Are you serious?

I heart NYC

2008-12-23T18:17:00.003-05:00

Daily I come to love this city more and more. In 30 Rock fashion, someone will now spit on me the next time I'm walking down the side walk. We have been here a little over one and a half years now. I can't believe it. The holidays are always a special time in NYC. The Ewings came up for Thanksgiving and my mom came up last week for to do all the Christmas stuff. Enjoy the pictures.
The Ewings at City Hall (Our Thanksgiving dinner restaurant)

Us and Kermit the Frog at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Our Christmas card (Outside the Rockefeller Center)

What a summer

2008-08-15T11:51:00.003-04:00

I passed out, passed my NCLEX, weddings and babies galore, went to Shiloh, and became employed!

Marcus and I are always wondering what draws people to Shiloh. It's stressful, there's always some crisis going on, but we CAN'T get away. Last summer, Marcus went for the summer much to my chagrin. This summer I was the to be the camp nurse for teen session. Some how I ended up being there half my summer. It was wonderful, sorry Marcus. My time there also made me realize how important it is to be there year round for the kids.

I went home for my best friend Megan's wedding. My sister is getting married today. There are 7 people I know that are pregnant.

God has blessed me with the perfect job. I will be working at Mt. Sinai Medical Center on the Bone Marrow Transplant floor. The patients on the floor are adults and children. Mt. Sinai is directly across Central Park from our apartment. I get to walk through Central Park to get to work!! I heart New York. Don't worry I will not be walking through there at night (that has been everyone's first question). I start September 15th. Classes start again September 2nd. The next three years of my life will be pretty busy!

Consider it done

2008-05-20T18:06:00.003-04:00

It's official. I am a Columbia grad. I am a RN (after I pass the NCLEX June 16th). I'm so excited. I've been looking back at the journey that brought me to this point. Almost two years ago I had an awful experience with a physical therapy internship. It caused me great distress that what I thought my life was going to be was...boring. Then my mother-in-law suggested nursing school. Then something clicked and I started looking at those options. I applied to Columbia, Vanderbilt, and Xavier (a school in Cincinnati). I was accepted to Columbia which I still believe was a fluke. Then we moved to NY. Next week I'll have been here a year. I love this city more everyday. Wish me luck on the job hunt!

Acceptance

2008-03-18T14:29:00.003-04:00

Many exciting wonderful things have happened in NYC since my last post. Right now is spring break. I'm not going anywhere. The goal for the week is to become organized in life and our apartment. This will be difficult. Wish me luck! Also I want to paint. The decision of color is proving more difficult than the decision to move to the city.

Over the last six months, slowly a feeling of acceptance has come over me. Acceptance that we are to be in NYC. Acceptance that nursing is the right career. Acceptance we will be here for a while. Acceptance that babies are a long time off (I'll explain later). And acceptance that God may have more plans for us than we had planned (which is always the case, right?). I believe painting is a representation of my acceptance. Since we just signed another year lease, I figured we might as well do something semi-permanent to make it our own. Let me explain how the "acceptances" have developed.

The acceptance that we are to be in NYC. Recently Shiloh has started a series of life skills for our kids. Last Saturday was the second one, it went really well. Afterwards, some of the kids and us went to the park. We were on the swings, playing frisbee, and people watching. Being a part of the kids lives weekly is why we are here.

Acceptance that nursing is the right career. I finished my last clinical rotation last week. It was labor and delivery. I absolutely loved being with mothers as they prepared for their baby. That time is someone's life is the most important and I got to experience it with them. I could reassure them that their baby was fine, or comfort them when the baby was not fine. It was a great learning experience.

Part of knowing that nursing is the right career has brought about the acceptance that we will be here a while. I have decided to do the masters portion part time while working. This way I will I have worked as a RN for 3 years before I am a nurse practitioner.

The last rotation made me realize how much I want babies. The nursery was not good for me! But along with the fact that I will not graduate until February 2011. Then I'll want to work for a couple years (to pay off those loans). Babies are a long way off. Lucky Marcus.

