It had been a very exciting week of mail this week and I felt the need to give some blog shout-outs! First, I cannot thank all of my friends and family enough for all of their support in my move! There is not a day that goes by that you guys are unappreciated! Second, thank you to everyone who has gone out of their ways to stay in touch and maintain strong friendships despite the little added distance. I love you guys! :)

Special thanks this week goes to:

Sara: for the great updated newsletter! Going on three years of newsletter, and going strong! Haha, your updates never fail to put a smile on my face!

Danielle: for the adorable card! It really made my day to have a little piece of my best friend in the city!

Jacob: last but definitely not least for sending me a loaf of my favorite Dave’s Killer Bread! I am savoring each and every bite of it’s pure deliciousness. Thank you for helping keep my addiction to this bread alive!

So thank you to all of you amazing people that make my life as great as it is! From newsletters and cards to emails and phone calls I really appreciate it all! Now I’m trying to contemplate what I can start sending to all of you guys! My only issue is most of my favorite things here are food… and unfortunately a dish of fettucini alfredo would probably not look so appetizing after a week in the mail. That’s actually not a very good mental image at all.. Until then, all of my thanks and love!

I have some news I’m pretty excited about to share with everyone! Recently, I found out about a volunteer organization in the city called New York Cares that works with over 300 different organizations and over 1,000 different projects around the city. Basically, they work directly with different charities and organizations to find where their highest needs for volunteers are and then make the projects available to New York Cares members. It’s a pretty unique approach because they post all of the different projects online and based upon your availability you can register into the events online. 

Getting involved in volunteering has been something I’ve been wanting to become more involved with over the course of the last year, and now that I am only working one job right now I have a little bit more free time to share with others. What I really like about the program is the variety of different activities you can get involved with from literacy events, serving at soup kitchens, tutoring, career development, caring for abused animals, and park restoration to name a few. The program allows volunteers like myself to be able to get involved in a number of different charities around the city, which I find pretty unique. One week I can read to children in transitional homes and the next week visit different senior homes for their weekly events. 

I completed my orientation over the last week and am really excited to get involved! I look forward to sharing my future experiences with you all especially as the holidays and increased time of need for others is upon us.

Happy Veteran’s Day! Here is a bird’s eye view from the Veteran’s Day Parade here right from my office window. The parade route goes up 5th avenue, which just so happens is where our offices are. So here is your view of some of the motorcycles, tanks, oh, and the Mayor is in the picture with the vintage cars. Needless to say the bagpipes, marching bands, and diverse floats are making it a pretty interesting (and slightly distracting) day at work.