..:: un mechant mardi à New York ::..

SO last Tuesday was an incredibly exciting day for me for many reasons: a) my first visitor! Mike, who graduated from my program last year, was here taking a course for his job and knew I was here so he had suggested we meet up after our work days. b) my first NHL game! I don't know why I hadn't thought of doing this myself - so I jumped on the opportunity when Mike suggested it! c) my first NHL game at Madison Square Gardens! Apparently it's the most famous area in the world... so they claim lol d) THE MONTREAL CANADIENS WERE PLAYING THE RANGERS - I don't even need to explain this one except to say I'm disappointed I didn't have my habs jersey with me! Mike and I met up and ate at a pub called Stout and then headed over to MSG. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!! I felt a little bad for Mike because of how excited I was LOL - I had a sign and everything! (Carla took a picture before I left the office I'll have to grab it from her...) There were some hilarious Habs fans right in front of us too with shirts and masks - I was actually surprised how many habs fans there were at the stadium too. But it was great because to top it all off - THE HABS WON THE GAME! 3-1!!

Here are some pictures from the game :)

Face lift!!!

So I was reading my blog taking a trip down memory lane... I realized that it is so hard to read! As much as I loved that last background and thought it was perfectly matched to the title of the blog, I decided to go with comfort over aesthetics - hopefully this makes it easier for everyone to read!!!

..:: second last sunday ::..

Feeling refreshed from the night in, I thought I was ready to take on Sunday - again not ready to let mother nature ruin another day for me here since I have so few left! But as soon as I stepped out of my apartment, I knew my third umbrella was not going to last, although at least today I wore my jacket with a hood - definitely way too warm of a coat for the weather but again the hood made up for it.

I didn't really have a plan for the day when I left the house so I just decided to wander uptown. I walked up to Anthropologie on 50-something and decided that might be where I spend my money to get a beauty grad dress... we'll see ;) After teasing myself with beautiful dresses and summery outfits, I decided I would catch a matinee. Waiting in the TKTS line I got caught in the most ridiculous and spur of the moment down pour - totally unacceptable. It didn't really matter what I saw and at the last minute I decided on Memphis. IT WAS AMAZING - it was like a combination of Dreamgirls and Hairspray - I loved it!! And finally the stars aligned and I got a seat beside a cutie and not a weirdo LOL He was naturally totally oblivious to the fact that I was doing my best to look poised and attractive LOL

When the show got out I expected it to be dark out and that I would just walk home - but HELLO TIME CHANGE it was just as light out when I left as it was when I went in!! So obviously I couldn't just go home! So I decided to treat myself to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (I wanted to slip into another show...but thought that was a little raging LOL) It was naturally a delicious dinner of a burger and onion rings :) After that I just went home and sadly finished my Office marathon and can now say I am caught up to the current episodes (naturally I've moved on to SATC <3)

Here are some pictures I snapped in the HRC for my uncle who loves the Beatles.

..:: umbrella=0 mother nature=3 ::..

SO when they were calling for a stormy weekend I couldn't have imagined how stormy it would actually turn out to be!! When I woke up Saturday morning and it was raining I refused to let the weather hold me back! If I could venture out in a snow storm then why should a little rain stop me? Boy was I wrong!! It was insanity!!! Not only was it pouring rain without any signs of slowing but the WIND was crazyyy!!!! The subways were flooded, trains couldn't run into New Jersey and people were being killed by falling trees - like I said INSANITY! What I had planned was just to walk up 5th Ave. just to window shop...well duh that was a bad idea... by the time I got to the subway to go to my final destination I had dropped some SERIOUS money - basically blew my budget right out of the water...damn. Can't take money to the grave though right?!?! LOL

So after my unacceptable shopping spree and the loss of my first umbrella I made it up to Harlem to go to the Museum of the City of New York to see the Charles Addams art exhibit featuring his original Addams Family comics from the New Yorker. While the trek to get there was miserable, I'm glad I went - I really liked the Addams Family show on YTV so I appreciated learning about it's origins. On the way back to the subway was when I lost my second umbrella but kept it and struggled to keep dry with it's three broken prongs.

