Wednesday, December 09, 2009

A New Kind of Church Experience

I went to a church tonight to check out their mid-week service and had an experience like never before...

First of all, the church does not have their own building, so they meet in different locations throughout the city.
Tonight, they were at the Manhattan Center.  A building that hosts various events during the week, one being church.

I got off the subway (right at the corner, where the Manhattan Center is) and thought something might be up as I walked towards the venue.
There were many hippies in the street and on the sidewalk and you could smell the strong scent of marijuana as doobies filled the air with smoke.
stink.
I thought, maybe it was just a crew of college kids waiting to get back on the buses that lined the streets, yeah ignorance.  I just wasn't sure.

I walked closer to the venue and the crowds got bigger.
I walked up to one of the doors that looked like an entrance, asked the woman at the door if I was in the right place for church, she directed me to the doors a few yards down.
I made my way through the crowds, that got bigger as I progressed, towards the line, and proceeded through the barricades.
I thought, "wow! this is amazing! so many people showing up for church! and it's so crowded that they need security!"
(did I mention this was my first visit to this church and it's location?)

I went through security, they checked my bag, and asked if I had a ticket "huh? a ticket? for church?"
ok, then I def knew my ignorance was getting the best of me.
As the security guard asked for my ticket I said "for church?"
She looked at me, smiled, and pointed me in the direction of the door I had come from, the door where the first woman directed me to the line of barricades with security.
oh boy.
I finally made it back to the first door, asked the first lady if I was in the right spot for church and she apologized for thinking I was not there for church.
ahh....I was in.
I went inside, up the stairs and was ready to sit down.
Though, again, I was in the wrong place.
The smell of pot got stronger and the noise from whatever concert was there got louder.
Back down the stairs.
I once again went back to the lady (that kept directing me to the wrong places) and told her I had no clue where I was going.
duh.
She finally pointed me in the right direction, I was on the elevator headed to the eighth floor, and then in the Grand Ballroom.
now, I sat.
Church was awesome, the preacher was fantastic and I sat next to some lovely ladies.

Then, it was time to go!
Instead of taking the elevator back down (because there was only one for the many folks at the service) I decided to walk down the stairs...the smell of pot was really really strong as I went more and more flights down to ground level. The concert was in full force.
I made it to the ground level, saw the lady at the front door that had lead me with so many misdirected directions (some front door greeter she was), thanked her for her help, and made my way outside taking a big breath of fresh air.
Never once did I think I would go to church and have the stale stench of pot lingering on my clothes.

In the future...
I now know the Manhattan Center has two venues inside: the Grand Ballroom (where church was) and the Hammerstein Ballroom (where the concert was).

I also found out what the concert was...Joe Russo, whoever that is.
I enjoyed church and got my fill of some good preaching.
The concert attenders went to a show and got a whole other high.

Church like none other.

It's almost the end...

Last year I was SO SO happy to have '08 done & over with...after having had a stroke, the passing of my last grandparent, & a little catheter shoved up my groin to put in a wee little device.
ah, after all that 2008 was over.
yippee!

Little did I know what 2009 would entail:
-a major surgery that left a mark almost 10" long to remove said 'wee-little device'
-a nice little open heart surgery!
-months of recovery time
-& many many many hours fighting billing agents, hospitals, & insurance companies.
er, yay!?

praise ye the Lord 2009 is on it's way out.
bring it on 2010!!!

BUT! as I've been trying to focus on the good things...
this year has also been full of many blessings:
-Dr. Oz was my amazing, wonderful, kind, gracious, & compasionate doc for the open heart surgery. LOVE him.
-We moved into a new apartment; went to my college reunion, saw many lovely wonderful old friends, & showed Joel the beautiful place where I went to college; my bro-in-law got married
-spent many wonderful days with family & friends this year (many bittersweet because of the surgeries, but wonderful nontheless)
-took some trips to break up the recovery/between surgery time (including seeing Canada, Atlanta & the Grand Canyon for the first time)
-celebrated weddings & baby showers

Though an extremely rough year, I have been blessed.
The Good Lord has protected me.
I am still alive.
I have deeper friendships.
I know (more than ever) the stick by-ness, go into the trenches, love, encouragement, support, protection, care, blessing, loyalty, strength, prayers of so many around me.

Especially my amazing husband.
LOVE HIM!

May I not forget the good of 2009, yet I am so excited to have a new year, come on 2010!

