New York

So I started this post in December when I started my new job and then I promptly forgot about it until now. 

photo courtesy of CrossFit Hell's Kitchen

Last Monday I started my new job as the Manager of AmeriCorps Residency Programs at Relay Graduate School of Education. I am so very excited to take on this work because I am passionate about AmeriCorps, and I know that this is the way that I can have a positive impact on education. I just also really enjoy managing AmeriCorps programs - everything from service events to making sure we're in compliance.

Relay has campuses across the United States, but the home office is in New York. I feel really fortunate that they found me such a strong candidate for the role that I get to work remotely with regular travel to New York. I flew up Monday morning (after driving back from Tampa on Sunday, ugh) and stayed through Friday. I got to drop in at CrossFit Hell's Kitchen for a debilitating workout - 50 front squats at 50% back squat 1 RM, followed by 5 rounds of 20 wallballs, 10 hang snatches, and 10 chest to bar pull-ups. I was walking funny all week. 

As thrilled as I always am to make it to CFHK, I was nervous to come back to New York.

I was nervous that I'd come back to New York and use my new job as an excuse to move back. I was pretty sure I really loved living in Atlanta, but it's hard moving somewhere, making all new friends, being hundreds of miles away from your nearest family member, and leaving the only company you've ever really worked for. When I came up in December, I kind of entertained the idea of moving back to NYC, getting to go to CFHK all the time, and seeing my parents every other weekend because I am a helicopter child. And then I snapped out of it. I dislike New York. Frank hates Manhattan. We'd end up living at my parents' house and I'd have to change the title of my memoir to Alone with Dogs. (Type alone with cats in the search bar at the top of my blog.)


When I came back up for some more meetings in January, I was back to my general distaste of the city. It's great to have company-paid flights that allow me to come up and see my people, but I know that New York is not the place for me. WillyB CrossFit, however, is a place I'd happily return. My friend Janice was coaching, so I dropped in for one of her classes and then stayed to do the workout for new CrossFitter Anna Brown's final foundations class.

I got this sweet camo Liftmatic hat at WillyB. I desperately want to be a hat person but hats just make my ears look even bigger than they are. Maybe if I keep wearing them, that will change?

Congratulations on graduating Anna!

It's amazing how wallballs suck as much on the 600th day of CrossFit as they do on the 1st.

And so, despite my concerns and some people's wishes, I am still very happy in Atlanta and will not move back to New York for this job. Not even the rampant crime spree in my neighborhood (true story - there are two men casing homes, another guy kicking in doors, a bunch of people smashing in store windows and grabbing retail, a tire thief, and some brazen jackass who robs people while they are home sleeping) makes Manhattan seem greener. But I am really happy that I will get to see some of the most important people in my life more regularly .