February Celebrations

It is only the 20th and I’ve already done my fair share of celebrating and/or partying this month. First a Super Bowl watch party, then a Luau office party, then my 1-year NY anniversary celebration, then my and Alex’s 7 months together and then to top it all off, Valentine’s Day!

First was the Super Bowl party on Feb 6. Alex and I went to his brother’s house to watch the Steelers take on the Packers. Of course my Kansas City Chiefs nor either NY football team was in it so the game itself was pretty pointless to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love football and knew it would be a good game, but it’s just not the same when you don’t have a team to cheer for. So what did I do? I chose a team. I decided to root for Pittsburgh because I have a few co-worker friends who are fans and I wanted them to get a victory. Alex of course decided to go against me and root for Green Bay. It ended up being a pretty good game, even though “my team” didn’t win. Of course Alex knows I hate to lose, as I am competitive by nature, so he did his fair share of rubbing it in that “his team” won, but it was all fun and games. I enjoyed the game, the food, the company and of course, the commercials. I wasn’t as impressed as past years, but there were a few ads that made me laugh or think, “good marketing strategy.” One example of a chuckle ad was the child Darth Vader using his mind power to start the car while his Dad was inside the house pushing the keyless-entry remote starter button (I will talk more about Darth later, weird I know, but you’ll see why). A good example of the latter was the Faith Hill Teleflora ad, where she tells a guy to “write what’s in his heart” as he’s struggling with what to say on a personal note he’s going to send with the flowers he’s sending his girlfriend for Valentine’s Day. He then writes, “Dear Kim, your rack is unreal.” I literally thought, “Funny, reaching the target audience, timely as Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, overall, good strategic planning on this one!” This was one of many ads that I made marketing strategy remarks on and eventually, Alex stopped me and said something like, “Lisa, you’re ruining this for me because I have no idea what you’re talking about.” LOL, I laughed and said “Sorry, I can’t help that my mind works like that, don’t blame me, blame KU’s J-School!” :-)

With NY experiencing a pretty harsh winter, it’s easy to start experiencing a slight case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. That being said, Patch decided to have a Luau at the office! What better to fight the winter blues than a Hawaiian Luau? Because I have the pleasure of planning events as part of my job at Patch, I was lucky enough to help plan and participate in a really great office happy hour fully equipped with decorations, food and drinks! The piña coladas were delicious and let’s just say I left the office this particular Friday feeling pretty good, which worked out nicely as I left work and headed to Arriba Arriba to celebrate my 1-year NY anniversary with my Tio Marty, Alex and friends.

Piña colada, yum!

Alex and I really enjoyed catching up with my Tio, Teddy and Jixxy (2 friends I met through my Tio right after I moved to NY) while eating delicious Mexican food and drinking the best margs in the city! My first time to Arriba Arriba was during my first trip to NYC when I was 18 and underage drinking (sorry Mom). I ended up getting so drunk off just 2 margaritas that I ended the night throwing up in my uncle’s toilet and sleeping on the bathroom floor. During another visit to NYC with 2 of my college roommates, we enjoyed 2 pitchers of margaritas at Arriba during our meal with both Martin and Jim. Then I moved to NY and have been frequenting the restaurant ever since. So when my Tio suggested Arriba Arriba as the venue for my anniversary celebration, I couldn’t think of a better place. During dinner I thought about everything that has taken place in the last year and it definitely put a smile on my face. Like I mentioned in my last post, it truly has been an amazing year and I’m so thankful for all the opportunities I’ve been given and proud of my accomplishments over the past 365 days. It will definitely be a year I will never forget!

