Looks Like It's All Coming Together

Greetings from the Forest! (Do you also have deer sneaking in your apartment community to eat your shrubs & soccer fields? Funny enough, this is a major problem here)



This week has been both eventful & uneventful. As most of you know, Jonathan got a job working at REI, and this week was the store's soft opening. Thus, every employee was required to work more shifts than usual, Jonathan included. He's been completely swamped trying to manage his heavy load of schoolwork & working at REI. When he's not at the store working, he's in the library or at our stud desk working; luckily, this coming week seems to be much less REI-related work, so hopefully we'll actually get to see each other!

Parisa's godparents came to NYC this week on vacation, so she spent the majority of the week hanging out in Manhattan. She also had an interview with the New York Foundling organization in Staten Island, & a phone interview with an organization called New Leaders for New Schools. Both interviews went very well, & Parisa was offered the social work job at the New York Foundling organization. The position is only 1-2 shifts a week, so she is continuing to look for a full time position. However, the work she'll be doing there is extremely rewarding & she's really looking forward to working in a hospital & gaining some social work experience working with adolescents. Parisa is waiting to hear back from a couple of other job possibilities this coming week, so please pray for good news!

Aside from working, cleaning & studying, this weekend we got to hang out with some great Drew friends. Parisa spent some time at a yard sale with a small group of great Drew girls that go to school with Jonathan & really enjoyed getting to talk & get to know them better. Saturday night we double dated with Leena & Adam at a delicious burrito place in a nearby town. It was SUCH a great Saturday! We're really looking forward to spending more time & getting to know Leena & Adam much better. What a wonderful family they are! :) We did get a chance to hit the local movie theatre & see The Informant, which we found to be pretty disappointing. (Side note: the theatre here only has 4 screens! Crazy.)

Overall, it's been a great week. Looking ahead into this week: We're (finally!) getting a nice, big, comfy couch tomorrow, & moving some boxes into a storage unit. The finishing touches will be put on our apartment after all that is done, & then we will post pictures of our humble abode. We're so excited to have this major project finally completed, haha! Parisa is also really looking forward to going to a party on Monday night for one of our neighbors that's getting married next weekend. Our neighbor, Julia, is getting married in Philly next weekend & a bunch of the Drew girls are getting together to give her a fun send-off! Weddings are so exciting :)

Well, we miss everyone terribly & hope you're all doing well. Please email us & let us know how you're doing! We'd love to hear from you all.

Hoping that Texas is warmer than New Jersey,
Parisa & Jonathan

Siyahamba

Greetings! A few updates from our neck of the forest:

Last Thursday was the Matriculation Service for all incoming grad students at Drew. During the service, all the students' names are called & they go to the front & sign "the book". Every single class has had this same Matriculation Service & signed the SAME BOOK since the beginning of Drew- in 1867! It was a very reverent & awesome service. As we were exiting, the choir started singing this African worship song called "Siyahamba". We tried looking for a good version to share with you from YouTube, but the recorded videos did the song no justice. But, we do strongly encourage you to check it out & listen to it. For some reason, it was so very moving, & really made us feel so joyful! Please be sure to check it out, as it plays quite frequently now in our home; love that song!

School is in full swing for Jonathan, & he's loving every minute of it. It keeps him very, very busy, but it's the kind of work that he loves & enjoys more than anything else in the world: schoolwork. It's so great to see him really excelling & immersing himself in his schoolwork, especially because Drew is turning out to be everything Jonathan thought it'd be (and more). Parisa is taking a physics class & physics lab at a local community college, and while she doesn't really love the school, she's coming to learn that she loves physics. :) Math is so fun!

Parisa is still job-hunting (very aggressively) & spent a grand total of 14 consecutive hours this weekend researching & applying for jobs online. She was offered a job at a hotel, but decided not to take it. (The interviewers for the job were the Front Desk supervisor & the General Manager, both of whom were awful to Parisa. In addition to that, the hours & the pay were pretty bad also). So, she's continuing to look for work & trusting that the right job will be waiting for her very soon. There have been lots of potential leads, but nothing has been nailed down yet. Please keep praying!

