January 3

Yesterday was an incredible day. We drove out of Auckland and headed toward Waitomo where the glow worm caves are. It took us a couple of hours to get there. Once we got there we got some lunch and then headed to the Legendary Black Water Rafting Company who would be our guides for the five hour tour.

They outfitted us for wet suits, booties and boots. We were driven to the site in a large van, the eight of us and our two guides. First we learned how to use the ropes and the equipment that would help us make our way down in the cave. We spent about 45 minutes on land learning how to use the ropes and what it would be like as we descended. Then it was time to go.

Toshi and I went last in our group of eight. The scariest part for me was where you had to step off the platform and trust that the rope would hold you. Then it was time to abesail down. It took me quite a while because I was nervous about it and I actually had to help the rope lower me down. My back started to hurt about halfway down but I made it, no panic attack or anything about the heights!

Once we all got down we had a little bit of walking to do and then the zip line, in the pitch black! Terrifying but so much fun! After the zip line we sat down and got hot chocolate from our guides. The hot chocolate was very welcome since it was cold down in the caves even with all our gear. Then it was time for the tubes. We were each given a tube and told to jump in the water. The water was really cold and was shocking as we jumped into it. We then grabbed a rope that was attached to the rocks and started going down the river. Other than the cold it was really fun. My jacket was too big in the arms and so my arms were really cold, although the rest of me was sort of cold too. We floated down the river and over a small waterfall. Then at one point we stopped and our guide, Zane told us about the glow worms – glow maggots actually. We got back in our tubes and linked together via arms and legs and he pulled us down the river while singing the cave version of My Heart Will Go On. I thought it was very entertaining. We made our way back around to where we had started and dropped off our tubes. We then floated down river without the tubes, which was fun. The water was really high in the caves because of all the rain they had over the last couple of days. It was the first time it was the first time they were open in multiple days because there had been so much rain. We were lucky since that was our only opportunity to do it. After floating down the river for a while we stopped and had hot juice. Very welcome since we were so cold! After some more floating it was time to walk through some rather strong rapids. We all managed just fine but it was tough at some points. We then got to the end and the waterfalls. We were going to have to climb up through the waterfalls. To get there we had to go through a very small space where only our heads were up above the water. We waited and went one at a time. The waiting was difficult because we were sitting at the bottom of the waterfall and it was so loud! Then one at a time we went up. I was honestly afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to do it and was going to have to go the easy way out but once I got there I decided I was going to do it. Battling a raging waterfall and pushing yourself through it is not an easy task. Then even at the top of the waterfall there was walking through the rapids. I made it through the first one and then sat and waited with the rest of the group to get ready to go through the second one. The second one worked the same way, one at a time and very slowly. One of our guides, Ann, was on each of the two waterfalls to tell us where to step and where to grab. Having her guidance was incredible because she knows these waterfalls so well. Nice to know that when she tells you to step in the waterfall you actually should step in the waterfall. The second one was stronger but not as difficult in terms of climbing. I think that the rapids at the top of the second one were stronger but that could be because by this time my boots were torn and I was losing my left one so pushing through was more difficult. Everyone kept telling me that I made the best sound effects – I figure whatever I have to do to get myself through. I making groaning sounds helps me push through then that’s what I should do. I did, and it worked.

I got to the top of the second one and pushed through the rapids and met up with Zane who was our other guide. He took photos and then I climbed through the last smaller waterfall and out to daylight.

I was worried there were going to be things that I couldn’t do or times when I might have a panic attack but I did everything even though I was scared. Jumping into the river was tough but they don’t really give you a choice and when they tell you to jump you just jump!

If we were to ever come back when we have kids and they are older I think I would want to do this again. What an amazing day.

Today we are going to walk around the village and have lunch there. Then we are going to the thermal village for mud bath and hot springs. Should be nice and relaxing which is good since I’m sore from yesterday!

Sunday January 1st Auckland

Yesterday was quite the day. Not just yesterday but the last couple of days I guess since technically we left the US on the 29th.