Acceptance that God may have more for us than we planned. The church we have been attending has opened our eyes to all there is to do in New York. Please pray that we will keep our eyes and ears open to what He wants us to see.

JUNO!!

2008-01-20T16:43:00.001-05:00

Last night, Marcus and I braved the cold wind to see Juno. Partly to celebrate five years being together and partly due to a lost bet. If you haven't heard of Juno, it's about a teenage girl who ends up pregnant and decides to put it up for adoption as opposed to an abortion. Now it was hilarious, but even more touching. How many movies about teenagers involve real situations that they may face and portray it so honestly?

Those of you who may not know, my sister had a baby 17. I could see her in Juno, especially the scene where she is walking down the hall that divides for her as everyone stares. Her nickname as the cautionary whale. My sister was not the only teenage girl having sex. Something like 80% of teenagers have sex before they leave high school, but the unlucky few that have a physical representation of their "dirty deed" are ostracized. As Juno said, "What is the male word for slut?" Jason Bateman "They haven't come up with one yet."

As I step down from my soap box, go see Juno. It was sooo funny with many quotes to add to my repertoire like: "You're the cheese to my macaroni" and "That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet" -Dwight referring to a home pregnancy test.

As a side note, my sister kept her child. Ethan. Who is now 3 and a half and the light of all of our lives. Having a child at 17 changed her entire life including her personality, work ethic, and her worldview. She works full time and goes to school full time to support her and Ethan. She is my hero. Whenever I'm stressed, I think how I could have a child and a full time job and then I shutup. Sometimes.

First Snow

2007-12-02T21:52:00.000-05:00

Today when I awoke, I looked out my window and saw snow! My first snow in NY (except for the one spring break it snowed!). It's the end of the night and the snow is gone, but I made some good memories today to share.

First this morning on the way to church a kid threw a snowball at me. I was on the bus and the window was open partly. Him and his buddy were throwing snow balls at passing taxis. We made eye contact and I glared, warning him with my eyes that he should not do what he was thinking about doing. He pulled his arm back anyways and let loose. It hit the window by my head. Luckily, for him, it didn't get on me. I shook my fist at him and he ran off. Lucky boy.

Then tonight the six of us Shiloh people went to the Park Ave Tree Lighting. We joined about 500 New Yorkers sing Christmas Carols in front of the Brick Church. It was amazing! Afterwards, we went back to Kiersten and Alison's drank cider, ate apple pie, and watched a White Christmas. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Please excuse the delay...

2007-11-25T16:46:00.000-05:00

Life has been crazy to say the least. I have four weeks left of my second semester at Columbia. Marcus has been working for Harlem Children's Zone for a month or so now. Both families have come to visit (and we had so much fun!). I went home for Thanksgiving (without Marcus because he had to work). Life in New York is starting to resemble something like a pattern, which for those who don't know me, I crave. A part of my life has never followed a pattern, my family. The past couple weeks have reminded me of this fact.
My family consists of my mom, brother (22), and sister (20). Without going into too much detail, my siblings and I had a difficult family environment because of our father. All three of us have handled it differently. I dove straight into counseling, God, and friends which all helped me overcome. My sister rebelled as a teenager, but now is an amazing mother to a three year old boy, works full time, and goes to school full time. My brother has been in a constant state of anger and guilt for the past six years. Neither one of them have a faith in God to which I attribute my peace, hope, and happiness.
When I think of them, it's easy to blame myself for not being there for them and their healing process. When I'm around them, I can see the chains of the past holding them back from realizing their full potential and joy. I'm also at a loss of how to help. Please be praying for my family and I as we, along with God's help, try to heal the wounds of the past.

Old School Reunion

2007-09-25T17:14:00.001-04:00

It finally happened! I've been living here four months now and I've been waiting. Last night we finally have a Shiloh reunion of sorts at Cilantro's. A Mexican restaurant that we frequent because of their half price margaritas and good food.

There 12 of us from Shiloh. It was good seeing everyone and catching up. It was surreal all of us to be in the city, eating together as "grown-ups". I can remember being together on off nights during the summer dreaming of living in the city one day and having nights like last night.

