Counting the years

I’ve been living in NYC and the NYC area for over six and a half years now. That seems like forever! It certainly is the longest time I’ve ever spent in one place before. Though the time flies by, birthdays always mark when we come around full circle again. NYC birthdays are different from birthdays in other places. We have itineraries and weekends to help our friends celebrate by allowing guests to have options. This past weekend marked Miss Jen’s birthday. She started her celebration in Atlantic City on Friday and ended on the LES Sunday evening.

We spent Saturday evening at Wogie’s with musical chairs of guests. Two of her friends are Australian and I’m totally using some of their terms in the near future. It was great catching up with everyone while sitting outside watching passerby in the West Village.

The celebration continued Sunday afternoon as we watched the Phils beat the Mets. Then US lose to Japan. Then we stuffed our faces with Mikey’s (veggie) burgers because there really is nothing better after a day full of sunshine, beers, and friends. Here’s to another lovely year.

Lazy Saturday in the city…

Hard Friday nights call for lazy Saturdays… I started my evening before Maryellen arrived. Whoops. Too many glass and no dinner call for a silly start to the weekend.

Since I decided to not take summer classes, my weekend suddenly became free. Though Tim rallied at the UD Alumni Weekend, he and Kelly made an earlier trip up than expected. I met them at MoMA and we headed to the South Street Seaport to people watch, escape the rain, and consume lots of sugar. Aurora joined us later and despite ALL of us having a bit too much the night before, we headed to Union Square to grab daytime beverages and continue our catching up and people watching. We had a chuckle at Tim’s pink lemonade…

After a few drinks, Tim and Kelly headed to a steakhouse while Aurora and I continued our evening. Neither one of us expected to stay out longer than a few hours and were NOT dressed for the plummeting temperatures. We popped into a nearby Italian restaurant for a bottle+ of wine and dinner. But first…we saw Manhattanhenge! Granted since it was a few days after the event it was not *totally* Manhattanhenge, but close enough!

So amazing.

Aurora and I spent over three hours eating, drinking, and talking. Whoops! I think we figured out all of our issues and planned future world dominance. And how strange that we step into a random restaurant and our waitress is friends with her cousin, who lives in San Diego, and they last saw each other at her Maine wedding. Small damn world.

Memorial Day Weekend in Pictures

Life has been busy, so a pictorial of Memorial Day weekend will do. Unfortunately the nighttime shenanigans were not documented, but good times were had. Lots of drinking, not a lot of eating, dancing, singing, crazy cab rides, meeting new people, late night stumbles in NYC…

I’m so lucky to have such amazing friends who are up for random adventures, exchanging gossip, and reminding each other of our poor life decisions.

  

Exploring the ‘hood

Now that I’m not slammed with work and buried at school, I finally have time to explore my neighborhood.
These places all get my thumbs up:

Ozu
Japanese/Sushi place.
Came here last weekend to celebrate with Aurora and Jen.
Buy one get one free drinks.
Plenty of vegetarian friendly options.
Decorative arrangements and booklike-plates. There was a massive frond that escaped the camera.

Heights Salon
I finally cut my mane and they have magic scissors.
Open and spacious. Great music. Non-awkward conversations.

Henry St. Ale House
Sinatra on the stereo, “American Psycho” on the television, and Belgian beers on draft.

The banana

I am so fortunate.

Today, I brought a banana to work. Because I didn’t want to smoosh it, I carried it. I carried the banana from Brooklyn to the Empire State Building. Today was absolute madness and I didn’t get a chance to eat the banana. Since it’s the weekend, I didn’t want to leave it at work, so I carried it to Stone St., laid it on my bag while eating and drinking, then carried it back to Brookyn. I carried my banana all around New York City.

And then I gave it to a homeless man.

I am so fortunate to live here.
To have a job.
To have a best friend to confide in over multiple glasses of wine.
To have a home to come back to.
To have stress.
To be worried about finals and grades and my career.
I am SO lucky.
And though I’m very appreciative, it’s very easy to forget the luxuries I take for granted. By all means I don’t live comfortably and every day is a challenge, but I have exactly what I need.

While exiting the subway station, I passed a small plastic bag with bottles on a bench. Then a pair of shoes. Later, a jacket. Before I reached the stairs, I passed an extremely tall African American man who simply looked down and sad. No words, I just impulsively handed him my banana and he took it, smiled, and said thank you.

No matter our troubles, or how we got there, there is always someone worse off and we have the ability to help. Simple gestures, but conduct for the greater good.

In The Heights

Well, I moved from the Upper East Side to Brooklyn Heights. Last weekend to be precise. I’m kind of amused that I disguise my utter lack of money and class by living in expensive ‘hoods. Happenstance, honestly.

So far, I absolutely adore my apartment and area. On a sad note, I only inherited the digs because one of my besties moved across the country to the wilds of LA. Compared to my old apartment, it’s cleaner, more spacious, and quieter. It takes me 24 minutes door to door to get to work, and home is less than 15 minutes away from school. On he flip side, I moved from a one bedroom to a studio.