Toshi was the first to leave. At around 2:00 east coast time he took off to the train station, took the train and the AirTrain to the airport. I got a text message from him saying instead of a 6:30 departure it was going to be 9:15. Toshi only had an hour and a half layover in LA and I was worried he was going to miss his plane. We then found out that our Auckland flight had been moved from 11:30 to 1:30 so problem solved.

I left the house about 1:50 Seattle time after saying a quick hello to Jeffrey and Lindsay who had just gotten there from Portland. Mom dropped me off, reassured me that everything was going to be fine (this was before knew the Auckland flight had been changed) and I was off. I got all checked in for all three flights, went through security and sat waiting for my plane. The first two were fine – SEA SF, SF LAX. Then I got to LA. I got off the plane and had to figure out where my next one would be – thankfully I had a three-hour layover that had turned in to five because of the delayed plane. I was in terminal 7. I found an airport map only to find that the international terminal was far away. As I was trying to figure out how to get there a stewardess walked past and asked if I needed any help. I told her I was trying to get to the international terminal. She gave me directions and I was off walking because I didn’t want to catch the shuttle. The walk was outside and the weather was nice so I walked. I got there and found Qantas but that terminal was only for checking in to Brisbane and Melbourne. So I had to go back the way I came to terminal 4. Why Qantas international flights leave out of two terminals – one of them a non-international terminal – I have no idea.

So I got there and waited. Got something to eat, waited some more and waited some more. They talked about the flight how it was delayed coming from JFK – yet another reassurance that it was Toshi’s flight, so that I felt good about. Finally about 12:40 they started getting off the plane and for the last hour I had Toshi to wait with. We boarded the plane just after 1:30 and took off shortly after 2:00.

The flight from LA to Auckland is just over 12.5 hours. Luckily they feed you twice and the food isn’t bad. We had dinner, they turned out all the lights and we all went to sleep. I would say that I slept about 6 hours or so; not bad for being on a plane! When I got up I played some Tetris (I remembered that from my LA to Sydney flight many years ago), and read a bunch on my Kindle (Best. Purchase. Ever). They fed us breakfast, I played Tetris and read and finally they announced our descent into Auckland!

We had our customs forms filled out, waited in the short line, got through, grabbed our bags and then waited in the longer line with our bags. In filling out the customs form they ask about shoes and soil on your shoes. I had my hiking boots in my bag but Toshi told me not to worry about declaring them. I should have gone with my gut and declared them because when our bags went through the woman asked me about the shoes. I had to open my bag and have her look at them. She said, luckily those are clean, otherwise it’s at $400 fine for not declaring them. WOAH! Glad she was nice about it!

Next step was the rental car. We called, waited for the van, got in the van and then got the rental car. A very small hatchback but since its only the two of us, even with our good amount of luggage, everything fits nicely. Then we came to the hotel, got all checked in and found our room. I wanted to take a nap but we both knew better. By this time with the delay and everything else is was about 3:00 – honestly better than it would have been without the delay, about noon. So I took a nice long shower, put in new contacts and then we went out for groceries at the Asian grocery store nearby. Stuff there is ok but we won’t be going back. We had a snack and decided we would go down to the Viaduct (weird right?) and the waterfront and walk around a bit. It was good to get out of the house. After a good amount of walking around, stopping by the tower and seeing some people on the giant bungee things, we came back to figure out dinner. We read about an ethnic food court in Ponsonby (which for some reason I really want to call Ponsby) and went there. We had Indian and it was tasty and reasonable. We came back to the hotel to veg before going to sleep. The goal I had was 10:00. The people at the front desk had mentioned the midnight fireworks but honestly I knew there was no way I was going to make it. I pulled my kindle out and did some reading but by about 9:30 it was hopeless and we went to bed. I woke up a couple of times but not until early in the morning, I think about 4:30 and then again about 6 before I woke up a third and final time about 7:00. Not bad for the first morning!

After some reading and lying around we got up, had some of our Asian groceries for breakfast and tried to figure out our day. We had done a good amount of walking the day before and we were planning on going all over so we decided that we would drive. We started by going to the Domain, which has greenhouses. Since it was a bit gloomy outside it was nice to be inside at least in the morning. After the Domain we went to Mt. Eden. The view is fantastic but it was pretty foggy and that’s all there is there so we saw, I took a picture of the crater and we left. After Mt. Eden we drove around a bit – east in the city along the water to a view-point overlooking Achilles Bay.

