Today was One of Those Days for Troy and me, and as we were kind of laughing about it later (though still in the Cranky Zone), we decided it would make a fitting story for the blog, just in case I’m making it sound like everything is perfect in our new adventure.  Because remember, no matter how many happy pictures you see on Facebook or delightful zingers you read, we all have a bunch of Bad Moods.  Take us, for instance.  We’ve got a whole lot of near-perfect going on what with the house and the town and the people and the fun, but we don’t have actual jobs.  Just imagine if everyone in your family was officially unemployed.  (Whose idea was this anyway?) I regularly pray with a panic-stricken voice something like this: “Please give us jobs and I promise to always have compassion on everyone else from now on no matter what.” Our neighbors are probably beginning to wonder if we are ever going to leave during the day for a significant amount of time.  This morning the neighbor across the street saw me off to walk the dog with a cup of coffee in my hand, and then an hour later I checked the mail with a glass of iced tea.  At this rate if he checks me in the back yard later tonight he’ll probably find me with a half empty bottle of bourbon.  Some days the anxiety of both being unemployed is too much for me, what with my Hottman Wiring (as my little sister Jeni accurately refers to it), and I depend on Troy’s calm and trusting voice to assure me that we’ll be fine.

But back to today.  Troy and Huck walked off to school and I puttered around doing this and that while our very nervous dog Sunny stayed in her usual spot in the back yard darting her suspicious eyes back and forth in hopes that no one attacks her.  A little bit later Troy suggested we check out a dog park, so we put the leash on her and coaxed her into the car, and we three set off for what would be a truly awful hour.  After lots of confused driving, we discovered the first dog park was part of an animal shelter and decided that would be too scary for Sunny. Then we spent over half an hour trying to locate the second dog park until finally giving up in a deep state of frustration.  (I think at one point I might have gotten out of the driver’s seat in a huff and switched places with Troy because I was so sick and tired of his terrible directions.)  And then Sunny puked all over the back seat.  Once we got home and cleaned everything up, Troy realized he’d missed a phone message from the pre-school (where he’s been waiting to substitute teach) offering him work six hours ago.  I then had a amazing job interview at a GROCERY STORE which did not make me feel very good about myself. Then Huck got home and Sunny ran off to hide because Huck is TERRIFYING.

Troy thinks we are like Sunny sometimes, scared of things that aren’t actually scary.  (I think he’s referring mainly to me.)

Now then, the day also included plans for my sister & her family to visit, plans for dear friends’ upcoming visits, good news of a friend’s recovery from serious surgery, the successful purchase of health insurance for the next few months, some fantastic emails, wonderful news from Huck’s school, and TheatreSquared’s opening night for Troy.  Sunny has spent the whole evening beside me in the living room, which is very social of her, and Troy gets to substitute teach tomorrow after all.  So I guess it wasn’t ALL bad.

But lest you think all is perfectly well … come and smell the back seat of our car.

Our To-Do list may still include things like “FIND JOBS,” but we can now mark off “GET DOG.”  And really, what’s a Schremmer without a dog?

Introducing Sunny Schremmer!

Troy and I found her at an animal shelter, and though she’s very scared of Huck and quite terrified of the inside of our house, we think she’s pretty perfect.  Technically we’re fostering her, what with her being so scared of our child (who named her, by the way), but assuming she gets more comfortable around him we will make it official with a $65 fee and some paper work.  And if you knew Molly, you’ll see why we’re so smitten with Sunny.  Their personalities are quite different, since Molly was a spastic muppet and Sunny is more of a dignified orphan, but they sure have that same delightful face.

And if Troy and I can’t land full-time jobs soon, we can always rent her out to play Sandy in local productions of ANNIE!

Sixteen years ago today Troy and I, along with our beloved dogs Max and Molly, became New Yorkers, and eight weeks ago today we officially made Fayetteville our new home.  New York was such a perfect place for us until it wasn’t, and these days we shake our heads in wonder at how perfect this place is for us now.

People here warned us that we’d fall in love with Fayetteville; they predicted that we’d very quickly find our community of like-minded artists and friends.  And now they smile and nod as I notice how interconnected everything and everybody is around here.  For instance, Huck’s school. Somehow we stumbled upon a house in a neighborhood that is in the zone for Washington Elementary, a school seemingly just right for Huck (and his parents). Considered Fayetteville’s “funky school” according to the third grade teachers, Washington has a strong connection to TheatreSquared, our friends’ Bob & Amy’s professional theatre where we got to work last year.  Last Friday afternoon Troy did a promotional scene from “A Christmas Carol” for a TheatreSquared program (along with the actor playing my husband Julius Caesar) at Washington’s first assembly of the year.  The school also has a wonderful family that volunteers to do accelerated math with students who need it, and through a series of more wonderful luck we got to know this family recently.  Huck came home from school last Thursday full of stories about his special new math group that gives him extra stimulating work outside of the regular classroom curriculum, which is something we’ve always wanted for him. 