We have been meeting lots of new people & making some awesome new friends! We've made a few friends who even live in our building, which is so great. Thursday was spent hanging out with a large group of Jonathan's grad school friends at an on-campus hangout, & we had a blast. Then Sunday, we went to a church in the neighboring town with Jonathan's friend Drew (yes, Drew from Drew, haha) & loved it there. Jonathan's academic dean actually is a major part of the church we attended, so it was good to see her there too. All in all, we're beginning to make friends & really get to know the great community of people that are here. We're very, very excited about that! It's something we've been looking forward to for a long time (building a strong community of friends & really getting involved) and it's so amazing to begin to see it start to come to fruition.

This week's plans include school, work (for Jonathan), a trip to the twice-a-week local farmer's market, & Parisa's godmother is coming to NYC for a visit! We have a few things that we have to hurry up & finish at the apartment to make it presentable (Parisa is finishing up painting the living room walls dark red & khaki) but it's almost up to snuff!

We hope everyone has a fabulous week! Please let us know how you're doing. We'd love to hear from you!

Goodnight & Good Luck,
Parisa & Jonathan

Ah, Look At All The Lonely People

... "Eleanor Rigby. Picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been.
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?..."

It's for Parisa.

(Disclaimer: the following post is written solely by Parisa. Get excited with anticipation.)

I'm sure most of you know this, but the name our Jonathan & I's dog is Eleanor Rigby (affectionately known by those who love her as Ellie). We adopted her from the Humane Society together over 2 years ago & she's been the light of our lives ever since. She is the cutest, smartest, strangest, most full of personality & affectionate dog I've ever met. She sits on her bottom & raises her arms like a bear, as soon as she hears me pick up my purse & keys she runs to her "room" (crate) & waits for me to shut her door, she cocks her head from side to side when you talk to her, & she even runs & picks up her Santa toy (out of a pile of different toys) on command.

I had "custody" of Ellie before Jonathan & I got married & she was the best friend a girl could ask for. I swear, as weird as it may sound to some people, we truly had a routine together, & when our routine was altered, neither of us coped very well. Whenever we'd go on a trip & Ellie would stay at the Bahrami house, she'd sit by the front door on on the landing of the steps & cry & cry for us.

When we decided to move to New Jersey, the one thing I would not compromise on as far as our living situation was that the complex had to be pet friendly. After 3.5 long months of researching, looking & discussing, it looked like we had found an awesome apartment that we were both so excited about. The catch? It's not pet friendly.

It was not a decision that we're ok with & it's not a decision I'm happy with at all, but we really didn't have any other choice. Ellie is staying with my parents on an extended vacation, until we our lease is up & we move to a different apartment in June. I am so, so grateful to my parents for taking her & caring for her, because they know her so well & know her routine & mannerisms. I know she's in great hands. But not having here here has been... hard, to say the least. Before, I always knew no matter what had happened during the day, when I went home, there was a little pup who was elated to be with me. To snuggle with & play with & just love on me. And really, to let me love on her. On top of being away from my comfort zone, being away from my family & friends, Ellie isn't here with me either. Luckily my parents are awesome & send me pictures regularly & I look at them all the time, but it's not the same. I know it sounds crazy, but I really feel like I've abandoned my kid.

It's not permanent at all & we take care of Ellie from a distance still now, & she'll move to NJ with us as soon as we move to a new place, but I still feel like deep down, she thinks we've given her away. And that breaks my heart.

I know I'm probably being dramatic, & we really are so blessed to have the amazing apartment that we're living in & be in the gorgeous area that we are in, & to be living out the dream that we've talked about for so long. A lot of people don't get to actually live out their dreams; I realize how incredibly blessed we are. I just wish Ells Bells could be here to share it with us, & that our family unit would be all together again. I just need to keep reminding myself that the situation we're in right now is the best situation for everyone, & it's only temporary...

