Some Pictures

I'm sorry there aren't more yet; it has been a busy week trying to get things straightened out and wandering around trying to find an internet connection, since ours won't be set up until next Wednesday. Hopefully this weekend will provide an opportunity to get some really good ones wherever Zach and I go to explore.

Raygen--I think she thinks her aunt takes too many pictures
Alexandra--she absolutely would not look at the camera
Raygen is very helpful with a broom an dustpan; guess we'll see if that lasts past the age of 2
Alexandra and "Aunt Beth"

Zach was feeling a little contrary... or perhaps just totally exhausted

Stuff everywhere... still working on moving in.

Our bed, saving us from the plight of air mattresses...

Of Fossil Fuel and New Beginnings

There are a lot of things in life that we as humans never think about… and we don’t usually know we haven’t thought about them until we’re faced with a new situation—a stimulus, so to speak, to discover a host of new questions to consider and new topics for thought. Some of these may be profound, and some of them are more deeply rooted in the simple steps of everyday life. Yes, there are many things about everyday life that we’ve never thought about.
For example, if you move to a new place, but were unable to move your bed with you, where do you find a new mattress so you can stop sleeping on an air mattress? This was my dilemma yesterday, the first day of life in the big city. Now, I suppose it might have been different if I had moved somewhere with friends or family close by—a recommendation would have been easy to come by. But I can’t imagine the look I would have gotten if I had walked up to the first person I saw on the street outside my apartment and asked where I could find a good mattress… Yeah, not the best way to make friends. There aren’t any big department stores around here either, and even if there were, I have no way of getting the mattress to my apartment by myself, so, it was a necessity to find somewhere that would also deliver said mattress. I had my challenge cut out for me, but was definitely motivated by the stiffness that was growing for every night on the air mattress.
So, I thought about my options. No internet connection, no clue where the nearest place was to find an internet connection, and rain coming down outside. Thankfully, the last renter left a phone book in the apartment. So, armed with a phone book and a comprehensive guide to the city (so I could figure out how I would get to any of these places), I flipped to the furniture section of the book. Lesson learned: it’s always a little better if your phone book isn’t out of date. Several of the more promising places had moved already, so they were out. I made a short list of places that looked as thought they might do the trick, and then figured out where they were located and just how many rides up and down the city it would take to see them. List in hand, I called around to see if I could narrow a price range. Desperation will make anything sound appealing, to a point. At least I knew by the time I hit the road what I could expect and how to mentally compare options.
One of the purchases I made in VA with NY in mind was a pair of Pink, polka-dot rain boots. When you have no car, rain boots are a necessity. They were particularly helpful yesterday, providing both much-needed protection from the general wetness and a splash of color to cheer me up. It managed to stop raining part way through the afternoon, but the sky was grey and cloudy all day. That didn’t hinder me from success, though. Long story short, I visited two mattress stores, and found a great deal at the first. The process involved a significant amount of waling, but nothing my boots and me couldn’t handle. I am happy to say that we now have a mattress, delivered to our apartment this morning. I employed my growing knowledge of the city on my way home yesterday to stop and pick up some sheets so that we will be all ready for our first comfortable evening tonight. Hallelujah! It will be a welcome relief, not to mention nice to have somewhere other than the floor to sit, since we have no chairs. What an adventure.
I realize that I took for granted a general knowledge of where I was living. I mean, even moving to college, it was pretty well defined: the grocery store was around the corner and the Wal-Mart was a few miles down the highway. Not so with this move. Since I don’t know anyone here, I’m not sure who to ask for that kind of information. And even if you know that something exists or where it is, there’s the question of how you’re going to get there. So, it will take some getting used to, but I think we’re settling in nicely.
Last night, after Zach got home from work, we went out to try and find a dry cleaners for his work clothes. Fifteen blocks later, we decided just to take his stuff to the place around the corner from us and see what happened. So, it was back to the house, where we created some lovely salads and settled in for Jeeves and Wooster. That’s one of our favorite ways to relax at night. Only, something was missing. Ice cream. One thing we have learned about the city, is that there are little delis on nearly every corner, so it was just a trip to the end of the block for some Ben and Jerry’s (all they had) Fossil Fuel ice cream. It was absolutely wonderful—enough chocolate to satisfy, and so tasty!
So, that’s the start of our life in the big city. I'll have pictures soon, once we get the Internet thing worked out ;-)

