Apartment Search

My mom is flying back to her home country on Wednesday, so we have been searching for an apartment for me to stay just in case the house we have now in NY sells. We found a really nice place just a couple of blocks from our original home.

I called the real estate lady on Friday to set up an appointment for today and she asked me if I was pre-qualified so I freaked and put my dad on the phone...lmao. Accepting help from my parents is hard. I don't know if it's because it's humbling, because I don't want to feel like a spoiled brat that has everything handed to him, or because it possibly still gives them some control over me (read: guilt trips lmao) or maybe just all three.

Anyway, we thought it was an apartment with a bedroom(s) but it turned out to be a studio. However, we all really liked it and have it high on our list of possibilities. Unfortunately, because it doesn't have any bedrooms, it would be difficult to accomodate my parents whenever they chose to travel here. The building itself is very classy and the place gets very good sunlight and has a nice view of the garden below though.

Pot, Meet Kettle

Today I went out with my mother to shop for clothes and shoes for my brothers. On our way there we bumped into this older lady my mother seemed to know from a long time ago and the conversation seemed to be going well until she asked her about Church. My mom told her she was still a devout Catholic and was keeps going to Church.

The lady then told her the Lord had told her (word to the wise: whenever someone says God personally told them something, -run-! lmao) to pray for the Catholics and told my mom that the real faith and the real Church is in Jesus Christ not the Catholic Church. Then my mom tried to politely say we all love the same Jesus but then it just devolved into this really pushy conversation where all of a sudden the lady was quoting apocalypse and reminding us the Church is the whore of babylon and it just got to the point where I wanted to run because it was just so uncomfortable. The final exchange went something like this: I have to go now. Ok, but Jesus be with you! I'll keep Jesus and the Virgin in my heart! No, not the Virgin! And with those words, they parted and I followed. My feelings were mixed between wow this is awkward and mom pwned the evangelical (Catholics, 1, MVP Ray's mom; and Evangelical 0).

I hope I never become like this. I also hope it made my mom realize how it feels when you impose your beliefs on other people just by the experience of this forceful evangelical lady. She's never been one to do this (for the most part), but I feel my father sometimes falls into this self-righteous pattern himself.

Commencement

So this is my new blog. I usually start a separate one for each "stage" of my life. I can remember blogging since at least sophomore year of high school. I just graduated college. Wow, the internet is old!

Graduating college has been a relatively traumatizing experience (ok it's probably nowhere on the gamut of truly traumatizing experiences, but one certainly does go through the shock of realizing one won't stay young forever and that life will be a constantly moving target). When I graduated high school it was like "yeah, I'm free and pumped for this magical dorming summer camp place called college!". Sure, I would miss my friends, but there was just so much to look forward to. Now, I'm living back home (home is a complicated word since my dad is soon selling our house and buying a new one in their home country) and jobless and have to wait at least a year before I can continue school again unless by some miracle I can find a program that starts in January.

It's depressingly lonely, especially since I know it'll be a long time (at least until grad school or until I live on my own) before good times roll in again.

One friend told me she knew the feeling, it's like you graduate and your life is not exactly where you wanted to be.

Another friend told me college was a tease. I knew it was a tease of independence all along, but it's different once the carpet has been pulled.

I wish I had a blanket of the best hand picked happy memories of the past and wrap myself with it and go to sleep.

Edit 5/31/09: I feel I'm more or less back to my regular self again after letting the immediate graduation "shock" settle. Life goes on, and I know there are many great people out there waiting to be met and experiences waiting to be had.