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Could've been 200 bucks richer

It's a good thing I'm an honest gal...

When at the laundromat there is an unspoken rule:
If the person using the machine before you does not come back for awhile to claim their goods you have the right to empty the machine out & put your stuff in.

Today this happened to me.
I waited for about 15-20 minutes after the dryer was done...waited...the woman did not come back.
So, I emptied her dryers & used them.
Upon emptying the dryer with many pairs of jeans,
I found $200 cash.
I'm assuming she didn't check the pockets before loading in the dirties?

I just stuffed the cash within the pile of clothes...what else to do?
But, she came back eventually (another 10 minutes later) & I told her what I found.
She was grateful.
Merry Christmas lady! & Happy Holidays!

Subway Observations...

The other day on the subway I saw:

-a woman strumming her guitar on the 7 train (in Queens) who I used to see ALL the time when I lived on the Upper West Side, 9 years ago.

-a homeless man helping a blind man onto the train

-a man on the platform tossing bread to the rats

yes, all on the same day.
all in a days work...

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

back to bloggin'


**Joel & I moved into an awesome wonderful huge & lots-of-light-you-don't-need-to-turn-on-the-lights-til-it's-530 & close to Manhattan & dear friends & tree lined streets & cute stores & wonderful brunch places & a FARMERS MARKET! (yay) apartment.
WE
LOVE
IT!
this is the new living room! LOADS of sunlight
(last place was a cave, always had to have lights on)

& the kitchen, where I am inspired to now cook
(DEF a new thing for me)


our awesome bedroom {where the King bed does not feel huge & Joel doesn't have to stub his toe getting out of bed everytime & where we also need curtains (since our current 'curtains' are sheets) & new bedding}
...YAY!


**A week after moving into our apartment, we went to my college reunion (so how did I get old enough & years passed so quickly that I now have had a college reunion?)
we had an AWESOME time.

--SAW SOME DEAR FRIENDS (my 'transfer' buddies)--
we all transfered the same year, thus all becoming friends & starting our own clique
tailgating before the football game:
Joel & Me; Joey (his family couldn't make it); Jill & Andy & their 3 kids

with my old roomies
Joel & Me (with Erin's son); Laura; Shannon; Erin & her daughter
so great to see all of them, haven't seen Erin since she was pregnant with her oldest, Laura in about 8 years, & Shannon since our wedding 2 years ago.

--TOURED THE CAMPUS--
the 'famous' Anchor of Hope

album cover with Shannon


the Anchor & beautiful chapel in the background

--SHOWED JOEL HOLLAND'S DUTCH VILLAGE THEME PARK
(where I worked as an 'actor' the summer after graduation)
& WOODEN SHOE FACTORY--
Joel tries on his first pair of wooden shows, there are SO many shoes to choose from

reliving my days & sporting the wooden shoes

Joel contemplates a pair

Dutch Village Theme Park entrance...
where we only got tourists on Sunday's
all other days maybe up to 10 folks stopped by

--WE ALSO WENT TO THE BEACH & HOLLAND'S FAMOUS ICE CREAM STOP--
Tunnel Park

Joel runs down a sand dune

YUM! Captain Sundae's & their famous Tommy the Turtle


**a week after visiting Holland...Benjamin (Joel's bro) & Laurie got married in NYC:

Beautiful Bride & Groom.

Joel & I were in the wedding.

all 12 of Joel's siblings were able to make it for the wedding.
All in age order: John, Matthew, Samuel, Paul, Rebecca, Esther, Luke, Stephen, Rachel, Joel, James, Philp, & Benjamin (the groom)
Mom & Pop in front
{& in case you were wondering: there is a 19 year difference btw #1 & #13 & there are no double births)


WHEW!!! & that was just the first 3 weekends since moving into our new digs!
we are happy to be in our new home & LOVE having people over & cooking in our new awesome kitchen (more pics on that later)

Hopefully from here on out I will blog more, I have lots of soapboxes as well to talk about from my 'health hiccups' as I call them.
& I'm aiming to get back to the funny NYC observations I used to do when initially starting this blog (here & here are some examples)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The trains...

With the new move & being on a new train line, I realized that I will now have lived on all but 2 of the colors represented on the MTA subway in the 10 years I've lived in NYC.
I've lived off of:
-blue
-red
-orange
-green
-light green (when the G decided to actually stop at Steinway)
-yellow
-purple

only ones missing are grey (the L line) & brown (JMZ).
& I'm not counting the Shuttle here, since it just has one stop back & forth.
whew!

