new york new york
So I am sitting in our old apartment (the one that we had before). It is really nice right now. It is about 4 o’clock and the sun is shinning in all the windows. It is really cold outside - about 19 degrees F (-6 C) but nice and warm in here. So far we have heard nothing from our evil landlord about moving out. That is good. At this point, no news is good news!
I am listening to the Spanish radio station because now that I have lived in Prague and studied languages so hard I HAVE to speak Spanish too. I studied it the longest of any language - so I feel that it is stupid not to speak it at least as well as I speak the others (which is not great but at least it is). Of course, Russian is still more important than Spanish - so I have been reading Малыш и Карлсон, который живет на крыше (or if those characters didn’t print normally on your screen, Youngster and Karlsson, who lives on the roof) by Astrid Lindgren, the author of Pippi Longstocking. I have been taking it with me on the subway and reading it at home every day. And I have been talking and reading to the cats in Russian, just to hear it sometimes.
I got a job working at the Fund for the City of New York which is an organization committed to improving the lives of New York City residents. Specifically, I am a part-time program officer for the Youth Development Institute. Right now I am doing a bunch of miscellaneous projects - including researching foundations where we could get grants, editing, helping plan a publication marketing strategy. I fell so easily into this job that at first I didn’t take it so seriously. I had been talking to a former colleague of mine ever since we both left the Wallace Funds about working together. He took a job as Director of the Youth Development Institute. I wrote a paper for him last Fall. Peter and I saw him this Fall when we were visiting. At the time he said something like “I wish you were back in NY because I have so much work right now.” So, when we realized that we had to come back to NY, I e-mailed him. He said “oh I think there might be some possibilities.” I didn’t know what this meant - but when I got to NY I called and we talked once by phone, met once and decided my start date. So, it was really fast and really informal. I didn’t realize how great it was until my second day it slowly began to sink in that this was a real thing.
Anyway, I will be working 21 hours a week (three days). Peter and I are covered by Health Insurance. I can go in whenever I want and work from home when I want to. Nice, huh? Right now I am going to keep a regular schedule though, much of it actually in the office. I want to meet and get to know people. Also, it is much easier to concentrate on work in an office. At home, I think about calling Peter, or ICQing with him, or sleeping, or cleaning or….
I will also look for some other job/jobs for the other two days. I was hoping to find something working with refugees, immigrants, or kids. But first I need to understand what is around NYC - so I will start calling around and trying to see people from different organizations in the next couple of weeks.
So…apartment and job… two important things. The cats, also important, are good, although a little nervous (especially Krolik). They are trying this new cat litter, which I think is good so far… it doesn’t smell too bad and it isn’t expensive… of course, Peter will be the final judge of whether it smells too bad or not. I found another interesting litter made of cedar wood. IT is REALLY cheap and naturally smells good. But I only bought this one as a trial for a second small litter box because it was SO CHEAP that I thought something MUST be wrong with it. We will see… so far only one cat has used it…
Peter is good. We have been talking everyday. We have a super cheap calling card for people who talk for long periods of time at once. It is not so good as a general calling card because they charge 15 cents a day just to have it. Anyway, Peter moved out of our apartment at the end of January and moved in with Anton and Lina. So he had to sell everything that could be sold, give away lots of stuff, throw away what nobody wanted, and pack the rest into three bags. While he was working on it he was sure that he would never be able to fit all the stuff in the bags he had. But somehow he managed it and moved the three bags to Anton and Lina’s at the end of January. He is flying to NY next Saturday (Feb. 22). So that is all for now. A pretty long update - it gets that way when I don’t write for a long time. I hope you all are well. Let me know how you are doing when you get a chance.