Tio Martin, Teddy & Jixxy at Arriba Arriba

Alex and me at Arriba

As of February 9, Alex and I have been together for 7 months. It’s crazy to think how quickly the time went by. Sometimes it feels like just the other day I was crushing on the mailman trying to make small talk and forcing myself to “put myself out there.” I’m typically not a shy person, but when it came to meeting guys, I wasn’t very confident and definitely didn’t ever let guys know I was interested in them. After multiple chats with my sisters and friends about this “Alex guy” I had a crush on, I received enough encouragement to “hit on” him. I’m so glad my flirtatiousness lead to the exchange of numbers and soon after, a first date. Going out on a limb turned out to be totally worth it and Alex and I have been on some amazing dates and continue to really enjoy spending time together. Recently, we’ve been spending our time watching classic movies. It started because Alex would quote movies and I had no idea what he was talking about. I mean I love movies and watch them all the time, but mostly chick flicks and new stuff. You want to quote How to Lost a Guy in 10 days? Be my guest, I bet I’ll beat you to the next line, but if recite dialogue from Scarface, I’m at a loss, or should I say, I was at a loss when Alex did in fact quote Scarface. Other times we’d be flipping through the movie channels on cable and he’d ask me, “Have you seen this, have you seen that” and most of my answers were, “No.” Which would then follow with a, “You’ve never seen (fill in the movie title here)? Are you kidding me? Babe, it’s a classic. How have you never seen it?” I would usually say something smart aleck like, “Babe, I’m not as old as you, this movie was WAY before my time!” LOL, some of the movies were before his time as well, but he of course, had still seen them all. So all this lead to our new thing, watching classic movies together. We started out with Scarface which led to others like the entire Star Wars collection, Indiana Jones movies, Casino, Cleopatra, and the list goes on. To my surprise, I really liked these movies, especially Star Wars. Now I understand what all the hype is about. This type of movie typically doesn’t interest me, but I really enjoyed all 6 movies. Alex is obsessed with Darth Vador (see, told you I would mention good ‘ol Darth again) and his face would seriously light up when his character came on screen. He thinks he is one of the greatest villains of all time and “an all around bad ass.” You know how they say every couple should have a hobby or something they really enjoy doing together? Well, we found our thing, classic movie watching! Needless to say, I’m super thankful to have met such an amazing man and am grateful for the past 7 months!

Last weekend Alex and I celebrated Valentine’s Day on the Sunday before, February 13. I started the day off by going to the gym and then got a much needed manicure and pedicure. Then I headed to the hair salon to get my hair cut and styled. I love getting my hair cut in NYC because a blow out and style is included in the price of the cut. A blow out for those of you who don’t know is when they take a special brush and blow dryer and blow-dry your hair nice and straight. I love when the stylist does this because it only takes about 30 minutes to get my crazy curls from super curly to sleek and straight. I told my stylist I had a Val date that night so she did something a little extra and barrel-curled my straight locks, the outcome was awesome!

It is so rare for my hair to be straight, but when it is, I love it!

Alex picked me up about 5:00pm and was pleasantly surprised to see my new do. He said I looked beautiful and gave me red roses (smart man, lol! ;-) We headed to Benihana, a Japanese Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan, for our dinner reservation at 5:30pm. Alex had been before and said it was delicious and he was right, it was great. We followed dinner with some ice cream for dessert and then headed to the Empire State Building. Being a New Yorker, Alex had been to the ESB twice before, but it was my first time so I was more than excited to experience one of the world’s most iconic buildings. Considering it was about 9:00pm on a Sunday night and a little windy outside, there wasn’t a line at all. We walked right in and were sent straight to the elevators. When we got to the observation deck and walked out the door, I was breath-taken (I don’t think this is a real word, but you know what I mean). Partly because the wind was twice as intense that high up in the air, but mostly because it was amazing! Everyone knows that the New York City lights are incredible, but seeing them from this point of view was unbelievable. I could see all 5 boroughs, all the famous bridges, Times Square, the Chrysler Building and just about everything else there is to see in this city. It only took me 4 visits and 1 year as a permanent resident of New York to visit the Empire State Building and I’m so glad that when I finally did, it was with Alex. It was an amazing experience and something I will never forget!

Our chef made a rice heart for Valentine's Day

Alex and I at Benihana

Empire State Building entrance

Alex and I riding the elevator up, up and higher up!

Amazing view of the city

New York City baby!

Alex and me on top of the ESB! :-)

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day last week and a good President’s Day this week. Sorry for those of you who don’t get the day off, I’ll be thinking about you when I’m sleeping in and enjoying my Monday at home! ;-)

July came and went

Once again, I apologize for my lack of updates lately, I know it’s not a good excuse, but I have been very busy.

Considering I completely neglected my blog during the month of July, I thought I would give you all a super duper brief summary of the past month.

