Back to Suburbia

I arrived at my parents house in Michigan around midnight. As always, Mom had made me a sign.

**My mom and I sat alone on our private back patio for a while and watched a meteor shower. We saw 3 super incredible awesome ones.

**I discovered/remembered that I own a super awesome retro Schwinn bike. In suburbia, you have so much storage space that you can easily forget owning even such a major thing as a bicycle. (When I lived here before, my dad heard me say that I wanted a bike, so he got me one at a garage sale--wasn't that nice? But then the tires got flat and I couldn't figure out how to change them and then I forgot about it.)

**I tried to remember the last time I was in a house with central air-conditioning and I THINK it must have been when I was at home last summer. (I'd been in homes that had AC more recently than that, but I decided winter didn't count.) Then I realized that the air probably isn't on because this is Michigan and it's 61 degrees outside.

**Eventually I retired to my quarters in the basement. I do not believe that a mouse or cockroach ever struck the terror into my heart that I felt upon discovering that there was a bat (or some sort of dark, mysterious, ominous-looking flying creature) trapped down there and flying around like a crazed rabies-spreading disaster. This was my first ever close encounter with a bat (or other dark, mysterious, ominous-looking flying creature) and although I am very fond of throwing around the fact that more people are killed every year by their pets than have been killed by bats in recorded history, I don't mind telling you that I made like a military man and full-on belly crawled out of the basement, whimpering like I was in a war zone.

Things like this only happen in suburbia.

Nice Rack

Partially because of my long-held secret jealousy of all the cool people who drive down the highway with bikes on their cars, I decided to buy a rack and transport my bike to Utah in my car along with the rest of my earthly possession.



And if you think I'm too mature and sophisticated to spend the entire day making jokes about my "great rack", then you are 100% wrong.

The New York Lists

My native New Yorker co-workers think it's SOOOO funny that I didn't know that "NO STANDING" actually means "NO PARKING." I mean, comparable to the Dead Dog Story funny. It amuses them to no end. I don't quite understand why they are just so amused by it, but it does bring to mind the first item on the below list:

Things I Will Miss About New York City:

1. any social gaff or faux paus can easily be explained away with a coy smile and the simple statement "I'm from Indiana." I'm pretty sure that will hold NO weight in Utah. But, on the other hand, there will probably be significantly fewer opportunities to expose my ignorance there.

2. This may be vain and politically incorrect, but I love walking around in my neighborhood and being so, shall we say, "verbally adored." Being blonde doesn't garnish much attention in Utah. White guys don't tell you that you're beautiful, just because they see you walking down the street and they think it.

3. Nine JCrews, 14 Banana Republics, 4 Esprits, 8 Ann Taylor Lofts, 3 Anthropologies, 10 H&Ms. (Did I ever tell you about December 26, 2006? I managed to work ten hours and still hit the after-Christmas sales at 4 different JCrews. Where else in the world could you pull that off?)

4. The lovely social aspect of the subway system in two ways: 1. really, truly being amidst and among your fellow city-dwellers, 2: it extends most social events--you ride there with your friends and then ride the subway together back home. Your event doesn't begin and end in the parking lot, but you spend your travel time with your people too.

5. Driving back into the city from anywhere. Seriously, the city skyline takes my breath away every single time.

6. People selling fruit on just about every street corner.

7. Being surrounded by water on all sides. It is so so so lovely to drive down the highways that run on either side of the island. I LOVE the views of the Hudson and of the Harbor from my office too. And, of course, we're close to the beach.

8. Thinking/praying/meditating/studying time on the subway.

9. Being one subway ride away from just about anything you could possibly think of.

10. Rooftop dance parties.

11. Any little patch of green anywhere is beautifully landscaped and perfectly manicured. there are small little parks everywhere and the big parks are the most beautiful ones in the whole country.

12. Need I mention Broadway, ballet, opera, and Gray's Papaya hot dogs? (yes, they DO belong in a category together)

13. Free concerts somewhere every single day.

14. Walking around looking at the beautiful buildings and things.

15. Being surrounded by the type of people who want to live in New York City.

16. The hussle and bussel and wonderfulness of it all.

17. Flying to Europe takes the same amount of time as flying to LA.

18. Even if I have a non-prestigious job, I am accounted a success just because I live in Manhattan.

19. Did I tell you about the time I saw Keanu Reeves on the subway? No? That's because that sort of stuff happens all the time and isn't worth reporting

20. Subway dancers


Now, just to be fair and objective:

Things I Will NOT Miss About New York City:

1. Dealing with mice and cockroaches

2. Waiting and waiting for the subway to come on the weekend or late at night when they're on weird schedules and I'm sooo thirsty and soo tired and just want to BE HOME ALREADY.

3. Having to carry anything I want to eat or use (potatoes, watermelon, toilet paper, furniture) up the four flights of stairs to my apartment.

