I need a new roommate!

BR for rent in a 3 BR apartment in Sunset Park Brooklyn.  $700 (plus utilities which is generally less than $100)  You are taking over on part of a lease that is up on Sept 1, and would owe first month (to the landlord) and last and security (to our roommate moving out and onto CA).

Please head over to this picassa page for a tour: http://bit.ly/gwkH9N

We are 2 blocks from the 45th St "R" train, and a 5 minute walk from the 36th Street "D, N, R" which means you can be in downtown manhattan in 20 minutes if you time your trains right.  10 minutes from Park Slope festivities, 15 minutes or less on a bike. 1 block from THE Sunset Park, which has a free pool in season, and great views for all seasons.

Ideally looking for a female, but will be willing to consider the right guy.  We are on the third floor and have a pretty sweet deal.  2 balconies, 2 bathrooms (though one is private, if there is an "emergency" it IS there), dishwasher and laundry in the unit (NO MORE QUARTERS!) There is only one room for the common area, but it is a big dining/living/kitchen room. 

Also, Melody Lanes Bowling Alley, where Ralph Cramdon of the Honeymooners bowled is a 10 minute walk away.  We bowl frequently and you will be subject to peer pressure to join us occasionally.

Please head over to this picassa page for a tour: http://bit.ly/gwkH9N

Us:
Jenn:

Jenn- coffee shop manger-ish person/artist.  Originally from Chicago.
I am one of those DIY "creative types".  Went to school for art, play a little music.  Things to consider: I am learning to play the fiddle and it can be rough sometimes, though I am considerate of when I practice.   I enjoy cooking, and thus like to have a clean kitchen.  If you cannot humor me on this point, please consider not renting our room.  My boyfriend lives in the neighborhood, so he is over pretty frequently, but is not a live-in.   Also, I homebrew in the apartment.  It is pretty unobtrusive on a daily basis (about 1" square of floor space", but when it's a brew or bottle day, I kind of take over the kitchen for half the day.  You are welcome to participate in any part of this process, including the consumption (in moderation of course).




Gillian:

Gillian- works in publishing at Harper Collins in author relations. Originally from NJ, lately from Nashville.
Gillian loves to read, so no loud band practice please.  We also love movies.


You:

   or

   or   

You are sociable and friendly, though don't need to be babysat and mollycoddled by your roommates.  You would like to occasionally hang out with your roommates, throw a dinner party with us, feeling free to invite your sane friends.
Your significant other can stay over sometimes if they don't make us feel unsafe or skeezed out.  Though we are not looking for 2 people, so not every night.

- you have a job (or other unvanishing means) of paying your rent and can prove it
- you can and will load and unload a dishwasher
- you know what windex, lysol, and a broom are and you will not be afraid to use them
- you are okay with beer being brewed in the apartment (it is completely legal)

-ABSOLUTELY NO drama lovers, drama magnets, or drama queens.

-no one who loves hard drugs or alcoholics
-container pets only (plants, gerbils, fish etc.)


Please contact me to arrange viewing the apartment and meeting myself, Jenn, and Gillian. jromaniszak@gmail.com

"Too Polished" or "Let me just give you my card"

I will admit it, I'm afraid of people.  Despite being able to talk to random strangers, even the scary looking ones if my mom is telling the stories, I am afraid of meeting people if my own self promotion is involved.  Don't get me wrong, I cover it up really well, probably erring over to the side of coming across egotistical. Though maybe I just think that, and the false-self-awareness is what makes me nervous in the first place?  (Anyone else notice how easy my brain can morph anything into a circular, chicken or egg debate?)  But honestly, the most painful part of networking for me is getting and giving contact information.  It always seems so trite and rehearsed.  "Here, let me give you a card, which I have had made because I connect with a lot of people, you know.  I can't be writing my number out every time, I would get a hand cramp!" (insert double guffaw).

