A Big Fat Announcement

In my fear of jinxing the outcome, I've intentionally left out a really significant life event on this here blog. Like, really significant, guys. I've been keeping it under wraps for the past FIVE MONTHS for fear that acknowledging it publicly would somehow bring things to a crashing halt, but now that it's official, I am so psyched to finally announce....

We BOUGHT an apartment!

I KNOW! It's insane. Or totally sane. I still can't decide.

But anyway, yes, my husband, Daniel, and I are now HOMEOWNERS in the greatest city in the world. Technically, we are share-owners because we live in a co-op, but don't get all technical on me, nerd. We own something, and we are pretty freaking excited about it.

The deal was officially made this Friday. We sat in a conference room in midtown with our realtor, the seller, his lawyer, our lawyer, and three other lawyers for two hours signing our names to all kinds of weird documents about lead paint and septic tanks. I felt like such a grownup save for the fact that I was sporting a pimple on my cheek the size of Mt. Kilimanjaro and wearing jewelry from Forever 21.

But regardless, at the end of it all, me, my husband, and my cheek pimple walked out of that office with keys in hand, and we hardly even knew what to do with ourselves. We had been in this seemingly endless process for five months, and it was finally through.

Here's the thing no one tells you about buying a home in New York City: it takes forever. Forever-forever, to the point where it's not even fun anymore. 

First, you have to find a solid realtor, and there are a lot of dogs out there, let me tell you. Then you have to go to a million open houses, many of which already have accepted offers and are completely out of your price range. Then there comes the moment where you start altering your expectations -- you trade the East Village for South Brooklyn and a subway stop around the corner for a 10-minute walk (it's not so bad -- honest!). Then you find a gem -- the perfect place, not counting the teeny-tiny kitchen and the noisy street-- and you put in an offer and cross your fingers. Then your offer gets rejected for an all-cash offer, and you spend the next two days in mourning. You wonder aloud to anyone who will listen why life is so cruel.

Then you get back on that horse, and you find another place that is, like, pretty good. The apartment itself is beautiful, but the location is weird. Still, you tell yourself you can make it work. 

Then you have a panic attack -- what the hell?! I don't want to live in Midwood! -- and you call up your realtor who assures you that you should never put an offer in on a place that you aren't truly in love with. You take a sigh of relief and then you go back to hunting. But suddenly, nothing new or good seems to be coming on the market. You wonder why you ever started this godforsaken endeavor. Why couldn't you just be happy where you were?

And then, friends, your realtor schedules you to see one more place. At this point, you've lost all hope. You're basically dead inside, a shell of a house hunter just going through the motions of it all. She opens the door on a place in a neighborhood you're sure you can't afford, and a white light smacks you in the face upon entry. It is your dream home. A two bedroom, beautifully renovated apartment on a quiet street on an express subway stop. You say, "I'LL TAKE IT. GOOD GOD, PUT THE OFFER IN!" 

The offer is accepted. Dreams do come true.

BUT THEN IT'S STILL NOT OVER! Because after the accepted offer comes the mountains of paperwork followed by an anxiety-producing board approval, which is followed by a mortgage approval from your bank, which is followed by even more paperwork, which is followed by writing a ton of big checks and praying for mercy, and then...CLOSING. You sit in a conference room with a pimple on your face, and none of it seems real. Especially when they hand you the keys. 

Then you pack an air mattress, and you spend the night on the floor of your new place. You order Chinese take out and drink champagne by candlelight. 

At least, that's what we did, anyway.

So why did we do all of this? Why didn't we just keep on renting on? 

Well, lots of reasons. For one, we could. For another, even though we spent a fair amount in this process, we are certainly going to end up saving (and making) much more. Our mortgage is actually lower than our current rent, and in the end, we were just tired of shelling out an unreasonable amount of money every month. 

And there is also such freedom in owning our own place. We are no longer beholden to a crappy tile situation or a shoddy paint job. We can actually take pride in the home in which we live. I can become the Martha Stewart I never knew I could be. It's a pretty insane feeling. 

And those renovations will happen, but actually, our apartment is pretty great the way it is now. A few months back, I wrote a post titled 9 Things I Want From My Next Brooklyn Apartment, and this new apartment pretty much has it all covered. We've got a dishwasher, a shower head that sits on the normal side of the shower, a location in a neighborhood we love (Ditmas Park, we are still inside you!), a reasonable walk to the subway, a host of amazing coffee shops, bars, and restaurants nearby (a hop, skip, and a jump from the best pizza in New York City), a clean laundry room, and the possibility of a parking spot in the future. But the #1 thing I wanted in my new apartment was a view. Here is the view from our old place:

I think we can all agree that the ladies on Orange is The New Black have a better view than this. 

