For many years, I regularly posted three gratitudes on my Facebook page-not on a schedule, but as the spirit moved me. For some reason, I’ve fallen away from that practice and yet I have so much gratitude in my ❤️. So…

1. My heart ❤️ is so appreciative to have this opportunity to explore our world in such a unique way. As I said in an earlier post, I’m a suburban girl and this city-living is exciting and full of opportunities to learn and experience our world in such a new (to me) way.

2. Those of you who know both of us know that GAT is the master planner and I am the “seat of my pantser “. Both ways have their places in our world. AND I’m super grateful for the Planner who masterfully managed our financial life so that in our “golden” years we could live out our dreams.

3. You. I’m grateful for all of our family and friends who have shared our journey – the journey we are writing about here, but also the journey throughout the years. People come and go throughout our lives. Each person has an impact on us – whether you know it or not. Whether we’ve told you or not.

So as we sit in the backyard of Brown Butter enjoying our Sunday morning fried chicken and waffles – thank you life – from the bottom of my (pointed little 🤪) ❤️.

We were just talking today about today being the end of our fourth week and feeling like we are just getting started (and I guess we are). We’ve both always experienced this pull of home when we near the end of three weeks. We’ve both (in lives before we were together and since) made a point of taking long adventures. I went to Europe in 1984 for a full month and JDT was in Europe six months as a late teen. Anyway, it is strange that this feels different.

I think it is a good thing?!?

One of my goals for this time in Brooklyn was to build new habits. Frankly, my habits while at home in the Bay Area had become very tired and lazy.

I have an interesting relationship with lazy. One of my memories when I was about 10 was overhearing a conversation between my Mom and my Grandma (Mom’s mother in law). My lasting memory from that was my Grandma saying “Glen is lazy”. Maybe we all have an interesting relationship with lazy. All I know is that it has been both a positive and negative influence in my life. I’ve used it as fuel to accomplish most everything in my life. AND when I take time to decompress, relax, do nothing, it creates negative self images that effect me and those around me. I wish it weren’t true – it is!

The life I’m creating for myself contains much less work, and by definition more unstructured and idle time. (By the way, this is at least a distant cousin of JDT’s recent post.) I have a theory that this is part of why so many Baby Boomers struggle with the transition to “retirement”.

I was talking to one of my dearest friends Todd. Actually I was struggling with something, and I really needed Todd’s advice. You see, I love Todd. AND Todd and I are so different. He’s a scientist, I’m not. I’m an intuitive thinker, in Todd’s world all the best decisions are rational. Anyway, I had this thing. I was thinking about something in a very binary way. Black – white, on – off, yes – no. And this very clearly wasn’t working for me. Todd’s solution? Don’t. BRILLIANT!

So, I’m working hard at not seeing myself as either lazy, or not. Less yes – no. Less binary.

Each day I wake up with a new slate and the wonder of living in Brooklyn in front of me. And you know what, those habits driven by my former binary thinking are SLOWLY melting away and being replaced with incredible new experiences and even some wonderful new habits.

I said to Glen the other day…Have we been here two weeks now? Nope. We’ve been here three. Then my sister, Chris asked me…Does it feel like three months will be too long or not long enough or just right? (Don’t worry. I’m not going to “Goldilocks” this story. Or maybe…) This got me to thinking…How exactly are our days in Brooklyn unfolding?

Going backward to go forward – As Glen likes to say about my retirement that began in June 2019 – Every day is a Saturday! Or six Saturdays and a Sunday! While this is absolutely a truth, there are challenges with this more free-form lifestyle. (Trust me – I’m not complaining.) The first is that I have to pay attention to the calendar or days and hours just roll into each other. I found that I had to consciously set up a daily schedule of some sort or at 3:00, I’d look at the clock and say…Dang it, the day’s almost over and what have I done?! The same occurred as the weeks rolled by – Thursday already? So I made myself a loose daily and weekly schedule to keep me moving forward purposefully through my new life.

Then COVID hit just as I was getting into a retirement rhythm. I had established a routine that was far different from my work life, but it provided some organization and flow. I felt that I had found some purpose to my days and weeks. And as we all experienced in March 2020, I had to learn a new way to move through a new reality, to adjust to a new way of living. A new rhythm.