Anyway, fellow moon-light blogger, Jeannie Rose (of The Faux Gourmet and City Stories), asked me to go to the Brooklyn Blogger Meet-up at Bell House tonight.  I left my answer open ended, wondering if I could really show up and call myself a blogger when I hadn't posted in over a month, and there is so little of a theme in my posts anyway.  What do I refer to this thing as when introducing myself?  A theology blog, and cutting edge blog about a single girl in NYC? None of the specific labels fit, and it's not because this is so unique.  It's just not a very specific forum for me.  Anyway, all these things have been running around in my head, but ultimately, I'd like to pick up some writing, and I have to start somewhere.

So, last night I put together a new card.  Something that goes better with my redesign of Jromaniszak.com, up soon hopefully.  Which matches my imprint here, and on twitter, etc, etc.  Hopefully looking at my pretty design will distract people from my awkward delivery.

"Why, yes!  I would love to guest post!  Let me give you my information:  

"Lenten FAIL" or "Well, maybe not"

I am stuck feeling like I failed at Lent this year.  That statement betrays so much of the broken theology ingrained in my soul, but I feel like every year I look forward to Lent as a contemplative, challenging time for my faith to be strengthen, and this year has been a let down.  My (misguided) attitude toward Lent is as a 40-day spiritual boot camp.  This year though, I feel like so much has been going on, that Lenten disciplines were all pushed into the background.  That is, until I think about how selfish my Lenten disciplines sounded in the first place, and I have to remember what I really wanted out of running and not drinking anyway.

I have been training for the Holy Saturday Half Marathon (formally known as T.D.M.), and thinking about it, training has actually been going ok.  I have made some major progress in accepting my body as a part of me, and not a traitorous villain.  Let me explain. 

My notion of 'me-ness' has always lived somewhere in the area of my head.  I think this is because in my life I primarily experience the world through my senses of sight, sound, and taste.  Yet, when I watch a dancer, I get this impression that she knows exactly where her arms are going, that her body is something more than just the vessel of her brain.  I long for that, to inhabit my body, and not just throw my feet in a general direction and hope they agree it would be a good placement.  Being isolated from your body also makes it very easy to see as an enemy.  If you don't like what you see in the mirror, there is something to be mad at.  And if you feel no ownership of your body, then why would you care for it anyway?  It's escapism at it most extreme. 
Through the training process I have been learning to respect my body in a new way and am starting to see it as part of me, not an enemy of me.   That is huge for me.  It's very exciting, and is helping my understand my relationship to God as Creator in a much deeper way.  I just need more reflection time with that.
Okay, so no fail there.

The other part, not drinking for Lent.  Well, to be honest, it probably just that I was drinking more than I should have on the front side of Lent, and it was a convenient way to throw the brakes on and give my liver a break.  I cheated when I went out to Long Island for a mini-vacation, and then again for St. Patrick's Day, and then for Third Thursdays, and then for my mom's visit to town.  It seems like why even try anymore.  Oh, I also cheated Wednesday with the rest of the church staff when we went to the bar for Eric's birthday.  Giving up alcohol didn't cause me to reflect or pray more this year; it was a poorly chosen "sacrifice" from the beginning.  I did it for me.

So maybe I didn't "fail" per say, that's too harsh and assessment; I must remember to let myself be a human.  Maybe I just came the realization that I forgot all about what Lent is. 

Here's to a contemplative and challenging Holy Week.



Also, my car died last night.  RIP Suzuki Esteem.  I loved you and you were good to me.

Tonight is 3rd Thursdays! Special free drinks offer!

Anyone one who shows tonight and uses the secret code word "Jenn-I-Read-Your-Blog" is entitled to one drink on me, whether I know you or not.  Non-transferable, and if I think that skanky chick at the end of the bar told you about this, and you did not in fact read it here, well, no drink for you. 

Eat'n'Learn Round I: Pysanky Party

This is the first of several "Eat'n'Learn" events I will be hosting to generate some extra income for my self-employment dreams.  Future offerings will cover basic sewing, home canning, quilting, and other things I know how to do that people have expressed an interest in learning.  Want to learn something you think I may know how to do?  Let me know what it is!

 
Pysanky, pronounced peh-san-keh, with the emphasis on the "peh", is the Eastern European technique of egg dying.  Tradition goes that during the weeks leading up to Easter, eggs would be dyed in secret and revealed to others only on Easter morning when brought to church in a basket for the traditional Catholic Easter table blessing.   I taught myself how to do this last year and found it so entertaining that I thought I would offer to teach others this time.