Moving was a nightmare…they broke stuff, were hours late, and were slow. Never again. It was the first time in my life that I hadn’t tip someone who probably expected it. Sadly, it wasn’t deserved and I felt a bit awful, BUT THEY BROKE A LOT OF THINGS!! But at least I received a discount due to their poor service and I was settled and unpacked before the week began.

I still need to explore the area, which I’ll do this weekend, but so far, everything I need and want are all within walking distance. Obviously I mean the essentials like Trader Joe’s, Crumbs, and Starbucks. CVS is around the corner, the subway is a block away, and every time of fare you can imagine is either walkable or delivers. Did I mention how QUIET AND CLEAN Brooklyn Heights is?!? I haven’t heard a single siren! I also haven’t seen a taxi, but I can make due.

I’m considering this move a clean slate and a new beginning. Not that the previous three years were negative, far from it. But those years were full of realizations and development. I feel like I was naive, wavered too much when it came to how others treated me, and didn’t take advantage of opportunities and invites tossed at me.
Real life can begin now, the trial period is over.

tapas & mojitos

Last night a bunch of us celebrated and mourned Angela’s departure to LA over tapas and mojitos at Agozar. Great conversations and lots of laughs. It was also buy one get one free drinks and tapas and I think I had two mojitos too many. It was barely 7 pm and I couldn’t feel my face. Also, tapas aren’t meals, they are snacks. And if you’re going to drink all night, you should have more than snacks.

Aurora and I headed uptown afterwards to see Sarah and Lauren’s lovely new apartment which is conveniently less than a block from me. We also planned an Atlantic City adventure in March during the cab ride. Efficient. Blood Marys (Maries?) were had against my better judgment. At least tomato juice is kinda like food, right?

Went to a nearby bar for more beverages, snacks, jukebox, and pool games. I suck at pool. I also somehow scraped my knuckles during the game and now my hands look like I lost a battle. I barely remember going home.

Moral of the story – 5 drinks between 5 pm and midnight with only snacks and a low tolerance will make you feel like crap. I also can’t hardly ever sleep in so I woke up at 5 am still feeling like poo. Here’s my no-fail hangover cure (hangover free for years! I think…) which I mixed up at 5 am since I didn’t think I needed it before I went to bed. Glass of water + nuun tablet (I use these instead of gatorade when I run in the heat and/or long distances) + B12 vitamin + two advils. Boom. Felt saucy when I woke back up at 9 am.

Still, I don’t think I can make a habit of this even though my weekends lately have been of this variety. Obviously I didn’t feel like getting a long run in this morning, but I may still hit the gym and/or do yoga tonight if I get my reading for school done. On the plus side, I think I finally caught up on sleep.

Only photo of the evening and I definitely need to change my Hipstamatic film…

Hot Chocolate Festival

City Bakery’s Hot Chocolate Festival! My favorite time of year!

City Bakery hosts a different flavor of their delicious hot chocolate every day in February. This celebration for your taste buds is a must-do every year if you live or visit the city. I recommend coupling your cup with a chocolate or pretzel croissant.

I made a decision.

Just so you know…
…I decided to go to New York Law School.
I have a grand plan, but this is where it starts.

After bouncing all over Manhattan and conversing with Aurora and Chris, I’m simply not done with New York City yet. I still have things I want to accomplish and places I want to see and people I want to meet and I still love the east coast air.

Deposits are in and classes start August 17th. Now I just need to have that pesky conversation with the Bossman…

Sarah and Chris have been helping me with a plan of attack. I just despise confrontation and letting people down even though it’s for my benefit. I’ll definitely need to practice the conversation with someone! Eeek!

Phillies at Citi Field

Well that was a bit embarrassing. Aurora, Jen, and I trekked to Queens to watch our Phils sadly get swept, with no runs, by the Mets.

I wasn’t able to leave the office until the game’s scheduled start time, but the rain delay worked in my favor and I got there over an hour before the first inning. Also, you cannot bring empty thermoses into Citi Field. The guy recommended that I hid it in the bushes and retrieve it later. Really, I cant bring a reusable coffee mug but I can bring in my possibly weapon of an umbrella? Fail.

Not only was it raining, it was windy and downright freezing. After shaking and giving up to our goosebumps, we decided to buy Mets shirts only to keep warm. We were just going to turn the clothing inside out, but Aurora and Jen had sharpies, so we made our own Phillies gear.

Needless to say, we were heckled and Aurora had a few things thrown at her during her smoke break. Not cool. Usually when we’re at Phillies away games in NYC, we find ourselves in the Phillies contingent. Not so much this time around.

Even worse than losing is dealing with the crazed Mets fans during the walk from the stadium to the subway. Whatevs, at least our team is still hot. And we’re still a few games up and in first place.

The Flyers on the other hand need a W on Saturday…