Time Flies When You're Having Fun

This week I reached my 1 month moving anniversary. I can't believe how fast it has flown by. I can say that this month has proved to be exciting and in case you haven't been reading, I have made a nice bulleted list for you.

Some highlights of the past month:

I moved in with two awesome roommates that have really helped me navigate the city.

I saw very strange and weird things on the Subway. I also am proud to say that I think I definitely got my money's worth on my Metro card. It expired today and I am pretty sure that I used it more than twice a day to even out the cost.

I took my first cab ride.

I visited some cool places. Like this, this, this, and this.

I have figured out how to cook for one person again.

I have skyped with friends and family.

I have walked many miles in the heat.

I have successfully averaged 3 liters of water per day.

I am starting to get used to not having an A/C in my apartment.


Things I am looking forward to:

Moving into my permanent apartment in Manhattan this week.

Buying bedroom furniture.

Interviewing and Finding a job.

Having people come to visit.

Taking a bus to D.C. to see Sarah.

They Might Be Giants concert for FREE tomorrow!

Fall weather

Number 24

Yesterday was my 24th birthday! Different from most years, I never really put any thought into my birthday because I have been so preoccupied, moving, apartment hunting, job searching, and exploring the city. 24 is nothing special, but for some reason that number feels semi-old. Now I am even closer to 25 then 20 (1 year! holycowwhathappenedIjustturned21yesterday). Now that I officially feel semi-old, I hope this year brings things that semi-old people do. Like a job. That would be fantastic. I would also like to make some new friends in the city that do semi-old stuff like go to happy hours, have dinner parties, and join book clubs. I already do these things so I just need to find friends who can join.

Now on to the fun things I did yesterday...

My birthday is the day in which my facebook blows-up. I know you can relate. I got messages from people I am friends and family with in real life, people I knew way back when, people I have worked with, people I forgot, people I never really knew but they felt like adding me after that event. Basically I got lots of messages and it was fun to reply to everyone and have a few conversations with people that I haven't talked to lately.

I got cards and presents :) Yay! I don't think that I will ever be too old for cards and presents. I got a card from my Mom, my grandparents, and my awesome friend Barbara. I also got a pretty cool bracelet/charm bracelet from my mom.

Then I went to dinner and a few bars with my roommates. Dinner was good, but the bars we went to were super fun! The first bar was called Barcade and you guessed it..it was a Bar and an Arcade! The walls were lined with old classic arcade games like Paperboy, Ms. Pacman, Tetris, and Frogger. The best part about all of the games is that they only cost .25 cents to play! Talk about a deal! the beer menu was also interesting with many different types of unusual draft beers. I had a hibiscus beer that was pink/red in color and had slight citrusy taste.


After barcade, my roommates and I made our way to Full Circle Bar. This was another really fun place to hangout. Again, this bar focused on games, but only one: skee-ball. A-W-E-S-O-M-E! They had multiple skee-ball games across the bar and everyone was able to play for free. Since I am a horrible skee-ball player, I played in jest, but ended up beating my roommates with a birthday winning score of 490! This bar was pretty cool too! We had another fun and adventerous cab ride home, but this one was not nearly as creepy. My roommates also put a match in a cupcake and sang me Happy Birthday when we got home. A totally great way to end my first birthday in the Big Apple.

Thanks for the birthday wishes via text, phone call, email, or fb message :)

Why being 7 again wouldn't be so bad..

There is a noise I hear everyday. A quiet, but very familiar noise. A noise that I can hear from my bedroom on the fourth floor of my building. I am an absolute fan of the noise. The noise is the ice cream truck.

The familiar little chorus that blares from the truck as it rides up and down the street I live on. A noise that makes me want to grab my dollars and run like the wind down the four flights of stairs only to jump into the street and wave. Then I remember that I am almost 24 and it wouldn't be very polite to knock people over and jump in front of children to taste my childhood. So instead I just watch from my window as the neighborhood children get excited and call out to their parents, "The ice cream truck is coming, can I get some?" The icecream truck pulls over, serves up some sweet sticky treats, and then he takes off again and you can listen to the chime as it drives farther and farther away until the sound is just a memory.

Honestly, every time I hear that little chime, I smile... and then I eat some ice cream from my freezer.

What I Did Today! - Market Edition

Grand Opening of the Dekalb Market. Each and every vendor is in a refurbished shipping container.

I did not have any Joe, because it is a jillion and 2 degrees here, but I did like their sign.

I may or may not have eaten a dark chocolate dulche cupcake from Robicellos Bakery. OK, I did and it was tasty! They had a chicken and waffles flavor that was crazy but I couldn't tackle that.

Hot Hot Hot

Florida summers are brutal. New York summers are worst. I knew it would be hot here, but jeez o pete this weather is awful.

To make matters worse, most New York City apartments don't have central A/C. No I am not lying, my apartment is sans A/C, but we do have some fans. This is by far the biggest adjustment I have had to New York...I miss my 72 degree apartment.

2 days ago one of my roommates and I were hanging out in the apartment when the other roommates asked us to come downstairs with her. We followed and found ourselves in the street facing an open fire hydrant. The water was cool and refreshing, a much needed break from the heat. Never in my life have I seen kids playing in fire hydrants in the Summer. It is awesome how the city has taken a sticky situation like the lack of a beach or pool or yard for sprinklers and given residents to beat the heat. In New York City, you can go to a fire station and get a cap that allows you to open the hydrant without thousands of gallons of water rushing out. Kids play in the water, parents play in the water, bike riders and pedestrians even jump in sometimes. It is fabulous! If you choose to not go to the fire station and just open a hydrant you can be fined.

Yesterday the weather started with a high of 100 degrees, but then it was pushed up and the high was actually 104 degrees...a record for New York City! Plus with the heat index....sweat sweat sweat.