Then there’s the Shakespeare I’m working on with The Classical Edge Theatre, a company run by an amazingly talented married couple who are also the high school drama teachers. Every single person working on the show is not only an incredible actor, but many of them deliberately decided to join this artistic community after time spent working in large cities like New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. There’s also the Northwest Arkansas Prison Stories Project that I’ve been volunteering for where the wonderful poet in residence is a former student of the son in-law of the woman who leads Huck’s math group, and the fabulous woman who started it goes to our new church St. Paul’s Episcopal, as does the man playing Casca, as do our neighbors who are helping us navigate the dog shelters.  In other words, basically everywhere I go I run into someone I love.

Like the other night at the Arts Live Awards, a children’s theatre run by the delightful Mark Landon Smith who plays Mark Antony and also runs a casting agency that has gotten the three of us a few jobs.  While at the awards show, we met more folks we’ve been hearing about, caught up with folks we already know, and before we knew it Mark was calling our names to come up and present awards to the young actors.  Why?  Because this is Fayetteville!  So there I was standing in front of a room full of excited, happy teenagers and their proud parents, along with a bunch of supportive professionals who teach and direct for the theatre, and I thought to myself, “I think I’m gonna like it here.”

So New York, Happy 16th Anniversary.  Come visit us sometime.

After a wonderful late Sunday afternoon at our little Mount Sequoyah pool on the last day of summer, which we had to ourselves for two straight hours for some wonderful and mysterious reason, we headed back to our sweet house for dinner.  Sitting around the table we shared highlights of our brief seven week summer as we prepared for tomorrow’s first day of school excitement.  There were our trips to the pool, the fire pit, shaved ice, Braum’s ice cream, our Devils Den hike, our weekend with Rick and Raina, our trip to Kansas, the drive-thru Safari Zoo, Crystal Bridges, First Friday Bentonville, First Thursday Fayetteville, “As You Like It,” mini golf, candy shopping at The Mill, the Farmer’s Market, a Gulley Park concert, the Jones Center, the library, playing in the rain, the first time to go down water slides, “Annie,” Nana and Papa’s visit, after dinner walks, after dinner drives, swinging in the back yard, “So You Think You Can Dance,” meeting so many wonderful new people, reading so many wonderful books, popsicles, movies, cookouts, creeks, and staying up till 9PM.

Monday morning found us waking up to our alarm clocks at 6:00.  Huck instantly made his bed, which is completely out of character, and also got himself dressed without being asked, which was almost creepy.  About ten minutes before we needed to leave, I found him standing at our front door wearing his backpack and looking outside.  Even though he doesn’t tell us how he’s feeling about this huge life transition per se, I saw excitement in those brown eyes of his.  And when I got my hard working camera out he said, “Now we actually have a house to stand in front of for the first day of school picture!”  Which sounded exactly like something I would say.

Troy made us walk a mile up hills and down hills and in and out of beautiful neighborhoods to Washington Elementary, determined as he is to maintain the walking New Yorker in him, and once we arrived Huck gave us kisses and then bravely entered the building alone.  Troy and I awkwardly smiled at each other and decided to hike over to our favorite little coffee place.  We filled our day at home without being interrupted by an eight year old, but I suffered from nervous butterflies no matter what I did.

Mid-afternoon Troy headed back down the mountain to get more steps, and an hour later he and the exhausted, overheated brand new third grader came running up to the door.  Other than a mild headache, he had a good first day and even gave me some details until he decided it was time to get back to those summertime activities … swinging and swimming and reading, and before I knew it I was off to rehearsal and wouldn’t see him again until we did it all over again in the morning.

Survive the First Day of School, check.

One of the reasons we wanted to leave New York was to be closer to our family in Kansas and Illinois, and this last week and a half we took advantage of the proximity and unemployment to enjoy some quality time with lots of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins we haven’t gotten to see enough in the last 16 years.  We made our plans around the one year anniversary of Troy’s father’s passing, and he and sisters Tina and Pam (along with those delightful twins Rylee and Jackson) were able to spread Gaylyn’s ashes out on the farm where he grew up in Western Kansas.  Other highlights of our visit included water balloon launching, roller skating, a visit to the zoo, Apples to Apples, the world’s largest Adirondack chair, and talking about the rain.  Best yet, we we were able to put three of my dad’s paintings into the trunk and add them to our Bill Hottman collection, something we haven’t done in a long, long time.  A couple days later we received our first official house guests when Troy’s mom and step-dad (otherwise known as Nana and Papa) came for a weekend visit.  It was awfully nice to have two people (and a dog) love our house and yard as much as we do.

