Seen, Read, Heard

I don’t really have anything new or exciting to report, just some random stuff. I have seen 3 movies lately. First, The Ugly Truth. It’s a romantic comedy, my favorite! Katherine Heigl plays a young single woman who is the controlling workaholic type and although I am ashamed to admit it, her character kind of reminded me of me. Scary, I know! She is, of course, looking for the perfect guy that meets all of her expectations and her checklist requirements. Yes, she has a checklist, see the similarity now? While I’ll admit that I do make checklists for everything, making one for the perfect man worthy of my love is not one I have started yet, although maybe I should? LOL! Anyhow, she ends up finding love where she least expected it, DUH…it’s a movie! The second and third movies I have recently seen I am very proud to speak, or rather, write about. Solely because I know it will make my sisters very happy, which if you know who my sisters are, you can already guess which two movies I am talking about. If you guessed Twilight and New Moon, you’re right! I am happy to report that I finally broke down and watched Vampire movies. And I (like the rest of the world) really enjoyed them! :) Both of my sisters have been insisting that I read the Twilight saga for months now, but I just wasn’t interested in the whole vampire story line, not to mention I was busy finishing school, so I refused. Well, although I still haven’t read the books, I have seen the movies, and I totally get what all the hype is about. I’m sure since I liked the movies, I would LOVE the books because they are ALWAYS better. Kim & Drea, I’m not promising anything, but who knows, maybe I’ll read the books when I finish Eat, Pray, Love. Yes, I am STILL not finished with it. I’m really slow because I only read a chapter or two at a time. It’s not that the book isn’t interesting; it’s just that I hardly ever have huge blocks of time. I’m determined to finish it though, so a chapter here or there is fine with me as long as it gets done. ;)

This brings me to a whole other topic, work. One of the reasons I don’t have large blocks of time to read is because of my work schedule. I love my job, but I must admit that it’s getting more and more demanding every day. The more people we hire, the more projects there are, and the more people I have to support. We are already at about 100, and there is only 1 me, so you can imagine the work load I have. I have been working from about 8:30am to 7:30pm Mon-Fri. The good news is we will be hiring more coordinators in the upcoming weeks so hopefully I won’t have to continue working 10-11 hour days for much longer. Not that it really bothers me too much now considering I am single and have no one to come home to at 6:00pm anyways (other than the pugs, of course). I’d much rather have these kind of hours now then later on in life, you know? I’m actually transitioning into the real world rather nicely, other than the fact that I miss my college life afternoon naps! :) Too bad real jobs don’t have nap time, that would be ideal for me considering I live for naps. Well, I used to anyway.

The one thing I can say for NYC is that most people have a work hard, play hard attitude. Yes, Patchers work a lot, but they also really know how to have fun! I thoroughly enjoy Happy Hours with my co-workers, which can include intense games of Pictionary in the office with some beers, or going to bars in SoHo. The most recent one was last Friday night and all rounds were on the President of our company so let’s just say, everyone had a great time! It is always really nice to get to know people outside of the office, you know, where you talk to people about things other than work. I’ve been able to make some friends this way, which is always nice. In fact, one of the girls I work with is supper cool and actually reminds me of me, we have very similar stories. But more than anything, she reminds me of my best friend Val, which I LOVE! Not that Val is replaceable, because she’s NOT, but having a friend here who reminds me of her makes it feel a little bit more like home. Last Saturday my co-worker/new friend invited me to Karaoke night with her and her friends and I had a blast. It was so nice to hang out with people my age, and the karaoke part was hilarious! My friend is the brave Val type that sung at the top of her lungs while I, on the other hand am the reserved type that had to get drunk in order to hold a mic in my hands. I did end up singing, just not by myself! ;)

I’m happy to report that I can officially say the phrase; I love the city in Spring. I hear that in movies all the time and now I know why. The weather has been phenomenal in April, sunny and in the 70s and 80s. I love it, sun puts me in a good mood! I have been taking full advantage and spending more and more time outdoors. The last 2 weeks while my Tio was visiting Kansas City I took care of the dogs and we spent A LOT of time in the courtyard behind our building and in the Oval (the main park in Stuy Town). It was beautiful outside and in addition to walking the dogs, I just sat on benches near the fountain and enjoyed the blooming trees and flowers around me. With the weather so nice the park was packed, which made for some interesting people watching, one of my favorite things to do, and let me tell you, NYC is the place to do it! There is such diversity in this city, I absolutely love it! You can walk into a grocery store and hear 5 different languages in a matter of 30 minutes. You would never find that in Kansas City, unless of course there was some sort of international festival going on which is highly unlikely. The only languages you hear in KS are English and Spanish. And there are still some towns where people might snub you for speaking Spanish and not English. It’s refreshing that people aren’t like that here. There is normal or abnormal because there is no standard or cultural norm. It’s impossible to fit in, or not fit in. I love it!

I’ll leave you with a random fact I just became aware of: Jersey law states that citizens are not allowed to pump their own gas. They must wait on a gas pump attendant to service their car for them. Self service is illegal, isn’t that bizarre? I’m not too sure how strict they are with enforcing the law though, I think cops have more things to worry about than my Tio Martin getting out of the SUV and pumping gas. Oops, did I just admit that I witnessed a crime?!