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!

We Found Our Favorite Restaurant in NYC

...only a half block from our apartment! Before we even moved to NY, we used Google Maps to scope out the restaurants around our place. We knew there was a nice looking Italian place in a converted drug store close by, but we had been saving a trip to Locanda Vini e Olii for something special, since it isn't cheap. But wow, it is great, and really authentic to what we've experienced in Italy. The owners, chef, and all the servers are Italian. The interior of the restaurant still looks like an old drug store straight out of the early 1900's. We had an amazing ricotta appetizer, two homemade pastas, Jer loved his duck, and I loved my beet and romano cheese salad, all accompanied by a lovely Valpolicella.

And why were we celebrating? I am 95% sure that I finally found my new job!! Since it isn't a done deal, I will simply say I likely will be the new Director of Civic Engagement & Service-Learning at a large university here in town, with more details will follow once I know them...

Thanksgiving Fire

We had a great trip home to Minnesota over Thanksgiving, seeing many friends and family. Some of the highlights in chronological order...

* Meeting Luke and Russell at Nye's to see Molly Maher play (and remarking how incredibly clean Hennepin Avenue looked compared to NYC)

* Spending all of Thanksgiving with Jeremy's family making food, playing cards, hanging out (and trying to keep a straight face when the turkey came off the grill completely black)

* Meeting up with old studio friends Debb, Jon, and Ed for our usual (food, beer, studio time, and deep discussion of new art theories that should probably just stay theories, such as Non-Technical Art)

* A fantastic party thrown for us by Kriss and Chris that ended in hours around the bonfire, and much needed catching up with dear friends (see photos)

* Yummy brunch with Angie & Adam, time as Fairy Godmother with Eloise, Henry, Hanna, & Erik Brandt, a perfect dinner party at Jeff, Jen & Beckett's, and a brunch that could have lasted all day in my humble opinion at Elizabeth & Eric's.

* Finally, it meant so much for us to see House of Mercy in its new location and still feel tons of the Mercy. Jer also loved rocking out at church and afterwards at the Turf, of course.

Thanks, everyone, for making us feel welcomed and HOME. Visit us soon!

Better Job News, Weekend Art + Shopping

Good news! I just heard that one of the places I've interviewed for a job considers me their top candidate, but is waiting to make a real offer until some contract paperwork comes through in December or January. I hadn't heard from them in weeks, and had totally given up on the possibility that they were interested! They are confident that their contract will come through, so I'm feeling hopeful about it, but will still continue to apply elsewhere in the meantime. What a roller coaster ride this job search has been! I'm so lucky that some of my Minnesota clients continue to have small projects for me to do in the meantime.

We are incredibly excited about our trip home to Minnesota this week! It is all I've been thinking of, since we can't wait to see so many friends and family. Yippee!

We've been spending the last two weekends looking at art and doing a little neighborhood shopping at the Brooklyn Flea (Market), which is truly the greatest market of its kind I've ever experienced. I don't even like to shop, and we keep going back every week for gifts, vintage clothes, and great food. I love that it's only four blocks from our place. For art, we've explored MoMA's contemporary museum P.S. 1 in Queens (we really liked it), and the Whitney, where we disagreed about the relative merits of the current Calder exhibition. These photos are of us lying on the floor at P.S.1, looking up at a massive rotating mirror installed on the ceiling -- it is a piece by Olafur Eliasson (of the Waterfalls fame), and inspires some thinking of one's place...

Tour Jeremy's Open Studio!

Last Friday was this semester's Open Studio night, where all the Pratt MFA students can have their studios open to the public. We were impressed by how many people came through, and of course we secretly hope some of them were gallery scouts who loved his stuff. Here is a video tour of the studio, which we might as well call, Erin-Forces-Jeremy-To-Be-The-Video-Spokesmodel-Yet-Again.

Better Election Pics

Thanks to Margaret for capturing some better photos from our New Hampshire election volunteering experience! Here you see the Triumphant Trio (Margaret, Zac, me), then Zac and I dorking out over our spreadsheet that was used to report our regional return numbers to the big wigs in Manchester, and finally a bunch of the hardy souls who made it a great experience...

