Like Swiss cheese

Today is Easter. I came up to reno with my parents and my brother yesterday. We had dinner with my grandparents and then I hung out with my cousin Alice. She's moving, so I sort of helped, but we were tired so we ended up watching "It's Complicated," instead.

Change is tiring.

Then, today, we went to her half-sister's house for an awesome brunch. Alice's nephew's daughter had her first egg hunt. Then we packed up some more of her stuff...I contributed by organizing her costume collection. Then back to my aunt's for the family get together. My mom is the seventh out of 13 children, and most of them and their families still live in Reno. Holidays = trip to Reno. Except for my sister- Easter is a big deal for her church, so she stayed in Sacramento. Like Swiss cheese, it's very hol(e)y.

Here's my taciturn but mellowing grandpa, with their dog Paws:

It is dangerous

To show your brother your Blogger app.

I smell

Road trips

Usually a successful road trip signals compatibility, right? What does a trip from Sacramento to Los Angeles to Phoenix to Tucson and back to LA in four days, where you don't get on each others nerves, mean?

It means you should travel together more. Be tougher and more patient than you think you can be. And stop for no reason.

Didn't a wise woman once say, 'While traveling the road to Tucson, don't forget to stop to smell the cacti'?

The First Post About My Move to New York City

What, you didn't think I was done, did you? I've got to get my numbers up. Five posts? How will anyone ever take me seriously???

The Story About Columbia

I wanted it for years. I literally NEVER thought I would go to this program. I could tell you until I went hoarse how I really, seriously, honestly, only applied last November 1st because I knew that I had to do that application first, to get it out of my head, my heart, my system, and then move on to finding other grad programs. Other plans. I knew I had to do it--I was proud of myself for applying--I even convinced myself by the application date that I was perfect for the program. But I was not prepared to come home the day before Thanksgiving to an empty house, a Fedex envelope on the step, the glance at the return address that merely made me think "they don't Fedex rejections do they??" and then the crying that started as soon as I looked inside.

So here I am.

I have done essentially nothing so far to prepare for this move, other than squeal "New York!!" every time I see the city in a show or movie; I have received confirmation that I will get a housing offer from the university, but since I don't know when I'm moving, I don't know anything yet. Heck, it took me six months to write about it. I'm not worried though- For some reason, I feel like planning a trip to South America was a lot more of an undertaking than moving to New York City will be.

But I move to Manhattan by myself for at least a year in about 5 weeks.

I will miss people, and things. But for someone who lived a normal life in Sacramento, and worked and went to community college and transferred to San Diego and came back home and worked and then took a trip to Peru and then worked...It's the most exciting thing that I have ever made happen for myself.

So! What do I need, besides a backpack, a big puffy knee-length coat, and the restraint to keep myself from stopping at the top of the subway stairs and saying "Ooooooo look at the buildings!" (Just kidding, I know I am going to do that)? I already have the fancy MacBook Pro (thank you federal tax refund), the impractical purse, and loan applications nearing 100 grand.

This is an investment, right? A colleague and friend of mine, when once upon a time I shared my dreams of grandeur, said Columbia would be really hard to get into... "but a Master's degree from Columbia would be a really valuable thing." And I'm proud to say I think so, too. My head is worth it, and so is the Earth.

Missing

I've been missing this little blog. Not rational, I suppose; I've been telling myself "you just started doing that, how can you feel so bad about not posting for a month?" But I have been. Other things I miss:

1 boyfriend

2 girl friends

3-5 yoga classes a week (although ironically I came straight home from work today partially so that I could write a post before I was too tired)

6+ People I haven't seen or heard from in way too long. (Usually I am the type not to mind too much when I fall out of contact with someone...but before, those someones were people I'd known from school or something...now, the people I haven't seen are ones who are very far away.)

21 teeth without ceramic brackets on them. (I got braces again in November, so that my front tooth will straighten up, so that I can get a dental implant next to it. It's not too terrible, I'm being whiny. See below a picture of me, yesterday, feeling wonderful and cute and like my insides had been twisted like a wrung-out towel--this happens to be a good feeling--, post yoga...and I was feeling like for once, I didn't feel ugly with braces on:

(Last week I spoke at a press conference at the Sacramento Capitol on behalf of the New America Foundation. Women with braces -and fabulous shoes- unite!)

I'm going to miss the boyfriend, the girlfriends, and the yoga place (Fusion Yoga Studio) when I move to New York in about a month. I won't miss the braces though, I'm bringin' those babies with me, unfortunately.

I apparently will never have a reason to miss parentheses. Is this a universal brace for my generation, or is it just me?