The One Month Mark

As of today I have officially lived in the city for one month. While it hasn't really been that long, it feels like I left Texas six months ago. Much to my parent's dismay, I'm no where near homesick. I miss people and things about Texas, but I would not go back and change my decision to move here. Since living here, I have learned a lot and experienced even more. Some of it is trivial, while other parts are significant to my survival.

There have been nights where I have had a blast and nights where (if I cried) I wanted to cry myself to sleep. There were days I didn't think I could walk another block without dying and days where I walked for about three hours for the fun of it. There have been times where I love temping and times I feel like a loser for not having a real job. There are days I have loved being independent and days I hated not having my close friends by my side. There are times I love meeting new people and times when it's even worse to tell some people I have met bye. There are moments I just want to be completely alone and moments when I want to have a ton of people around. Sometimes I question what I was thinking moving to this huge city all alone and then know it's exactly where I am supposed to be.

While none of this may be of any importance to most, it has all been huge for me. It has helped me actually deal with my emotions and feelings (which is huge for me). I have realized not knowing what comes next is actually a great adventure instead of some scary unknown. I have gained an inner strength that has helped me become more confident in my life here. I have realized there are still great guys out there and sometimes they show up when you least expect it. I have once again been reminded that God always knows better than I do and whatever is supposed to happen will.

I look back at this past month and can't believe it flew by so quickly. I could have never predicted half the things that happened to me, but wouldn't change any of them. I can't wait to see what life has to offer this coming month.

Random Things I've Learned

New York City is completely different from any city I have ever lived in. That is probably one of my favorite things about it. I feel like it's a new adventure each day. I am constantly learning new things and meeting interesting people. While I am aware that I haven't really lived here very long, I do feel like I have gathered a semi-decent amount of knowledge about the city. Here are some things I learned the hard way and some the easy way:

Having to find an apartment and move in New York is the worst thing ever, especially when you don't have a car. 

Always carry an umbrella with you because the Weather Channel is never accurate.

Food truck carts are lifesavers at 3:00am.

When people say it's expensive to live here, they really aren't exaggerating. 

Good Mexican food doesn't exist here. 

Don't go out in expensive neighborhoods unless you plan on finding a guy to buy your drinks all night.

NEVER order a frozen margarita here. 

It's better to pass out on a friends couch than to have to walk 20 blocks home in heels.

Walking is often times quicker than taking the subway.

Club promoters are fun because you get free drinks, but then you're stuck hanging out with random girls all night and that's never fun.

Always carry cash on you.

Don't wear heels out if you plan on walking everywhere. 

Finding a laundromat is not as easy as you would think in my neighborhood.

Happy Hour deals are a must on a limited budget.

Having a living room is not optional when you're sharing a one bedroom.

Brunch with unlimited drinks is the best thing ever.

Coffee is necessary to function at work.

If possible, have an apartment with a doorman.

Avoid Times Square at all costs, unless you enjoy being surrounded by people who don't know where they are going and walk slow.

While none of this is pertinent information, I have found it makes life easier when you know what to watch out for. Finding it out the hard way can sometimes lead to a great story in the end though.

Greenwich Village

My friend Heather shared with me how she learned the city. Each weekend she and her friend would pick a neighborhood and explore it for the day. They would find a place to eat brunch, shop and just stroll along the streets. I decided I loved this idea and wanted to do it as well. The other weekend my friend Alexa and I choose to spend the day in Greenwich Village.

We decided this as we were eating brunch by my apartment, but figured we could always find other things to do in the neighborhood. As we got off the subway, we began exploring the cute little shops around the area. We began browsing through one shop that had hilarious birthday cards and interesting/random little knickknacks.

Across the street I saw the restaurant A Salt & Battery. I immediately knew it had been on some Food Network show and looked it up on my iPhone app (yes I realize that's kinda pathetic). It has been on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Totally Unexpected" for their deep fried candy bars and "Throwdown with Bobby Flay: Fish & Chips." Since Alexa and I were too full for fish and chips, we decided the deep fried candy bar was a must. I mean after all we are from Texas and believe anything deep fried automatically tastes better.

The store was very simple and small with only one row of bar stools to sit at. We looked on the menu and instantly found the deep fried candy bar. There were three different choices and we hadn't even heard of two of the candy bars.

I asked the guy which one was the best and he said he preferred the Lion Bar. I told him we would take one. After a few minutes it was ready and looked delicious.

Since it had just come out of the fryer, it was extremely hot. While Alexa waited for her half to cool down, I ate mine piping hot.

Absolutely amazing! It was crunchy and chocolaty and made me feel like I was at the county fair. We were instantly in love and if we hadn't been so full, we would have ordered another. We plan to go back soon to try their fish and chips and of course another deep fried candy bar.

Afterwards we strolled around the streets of Greenwich Village and decided to try different happy hours. Each time we passed a place with a decent one, we would pop in and have one drink and then move on to the next. We found some places with decent drinks and we also found some of the worst frozen margarita I have ever had in my life. We also met some very interesting people along the way.