Afterwards we went to the Botanic Gardens were we walked around a bit outside. I think we much be little late for them. While there were some really beautiful things, the rose garden especially was past it’s prime. It was nice to be outside and do some walking around and even though it was gloomy the temperature was pretty good. Because it’s New Year’s Day a lot of things are closed. Whole sections of streets with business are closed. We were worried we would have a hard time finding things that were open so we ate at the gardens.  Some of the places that we saw are closed from (for example) December 23rd until January 8th for the holidays. Incredible that this is done by a lot of places and completely accepted. Very strange for us though! In the states people get mad if you are closed for any reason!

After having lunch we drove up north past the city. Toshi had found a place called Goat Island so that was our destination. It was beautiful driving up the coast and Toshi loved the windy roads. We walked around near Goat Island and up a rather muddy trail that took us to a lookout point. We learned the story about Goat Island. There are not any goats there but the reason is got the name was from sailors. They would find an island and label it Goat Island when the left goats behind to become food for anyone who might get trapped there. Most recently there were pigs but they ended up swimming to the mainland.

We drove back down part of the way on the west side of the island and then headed back over to the freeway to head back down. Some of the roads we were on were incredibly windy and toshi had a great time! Thankfully he didn’t go to crazy on them.

We decided since we are in an apartment style hotel and have a kitchen that we should make dinner (since most of our other hotels won’t be like that). I went on the GPS and asked it for a grocery store. The first one I found didn’t exist but thankfully the second one did. It was pretty nice and we got some dinner and breakfast things for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we drive to Rotorua – about 2.5 hours. We’ll get some lunch there and then do our blackwater rafting. First adventure!!! I know its going to be a blast and I am hoping to not have a panic attack anywhere along the way.

Not sure when we will get internet again so that’s all for now!

Wow, lots has happened!

I keep saying that I'm going to post and then I never do! Maybe I should actually start doing it this time!

The last time I posted was September, a good solid 6 months ago. Since then a lot has happened. November brought the half marathon that I had been training for. I flew down to Atlanta for Thanksgiving and Carrie and I ran the half marathon on Thanksgiving morning. 2:33. Not bad for a first but wow were we tired (from all those hills) and I was sore, especially the next morning when I had to hobble around the airport because I was flying back to NY. I am happy that I did it although right now a half marathon feels a bit crazy to me so I'm staying away from them for a bit. (More on that shortly)

December meant family visiting and my recitals. It was a bit crazy having mom, Jeffrey and Francine all staying in the house (and dad in a hotel) but we managed it just fine. Things were crazy recital morning but I guess that's to be expected. My NYU audio guy didn't show and my video guy nearly didn't show because he forgot that my time had changed from 2:00 to 12:00. He showed up about 11:30 and just barely had enough time to set up his stuff (which he made a point of telling me. Um... I think it's your fault not mine that you showed up late! The last email he had sent me he said "I'll see you at 10:30", yeah, good times. We managed to get out of the hall in time and not get charged for being there too long but all that stress about the hall and my videographer made me stressed out and I didn't play as well as I could have. I also have now learned that maybe putting all the solo stuff on the beginning of the recital is not the best for me, as having people on stage really helps me calm down. This was shown a second time when Jeffrey and I did a recital in Seattle in December and I decided to do the same thing - not really sure why - and I had some issues in the first half as well. We had a really great time playing and Evan played with us which was awesome. I hope that we will be able to do this again, maybe next year, as I really had a good time. Playing with Jeffrey and Evan was incredible and definitely made me play better. I really really hope that we get to do another one!

In January Toshi and I went to New Zealand. I was coming from Seattle and we met in LA. Toshi decided not to bring his phone which was an adventure based on the fact that his flight was having issues and I was only able to contact him via texting on the iPad. Hopefully that won't happen again. We had an incredible 3 weeks in New Zealand (more on that later) and then he came back to NY and I went back to Seattle for another week. Mom and I spent a couple days in Cannon Beach and I had a great time being home.

