Much of a Muchness

Heartfelt congratulations to everyone! This past round of blogging was completely successful and we have come full circle back to Kurtis and I. Believe it or not, the last post we did was a little over three months ago!!! And, for us, things certainly are changing...

Both of us ended up having a great amount of success at our summer jobs -  

A Few Thoughts from Kurtis on His Summer: Kurtis was feeling a bit overwhelmed by his current job and was unable to give out his own words afterall...so I thought I would go ahead and share with you anyway. He had a great time at PSF, overseeing the shop staff there and helping them produce work on time and efficiently for the first time in 3-4 years. It was such a success that he has already been asked back for next year with a promised position for me if he returns. Still holding out to see what NYC work is going to be like before making any kind of decision on that one.

A Few Thoughts from Mary on Her Summer: Overall, I had a great time with Maine State Music Theatre. I never felt as though people were being overly political, which is rare in any business, and when all was said and done I would be happy to return again next year if it came to that. We produced three shows while I was there - My Fair Lady, Chicago, and Spamalot. It was a surprisingly relaxing summer as I was true to form in any shop that I run and continued to have the shop pump out things ahead of schedule to allow for a bit of a breather in between the craziness of summer stock. Furthermore, Maine was absolutely beautiful, with much less than Kansas heat and the ocean to greet me every now and then! Kurtis surprised me and arrived a day early to spend a few days in Maine before my contract was up with the company and a few connections from this job are already starting to pay off in NYC.

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From Maine, we traveled to upstate New York to visit Gina Holsopple, Matt Wood and Rueby. There were a couple of important reasons for the visit, not the least of which included a promise to both of them to make it up their way and tattoo fun with Matt. We had a wonderfully relaxing time with them in Oswego, NY where they live and were quite happy to have taken the couple of days to make this trip happen as it was only a short detour on our way to the city.

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On August 17, 2010, we drove (that's right, DROVE!) into NYC and Brooklyn!!! This became much less scary as the week progressed and the realization that driving in NYC is about the same as Kansas really just with more cars and a little less patience. We stayed with Dad at the Marriott in Brooklyn for several nights as he was speaking in the city and agreed to hang out with us for a few more days before moving on to his next engagement (that was really fun and made the first several days less scary and homesick). The search for housing began immediately and Kurtis started a job two days later in Brooklyn, but I'll let him tell you about that...

Through PSF, Kurtis was able to meet Ashley, the scenic paint charge, who connected him to a company called JCDP (John Creech Design Production), which is a scene shop devoted to building anything and everything from fashion show runways to Broadway set pieces. He worked with them for about four weeks doing over hire from day 2 in NYC up until this past Monday when they briefly ran out of jobs to be able to keep him on. So, he has now shifted in to the Signature Theatre that is getting ready to put up Angels in America (Parts 1&2) by Tony Kushner. He has been working everyday for anywhere from 10-16 hours at this theatre and thus the incapability to share in this round of blogging...sorry!

This is the view down the street.

The day before Kurtis started work, we set out on the housing search and spent a strong 5 days(mostly me) continuing the search until we found the place that we intend to be living in around November. The good news is that in NYC, there are plenty of housing options - the bad news, there are plenty of housing options! As expensive as it is to rent here, we were prepared for this so we set out with a budget in mind and saw three or four places the first day out. Here's where it gets a bit weird, but I think the story is worth telling... So, the first day, we found a place we liked well enough to put a deposit down - this secures the apartment and takes it off the market so that no one else can potentially swipe it away. Then, your application has to be approved before you have the place. As we waited on the application to be approved(via credit check, bank statements, etc) we found Tim Aumiller's place. This is the place that we are waiting on now - it is an adorable basement apartment at the bottom of a Brownstone in Brooklyn(think, the Cosby home -- minus a few trees). One bedroom, three exits, two outdoors and one up in to the house, laundry that we get to use for free, a dishwasher....all sorts of goodies! 

Street we live on between pizza & chinese place - sideways.