T minus 8 days

...and counting. Moving day is 8 days away, and, well, suffice to say that there are a lot of little things to wrap up. Which would explain why I'm posting a blog post. Hmm, well, perhaps that's a non sequitor, but oh well, it is what it is. Zach's parents very graciously came out this weekend and moved our larger permanent furniture back to OH. The rest of it we will sell. They also took our car with them. That was kind of a sad moment--Pierre has been a pretty constant companion for the last 5 years, so it was a sorrowful goodbye... But alas, he cannot live in New York with us, so at least he will have a good home :-)
We were blessed with beautiful weather this weekend, so we spent lots of time outside. We walked from downtown D.C. into Rosslyn on Friday night by way of Georgetown. I can hardly believe how warm it was. Saturday morning, we went to Brooklyn Bagel, a real New York bagel bakery right here in Arlington. I can't believe it took us a year and a half to find it! You can sit and watch them making the bagels through the glass in the restaurant, which we thoroughly enjoyed. And the final product was, like it should be, tough on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. Yummy.
We stopped by the farmers' market in Arlington as well and generally enjoyed a LOT of sun. It made up for the rainy day on Sunday. All in all, though, it was a beautiful weekend, and very much enjoyed by all.
So, now finals for Zach and the last few days of work for me. It's kind of weird to have the normal ammenities of life seem to disappear around you (like our dishes, furniture, soon to be bed), but we are really excited knowing that such an adventure is just around the cormer. So, bring it on--New York, here we come!

Friends and Washington, D.C.

I'm suddenly realizing that we're really moving in three weeks. That's 21 days total, and only 15 days of work. Crazy, huh? So, I've been trying to fit in opportunities to see friends before I live 4 1/2 hours away. Zach and I also had the chance to walk through D.C. last night as the sun was beginning to set--with everything in full spring glory, it was pretty beautiful. I won't really miss D.C. as a city, per se, but it definitely has some very picturesque qualities--poorly captured in the photos below, but nonetheless, a little taste.

The wing reunited :-)

Flowers in D.C.--that's the RNC building in the background
The Capitol
Capitol again
Washington Monument in the distance--I love the sun in this one

Streets around Capitol Hill
Pretty garden

More pictures

I finally got a chance to upload a bunch more pictures from our New York trip last weekend and from some of the spring beauty around our apartment here in Arlington. Enjoy!

The cherry blossoms in the courtyard of our apartment complex have finally come out, and they are beautiful!
More cherry blossoms
This is the hotel where we stayed on Thursday night after Zach's reception at the law firm. It's right downtown, and it was beautiful! The room was larger than our apartment.
Fresh orchids
Cafe Lala: I met up with a couple here that our pastor had introduced us to via email. Cafe Lala is where they filmed the scene in You've Got Mail in which Kathleen Kelly has the book with the flower and is supposed to meet up with the person she's been emailing. Joe Fox shows up instead. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the movie, but no less quaint
More pictures from Sakura Garden up the street.

There are several cathedrals/churches around our house, all of which are very lovely, but are under construction--you can see all the scaffolding on the spire.

You can see the Broadway street sign. This is right near our house.

Our kitchen, view one
Kitchen view two
Another church, very close by
Us--New York, here we come (we're not exactly dressed to impress... we had just finished moving into a 5th floor walkup, so we were pretty exhausted)

New York Pictures

Moving day was on Saturday... at least most of our moving happened that day. In between carrying our belongings up 5 flights of stairs to our little new home, we managed to get some good pictures of the spring weather in the upper west side around the apartment. Enjoy!

International House (above) houses many of Columbia's students.

These pictures were taken in the Sakura Garden, right up the street. It's absolutely beautiful, and very quiet at 8:30 on Saturday morning

Spring is finally coming

I know the official start of spring is March 20, but spring doesn't really arrive (at least in my opinion) until the weather is like in the 70s and the trees are blossoming... which means that it's finally coming. I will miss Arlington's plethora of flowering trees when we move, but perhaps Morningside Heights has lots of flowering trees too. We can always hope! Zach and I took a bunch of pictures earlier this week from the area around our house as we walked back from our Tuesday night date (happy hour at a local restaurant). Hopefully we'll get some more before they all disappear.

A cold magnolia tree... the warm weather can't come soon enough!

The tulips were just waiting to pop

Our spring street

Another beautiful magnolia

These snowy white blossoms are all over our neighborhood

With finals right around the corner, we've been trying to get everything set for the start of Zach's summer job. I think this process is far more enjoyable for me than for him, becuase it involves significant amounts of clothes shopping and, as he says, playing dress up with him. He's modeling one of the new shirt and tie combinantions in the picture below. Yes, it's purple, and yes, it looks so good on him! So much fun, at least for me :-)

See, how great is that?

Just for kicks