windmills in Walnut, Iowa
Walnut, Iowa also had the best hotel we stayed in so far- the Super 8.
Trying to get to Daily Grub (it's the blue door)
Buford, Wyoming
Population: 1
And yes, it's snowing.
sign outside of a bicycle shop in Laramie, Wyoming
Friday, April 29, 2011
SLC PUNKS!!!!
Made it to Salt Lake City tonight. Here's some photos from the past few states:
windmills in Walnut, Iowa
Walnut, Iowa also had the best hotel we stayed in so far- the Super 8.
Kimchee tacos at Daily Grub in Omaha, Nebraska
Trying to get to Daily Grub (it's the blue door)
Our Lady of Peace Shrine in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming
Our Lady of Guadalupe, my favorite one!
Buford, Wyoming
Population: 1
And yes, it's snowing.
sign outside of a bicycle shop in Laramie, Wyoming
windmills in Walnut, Iowa
Walnut, Iowa also had the best hotel we stayed in so far- the Super 8.
Trying to get to Daily Grub (it's the blue door)
Buford, Wyoming
Population: 1
And yes, it's snowing.
sign outside of a bicycle shop in Laramie, Wyoming
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Chicago Diner may be my new favorite restaurant
Graveyard surrounded by a movie theater parking lot, somewhere in Ohio.
Radical Ruben with Mashed Potatoes & Gravy from Chicago Diner
Mexican Hot Chocolate at the Chicago Diner
Black Angel. In a cemetery in Iowa City.
 | Amish country, somewhere in Indiana | ||||
 | |||
| at Haymarket, in the rain |
Mexican Hot Chocolate at the Chicago Diner
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Leaving Tomorrow
Tomorrow is the big day, we are leaving between 9AM & 10AM. We have been repeating this all day, to every family member who asked, multiple times, and to family members who also asked the same question earlier in the week. Sigh. I think sometimes people just don't know what to say, so they ask the same questions over and over again.
It was an (almost) perfect FNB. The weather was nice and warm, lots of food, and clothes, and books/dvds. I got to personally hand out all of my things to people in the Hempstead community. The sweetest thing ever was that JonSteps made us a special cake and made an announcement that we were leaving. It was sad to say goodbye to so many people that have been such an important part of our lives. FNB was without question the best thing I was ever involved in on Long Island. I hope to continue doing FNB in Portland, but nothing will replace FNBLI. I'll always remember the huge Thanksgiving bonanzas we had!
My aunt made us the most amazing Easter basket. It was filled with ProBars, dried fruits, plantain chips, and plastic Easter eggs filled with money! You are never too old for an Easter basket :-)
So now, we're pretty much done with everything, just packing the car in the morning. And then we are on the road, like Kerouac. Well, probably not exactly like Kerouac, but on the road nonetheless.
It was an (almost) perfect FNB. The weather was nice and warm, lots of food, and clothes, and books/dvds. I got to personally hand out all of my things to people in the Hempstead community. The sweetest thing ever was that JonSteps made us a special cake and made an announcement that we were leaving. It was sad to say goodbye to so many people that have been such an important part of our lives. FNB was without question the best thing I was ever involved in on Long Island. I hope to continue doing FNB in Portland, but nothing will replace FNBLI. I'll always remember the huge Thanksgiving bonanzas we had!
My aunt made us the most amazing Easter basket. It was filled with ProBars, dried fruits, plantain chips, and plastic Easter eggs filled with money! You are never too old for an Easter basket :-)
So now, we're pretty much done with everything, just packing the car in the morning. And then we are on the road, like Kerouac. Well, probably not exactly like Kerouac, but on the road nonetheless.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
sad news today
I got a text this morning from my good friend, Vanessa, the one mentioned in a previous post, that her dad died yesterday. He had routine gall bladder surgery last week, and was relatively young (around the age of my parents) and healthy, and he just died yesterday! I can't believe this really happened. Vanessa has a really close family, and over the years of knowing her, I've known her family to be incredibly warm and inviting and just really fun people. I am so sad about this, and don't quite know what to say.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
unemployed for the first time in 12 years
Yesterday was my last day of work, and today starts the beginning of my being unemployed for the first time in 12 years. Hard to believe. It's kind of freaking me out. But I don't have too much time to worry about it, because we have tons of work to do to get ready for the move.
I sold my massage table yesterday (so sad, it was with me for 10 years!), so now we have room to pack up the car. Jon found out some bad news yesterday. We are only allowed to pack 100 lbs of stuff in the car for when it gets shipped. Which means, we have to weed through all of our already packed stuff, and take out anything that is not really a necessity. Goodbye, my favorite mixing bowls :-(
I also had dinner with one of my most favorite people ever, Vanessa, last night. We have always lead strangely parallel lives, and worked at the same jobs multiple times. I will really miss her. I gave her all of my acupuncture supplies.
My dad is coming over today to take apart our bed, because my friend Marie is going to buy it. She is either coming by tonight or tomorrow night, so after that we will be sleeping on the floor until we go.