At my Tiffany's & Co. stop I decided to put my necklace in to get cleaned so on my way back home I had to go back and pick it up at 5. On my way back to Tiffany's I saw a girl get hit by a taxi - which is actually as scary as it sounds. I'm still a little rattled by the girl getting killed in the subway so hearing this crash didn't help. It happened pretty much in the heart of the hurricane and she was flustered and had her hood down so she could only see in front of her. So when she looked up and saw the walk sign she just went for it but I saw the cab running the red through the intersection. It happened so fast and I for sure thought one of them would see the other so I couldn't even shout out - to I looked away at the last possible second and heard the hit right beside me. It sounded like she got crushed the way her body slammed into the cab (which was a Ford Escape model). She was probably in a lot of shock because I heard her talking and peaked under my umbrella to see her still standing, rubbing her knee and I could see the side mirror on the cab folded in. I didn't linger too long because I didn't know what to do - and was moderately traumatized! So that experience only added to the day... it was also shortly after that I had to give up on my failing umbrella and take on the hurricane head on. So needless to say when I arrived back at Tiffany's I was in ROUGH shape LOL. I was in such a miserable mood I sprung for a cab home and once I got home refused to go out again even though it was only 5:30 lol. I took the BEST hot shower and just lazed around the rest of the night. I was only after the shower the excitement of all my new things finally settled in - OH and the guilt of spending so much money :S! LOL

Here is a picture I snapped on Monday on my way to work representing the umbrella carnage that was the aftermath of the hurricane... this was nothing compared to the streets littered with broken umbrellas and trash cans full of them...

..:: thank you for the music ::..

"Mamma Mia here I go again..." I decided on this dreary New York night that I would go and see the most exciting show on Broadway - and boy is it ever! I had so much fun! Ever since seeing the movie version I've been obsessed (I'm listening to the soundtrack as I write this) and knew when I was here I had to see it live. I walked to the TKTS line after work in the rain which was pretty miserable and my pants were soaked - but my spirits were lifted when the tickets were only $48 instead of the $70 or 80 I thought they would be. I grabbed some dinner at Sbarro which was delicious wandered around to kill time. My seats were actually really good up in the mezzanine just off center. I wanted to sing along through the whole play... but could tell my neighbours wouldn't have appreciated it. The play obviously isn't exactly the same as the movie but I would say they did a pretty good job adapting it. Finally at the end of the play the cast comes out and gets everyone dancing and clapping to some classic ABBA - it was so much fun.

I thought I would share a couple other snapshots I took this week as well... Wednesday night after work I went to stalk the Gossip Girl location that was filming around the corner from my house - I saw it... being packed back into the truck :(



Another cool thing that happens when the clouds are low is this eerie effect around the Empire State Building - it looks like this when it's snowy out too (it's just more difficult to pull the camera out in a snowstorm...) It looks like this:



It's a little creepy...

No big plans yet for tomorrow.. it's supposed to be pretty rainy so I'll be looking for indoor activities lol.

..:: week four ::..

So this post pretty much brings you up to present day life with me - week(end) four was the weekend we just finished. Thursday night was happy hour with my co-workers and it was nice to get out and talk to some people who I hadn't in the office. We went to a place called Dusk around the corner from the office. I've decided Happy Hour is the best hour because a) drinks are seriously discounted and b) you're in bed by 10! We've had two since I've been here and it's really the only time I get out and socialize so I've clearly really enjoyed them haha.

Friday night Karl was going to the movies and invited me to go with him since I clearly wasn't busy. We decided to go for drinks and dinner before hand so Carla and David O joined us. We went to the Lower East Side and we ate at a Dominican restaurant - and the food was delicious! I tried tostones which are fried plantains and I'm obsessed - that's the one thing that I'm really enjoying here, trying all different kinds of foods. None of which are really that exciting.. it's mostly been mexican, dominican and cuban - but they've all been really good. After dinner, Carla had another party to go to and David O went home. Karl and I didn't really feel like a movie anymore so Karl suggested we go over to his friend's house and then meet up with his twin brother and some of his friends. So Karl starts telling be a little bit about his friend Vashtie - turns out she's PHARELL'S EX-GF... um ya.. so I was having a serious freakout in my head about what I was about to get myself into. I basically had the worst outfit on EVER - of course it was the day that I decided to wear a dumb outfit, one of those good for work but you should really change if you're going to be meeting someone. It was basically a boring shirt, brown pants and my converse sneakers - like C'MON! ughh so hopefully I didn't look as uncomfortable as I felt. Either way she is obviously so nice and they sat around talking about things that were WAYY cooler than I was haha After hanging out for a bit we meet up with Karl's friends and had some drinks at a bar called Keyhole. We sat and chatted for a bit and soon after parted ways. Karl told me on Monday that they ended up going to another bar and he texted me to come back but he texted my Kitchener phone not my NY phone :( All in all, despite my outfit, I had another super fun night out with my friends from work.