See You Soon, Family!

My sister Lori surprised me with a visit from my beloved high school drama teacher Mrs. Webb and her equally wonderful husband Mike!  (So of course we made them climb onto this chair for a picture.)

Little Sadie Starr

Hayden & Huck, Fisherboys

Aunt Tina

Nothin’ but fun at Scott & Tina’s

These guys are TERRIBLE roller skaters!

Huck’s bounty from Grandpa’s garden

The beautiful Rolling Hills Zoo

Just a typical Penguin Trio

This is how my adorable mom fights the mosquitoes.

Rylee

Jackson

Aunt Pam

Fayetteville with Nana and Papa!

Crystal Bridges Art Museum

War Eagle Mill

An after dinner walk/run

Getting some practice dog walking with sweet Tony

Last night’s sunset

On Tuesday Troy drove up to nearby town Bentonville and joined our friend Daniel, the Mayor and a few other invited guests for a pig de-boning at a high end restaurant with some fancy chefs, followed by a late night sitting at our computer writing a play based on Aesop’s fables for his drama camp, all the while leaving our car’s sun roof open for a night of heavy thunderstorms. Wednesday evening I drove the slightly soggy car to the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections right here in Fayetteville to get to know the amazing folks at the NWA Prison Stories Project, which I hope to become a tireless volunteer for, followed by an hour under the stars listening to live music with a glass of wine.  I returned home to exciting tales of Troy and Huck’s night of bacon eating (see first sentence), grass mowing, tooth fairy waiting and fire pit relaxing.

I have a feeling we’re not in New York anymore.

www.nwaprisonstories.com

The other day, sometime during the hazy first couple of weeks when we weren’t 100 percent sure where all of our shorts were, Troy was on the phone with our Internet provider while I made dinner.  He was on hold quite a while in the silence of our home, but right as someone answered his call Huck came barreling down the stairs screaming joyfully in the most awful high-pitched volume imaginable, as he’s really holding us to the promise that once we stopped living in an apartment he could be as noisy as he wants.  Troy had to interrupt the customer service representative to quiet Huck down, and right about the time he got back to his question, our kitchen smoke alarm went off.  Because of his superior height, the job is always Troy’s to yank that thing down and rip out the battery, plus my hands were full, so again he awkwardly excused himself to stop the even-worse-than-Huck noise.  And literally the very second he resumed his absurd conversation, our extremely heavy rolling pin fell off the top of the stove ledge and crashed hard onto the stove top making me scream horrifically, officially topping all the loud sounds over the last 60 seconds.

Sometimes that’s how it feels these days.  We are this awkward, fumbling family making loud noises as we try to figure out how everything works.  Luckily, there’s usually laughter involved.

People ask if we miss New York, and partly because of the destruction of our beloved church yard that happened almost immediately upon our departure followed by an awful heat wave and partly because of things like this   http://gothamist.com/2013/07/22/girl_just_trying_to_dance_in_her_th.php the answer is a resounding ARE YOU CRAZY?! OF COURSE WE DON’T MISS NEW YORK!!!  What we do miss very, very much are the friends we left behind, and we love to imagine all of them hanging out with us here in our back yard.

Last night I put together a scrapbook of the cards and notes we were given last month.  (The majority came from Troy’s play group moms and our church family who presented us with love notes one Sunday in June.)  The words are a little overwhelming to read and we’ll probably never fully grasp the loving sentiments written out by so many people, but I think my very favorite was written by a young friend of ours named Allie.  She writes:

“Thank you for all of the things that you have done for this community and for teaching us about the Bible and that peanut butter tastes good in smoothies.”

I think that (and this gigantic Adirondack chair) pretty much sums up everything.

1.  We’ve become regular bird watchers in our back yard, what with our popular bird feeders and bird baths. Everyday we see many cardinals, blue jays, finches, titmouses and chickadees, and often I realize what I thought were birds singing is actually Troy calling out to his new friends.

2. I never again want to live without a garbage disposal and ice maker.

3. When I am about to exit or enter a store at the same time as a man, I always know that no matter how old he is or what he looks like, he will do whatever it takes to make sure I get in or out of the door first in the sweetest, most submissive way you can imagine.

