Friday, sunny Friday.

Outside my window this morning it is sunny. It's looking like an optimal Fall day in the Northeast. Dorothy, we are not in Kansas, or St. Louis, anymore. You'll be happy to know, or not, that I took the bike out for a nice little trip yesterday afternoon. It was pretty nice out, a little chilly as I zipped through the park on my way to a brand new Whole Foods over on Columbus & 96th. St. Louisians would be green with envy at the amazingly huge WF stores we have in NYC. Why do I not shop here every day? Oh right, cause there's that little service called Fresh Direct that delivers boxes of food to my door. Even though I've lost about 20 pounds since I moved to this city, life is really all about the food. Don't you agree? My cooking skills are improving, and I'm feeling more creative about trying new (vegetarian) dishes.

Halloween is in the air. I'm feeling surprisingly sad about this little holiday. What is this event like in New York? Do little princesses and vampires show up at my apartment door? Do I ooh and ahh over their costumes like I did on Barrett Drive? Maybe it's a Midwest thing. It was actually a pretty big deal at our house over the 20+ years, starting with the handmade clown outfit for Alexis when she was less than a year old. After that, year after year, we tried to outdo ourselves with unique, homemade, thrift-store purchased items. They weren't always unusual themes, but never pulled from a package. Glinda, Madeline, a doctor, a cowboy, a geisha, a mime, zombie, Olivia as Elvis, a really great pirate (think Capn Jack Sparrow), so many more. It was all fun. Our neighborhood was so popular for trick-or-treaters that I swear kids were bused in. They would come in waves. The last couple of years there seemed to be very few kids. Lots of older teens, who didn't even live in our area, holding out pillowcases, saying in deep gruff voices, "Gimmee some candy." Maybe that's what it will be like here.

Olivia and I put together an Alice in Wonderland costume for her. I was forced to buy pre-packaged items, as I did not have our huge dress-up box or sewing machine at my disposal. We did buy add-on items to make it really cute. Photos soon. She has new friends, and apparently a boyfriend, that are going to the Halloween parade in Greenwich Saturday night. Is this safe? So strange to be the mom of a young teen girl in New York City. I'm always fraught with some sort of angst. I suppose I'll sit at home with a bowl of mini candy bars awaiting potential knocks at the door. If they don't come, at least I'll have that bowl of my little friends.

Firetrucks! God, they are so loud here. Okay, they're loud everywhere, but the sound is amplified in these streets that are bordered by tall buildings and hi-rises. There were about 4 outside our building the other night, along with various other emergency vehicles. I never saw any fire hoses being pulled out or ladders going up to flaming windows. Pretty soon it all dispersed. Maybe there was a cat in a tree or something.

Olivia got to reunite with her friend Kate Baldwin who is starring in Broadway's Finian's Rainbow. She performed at the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble to promote the release of her new CD. Olivia & Kate were in Sound of Music together at the Muny. Obviously they were very happy to see each other:

I'm leaving soon to go to the PPAS parent-teacher conferences. Unlike at home, you do not get an appointment. I have to go sign in and wait. Hmm. Since O will only have a half day, she and her friends are going to see the new Michael Jackson movie, This Is It.

Outside My Window — Thursday

Wow. It's Thursday already. By 10:18 I had already applied for a job at the Guggenheim and the MoMA, and I continue working on an application for the NYC Teaching Fellow program. As long as I keep the coffee cup filled, and focus, I can get a lot done. Next up, who to start calling this morning. A sister of my daughter's childhood friend contacted me yesterday (gotta love Facebook), and gave me a number of someone she knows who is a businessman in NYC that I am supposed to contact. Sure, why not. Nothing is to obscure these days.

Out my window the leaves are turning really quickly now. I'll be sad when they start to fall off the trees. It's so beautiful right now. Lots more people on the street this morning, as the weather is warm, probably in the high 60s today. I really must try to take the bike over to the Park today. I need to get out of this place.

I find it funny what New Yorkers call a supermarket. There's one on the corner right in front of me in my fourth floor view. Alexandria Supermarket: Cold Beer & Soda * Frozen ... the rest is blocked by the trees. I assure you this is no Schnucks.

The corner diagonal to mine is a large apartment building that is being rehabbed. I actually thought about applying for a job. I can hang drywall, paint, cut boards. It's always noisy, starting at about 7 a.m. A huge dumpster is on the street. It always seems to be on the verge of overflowing. How does it not?

It was fun to watch across the street in our first apartment because there was a youth hostel. The sidewalk was always teeming with groups of young people with too-large backpacks, inspecting their maps, holding cups of Starbucks and looking a bit confused as to how they ended up in this part of town that did not look like their anticipated view of New York City. Zach, Olivia and I often directed or helped carry luggage from the subway when we would see kids who were obviously on their way to the hostel. Their dazed expression at the top of the subway stairs was the give-away. Shock. Confusion. And gratitude when we offered help. Students from all over the world came to stay at that place for about $20 a night.

Some friends have asked about Olivia's school. Not to neglect talking about Alexis or Zachary's schools, but I'll tell a little about Libby's experiences. At LaGuardia this year, around 600 students were chosen from more than 9000 applicants. PPAS, while much smaller, about 1000 kids auditioned, and only 100 were admitted—15 into the musical theatre program, most of those were freshman. Statistically, Olivia should not have gotten in. But she got in both schools. The days leading up to the actual auditions were agonizing. We walked by each school a couple of times, and Olivia would either want to cry or throw up. (She'll hate me for saying that.)