God has done and is doing great things in all our lives. Some through Shiloh and others through completely new areas of their lives. Each person has changed, but our conversations and our friendships haven't.

THE smell

2007-08-27T18:43:00.000-04:00

The moment we returned to our apartment after being out of town for a week there was an awful smell in the kitchen. Marcus became obsessed with finding where the smell came from. The first time he pulled the stove away from the wall we didn't find anything. So he started pulling the drawers out. You will never guess what we found.

Lots and lots of Zoloft that expired in 1999. Very strange and eerie.

The second time we pulled the stove away from the wall there was our little mouse (the white stuff is baking soda that Marcus dumped to try to stop the smell). It had crawled into the stove somewhere and died. The smell almost made both of us vomit. It took forever to get the mouse out and then Marcus ran outside to the trash. Thank God I'm married and had Marcus to do the "dirty work".

My first visit home

2007-08-22T22:33:00.000-04:00

This was the first time I've visited Cincinnati from living in another city. College didn't count b/c a dorm room doesn't feel like home. It was weird, but so much fun. My granny and the twins met us at the airport. Instead of making welcome signs they just wrote "Welcome home Adrienne and Marcus. Yipee!" So creative. We got skyline on the way home!

Sara and Kim were as much fun as ever. They threw me a birthday party, we went school shopping, they spent the night, and we watched High School Musical 2. Ethan watched it with us too! He kept saying "I hate high school musical", but ended up dancing by the end of the movie. I loved it. I had never seen the first one, but I may be obsessed now. Maybe.

He was so cute and talkative! He is three years old now. It seems like it was yesterday he was born. He kept saying "I love you Adrienne and Marcus." I didn't want to leave him. He loved the girls (Jenna, Sara, and Kim). They spent the night the same night as him. Kim was the only name he could remember though and called Jenna, Jeffrey once.

Jenna didn't want us to leave. Isn't she cute? I didn't want to leave either. Then when we did get back to New York, we realized we had left both sets of keys in Ohio. Luckily, I have the world's greatest granny that overnighted them to us. FedEx got the keys to Kristi's apartment by 9:00 am the next morning. But we did have to spend the night at Kristi's. Trust me, we'll never forget them again! Now it's back to reality. Marcus is job searching and I start my second semester in a week and a half. Wish us luck!

Columbia University

2007-07-25T21:21:00.000-04:00

This is the beautiful ivy league school I attend. But below is the actual campus I go to everyday, about 60 blocks north of the nice campus. Such is my luck. I only have a week and a half left of summer classes till I get a month break. Then I'm going to Shiloh for a week and then home for a week!

My NYC apartment!

2007-07-08T18:54:00.000-04:00

This is our empty, tiny, very expensive apartment that I have stayed in for two weeks! I was going a little cabin crazy by the end of it. We now have our stuff, but it's all everywhere. But I am happy to announce I am sleeping on a normal bed now, no more air mattresses for me! I will post finished pictures when it's all done.

My day at Ikea

2007-07-01T15:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday me and Marcus spent the entire day at the Ikea in Elizabethtown, NJ. And I mean an entire day. We started off on the free shuttle from the Port Authority in NY with many other eager New Yorkers to Ikea. Neither one of us had been to the phenomenon previously and were pretty excited. I can tell you after six hours we were not so excited anymore. Everyone had told us of this amazing place with cute stuff and it's cheap!

It turns out it's cheap because you do everything. You get the parts out of their warehouse, you take it home, and you put your furniture together. Hopefully we can figure it out. We won't get our furniture PIECES until Saturday when Marcus should be bringing all our things up from Ohio. So I will have a bed, couch, desk, table, and coffee table. And cute computer chair! I cannot wait to be a normal person. My back is getting worse every day by sleeping on the air mattress. Also since it's the only piece of "furniture" in the apartment I eat, sleep, and do homework on it.

Everyday gets a little bit better.