First of all, summer was in full bloom in New York and it was hotter than hell, pardon my language, but I am not exaggerating, it was in the hundreds for much of July. I tried to enjoy the nice weather, but to be honest it was miserably hot so I spent a lot of time indoors. With that being said, I should probably mention that much of this “indoor” time was spent at the office. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, I’m a workaholic, but I didn’t really have a choice as I had to prepare for my week vacation and then following my vacation I had to play catch up. The good news is, Patch hired an Office Assistant to help me out so slowly but surely, I have become less stressed out. Since Megan has been on-board, my hours have become more normal so my goal for August is to not stay at the office past 6:30-7:00pm. I will keep you updated on how that goes.

July in the City consisted of Gay Pride week, a few friends’ birthday celebrations, Friday night Happy Hours, and a lot of watching World Cup games. As I am sure you can imagine, I was super exited that Spain won the Championship! I of course would have loved to see the USA or Mexico win it all considering those are my “home” teams, but ever since studying abroad in Santiago, I consider Spain a third home so I was thrilled when they won.

Drag Queen at the Gay Pride Garden Party

Meaw's Birthday

¡Viva España!

Another July notable is the fact that I spent time with some familiar faces, and by familiar I mean Kansas girls, Jacey and Katy. Well, technically Katy is from Virginia, but we met at KU so I consider her a Kansan. Katy attended the NYU Summer Publishing Institute and is currently looking for full time employment in the city. She came to Happy Hour with my friends and me one Friday night, which was fun. It was so nice for me to actually bring someone I know rather than be introduced to new people that others know. Jacey is in the city for the summer. She has been a friend of mine since the 6th grade. She went to college in LA and I haven’t lived in the same state as her since high school so you can imagine how excited I was/am that we’ve been hanging out in NYC.

Jace and Me in NYC!

It is really nice to know a lot of people now, which is precisely why I have been so busy lately. When I am not working, I am hanging out with…someone. I have so many friends I have met through my Tio and others I have met/know on my own. It’s been nice to call up a friend at lunch time to see if they want to go grab a bite or go out to lunch with some of my co-workers who are now friends. It’s like I actually have a life here. Before I still felt like my life was in Kansas, but I’m in NYC for now. And now, I feel like my life is in New York, but I always have Kansas to return to.

I must admit that part of this “belonging” feeling I am experiencing is partly because of a new man in my life, Alex. I won’t go into details as I don’t want to jinx anything, but I will say that I have had a crush on this guy since March and we finally went on a date at the beginning of July. Needless to say, a first date led to a second, third, fourth, so on and so forth. Of course it’s New York City so our dates are amazing…Walking along the water at South Street Seaport, Watching fireworks in Central Park, Dancing in the middle of the street, I will stop right there before you gag. ;) All you need to know is, I absolutely enjoy spending time with him and I’m happy!

Alex & Me out on a Saturday night in the city

The biggest July notable was my vacation to Kansas City, pictures and details in my blog to follow!

Enjoying June

I’m on a roll…June is still going really well! I told you guys, didn’t I! I said June was going to be a great month and it truly has been. Here are a few notables:

This past Friday I got a new tattoo that I absolutely love! For those of you who didn’t know, I already had 2 and they are both super meaningful to me, but this third one is even more special. I got the word “Fuerza” on my left wrist which means Strength and Power in Spanish. I got it for a couple of different reasons, but the deciding factor was the recent passing of my Abuelo. If you read my May 31st “There is no place like home” post, you already know the story of my grandfather and what an amazing person he was. You know that he was a strong and courageous man who sacrificed a lot for his family. Although he will never be forgotten tattoo or not, every time I look at it, I will think of him and what a wonderful man he was and how lucky I am to be a part of such an amazing family. As far as the placing of the tattoo, that has meaning as well. Many people have asked me why I choose to put a tattoo on my wrist of all places. While I do understand that it is a very showy or obvious place for a tattoo, I don’t really care. Here is a little anecdote to explain my reasoning: I spent many days/nights in April and May crying myself to sleep. My Abuelo had been in and out of the hospital and nursing homes since March and every time I received an update regarding his health, it didn’t seem like he was getting better. I was well aware of the fact that he wouldn’t be with us for much longer and it absolutely broke my heart that I wasn’t there during the little time he had left. I felt selfish for going on with my life in New York, while he and the rest of my family were going through so much back home in Kansas. Once he actually passed, I spent hours, many of which were on a plane, with my head in my hands crying. I had to tell myself many of times to just be strong and that I would get through this. So when I decided to get this tattoo I wanted to get it in a place where when I’m sad or upset and crying about something and my head is in my hands, I would see it and remember to have strength. So really, my tattoo has a double meaning. The word “Fuerza” is a description of my grandfather, but it’s also a reminder to myself, the emotional person that I am, to be strong because no matter what happens in life, I can and will get through it.

