Hello, my name is Allison and I feel the need to introduce myself because I’ve been completely absent for some time now. In fact, I’ve been absent since 2014. So let me also take this moment to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year!
I don’t know how 2015 has been treating you so far, but I’ve been faring pretty well, I think. Except, of course, for the third week of January when I met Death’s brother who is almost as bad as Death, but refers to himself as The Flu. For about five days I rolled around in a sweaty fever-induced flu coma and barfed up the only solid food I managed to swallow. I don’t actually remember most of those five days. I woke up feeling like Edward Norton’s character in Primal Fear—I lost time. It’s been about a week since I woke up from that ill stupor and my appetite has returned, so I think I’m all better now.
We happily rang in the New Year with a couple friends. The ball dropped in Times Square and we cheered it on from our warm apartment, far away from the chaos in Manhattan. On New Year’s, we spent the day playing games and eating with our neighbors, loving the vacation Ivan was fortunate enough to have. And that weekend, we wrapped up his vacation with another comedy show at The Comedy Club in Manhattan with more friends that we haven’t seen since the summer.
Ivan started a new clinical rotation—OBGYN—in January and his time as a medical student is quickly slipping away. Before we know it, he’ll be interviewing for residency programs and we’ll be on the move again.
At the beginning of this month I started a new job after gloriously and cathartically leaving my last one. (Who’d’ve thunk the girl who’s primarily worked only for nonprofit organizations wouldn’t actually like working with a flock of lawyers?) At 30-35 hours per week, my new job happily leaves me with time to work on my art (hey an Etsy page!), my writing (watch for articles HERE!) and volunteering (orientation at Animal Haven scheduled for April, yahoo!!!).
We’re also getting to experience “winter” in a new city. I had to put winter in quotation marks because, having grown up in a snowglobe like Erie, PA, “winter” is a pretty subjective term. And the “winter” here? Psha! It’s basically spring. The mayor was kind enough to shut down the city earlier this week in preparation of “snowmageddon.” Of course that meant most stores were closed, the transit systems were shut down (including the subway) and people were just generally freaking out. I believe we got something like 6 inches of snow. So… “winter” isn’t really impressive so far. Although I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’d rather be spending it in the Caribbean.
And that is a wrap up of our 2015 so far! I hope yours is awesome and just gets better!