February I came back to New York and it was strange being back with nothing to do. Although at first I really enjoyed having nothing to do, after about a month or so I got bored. So I became a volunteer at an animal shelter in Huntington (about 20 minutes away). I go as often as I want, spend a couple of hours and walk the dogs. I am actually really enjoying walking the dogs, much more than I thought! I had some favorites that have been there for a while and I walk them each time I go. My favorite, Fondue, is a little chiuaua and is just adorable. She, however, does not do well with other dogs so is having a hard time getting adopted.

In March I went home again. It became time to move the D'Amour grandparents and they agreed to move in with mom. This would make it so they wouldn't have to be on their own anymore and wouldn't have to drive which is key. Grandmama was diagnosed about 9 months ago with Alzheimer's and she's the one that does basically all of the driving - because of Grandpapa's vision - and she no longer can drive so them using a car was not really an option. Moving them was difficult as Grandpapa has gotten more OCD and moving Grandmama out of a familiar place was difficult as well. As can be expected, mom is having  hard time with them. Grandmaman has good days and bad days and mom says that sometimes she gets really angry and lashes out at mom and Grandpapa. She sometimes has times she seems like she's only stage one, but then there are symptoms, like lashing out and not recognizing people, that are stage 3. I have no idea how long they will stay living with mom. Mom says it's like having kids all over again, and I know it's really wearing on her. Sometimes Francine comes to help out to give mom a night off, but Michele isn't any help, or very little. Sometimes Francine helps get mom out of the house and they go do something fun. I know it's hard and I wish I could help more but I can't really, even if I was home there is not much I can do. I'm going home again in August and will be hard to see how Grandmaman is doing. She's the grandparent that has always been the most stable, with the least amount of health issues (other than medications) and it's so hard to think that at some point she won't recognize who I am and that when we do have kids, they won't ever get to know her the way I did.

After getting home from New Zealand I officially went off the pill and we officially started trying. I have been waiting for this for so long and after just a couple of months am frustrated. I thought it would just happen right away. February was kind of a guessing month, March Toshi was gone but April and May have been interesting. I use ovulation strips to test and we have a schedule to stick with which is hard on us both. I thought it would be easy but it's not. Unfortunately it's not officially an issue until it's been a year. A whole year. I really hope it doesn't come to that. In my plan when we move home in June - 13 months from now - we have a little one that's coming with us. If it takes a year, or longer, that won't be the case. Right now, if I managed to get pregnant the next cycle, the baby would be due at the end of February, already much later than I had hoped for. All we can do it keep trying and hope that it works and try to not be too stressed out about it. Having read forums and blogs I am realizing that there are a lot of people who have been at this a lot longer than we have. At some point we will talk adoption. I don't want to be 2 or 3 years from now still working on this, I don't want us to be 35 before we have our first kid. I know that Toshi is not particularly excited about adoption but we have so much to offer a child that I think we should take the opportunity to be parents even if the child is not biologically ours. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Now here we are at the end of May. Also in news I ran my first 10K about 3 weeks ago. The Long Island marathon weekend consists of marathon, half marathon and 10K (plus 5K and 1 mile on Saturday) and I ran the 10K. Originally I had 5 friends that told me they are going to run with me but in the end I ran it by myself because none of them had trained enough (and Kim had her recital the following weekend). I am now in training for my second 10K which is in August. It's a flat trail run, how cool is that? Marsha is trying to train with me. Then in September there is another and Jack wants to run that one with me. When I went to the expo for the LI marathon weekend I got all kinds of info. In there was info about triathlons (woah I know), and how there are places that have a little tiny mini one for those who have never done one before. Totally doable, even for me who hates being on a bike. I also found out about a close thing, in Oyster Bay that is just swim and run. I'm trying to convince Toshi to do the swim part (since you have the option of splitting it) but I might do both parts if I can't get him to do it. The tough part? It's the day after the September 10K whose course says it's "rolling". Not my favorite. I may be too dead to do it although after the 10K I wasn't nearly as sore as after the half.