I will have an "Eat'n'Learn" on March 26 at my apartment in Brooklyn.  I will provide a basic entree for dinner, and all the materials for 2 eggs for each pysanky-er; you bring whatever you would like to contribute to a donation bin for a "class fee" and you own beverages for the evening.  The class fee is a suggested $10-$15 donation or something of equivalent worth; I am open to barters.  If you are so inclined, you are also welcome to contribute something to share for the dinner or a desert.

YOU MUST RSVP by 3/24/2010 so I know how much supplies I need to pick up.  Please spread the word and invite any friends you think might be interested in learning.  I will have to limit class size at a certian point, though, I don't anticipate maxing out.

Don't let any creative fears hold you back; pysanky can be as basic or complicated, as traditional or modern as you would like.  Last year my favorite egg had a picture of a beet  and marshmellow peeps on it.  And though it is traditionally considered a feminine art, I see no reason gender should stop anyone in this case.

Some of my non-traditional eggs from last year.

The Basics: Making the eggs is less complicated than it appears, though you do have to "think backwards" during the planning stages  (kind of like a riddle).   Patterns are created by marking lines with kistka (a little metal funnel on a stick) which is heated in a candle flame and then dipped in beeswax.  You draw on a raw egg with the beeswax, marking out what you want to be a particular color (white=marked the first round, yellow=the second,... black= never marked off).  At the end of the dying process, your egg is all black.  You let it dry, and then melt off the beeswax by holding it over a flame rubbing the shell with a soft cloth when it is shiny.  You are left with a colorful egg.  The more skill you have with the kistka, the more detailed your egg gets.

"Family Emails- Pt I" or "Ignorance is forgivable, but denial is just plain dangerous"

For ease of reading, I have separated this post into two parts.  One event has got me thinking about two issues: Technology (Part I) and Politics (Part II).  At least I separated this into two parts to avoid accusations of too-long-posts from the Wilson's and Dudley's of the internet. 

I received one of those emails today.  You know the kind that starts: "Forward this email and add you name on the bottom to prove to Washington that we care about topic X", "Forward this email finding your name and putting a tally next to it; it's for a kid's science project", "Forward this to everyone if you are not afraid to profess your love of Jesus".  

Not to stereotype, but I haven't gotten an email like this from anyone under 50 and over 13 in a long time.  What is it that keeps many of the Baby Boomers in my life filling my email box with fluff?  I am beginning to assume it has something to do with an email-er's level of comfort with technology.  Example: As my parents have begun to communicate more and more via email, as it becomes a daily part of their lives, their filter for what they want to attach to their name and send to others, gets more precise.  By now, they only send me exceptional and thoughtful forwards or funny pictures of animals.  I find it is the Boomers who still do not use email as a primary source of communication that keep throwing this nonsense out there.  Email is still a novelty to them, and it seems to me there is little self-awareness that what they email is attached to them in a very real, permanent way.  These people in my life clog my inbox, not because they were thinking of me, but because they were bored and I was the requisite number 13 to forward to for "good luck.  I swear, some guy in Tampa did it and then Publisher's Clearing House showed up 15 minutes later!"

Sometimes I wonder if there is a logic black hole when it comes to the internet.  Let's think through a "For instance".  The popular internet petition/poll.  I am not even going to waste my energy explaining this.  Here's someone elses words:
An email petition arrives with some information (often lengthy) about what the sender believes to be a worthy cause. It asks you to add your name (and sometimes other info) to a list and then pass the list on to all your friends and colleagues requesting that they continue the chain. It also asks you that should your name be (eg) the 100th on the list, to mail the list back to the organiser.

Let's suppose I start such a list, and pass it on to 5 friends, and ask that they continue the chain. To simplify, let's suppose a) that no one signs the list twice, b) that no two people supply identical information, c) that everyone who receives the list passes it on to between 1 and 9 people, d) that no one delays passing on the list, and e) that there is an infinite supply of people.