The End of an Era & A New Apartment!!!!

There has been a Hope College Alum in this building for over 8 years...now the end of an era has come:

After seeing about 30ish apartments in 3 neighborhoods, 12 realtors, & having some crazy/nasty stories to share along the way (see old post & old post)... Joel & I have FINALLY found a new apartment! YAY YAY!

We've learned for this particular situation it really paid off to:
1) be extremely picky (we really strongly dislike our current place)
2) take our sweet time (we'd been hunting for about 2 months). We had actually been wanting to move for quite some time now, but with my health 'hiccups', well, that had to be postponed for over a year.
3) with taking our sweet time, the apartments we were shown got bigger & cheaper as time had passed into the fall season.

Thank you Lord for giving us the perfect place! :)

Some things I will miss about the old place:
-many memories with friends over the past 8 years.
-having a lovely friend live upstairs from us who brings us yummy homemade treats (we'll miss ya Julie!)
-inexpensive (by NYC terms) rent
-overlooking a cute garden in the backyard
-a cute front yard
-the big closet in our bedroom
-a nice landlord
-our 'faux' 2-bedroom
-not having to give directions to friends since they know exactly where we are
-being super close to Panera & the movie theatre

Some things I will not miss about the old place:
-the thin walls
-no insulation between floors
-the lady below who pounds quite rudely on her ceiling with a broom
-her son who will basically threaten us if we don't 'keep it down' (past 8pm)
-hearing the son snore below us
-hearing the folks below us talk, sneeze, caugh, drop a pan, etc...
-feeling as if we always have to vouch for whoever comes over or what we're doing to the folks downstairs
-the nasty shower that has no hope no matter how hard you scrub it
-the bathroom being so close to the kitchen
-living on the first floor so that we hear every peep as folks enter in the front door
-feeling like we live in a cave because of lack of windows
-not having any lights on (inside or out) when you enter the building at night, we've been told to turn these lights off many times...not good, even though it's NYC law (sec 27-2039) to have lighting.
-although there is a wonderful front yard, we can't use it because it's "not nice" to do so with the noise (even though the apts surrounding us all have balconies, basically serving the same function as the front yard)
-this apt has been like my 'recovery home' for over a year...some not so wonderful memories...

Some things to look forward to in the new place:
-still being super close to Manhattan
-a huge foyer when you walk into the apartment & beautiful lobby as you walk into the building
-lots of closets
-a wonderful eat-in-kitchen
-LOTS of windows (even one in the bathroom!)
-corner unit
-5th floor (elevator, not walk-up like some of the places we looked at)
-laundry in the building that is cheaper than the laundry mat we currently go to, 3 blocks away.
-1 block to the subway
-dear friends living super close
-renovated kitchen
-the cuteness of the hood & all of the lovely trees
-being able to sit outside & enjoy the weather & neighborhood
-nice neighbors
-the cute church across the street that has a pumpkin festival!

Oh, there is SO MUCH......
Joel & I are incredibly grateful & are looking forward to having a place that is ours.
He moved into my place when we got married so most of it was my stuff & already in place...now we can work it out together to make it our place.

YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Open or Closed?

It's signs like this that make me confused...
perhaps it should say "Yes, We're Lazy"

Friday, August 21, 2009

The apartment search continues...

So, Joel & I saw some more apartments tonight.
Many of them were a lot more promising than others we've seen & we are loving the 'hood we've been checking out. The management companies seem to really try to update these places with new bathrooms, kitchens, appliances, paint jobs...very nice.

however, there were a couple bumps that I must share:
-we had a different realtor today than a couple nights ago (diff folks have diff listings so we have to 'cheat' on the realtors to see the most of what is out there). Tonight's woman tried to show us an apartment that the woman a couple nights ago tried to show us. Initially Joel & I smirked at each other knowing we had just been there before, but had hope for tonight since the other woman didn't have the right keys & we couldn't get in before. Well, after walking up four flights of stairs in 90 degree humidity...we couldn't get in and see the place again. Didn't have the right keys...guess this place is just not meant to be.

-in another apartment, Joel peeked into the new restored beautiful cabinets & there were dead crusty roaches inside. ew.