But folks, here is the view from our new place:

So....yeah. It's a bit better. 

Plus, I've got an office! A real office where I can shut the door and everything. It's bliss.

We haven't actually moved in yet. We are thinking to do some painting before we do, but once that happens, you better believe I will be on here with a ton of pictures and riveting details (everyone loves a good moving story, right?)

Anyway, sorry to have kept this from all of you in the blogging universe for so long. I promise I don't have any other secrets. Well, I do, but they mostly involve personal hygiene and stuff like that, so I think I probably won't be posting those. 

And before I go, I want to say thanks to all of our friends and families who have been so great and supportive during this insanity. You may not realize it, but your advice and help has meant the world to us over the last few months (and also, are you available to help us paint this Saturday? Just kidding. Hahahahahahahahah...No, but seriously, are you?)

All Hail the Mighty State

Because of the existence of television series finales, crescendos at the ends of songs, and the whole concept of dessert, I have been led to believe that the last thing in a series of events is the most important. That final impression, good or bad, feels like it can define everything. This rigid belief makes saying goodbye to people very difficult.

As many of you know from my previous blog entry where I may or may not have suggested that I was pregnant as a way to make a different sort of announcement (you can return that crib you bought me...sorry), Daniel and I are moving to New York. We are moving on Tuesday, which means the last couple of weeks have been all about saying goodbye to all of the beautiful people in our lives. 

It's bittersweet. People use that word a lot, and you know what, the only thing I can think of that is bittersweet is dark chocolate which is pretty much awful, so I guess that might not be the right word (Hate all you want, ladies. You know you don't really like eating that stuff either).

On one hand, I am passionate about this adventure. We are doing this for a reason, and I believe in it on principle. Moving somewhere absolutely crazy is the perfect way to force yourself out of your comfort zone. It's still scary though. I mean, imagine how scared baby birds are when their mom tosses them out of the nest without so much as a pamphlet on flying (Is that how birds work?) In time, though, I am positive that Daniel and I will be better people for having done this.

On the other hand, I. LOVE. TEXAS. I do. I remember one time in December 2010 when I was in New York for the semester, I kept Youtubing different versions of the song "Texas Our Texas" while crying over my macbook at a Whole Foods. Besides the fact that it is a fantastic song with riveting lyrics (so wonderful and great...), it reminded me of my alma-alma-alma mater, Helotes Elementary. I remember learning this song in music class and mumbling through that whole "power and worth" part but feeling like the most empowered seven-year-old ever.

I am convinced that I will search high and low and not find anything like Texas. Not only do we have access to Chick-Fil-A, but we basically invented Beyonce. I need not go further, but I will. Whataburger ketchup, HEB, the San Antonio Spurs, Dr. Pepper, Baylor University, Chicken Fried Steak that is bigger than your head, Schlitterbahn, Blue Bell Ice Cream, NASA, Bluebonnets, Selena...

I could go on, but I might burst into tears. The point is, Texas is the reason for some of the greatest things ever. You're welcome, Earth. 

From where else could you send a postcard this amazing?

But easily the best thing about Texas is that some of the greatest people in the world live here, and now we are charged with the difficult task of saying goodbye to them.

It started with a visit to our friends Patrick and John at Camp Lone Star. Not only were we saying goodbye to two incredible friends, but we were also saying goodbye to the place we have loved every summer since Daniel and I were both eight-years-old. It is, and should be, earth-shattering to think about not being there this summer. 

Then followed an assortment of interactions with all of the incredible women in my life. Where else on earth exists such a stellar, gorgeous, and strong collection of women? I defy you to tell me, and don't say the Spice Girls. 

This:

Not as good as THIS:

After that came a going-away party thrown by Daniel's mom which was like the send-off of a king. She collected some of our favorite Texas foods and several of our favorite people under one roof. Everyone was loud and stayed forever, and I loved it. We probably should have just headed off right then, but we were by no means done with our goodbyes.

This week, we've said goodbye to even more friends, and yesterday we had a final lunch with my parents. Don't even get me started on how difficult it is to say goodbye to your parents. The last time I did that was college and even that only required a short car ride south for a visit. 

The most recent goodbye was with the awesome girls that I nanny for. They threw me the most hilarious, sweetest party ever. It involved cupcakes, adorable hand-made signs, and A MILLION presents. Oh, and TONS of jumping.