So…here we are in Brooklyn where we are figuring out a new balance-a new way of being. We want to “live” here, not be “tourists” here. What does that look like for us? We’re figuring it out. At the moment, I’d say we’re working our way to a rhythm where we balance chores, work life (for Glen), neighborhood explorations, city explorations, foodie explorations, down days, busy days, exciting days, dull days, history and culture learning days, and just “being” days. (Why am I hearing Dr. Seuss here?) Will we successfully create a new iteration of a “JDT and GAT” lifestyle? Do we even need a routine or a rhythm? Time will tell.

But to answer my sister, Chris – As I find myself thinking – It’s ALREADY been three weeks?!?!?!?! I have the answer to your question. Goldilocks said it best.

All y’all want to know about our first experience with a hurricane, don’t you?!? It’s ruff on Dug.

So how did we end up in Bed/Stuy? Well…there’s a story.

Since Glen and I had been talking about this trip for years, I’d off and on been checking the usual apps for Brooklyn rentals. I’d also done some research on the different neighborhoods, but not much. As we got closer to thinking it was a good time to go, I began searching in earnest and wasn’t finding much on the market.

Meet Tiffany, a NY realtor. (And so much more. She’ll be playing in the poker tournament in Las Vegas this fall!)

Somehow I had been following her on IG (not a stalker) and I thought…why not reach out?!? Maybe she’d be interested in helping or give us ideas of other rental resources. What did we have to lose? She kindly set up an appointment to FaceTime with her while we were in Charleston with our Texas friends, Brian and Joan and man o’ man! Tiffany was a bundle of energy and positivity! She offered to help by using her network resources, quickly discovered that Airbnb was the way to go, and the way that she could help us was to go and check out the units and the neighborhoods in person. So we narrowed the options to five units and the morning of our call, 3 of them were off the market so things got urgent! Luckily, Tiffany quickly contacted the owners, was able to get to the two addresses and sent us videos of the exterior of the houses, the streets, and the neighborhoods. Boom! Bed/Stuy it was because as Tiffany said, there was lots of activity, lots of people walking dogs – so many dogs – and a vibrant, energetic community vibe.

That brings me to today. While on our quest for the best breakfast tacos (it’s a thing here and also we are researching for a visit from Brian and Joan), we walked through the neighborhood that we didn’t choose, Crown Heights. We crossed the actual street of the house that we were looking at though it was likely a couple blocks away. And while we were only one neighborhood away, it was completely different from Bed/Stuy. As Tiffany had reported after her visit – Few people out and about. No one sitting on stoops – in fact in places – NO stoops! Blasphemy! Few brownstones. No bodegas on all the corners. Restaurants only down the busy business streets, not on every neighborhood street. People seemed to be in a hurry to get to work and didn’t make much eye contact. Not so friendly. Not so “neighborhoody”. Not so “communityish”.

Now, was I just back to the unfamiliar thing – it being a new neighborhood and all or had we just made a better decision for us? The answer – we made a better decision. Bed/Stuy just feels right. For all it’s quirks – trash, homeless (unhoused?), sirens, loud music, loud cars and motorcycles, etc. – it’s our neighborhood and we’ll take the bad…with ALL the good.

And…Full circle. I had lunch with the fabulous Tiffany today! (Sadly, forgot to take a selfie.) So…reach out. Take a chance. You never know who’s gonna be there to help you when you need it!

One of the great wonders of a place like NYC are the incredibly limitless supply of food options. I’ve learned to use the wealth of options through Eater. Virtually infinite. AND for someone that loves food, well . . .

I met with a couple of friends / clients (Jim and Matthew of GGI) yesterday afternoon. (I refer to them as friends / clients versus clients / friends, as they are truly special in my life.) We were doing what we do, which is to say the conversation meanders all over the place and always finds its way to meaningful content. AND JDT and my current adventure came up. (I directed them to this blog for some context.) Matthew asked where we were living. I told him one of the less gentrified areas of Brooklyn (frankly, I phrased it differently, but that seedy content belongs elsewhere). He guessed Crown Heights, and I told him Bed Stuy. He just grinned, in the Matthew kind of way.

