts.  He is a favorite author of both Bob and mine. It is a historical account of the US Ambassador to Germany and his family during Hitler's rise to power.  It's so amazing how everyone around the world wanted to keep a blind eye to what was happening and how appalling the behavior was of the US's old, rich, cronies in high government positions could be.  I am now reading Island in the Center of the World which covers the Dutch settlement of Manhattan prior to the English overthrow and takeover.   It's good to be back reading books.

I'm in an established (albeit very part time) professional role as an independent evaluator for a research project at the Columbia University Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene and have just started my volunteer position with City Harvest which I am, thus far, enjoying.

I am enrolled to be trained as a Reiki healer the first weekend in November.  There is still an outside chance I may be doing a small consulting job related to teen eating disorders so we will see.

We still have a wonderful stream of friends and family visiting. That is such a social lifeline for me but at the same time, we have made a very nice small group of friends here as well.

We are going to go for an orientation this weekend to see if we want to join the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn.  It's a really crazy, highly controversial (they get bomb threats!!) food cooperative.  I've heard from several people now they are a bunch of crazies but I am totally jonesing for a food coop experience to replace my undying love for the Seattle PCC stores.  We will see just how crazy they really are and if it is at all practical to even think about working and shopping there in Brooklyn on a monthly basis.

I have just loved getting to know so many of the parks and look forward to further explorations of NYC's natural beauty.  Margaret and I are off to Far Rockaway Beachh on Friday.

We've slowed down quite a bit on going to see Broadway plays and are being a bit more discerning as to what performances we are buying tickets for though a good friend is coming to town and wants to see Rock of Ages, so that should be fun.  We will also go see Other Desert Cities because I had really wanted to go when it was playing at the Lincoln Center.

So I would say that our first year has been really successful in making the adjustment after such a big leap from Seattle.  We are less bug eyed with "LIVING IN NYC" and definitely feel more settled and sober but still engaged with all the city has to offer, just a bit more tempered than when we first moved here.