Random weekend home.

Two Mondays ago I was feeling very down. Distance from JP is hard when I'm living in a brand new city by myself. Thankfully, I do have my fellow Georgian friend Molly living up here and we try to hang out a lot, but it's not like we can hang out every day. So for the most part I wake up, go to work, come home, figure out something easy to eat, watch some TV, play on the internet, go to sleep alone...Repeat. Don't get me wrong, I love living here. It's not like I'm second guessing moving here. It's just not the same being here by myself.

But I digress...back to two Mondays ago. I was feeling very down in the dumps and I couldn't stop myself from putting up a woe-is-me status on Facebook about wishing I could go home for a couple of days. (You should know that normally I despise it when I see other statuses of this kind, but we all stumble sometimes, don't we?) Well before I knew it, my flight attendant friend Ollie had me on a flight home for the following weekend.

It was really great to go home for no good reason. It had been two and a half months of seeing no family, of missing out on certain foods, of not riding in or driving a car...the weekend was just very magical.

Saturday I went to visit with my future mother-in-law for a little while. I'm incredibly lucky to get along with JP's mom so well. Before I even knew JP, I respected her so much. She's a great lady with great talent and I have always enjoyed being around her. How could I not love her when she was playing the matchmaker without me even knowing it?

Later I grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-A (oh and I'd also had it for breakfast) with Amy and Becky. I've missed them so much. It was fun chatting about everything and nothing and sending Becky into the Twilight Zone. And I got to meet Amy's sweet baby! She is just too precious. I debated sticking in my suitcase, but decided against it.

I got my Zaxby's for supper, then completely surprised Lisa by showing up at her apartment. Definitely an amazing moment.

Sunday I went to church and sang a song. I kind of got choked up a little when I first got to the microphone to practice...I guess I miss singing a whole lot more than I realized. And I guess my vocal chords did too - it was a little rough at first! That's one thing about not having a car...I used to sing nonstop if I was driving by myself. And also if I was driving with someone. But I'm not about to belt it on the subway or the bus with my earphones in. That would be crazy.

The rest of the day was spent shopping with my sisters and my mom. I really miss them a lot. And my mom was amazing about this whole thing. Her response to my coming home proposal? "Hell yes!" I know it's hard for her to send me off on my own and to know that it's not always easy for me, but she has made it so easy for me. She is so supportive, no matter what, and is always there when I need her (if she misses my phone call, she beats herself up for it, but she always calls back pretty quickly!). I had to catch a 6am flight Monday morning and who got up at 2:30 with me? My mom. I know it sucked to have to put me on a plane again, but she did it anyway. Seriously the best Noni Lamb I know.

So yeah, that was all pretty great. And now I'm super pumped about Colby visiting this weekend. We will be painting our own garden gnomes. Amazing.

First big trial...

Tuesday morning JP got a message from American Family Theatre (who he's toured with before) asking if he would be willing to replace an actor for the rest of a tour...ASAP. Of course my initial gut response is "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!" But after that passed I knew he had to do it. It's miserable for an actor to not be acting. And we're always a little tight on money. So JP packed a suitcase and left on Wednesday. He won't be back until May 21. It happened so fast and I can't decide if it was better that way or not. It's something we've discussed and known could happen. I've tried to prepare for it and be ok with it. But it's not that easy.

Of course I cried a lot Tuesday night. But after a while my crying was just funny because I would stop and then if he said anything or tried to comfort me it would start all over again. And then I realized April marks our 1 yr anniversary and he would be gone (although he keeps saying we can make our anniversary a bunch of different dates, so does this really count? The anniversary we need to worry about will be our wedding anniversary anyway.) I did good Wednesday morning, but when I came home to an empty apartment, I didn't hold up as well. I was sick of crying so I fought it as much as possible by turning on Scrubs (it failed me - it was about romantic gestures and the end was sickeningly sweet with like 5 different couples being romantic), cleaning the apartment (I learned very quickly that entering the bedroom was a bad idea), and making dinner (which is not as fun to do alone).

Luckily, Carla is coming into town today. She'll be staying until Monday. This has been the plan all along so of course I told her JP said yes so that he could avoid her visit. ;-) It will be good to have some company on these rough first few days. And hopefully it won't be too hard on me when she leaves. And hopefully I won't ruin her trip by moping. Haha.

