Snow Storm to Val Day & Everything in Between!

I thought I escaped the snow when I left Kansas City, boy was I wrong! Last Saturday NY was expecting the snow storm Kansas got on Thursday/Friday, but only a few flurries fell and all was well…until Wednesday that is.

It all started on Tuesday when the news reported that we would get about a foot of snow on Wednesday. They were 99.9% sure because schools and businesses started closing on Tuesday evening, the first time this has happened in a long time (so I’ve been told). The big snow storm was the topic of conversation all day Tuesday. I know this because I had 2 interviews on Tuesday and the snow storm came up in both of them. (I am sure you want to know how they went, I’ll get into that in just a minute.)

Here is a little elevator conversation I had with a random lady on the way to my interview:
Lady: Are you ready? (With a scared yet eager attitude)
Me: Ready? Ready for what? (The tone of her voice made it sound like I should’ve replied with something like, hell yeah I’m ready!)
Lady: The big snow storm. They say we are going to get a lot.
Me: Oh, that. Yeah, I’m not too worried about it, I’m used to snow. I just moved here from Kansas City where we had a very snowy winter.
Lady: Really? Well good look. (She had a look on her face like Armageddon was coming)

At that point I had a pretty good feeling that we were going to get bombarded with snow, which is why on the way home from my interviews I stopped at the Walgreens up the street and picked up a few things knowing I wouldn’t want to get out on Wednesday.

Now let me back track a little bit…Tuesday morning I woke up, got ready for my interviews and left the apartment anxious and a bit nervous. It was the first time I was going to have to navigate the city on my own. Until then, my Tio Marty and I had gone everywhere together so I didn’t have to worry about directions, public transportation, etc. Like I said, I was nervous, but excited too. I walked to the closest intersection (20th St. & 1st Ave.) and hailed a cab. To my surprise, it didn’t take long to get a cab (sometimes it can take 5-10 minutes to see a cab with its light on, indicating it’s vacant). I got in, told him where I was headed and 15 minutes later I arrived at my first interview at Career Blazers, a hiring agency. I spoke with a recruiter about a few opportunities with various companies in NY, but considering she was a bit unpleasant, I knew I didn’t want to work with that agency. I left feeling a bit disappointed, but optimistic that my second interview would go better, and I was right. I had about an hour between interviews and the buildings were only about 8 blocks apart so I decided to grab some lunch. I walked down 5th Avenue and spotted a McDonalds so I went in and ate lunch alone. The reason I mention this is because I have never eaten alone. In fact, every time I see someone eating alone I feel bad for them. To my surprise, almost everyone in McDonalds was eating alone. It was 1:00pm and you could tell by the business attire that most of the people were grabbing a bite on their lunch break. It made me feel a whole lot better knowing that eating alone is pretty normal around lunch time. It also made me realize how many "firsts" I am going to have here, which is great because like my blog title says, "...moved to New York in pursuit of new experiences!"

As soon as I finished my snack wraps I headed to my second interview. It went really well and I’m waiting to hear some more details on potential employment. I left feeling pretty optimistic and in a good mood so I decided to walk home. I was in Midtown and I live on the Lower East Side so it was a decently far walk, but again, I was feeling energetic and it was a great opportunity to see more of the city. I walked down 5th Avenue for a while, which was so surreal considering 5th Ave. is so famous. I walked past the NY Public Library (the one Carrie Bradshaw is supposed to get married at in Sex in the City) and briefly stopped to enjoy my surroundings. I then carried on and made it back to Sty Town. I was proud of myself for navigating the city on my own without any problems at all and even more proud that I walked, lord knows I could use the exercise! ;)

So like I said, I (and my Tio Marty) ran all of our errands Tuesday evening because we knew Wednesday would be a snowy mess, and indeed it was. We woke up Wednesday to a very white, windy and pretty New York. Obviously NYC is a big busy city so to see it so empty was bizarre. Schools and jobs were closed so of course everyone took advantage of it and went to parks to ski, sled, build snowmen, and have snow ball fights. Right outside my window there were about 15 dogs and their owners playing in the snow, it was so cute. I was watching the news with coverage of Central Park and the amount of people out enjoying the snow was insane! You could tell it had been a while since NY had a lot of really good snow. My Tio Martin and I spent the afternoon inside relaxing and eating soup and the evening watching a French film, eating pizza and drinking Italian wine. (We are so worldly, I know, lol!)

Thursday morning I woke up with a bit of a wine headache, but toughed it out as I had a phone interview with a company I’m very interested in. It went really well and I should be hearing something about a formal interview sometime this week. I spent the rest of Thursday relaxing, going for a jog, taking the dogs for a walk, and reading a few chapters of Eat, Pray, Love (a book I’ve started reading a few times, but have never finished. I am determined to finish it this time!)

Friday was a beautiful day, the sun was out and the temperature warm. I of course went for a jog, it’s so easy to be motivated to run when it’s nice outside! Let’s hope I can stay motivated. To help, I downloaded lots of upbeat songs on iTunes. Let’s face it, running to slow sappy love songs doesn’t help ya pick up the pace. Thanks to the gift card Drea and George bought me, I was able to download lots of good “work out” songs. Also, Drea sent me “Empire State of Mind” via email, which is my favorite song right now (I’m sure you can guess why) and when I hear it, it pumps me up and I think I run a little faster, until it’s over that is, lol!

I spent Friday night at; you guessed it…Happy Hour! Like I mentioned before, Friday night Happy Hour is the norm in this city! It was nice to go 2 weeks consecutively. Every time I visit NY, I go to HH, but then my vacation is over and I leave. This time, I went 2 times in a row, which made everything a bit more real. Until that point, I still felt like I was on vacation. Not anymore, I’m starting to adapt and become used to the idea that this is going to be my home. Well, at least one of them. They always say Home is where the Heart is, and if that’s the case, my home will always be Kansas (or anywhere my family is, of course!)

As far as the rest of the weekend goes, I didn't do much on Saturday. We had a play date with the pups, rented 17 Again (only because it had Zac Effron in it), and made a chicken and mushroom pasta for dinner. The movie turned out to be totally cheesy, but cute and the pasta was delicious! Sunday was the dreaded Valentine's Day, but thanks to my dinner & a movie date with my Tio, it wasn't so bad. We are both single so we figured we should get out of the house together and enjoy the fake-holiday, lol. We saw the movie Valentine's Day which was really funny and actually made me feel better about being single for whatever reason (probably because I remembered just how difficult and how much work relationships really can be). After the movie we went to try out a little Italian restaurant near the apartment. It was yummy and we most definitely will eat there again soon, I'm sure!

Well, that's all for now. LOL, as if that wasn't TOO much to handle. Again, you know me...long stories can never be short, nor can short stories ever be short! ;)