When you realize it was all worth it

This week has been one of those weeks when I look around and have to pinch myself.

I love that this city has started to feel like home. I have multiple groups of friends, I have a real job with a real commute, I have an apartment that I dig with a roommate that I am friends with. I can recommend restaurants to people when they visit from out of town and I know the shortcuts to take when I need to get across town quick. I can give directions when a stranger stops me on the street and I feel that urge of anger when tourists walk super slow on the sidewalk.

I embrace the cool crisp Fall weather and I love the sound of the traffic outside of my apartment when I am drifting off to sleep at night. I can tell you the difference between the Lower East Side and Murray Hill, I know which train to take without actually looking at a schedule (unless I'm in Brooklyn, then it all goes downhill.) I have favorite places to hangout and routines that I follow. I know where I can get the best greek pastries in my neighborhood and the restaurant that allows you to bring your own beer.

I seriously don't know why I ever thought this giant city wouldn't feel like home, but I did. I thought I would get eaten up with it's expansive girth, I figured the subway map would become a fixture in my purse (It never did! Thanks HopStop!) I am pretty sure that my first year of job exploration and tourist filled adventure allowed me to become familiar with so many aspects of the city and I would not do it any differently if I had the chance again.

I know that I have so much more to learn and experience, but for now, I am home and I like it.

It's been one of those weeks.

Emotions this week are swerving high and low like a roller coaster.

High: I got a job!

Low: School starts next week

High: I have my own classroom!

Low: That needs to be decorated before next week

High: I'm teaching middle school history! A subject I love!

Low: It wasn't my major nor am I an expert, so I have a lot of planning/learning to do.

High: I will have a salary!

Low: The commute is around an hour and a half each way via the subway/bus system.

High: I get to make my own lessons, management system, homework, procedures, etc, etc.

Low:  What if I'm not exactly ready....and this happens:

 

High: I got a freaking job!

I'm excited and nervous and I can finally say I made it in NYC!

Photo Dump!

 

I need/want this T-shirt from Old Navy. Ever since I moved to NYC, my mom and sister refer to it as Living the Dream. For example, if I complain about the subways or the people or the smell of the trash on a hot sunny day, they respond to me by saying: Well Laura, You're Living the Dream. It's quite poetic and annoying.

 

This would be some of the delicious food I have eaten this week.  The bowl is full of delicious falafel from Maoz. I piled it high with coleslaw, chickpeas, cauliflower and broccoli and their signature garlic sauce. It is crazy good! The next picture would be a heart attack inducing ice cream sandwich from Cool Haus, an ice cream truck that specializes in homemade cookies and ice cream in unique flavors. This would be brown butter bacon ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. I could seriously only eat half, which was a waste of money, but so tasty!

  

I love the fact that I live in a city where I can walk around and happen upon amazing sights like these!
 

 

My new apartment! I love it and my roommate and I get along so much better than the last! The first picture is our shoe wall, which is located in the extra bedroom that we use as a giant walk in closet. The next two pictures showcase my awesome painting skills and the new jewelery hangers I put up. I love the clear door knobs against the teal. The last picture is my new dining room table! I have been swooning over this table for quite some time from IKEA and I happily found it for half the price on craigslist. Moving on up!

GUR

Last Saturday I participated in The Great Urban Race. The GUR is a scavenger hunt throughout the city, complete with brainteasers, puzzles, trivia, and random physical tasks to complete. The entire race is supposed to take under five hours to complete and you work in teams of two or four. As a team, you have to dress in a theme or dress alike to race and you also have to stick to gether because most of the clues required a team picture as proof. My team decided to dress in theme and since we are fantastic, we chose Games as our theme.

We have Candy Land, Connect Four, Trivial Pursuit, and Twister!

When the race began at 12, we quickly got our clue sheet and headed to a grassy patch of land to plot our route. We took about 30 minutes to figure out the addresses of locations and determine which route to take. We started the race and I felt like we were making decent time. Some of the things we knocked out in the first hour were: we had to head to a Duane Reade and buy two items to donate to a charity that was waiting in front of the store, then we had to take a picture with two Yankees fans, we also had to take a picture with a food cart, we visited he American Folk Art Museum to count the windows on one of their sculptures, and we had to get a wrapper from a McDonalds. Then we headed across town and during the next few hours we visited a cupcake shop, a toy store, completed a task with a pedometer in Bryant Park. There was one clue that wasn't making sense to us and we spent a lot of time trying to figure out where a certain book store was because the book store we thought was the answer was not at the address given. After checking with a few other teams we figured out that WE were right and the GUR staff had made a mistake on the sheet and put Eighth Street instead of Eighth Avenue,  which makes a huge difference in NYC.