Welcome to the Jungle .... er, Forest

This blog is long overdue! In a nutshell, here is how we got to New Jersey safely, & what happened along the way:

We had packed up & cleaned the apartment by Thursday night (August 21, I believe). We spent hours loading the Uhaul trailer, loading the remainder of Jonathan’s things from his parents’ house, & back to the apartment to clean up. Friday afternoon, we turned in our apartment keys & headed to the Bahrami house in Frisco to spend our last night with them. The Uhaul needed to be unloaded & re-arranged, so we thought it’d be a good idea to back the trailer (attached to Parisa’s truck) into the garage, so unloading & re-loading would be much easier, & we’d have the garage light in case it got dark. We pulled the truck into the alleyway, & Parisa got out to direct Jonathan to back the trailer into the driveway. Well… we ended up striping the hitch holding the trailer to the truck & popped the hitch and the bumper. We were left scrambling at 7:30 pm on a Friday night trying to find a new trailer hitch. Luckily a Uhaul store nearby was still open. We got a new hitch, unloaded & reloaded the trailer, & loaded the back of the truck. Our “relaxing” night with our family didn’t even begin til 10:30 pm. We watched “The Strangers” & ate great food Parisa’s mom prepared, & didn’t go to bed til about 2:30 am.

Because of staying up so late, we also got a late start in the morning. Instead of leaving at 5 am as planned, we departed at 9 am. We had to stop about 2 hours into the trip to get bungee cables to re-enforce the tarp covering our belongings in the truck. With that taken care of, we were on our way again.

It was a loooong trip. We drove through Texas, Arkansas, and almost all of Tennessee on the first day of driving. Our plan was to make it to Roanoake, VA the first day & drive a shorter distance on the second day. Unfortunately because of our late start, & the fact Tennessee seemed to be the never-ending state, we didn’t make it to Virginia. We stopped at a hotel off the highway in Tennessee & restlessly slept a few hours. We got up on the second morning very early & after a Starbucks trip, we hit the road. We drove through the remainder of Tennessee, then Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania & finnaly New Jersey. Although the route was very long, it was simply gorgeous. The abundance of trees & scenery was just breathtaking!

We got to Madison about 10 pm on Sunday night. We headed over to the Public Safety office to pick up our apartment key, as the main office was closed. After about a 20 minute encounter with a very unhelpful Public Satefy officer, we finally had the keys to our new home- and a second wind. We decided to move forward with unloading the back of the truck, and the entire Uhaul. We were both getting very tired & it was very hot, so Parisa went out to get some drinks.

Well, we learned the hard way that small town life is MUCH different than Dallas life. As in, nothing is open here on Sundays, let alone at 11 pm. This includes gas stations. After a 45 minute search, Parisa finally found a rinky-dink gas station to buy water at… only to discover she’d left her wallet at the new apartment, & had Jonathan’s phone with her. Not ideal.

We’ve basically spent the past 2 weeks getting settled. We bought dark red & khaki paint to paint the living room, & rustic earthbrown paint for the bedroom. We have made many trips to Home Depot & Target for shelving, storage units, etc., as the “closet” we have in our apartment is barely big enough for even Jonathan’s clothes. The small living space is a HUGE change from what we’re used to (our kitchen is so small it doesn’t have a counter or dishwasher) especially in terms of storage & shelving space, but we’re taking measures to make it work. Regardless, this is our first real home together & we’re very excited about making it our own & creating a “home-y” environment. Plus, our apartment is in the middle of the woods & right next to a playground, so you can’t beat the view.

All in all, we made it to Jersey safely, & are slowly getting more familiar with the area & the different way of life here. It's definitely an adjustment period, but we're in love with our new surroundings :)

With love,
Parisa & Jonathan