Fuerza, aka Strength

This past weekend was fabulous. Friday night after I got my tattoo I headed to Happy Hour at XES. As always, we enjoyed the 2 for 1 drink special. After HH we headed to Pongsri for dinner. Pongsri is a Thai restaurant that many of our friends work at. It is absolutely delicious! We had a great meal and then headed to Limmerick’s, which is a bar we frequent on Friday nights after HH. After 2 rounds of Irish Car Bombs we decided to call it a night! It was a super fun night with a diverse group of people. There were 7 of us, all from different places around the world: Australia, Germany, USA (me), Scotland, Switzerland, Thailand, and Mexico (Martin). Isn’t that bizarre? Like I mentioned before, the diversity in NYC is one of the many reasons I love it here. Saturday morning was a struggle for both my Tio and me. We were regretting those car bombs the night before, that’s for sure. We managed to get up and get ready for a BBQ at a park in Brooklyn. It was a friend of ours’ birthday so we had no choice but to deal with our hangovers the best way we know how, so we got to the park and drank more, lol. By mid-afternoon we were both doing great and enjoying a beautiful Saturday at East River State Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was a nice park with awesome views of the Manhattan skyline. We were with many Asian people from Japan, China, Korea, and Thailand so this was no hotdog and hamburger barbeque. Instead we grilled fish, shrimp, chicken heart, Korean steak, and a variety of other things. Although I was skeptical of a few things, I tried everything and everything was delish! Overall, it was a great weekend in the city! :)

From left: Australia, Germany, USA, Scotland, Switzerland, Mexico, Thailand

German friend, Gernot & Me

Manhattan Skyline from East River Park in Brooklyn

Yummy BBQ

Enjoying June!

Ayako, me, and Rin

Beautiful sunset

One last thing, yesterday was my dad’s 51st birthday so Happy Birthday Dad! Also, with today being Father’s Day I would like to say Happy Father’s Day to all Dads, especially the greatest of all, mi Padre! In addition to all that today is my parents’ 29th wedding anniversary so Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. You guys are wonderful role models and the reason I believe in happily ever after. And last, but not least, tomorrow, Monday, June 21 is my best friend Val’s 22nd birthday so Happy Birthday Val! I hope you have the wonderful birthday celebration that you deserve! I am sorry to all of you that I can’t be there to help celebrate all these great occasions, but just know that I’m constantly thinking about you guys. I love you all very much!

Happy Birthday and Father's Day to the best Dad

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

Happy Birthday Val!

Back to the Daily Grind

This past week was my first full week back at…life. With graduation and the passing of my grandfather, May was a crazy, exhausting, and difficult month to say the very least. When I woke up Tuesday morning after a long and relaxing Memorial Day weekend and realized it was June 1, I told myself, “June is going to be a good month.” I said it, and I am determined to make it true.

When I returned to New York the last week in May, I felt nothing but sadness and a bit of loneliness. Here I was, still grieving in an apartment all by myself thousands of miles away from the only people that could make me feel better. And to make matters worse, when Memorial Day weekend came along, I had nothing to do and we all know that when you are sad and have nothing to keep your mind occupied, you can’t help but to continue sulking in your sadness. It was really difficult because I had 3 days to do absolutely nothing, which in most circumstances is nice and relaxing, but in mine, was a bit depressing. All of my NY friends went home for the long weekend, my Tio was still in Kansas City, and I was going out of my mind bored. I ended up doing a whole lot of nothing. After 3 days of living out of my suitcase still, I unpacked and did laundry, I cleaned the apartment, I went shopping and I laid outside in the courtyard on a blanket and read. Believe it or not, by the time Tuesday came and it was time to go back to work, I was ready. It was such a beautiful day outside and as I was walking the pugs in the morning, that’s when I told myself, “June is going to be a good month.” I think this is the point when I realized that it was time to stop being sad and as much as I hated to say it, it was time to move on. I know that sounds like a terrible thing to say after someone you love dies, but what else can you do, stay sad forever? I will obviously never forget my abuelo, period. And every day since Tuesday morning has been a little bit better and gotten a little bit easier. So like I said, with the end of May filled with sadness and a bit of loneliness I am SO ready to feel happy again in June!