Today it was also hot, but I tool some precautions and drank lots of water, maybe had some ice cream, wore light colored clothes....you get the idea.

Tomorrow the heat is supposed to break and be back in the 90's. I can handle that, I have my whole life :)

Public transportation

Growing up in Daytona Beach and then moving to Gainesville really gave me a sheltered concept of public transportation. I knew about buses. I rode buses to class. Then when I got to college I started to travel and I experienced the metro in D.C. and I even rode the subway when I came to New York.

Riding the subway as a tourist and riding the subway as a way to get from point A to point B each and every single day is very different. I have even gotten on a bus or two since I have been here.

Let's break down the good, the bad, and the ugly...

The Good
The trains usually run on time
A/C on the trains
Enough trains to get you within a few blocks of almost anywhere you want to go
funny advertisements
People Watching
Time to listen to my ipod or read a book
getting a seat to myself
My hopstop app...amazing way to figure out where I am going
When people give up their seats for the disabled or elderly
The bus stop is in front of my apt..literally
The people who like to sing and are good at it
The subway station is only a few blocks away

The Bad
Bad B/O
Sweaty people
being crammed into a train that really has not even an inch of space left..oh another three people just made their way on..awesome
The religious fanatics who share their word with you
sudden stops
delays
The people who like to sing and are good at it but then ask for money
The people that just ask for money
not knowing which exit to leave the station from
uptown or downtown?
The heat inside the subway station
When bus tops change and you don't know

The Ugly
I could not resist taking a picture of this lady. I mean really...I know it is hot as hades around here, but have the courtesy to put on an actual shirt and not a 100% lace tank top with only your bra, that is two sizes too small, underneath. Not to mention that her shorts cover less than my bathing suit.

I know you can't really see the image that burned my retinas (the front), but I didn't want to get beat down for taking the pic so I went with the back shot.

What they say is true...

Perhaps you have heard that NYC Yellow cabs are crazy....it is true. Last night after seeing Harry Potter :) I took my first yellow cab ride with my roommates.

Once you get inside a yellow cab, the cabbie cannot refuse to take you to your location as long as it is within the 5 boroughs. However, the cabbie can complain the entire way if they don't like where you have asked them to go...aka Brooklyn.

Fast forward like 5 minutes and Mr. Cranky Cabbie becomes Mr. Creepy Cabbie. He says that he can tell that my roommate sitting in the middle has money. We asked him why he felt that way and he said because she had a hole in her cheek (dimple). We kinda shrugged it off until he started talking about the hole in her cheek again. His words were:

"I, the mustache man, would like to eat ice cream out of your dimple, and you will feel like rose flower."

What the hell does that even mean? Weird, right? We all started to laugh at him and then asked him questions like, "Does the man have to have a mustache to feel like a rose flower?" "What does a rose flower feel like?" etc....He just continued to talk about the hole in her cheek and how he is single because he "dates them and drops them."

Needless to say we had him drop us off a few blocks from our house because we don't need any mustache men cabbies hanging outside the apartment. I might also never get in a cab again at night...at least never alone.

What I Did Today! Perks of New York Edition

Today was all about relaxing and taking in the FREE sights in New York.

I slept in and hung out with Gracie.

Then I packed a lunch and went to see a little park you may have heard of...Central Park.

I backtracked back into Brooklyn because I had some free time and took a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge.

At 4:00, I went to the Museum of Modern Art. On Friday nights, all Summer long, it's free :)

From NYC to Around the World

This morning I went to Good Morning America! I know it seems a little cheesy, but I just couldn't help myself, I want to have a feeling of what everything is like even if I look like a tourist doing it.
I had to wake up super early (5:00am) and take the subway into Manhattan. I got some caffeine on the way and made it to the GMA building around 6:35am. The shows starts at 7:00am and I thought that I was going to be in the live studio audience, inside, because I had sent and received a confirmation from them, but the live studio audience waits outside! So I found a place with the rest of the crowd and waited...and waited...and waited.

The first person we saw was Sam Champion. He was super friendly with the crowd and took a lot of pictures. Then we waited some more. Inside the studio, the show had started, but no one comes outside until around 8:15am. It was a little bit boring, because we all just stood there watching a TV for an hour and a half.

At 8:15, Lara and Robin and George came out to do the next segment. It was really fun to watch them talk to the crowd or each other and then all of a sudden turn towards the camera and begin their segment. They made it look easy...One of the biggest guests on the show today was Mark Sanchez, quarterback for the NY Jets. My Mom is the biggest Jets fan I was on a mission to get a decent shot of him.

Success!

I also got to chat with a few of the hosts and Robin even stopped to take a picture with me. It was a super touristy, but interesting morning. I'm not sure that I would go out of my way to go again unless someone from out of town wanted to go.

What I Did Today! - Apartment Hunting Edition!

I went on a hunt today! I found an apartment yay!

It has a stoop out front where I can sit! It may be small but I am sure everything will fit!

Bonus is it has a washer and dryer! If I told you I wasn't excited, I'd be a liar.

What I Did Today - Tourist Edition

Left my apartment and walked the neighborhood.

Navigated the Subway!

Times Square!

The Jersey Shore...family edition

This past weekend I made my way via bus to the Jersey Shore to visit my grandparents. Since MTV has ruined the reputation of the Jersey Shore, I am here to set the record straight. The shore is beautiful and full of families, and not as many orange tans as you may expect. There are BBQs and giftshops. Cute icecream shops, cars parked on every inch of every street, soft sand, and wonderful warm weather.

I got to hangout with my grandparents and also meet some family members that I have never met. It was a great way to spend the fourth of July!

Coney Island