On the Move

Upon my sister’s request, here is the latest in the life of Lisa.

Since my last update (10 day vacation – to Kansas City) I have been back in NY and on the move (in every sense of the word). I have been on the move in that I’ve been super busy and literally in that I moved out of Stuy Town, Manhattan and into Park Slope, Brooklyn.

On Wednesday, September 1 my Tio and I moved out of Stuy Town. Other than being a pain in the ass (I hate moving), it was kind of sad as we both really liked Stuy Town and both enjoyed being roomies. My Tio moved to the Jersey Shore and I moved to the borough of Brooklyn. My friends from the KU J-school, Val and Katy, drove a moving truck from Kansas to NYC and after a few weeks of unpacking, painting and decorating, our apartment looks great! Katy and I will be permanent roommates for a year, and Val and a friend from high school, Jacey, are our temporary roomies. Jacey has been staying with us since day 1, but is leaving for Cali in October and Val is spending the entire Fall semester in New York and then is most likely moving back to KC. I of course miss living with my Tio, but am really glad to live with my friends. We have a lot of fun together even we aren’t doing much, like watching the friends DVDs.

Speaking of Friends, all 4 of us girls are obsessed with friends so we decided to attend Friend’s Trivia Night at a bar/restaurant last week and won first place! For this reason, and many others, I love having girl roommates. We like the same shows, share clothes, help “style” each other’s “going out” outfits, you know, all the good stuff.

All 4 of us absolutely love our Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. It is considered one of New York City's most desirable neighborhoods. In 2010, it was ranked #1 in New York by New York Magazine citing its quality public schools, dining, nightlife, shopping, access to public transit, green space, quality housing, safety, and creative capital, among other aspects. The apartment is on the 2nd level of a 6 story walk-up and right next to Prospect Park (a huge park that is the Central Park of Brooklyn), right next to the train station (20 minutes to get to my job in Manhattan), and right next to a laundry mat, brand new YMCA, and lots of cute restaurants and shops. The more time I spend in BK, the more I love it! My next order of business is getting to know Prospect Park and it's surrounding attractions a little more (The Brooklyn Museum and the Botanical Garden). I plan on doing this by taking jogs/walks though the park. I NEED the exercise and want to enjoy the lovely fall weather that is approaching. Fall is my favorite season. It’s football season for one, but also, I love Halloween, Thanksgiving, and of course, my birthday in November! I also enjoy the cool crisp weather and appreciate the beauty of watching the leaves change on the trees. Not to mention it’s sweater and cute boots season, you have got to love that.

My room

Window view

Dresser, TV, closet

In other news, I am recently “in a relationship” or shall we say “Facebook official”. Alex and I have been dating since the first week in July and things have gone so well. Every single date has been amazing, even the times where we just stay home and he cooks me dinner. Oh yeah, did I mention he cooks?! And not just anything, yummy Puerto Rican food! We have so much fun together and I haven’t laughed and smiled more than I have in the past few months. We compliment each other very well because we are similar, but have our differences, which makes the relationship fun and interesting. I am happy to call such an awesome man my boyfriend! ;-)

Alex had no idea I was taking this pic, and would

probably hate me if he knew I posted it on my blog! ;-)

On another food note, other than PR food that Alex (and his mother – who is an amazing cook) has been making me, I have had some phenomenal Indian food. Last Saturday I attended a traditional Hindu wedding with my Tio and the celebration afterward included an amazing array of Indian food. The ceremony itself was beautiful. It was honestly a cultural experience that I very much enjoyed. As most of you know, since I did a study abroad in Spain I have been very interested in travel and learning about other cultures and although I didn’t understand all the traditions at this wedding, I appreciated the beauty. It was interesting and emotional, to the point where I cried, which I know isn’t saying too much because I am a basket case sometimes, but I didn’t even know these people that well and I cried so you can imagine the emotion that goes along with Hindu weddings. The celebration afterward (not the reception as that was the next day – Hindu weddings are multiple day affairs) featured great food and music. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the women all fancy in their traditional Indian clothing (sari’s) dancing to the upbeat rhythm of the music. I’m not going to lie, it reminded me of Slumdog Millionaire.

Hindu wedding

Yummy Indian food

And lastly, the weather update. Last Thursday there was a tornado in Park Slope. It is very rare for a tornado to hit NY, but the crazy thing is that not only did it hit Brooklyn, but it hit my new neighborhood. And to be more specific, I was basically in it! Apparently you can take the girl out of Kansas, but you can’t stop Kansas from following her! To make a long story super short, I was in the laundry mat down the street when a huge storm blew through Park Slope, literally, the twister touched down and caused some decent damage. I was a little scared, but not nearly as frantic as the other people in the laundry mat. Like I said, tornados are pretty much unheard of on the East Coast so to most people, this storm was pretty insane. After about 5-10 minutes of serious downpour, and I mean fierce rain that would probably hurt your body like needles and ferocious winds and flying debris, it was over, but left a mess behind. Tree limbs were everywhere – on the sidewalks, blocking the street, and worst of all, on top of buildings and cars. Whole tree stumps were out of the ground and multiple glass windows were shattered. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt. Photos and videos that popped up on the internet afterward show the funnel right above where I was, which is just crazy!

The second big storm to pass through NYC was straight from Kansas – Girls Weekend in the City!! With me, Val, and Jacey already living in New York, 3 of our girlfriends, Jen, Kate, and Megs came to visit this past weekend and let’s just say we took this city by storm! ;-) From Friday night when they arrived until Monday morning when they returned to Kansas we had a blast! More details and pics to follow!

All the girls in the Financial District w/ the famous bull

(minus me - taking the photo)