We then hit another roadblock when we couldn't find a yoga studio. We eventually decided to skip the clue and just move on (you are allowed 1 skip). On the way to the next clue we happened to stumble upon the yoga studio, so that was a happy accident. 

 

 

We then made our way to a magic shop where I ate a meal worm and broke my favorite flip flops (unrealated events, but both happened in the magic shop). Check out this awesome picture of me and my mealworm skills:

 

After a stop at the show store, we then got on the subway and headed to the book store which was the book store we had thought of from the beginning but thought we were wrong about. We completed the puzzles there and then headed for the finishline because we were able to skip the last clue due to not skipping any before hand.

We arrived at the finish line is 4 hours and 33 minutes. After crossing the finish line we got bananas, water, and a medal! Then we had to wait in the checkpoint line for the staff to check in our pictures and business cards. We ended up having one incorrect answer and they give you a 30 minute penalty for that. However, since they made the mistake on the book store question they gave everyone that clue whether you had figured it out or not and did not give us any extra credit for realizing their mistake and still getting to the correct location. Thus we technically finished at 5 hours and 3 minutes which means we don't even get told what place we were in because we went over the 5 hour mark.

 

 

We still finished, got our medals, and didn't die in the 90 degree heat. It was fun and I think I am ready for next year, now that I fully know what to expect!

366 days later...

Some people thought I was crazy. Some people thought I was overly ambitious. Some people were jealous. and Some people were wondering how I would make it.

I felt all of the above, but 366 days ago, I boarded a plane to New York City with a dream, a one way ticket, and my cat.

It was never easy, it was always fun, and I could not imagine doing anything any different.

I am a completely different person than I was 1 year ago and I am in love with that. I finally feel like I found a city that gets me. I never feel like the crazy single girl who isn't married, because no one here my age is married. I never feel out of place for wanting to stay up late and sleep when I'm eighty, because everyone here wants to do that. I feel like I'm home and as of right now, I don't know that I'll ever leave.

I love the loud sounds that make my mom crazy when she is talking to me on the phone, I love the rush of entering the subway station and running down the stairs to try and catch the train. I hate when I miss the train, but I know the next train will be there soon. I love running into celebrities even if they never know I saw them and got star struck. I love that I can get a hotdog (even though I haven't) 24 hours a day. I love that I haven't paid for car insurance in a year, but have never been without a way to get around. I love that walking up 5 flights to my apartment has become normal and walking ten blocks is faster than the subway. I love that on any given night, during any week of the year, I can find something fun to do and someone to do it with.

I have made some incredible friends in this city. Friends who didn't know me in high school or college, but don't mind that I probably mention the Gators at least once in every conversation. Friends who also pay incredibly high rents for tiny apartments and understand what it's like. Friends who will bake you cookies, take you to a Yankees game, or invite you to a birthday party. Friends with awesome jobs that I will always envy. These people I have met have become my family here. I am so far from my sister and my mom and having a constant group of friends who I can call and bother has become essential to my happiness.

I'm not sure why this city feels so right; I never lived in a big city growing up, I never was the one who opted to walk over riding in a car, and I definitely never had to deal with cold weather, but it feels like me and New York City clicked into place like two perfect puzzle pieces.

Forgetting to Blog...It happens.

Remember when you were a child and you liked to play dress up and pretend to be an adult?

Remember when you were a teenager and didn't understand why your parents were so mean for making you study and do your homework?

But then you eventually got into college to perfect your skills to acquire a career for when you were an adult.

Remember when you became an adult and wished you could turn around and be that angst ridden teenager again?

But you realized that throwing a hissy fit and refusing to go work would mean that you couldn't pay your bills.

It's unfortunate how life works, isn't it?

We never seem to be content with what we have until it's too late. I miss those bill-free, bad-music filled, teenage days.

In the last three days I have worked 12 hour days and I am exhausted. I leave my house before 8 and return close to midnight. I haven't had time to eat, wash clothes, go grocery shopping, or blog. I'm lucky that my showers have continued. Do you have those days?  They are tiring and I needed to complain to someone who would listen. You.

Thanks for that

Sincerely,

Me.
  

Only on a train in New York

This easily could have made it into my weekend recap, but I thought it deserved a post of it's own.

After SNL on Saturday, I saw this on the subway platform and was in disbelief.

   

The woman had her cat in a stroller.  

She was wearing some crazy yarn robe under her jacket.

She was asking for tips, but I don't know why.

There was a cat. In a stroller. On a subway platform. How did she train the cat to just sit there when there are so many people and loud subways and subway mice?

Impressive. 

Crazy.

Only in this city.