Introducing "Anderson Weekly"

A couple of weeks ago, I was having a wonderful farewell dinner with a couple of colleagues from the Alliance and they decided they wanted a "weekly report" on my progress in the new (old) universe. "We want to hear from you! We have to know what's going on with you!"

With a tongue-in-cheek for our "corporate" culture of reporting and templates, they laid out exactly which areas of my life they would want to know most about:
Housing Situation
Job Situation
Life Partner Situation
...and any funny stories along the way.

They gave it the moniker "Anderson Weekly." And because I think it's kinda funny, not to mention a valuable archival exercise of this adventure, the Anderson Weekly will appear here, probably on Fridays.

Moving to Kathryn's House for Wayward Women...
Monday morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn to have a shower and enjoy the brand-new flashy Dunkin' Donuts that opened in my gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood days before I moved out. My sister did an amazing job of packing my kitchen, and Sunday night I finished packing just about everything else, so if I wanted coffee and breakfast I was going to have to go out for it. Here's Liz:
Along with my coffee, my excitement finally came back--the process of leaving work, packing up my apartment was sad, a bit stressful, and left me wondering, several times a day, what the heck I had done. Monday morning, though, I was excited for the adventure to begin.

The movers from Oz Moving & Storage arrived at precisely 7am and were fantastic. The foreman knew exactly what to do, got to work immediately, and was courteous and professional. My brother-in-law (aka Big Guy or WOBIL) arrived around 8:30 to help me load up their Family Truckster with my "loose" stuff that would accompany me to Kathryn's--everything super valuable, bedding, and some other random stuff I didn't want to put in storage. For his efforts of going up and down the stairs many times, he got a parking ticket. Ugh. At least in the midst of all this nostalgia, I have a reminder of why I need to get out of NYC.
My empty living room/office:
Tuesday morning, Keith made us pancakes...yum! And after he left, I was overcome with sadness as reality set in. I was ready to have myself a good, long cry. So instead, I unpacked. And checked my calendar to see if I was losing my mind or just hormonal (sorry guys)--sure enough, hormones strike again. I spent Tuesday getting settled in--setting up TiVo, wireless network, buying groceries, etc. Kathryn's condo is a fantastic treat in so many ways, every time I feel a little down, some "modern" feature of what New Yorkers would call "post-war" construction perks me up. Here are some highlights:

• The best part is, of course, Kathryn...it's very comforting to be around a sister by choice when I'm feeling like a lunatic. She's dubbed her home "Kathryn's House for Wayward Women" because many of her friends are in a state of transition, and she's assured us we always have a place to stay with her.
• Carpeting...very nice carpeting, so I can walk around barefoot!
• Central Air. LOVE IT.
• A great view from the many windows...great light, beautiful trees.
• Dishwasher!!!
• There are six closets. It's awesome.
• Laundry in the building...the other day, I put in two loads of wash and then cooked, ate dinner, watched the Food Network, and did all kinds of other things while doing laundry. It was an awesome change of pace--until an unfortunate incident where the dryer did not work.
• When you turn the hot water on, it's hot. Right away.
  

"I'm between opportunities"
On GMA yesterday, the young-hip correspondent did a whole series on dating during the recession. One matchmaker's advice to an unemployed hedge fund dude was to say "I'm between opportunities" instead of "I don't have a job." If, while on a date, a man told me that, I would say "and what does that mean, exactly?" Here's a summary of this week's adventures in the land of opportunity:

While I'm searching for that next, perfect, job, I'm stationed daily at my friend Philip's office in Rosslyn. Philip has a wildly successful event production company, Dufour & Co and he hires me to work for him whenever possible. Since this whole "quit your job, just move here" gambit was his idea, he's kindly given me a space to work on a daily basis. It's awesome on many levels, not the least of which it helps me maintain sanity (this is a theme during this transition week). In brief, here are the positions I've applied for this week, in rank order most interested-sort of interested:

1. Senior Program Manager for New Business Development with the Academy for Educational Development
2. Senior Associate, Network Development, Collaborative Communications Group
3. Project Manager, Outreach, Partnership for America's Economic Success with the Pew Charitable Trusts
4. Program Manager, Fulbright Exchange Programs with the Academy for Educational Development
5. Academic Exchange Specialist, U.S. Department of State
6. Senior Associate, Health Impact Assessment also with The Pew Charitable Trusts

In other news, I received yet another standard rejection e-mail from Teach for America--where I've applied for three positions in the recent past. I think they really do not want to hire me, but it's kind of twisted fun to keep applying for positions there just to see how quickly they can reject me.

Life, Generally
OK, I have not made real progress in the search for "the one" this week. I did put myself on the e-mail list for "Professionals in the City," they seem to have a lot of fun activities going on around town. I have noticed, as I usually do while here, that there are a lot of good-looking men around. So, here's hoping.

While walking back to KH4WW from the bus stop, arms loaded with groceries, a man pulled over to ask me directions. I told him I'd recently moved here and wasn't sure of the directions--and he persisted in asking me for more information until cars started coming behind him (it's a busy road) and I walked away. If you're a middle-aged dude driving a Saab, you could probably spring for GPS, or at least have better manners than to stop a woman laden with groceries while she's walking.

Finally, there are a whole bunch of little things I've done this week--from changing addresses with everyone I can think of, donating more clothes to Goodwill, finding my way around on the bus system, getting a library card (!!!), and trying to decide on a gym. Initially, I had planned to take a Boot Camp class at a local park. So, Wednesday morning, I got up at 5, got dressed, biked 20 minutes and participated in this class that was so boring, I nearly left many times. This was no Buonocore Boot Camp. Anyway, without too much more detail, I figured out quickly that this was not for me and canceled that registration. At the moment I'm weighing my options for the three gyms nearest KH4WW: Sport & Health, the Y, and Gold's. After touring Sport & Health, I had a quick workout and ran into one of my former colleagues from the Alliance in the locker room. Fun! And, as of today, I've lost 10 pounds! Wahoo!

Until next week...