New York City Vacation...and the BEST FRIENDS EVER!!!!!

My family has called me a Gypsy for years now but never have I felt more in touch with my little nickname than over the 5 weeks I spent in CT and NYC from early May to mid June. I'm used to being the one to offer up my fold out couch in the upperwestside apt. God has so graciously blessed me with, not the one living out of my a suitcase and the trunk of my car unsure of who's couch I will be sleeping on next. It was all very humbling and a huge blessing in disguise.

When friends and acquaintances got a whiff of the mess that happened with Norweign, I was flooded with emails, phone calls and text messages offering a place to stay for 3 days to several months-FREE!!! Enough people extended their homes that I would have had a place to stay thru the duration of my sublet in late December, AMAZING!!!! The love and support I was bombarded with made my heart swell clear out of my chest! Thank you to Jenny J and Lindsay, Lee and Amanda, Erica and Chasity, Kristen and Seth, Emily and Thom, Kevin and Stephanie and the girls of 2B for sharing your homes with me and thank you to all of the other wonderful friends who offered!

Those 5 weeks were a huge lesson in "surrender"! My apt. is occupied, no idea where I'm going or what I'll be doing for the next 6 months, aaahhhhhh!!!! Then it dawned on me that I had a choice, I could freak out OR I could let go and enjoy my first ever NYC vacation and time with my family in CT. I went for option #2 . Within 2 days of being back home, a friend suggested travel nursing and I had 2 recruiters calling me asking where I wanted to go, "I don't know"(I was suppose to be in the middle of the ocean for the next 6 month for goodness sake!!) One said "just get out the map, close your eyes and point", which was essentially what happened. I ended up getting a job at Phoenix Children's Hospital! Yes folks, Phoenix in the summer in all it's 120 degree glory!

During those five weeks I felt like the ground was constantly moving underneath my feet but it brought about a deeper sense of security than I've ever felt before. Not relying on anything but the fact that God loves me so much and therefore He had to have a wonderful purpose for this ridiculous situation, brought about a sense of joy and freedom that allowed me to enjoy the moment and my present surroundings like never before!

In those 5 weeks, I witnessed the home life of beautiful healthy marriages(makes me to excited to spending my life with the right man), had teenage-like bonding time in slumber party fashion with my girlfriends-married and single! Took a boat ride in central park for the 1st time, spontaneous rooftop cocktails, an awesome ghetto beach outing with Patrick, spent time with Jenny J her last weeks in NYC before her 8 month tour in Asia, all 5 of us-"my girls"-were in the city together for 1st time in over a year, preparations for my dear friend Kate's wedding(the most amazing bridal shower dinner parties ever), quality time with my family-especially my Mama, the Trinity Spring Concert, Jessica's 25th Birthday, being available for one of my closest friends who fell ill suddenly, hang out time with my nurse friends and a company happy hour(what's that?) to celebrate my coming and going, and the list goes on. This is not NYC as I know it, gosh I've had it all wrong for so long! I realized just because I wasn't running myself ragged and collecting a paycheck didn't mean I wasn't working and serving a purpose for God's kingdom, not working so hard was actually more fruitful to the people in my life and me too!
All in 5 weeks-thank God I wasn't on that boat in the middle of the Atlantic!!! Here's to hindsight!