I am also working on getting a job. Although I really like volunteering at the shelter, it's hard to motivate myself to get out there especially when the weather is not so great and not having a schedule is kind of rough - honestly I should just make myself one! Although I really do like it when I get there. I applied at Apple and got invited for the first interview but they didn't want me - not likely I would stay around because of all my schooling? who knows but oh well. I put in an application at REI and also our climbing gym (we are now members! and LOVING IT - well Toshi likes it, I love it! Not sure if I will be able to do it if I manage to get pregnant though...) and I just put in an application for Red Mango since there is one close by, just in the shopping center down the road.

Well, I guess that's about it. I'll try and write more often now that I remember this exists. :-0

In other random things - we are working on having less plastic things around the house so we've gone to a stainless brita as well as glass tupperware. We are also working on less meat during the week and often do one vegan meal. Toshi still likes meat and I give him beef about once a week as long as it's something I can easily add ground beef to - like curry, or just add a small steak for him. My next thing is trying to get sugar out of our diet, at least less in our diet than I know it is. We are better about snack foods and read labels, if you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't be eating it!

Running

I've now been in trainig for... 6 weeks or so. I am using the walk/run plan designed by Jeff Galloway. I truly believe that without this plan I would not be where I am now. I don't know how people can literally run all those miles-I'm very attached to my walk breaks and I believe they are better for me than running until I feel like I'm going to pass out.

I started out running for 15 minutes or so and doing 15:45. 15 seconds running, 45 seconds running. As I got stronger I increased my time and upped the running. I am now at about 2.5:1 (in minutes). I am really trying for 3 minutes, much easier on the stop watch. I run with a stop watch so I can keep track of what I'm doing and when I need switch from one to the other. I run with a small handheld water bottle that is my savior when I'm running and of course, tunes. I love my shuffle and that's what I always run with. I have fun things on there, anything I think that might keep me motivated. I often skip songs but there is a lot on there.

Since this is my first half marathon I'm not supposed to be worried about pace, but I would love to do it in an under 12 min/mi pace. I'm Hoping for around 11:30 but we will see. Along the way I do these things calls magic miles to see how fast I really am. Last weekend was the first and I ran a mile in 8:32! Incredible! Now that was only one and I was dead afterwards but I was pretty impressed with myself. From there Jeff recommends a 10 minute pace for training and a 12 minute pace for the run itself. I'm getting stronger everyday!

Sometimes I don't want to run. Sometimes I don't want to get out of bed to do the run before school and the long runs still freak me out. 8 miles on Saturday! I think it's mostly that its lonely. I'm lonely sometimes without being out running. I don't have a lot of friends here and most of the ones that I do are in the city so it hard to see them often outside of school. So for me, having another thing that is lonely isn't really needed and sometimes I have a hard time getting past that. Toshi used to run with me at the beginning but he doesn't anymore.

Time to go. Alexander lesson and a busy day!

First post in a while

So back in march I said I was going to post more often. Clearly that didn't happen but maybe I can start it now since I have time between classes or on the train.

March was my last post so let's see what has happened since then.

I finished 2 of 3 semesters of school. It was a fun year and honestly I'm going to be sad in December when it's all over. For so long I have wanted to go bad to school and soon it will be done and real life will start, sort of.

In May I flew to Seattle and performed Copland with Cascade. I felt like a real clarinet player and that was a pretty amazing feeling. Also the orchestra misses me and that was a pretty incredible thing too. I loved being in that orchestra and it was fun to see and talk to everyone again. I would LOVE to go back if we make it back to Seattle but I'm not sure how that would work since there is a replacement for me there now.

Toshi was able to come out for the performance. He recorded for me and now its up on YouTube! Every once in a while I go back and watch parts of it. I have sent the link to my students on Long Island so they can watch it and hear what they can do it if they want to. After the performance Toshi and I had a very busy week. We spent a night in Cannon Beach because I really miss it, and on the way stopped at Monet so he could drop his trumpet off. After that we spent the week seeing family and friends including an overnight in Boise to see Jeffrey and hear him play. We rarely had a minute to ourselves, it was incredible. We got home and were exhausted but so glad that we had done the trip.