Slightly positive Adrienne

2007-06-29T14:54:00.000-04:00

Well, I told you I would be more positive. Slowly, but surely. I'm in my apartment on my air mattress watching tv on my new mac book. Tonight I get to see my husband for the first time in five days. What else can a girl want?

I hate NYC

2007-06-19T20:01:00.001-04:00

Well it's been three weeks today since I became a New Yorker. Right now, I hate it. We are finally signing an apartment lease tomorrow after been toyed around with brokers and landlords for the past three weeks. We've been denied three times, but one changed their mind a week later. We've lost money. We've slept on our friend's floor, where we also spent our one year anniversary. We had a night in a hotel, but it was the same day the FFA had a "glitch" so Marcus did not get in NY until 11:30 p.m. and we're on a very fixed income so the one night was all we could do. I've wanted to go home so many times and beg Xavier University to take me. If only I wouldn't lose thousands of dollars.

BUT...

Tomorrow we sign papers on a very small, very expensive apartment a block from Central Park on the Upper West Side of new york. I will forever be a west sider whether I live in NY or Cincinnati. But things should start looking up and be less stressful once we move in, which will be Friday. Thank you for everyone prayers and please keep on praying! Marcus leaves Friday for Shiloh so I will live alone! And I was afraid in a empty house in Fort Thomas, so we'll see how this goes.

Maybe next week's post will be finally positive. Until then, I hate NY.

Overwhelmed and Insignificant

2007-06-07T20:10:00.000-04:00

Since I've gotten to New York I've had my moments of "Wow, this city is amazing!" and also my moments of "What the crap am I doing here?" There have been a lot more crap moments than wow moments.

Some crap moments have mostly been when looking for apartments. Wow moments have been going to Shiloh this past weekend. Another wow moment was when we went to a bible study at this amazing apartment that overlooked St. Peter's Cathedral and you could see the sun setting over Central Park. Not that I could EVER afford a place like that, but I can imagine.

One con about living in a city of over five million people, you can feel pretty insignificant pretty fast. In a program with 180 other students, you can feel pretty insignificant pretty fast. I think it will take a while before I feel like a part of the city or my program for that matter.

Sorry this is kind of down, I am having one of those days (it's that time of month).
But I get to see my husband tomorrow to celebrate our one year anniversary and everything will be okay again!!!

The City That Never Sleeps

2007-05-31T20:29:00.000-04:00

Well, it's official. My residence is New York City. I guess not officially because I still don't have an apartment or address, but anyways. I have been a Columbia University student for two days now. Two days of long orientation, which has been very different than orientation at Lipscomb. It was said, "Romantic relationships between faculty and students are not prohitbited, but discouraged." Hmm...very good to know.

My class is huge with all kinds of different people. I've only gotten lost on the Subway once. I met someone from Pepperdine. I've seen campers. I'm going to Shiloh tomorrow. I start class Monday. Everything is going so fast.

Situational Ethics

2007-05-13T12:06:00.000-04:00

While Marcus and I were walking to the movies, we came upon an ethical decision. Laying at my feet were two twenty dollar bills. I picked them up immediately and then didn't know what to do. Marcus didn't know what to do. We stood there on a completely empty street discussing our next move. The house next to where the money was found was for sale so no one was home. The realtor just happened to be our ex-landlord that still owes us $75, by the way. We decided there was nothing to do and Marcus stuck it in his pocket. We enjoyed a free night at the movies and ice cream. But I still do not know if we did the "right" thing? What would you do???

Are you serious?

2007-05-10T19:15:00.000-04:00

To quote my favorite tv show surgical interns...Are you serious? Have I been married almost one year? Am I really moving to New York City? Am I really going to Columbia University? Am I starting nursing school? Is my best friend really moving to China? The answer to all these questions is yes! But my mind is having a hard time grasping all these changes. According to my husband, I never do well with change. When we were first dating at the change of each semester, I'd tried to break up with him, but he'd always talk me out of it though, lucky him. So pray that I do better with these changes! I leave for New York in two and a half weeks. My blog will be about all the changes in mine and Marcus's life as we make the move.