The PPAS audition was first. The school is old, but right in midtown, theatre district, technically Hell's Kitchen. She found the audition to be nice. She didn't feel nervous. A day or so later she got a call that she had been accepted. We were shocked and excited. So now she felt like the pressure was off somewhat for her LaGuardia audition. That audition was more nerve-wracking. A huge school near Lincoln Center. The audition didn't feel as good. The people in the room were not friendly. Actually the whole school gave off a negative vibe for us. The next day she got a call that she had been accepted there too. Wow! Incredible.

Then began four agonizing days of deciding which school to attend, because we had to tell each school our choice. We asked for much help from friends, and ultimately chose PPAS because they have a defined musical theatre program. We were well aware that the academics were not as high at this school as at La!, but performing in theatre is ultimately why she is here. She was #1 in her class of 724 back in Illinois, 5.0 GPA. So it was a little bittersweet for me I have to admit.

Once she got past the first day of school, things have been great. Imagine a school where everyone is like you. No one is labeled weird or the 'theatre kid' cause they all are! There's full tolerance and integration of all races and sexual orientation. She has made so many new friends. That's a lot for a girl who felt like she had no friends at her old school. Many superficial acquaintances, but no one who understood her passion to be in New York or in a Broadway show.

The trade-off is that there is no Muny or Stages for her to be a part of a show or teen touring group. She misses performing. But she is getting great training. Academic studies the first half of the school-day, and the rest is focused on dance, singing, acting. She hopes to find an agent, and many things to audition for!

I'll keep everyone posted, and updated. Stories about Zach and Alexis to follow soon!

Tour bus outside my window

So funny, a bus full of tourists, safely out of harms way while site seeing in Harlem!

Another day of job searching in New York

Outside My Window.

A little background. I guess if you're here, you already know that I moved to New York this summer. We had just taken Alexis to Texas where she is attending UT Austin. Olivia had the opportunity to audition for the top two performing arts high schools in NYC. We took the risk, established residency and she auditioned. We couldn't have been more shocked when she got accepted into both of them! Zach was along for the ride, so to speak, and he was accepted into an art & design school. Later he reconsidered his choice, and returned to the Midwest to go back to his old high school. He's living with his dad, back in the cornfields.

The job situation in St. Louis was precarious at best. So I left it behind in hopes of finding new employment in advertising here in New York City. So begins my adventures in job-hunting in the time of major economic depression, recession or whatever you would call it. Unemployment recently topped 10% in NY. At this point after three months of job searching, I have applied for every conceivable type of job imaginable. Okay, I have my limits. A friend suggested I could do phone sex, but I'm saying "no" to that. And I really don't like dogs, so I'm trying to not apply for dog-walker positions.

I've made some great contacts in advertising. I met a guy who's a partner in a major ad agency, where layoffs continue month after month, despite recent new business. Budgets are slashed. Freelancers not allowed. Not hiring for any positions. Another person who used to be a VP at a big agency lost his job, was downsized, fired. Luckily he's able to freelance as a writer. Some people jealously guard their contacts, but mostly people want me to succeed, to find work.

So I look for jobs, scour ads, update my work site (coroflot.com/LisaWillard), apply, call, follow up, write a new letter, revise my resume again. I'm trying to be creative. Certainly I can write grant proposals for MoMA, but they don't respond to my application. I can answer phones or manage an office. Nope. Certainly I can be someone's nanny? Hmmm. Guess not. No one replies to anything.

Ah, the 'outside my window' part. I'll add some photos. It's quite beautiful outside my apartment window. Sometimes I'm not sure if I live in New York City. I could be anywhere for all I know, sitting here at my computer, looking out a window all day long. I see apartment buildings across the street. Brown brick, white painted brick, red brick, ornate embellishments, fire escapes. Balconies with meager, usually half-dead plants. I really noticed all the air conditioning units in the windows at first. You just don't see those in my old neighborhood. The street here is wide and has lots of trees. They are rapidly turning the colors of fall—yellow and orange. The colors are intensified today because it's been raining for a couple of days. People walk down the sidewalks with their variations of umbrellas, mostly black ones. I think that's because the guys who sell them on the street for $5 only sell black, no patterns, no colors. Black. The universal, stereotypical color of New York.

When we moved here this summer it was very hot, and the first apartment building in Harlem was noisy outside the window. I grew to like the street sounds. Okay, well, not the rap music played loudly during the day from oversized speakers in the trunks of cars. But you really do get used to the sounds of the cars, honking, trash trucks, people talking, laughing, music. The only sounds outside my window on Barrett Place were birds during the day, and crickets at night.

Oops, maybe you are freaked out that I moved my little family to Harlem? Haha. It's okay. Really. It's cool. It was a largely Muslim population on the blocks around us. Just families, kids, people trying to get by. WE were the minority for the first time in our lives. Something to ponder.

Now we're at Central Park North. For those of you who don't know the grid of the city, we are at the top of the Park. While we don't face the park, we are just across the street. It's quite beautiful. Almost, kind of, sort of, like the woods in my backyard. We are still a minority, but there is a mix of Spanish, Asian, Blacks—like in the city at large. Our apartment is a sublet. A very nice lady who had lost her job last spring. She could no longer afford the rent, so is off to stay with a series of friends, presumably sleeping on sofas and staying in spare bedrooms, hoping to find employment. It's a common story. We are here until the end of January. It's really great, and quite big by NY standards. Some of the places we looked at were literally the size of my walk-in closet back home. And double the cost of my mortgage.

Next post I'll try to stick to the topic of outside my window.