This past work week was a long one, even after Monday being a Holiday. I was definitely back to the daily grind and I hate to admit it, but I think the earliest I got home from work was 8:30pm. I am very well aware of the fact that this is ridiculous. In fact, as I was speaking to my oldest sister Kim about it the other day, I decided that I am NOT going to be aware of it and NOT do anything about it. I don’t want to be that girl who gets consumed with work all the time and doesn’t make time to enjoy other things. With this being said, I made a summer pact with myself – Out of the 5 work days of the week, I will leave work by 6:30pm on at least 4 of them, if not all of them. I know this still seems late, but it’s not. It’s normal considering the typical work day in New York is 9:30-6:30. Especially with it being summer, I just CAN’T allow myself to not get off work and enjoy the nice weather no matter how much work I have left to do at the end of the day. This pact led me to make yet another pact with myself. Considering I will be leaving work by 6:30, I have plenty of time to exercise more regularly. I made a pact with myself that 4/5 days a week; I would either go for a jog or take the pugs on an extra long walk, or…something, anything! It’s a win-win situation because I love being outside in the evening when the sun is just starting to set and it’s nice outside without being too hot and I really want to start getting healthy in every sense of the word so I can spend my evenings working out, outside. I told ya, win-win! ;) I have to tell you, the main reason I am mentioning these pacts on here is because I want each and every one of my “followers” to hold me to them. I feel like saying it out loud or rather writing about it for the public to read, makes me more motivated to actually follow through.

Speaking of getting back to the daily grind, Friday night was the first time in a long time that I went to Happy Hour at XES. It was nice to get back to my normal Friday night routine! I know this may sound a little contradicting considering I just told you that I want to work on becoming healthier, but I will have you know that instead of ordering my normal beer or vodka and sugary juice, I switched my drink to rum and diet coke. Although I know drinking alcohol in general is not very healthy, at least I chose a low-cal drink, right? I mean come on; you have to give me some credit for trying! It was nice to see all the “regulars” again and catch up on the last couple of weeks of our lives. After HH we headed to Monster for dinner where we ate fabulous sushi! Have I ever mentioned how much I love sushi? Friday night was the first time that I really got adventurous and tried your non-typical rolls. The most notable thing I tried was eel, and boy am I glad I did, it was delicious!

Saturday I slept in and then spent most of the afternoon online doing various things. Saturday night I went to see Sex and the City 2! I have been dying to see it since its release last week and I just couldn’t wait another day. It of course like most sequels was not as good as the first one, but was still amazing! Considering it is about 4 women’s journeys through life, it’s one of those movies that any woman at any age can appreciate, and I am no exception. I loved it for the simple fact that it made me laugh out loud AND because it’s about 4 amazing New York women which obviously couldn’t be more appealing to me at this point in my life. Before the movie started I saw a trailer for Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts and it got me so excited to finish the book. My goal is to finish it before the movie comes out later this summer so I have a lot of reading to do as I am only about a third of the way finished. With that being said, I am going to put this lap top down and pick up my book.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! :)

Jersey Shore!

Monday afternoon my Tio Marty and I drove up to Jersey (My Tio Martin’s boss and long time friend has a beach house located on the Jersey Shore). It was about an hour and 15 minute drive outside of the city so it was a fun little road trip in which many tunes were sung, or to put it more adequately, jammed to! We put the song “Empire State of Mind” on repeat on my iPod and seriously jammed out to it at least 6 times! Have I mentioned how much I love this song!? ;) We arrived in “Highlands” a neighborhood located in Monmouth, the northernmost county on the Jersey Shore. I’ve been to this beach house before, but very briefly almost 4 years ago so my memory of it was vague. I don’t know how that is possible after seeing it on Monday. It is fabulous! Once in the gate, there is a narrow driveway uphill that leads you to a very quaint and beautiful home. The entire front of the house is glass windows and French doors that allow you to constantly see the wonderful view of the shore line. Even in the Winter the water and scenery was amazing! The house is rather large with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, multiple sitting areas/TV rooms, and an awesome deck equipped with an area to barbeque and dine and of course, to top it all off, a hot tub. Talk about a summer beach house! ;) While my Tio watered the plants and did other “house-sitting” duties (his boss is on vacation so he’s been looking after the house) I explored and enjoyed the views. We also did laundry while we were there and watched some movies. It is such a quiet and tranquil place. I can’t quite explain it; just being there makes you more relaxed.

