Exploding into being

[chanaleh]

(getting this posted while on the hurry-up-and-wait front here in the office)

So, a few weeks ago I had started to write up some freeform musings to post about my life and what I was going to do with it, since, as justom and I are giving up on the idea of our relationship as primary, it opens up a sort of vast panorama of how to shape the next steps or phase of my life.

Interestingly, though, I find that a bunch of the ideas that I started knocking around have already sort of resolved themselves in the meantime.

One of the biggest immediate questions was what to do about moving (where, when, and with whom). I made up a short list of possible approaches, but the first idea that came up is the one that's persisted since then as my top choice, so I'm now calling it an official plan: to move into a roommate situation with alanscottevil (and possible additional friend/s) in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. We have a meeting pending to talk specifics and look at listings, although then Alan got sick this week, so it hasn't happened yet -- hopefully early next week. I'm targeting a lease for either July 1 or August 1, with a resulting move date in either late July or early August, respectively.

(Presumably we'll get a 1-year lease. I am pondering a possible return to Boston after that, i.e., summer 2014; but it all depends completely on what happens in my personal life over the next 12 months, so the plan will just have to unfold gradually.)

Another of my immediate impulses was to sign up for a Russian class. (Note that when I first moved here and was unemployed/at loose ends/struggling emotionally, I took a writing class through the Gotham Writers' Workshop. I am pretty pleased with this impulse as a method of coping: shaking up the inside of my head just the right amount by committing mental energy to a thing I have always wanted to do anyway.) And lo, I picked one out and started it. I've had two sessions now, with four more to go in the mini-course. IT IS DELIGHTFUL. I think the vocabulary is going to come extremely slowly, but if I can get my reading fluency up, I'll have achieved at least enough to be going on with. And if I keep carrying around the Russian-language children's books that eesti has given me over the years, and using them to practice on the subway, I will definitely improve my fluency. Even if it makes me look like a monstrous, demented five-year-old.

Somewhere around that same time, I had also had the thought, "Hey, you know what's missing in my life? I would really like to look for an a cappella/vocal group to join again. I bet I could find one of those *somewhere* in NYC that would take me." Then this past weekend I went to my college reunion, and walked out having not only made a posse of new friends (many based in NYC, even), but also been recruited to sing in an amazing rock band, effective immediately.

(jessruth said "What, in your copious free time??" and I said "Priorities have a way of dynamically reorganizing!" No, it's not quite the focus I expected my life to take on for the next several months. But, without going into the details... the synchronicity in all of it is too compelling to turn away from. Remember that third year I lived in NYC, and sang with the band? How awesome was that?? I'll never forget it.)

I don't know who my mischievous angel in the Brandeis Alumni office is, but they clearly looked down, saw us living 2 miles apart and said, "You know what would be a kick in the head? Let's send Erica to Ridgewood B, suite 440."

There are more topics to ponder on the life-expansion front (e.g., work thoughts, possible travel plans, other underdeveloped areas for fun and personal growth), but I feel like this is enough richness to be going on with.

The bad news is, I do NOT think I can plan to come to Boston the weekend of the 22nd/23rd. Sorry, gang. Too much complexity, and I feel we're likely to need that time to view apartments.

I did, however, sign up definitely for the G&S Sing-Out in Rockville, MD, over Labor Day. :-)