Waiting Game

When I turned over the page in my beautiful Nikki McClure woodcut calendar to November, I didn't realize how accurately this month's verb and image would describe how I've been feeling. I am in a lull, waiting to hear if I'll get a job, trying to make something of every day despite feeling pretty low about the whole affair. It has been a long and sorry wait. Some places that I've interviewed decided to postpone their search due to the economy. One place said it was because "Mercury is in retrograde." One place said my skills were too similar to those of their existing employees, and that leaves only one job that might still come through. I've had three interviews with them, but the last one was a few weeks ago. I'm not hopeful. I think I'll be re-starting my search from the ground up, and that means I won't have a new job until January, if I'm lucky. It is really disheartening.

A wise person advised me to make sure every day is "structured and stimulating," so that I don't get too down and waste away in our apartment. So, I'm trying to get my consulting work taken care of early in the day and try to do at least one invigorating New York thing in the late afternoon/evening. Yesterday, I went to my first Gallery Talk at MoMA and loved it. The docent was fantastic, describing selections from their Contemporary collection. They have free Gallery Talks every day at 11:00 and 1:30, so that is a good option for me. I might go back tomorrow.

We're also getting excited for Jeremy's Open Studio Night tomorrow. Once a semester, Pratt opens all the studios to the public and (hopefully) people from the art world in NYC scout through them for new talent, and friends and family are also welcome.

We also had a nice visit with Jeremy's Aunt Pat and Uncle Tim, who took us to a Moroccan place near Times Square. So much light! Obviously some people are making money in this town -- I just need to figure out where I fit in...

Election Reflection

It is accurate to say that I both hardly remember and will never forget the last 48 hours. Right now, I am most moved by how much everyone -- women, men, softies, and non-softies -- can't stop describing their election nights as filled with tears and tears of joy! My friends Zac and Margaret and I could not stop the tears as we watched President-elect Obama's speech on a big screen bar TV in Boston late on Tuesday night. Just looking at our beautiful First Family and listening to Obama's inspiring message was too much. I can be proud of being an American in this world again. But back to some highlights from NH... please excuse the long post...

* I spent about 24 hours in Rochester NH with friends Zac and Margaret. When we arrived at 8:30 PM on Monday, things were not well organized. The Obama headquarters had been under the direction of an 18 year old until then. Zac and Margaret have been the paid staff of campaigns in the past, so they were worried. I have volunteered for campaigns for years and have a certain love of efficiency and organization, so I was worried. We jumped in to help start organizing things for the throngs of volunteers expected the next day, but had to stop for sleep around midnight. This photo is from our hotel room shortly after midnight, when we realized it was now Election Day! The blurriness of this self-portrait reflected our state of mind, but our enthusiasm is undeniable.

* We woke around 6:00 AM to get working. Zac and I were assigned to be poll monitors at various locations throughout the day. We were there when the poll opened in the tiny town of Milton, NH, at 7 AM. I can't believe it, but we both teared up saying the Pledge of Allegiance with all the poll workers that morning! Our job was to sit behind the people who check off voters on the rolls, recording who was there to vote (that info got reported to a huge database called Houdini so targeted canvassing could take place later that day), and we watched for and reported irregularities.

* There was a amazing voter turnout, and a great sense of camaraderie among poll workers, us Democratic monitors, and the Republican monitors. At one point I reported to the volunteer lawyer at our poll that I overheard the workers say they "may not have time to record all absentee ballots," and felt that was an important thing to correct.

* At 5:30 on Tuesday, we went back to Rochester HQ and I was asked to prepare the Excel spreadsheet we would use to collect all the results and report them to the state leaders in Manchester. As the calls came in from our six wards, Obama and the other Democrats were ahead in every ward! Kerry had won Rochester by only 14 votes in 2004 -- Obama won by over 1000! We were jumping for joy! We left around 9:00 to drive back to Boston. Other favorite memories...

* Some of the most dedicated volunteers in Rochester were Canadians who came down to volunteer for the whole week. Canadians for Obama!

* Seeing hundreds of people from all walks of life making the effort to come out and vote. They included a man who had recently had a stroke and had trouble walking and telling the poll worker his name, but he stood in line to vote. People who got off work, brought their kids, and taught them about voting. Black men (a real minority in Rochester NH) who had never voted waited in long lines for same day registration and voted. A woman who had a small seizure standing in line to vote, but she stayed long enough until she could fill out the ballot.

* A great volunteer who worked all day named Lee told us at the end of the night that she hadn't been motivated to work on a campaign since Adlai Stevenson ran in '56. Her enthusiasm represents why Obama could win this election. He represents change people believe in. He represents hope for a better future. Now, he represents us.