We did Skype for a little while once he got to his hotel. It was strange since the last time we did that was when he was up here in New York visiting his brother and auditioning and I was at home surrounded by family and friends. It was interesting to see how things have changed. Or to feel how things have changed. Back then when his face would pop up on my computer screen I felt a love for him that was brand new and I spent the whole time wondering where we were going and how I was realizing I couldn't live without him. Now when that video starts I feel such a deeper love. A love that I have for someone I know even better than I did before. My love for him has grown exponentially and I don't think I fully realized it until now. It still makes me excited to think about where we're going and I still realize every day that I can't live without him.

Anyway, blogging was apparently not the best idea either. It'll get better.

And so the countdown has begun. 57 days.

Major Update

Well, after that first trip to New York, things just snowballed and got incredibly hectic. So if you're not sure exactly what's going on with me...here's the scoop.

Thursday, January 7, 2010: I leave work early so that JP and I can head to the airport. However, JP had been notified that our flight was canceled...yeah. The one time someone decides to send snow clouds to GA just happens to be the night that we want to fly out. But we rushed up to the airport early and managed to switch to an earlier flight. That was my first time on a plane and although it sucked as far as me still having a bit of a head cold, the view as we came up on Manhattan was just amazing. I will never forget that moment and the excitement I felt.

Friday, January 8, 2010: We got up and headed toward the financial district for my interview. However, it turns out there are two different offices for NY Laser Group and I had gone to the wrong one. So we had to travel an hour out to almost the end of Queens (Kew Gardens). But we made it and when I walked into that interview, I had pretty much already been hired. The lady interviewing me loved my resume and loved me and she already had a schedule written out for me. So she showed me around the office, asked me when I could start, then said ok see you then!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the city. We spent hours at the Met (I recommend that if you ever go there, plan on spending a ton of time and definitely use the coat check. I got so sick of carrying my stuff around!)

Saturday, January 9, 2010: Definitely a day to remember. This was planned as our day of fun. We headed down to Times Square and hung out a little until it was time to go see Phantom of the Opera. It was simply amazing and definitely brought on some tears. So so good. Then we decided to hang out and maybe go in some of the shops and stuff. JP also told me he wanted to show me the George M. Cohan statue. He was a major Broadway star and the only Broadway star to get a statue on Times Square. So we headed over there, took some pictures in front of it, then kind of stood trying to figure out what to do next.

So there we are, standing in the middle of Times Square with our arms around each other. JP start saying sweet things about how he can't believe we're going to live here and he can't wait to start a life with me, etc. I would also like to point out that JP says sweet things a lot, so this was nothing out of the ordinary...yet. So I just kept interrupting him saying things like, I know me too! But then all of a sudden he got down on one knee and I totally freaked. I immediately started crying and a million things ran through my mind. I couldn't believe he was doing this without a ring because how could he have a ring? He doesn't even know my size, we haven't even looked at rings, and somehow I think I would just know if he had a ring...but then I looked back at him and he was pulling a box out of his coat pocket. I'm pretty sure I was hyperventilating and he said some other stuff that I couldn't focus on enough to remember and somewhere in there he asked me to marry him and I said yes.

Of course, then a mass of phone calls ensued until finally we headed to Union Square to meet up with Michael, JP's brother, for dinner to celebrate. Stand 4, home of the Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake. BEST THING EVER.

Sunday, January 10, 2010: A day of rest. We walked around Central Park, went down to Ground Zero, and did other touristy things. A great day.

Monday, January 11, 2010: We looked at apartments. We saw three of them and completely fell in love with one of them. The broker told us we could do everything by overnight mail and that we could be in by February 1. We said ok, let's do.


So there's definitely more to the apartment story. It was very stressful dealing with a board, the broker, and the landlord, all seemingly not dealing with each other...but after a lot of stress and a little tears, we are finally in our apartment. Haha. And we love it so much. I posted some pictures on Facebook and I'm sure there will be more to come.

Chick-fil-A

I believe I've mentioned that there is one Chick-fil-A in New York. It's located in a dining hall at NYU. At first I was told that I might could sneak in somehow...but recently I heard that that particular building does not check IDs. So as long as I walk in confidently, I shouldn't be questioned.

While this is a plus (and hopefully I'll have success getting in), I still worry about the lack of Chick-fil-As in my area. But now I have a new ambition...to figure out the recipe and make it myself. I think I can do it. And the first step has already been taken...Colby bought me a little fryer for Christmas!! So now I can maybe make my own Chick-fil-A chicken and hey, if not, who doesn't love frying stuff?