Our mornings are sometimes filled with walks that have either an early lunch or a late breakfast in the middle. On Tuesday we went up into the Prospect Heights area for breakfast tacos at King David Tacos. You see, I discovered that SAT / AUS (airport codes, which I love using, for San Antonio and Austin) style breakfast tacos are a thing now in the sub Mexican food category. Sub categories and even sub sub categories are a huge thing here. This morning we decided to walk in a different direction, think 10:00 if straight up 12:00 is Prospect Heights. And as we walked out of Bed Stuy and into Crown Heights, the difference in neighborhoods was decidedly different. While Bed Stuy is predominantly black, Crown Heights is predominantly Jewish. I’ll take a risk here to show my incredible ignorance. I hope Matthew will correct me, or help reduce my ignorance. In CA we get very little Orthodox Jewish. I can tell, as they wear hats. I’m sure there is a name for the hats. Again I hope my limited Jewish friends will help educate me. We definitely have neighborhoods in CA and the west coast. But this stark difference is a wonder to me. This was all that.

And to my question? Frankly, there is a simple answer, no. Even HELL NO!! Certain things are just not meant to be. AND refried beans made the Mexican way (pinto beans and yes, lard) are one of life’s real pleasures. Some of my favorites recipes include three, and only three ingredients. Take that!!

JDT was able to get us tickets to Shakespeare in The Park last night. And, by the way, if you get a chance you must go! It is a summer night experience under the moon and stars in the middle of Central Park. A truly NYC experience.

We decided to be expansive in our experience so we took a stop off the F subway line in downtown Manhattan and grab a sandwich at Katz Delicatessen. And of course we got the Pastrami on Rye. As we approached Katz, I warned Joyce that the “cutters” could be a bit “edgy” (JDT likes to know such things.) And that we shouldn’t be indecisive with our choices. So, we got in line, discussed our selection and the related offerings. WELL, when it was our turn we stepped forward confidently. AND much to my surprise and our joy, the cutter was delightful. Hmmmm? I looked around and noted that Katz was much less busy than I had experienced in my past visits. The person taking payment for our order was equally welcoming!

A few notes about ordering – whatever you do, order 1/2 of what you think you’d like to have. We split the sandwich between us. We ate the sandwich last night and I am not hungry this morning. We ate on a park bench in Central Park waiting for the gates to the venue to open. And of course there were locals (two elderly couples) sitting near us. One asked us (who says NY’ers won’t engage?!?) where our sandwich was from? We replied Katz. He sighed and appeared a bit envious. His wife commented that when they get a sandwich from Katz they get extra bread. A piece of good advice I will incorporate on subsequent visits. The last thing I would say is, keep it simple. Like many great things in life, the wonder is in the greatness of the ingredients. My order, Pastrami on Rye with mustard. Three ingredients!

The Pandemic has brought us all a lot of very challenge in our lives. Our experience last night just reminded me that, while huge challenges, also can provide opportunities.

Marvelous!!

There are a few lessons I’ve learned during the pandemic that are relevant to our three month adventure –

There are so many ways to stay connected.

So many ways to learn.

And so many ways to engage in our world.

One of my questions about our foray into Brooklyn was how I would manage to stay connected in a meaningful way with friends and family back home. And would I be able to forge friendships with people in Brooklyn in a short period of time? Would casual connections with social encounters be enough of a human connection for me?

Tonight I was reminded of the value of those all lessons. I took an online pasta-making class through a Brooklyn business that I learned about last spring. Prior to the pandemic their classes were all in-person and as with all businesses, they quickly had to adapt or die. They adapted and thrived by offering their classes via Zoom. I took a couple classes last spring-embroidery, journaling (try as I might, I still don’t do it), and…I can’t remember the others.

Tonight’s pasta class was a great success and what made it even greater was that two of my friends took it “with” me – one from Washington, one from California and me from my kitchen in New York. How cool is that?!

So – Connection? Yep. Learning? Yep. Engagement? Yep. What a great night! Thanks, Glynnis and Lorraine for joining me! Our distanced cooking adventure made my day!

And to the rest of you…Look up Brooklyn Brainery! It’s a great resource. Want to learn about Scotch Whiskey? Block printing? The history of cats in art? Book binding? Buying a home in Brooklyn? There’s a class for everyone! brooklynbrainery.com And no…they don’t pay me to share their info!

PS The pasta is in the freezer for another night. Stay tuned.