So basically, it's going to be a few weeks of craziness, starting... NOW!
I sold my massage table yesterday (so sad, it was with me for 10 years!), so now we have room to pack up the car. Jon found out some bad news yesterday. We are only allowed to pack 100 lbs of stuff in the car for when it gets shipped. Which means, we have to weed through all of our already packed stuff, and take out anything that is not really a necessity. Goodbye, my favorite mixing bowls :-(
I also had dinner with one of my most favorite people ever, Vanessa, last night. We have always lead strangely parallel lives, and worked at the same jobs multiple times. I will really miss her. I gave her all of my acupuncture supplies.
My dad is coming over today to take apart our bed, because my friend Marie is going to buy it. She is either coming by tonight or tomorrow night, so after that we will be sleeping on the floor until we go.
So basically, it's going to be a few weeks of craziness, starting... NOW!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Craigslist bringing out the crazies!
Today was the big yard sale. We are trying to take as little with us to Portland as possible. It's basically whatever will fit in my car, and ship the rest.
Now, let me take a minute and explain to you how the incorporated village of Lynbrook allows you to have a yard sale. You pay $20 for a permit, and you are only allowed to put up a sign on your own property (in case someone can't tell that a lawn full of stuff is a yard sale), and are subject to a $250 fine for signs anywhere else.
So, one of the earlier customers at the yard sale had the great idea that we should post on craigslist about the yard sale. So at 10AM, that's what I did. I posted that the sale would be going on until it started to rain, and I left my phone number for questions. Now, it was a very cold and windy day, and at 2PM on the dot, it started to rain. We packed everything into Jon's car to bring to Food Not Bombs tomorrow. Immediately after, I get a call from a woman that wants to come by in a couple of hours, to look for clothes and dvds and cds for herself and a women's shelter that she donates to. I tell her that we are donating everything tomorrow, so it's all in the car, but if she wants, she can come check it out. I tell her to call before coming. She calls at 8:18PM, more than a couple of hours later, and by now the rain is very heavy and accompanied by thunder and lightening. She tells me she will be by in ten minutes. While I am waiting for this woman, another woman calls and asks if she can buy our yard sale leftovers. She wants to come by now, and she's coming from Canarsie! So I tell her she can only come tomorrow. Now, it's over forty minutes since the first woman called, and I call her back to tell her she will have to come tomorrow because it's too late and there is a terrible storm out, and I really don't want to go outside and watch her go through the car in this weather. I start eating dinner, and hear a woman talking to my landlord downstairs. It's the woman. I take her out to the car, where she is trying to chit chat with me, and I am just soaking wet and freezing trying to get everything she wants out of the packed car. She takes 3 bags of clothes, and 3 dvds, and is asking for more things, and finally I just tell her the car is too packed, I can't go through it all. And she thanks me, and goes to leave, and I'm like "uh, are you going to give me any money?" and she looks all surprised. I ask for $10, but all she has is $8, so I take it. Totally weird. I mean, it's great that it's going to get donated to a women's shelter, but it would have been donated anyway tomorrow without all the hassle tonight. And now the Canarsie woman may or may not come tomorrow for the rest of the stuff. But she would have to come before FNB, or else that's where it's going.
I practically drove through a lake on the way home from dinner tonight, and here are two people that want to drive here for some used clothes and random stuff in this awful weather. Now I have to go take my phone number off of Craigslist, so I stop getting phone calls.
Now, let me take a minute and explain to you how the incorporated village of Lynbrook allows you to have a yard sale. You pay $20 for a permit, and you are only allowed to put up a sign on your own property (in case someone can't tell that a lawn full of stuff is a yard sale), and are subject to a $250 fine for signs anywhere else.
So, one of the earlier customers at the yard sale had the great idea that we should post on craigslist about the yard sale. So at 10AM, that's what I did. I posted that the sale would be going on until it started to rain, and I left my phone number for questions. Now, it was a very cold and windy day, and at 2PM on the dot, it started to rain. We packed everything into Jon's car to bring to Food Not Bombs tomorrow. Immediately after, I get a call from a woman that wants to come by in a couple of hours, to look for clothes and dvds and cds for herself and a women's shelter that she donates to. I tell her that we are donating everything tomorrow, so it's all in the car, but if she wants, she can come check it out. I tell her to call before coming. She calls at 8:18PM, more than a couple of hours later, and by now the rain is very heavy and accompanied by thunder and lightening. She tells me she will be by in ten minutes. While I am waiting for this woman, another woman calls and asks if she can buy our yard sale leftovers. She wants to come by now, and she's coming from Canarsie! So I tell her she can only come tomorrow. Now, it's over forty minutes since the first woman called, and I call her back to tell her she will have to come tomorrow because it's too late and there is a terrible storm out, and I really don't want to go outside and watch her go through the car in this weather. I start eating dinner, and hear a woman talking to my landlord downstairs. It's the woman. I take her out to the car, where she is trying to chit chat with me, and I am just soaking wet and freezing trying to get everything she wants out of the packed car. She takes 3 bags of clothes, and 3 dvds, and is asking for more things, and finally I just tell her the car is too packed, I can't go through it all. And she thanks me, and goes to leave, and I'm like "uh, are you going to give me any money?" and she looks all surprised. I ask for $10, but all she has is $8, so I take it. Totally weird. I mean, it's great that it's going to get donated to a women's shelter, but it would have been donated anyway tomorrow without all the hassle tonight. And now the Canarsie woman may or may not come tomorrow for the rest of the stuff. But she would have to come before FNB, or else that's where it's going.