4. Feeling like it's a little miracle every time my car is still there where I left it and without a ticket.

5. Not being able to have a white comforter on my bed because it's by a window that I keep open and it will turn gray in two days.

6. As lovely as only paying $89/month for all my travel expenses (and I don't even pay for it--my work does), getting places on the subway does take a lot of time. So something like a trip to Home Depot or Target will take up 100% of your free time for an evening.

7. Don't believe it when they say it's the city that never sleeps--it will take you at least 45 minutes to get to a store open after 10pm. I mean, those stores exist, but there aren't too many of them, so you'll have to take the subway and if it's after 10pm, the subways aren't running as often. Give me one good 24 hour grocery store any day (and even my little hometown in Indiana has several)

8. It is an unbelievable hassle to get to the airport, especially if you have more than one bag. On multiple occasions getting from the airport to my home has taken more time than my entire flight.

9. Even the most simple weekend get-away requires renting a car which makes it hard to plan and expensive. So even though we're surrounded by really beautiful nature areas, I have only been camping 2 or 3 times the three years I've lived here.

10. Being a Republican in Utah is going to be boring.


And yet, when all is said and done, I will miss Manhattan so much. Even though I'm excited for my upcoming adventures, I am so so so sad to leave. But I am sure it is all going to be for the best.

The Car Report, Part II

On the morning of June 29, 2009 when I noticed my car was missing, I felt right away that everything was going to be okay.

When I learned that through some sort of miracle, I had insurance that would cover the theft, I thought "Oh! This is it! Everything IS fine!"

When my insurance company's three week waiting period was over and they told me how much they were going to pay for my car and I realized that even with the $1000 deductible, I was going to turn a profit on the whole ordeal, I thought "Oh Wow! Everything really IS okay!"

And when the police called me on Tuesday August 4th and told me that my car had been recovered in perfect condition I thought "The insurance was just a red herring! Everything really is fine. I wouldn't have seen this coming."

A quick "what the heck?!" explanation: For all intents and purposes, my car had been stolen by a towing company. They towed my car (signs that read "No Standing" should be understood to mean "No Parking") but they (the tow-ers) did NOT enter it in the "towed car" database and did not attempt to contact the car owner. My car sat in the impound garage for a month before they noticed no one had to come to pick it up. When they ran the plates to find the owner, it came up as stolen, so they gave me a jingle.

The first thing I did after the call was go to the impound to check on my car. It really was in perfect condition. Figuring out how to get the car out of the click proved to be much more difficult. After two days of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, I hatched a plan on how to illegally break it out of the impound. Marcus agreed to help (I was maybe not forthcoming with him that my plan wasn't technically legal). After my endless hours on the phone with various state and local departments who were of NO HELP WHATSOEVER, you can imagine my surprise when the lady working at the impound lot knew exactly what I needed to do and it was a process that took less than an hour. You'd better believe I brought her cookies when I came to pick up my 100% legally legit car. Thank you Impound Security Lady!

As I drove home, I had this realization: I had made a legitimate parking error. If they had put my car in towed car registry (as they were legally obligated to do), I would have had to pay the $200 towing fee. Then I would have had to worry about parking the car every night. And I would have had to pay the $150 for insurance for the month of July. So, minus the mental exhaustion of trying to get the car back after it was recovered, having my car "stolen" turned out to be a WINNING experience for me. How CRAZY is that?!!

And it occurred to me: "The WHOLE time everything really was 100% okay. God had this plan that I couldn't have even comprehended." Wow! Plus, the arrived home just exactly when I needed it-- the day before I had to start moving out of my apartment and just in time to answer the prayers of a much-worried ward activities committee who didn't have enough rental van to get everyone to a river rafting activity. I am very very thankful that God gave me the "everything is okay" prompting and that I was able to hear it even in what could have been a frantic situation. And I'm so glad I was able to stick with that feeling of peace and hope throughout the ordeal.

Funny story:
Once I finally got my plates, Marcus (who, I'm going to add here is my hero) asked if I wanted him to come help me get the old plates off and the new ones on. The impound lot is a pretty out-of-the way place, so I said, "Marcus, I love accepting help from you, but I can handle replacing plates by myself." (Although I did accept his mini-tool-kit-thingie.) I was totally wrong--I could not to save my life get the front plates off. I even cut my finger fairly badly trying. I finally had to just pull on the plate enough to make the holes big enough that I could slip it off. Then when I took the car to get the safety and emissions test immediately after, the fellow there put the new one on for me. He didn't seem to have any sort of problem with it. Sheesh.

Seriously, do you know anyone who is more blessed than me?

At that point, the only thing that hadn't worked out 100% perfectly was the fact that I had committed to drive someone else's car across the country. BUT after fasting and prayer, last Sunday another person was found to drive the other car, so now I am free. I was worried about that one, but I figured God had a plan-- someone out there must have been looking for a car to drive across the country and, sure enough, God helped us cross paths with that person and now everyone's prayers have been answered.

Sometimes God's goodness and wisdom just blows my mind.