But Here We Are…

But Here We Are….

As I begin this post, we're at the halfway point of 2023.

With a nod to the Foo Fighters most recent album as the soundtrack for this post. 

It seems crazy to believe that six months have come and gone so quickly. New Year's Day was only five minutes ago, at least that's what it felt like. 

2023 began in a low-key mood. 

With the last of the Saraceni Wines Blumond sparkling wine that I brought back from Italy being consumed at dinner, then the lights went out and everyone was asleep except for me. The party was on both sides of the house and in Times Square on tv. 

1 Times Square, in the 5PM hour of New Year’s Day. Instead of taking the train at Lincoln Center, I took a walk downtown. And the Crossroads of the World looked as it did every other night, as if there wasn’t a million people celebrating the new year eighteen hours earlier. But the sense of optimism about the new year was in the air.

The first day in January brought a taste of Vienna to my ears. A delayed Christmas gift from my sister, a ticket to the Salute To Vienna concert at Lincoln Center's Wu Tsai Hall. Every January 1st, I tune into the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert on PBS. And marvel in awe every time "The Beautiful Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss begins and claps along to the "Radetzky March. Only this time, I was in the room when both pieces formed the encore of the program. With the strains of Robert Burns's "Auld Lang Syne" to send us all into the first sunset. Even 1 Times Square felt a sense of optimism in wishing everyone a "Happy New Year!", eighteen hours after the crossroad of the world was filled with people celebrating the change of the calendar. 

At the end of the Salute to Vienna concert earlier the same day. I’m not a classically oriented person musically, but even I felt the joy and wonder that came along with hearing “The Beautiful Blue Danube” and clapping along to the “Radetzky March”.

But there was one unresolved question heading into the new year. 

January 15th. After I participated in the third part of 600 Highwaymen’s “A Thousand Ways”, I stuck around Bryant Park for a bit. It was a day when the holiday season had truly come to an end as the holiday market was being dismantled. But it was still a sight to see the sun setting in front of the ice rink.

I was struggling to find a job two months removed from leaving a job of eight years. The days began to take on a familiar pattern. Search for work in the morning, write, and relax in the afternoon. 100+ applications and no forward movement. And then at the end of January...everything happened. 

I found my new job. As a data entry clerk for an agency here in NYC. It's a temporary position, though until the end of September. For now, I'm calling lower Manhattan home. And I'm not as stressed out by day as I once was. I'll always wonder what could've been as I had two other job applications in the interview stage. 

Sure, there were growing pains. 

A new job and a new set of coworkers, a new location, and a change in working hours. But I'm used to my daily commute and I'm taking in the area's treasures every day. And I'm taking the uncertainty in stride. As opposed to worrying so much about where the future lies. 

February 3rd. It was the end of my first week as a data entry clerk. I was getting used to a new way of being, from the change of hours, to a new workplace. Yet, at 5PM every day, this was my view. 1 World Trade Center in the distance, with the spire of St. Paul’s Chapel looking down Broadway and Fulton Street.

With the job search settled for now, I could focus a bit more on myself. 

With a nod to my friend and coach Felice, came the bamboo plant affectionately known as Bambooey. For the fact that I was hesitant to buy it due to my track record with anything new, the plant has brought new life into my room as everything else has a connection to my past.

As winter gave way to spring, there was more opportunity to enjoy life. From meeting my friend T at her birthday party to seeing my friends, Debbie, Wendy, and Jen for lunch and dinner in April, May, and June respectively. In between, I would spend my lunch breaks walking around the neighborhood the office was in. I had no reason now to stay glued to my computer all day long.

A tale of three different meetings. On top, my friend and travel mate from Portugal, Debbie and I meeting as she was visiting NYC in April. To the left, my friend Wendy as she and I met up for dinner in May prior to her departing for her trip to Kenya the following day. And to the right, my friend Jen as she, her husband and nephew were visiting NYC for the day as part of a roadtrip of baseball stadiums on the east coast.

It wasn't just my professional life that saw a change. My inner life has too. 

After a winter of sitting at my desk, the first time that I stepped outside. On April 14th, it was unusually warm so I walked the five blocks from the office to The Seaport. And this is the view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Riverdeck. Now, I walk down there every Friday afternoon at lunch time to get a moment of fresh air.

If you told me that I would be co-hosting open mic nights with my fellow disabled poets and writers, I wouldn't have believed it. Expanding my reach to YouTube, Tik Tok, and Slack and still keeping at it consistently. Let alone join The Unsealed and write a letter to my future self and have it resonate with so many people. This is on top of all the other platforms that my writing is hosted on. 

Nor would I have done Bad Poet and Poem A Day for the second year running. As I hit the wall trying to complete the prompts every day. And applying to be part of the forthcoming multi-author book, Going Places.  A whim that was too good not to pass upon. I've come forward a bit since the Poems That Don't Suck showcase a week into the new year. I could barely finish my poem for the virtual crowd on screen. 

This poem is the one from Day 29 of the poet Amy Kay’s “Poem A Day”. An after piece to Mark Leidner’s poem “Romantic Comedies” and a list the piles on what a moment of joy feels like.

None of this was on the cards at the start of the year but with my inner leader and nudges from my friend and coach Felice, things began to happen. 

Here we are, as the first half of the year comes to a close.

Yet there's a lot to be settled before 2023 concludes.

Mostly with finding my next job as the one i’m working now ends at the end of September. Here’s to more clarity and stability ahead , after an eventful first half of the year.

I’ve seen the Brooklyn Bridge so many times, it was time to get out and walk the span. As I did on Tuesday the 13th of June. I got about a quarter of the way before turning back as I would be late from my lunch break otherwise.

Three things I know with greater certainty are coming up. 

In July, I'll be amongst fellow poets at the Poetry Society of New York's 12th annual New York Poetry Festival that takes over Governors Island.  As summer ends in September, I will cross the Atlantic once again as a fourteen-day tour of Greece and the Greek Islands awaits. And at the end of October, my friend Wendy and I will cross paths again, but I'll be traveling to the Phineas Wright House in Bolton, Massachusetts.

The rest of the story that is 2023, is still to be written.

On Maiden Lane, I came across this message written with sidewalk chalk. As I took the photo of it, my silhouette appeared in the sunlight too.