So this past weekend was AMAZZZZZING weather - like seriously amazing so I had made plans to do things outside all weekend. Saturday I woke up nice and early and headed down to catch the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I still ended up waiting about an hour in line for the ferry but it wasn't a big deal since the sun was shining. I didn't get off to walk around the island that the statue is on since apparently you can't walk up the statue and there really isn't anything too exciting to do there. So I got to Ellis Island and walked around the museum which was a lot more eerie than I thought it would be. It's not like it was a torture island or anything but just knowing that so many people had passed through the doors was weird... I tried to look up 'Hamilton' but everyone and their mother who came from Scotland had that last name so I figured I would be there for hours! I got back on the ferry after eating lunch outside at the museum and then on my way back home I wandered into Century 21 - didn't buy anything though... it's to insane in there for me it makes me too crazy to think. Saturday night I went to see "God of Carnage" starring Lucy Liu, Jeff Daniels, Dylan Baker and Janet McTeer. It was hilarious - some jokes weren't as funny because I don't have kids OBVIOUSLY but it was really cool to see Lucy Liu and Jeff Daniels acting live.

Sunday was probably my most favorite day here so far. I had planned to rent a bike and tour around Central Park. What ended up happening was a grand tour of Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and the whole island of Manhattan. It was the best - I saw three times as much city as I could have just walking. There is a path that winds around the island and I found it on the east side after circling Central Park one and a half times. Once I got insight of the Brooklyn Bridge I decided I might as well take the chance to ride across it. You have to cut back into the city from the bike path to get onto the bridge and on my first try I missed the bike lane and ended up on the actual road part of the bridge - oopsie... that was moderately terrifying but I managed to get back on track. I debated biking around Brooklyn but by that point my butt was really starting to get sore from the bike seat and I didn't feel like getting lost so I'll go back another time. I finished rounding the island and brought the bike back to the store on the west side at around 4:30... I picked up the bike at 10:30. Again, other than the painful bike seat, it was the best day.

..:: week three ::..

I forgot that once you start a blog you have to make sure you post kind of frequently.. so apologies for slacking on the posts. But today is your lucky day because hopefully I can get out an update for the last two weekends! They've been my busiest ones yet so hopefully you'll enjoy reading about them.

SO... the 26th was a snow day here. A bunch of trains weren't running in from the 'Boroughs -- the office wasn't closed but a lot of people commute in so there wouldn't have been much going on here. So I enjoyed the extra couple hours of sleep (because I had obviously been up way to late watching The Office). I didn't really have a plan for the day so I figured I would just get out and enjoy the snowy weather (how Canadian of me...). I ended up wandering to Grand Central Station. The pictures I took really don't do it justice - the place is HUGE. My favorite part obviously was the mural on the ceiling of the main concourse of the night sky with constellations and everything. My picture of it turned out basically black though... I also went to the little travel booth to ask about what I could do that wasn't touristy - I wanted to start doing things that you wouldn't normally have time for on just a regular trip. The guy told me to pick up Time Out New York - so I did and then grabbed some lunch in the food court in Grand Central. This little magazine turned out to be the best little investment and I've bought a new one every week since then. So after GC, I decided to walk over to the UN Headquarters. I was going to go in but I wasn't really dressed how I wanted to be (I was just in tights and boots) so I wandered around the outside a bit, took some pics and continued on. I walked down into Gramercy Park area for a bit then back home for dinner. The activity for Friday night that I picked from the magazine was going to a comedy show - something I had never done before. Now... call me naive but I thought maybe this would be an ok place to go alone --well I found out that it just might be the most coupley activity to do ever. I went to Gotham Comedy Club and saw Mark Curry perform from "Hangin with Mr. Cooper". Despite being alone I had a really fun night and decided I need to see more live stand-up.





Saturday night I decided to go to the New York City Ballet. Again, something I had never done before and thought it was part of the NY experience. The performance was called Jewels and it was three acts representing three different gems - Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds. I may or may not have fallen asleep during Emeralds for a moment.... Rubies was definitely my favorite act (are they called 'acts' in ballet?).