By the time there are 15 names on each list, up to 36,000,000,000 emails will have been sent, and each one one of them has my name on it. But how many times do the names appear of the 5 people I sent the original list to? And how is it possible to know the total number of people who have signed the petition?

The fact is unless you are using a third-party Poll/Petition site, there is not accurate way to track results, and results wouldn't stand-up under any level of scrutiny.

Part II...  What actually got me mad about it.

"3 Cent Blessings" or "I'MNOTPMSINGNOWGETOFFMYBACKANDUNDERSTANDTHATIAMJUSTKINDAPRAYINGGEEZANDWHILEYOURATITGETSOMEICECREAMONYOURWAYHOME!"

I admit it.  I have been pretty emotional lately.  I would be easy to go into default, blaming PMS, but I have never really been impacted emotionally by my menstrual cycle.  Perhaps because I have recently started exercising seriously for the first time since 4th grade, maybe my body is just reacting differently than I am used to. The human body does do strange things.  And then, maybe it's the new relationship-thing in my life: that coupled with the impending September move could be causing the wider and more rapidly changing slew of emotions.

But, I'm pretty sure it's answered prayer.  This year, during Lent, I have given up alcohol (as usual), and started exercising (for a half marathon, and also for a new years resolution; Easter is kind of like
Christian New Years). But as an added discipline (and I need that word, discipline, applied very loosely) I have also renewed a prayer that I forgot I was no longer praying.  It usually goes something like this:

"Father, let me taste and see your goodness.  Open my eyes to all your beauty in the small things.  Let that be my daily bread."

It always seems to be answered too. (Like with the LSD/Holy Spirit incident assisted by Henri Nouwen about this time last year.  See my post about being afflicted by thigmorphilla.)


I had a good friend who was praying the same thing with how he lived his life. We would often end a day talking about all those little surprise revelations, usually over "pint-sized" blessings.  I guess, we would in a way RE'count our blessings', without the cognitive tally.    These conversations were a type of praise, of worship.

My friend moved away, and has ceased to be a daily reminder for me to continue this practice.  I guess I just forgot to pray.  I miss that type of worship, especially when lately, my prayers of relying on God look more and more like a stress relief wish list.  Yesterday, I also saw a friend from back home Chicago had updated his facebook status to "I can think of nothing good, except submitting two scholarships, that happened today."  That made me so sad.

So, in an effort to begin again, as I often do, here is an inexhaustive list of the small blessings from the beginning of to today, waking until getting to work. 

- There was sunshine outside my curtains when I woke up.


- I went for the teapot, and there was already enough water left from the roomies for my oatmeal.


- On my way out I realize that I needed 3 cents more for coffee.  I keep change in a big 5Gal. water jug, that is hard to get change out of once it is in (that's the point).  I found 3 cents in the first alternative place I looked.

- When I walked out my front door, there was a sunshine immediately on my face and an unidentified child walking up the stairs. The first person I talked to/greeted this morning was a child.

- My Deli Guys had my coffee ready (small, no sugar, little bit of milk, napkin please) and I got to skip the line of high school students ordering sandwiches.

- I got a new monthly Metro card at work yesterday, because someone else was grabbing one, not knowing that this morning my current one was not going to have expired.

- The line in the Khrusty Brothers song Every Time A Lie song came on the headphones. "So I was sipping on my whiskey in Kentucky-town, where the top-shelf burboun is a Jim Beam brown", reminding me of my wanderlust, and the beauty in the commonplace and average of most of America, even if it is about liquor at 8:30 in the morning.

- I got a seat on the train while still in Brooklyn.

- There was an article on the NYTimes iPhone app.  called "JFK Condolence Letters Published for 1st Time".  It's about a new book complied of letters Americans write to Jackie after JFK's assassination.  After reading,  I was thinking about human connections, and that what creates the most intense connection (between non-lovers, and even then, maybe lovers, I wouldn't know) is sharing our
purest, most singular revelations. Which all led me to thinking about my pure, singular revelations.  Which reminded me of my forgotten prayer, and led me to sharing this morning.

- Mike bought my Americano for me this morning.


Blessings!