Grace and the Gridplan

When I got off the train last night from work, a voicemail from Jer popped up on my iPhone. He was calling from our local police station because he had been mugged, beaten up, robbed, but was generally OK, thank God. The police had come quickly to take his story, listen to witnesses, drive around looking for the group of teens who had done it, and have the paramedics make sure Jeremy was OK. Jer has a black eye, scraped up nose, and sore arm. We cancelled the credit cards and the kids only got $15 in cash plus a $40 Metrocard. We've said many times in the past 24 hours, "It could have been much worse."

This happened on our corner -- well lit and full of people -- around 6:30 PM. This happened on the corner that we will have to walk past many times a day for several years, often alone, because walking around corners alone is how you get around in this city.

This morning I stayed home for an extra hour, but then had to walk past that corner to the train and on to a meeting for work. My routine now involves listening to a podcast as I walk and wait for the subway. I recently remembered that House of Mercy's sermons are available as podcasts and by coincidence (maybe) I had just downloaded sermons starting back around the time we moved to NY. I listened to my first one this morning -- it was from 8/17/08, one of the last ones we had heard Debbie give. In it she describes a crazy tour guide in New York City who questions the city's gridplan, and talks about suffocating notions of family, honor, and trangressions in first century Palestine. She also beautifully, passionately describes how God's love is not limited by any human constucts of what and who are right, wrong, in or out.

I cried listening to this sermon while riding the train. I needed to be reminded of the things Debbie talked about, the mercy, especially today. I needed to be reminded about things bigger than me, and Jer, and police, and street corners, and teenagers with shitty life circumstances and anger and fear or whatever compels one person hurt another. Thank you, Debbie, and thank God for bringing me back home for a few minutes this morning. Jeremy is going to be alright, and so am I.

New Artwork From Jer

Jeremy's off to a great start this semester, loving all his classes and happy with his new part-time job at the gallery on campus at Pratt. He also updated his website with images of some of the work he produced this past semester. Check it out!

Inauguration Day!

Any one who has followed this blog knows how much the "change in administration" (i.e. TOTAL VICTORY BY OBAMA) has meant to me. City College, where I work in Harlem, really celebrated the moment by setting up a big screen in the beautiful Great Hall (in the building where I work.) Students, staff, and faculty were invited to come and watch the swearing in. Here is a view of the students watching behind me and of our new President Obama walking in to the ceremony. There was tremendous energy in the hall, including many standing ovations, cheering, praying, crying and generally acting like we were all there in person. GOBAMA!

Angie, Adam, and Erik Visit!

We enjoyed quick visits from several wonderful Twin Cities friends in mid-January. Erik Brandt came into town to play a show (of course!) that reunited members of the Urban Hillbilly Quartet, four of whom live in NYC now! It was a fun night that I regretfully have no photos of (I blame the Hungarian Palinka). Here's a nice wistful shot of Jeremy after the band practiced in a secret attic in a warehouse on the East River.

We also hosted Angie and Adam for two nights and the fun did not stop. We loved walking with them over the Brooklyn Bridge (in the snow!) for the first time, and meeting their friend Jeremiah who is a documentary filmmaker whose newest film, In A Dream, was short-listed for the Best Documentary Oscar this year. Check it out if you can. Jeremiah also treated us to dinner at an amazing new restaurant in DUMBO run by his friends - Vinegar Hill House.

I should also mention that I started my new job in January, and it has been a bit of a rough beginning. Now that I'm three weeks into it, I'm better tolerating the long commute (an hour each way, on the train) and getting used to having regular hours in the office. Every morning I stand at our train station waiting for the train, and I just have to share the billboard vandalism I spotted recently. So New York. Sigh.

Luke Visits!

We learned how to truly rock this town with a five day visit from our dear Minneapolis friend Luke. There are too many Luke-adventures to mention here, but some highlights included...

* Visiting Rockefeller Center for the first time, and seeing the big tree (see photo on right).

* Experiencing Luke's first tattoo (a beautiful image created by his bandmate Ben in Romantica).

* Watching Luke dance and sing his way through the streets and subways.

* Listening to Luke and Jeremy play music together late into the evenings.

* Spending an evening with my friend Susan, who taught us all about geo-caching.

* Taking Luke to McSorley's Ale House for continuing discussion of "the precipice" in life.

* Celebrating the New Year watching Luke's friends Ben and Courtney (from the band KaiserCartel) play music at our favorite Williamsburg bar, Pete's Candy Shop. Scroll down for lots of photos.