-and lastly, this is my favorite: Joel was quite intrigued by what was out of the window on the 'balcony' (aka: fire escape) of one of the places & I walked over there to see what he was peeking at...a dead mangled bat.
double ew.
i need to start bringing the camera.

the search continues!
off to see more this week, I know the right home is out there for us.
:)

Oh Ugly Bathrooms....

My husband & I are apartment hunting.
Here are some things we are finding in the places we are shown:
-a bathroom all in blue: blue toilet, blue tub, blue sink, blue shower curtain, blue floor, blue tiles.
-another bathroom with 3 layers of tile on the floor, guess they couldn't make up their mind?
-in addition to the 3 layers of tile on the floor, the wallpaper on the ceiling (yes, wallpaper on the ceiling!) was a blue tinfoil-type wallpaper similar to: so, but blue & uglier & with a hue of gold in it.
-another bathroom with lime green & black tile throughout the shower & a matching lime green toilet.
-the outside of the apartment 'building' covered with brown wooden shingles, everywhere. (& it definitely did not have the nice cabin/country feel to it...more like the creepy lady inside feel)
-another building that Joel so aptly named 'Transylvania'.

why do they punish us so?
I'm assuming these owners think that these are acceptable forms of 'interior design'?

I know God's got the right place out there somewhere...in the meantime I'll enjoy the gaudiness.
we're off again tonight to see more!
I wonder what we'll find!?
Queens, NY you have such a way with your decor!

Warning Signs of a Stroke

Do you know the warning signs of a stroke?
I am meeting more & more women who have had a stroke, & it's not just for your grandparents...young folks have strokes too.

I take this info all from the American Heart Association's Website:
Stroke Warning Signs
*If you or someone with you has one or more of these signs, don't delay!
-Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
-Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
-Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
-Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
-Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

Immediately call 9-1-1 or the emergency medical services (EMS) number so an ambulance (ideally with advanced life support) can be sent for you. Also, check the time so you'll know when the first symptoms appeared. It's very important to take immediate action. If given within three hours of the start of symptoms, a clot-busting drug called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) can reduce long-term disability for the most common type of stroke. tPA is the only FDA-approved medication for the treatment of stroke within three hours of stroke symptom onset.

A TIA, or transient ischemic attack, is a "warning stroke" or "mini-stroke" that produces stroke-like symptoms but no lasting damage. Recognizing and treating TIAs can reduce your risk of a major stroke. The usual TIA symptoms are the same as those of stroke, only temporary. The short duration of these symptoms and lack of permanent brain injury is the main difference between TIA and stroke.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The basic jist to start us off...

I am just starting to write this story down...it'll take awhile to get all of the specifics out, but I only hope to help & encourage (& maybe even educate??) others by sharing the crazy year that Joel & I have had...

Basically, here's the jist:
-May 28, 2008: I had a stroke.
-the next week I am in the hospital & the doctors find out that I had a hole in my heart (I did not know I had a hole in my heart up until this point & the hole is something docs are learning are a major cause of strokes)
-so, we learn we have to fix the hole
-Oct 3, 2008: we fix the hole with an 'umbrella' (aka: Amplatzer Septal Occluder - something that has been invented to help avoid having to do open heart surgery)
-Jan 21, 2009: we have to remove the umbrella, after finding it went terribly wrong.
-Spring 2009: we know we still have to fix the hole in the heart to help prevent future strokes
-Eventually: we decide we do not want to try the umbrella again.
-we then know that we want the best of the best of the best after having the previous complication, so I push & push to get Dr. Oz to operate on me.
-June 15, 2009: Dr. Oz performs minimally invasive open heart surgery on me.

now, I'm all better!
Joel & I are so incredibly thankful for the good Lord's protection through all of this & for prayer from folks all over the world...we couldn't have done it otherwise.

I will update this more....so, please check back for more specifics...about other things like: warning signs of a stroke, birth control, listening to your body, being pushy with the insurance even though they told me they won't cover Dr. Oz since he's not on our plan, physical & occupational thearapy, very minimal residual effects from the stroke.

what a year!

Me & the Wizard...

So, from the encouragement of my huz, some friends & a little doc we call Oz, I have decided to start blogging again to share my story. I will update this over time, but here's a little taste of it all....
Yup, that's me & Dr. Oz. I LOVE him! he's a wonderful, sympathetic doctor & you know he's trying his hardest to make the world of medicine a much better place. I feel so blessed that we were able to get him. :)