This summer was a lot of working for me. Knowing that once school started I wasn't going to be able to work, I worked a lot this summer at my new Starbucks. So much better than my last and although I don't miss 4am, I miss the people and my manager Ellery. We bonded over running and he and a few others are going to come to my recital in December. It felt like a family I was part of instead of a family I was excluded from like my old store. I may end up back there, who knows.

Also this summer I started running. Carrie is running the half marathon on Thanksgiving morning and somehow she managed to convince me to run with her. I am training three days a week and this weekend I will run 8 miles as part of may training and then a 5K for fun. I never thought I would be running but I have this awesome run/walk plan that makes it possible for me. This may be the only half marathon I ever run but who knows, maybe I'll love it?

We are now in the second week of school: my final semester. Right now things are pretty mellow but as w get going, things are going to get a little nutty especially around half marathon/recital time. I have an outline of the semester and I am planning on doing some things early, like the paper I have due two days after my recital (December 3) is going to be done before Thanksgiving, at least thats the plan.

After school is over: Toshi and I will be spending three weeks in New Zealand. The plane tickets have been bought. I am going home for Christmas for the first time in three years, we will meet in LA and then fly to Aukland.

After New Zealand is a big black hole. I have no plans... Nothing. Toshi is in the process of fellowship interviews. Two done in Seattle already and a couple more coming up in San Diego and Utah. He's got 5 interviews and 3 rejections. He got nervous last night and started applying for more places. I'm not sure how many he got done last night but he's adding 12-there are also a few we have not heard from including Denver and a couple of others. In two weeks (or two weeks from this past Monday) UW Body said he would know either way. Relly hoping for that-great program and in seattle! would be incredible.

So, his fellowship starts July 1, 2013. Until then, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I may go back to work until we can get pregnant. Thats the next plan-babies- but who knows how long that will take and we won't start tying until after New Zealand because I don't want to worry about not being able to drink all the yummy wine while we are over there.

So guess that's pretty much it. I'll also be doing a Seattle recital, hopefully before christmas but we will have to see based on when I end up flying home after school is done.

I'm hoping to write more, thats all for now

Upcoming stuff part 1

The last two years have gone by really fast: Moving, getting settled, trips to Cancun, Japan, Seattle two August's in a row for weddings, and we just got back from Denver/Rock Springs and visiting Toshi's family. Things have been busy. It's nice to have time to be away from here because I like to be off Long Island and I like vacation and a change of pace. 

Toshi is big on planning. I am too but I think he more so than I. We've got a good idea about the next couple of years at least (assuming it all goes as planned and we are of course prepared for it to not and for plans to change.)

The first major thing that will happen is me getting done with school. Although I thought that I might want to see about a year and a half instead of two I have realized that might not be what's best for me. Fall semester would be very very full and on top of that I would be preparing for a recital and I want to make sure it's awesome so I think I'm going to do a full semester and then be part-time in the spring for my recital. That will help me have extra time to get ready for my recital. I haven't had a chance to talk with my advisor yet about this but the oboe player in my quintet is doing it so I'm pretty sure I can make it work. 

Also upcoming is my trip to Seattle and playing with Cascade! It seemed so far away when I agreed to it and now it's actually coming up. I have been getting great encouragement from Pascual which is always amazing and so I think that when the time comes - just about 6 weeks away! - that I will be ready. It will also be great to be home for two weeks! The first on my own and the second with Toshi. 

Starting to Post again - last two years update

So I haven't posted in over two years. Two years, nearly three I think! And I thought that it might be time to start posting again. A lot has happened since that time and I think it would be good to have some place to vent to or just tell what is going on. Earlier in life I wrote in journals and I really enjoyed doing that so this will just be the updated modern version of that.

The last couple of years have been kind of crazy when I go back and think about it. The last time I posted Toshi and I had just recently gotten engaged and I was down in Atlanta visiting the boys. Since then the boys have started to grow up, they are now nearly 5 and 7! Toshi and I have gotten married and moved to Long Island for his residency. Toshi is a planner and not knowing about residency and where he was going to go and having to scramble I'm sure was torture on him. Now that we are here and life is moving by so fast, he has started to plan again and I'm just rolling along with him.