Side Note: If you’re wondering why we went all the way to Jersey to do laundry, there is a nice big washer and dryer at the house, which makes it easy to do large loads, especially bedding. Our apartment building has a laundry facility on the main floor, but considering it is a “community” laundry room, you might have to wait for other tenants to finish their load before you start yours, and the machines aren’t that big. So because of these reasons, every time a trip to Jersey is made, laundry goes too!

I woke up Tuesday with absolutely nothing on my calendar, which again is kind of nice, but is getting kind of awkward also. I am SO not used to having so much time on my hands! Even with small holiday breaks from school/work, I never had more than 3-4 weeks vacation. I have been in NYC for 2 weeks and although I’m enjoying waking up at whatever time I want and doing whatever I want, I am getting a little anxious about finding a job. I know I shouldn’t be. Every single one of you who is reading this and has been in the working world for a while is probably thinking that I am nuts, that I have the REST of my life to work so I should enjoy my time off. To all of you I say this; believe me, I AM enjoying my time off. However, I have always been a go-getter or a motivated individual so although not doing anything super important with my day is nice, it is also making me a little stir crazy. So to “cure” my craziness on Tuesday, I decided to clean/organize. When I arrived here, I didn’t really take the time to put everything in its rightful place (because there wasn’t one yet obviously); I just kind of lived out of my suitcase for a bit, and then eventually just put things wherever I put them for the time being. Considering I am a very organized person who has a “place” for everything, it was starting to drive me nuts. So, I spent all Tuesday afternoon cleaning and organizing the coat and linen closets at the apartment. I consolidated a lot of things and made everything much more organized, which created more space for my things. It not only took up some of my time, it gave me that feeling that I am here to stay. No more grabbing things out of my suitcase, now if I want to pick out an outfit, etc. I must go to “my” closet like any normal person. I was a little skeptical/timid about doing this when I first arrived because I didn’t feel like it was my place to reorganize things around the apartment considering it’s not mine. However, after being here 2 weeks and chatting with my Tio about how things could use some organization (his words, not mine), I took it upon myself to go for it, and I’m glad I did! I feel much better now (I’m a little OCD if you couldn’t tell) and he is grateful things are well-organized.

The other notable thing that happened on Tuesday was a phone call I received from the recruiter who I had a phone interview with last Thursday. She called to follow-up about a formal interview with the hiring manager at her company. I was very excited to receive this call because this is the one interview I had last week that I felt very good about and was more than interested in the opportunities available. I of course agreed to an interview Wednesday afternoon and it went great, so great that they asked me to come back on Thursday for a second round of interviews. Within 2 days I met with 3 VPs of the company and now it’s just a waiting game. I am hoping to hear something by Tuesday/Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Thursday after my interview we made another trip out to the beach house in Jersey. We stayed the night and spent a nice relaxing Friday there. Just in case you’re wondering, My Tio’s job is very flexible this time of year. It is the slow season so he doesn’t work 40 hours a week and is able to work from home a lot. Business picks back up in the Spring so you probably won’t be reading about us taking little road trips up to Jersey during the week. It will have to be weekends if anything because he’ll be working more regular hours and I will HOPEFULLY have a job that unfortunately won’t allow me to spend my afternoons relaxing at the beach house. Although if someone knows of a job/company who allows that, please do tell! ;)

We of course got back from Jersey in time to make it the end of Happy Hour, which was fun as always. Afterwards we went to eat dinner with some friends at a really good Chinese restaurant and followed that by going to an Irish pub until the wee hours of the morning. Overall, it was fun night!

Well I’ve spent most of today (Saturday) being lazy so it’s about time I go jump in the shower and get ready for dinner. My Tio’s friends invited us over for dinner tonight so we’re headed to Brooklyn here soon. Should be a good time! I hope you all enjoy the weekend! :)

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! ;)