Hey y’all! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve sat down to write a blog post. I’ve honestly missed it so much, but time managed to get away from me. Since the last time I posted in mid-July, life has just gotten so busy. The restaurant went through a busy summer season, live theater was starting to come back starting with the Wicked Tour in Dallas (review post to come soon!), and I wanted to spend more time focusing on friendships – restarting old ones and strengthening new ones.
During all these changes in life, one part that I did manage to keep constant was reading. If you’re one of my followers who loves to read my book reviews, don’t worry there are plenty of book reviews coming in the next week or two!
But what I really wanted to talk about on this blog post is the biggest change that happened over the past two months. I moved! If you’ve been following me on Instagram, then you already know this, but I wanted to go into more detail about it.
Before COVID-19 hit in March 2020, I was living what I thought was my best life in NYC. Don’t get me wrong, I loved living in the city and seeing broadway shows as often as I could, but I was also working 60+ hour work weeks and didn’t have much time to create a life for myself outside of work. With COVID shutting down the world, I decided to go back home to Louisiana for what I thought would just be for a month or two to just wait out the shutdown.
During that time, as many know, I decided to pick up shifts at the restaurant I worked at before I moved to New York just to keep busy and get out of the house a little. I can’t really describe what actually happened, but I ended up quitting my job in New York in the middle of May 2020, but was still planning to return to New York City eventually. Well the longer NYC stayed shut down, the more Louisiana reopened and I started going out more. What resulted from this reopening is my best friend from high school and I started doing weekly lunches before we both had to go to work and also going full-time at the restaurant, eventually working my way back up to a management position during that summer and into the fall.
I knew eventually I had to make a decision, but I didn’t feel as strong of a pull to return to New York City as I did to move up there after college. Note here that I was still paying rent on my apartment during this time and was living with my parents down south. There are a multitude of reasons that I decided to stay in Louisiana, but one of the reasons is that my brother proposed to his girlfriend during the holiday season and I knew I wanted to be able to help more with the wedding when needed than I could if I was up in NYC.
I think I knew that I was going to be leaving NYC officially towards the beginning of 2021, but it took a while for all the pieces to click into place. I was never able to return to New York to get all my belongings packed up until the summer and we decided to wait until the week of my birthday to be able to celebrate it there. Don’t get me wrong, I had the best time in New York while I was there, but I wasn’t emotional to leave it and I knew that I made the right decision to stay down south.
I have created so many new friendships during this past year and don’t know what I would do without my weekly lunch with my best friend, or the weekly dinner club that another friend and I created and we have expanded slightly in the past two months. Honestly, this group of friends have helped me during some very difficult times mentally and emotionally in this past year and it’s hard to put into words how grateful I am for them. I also purchased season tickets to the Broadway tours coming through Dallas, which allows me to stay connected to Broadway, but also gives me the chance to see another best friend throughout the year. However, one of the best parts about moving back to Louisiana is being closer to my grandparents, who live in Texas and I can’t wait to visit them again as soon as this Delta variant is under control more.
So what am I doing now? Well like I said, the way all the pieces clicked into place was perfect. My dad’s friend has an extra house that he was deciding what to do with while waiting for his oldest daughter to graduate from law school. He offered to rent it to me for the time being to help me get back on my feet and have my own space while deciding what the next step will be. I moved into the house over Labor Day weekend and am still surrounded by boxes and clothes. I can’t wait to make this space my own and will definitely be sharing more with y’all as I finish decorating each room of the house.
I can already tell how much I will enjoy being in this house and making it my own space. I already have so many ideas and plans for it, within reason of the rental lease agreement and can’t wait to have friends over for parties, especially Mardi Gras as I’m located right past the end of the parade route and to host dinner club occasionally throughout the coming months.
I also have so many plans for this space that I can’t wait to bring to life in the coming months and continue to grow it. I’m so grateful for everyone who takes the time to read the words that I share and hope you continue to be a part of this exciting journey.
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