Habemus Papam

Workplace productivity was seriously hindered on Wednesday, not by watching the conclave and its aftermath, but by watching the media watch the conclave, which is way more entertaining. One should be charitable, because most of these people are only on the Popery beat when the last one shuffles off his mortal coil to retire, but it was getting egregious.

Allow me to gripe:

1. The media is shocked the Pope is, in fact, a religious Catholic. Many reporters seem surprised to discover the conclave did not accidentally pick a Unitarian. Rumor has it the Pope also thinks some pretty wild stuff about Jesus. (No offense to the Unitarians. But it's more likely that the Unitarians will start venerating icons and praying in Old Church Slavonic than that the conclave will pick one as pope.)

2. The media thinks Pope is the first non-European to hold the post! No, he's not. Church history actually goes back quite a ways, and in the early church, there were a few from North Africa. Prior to the rise of Islam, the center of the Christian world was not Europe. St. Augustine, one of the Church Fathers was North African. St. John Chrystosym was from modern Turkey. The apostles founded their churches in Turkey, Greece, North Africa and the Middle East. The center of global Christianity didn't really solidify in the West until the fall of Constantinople in the 1400s.

3. Apparently, CNN can not hire a competent Italian translator. The fellow they had translating on the live webstream was awful.

Doing something right

In February, which was fantasmagorically awful, I did two things that made me happy:

1. I paid off one of my student loans.

2. I made myself some fingerless gloves. With strawberries on. I'm kind of in love with them! Even though they're the twee-est thing that ever twee-ed. The yarn is Knitpicks and Lion Brand.

Getting back on the horse

It's been a really bad six weeks. Israel was lovely, everything else was falling apart to one degree or another. My husband has also given notice at his unpleasant, stressful job in finance for anoth gig that allows him mo time to build his music career. My gory and unpleasant medical problems have calmed down and it is no longer dark at 5:00 p.m., so my crushing winter depression is lifting. Things are finally on a more even keel now, so back to blogging.

Goals for this week:

1. Get rid of 50 things. I think we're moving to a studio in June when our lease is up, so it's time to pare down our possessions.

2. Return things to Brora, WideShoes.com, and Lands End. One downside of online shopping is having to mail in returns.

3. Pack lunch three days this week. Baby steps.

4. Finish Federal tax returns.

5. Enter CodeMonkey's business financial information for March into Quickbooks.

6. Make one thing in the Crock Pot for the freezer.

Monthly Goals

February Goals

1. Read 7 books.
One more than last month.

2. Maintain weight at 152 pounds.

3. Complete 2 modules of course.
I have been ignoring this training course for over a year and really need to just finish it already!

4. Meet 1/10 of net worth goal.
I would like to build on the momentum of this past month. Being overseas and busy with work should keep me from being irresponsible and CodeMonkey has agreed to try and help me slash our budget.

5. Knit 20 hours this month.
Because I like knitting; I just need to make time for it.

6. Attend mass 7 times.
Mass is good for me, even if it's inconvenient. So I need to go more than *mumbles* onceamonth. RELIGION FAIL.

7. Get rid of 50 things.
I am apparently the only natural predator of household clutter.

8. Unpack two boxes from CodeMonkey's office.
We're trying to turn this into a workable space. This is embarrassing, but some of the stuff there is still boxed up from our last move.

January Goals

1. Finish one pair of socks for CodeMonkey. We are trying to develop a pattern for socks to fit his unusual feet (size 8 5E). It's slow and frustrating, but he's going to need a whole wardrobe of these in time.
So not done. So not even close. Wife fail.

2. Lose 3 more pounds, down to 151 lbs.
I ended up at 152. Not even trying for next month, as I'm spending the first half of February being wined and dined on this business trip.

3. Meet 1/12 of net worth goal.
Done! We've met 23.4% of this year's net worth goal. (Thank you, bonus!) I don't expect it to be this easy every month, but it's always nice to kick the year off successfully. I'd like to meet 10% of our net worth goal this February.

