I can't believe I haven't updated this blog for so long--but I'm thinking I'm going to start again. This past Sunday, I paddled a kayak with friends from the Long Island City Community Boathouse from the Whitestone Bridge and through the Throgs Neck across Long Island Sound to City Island! We had lunch at the City Island Yacht Club and then paddled around the island (or as we say, circumnavigated it!) and briefly visited some other small islands before working our way back to Francis Lewis Park and, eventually, the boathouse. The scenery was fantastic, and I'll post some photos of what we saw on our adventure. First, the beautiful Whitestone, then the majestic Throgs Neck, and the wonderful Stepping Stones Lighthouse, plus Chimney Sweep and Rat Islands! Exhausted but happy at the end!

INSPIRED BY CHANGE...AND THE ARRIVAL OF SPRING!

I can't believe I haven't posted on this blog since November, but life's been both hectic and unsettled in a few different ways. Now I want to relaunch this blog with new inspiration and a clearer sense of how to transition from what it was--and I was--when I began. I also want to share the URL of a 2nd blog I started, though it hasn't achieved liftoff just yet. http://wishlistnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/ It focuses on something I would love to do,and I'm currently engaged in sorting out the logistics. So--more to come on Wishlist New York City. Please stay tuned. In the meantime, here's a report from the road: Melody, my 2nd grade reading tutee, is improving every week and will be finishing second grade in less than two months. She is more focused, more interested in writing and vocabulary, and more ready to face new challenges next year. This photo shows her reading a poem at the holiday reading festival a few months ago!

My Top Honors math tutoring work goes well. Brian, my regular tutee, has been absent for a few sessions, which is too bad because he was making really good progress and nearly tested out of the Numbers module. However, I've had good sessions with Stiles and a couple of other sixth graders, and the work goes. We had a fantastic tutor social at Bowlmor, where I discovered that a 10 pound ball is HEAVY and faced the undeniable truth about me and bowling: sometimes you get a strike, and sometimes the ball ends up in the gutter. I'm now a volunteer with Burt Freeman's amazing My Own Book Foundation, and I have worked so far with 2 Bronx 3rd grade classes and will soon do four more. This is the program where Burt or one of his volunteers visits the class in advance to discuss how to build a personal library. Then the class visits Barnes & Noble, and each kid gets $50 to spend on books! This is followed by a visit to the school to listen to kids report back on what they bought and read...and how it's impacted their lives. I LOVE this foundation, and I am thrilled to be working again with Burt on this. Here are two photos from a few years back, when EHTP kids got to go to Barnes & Noble and buy books!

When you love what you do and feel that it matters--even when you don't get paid for it--life is good.

A LUCKY DAY FOR THE UNIVERSE...11/11/11!

It's a day to buy a lottery ticket, put on a pair of gloves against a fierce fall wind, and find a way to reframe the experience that is shaping your current existence. I've been struggling emotionally with the experience of being between jobs, out of work, unemployed--call it what you like. Today, I put a new name on it: my SABBATICAL, after ten years of working really hard for really long hours.

I feel better already.

I'm taking this unexpected time to get my apartment plastered and painted (after putting it off for more than a decade). I'm making necessary doctor's appointments after letting some of them go for two years or more. I'm reading a lot for personal pleasure. I'm finding time to help friends out.

What I haven't yet been doing with this precious time is getting in better shape and working at my writing. So that's next. While I continue to try and figure out how to find my next job, I can be doing a lot more to fulfill my needs beyond work.

My thanks to the universe for sending me a message I was finally ready to hear.

Now--back to recent events. I had a fantastic time at the 2011 NYC Marathon--leading volunteer orientation for registration, ID check, goody bags, and expo marshals; working in the finish line with the 46,000 plus runners; and reconnecting with friends who've been there with me for so many years. The volunteer party Monday night reminded me how many good friends I've had through Road Runners and how special our time together is.

I now have to work on seeing the struggle to find a new position as what it is in many ways: an opportunity to make connections, stretch myself, and enjoy a fresh start!

HARDER TO DO WHAT YOU LOVE WHEN YOU'RE BETWEEN JOBS...

I have been especially remiss during October and have not been blogging--mostly because I've now been looking for a new full-time job for six months... I can't believe it's been that long!!! I am determined to solve this particular puzzle, and I'm hoping that one of the people who knows how hard I work and what I have to offer will help me make a winning connection.

In the meantime--I'm keeping very busy. Yesterday I volunteered at the Audubon Fall Roost benefit, primarily helping with the silent auction. Tonight, I filled in for someone who couldn't volunteer at her CSA--the community group that buys a farm's output and then distributes it each week. It was a wet one but lots of nice people--though I was a little disappointed in what was on offer this evening. I had hoped for squash, parsnips, turnips, something chunky--but it's been a rough year for the farmers. Tonight I got more greens than I have seen or cooked--mustard greens, turnip greens, collard greens, and some other mysterious stuff, plus dill, and parsley, and radishes or beets, I forget.