Officially in freak out mode.

I got a call from a LASIK/cataract center in NYC saying they've received my resume and they would like to set up an interview. Holy crap! It's not like I thought that wouldn't happen, but still...it's happened and now I feel crazy.

So January 8 at 1:00 will help determine a lot of things. I need this interview so I can get an idea of what kind of salary I'll be getting in New York. I need to know what kind of salary I'll be getting so that I can know how much money we can spend on an apartment. I need to know how much money we can spend on an apartment so that we can find an apartment. We need to find an apartment so that we can move already!

I don't mean to sound like I'm ready to move and don't care about what I'm leaving behind (because, believe me, it's very bittersweet). I just hate the preparation and having to deal with the unknown. I'm just ready to have it done and over with so that we can move forward.

January 8. 1:00

Please give me a job.

Resume done!

I was stressing about having to do a resume because I really hate trying to remember when I worked where. And I was dreading trying to list everything I do at my current job (which is a lot). But then I got on my computer and voila! I found a resume I'd saved on here after I graduated. All I had to do was update it. And on top of that, I remembered that I'd actually already made a list of my work talents in an email I sent to the office so I just copied and pasted. Yessss. Resume? Done.

So now that my grandparents know about the move, now that JP and I have definitive plans to look for an apartment, now that I'm actually talking to an office there about a job...it's really hitting me. Every day I think about the things I'm going to miss. So...here's a list of a few of them.

1. My family. Duh. In 24 years, I've never lived more than a couple of hours from any of my immediate family. And for 20 of those years, I've lived with them. We're all so close and, truth be told, I'm terrified of not having them to run to. I really am. That's not to say that I don't think I can do it, because I know I can, but it will definitely be the biggest adjustment and it will be accompanied with lots of tears. And Bruno will also be missed. He loves me so completely and unconditionally. And he lets me dress him up.

2. My friends. I am a people person. I like to be liked. I love hanging out with groups of people and having fun with them. I like having friends who I can tell anything to and know I won't be judged. I like having friends who only want the best for me. It will be sad not to be able to call up Lisa, Doug, and Niccole and plan a weekend in the mountains together. It will be sad not to be here for Amy's kid. It will be sad not to be able to call Becky up for drinks. It will be sad not to try and see my FPD friends every few months (haha). I have to start all over!

3. Colby. I've never felt closer to another female. She is truly my twin, inside and out. I love that we can talk about anything that comes to mind, no matter how stupid. I love that we tend to like/dislike the same people. I love that she still likes to act like a kid with me. I don't know what I'm going to do without her.

4. Chick-fil-A. Yes, this list is in a specific order. I could eat there multiple times a day (and have) and for several days in a row (and have). There is only one Chick-fil-A in New York, located in the dining hall of NYU so I'm not even allowed in. Will I attempt to sneak in? Of course. There are also locations in New Jersey. Will JP and I take a bus into Jersey at least once a month? Of course.

5. My accent. As much as I say I won't let it happen, I have to face the facts. I tend to talk and pick up the mannerisms of people around me. I think I'll be able to keep a trace of it, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to keep it up completely. I am very saddened by this, and not looking forward to the speech lessons my mother will undoubtedly give me over the phone.

6. Theatre. I have really enjoyed my time on the stage. I have now had experience as a main role, as well as being in the chorus and honestly I don't like one more than the other. They are both so fun-I just love being on stage and singing. But I have no desire to do it profesionally. So I'll miss doing it in the community.

7. Snow days. Every winter I live in hope of snow because it means I won't have to go into work. I doubt that will matter in New York...

I'll post updates of more things I'll miss as I think of them.

A job, perhaps?

A couple of weeks ago, I was given the email address of an optometrist in NYC. I emailed her, told her who I was (she'd been warned I'd be contacting her), and explained everything I do at my current job. That was a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. Yesterday at lunch, I told JP that I needed to start looking at jobs online again. I'd pretty much given up on hearing from the NYC doctor.

Then yesterday afternoon I got an email! She said she thinks they can probably find something for me, then gave me the name and number of the office manager. Well of course, I called HER as soon as I could. So the manager asked me when I'll be in New York (Jan 8-12), when I plan to move (we're targeting February, but if I get a job before then we're willing to reconsider), and then she asked me to send her my resume and she'll give me a call back. I looked up the name of the place in the email and it's basically a LASIK/cataract center...which is what I know best!

Oh my gosh. I might have a job in New York City. This is real.