Overall I would say it was a very successful day and can't wait for our next neighborhood exploration.

Postal Service Update

About two weeks ago I wrote about how the the lost art of sending letters/gifts in the mail. Ever since then I have not only been writing people letters, I have been receiving some as well! I put together a collage of what all has brightened my days these past few weeks.

I received a gift card and umbrella from my friend Shelby, multiple small gifts from my mom, letters from family and friends and a package of three gifts from my friend Kathryn. She packaged each one separate, so it would be more fun to open. I decided to open one a day and it felt like it was my birthday haha. She even sent one that says I'm not allowed to open it until I am having a horrible day. Hopefully I don't have one anytime soon, but I can't wait to see what's inside when I do.

I want to say thank you to everyone who has sent me something. Every day I found something in my mail box, a huge smile was put on my face. It encourages me to continue to send letters and gifts to others and brighten their day just like some of you brightened mine.

I just made a list of letters to write and so far it has five people on it. Hopefully I don't run out of stationary!

Fact: Hot Guys Don't Take the Subway

For girls Disney movies made us grow up thinking one day we would meet Prince Charming and he would sweep us off our feet. As we grew up, we realized most guys were not like that and it wasn't going to change anytime soon. While living in New York, I have also witnessed another false idea of reality being told to women today. I've learned, much to my dismay, attractive men do NOT use the subway system.

Television is continuously trying to make you think otherwise, but I'm sorry it's just not true. They always portray a man and woman meeting on the subway, little girls blushing over a crush they see down the cart, or changing a ticket to sit next to someone you will end up marrying. They make it seem so real and natural. You start to believe maybe you too could one day meet someone on your way home from work.

Up until these past few days, I have taken the take the subway multiple times a day. The entire time I have lived here (and yes I realize it's only been 3 weeks), I have only seen maybe a total of five attractive men using the metro stations. The worst part is two were married, one looked like he had a girlfriend and I'm pretty sure the other two were still in school.

I have definitely have had guys talk to me on the subway. I have talked with cute elderly men, creepy old guys, polite married couples, gangster guys, dorky guys, guys who are wayyyy to young for me, guys who are wayyy to old and some of whom you would have to see for yourself to understand. Let's just say I would never be interested in any of them.

I just find it odd out of so many people living here, only occasionally do I see attractive ones. Now I'm not saying New York City is void of attractive men because I have met some, but you would just think they would be more abundant. I'm thinking I must be using the wrong form of transportation (maybe only hot guys take cabs), or I'm going to the wrong restaurants/bars (maybe hot guys can afford more than me), or maybe they are just very rare here. I'm not sure, but whatever it is I would like to find out.

Don't get me wrong I'm not looking to meet my soul mate or anything during a subway ride. I'm not even looking for a boyfriend anytime soon, but when I do change my mind I would like to know where to go to find him.

Life in General

So besides moving into my new apartment, nothing too exciting is going on in my life these days to blog about (especially when I can't upload pictures). So I guess I'll just blog about a little of everything going on in general.

It's exciting to see our apartment starting to really come together! Most of the boxes are unpacked and everything is put away. Last night we went to a store around the corner from us and bought a huge mirror to put in our bedroom and some shelving for our bathroom. After Tyler installed everything, it felt so much better.

I am the type of person who likes to live in an area to see how I will want things before I start hanging up hooks, shelves, etc and Erica is the exact opposite. She is ready to have everything set up asap. While I do agree with her, at the same time I just don't know where I want to put half the stuff yet. It's interesting to see our different personalities and it's nice finally being roommates and having to deal with these differences.

I am dying to cook now that we finally have our own kitchen, but we literally have maybe 1 foot of counter space. We are in desperate need of storage everywhere, so Tyler is looking at installing more shelving and a counter top in the kitchen. Hopefully it will happen soonish so Erica and can start making our weekly dinners together. We decided we are going to cook for anyone who asks and hopefully meet more people haha.

The more we unpack, the more we realize how much we still need for the apartment. Even common items like windex, detergent, bathroom soap, etc. Normally having to buy these things randomly is no big deal, but buying it all at once costs a lot more. I definitely have to watch my budget more and eat out less. After we get the necessities though, it will get better.

My best friend Christy is coming to visit tomorrow and I can't wait! We have known each other since we were three. We get along so well it's ridiculous. Since her college was about an eight hour drive from mine and her parents moved to Thailand, we haven't been able to see each other very often these past couple of years. The last time I saw her was when I was living in Nashville last summer and she came to visit for a week. It will be good to see her and catch up.

My friend Alan is also coming to visit on Friday. I met him when I was in Nashville last summer, so I haven't seen him in a year either. It's kinda like a reunion weekend since him and Christy know each other too. He's only staying one night because he's going to visit some friends in Jersey, but I'm still really excited. Whenever we are together we always have a good time, so I can't wait for the weekend!