Sunday I planned to go to the American Museum of Natural History - again thanks to the planning of the Time Out magazine. They had an ad for the planetarium show (narrated by Whoopi) so I was clearly all over it. I walked up to the Museum and had a great day. Again the pictures I took can't really do the scale of the rooms any justice. The star show was INCREDIBLE - I think I sat with my mouth hanging open for the entire show. I walked through most of the Museum and again clearly my favorite part of the space and earth sections. Now Sunday was also the day of the gold medal game - so I had it alllll planned out in my head, I would go to the museum in the afternoon then I would catch the game at 7 because that's just what time I thought all hockey games started at... well DUH it's the last day of the Olympics so I'm sitting in the atrium in the museum just chilling for a bit since I had been walking for hours and I over hear a lady on her phone talking about the game and the score and how much time is left. So it's like 4:45 at this point so I jumped up, threw my coat on and practically was running down the street to find somewhere to watch the game. I was in the Upper West Side so I thought my chances of finding a little pub were pretty slim... and I was right so I ended up watching the last period and the gold medal goal in a Japanese restaurant LOL. All I wanted to do was run around in the streets cheering and causing a ruckus butttttt it was not the time or place :( But I did enjoy flaunting the win at work the next day - I wore my Canada t-shirt I got for Christmas and I laid out my red mittens on my desk.

Videos...

I figured I would post a couple of the other videos I took around the city that wouldn't load on Facebook. They're from different parts of the city from my first weekend - Enjoy! :) N.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!!!

THEY DO HAVE ROLL UP THE RIM!!!

You should have seen how crazy I looked walking down the street with a big goofy grin on my face with this in my hands! haha Also this is an american medium! and yes I did lose! true canadian fashion :(

..:: week two ::..

(So I guess I've kind of divided these 'weeks' by the weekends since I arrived in the city on a Saturday. )

After a fun night out with my coworkers, I decided Saturday was a good day to do a little shopping in SOHO and TriBeCa. Well...a little turned into a little too much (which just means no shopping this weekend...) My most exciting purchase was a top from TopShop. That night Carla was going to see a show and had invited me out afterwards with her friends for some drinks (so obvs some of the shopping was for this occasion). We went to a bar called Volstead which was very cool. We didn't stay long because the crowd was too young for Carla and her friends - I thought it was great clearly lol. We bar hopped and found a cute little dive bar and a cute bartender and it was a really fun night.

So for my Sunday adventure, I decided to venture into Greenwich Village... which turned into a little Meatpacking DIstrict and Chelsea too (since I got a little lost). I walked down 5th to Washington Square Park where I had my first celebrity sighting! It was Leelee Sobieski from "The Glass House" fame. I mean it was no SJP but I figure I have to start small. Again it was beautiful weather which made for an awesome day. I had lunch and espresso in Cafe Reggio - a classic VIllage cafe - and the meal was fantastic. Still a little bit in my shopping mode, I wandered into Juicy Couture and may have splurged on a coat - and it's soooooo pretty! :)




Here's a little video I shot of an awesome pianist in the park.



I'm pretty sure I just stayed in on Sunday night.. OH NO I didn't... haha That was the night of the first Canada/US hockey game. I HAD planned on watching at home because I was tired from walking around all weekend, BUT we didn't have the channel so out I ventured to find a bar to watch it in. There's one around the corner called Third and Long and it just so happened to be a bar that Canadians go to. So I found a fun group of Canadians to watch the game with... even though we lost.

..:: week one ::..

(so I actually had started a post on the second day here and then never got back to it... so here it is)

Well I’ve made it! I’m obviously writing this post from a Starbucks right around the corner from my house at 33rd and 5th – which is right beside the Empire State Building. I hope I never get used to the constant honking and yelling that happens on the street below my apartment – it really is the city that never sleeps…or is that Vegas? Either way it seems like there’s 24 hour everything. Oh and a Starbucks on every corner… BUT NO LACTOSE FREE MILK!! What a gigantic disappointment…I don’t think I can go 6 weeks on straight americanos and tea… I’ll just save the lattes for the weekend I guess…



So I meant to get a real first day post in last night but exploring won the first night honours. Soooo yesterday we got a little bit of a late start leaving but we were on our way by nine. Line for the border was long but thankfully I had a bunch of trashy magazines to read (allow me to nerd out for a minute when I say I could actually hardly read the little captions for all the photos…talk about BSing to just have something to say LOL). Anyways…we put up to the security booth – we scored a cutie – he started asking us the general questions, then I got to pipe up and tell him it was an internship and he asked if I had any papers. Of course I did lol. I handed them over, he glanced through them then called over his buddy from the other booth. They proceeded to chat about something not even relevant to us for about 5 minutes then turns to me asks if I have anything other than my personal belongings – I say no – and he tells us to have a nice day…no searching, no tearing apart my packing NOTHING just have a nice day. YESSSSS!

