My roommates

In response to Nicole's (my cousin) last comment, I decided to write a post updating everyone on my roommate situation. I used to be afraid of talking about other people on my blog, but it would be pretty difficult for them to run across it, so I think it's okay. Nicole is right, I don't talk about them much, but I really don't even see them too much. (Nicole, you'll hardly see them when you're here, I'm sure).

Sharon is a pastry chef-- works from 3:00am til whenever she gets done. Sometimes, she's coming home from work at the same time I am even though she goes in 6 hours earlier!! Her job is really stressful with long hours and when she's home, she's usually sleeping or watching movies on the couch. On the weekends, she gets on a slightly more normal schedule, but otherwise, we're pretty flipped. I think I would like her a lot if we had the chance to hang out more. She's cute and some of her interests seem similar to mine. But, she's very dirty- that's the one thing I don't like about her. She cooks a lot and leaves the kitchen a disaster!! There are other gross things that I can't even mention on my blog. I seriously never knew that girls could be so disgusting. And I'm not a neat-freak (some of my old roommates will vouch for that, I'm sure)...Sharon is just really, really bad.

Cathy is interesting. I thought I liked her at first, but she has turned out to be a bit overwhelming. She became a Christian about 5 years ago and apparently has been going through an identity crisis ever since. She talks about it ALL the time. In fact, it is pretty much the only thing she talks about. For instance, when my mom was here for several days in October, she ran into Cathy only twice and both times Cathy went into her whole identity crisis situation. Basically, she just can't figure out how to live in this world as a Christian...she worries and stresses about it a lot. She just got a new job at a PR firm, but otherwise had basically been unemployed since I moved in (I guess her parent's were paying her rent). Anyway, the main reason she didn't have a job was because she didn't know what God wanted her to do. So, she didn't really even try to look for something else-- waited all those months doing absolutely nothing everyday until a job was literally placed in her lap. Really??? I mean, yeah, I agree that it's important to pray about big decisions (like where you're going to spend 40+ hours of every week), but to do absolutely nothing, put your life on hold for 9 months? I don't think that's ever God's plan for us...He tells us to "live IN the world." I think most people would at least get out and do SOMEthing-- volunteer, get a part-time job, something!! It's overwhelming because I just don't know how to help her when she says the same things over and over and over again. Honestly, it has made me wonder if she really understands what faith and trust mean. I just think that as Christians who are seeking God and his will and being obedient to that, we find (or actually are given through grace) freedom from those worries and stresses. We've placed our trust in something that we know is perfectly good and right, we've "cast ALL our burdens on Him." I know she spends a lot of time in the Word and in prayer-- much more than I do- so, I haven't been able to reconcile how she remains such a worried person about making sure she's doing what God wants her to do. I know part of it is just personality. Anyway, maybe I'm being too judgemental here, but the longer I hear about it the more I get annoyed! So, I've gotten in a bad habit of avoiding her the best I can. Not very Christ-like of me, I realize, and I do need to spend more time praying for her and about how I could be more helpful to her.

Sorry for the rant, sometimes a blog is good for that!! That's basically the synopsis on the roommate situation. I often think about moving out on my own...especially now that I know all these girls in my Bible Study with super-cute studios. But, a studio in Manhattan would be about a 50% increase in rent for me and I just can't make much sense of that. Moving out of Manhattan or into Harlem where places are more affordable is also not appealing. We have a really nice space (for NYC standards) and our neighborhood is very young and full of fun restaurants, so that would be hard to give up as well. So, for now, I remain in Hells Kitchen...