ho, ho, hello Hoboken

Lace up your walking boots - we've got plenty of miles to cover.  I bought an unlimited 7 day metro card for the week so I can venture anywhere a train or bus can take me!

Let us begin on the 21st floor of a building on 8th Ave or I as I call it - the office.  Lucky, lucky me not only do I get to work in an open office with massive windows but we also have a terrace.  That would be where I ate my lunch on Friday - magnificent!

Last week I was staying on Long Island with the Grandpaladinos and Lexi - this meant a train ride every morning and evening into the and from the city.  At the Penn Station terminal there is a giant board on the wall the at says where the trains will be arriving/departing.  People wait in this great hall waiting for their stop to show up.  On Fridays may people grab a beverage from the many vendors along the hall.  There was even a man mixing drinks on the platform - this I found amusing.  I could get a long island iced tea for my ride out to the Long Island.

Saturday I packed up the big giant blue suitcase.

Lexi and I hopped a Manhattan-bound.

CJ - Lexi's big brother - met us a the station and was big brother to me for a minute too and hauled that giant blue suitcase up and downs stairs all over the place.  I was/am quite grateful.  Especially so after hauling it to my current place to rest my head in Greenpoint at Kendall's!

 Kendall and her man Jane welcomed me with a meal of homemade tortillas.  I am so lucky to have such lovely friends.

I was happy to see that the redbuds were still going strong on Driggs.

Sunday I met Lexi and CJ down by the water in Williamsburg.

Apparently this is seaweed.  Not having a nautical upbringing I was quite unsure of what it was.

We had some Canadian friends come to join us.

Hmmm...

We perused the Brooklyn Flea.  I saw some very interesting things - but I'm not in the market to accumulate anything but memories and photographs at the moment. 

The trees growing in Brooklyn are getting leaves.  Big patches of pollen tumbleweeds are left and right - reminding me of Savannah and yellow/green everything.

CJ took us the Best Pizza in Brooklyn.  All the pizza is cooked in a stone over - perfect.  They have a customer decorated paper plates all over the walls and ceiling.  I didn't try any myself but I think it will have to go on the list of places to take hungry brothers.

After lunch we said our farewells and I hoped a train or two to New Jersey.

 Hoboken, New Jersey, is a town just on the other side of Manhattan.  I wanted to give it a good look over as I am thinking of calling it home - hopefully someday soon.

 They have a great lawn on the water that was quite full of folks enjoying the sunny Sunday afternoon.

 I could see the other side of Manhattan.

 These two older gentlemen were sitting under the pavilion on the pier worming up their hooks.

 The main drag had plenty of pretty flowers and lots of happy faces.

 I was feeling the love in Hoboken.

 I wandered past the harbor.

 And finally hoofed it up to Weehawken.  This city sits on a bluff and it took me a very long time to figure out how to actually get up there - something not covered on my maps.

 Once I actually made it up there I enjoyed the fantastic walkways.

 What a picnic spot, eh?

After rambling all over and even into Union City I wound it back to Hoboken.

 I was endeared to this man working on his vintage truck on the street.  A good sign.

 A "private" cobbled street which I am thinking was once an alleyway.  There were plenty of handsome buildings all over Hoboken.  I also enjoyed an interesting phenomena - people locking their strollers outside much like you would a bicycle.  If found that quite humerus.

With all my train travel of late I have had some time to read - a novel concept (though I enjoy more nonfiction).  I finished up the Bookseller of Kabul over a cup of coffee yesterday afternoon.  It was every informative though very dower.  I decided to stop and pick up a copy of Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson.  I have been following her life via blog since she and her husband were in a tragic plane crash in nearly four years ago.  Her faith and enthusiasm as a mother is conveyed through her posts and reading her blog and following her road to recovery has been such an inspiration to me.  I wanted to do my part to help make her book a bestseller.  I just checked her blog and apparently it has reached #15 on the New York Times list!

 Today in my transit I have so enjoyed her telling the story of growing up with a large family, meeting her husband and starting their family.  Her stories dance out of the book as people pass in the organized chaos of communing.

 After work today (a day filled with at least a dozen elevator rides) I decided to get a little extra use out of that unlimited metro card and headed downtown to stop by Babycakes Bakery.  I was given their cookbook for Christmas this year and have wanted to try their versions.  Many of the recipes are gluten-free and use spelt as the main grain.

That's right - I had a chocolate chip cookie, donut and cupcake!  This was my celebratory treat for my new job.

The donut was baked but still tasted just like an applesauce cake donut.

Tomorrow (my day off) I plan on a bit of exploring.  It is good to get out and see what there is to see.  

Don't let me fool you - this adventure is a tough one.  Leaving the comfort of my family to start a new life in a very large city relying on the generosity and kindness of friends (and strangers) has been the greatest challenge of my life.  Not a day goes by where "what-the-hell-where-you-thinking" doesn't race into my mind and at the same time I pray for just a little more courage.  

Sunny days are hard when I think about my family and wish so much to be near to them.  

Coffee shops are difficult to sit down at to know that I'm not meeting up with one of my nearest and dearest loves.  I sit down anyway and remind myself that I am so blessed that they send me so much love and are my great cheering section.  In the short time I have been here I have been able to catch up with some very dear friends and life will be better.  

Breathe.  

Trying to remember that list of things to look forward to Rachel and I jotted down as we packed my life up three weeks ago.  

Reading on the way to work - check!

Food I can eat - check!

Walking - check!

New thing: being amazed at all the people who love and support me - check, check, check!