Christmas Adventures

We spent Christmas with my parents in Green Valley, Arizona, south of Tucson. It was wonderful to see my folks and spend some time in the warmer climate. Highlights included going to an airplane museum (mostly a highlight for Jer, I'll admit, featured in this photo), making our traditional pizza party for my parents and their friends, enchilada dinner on Christmas eve, and many thoughtful gifts. My sister Flora and her finace Lane were supposed to be with us for most of the trip, but got stuck in Portland during the big snow storm :-( We only got to see them for one day, which we tried to make the most of.

Jeremy became my ultimate hero when we finally got home from the airport only to discover that our catsitting friend had locked a handle on our door that we don't have the key to. We were so tired and had just hauled ourselves and our luggage across country and up to the third floor, only to be left locked out and needing the bathroom. I freaked out and figured we'd be out a few hundred dollars for a Christmas Day locksmith, but Jer figured he could take the hinges off the door with the proper tools! We walked over to his studio at Pratt, got tools, and it all worked out.

Back to the Blogrooms

Finally! After a month+ away from the blog, it is time to provide some updates. I have no excuse except that the holidays and new job made for a busy time, but hope you will enjoy six quickly crafted posts.

It was fun to be in NYC for the holidays. One especially Santa-filled moment came when we went to do some shopping at the South Street Seaport and were suddenly surrounded by hundreds of Santas. After a few minutes, we realized nearly all the Santas were drunk, but that didn't diminish the fun in watching them. We saw dancing Santas, cartwheeling Santas, singing Santas, and one trashed Santa crying on the shoulder of another. After witnessing the Santa Spectacle, we moved on to take the free water taxi to Ikea.

I'm Working For the General!

I have a job! After four months of heavy duty job searching, I was offered a position at The City College of New York in its Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies. I will be the Director of Civic Engagement and Service Learning, starting January 2nd. I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of me in this journey to gainful employment -- those who made connections, gave support, and helped keep my spirits up when the economy turned south and leads dried up. For those who are curious, here are some details...

* No, Colin Powell doesn't actually work at the Center (he was a graduate of the College), but I do plan to become his BFF (or at least meet him in February at an event we're hosting on immigration policy).

* The Colin Powell Center's mission is "to develop a new generation of publicly engaged leaders from populations previously underrepresented in policy circles and to bridge the academic and policymaking spheres through research and programming." It is a research center and also where the university's community partnerships and opportunities for community-based learning are coordinated (that's where I come in).

* This job is a cool combination of various aspects of my past careers in higher education, the non-profit sector, community service, and public policy. I will recruit and train faculty to integrate community-based learning / service-learning into their courses, manage fellowship programs for students doing communtiy work, and coordinate a network of similar offices at five other universities in the city.

* There are about ten people who work at the Center, and the office is literally in a gothic turret on top of the tallest building on campus! See the turret with the flagpost in the photo... that's where I'll be!

* City College is the flagship institution of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. It has 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students, is located in Harlem, and was founded in 1847 to provide opportunities for first generation college students (which it still does). It has been ranked as the most diverse campus in the country.

* I will have about an hour commute from Brooklyn to Harlem, all on the A train. I will get a lot of reading done.

* I hope to meet a lot of amazing students, community members, faculty, and, maybe, members of the Center's Advisory Council. I also get eight Fridays off in the summer - yahoo!

More details once I actually start...

Oh Christmas Tree!

We don't always have a Christmas tree in our home, but this year it felt right to look for a mini tree to bring in a little holiday cheer into our apartment. Four blocks away, we found a guy selling the perfect 5' Fraser Fir (The Cadillac of Christmas Trees!) and Jeremy carried it home on his back like Santa.

My family has a very strong holiday tradition regarding the proper way to decorate the tree. First, turn on holiday music ("The Messiah" for my dad, "House of Mercy Christmas" for us), prepare a nice drink, and do everything in the correct order (Jeremy patiently goes along with all of this). Lights first (only small lights, no tacky big lights!), a string of Swedish flags, then each type of ornament in order (with accompanying discussion of the origin of each), a pretty item on top, and finally something along the lines of the extra white fabric from your Ikea curtains around the bottom. We only brought a few special ornaments with us, but I think the outcome is lovely nonetheless. Mabel was interested in the tree from the moment it arrived. We love it!

Use of Space

We went to a Pratt party on Friday (a party hosted by another Pratt MFA student) and on the way we stopped by one of the ubiquitous corner bodegas to get some drinks and snacks. I think this is the best example I've seen of a shop not letting the ATM take up too much precious space (it was really wedged in there, behind Cup O' Noodle, to the left of tuna and Spam...)

The party was fun, and was another interesting example of how people make do in this city where space it at an ultimate premium. The party host (Will) rents a room in a building that is mostly a woodworking shop -- the "livingroom" (where we hung out most of the time) had a massive table saw, air filtering system, stacks of lumber, and, for the purposes of the party, some folding chairs. Three people rent bedrooms down the back hallway. Handy, if you want excellent access to wood!