These girls know how to throw a party!

There are still more goodbyes that we need to make. Honestly, they could not come soon enough, because y'all, goodbyes are hard. They are especially hard because they are an acknowledgement that your relationship has to change. Yes, my hope is to continue on in friendship with all of these amazing people, but there is just such a difference between communicating face-to-face and communicating through pixels and waves. I will do Skype. I will do Facebook. I will do phone calls. But I know that the thing I want most in my relationships is to do life with people.

This blog is called Avoiding Atrophy. In my first entry I talked about this post-college transitional period, and I said, "We could choose to pursue this new life with a boldness and determination that we always dreamed we would or we could sit, lie, wait, and let our muscles atrophy until we don't even resemble human." I still mean that, and even though it is hard, this move is definitely one of my favorite ways to avoid atrophy yet. 

An Announcement

Daniel and I have known for a while now, but we wanted to wait a little bit to go public with it. Like most couples in this time of life, we wanted to be far enough along before announcing it. First, of course, we told our families and then some of our very good friends. Now we are announcing this big life change to the rest of the world. I'm sure you know what I'm getting at, but in case you don't, the following picture basically says it all:

You guessed it!


WE ARE MOVING TO BROOKLYN!

To be explicitly clear, I am not pregnant, but we really are moving to New York. For the record, let me just say that I laughed and laughed and laughed while writing that intro. It took me like an hour to find the perfect picture to use though. It turns out when you google "baby in manhattan", you get this:

Scary as that she-demon might be, I guess she's pretty much me in a nutshell. I'm just a Manhattan Baby with a fiery lizard skull in my stomach ready to take on the world!

Only we won't be living in Manhattan. Like I said, Daniel and I will start off this adventure in Brooklyn, one of New York City's five boroughs. We hope to sublease an apartment in Ditmas Park, and we would use the summer to find a permanent residence. If we get this apartment, we will also be responsible for the tenant's three cats. I imagine they look something like this:

This story is already colorful!

It's a 40 minute commute to midtown, but that's better than my current commute to midtown which, according to google maps, is 1 day and 5 hours.

Anyway, why are we moving to New York City, the "concrete jungle where dreams are made...of"?

Ever since I lived in NYC in the fall of 2010, I have wanted to go back. At that time I was interning at The Martha Stewart Show in the Promotions department. I was sometimes responsible for making Martha say things like this:

I loved working in and around a live television set. I loved being challenged in the greatest ways by the people I was working with. And goodness knows I loved me some Martha. It was here that I decided that I would love to work in television.

I also loved almost everything about New York. I loved the smell of crisp air as I emerged from a rank subway station. I loved the way people walked up escalators. I loved how there were always street fairs and they always had the same weird booth that sold plush blankets with wolves on them. Most of all though, I loved the people. Truly, genuinely, I loved the people of New York.

Knowing my love for this great city, Daniel started looking for opportunities there. And wouldn't you know it...he got accepted into the New York City Teaching Fellows (give this boy a hand!), which means that in the fall, he will be a New York public school teacher. He will also be working towards his Masters. This basically makes him a superhero, right?

Daniel as Quail Man circa 2007

Anyway, we just recently found out about his acceptance. His classes start on May 30th, so we are BUSTING it to get everything ready before then. I'll write more about that process later, I'm sure. 

For now, I'm just happy to get the word out there. I'm sure you can understand that while I'm excited, I pretty much want to throw up all the time. That's just my personality. I'm a nervous wreck. Daniel is a calm pasture. Together, I think we will make it work.

....but prayers are appreciated.

10 Things Daniel and I have been up to

1. We graduated from Baylor University

 

Who wore it best?

2. We worked our fourth summer at Camp Lone Star

What must people who have never been to camp think of pictures like this?

3. Got married on August 19

Daniel carrying my train like a champ

4. Honeymooned in Playa Mujeres, Mexico

It was the most gluttonous time of our life.

5. Moved into our new apartment

Not stressed at all

6. Spent some valuable time on various websites

 

some occupied more of our time than others

7. Prayed for jobs

much like this baby

8. Watched a ton of Battlestar Galactica 

How the frak did Daniel get me into this?

9. I got a job at Anthropologie.

I get to touch beautiful things like this almost every day. 

10. Daniel started whittling 

No joke. This is not a drill. Daniel is a whittler. Here, he is carving a bear.

There. Now you are mostly caught up. Obviously I left a few things out such as hanging out with people, eating food, going to church, and...other stuff...but you get the point. So far, marriage has far exceeded my expectations. Let's keep it up.