Erin Miller

I realized recently that I use lots and lots of stairs everyday. It's quite an interesting shift from Honduras. A friend of mine suggested that I bring slinkies to give to my Honduran host family's children as gifts when I arrived. I thought it was a terrific idea, but in the end I was glad I went with something different because there were virtually no stairs in La Esperanza. There was lots of space and everything could be very spread out, and therefore, virtually everything happened on the first floor. NYC is a different story. There are 63,000 elevators and escalators in the city. I am currently sitting in the 6th floor basement (as in 6 floors under ground). I live on the fifth floor, and due to the crawling speed of our elevator, I end up walking up those stairs more than I would like. I walk down to the subway platforms and then take elevators to the platforms below. I am constantly going to classes somewhere between the 6th basement and the 17th floor. And I am pretty sure that the elevators at the NY Presbyterian Hospital are even slower than the one in my building. My thighs ache; even Spot gets out of breath walking up to our apartment. I would go up and sit out in the sun in my break between classes, but the surface of the earth just seems too far away for now.

This month has marked a couple of big occasions in the name of love. Dan and I celebrated our 18 month anniversary. We have now been dating for over 547 days, which is a really long time. The distances have been a definite challenge, but Dan, I love you and I miss you. As I get ready to go eat cheese and drink wine on the roof, when what I really should be doing is going through my mail, I wish you were here, even though I understand that you can't be.

The other big occasion for love was Dan's brother's wedding to his girlfriend of over six years last weekend in Chicago. The wedding was a blast and seeing Dan was amazing. Chicago seemed clean and maybe just a tiny bit quaint as the skyline, from the beautiful setting atop the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame, fit so neatly into the backdrop of our pictures.

The weather in NYC is crappy and rainy right now, but it has been sunny and in the 80s recently, which has been bringing me endless joy, so I guess I have to put up with a bit of rain. Anyway, here is a picture from the shenanigans on the roof at the end of the all beer day fest over Labor Day weekend. I live in a pretty cool building.

Spot now has a boyfriend, or at least that is how our building super put it.

I spent Labor Day weekend moving, again. My old apartment was dark, due to its position in the building and because it was on the second floor, above the bodegas below, it had more than its fair share of roaches. I also met some super cool kids in the building, and they had an extra room. So now I live with three cool roommates and another cool large dog, named Max. Max is Spot's boyfriend. They play some throughout the day and I think it is great for Spot to have some company. Max is a big dog, he weighs 120 lbs. So now we have 180 lbs of dog in or apartment which is equal to another large person, or a regular person and a small child. The apartment is about average size for New York City so when the dogs play they either run into the walls, hit their heads on the tables, or threaten the existence of the plasma TV, but they sure do have fun.

I can't even begin to explain how much fun it was to move for a second time in three weeks, carrying most of my stuff up three flights of stairs. It was awesome.

School also started last week and I have been feeling somewhat overwhelmed between figuring out my work and class schedules and finding some way to transport myself between the two locations when there is construction, or explosions, on the subway. I have been stressed as I adjust to many new situations and my new life here. I hope things settle into more of a pattern soon, hopefully just in time for my school work to really pick up. I remain excited that I can pay someone 12 dollars to do my laundry for me. I can also tell you, that last weekend my girl friends and I did not go to a salon in midtown and spend 50 dollars getting manicures, pedicures, and messages while we looked out over Madison Square Garden. Or wait, maybe we did. When people at work saw my nails they said that New York was already rubbing off on me. I have also generally been impressed with my professors.

Here are a few pics of the new place:

Max and Spot

My new bedroom. Notice the curtain hooks, I think they really pull the room together. I am a master with tools.

The new kitchen. It's small, but at least we have lots of shelves.

The new living room