4. Google Maps has our house in the wrong place and leads people directly to a dead end several blocks away.

5.  Not only do we have a Harry Potter closet underneath Huck’s staircase, but we also have a very scary basement with an ax in it, and sometimes when we take friends down there they think for a few seconds we’re going to kill them.

6.  Apparently outside of New York City, the bag boys are supposed to take your groceries all the way to your car and then place them safely into your trunk while you stand back and watch.  I can’t seem to memorize this and am the world’s most awkward customer every time.

7.  Huck may never be the same child now that he’s discovered self-service car washes and the bank drive-thru with pneumatic tube.

8.  The man who sold us our car has sent us three thank you notes so far.

9.  No matter how hard we try, we can’t seem to come close to the amount of walking one does in NYC.  (I am reminded of this throughout the day thanks to a very obsessed Fit Bit owner.)

10.  The Fayetteville Farmers Market is the happiest place on earth, especially when the band “Farmer and the Markets” sings.

11.  Yesterday I almost stepped on a tortoise in our back yard.  (Mental Note: Never leave our bedroom doors open.)

12. Bugs love to bite everyone in our family except for me.

13. My New York feet are not handling all this barefoot livin’ with dignity.

14.  Here are some professional updates: I had a great week at the amazing Boys and Girls Club of Fayetteville teaching a drama camp every morning for Arts Live Theatre, but the subsequent camps have been canceled due to low summer enrollment.  Troy’s about to teach a couple weeks for Trike Theatre with two other teaching artists in nearby Springdale, and he’s also about to begin volunteering at the beautiful library.  I get to play Calpurnia in JULIUS CAESAR this fall, performing in parks and high schools with a wonderful theatre company called Classical Edge. Next on the gigantic summer list of to-do: one of us finds a full-time job.

15.  You know that section in “Mr. Roboto” when Dennis DeYoung goes nuts shout-singing “THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!  I WANT TO THANK YOU!  PLEASE THANK YOU!”  That’s how I feel these days. I’m full of aggressive, panic-stricken gratitude.

Because the Bronx Zoo is one of my favorite spots on earth, I was a little sad when I realized Fayetteville didn’t have a zoo.  Happily, nearby-ish is a drive-through safari! Not only did I get to spend some quality time with pot-bellied pigs today, immediately revitalizing my childhood love, but we also saw a mother deer cleaning her brand new fawn whose birth we must have literally just missed.  Along the way we also saw tigers, lions, zebras, longhorns, wildebeests, antelope, monkeys, foxes, leopards, kangaroos and an old tortoise up close.  And emus. Did I mention emus?  Because right about the time we drove through their section an incredible rain storm began, and there may be nothing more terrifying than having a lot of emus surround your precious brand new car in a torrential downpour.  (And if terrifying is too strong a word, please remember that just a few weeks ago we were living near Broadway and 187th Street in Manhattan.)

To add to the whole “we’re not in New York anymore” theme, Troy drove us home through the beautiful Ozark National Forest while I stared out the window and daydreamed about my future pet pig.

Hook ‘em Horns.  (But please don’t hurt our car.)

1.  Huck is very scared of bugs and nature.

2. We could fit about 14 more pieces of furniture in our master bedroom.

3.  Fayetteville’s basic cable includes a lot more channels than NYC’s basic cable, which means Huck is completely obsessed with shows like “Sam and Cat” and “The Haunted Hathaways” and spends his spare time quoting commercials.

4. Morning birds and nighttime cicadas are loud!

5. “Ya’ll” is the cutest word, especially when spoken by children.

6. Arkansas is breathtakingly beautiful.

7. We’re becoming really good at looking out for deer when driving around our mountain neighborhood.

8. Cars with sun roofs are extra fun.

9. Packing and saying goodbyes and moving thousands of miles away and unpacking and building furniture and deciding where everything goes and how everything works can make people cranky sometimes.

10. Huck can’t get enough of the swimming pool and hopes we take advantage of the “open till midnight” thing.

11. Troy is 100 percent natural at being a man with a garage and yard.

12.  I am 100 percent natural at lazily sitting on the deck.

13.  Huck is a little lonely because, in his words, “Duh.  I literally know no children my age here.” (Plus he’s become very interested in picking out his own clothes to wear each day and is worried that his ultra short NYC mistake-haircut is not his style and therefore terrible for meeting new people.  Kids are heartbreakers!)

14.  Southern hospitality is the nicest feeling.

15.  I want to be Mike Wazowski when I grow up.