4. Finish lace yoke sweater.
Oh, so not done. Not even close. Ha.

5. Read 10 books.
Read 6: NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, Sacred Treasure, the Cairo Genizah: The Amazing Discoveries of Forgotten Jewish History in an Egyptian Synagogue Attic, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, One for the Books and Little Women. There was also an abortive attempt at Little Men.

Conclusion: I read way more when I have the Kindle. Hand fatigue is real.

New York

Last night over dinner, CodeMonkey and I assessed our move to New York City. We've been living here for six months now. For him, New York was synonymous with America, and he spent a couple years coaxing me into moving here. CodeMonkey feels his life has improved in almost every way since me got her. He loves the city, loves not having to drive, loves living near our friends, loves our neighborhood, etc. He remains a bit frustrated with his job and its (lack of) work-life balance, but on the whole, this move has drastically increased his net happiness.

I'm a lot more ambivalent. I enjoy not having to deal with the car; I enjoy my new job; I am taking advantage of the cultural opportunities the city affords. For me, life here is inexplicably exhausting. I don't know why, but I often feel completely wrung out by the tasks of daily life. It isn't helping anything that I've struggled to make friends, and that CodeMonkey's stress tends to become my stress. I often think I ought to be happy, but I'm not.

Life upstate was much more dull, but it was also very easy. Our income was comfortable for the area, and we would have bought a house in the next year or two. We met our savings goals and still had money left over to enjoy. I never found myself worrying about the future, which sometimes feels like my main hobby now. I'm spending a bit too much time dwelling on how much simpler things felt when we lived there.

Edwin Drood, Israel, etc.

On Sunday, CodeMonkey and I went to see The Mystery of Edwin Drood. This is an Off-Broadway production, and the Roundabout Theater Company has a great program where people under 35 can see their shows inexpensively. This was probably the easiest experience I've ever had buying cheap theater tickets. No arriving hour early at the box office, no hoping to win lotteries, no standing room only "seats." I bought the tickets online and picked them up at will-call when we arrived at the theater 30 minutes before the show. The tickets cost $22 each, making this a bit cheaper than the Broadway shows I've rushed. The seats were in the upper mezzanine, off-center, but I've had worse seats. It was a good value.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is Charles Dickens' final, unfinished novel. In this musical adaptation, the story is performed up to the point where the novel ends. Then the house lights go up and the audience gets the opportunity to vote on the ending, which is then performed according to our wishes. This made the second act lots of fun, as we picked the detective, decided on the killer, hooked up a pair of unlikely lovers, and the story ended with a flourish. Unfortunately, the play took a long time to get going, and both CodeMonkey and I found ourselves drifting off during act one. The sound wasn't great, so we had a hard time hearing the lyrics, the initial plot was confusing, and it was generally underwhelming enough that I flirted with leaving during intermission.

In other news, I kept up reasonably well with my goals, and am tabling goal setting for this week as I AM LEAVING FOR ISRAEL IN UNDER A WEEK. It's a business trip, and I'm spending most of my free time packing or preparing things at home to run smoothly while I leave. Chinese New Year will start while I am overseas, so I want to have all holiday-prep done before I leave. I'm excited and nervous and will be much more mellow once I'm on a plane overseas.

Marrying Young

CodeMonkey and I married 3 years ago. He was still in college, and I was a new graduate. It remains a decision I would make again without hesitation. I'm glad I married young, I'm happy to be his wife, and I'm grateful I have him beside me as we navigate out twenties.

That being said, I had no idea how weird marrying young would make me. Three years ago everyone just assumed I was pregnant, or that we were doing it for the green card. My coworkers have children my age and often treat me like I'm some sort of odd anthropological artifact. My age mates think the early marriage thing is either endearing or absolutely crazy. Sometimes both. While I never particularly wanted to spend my twenties single (I never thought about it one way or another) I am undeniably missing out on the "normal" experience of people my age.

I have always been an odd duck, but I feel like each choice I'm making as an adult is taking me further away from being normal, leaving me more isolated. Being sick left me without a college social life. Then I married young. If I have children before my peer group, I think it may be the final nail in the coffin, so to speak. I don't know what to do about any of this, because aside from the loneliness, I am very content.