Work is going really well. I went and saw the Alexander McQueen exhibit on Monday. While it was really cool, I don't understand why people are waiting in line for three hours to see it. It has been so crazy with all the people here. I love walking through all the different rooms when I have to run errands though. All the rooms are so interesting and have beautiful items/paintings. My boss encourages me to explore whenever I have down time.

I have been receiving a few things in the mail from friends back home and let me tell y'all THANK YOU!! It has been making my week so much better. Once I can upload pictures, I will post more about my surprises.

I'm going to happy hour with Erica, Tyler and my friend Everett tonight. We are trying to find some place with good margaritas, but I don't know how successful we will be. Hopefully we will have internet tomorrow and I can start sharing more with everyone.

Weekend Moving Adventures

Sorry I haven't written the past few days. I have been extremely busy moving. Also, I haven't had internet since Friday and it's hard to blog on my phone. I'm using a friends computer, so I can't upload photos yet, but as soon as I get internet at my new apartment I will share plenty with you! Ok so let me tell you about my weekend.

As of Friday our sublease moved everything out of the apartment to her new place. I got home around 10:00pm that night and the place was so empty. I mean obviously I knew it would be, but seeing it made it real. Erica and I were planning on sleeping on a blow up mattress. Well when I got there and blew it up, I realized it was only a twin size....awesome. Erica ended up sleeping on the couch at our friends apartment and I slept on the mattress.

Since I was extremely exhausted, I decided I didn't want to go out Friday night. I was lying on the blowup mattress ready for bed and next thing I knew Heather (the girl who we subleased from) and a few of her friends came over to paint. Needless to say I felt like a complete loser being in an empty apartment all alone in bed at 10:30pm on a Friday night. It made me realize I need to start making new friends asap.

Saturday morning Erica and I went to meet up with the tenants from the apartment we were moving into. We paid them for a few things they were leaving for us and we got the keys. We were so excited that in less than 24 hours we would have our own place.

Erica decided to call the storage place to let them know we would be moving out the next day. The storage place informed us they don't open until 10:00am on Sundays and we had movers scheduled for 8:00am. Erica finally arranged for the movers to switch their appointment with us and move us at 10:00am, but they had another appointment at 1:00pm so they had to be done quickly. This was obviously fine with us since that meant we didn't have to pay them as much.

Well we realized with such a limited amount of time to move on Sunday, we were going to have to move all of the stuff from out sublease to our new apartment on our own. So around 9:00pm on Saturday night we packed everything up, hailed two mini van taxi's and loaded up all of our stuff and took it to our new place. After throwing all our boxes on the floor, we agreed we deserved a night out in our new neighborhood. We went to a couple different places and decided we are going to love living there.

Since our storage unit was in Long Island City (about a 30 minute subway ride from our new apartment), we had to wake up early. After we were up, we realized we forget to get all of our stuff out of the bathroom at our sublease. I had no face wash, toothbrush or soap. Needless to say I felt gross all day.

As we were getting ready to go to the storage unit, the movers called and told us they were running behind and would meet us at 10:30. Subways always run slower on the weekends and as we wait for our train, 4 uptown trains and 3 downtown trains pass us before we finally see ours.

Upon arriving at the storage unit, we find out the movers in fact don't have a truck, but a van. Immediately we are scared all of our stuff isn't going to fit. They assure us everything will be fine and begin unloading our unit. Two hours later they finally have the truck loaded, but of course not everything fits. Erica has to take a cab with some boxes while I ride with them to let them into the apartment.

They begin to unload all of our stuff in a hurry because they are late for their next appointment. As they are almost done we ask how much we owe them to write the checks. They tell us they don't accept checks, but cash only. Erica and I both have cash on us so we say ok. They told Erica they charged $60/hour. They worked for 3 hours so we were ready to pay them $180.

They began to argue with us saying we owe them more money. They said it would normally take 5 hours to move all of our stuff, but since they were so busy they hurried for us. They wanted us to pay them for 5 hours even though the only worked for 3. They also said since it was the 31st we should pay them more since it was a busy day.

Erica and I argued with them and told them we refused to pay them for time they didn't work, they never told us it would cost more to move today and we could tell they were in a hurry because all the furniture was scratched. Needless to say they weren't pleased and basically started yelling at us. We paid them $200 and told them to get out of our apartment.

After they left Erica and I began to put together our apartment. Our first task was setting up our beds. This was quite comical, but eventually we did it. We worked on our apartment for the rest of the afternoon. We have most of the kitchen and our bedrooms set up, but it doesn't look like it at all. We still have boxes, clothes and random stuff everywhere.

We only have one closet, so trying to find enough room for all of our clothes and to store stuff is proving to be difficult. Once we have everything put up, we are going to see what we need to buy to help with storage and save space.

After moving all day and trying to unpack Erica and I were extremely exhausted. We both passed out at around 10:30 last night. It felt amazing finally being able to sleep in our own beds, room and apartment. I can't wait to post pictures once everything is organized!