We got married April 11, 2009. This April we will be celebrating two years! I can't believe it's gone by so fast and that we are just a few weeks away! We never really got a honeymoon because I had to go back to work. We just spent a few days in then rainy Cannon Beach. It was nice to have a few days post wedding to just relax but soon we were both back at work. Toshi had wanted to take a solo honeymoon to New Zealand and I told him he wasn't allowed to do that. It seemed crazy that he should get to spend his nearly two weeks off without me after we had just gotten married. So he didn't and since then he's always wanted to go... more on that later.

At the end of June movers came and packed up both apartments. Toshi worked while I sat in the apartments while they packed. We stayed for the last week or so at the house with mom. It made it that much harder to leave since we had been staying with her. We were headed off to somewhere unknown with no family and no one we knew on Long Island. We ended up staying in an extended stay hotel for nearly a month because there was no apartment for us. Once we finally had keys my dad came out and helped up clean up and and paint. If we were going to be stuck in the small apartment I wanted it to be our own. Bright fun colors in all rooms including the kitchen made it eventually feel like home. All our stuff came and the movers moved it all in. I was in tears. We had so much stuff and so little space. Toshi was working and wasn't going to be around and since I had nothing to do it was my responsibility to take care of it all - first married being a wife moment! So even though it felt impossible I started organizing boxes and working on figuring out how to unpack. The plan had been for Francine to come out and help but with all the issues of getting keys and then waiting for our stuff to get out of storage she wasn't able to be there yet so I was on my own.

The first night when Toshi came home from being on call his only task was to put together the bed so we could have somewhere to sleep. Our bedroom housed our bed and a piano and the room was not very big. I took as many boxes as possible and stacked them against the wall so where would be space to move. Then I had to unload and figure out what to keep and what to give away or sell. I quickly realized that our living room was going to be a multipurpose room and having a coffee table or stand for the TV was not going to work. Those were the first things to go. The dining room table became our multi-purpose table, we at there and it's where our computers lived. Above it was the flat screen TV we mounted on the wall. We had been in NY for just over a month and I was still completely overwhelmed. I was so glad we had a GPS and I used it to get everywhere - the grocery store, Target, Costco. I would have been lost without it.

Francine came and helped me with the rest of the unpacking and the organizing. We got some more shelves and that really helped with the kitchen and it's lack of space. By this time we had bought a couch as well so she had somewhere to sleep.

At this point I went to CW post to meet with the man that would be my advisor. I went in and met with him and asked about the program. I knew almost right away that this was not the program for me. There were no options of classes to take and it sounded as though I was going to be the best performance major they had ever had. I did not want to be in that situation, I wanted to be challenged. After being at Michigan where I had to work, I wanted a place where I was going to improve. So I decided not to go. I then realized that although I would be able to go school the following year I was going to need something to keep busy, a job, and lessons to get me ready for NYC school auditions. I got both.

Starbucks. I have now worked at Starbucks for over a year and a half and am now a supervisor. A little extra responsibility and a little more money - now I make $10 which to me is really sad but it's better than nothing. I'm working 2-3 days a week during school and I've just been transferred to a new store. I was annoyed at first but now I actually think that it might be a good thing - a new manager (not my crazy one that I've had) that I know and that appreciates my work.

Last October I started taking lessons from David Gould - a friend of Cassie's from Michigan. He teaches at Queens college and also runs a Vandoren Studio. He really helped get me ready for auditions. I auditioned at Manhattan, Mannes, Stony Brook and NYU. This fall I started my masters at NYU where I'll be for the next year plus.

Things are busy but going well for us here in New York. It's really nice being in school and being not only busy with something that I love but also being back in a place with people like me. The only interaction I've had with people is at Starbucks and as nice as some of them are, I don't hang out with them and they aren't like me. I didn't realize how much I missed being around music people until I was back with them. I really have missed it! I love school and being back where I feel like I belong. That may sound horrible but that's the case. I have missed being among music people and it's great being back.

So that's where I am now - Living on Long Island with Toshi, working at Starbucks and going to school for my Masters at NYU, preparing for the concerto competition in April and performing with Cascade in May. Copland take 2.