Of course, this put us in a slight pickle as we now needed to get that $1450 deposit back - oh yeah, did I mention that New York is expensive?! So, without a letter of employment turned in for Kurtis yet, we lucked out and after an intense hour of texting(weird, I know), our application was not approved!!!! Hooray!!! First time in my life that I have ever wanted to have something truly fail. Currently, we are residing in a three bedroom, three roommates, apartment that we are subletting for a couple of months as we wait on Tim's place and keep our fingers crossed that everything works out for them. In the meantime, we'll keep trekking away in our little bedroom here at 4417 4th Ave in Brooklyn. (I included a couple of pictures so you could see our neighborhood - two wonderful things about it - we are right beside the subway entrance and in between the Pizza and Chinese place!)

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A couple of questions you might be asking yourself at this point:

*What in the world did you do with your car? 

Door which leads into a hallway and up stairs to 2nd Floor.

After moving the car around in Brooklyn at Sarah and Joe Clark's house for nearly a week, I finally drove the car to Baltimore one evening as Kurtis worked. In Baltimore, Al and Donna Holsopple agreed to keep the car for us there until we figure out when we can drive it back to Kansas :) We had a great evening chatting and catching up and fell so blessed to have such wonderful friends!

*So, Mary, are you just being a lazy bum and letting Kurtis do all the work?

Our bedroom in the 3 bedroom apartment - furnished by the subletter.

Contrary to popular belief, I am still in search of jobs here. Just yesterday I sent out my resume to 2 more companies and a few days ago I had an interview at Starbucks which is to be followed by a second interview! Oh, yeah, and I did get a job working house staff for a Broadway Theatre - more popularly known in the late 70s as a dance club - Studio 54. This one pays pretty little, and is pretty much being a glorified usher for the theatre, but I'm working in a theatre and enjoying being able to watch the show every night! Plus, there are a couple of nifty comp ticket perks that go along with the job. Also, those connections from MSMT I was talking about paying off worked out for me in an Assistant Design Gig for Kurt Alger on a New York Musical Festival (NYMF) in a new show entitled Things As They Are, which is about the photographer Dorothea Lange. In addition, I am working my Mary Kay business and just trying to keep everything sorted out in my head!

*What do you do with  your free time in the city?

Free time in the city is so easy to fill. There is never a lack for things to do here whether you are awake at 2am or have a Saturday available to roam. It turns out that Kurtis has had much less free time, but I have enjoyed lots of activities with him, with Dad, with friends, and in between searching for jobs. We had ice cream under the Brooklyn Bridge, wandered around Prospect Park, went to Farmer's Markets, strolled through the new High Line Park, went shopping down in the Fashion District, saw a few shows here and there, hung out with friends in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island, went to Eataly, got a public library card, rode a boat out to a floating island in between the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, worked the Marc Jacobs fashion show and of course have eaten lots of yummy and delicious food.

*Are you happy to be there?
We are very happy to be here. Despite missing family and missing out on a few important things, we can't imagine living any where else right now as we are starting to see some of our career dreams come to fruition because of being in the city. It still makes me happy just to surface from the subway in to the middle of Times Square or to see the Statue of Liberty on the train ride home at night.

View of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Staten Island Ferry - this is the connector from Brooklyn to Manhattan and one of my favorite sites right now in the city.

P.S. After this entire blog was posted a few wonderful things happened that I wanted to share with all of you:

1) I received an interview and job in a millinery shop in the city(camhats.com)!!! It is part-time most weeks, though fairly flexible and I will be learning how to make hats completely from scratch - felt, straw, and buckram - lots of pictures to follow on this I'm sure!!! This is the kind of job I have been searching for. I also received a call from Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) and will be working on a few projects for them. This brings me up to 5 jobs - Assistant Designer for NYMF show(done soon), MTC, Studio 54, Mary Kay and CamHats(millinery)!!! So exciting!!!!!

2) I literally just received the call from Tim Aumiller saying that they were approved for their mortgage and will be officially moving out of their place which will then become our place in time for us to have a November 1st move in date!!!!!!!! We have a home where we will be able to put our things at last!!!

Hope you are all able to focus in on the positive things in your lives too - thanks for keeping up in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this new journey here!