Trees do grow here!

Here I am, sitting outside the Brooklyn Central Library and Grand Army Plaza.

Right now I'm sitting in "grounded," a favorite coffeeshop haunt of Laura (a.k.a. Penny), my lovely roommate. Best cappuccino ever! She is writing for her next assignment in her MFA program at The New School, and I am writing to say hello! Things are so good in New York City. We found more than one penny in our new apartment before we moved in, and the name has stuck. Now "Lucky Penny" or "Penny" is the name of our wireless network, our future dog, and our mutual nickname for each other.

There she is! Doing her famous lovely laugh. Christine and Ben were over along with other work people for our second wine night- a tradition loved since I was a student at Luther, and a fun way for us to host different groups of folks in our home!

Laura and I are in the "honeymooners" phase of our apartment, she says. It is the most pleasant place to be: lamp light, woodwork thick with off-white paint, Joni and James and Dvorak spilling from the record player, 5 big closets, shared breakfasts. Our neighbors are so kind and range the gammot from bike-riding co-op-going Robert to Marita, a tiny Jamaican woman who shook my hand happily when she found out we were not going to hog the elevator during move-in day (our apartment is on the main floor). Move-in went well except for the moment that my dear little butcher-block rolled off the truck platform and suffered a scarring crack down the middle.

My commute is a direct 30 minutes on the subway. It is a time for reading, amazing people-watching, and gearing up or down for the day or night, depending on the direction I am headed. There is a lot of humanity that hangs out in the subway- intense conversations, transparent emotions, and raw interactions between strangers. I am reading a book called "Altars of the World" little by little. Each chapter is a suggestion about how to live more purposefully or attentively with the things that surround us day-to-day. I read a passage about the subway while on the subway, and this has colored each of my commutes since: "...I study the particular human beings sitting around me: the girl with the fussy baby, the guy with the house paint all over his jeans, the couple holding hands, the teenager keeping time with both knees while he listens to music so loud it leaks from his headphones. Every one of these people has come from somewhere and is going somewhere, the same way I am. While I am sitting here thinking I am at the center of this subway scene and they are on the edges, they are sitting there t the center of their own scenes with me on their edges. Everyone of them is dealing with something, the same way I am. We are breathing the same air, for this little time at least. Sometimes I saw the Lord's Prayer under my breath while I look from one of them to the next, but this is optional. Paying attention to the has already shifted my equilibrium. For all I know, one of them is practicing reverence on me."

Day 1, 2, and 3 of work at Manhattan Concert Productions brought warm greetings, hosted meals and happy hours, and views off the 39th floor of a Times Square apartment with sushi and cosmos. Marley the sheltie often comes to work with Craig. I work in a female-dominated corner of the office deemed "Estrogen South," or "E.S." We sing together in the sparse concrete rehearsal room downstairs on Tuesday and Thursday morning. We have had some basic rehearsals so far, but nothing compared with what I hope is to come. Our first concert of the season will be in December along with 20 freelance singers from the New York area.

Labor Day at Coney Island with Jake and Paul.

This one's for Wendy- I cut Paul's hair with a scissors! Not artful, but even. He was patient to sit for an hour on his sunny rooftop while I snipped and snipped around his head without much rhyme or reason. "Have you every mowed a lawn before?" he asked. "It should be like mowing a lawn."

Bike ride to Far Rockaway (near the JFK airport) with Paul- wine and cards on the beach, my new camera, great views of the city skyline, and exploring abandoned rail stations.

This weekend my parents are coming to town. I am so ready to show my family the city I have already come to love! On the agenda is 9/11 memorial, Broadway show, brunch in Brooklyn, Prospect Park, and shoe-shopping. Right now they are headed toward New York in a rental car, camping around the North Shore of Lake Superior.