Happy Friday the 20th!

The post below was originally written last week, but blogger was down. For the sake of time, since you are all shocked I've posted anything (yes, I see it's getting to be a trend, every 2 months....), I'm just going to post it as is. I'll try to post an update on Monday. Happy weekend!!

_________________________________________________________

Happy Friday the 13th! Well, I actually wrote this post on Thursday, except Blogger was down so I couldn’t post it. I had an hour to kill between “I don’t feel like doing any more work today” and class, and realized it had been, yet again, nearly 2 months between Blog posts. So I decided it was time to update my 4 loyal readers about my life.

Since you last heard from me, I took an impromptu weekend vacation to the Bahamas, spent a week in Alabama (for Passover), and went to Denver for a Pediatric conference. That’s a lot of traveling for someone who also spends one weekend a month (sometimes more – 2 in May) on call, and works 10-12 hours a day.

Why so much traveling? I had a long weekend the 1^st weekend of April – it was “spring break” from my masters’ program, and I had originally asked for the day off of work months ago when I thought there was a possibility we’d go to my cousin’s wedding (but unfortunately, my Dad couldn’t afford to go, so that family trip got canceled). S and I discussed going to a B&B for the weekend, but everyone nearby – like the Hamptons – was super expensive. Plus the added expense of renting a car to get there, and it didn’t seem like a cheap getaway. And it was super cold here. Snowing, in the 20’s. Nasty winter weather. So we looking online to see where we could fly that was sunny and warm. The Bahamas on Jet Blue! Went on Priceline and got a room at the Sheraton in Nassau for less than $100/night. Brought a lot of our own food so didn’t have to pay for the expensive resort food. Sat on the beach, relaxed, read. Went snorkeling, which was fun. It was just what we both needed.

The Alabama trip was planned for a lot longer. S & and I both went for an entire week, got to spend some time with both my real family and my “adopted” family, the Chabad family in Birmingham with whom I’ve spent all the holidays (especially Passover!) for the last 20+ years. The only bad thing was that spring was long gone in Alabama this time of year, everyone was already green instead of blooming, so S didn’t get to see all the pretty pinks, red, purples, and whites that I am used to seeing around the Passover/Easter season. Oh well, there’s always next year. J I only had 2 days at work before leaving for the Denver trip, and since my expenses were covered by work S decided to tag along for that as well. The conference was amazing, I learned a lot but also just got to spend time with other people in the academic world and get ideas for new research topics and hear what the latest findings and trends are. Denver is a beautiful city and I also got to see some cousins there I hadn’t seen since I was about 13 or 14 years old!

So what’s next? I’m being kicked out of my apartment – my landlord decided to sell the place instead of lease it to me for another year – so S and I are looking at things together. Not because we are moving in together – I’m too old-fashioned for that – but because we think that it makes sense for me to find a place now where I don’t have to move again in a year, so it should be big enough for both of us so at some point in the next year he CAN move in. But it’s stressful to find an apartment in NYC. There’s all this pressure that if you find a good place and don’t take it right away it will be gone (it will be), but what if something better is available tomorrow? Plus you have to prove your worth: you have to make 40X the annual rent (or have a guarantor), so since it’ll only be my name on the lease it’s an added complication. Based on my ACTUAL salary, before all the moonlighting I do, I’d only be approved for something around $1500/month! That’s less than what I pay now for my studio. So then I have to prove what my actual salary is, and all of that. And then you have to decide if you want a doorman building or a walk-up, and a pre-war building or a modern building. And is it worth more $$ for less space, in a fancy building that has amenities like a gym/pool/movie theater? Do I really need a view? Etc, etc, etc.

But onto the big question – you want to know about me and S and the big question, don’t you? Things are good, and progressing as they should. A lot of people said “oh, he’s going to propose!” when they heard we were going to the Bahamas in April, and so when he didn’t I was a little sad. So I told him about it, and it made him sad because apparently he didn’t realize that I would have thought that, but he had been having a hard time finding the perfect ring. So since then I’ve stopped worrying about it because I know it’s going to happen at some point, and when it does it will be special, and I also don’t want to ruin any surprise! (Although I told him once that I’ll know he’s about to propose when he takes charge of making plans one night, since usually he leaves the planning up to me.) Yesterday (Wednesday) was our 9 month anniversary! It feels like I’ve known him my whole life, and sometimes it feels like I’ve only just begun to learn things about him. He’ll wonder how I’ll know something about him without realizing how well I already know him. But then I find out things – like that he’s never seen any of the “Back to the Future” movies – and I’m so shocked that I’m dating this guy! Ha. Never any big, scary things. Although that is kinda big and scary. How could someone never see “Back to the Future?”

And there are more trips coming up! We are going to Israel in a few weeks together! I won a free ticket back in October, from El Al (they ran a twitter contest). Unfortunately, I won the free ticket about a week after booking my ticket for my February ticket (and that ticket was non-refundable). The free ticket couldn’t be used over New Year’s or Passover, and has to be used by June 15^th. Since I would have taken off a couple days for Shavuos the first week in June anyway, we decided to go for that whole week. El Al is smart, they are making money on his ticket that we never would have spent otherwise! We are staying in Jerusalem for 5 nights and Tel Aviv for 2 nights, and don’t have any real plans, so if you have suggestions on fun/different things to go please let us know. (We are both veterans of Israel, this is my 9^th trip and I believe his 4^th or 5^th.) We were thinking of Hebron for one day, if anyone has had a good or bad experience going there please share. And then there's a super exciting trip to Destin (on the panhandle of Florida) over July 4th weekend. I grew up going there every summer with my extended family, and this year we are doing a cousins' trip -- just my first cousins, no "adults." I'm excited to introduce S to the beautiful beaches there -- the "redneck Riviera."

And I can’t believe that I’m almost halfway done with my fellowship! With very little to show for it. Nearly ready to submit my IRB proposal, hopefully it will get fast-tracked (it’s just a chart review so is exempt from most things) and I will be able to spend my summer wading through hundreds of charts. So fun, I can’t wait. :-P Just hoping to have something interesting to report in the end.

Alright, time enough wasted. Time to grab a snack before my two hour class! Since you’ll be reading this on Friday the 13^th, hope no black cats cross your path and no ladders impede your sidewalks.