So we proceed on our way, eat lunch in the real Scranton, PA (for all you office fans!) and finally at around 7pm we see the lights to the city. We entered through the Lincoln Tunnel and I obviously had jay-z and Alicia keys welcoming me to the empire state ;) oh haha my dad went through the ez-pass line at the tunnel but obviously doesn’t have an ez-pass so we just snuck into NY without paying -awesome. So I’m on the 4th floor of my building and lasted one trip of stuff up and down the stairs until I didn’t feel bad about taking the elevator. LOL – the apartment is pretty small but I have a good sized room and a SUPER comfortable bed ☺ my housemate seems nice and I have to remember that she actually doesn’t care when come or go and that I don’t have to tell her what I’m doing everytime I do it hahaha…

(original post ends - new post begins)

Sunday I went for a nice long walk, got very lost around Chinatown - where apparently it was the Chinese New Year celebration - and I ended up in the Financial District. I took refuge in a Starbucks to get my bearings and figured since I was so close to Wall Street and Battery Park I could knock them off the list of things to see.



My first night alone in NYC was also Valentine's Day - so what a better way to spend the most romantic day than at the Empire State Building. HA. It wasn't that bad though... I waited in line for about an hour and only stayed for about 20 minutes (there isn't much to do alone once you've seen the skyline... LOL) It was beautiful. I'm hoping to go up during the day as well.



Monday was President's Day here so it allowed me to do some more sightseeing. I decided to tackle Central Park. The weekend was beautiful - really the perfect day for a stroll in the park. Watching all the bikers was depressing because I don't have my bike with me (although this weekend it's going up to like 52 degrees - aka 9 degrees C - so I'm going to rent a bike on Sunday). No celebrity sightings to report yet... After walking around for about four hours, I decided I wanted to take in my first Broadway show so I stood in the TKTS line in TImes Square for discounted Chicago tickets. The show was great and Michelle WIlliams (from Destiny's Child fame) played the part of Roxy Hart.





So on my first day I didn't have to go until 1145 for lunch - I was clearly ready at 11 so I hovered around the entrance to the office building and then decided just to walk around the neighbourhood. There's a CVS at 25th and 6th which was good so I was able to buy a gift bag and tissue paper for the gifts I bought Joe and Carla. It was Olympics time so I brought them an HBC scarf (Joe) and mittens (Carla) along with some Smarties. I decided about half way to work that my skirt may have been a little too short for a first impression but continued on. So up the elevator into the closet and I get to pull the orange tassle to open the secret door - and I'm in. It's exactly what it looks like on the website and Karl the fabulous receptionist greets me and we chat for a bit. Finally meeting the "email addresses" that made this internship possible was the best part about the first day. I have my own desk and computer (a Mac obvs). Skip ahead the details of the rest of the work week to Friday when Karl and Carla and the finance guy David O invited me out for drinks/dinner - we went to ....ugh mind blank... Anyways it was really fun and it was the first chance to chat outside of the office. After Karl and David O went home, Carla invited me to meet up with her BF and his work friends uptown. We went to a couple of bars and then called it a night. It was very cool to be out on my first NY night.

I'm finally doing this!

Well it's finally time to sit down and pump this story out. I've been here almost three weeks and I can't believe it. The time is flying like I knew it would. I've done some exciting things and I plan to do a bunch more. I'm sure I've already forgotten things I've wanted to post or talk about so I'll be better for the last three weeks. For example... I know there were a couple of things I forgot at home but now have no idea what they are - clearly not that important anyways. I'm sitting in the Starbucks at Macy's on 34th (the picture is from my perch) on my MacBook that I'm still in love with. I'll break down the posts in weeks so this post is more like a blog and less like a novel. Hopefully this blog is interesting and exciting and gives you a little taste of what it's like to live in New York City - alone.
Enjoy! -N. xo