Category: Personal

Settling In. Part Two.

So we’re more or less moved in. Sure, there are a couple of random boxes here and there, but we’re no longer sitting in an empty house! There are still a couple of loose ends here and there, and we’ve had our maintenance guy on-site throughout the last week or so, but it’s getting there. The hot water works, the doors are sealed up, our recyclables tied off, and the basement is dry. Most of our furniture is settled, the clothes are hung in their closets, and the books have found their places on their shelves. Of course, the bathtub has been put through its paces as well. Now of course, it will take quite some time for this place to go from house to home, but that’s normal. A few weeks will go by, and there will be doubts, but it’s part of the package. As soon as it starts to really feel like home, we’ll have the age-old question of “do we move again?” to answer. Considering we started looking at other properties last fall, it’s great to be nearing completion on this prolonged move.

It’s also pretty great to explore another neighborhood, and one that feels like a real neighborhood. Chelsea and Downtown Brooklyn were great for a season, but they don’t have the same “lived-in” feel as Bed-Stuy. In those prior neighborhoods, I always felt like a tourist in my home, and that’s certainly no longer the case. There are multiple coffee spots within a couple of blocks of my house, some great bakeries, and a few great restaurants. Not to mention the wine stores, and the local hardware store that I’ve already frequented a number of times (and no, not the nearby Home Depot). Not to mention a diversity that makes New York such a great city in which to live.

All of this effusing aside, I’m excited to take a little break before diving back into the professional world (seriously, I promise news there soon), as the family and I will be traveling this coming week. More on that later.

Personal

Settling In. Maybe.

Anyone who knows me knows that my family and I move every 12-18 months. It’s kind of crazy. It’s also the life I lived growing up (and actually enjoyed most of the time). When we’re not moving halfway across the world for a few months, we’re trekking across the country to change cities. Even if we don’t change cities, we change houses. School districts. Boroughs. Neighborhoods. And this time is no different…kind of.

I can’t talk about what’s happening in my professional life yet, but I’m very excited for it. It’s another new beginning, but at the same time more of the same. But it also means I have line of sight for the next couple of years at least. It means that my family and I can settle in somewhere.

We recently signed a lease for 286 Clifton Place. We’re staying in Brooklyn, which is incredible. I’ve loved living here, to be honest. I’m stoked. While it doesn’t have a dedicated home office space for me, maybe I can find one nearby. Plus, the condo has plenty of space, a yard (puppy!), an outdoor patio, and a fantastic living area. It’s also in a great location, right on the border of Clinton Hill & Bedford-Stuyvesant, just a block away from some great local haunts. Not a crazy commute, either. We’re moving in this weekend. Pictures coming soon.

Does this mean that we’re settling in for a while? Maybe. Does this mean we’re settling in for now? Certainly. And I, for one, think it’s great.

Personal Random

Fast Forward 2019: Goals

Despite my intuition-driven, roll-with-the-punches nature, I also firmly believe in the values of setting goals. And I’m not talking about the New Year’s resolution type nonsense, but more of a concrete achievable thing, along with the “hows”. In addition to setting personal goals this year, we also had a family discussion about what our collective goals should be. This post is a look at those goals, along with some of my thoughts on each.

PERSONAL GOALS

Read 60 books this year. I set a reading goal of a 50-book pace in the middle of the year last year along with some concrete steps to get there, and started tracking my reading seriously for the first time in quite a while. I read over 30 books in the last half of 2018, and hope to continue that pace for a year in 2019. It will certainly be challenging, but in my Reading Strategy post, I’ll talk about how I plan to do that.
Figure out the next phase for Exeq (and by extension, myself). We’re going through some great changes at Exeq right now, and I’m excited about where it all could lead. It’s a bit too early right now to discuss, but could end up in a very exciting place for myself professionally. Goal for 2019 is not to drop this ball.
Make progress on a novel. If you can’t tell, I enjoy writing. I’ve had a world in my head for literally decades now, and I need to get it on paper. I don’t think I’ll actually finish a novel this year, but I want to make substantial progress on it (namely, a fairly firm plot outline).
Blog weekly. It’s been a few years since I wrote with any substantial regularity outside of my professional life. I’ve enjoyed writing here thus far, and hope to continue doing so, with a goal of writing at least 52 posts in 2019.

FAMILY GOALS

The way we determined these is literally going around the dinner table and everyone gets one goal, no matter how ambitious. Miranda and I whittled them down to within reason, and here’s the list along with the likelihood that it gets done, at least in my opinion. Pretty interesting to hear the suggestions.

Take 2 family trips this year. This one is pretty straightforward: travel as a family at least twice this year. Outlook good.
Take 3 food adventures this year. A “food adventure” in our parlance is going to eat somewhere (even in our own backyard of NYC) and trying something outside of the girls’ comfort zone. This can include momos from Nepal or Japanese BBQ. It’s also an excuse for the adults in the house to eat good food with minimal noise. Outlook good.
Collectively read 300 books as a family this year. I’m not yet sure the best way to track this, but I’m sure we’ll get it done. We’re a reading family, and an average of 60 books per person is doable but a stretch all at the same time. Outlook good.
Learn Spanish as a family. This one is probably the biggest stretch, I think. It’s also hard to define. Should we start with courses? Books/workbooks? Should I start teaching it & speaking it in the house? I need to work on this one a bit more, it seems. Outlook not so good.
Improve manners and respect. Our girls are generally very respectful, particularly among strangers. But behind closed doors, they’re typical sisters and daughters. We want to reduce the backtalk, the infighting, and the whining. I’m sure we’ll make progress against this, and calling it out in January will help us remind the girls throughout the year. Outlook good.
Eat more vegetables. See the above goal. Calling it out explicitly as a family goal has already started to pay off, and not just for the girls. By forcing me to not be hypocrite, I’ve found myself eating a bit more with every dinner sitting. Don’t judge me. I became an adult so I wouldn’t have to eat vegetables. Outlook good.
Try one new fruit per month. This is a good one from the girls. It’s in the same vein as a food adventure or travel, but it’s also concrete and clear. Not sure what we’ll pick for January yet, though. And will we run out of available fruits to try? Unclear. Outlook iffy.
Grow plants. More greenery around the house. I’d love to see herbs or other usable plants in the house. But our housing situation right now is in flux (oh, NYC housing market!), so TBD on how realistic this goal is right now. Outlook iffy.
Build LEGO project. We want to build a large-scale LEGO project this year. This will be hugely dependent on resources (namely space and time), which I don’t have clear insight into this year. The girls and I are very excited about getting to it, but we’ll have to see. Outlook iffy.
Look for a new house. We put in notice to leave our apartment (long story, summarized with massive building issues), but haven’t found a replacement yet. The girls obviously are concerned about this, and rightly named it as a goal. I figure that we will accomplish at least this goal this year. Outlook good.