To be honest, I don't know if I'm going to be able to eat them or cook them, but I want to try and do something with them.

My best treat from getting soaked tonight was 2 bags (about 30!) Macoun apples...super fresh and tasty.

Other exciting news--my book postcards arrived from Vistaprint, as did my new business cards.
I'll post photos soon.

Hang in there, BA...

Committing to the Blog--and to My Writing Work

I named this blog LOVE WHAT YOU DO AND FEEL THAT IT MATTERS, referring to my work as a teacher and tutor trainer at East Harlem Tutorial Program as well as my creative work as a writer of children's books for Capstone and other publications as well.

But now that I have been, as we used to say in the theatre, "between engagements" for five months, I have been thinking about what those words really mean to me. I believe that I bring passion into whatever I choose to do, whether it's giving information to patrons at New York City Ballet, helping with a mailing at the NYC Audubon Society, assisting walk-up kayakers in Astoria, donating platelets for the New York Blood Center, or crafting questions and answers to help students prepare for high-stakes tests.

If it's worth my time, it's meaningful to me.

But as someone who has been work-centered much of her life, these months have been challenging for me. I research job opportunities, write the best cover letters I can, and send my applications off in hopes of finding a new mission, somewhere to bring my enthusiasm, energy, and commitment (as well as earn the cash to pay my bills!). I believe the right opportunity is out there, and that my continued efforts to connect with it will succeed.

In the meantime--I'm going to keep DOING WHAT I LOVE...in every way I can. I'll post here what I do and what I learn from it.

I just read about a wonderful children's picture book that I wish I'd written--

My Hands Sing the Blues: Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey by Jeanne Walker Harvey and Elizabeth Zunon (Sep 2011)

and it ignited a desire in me to get back to the work of a writer: creating from the heart.

STAY TUNED!

SEEING ROOSEVELT ISLAND UP CLOSE...AND AMAZING!

Sunday kayaking was great, but Monday's trip from Long Island City to Hallets Cove was spectacular--a bit unnerving at time, but also very exciting! We set off and crossed the East Channel of the East River to Roosevelt Island and then paddled HARD against the current along the rocky shore (!) and around the tip to the western side. I was very nervous but also excited that I was doing it!

My partner in the kayak was Joyce, who lives on Roosevelt Island, and who brought Argos, her little dog, who travels with his own Personal Flotation Device!

I knew I was in good hands--she's very experienced--and so I stayed pretty calm. I loved seeing the old smallpox hospital up so close,

but I agree with Joyce that the building going up for the FDR Four Freedoms Park is UGLY and block-ish. Too bad...

The current was with us on the way up, and we paddled enjoyably up to the Lighthouse, where we met a friend of Joyce's and had our photos taken. (I wish I looked as fit as I felt, darn it...those life jackets are not flattering!) But I felt so happy...and enjoyed the paddle to the cove.

Later, I got to take out one of the single kayaks (thank you, Bob!) and paddled around for about 20 minutes. I did like the feeling of controlling the direction and speed of the kayak. In a two-seater, you have to depend on the person behind you to direct the boat, while you simply paddle your heart out. That's hard for me sometimes!

Later, we paddled downriver in the East Channel, first along the island side, and then crossed over as a group. The sun had come out late in the date, and the sky was beautiful.

We worked hard to get the kayaks back to the boathouse, help hose them off and carry them inside. Some celebratory watermelon topped off the day.

Thanks to Steve and Ted and Katie and Joyce and Argos and Voula and Deborah and the other Katie who is president of Green Shores.

REVELING IN NEW YORK CITY AT WATER LEVEL!

Today, I had the amazing opportunity to see my favorite place in the world from a different point of view--and I loved it! I joined up with the Long Island City Community Boathouse to paddle a kayak from the famous Pepsi sign

across the east side of the East River, and all along Roosevelt Island, past the ruins of the old smallpox hospital

underneath the 59th Street bridge

all the way to the top end of Roosevelt Island near the beautiful lighthouse...

and finally over to Hallets Cove for a day of helping with walk-up kayaking.

When it was over, we paddled back, with the current, and all the kayaks "rafted" by holding on to each other's boats as the current carried us under the 59th Street bridge on the way back to the boathouse for a cookout.

What an amazing and glorious day! 

Thank you, Steve and Ted and Bob and Detrick and Katie and Dave and all the other volunteers for a day I'll remember forever.