I practically drove through a lake on the way home from dinner tonight, and here are two people that want to drive here for some used clothes and random stuff in this awful weather. Now I have to go take my phone number off of Craigslist, so I stop getting phone calls.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Suburbs are Killing Us
Just had this song stuck in my head today, so enjoy it with me. Tonight I went to Foodswings for probably the last time. The food was actually pretty good, which is a rarity since Freedom left. And I had a giant ice cream cone from Klein's Kosher Ice Cream House in Williamsburg. It might be the last time I see a Hasid, too. So many things I'll miss from NY...
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
In case you missed the Dream of the 90's...
Here's a visual for why I'm moving to Portland. Sort of why I thought it would be ok to move there without visiting first. Thanks to Doug Greene for turning me on to this:
Monday, April 11, 2011
Why Portland?
Since I've decided to move to Portland, Oregon, I keep getting asked the same questions. First it's usually "Do you have a job there?" followed by "Do you have family there?" The answers to both questions are "no". Initially, I just told people I was moving to Portland without specifying what state, and some people had to ask "Maine?". By far the worst question I was asked was "Did your husband get transferred?" This person, who barely knew me, made the assumption that I was married and also that the only reason I would move would be if my husband got transferred. But then again, this was the same person that also thought I had never heard of the band Arcade Fire. But many people may really be wondering "Why Portland?" So in this first post of my first blog ever, I will try and explain.
I have lived on Long Island for my whole life (28 years!), with the exception of 6 months that I lived at the John Bosch house in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. I enjoyed living in Brooklyn, with the exception of some of the craziness that went on in the house, but overall it was a good experience. However, the more time I spend on Long Island, the more I realize it's not for me. This is sort of a microcosm of the macrocosm, but I want to live somewhere where people actually acknowledge pedestrians and bicycles, and not try to run them over, even when they are in the crosswalk. I also don't want to live (or work) somewhere where being vegan was not considered "normal". I also want to have more space for myself, my partner, and our companion animals. Everyone I know that has ever been to Portland has told me I would love it.
Within the past few years, I've had several friends move out of NY. Most recently, my wonderful chiropractor, Dr. Renee, moved to Maryland. And another good friend, J-Ro, is moving to Austin shortly after I move. So it's really not that unusual to pick up and move. I think it's just maybe a little strange in my case because I have never been to Portland. But the things (besides people) I will miss most from NY are Food Not Bombs, 3 Brothers, Cinema Arts Center, and roller derby. All these things exist in Portland. Well, not exactly, but pretty close. There is Food Not Bombs and roller derby for sure, and many vegan restaurants (definitely more than in Lynbrook), and independent movie theaters. Plus, a thriving craft scene, more microbreweries per capita than anywhere else in the world, and several radical info shops/cafes. I think I will thrive in a place where all of these things that I enjoy also thrive. So I hope that explains it.
I have lived on Long Island for my whole life (28 years!), with the exception of 6 months that I lived at the John Bosch house in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. I enjoyed living in Brooklyn, with the exception of some of the craziness that went on in the house, but overall it was a good experience. However, the more time I spend on Long Island, the more I realize it's not for me. This is sort of a microcosm of the macrocosm, but I want to live somewhere where people actually acknowledge pedestrians and bicycles, and not try to run them over, even when they are in the crosswalk. I also don't want to live (or work) somewhere where being vegan was not considered "normal". I also want to have more space for myself, my partner, and our companion animals. Everyone I know that has ever been to Portland has told me I would love it.
Within the past few years, I've had several friends move out of NY. Most recently, my wonderful chiropractor, Dr. Renee, moved to Maryland. And another good friend, J-Ro, is moving to Austin shortly after I move. So it's really not that unusual to pick up and move. I think it's just maybe a little strange in my case because I have never been to Portland. But the things (besides people) I will miss most from NY are Food Not Bombs, 3 Brothers, Cinema Arts Center, and roller derby. All these things exist in Portland. Well, not exactly, but pretty close. There is Food Not Bombs and roller derby for sure, and many vegan restaurants (definitely more than in Lynbrook), and independent movie theaters. Plus, a thriving craft scene, more microbreweries per capita than anywhere else in the world, and several radical info shops/cafes. I think I will thrive in a place where all of these things that I enjoy also thrive. So I hope that explains it.
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