Some Pictures From March

These pictures are in random order- oops. But here's everyone that visited and some of the fun things we did!
Lizzie in Bryant Park
Misty and I in Brooklyn after we walked the bridge and ate some AMAZING pizza at Grimaldi's!
Amanda, Lizzie, and Sarah in Times Square. We went to see Guys and Dolls!
Lauren and I on the Brooklyn bridge
Ellen, me, Maria, and Lauren at the UN General Assembly

And Audrey visited too... but I haven't uploaded those pics yet.

ciao
xoxo

April Showers

Lately we've been having some crazy weather. Like today, the forecast was windy. When I heard that on Good Morning America yesterday, I was like, Wow, that must mean it's pretty intense. I mean, if that's all they keep saying. And today, I witnessed the intense wind! I was up really early (I'll explain in a minute) and was up at a school in Harlem at about 8 am. It was all nice and dandy and I was almost to the school until I got blasted with like 50 mph wind!! I really thought I was going to get blown over. And then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

So anyways, this morning I went to Renaissance Leadership Academy to help with an event that we were having. In partnership with the Mayors Volunteer Council and NYC office of affairs (or something like that) we had a Young Women's Summit. All morning I was registering middle school and high school girls for the conference. We had different workshops in the morning like Resume Building and Financial Aid: How to Pay for College. Also- this is very exciting- I ran into a Miss New York! She was doing the public speaking workshop- and I mean, I would have totally gone to the workshop because of this girl! She had a crown and a sash and everything!

And to give a brief recap of the past month- I've had people stay here non-stop! It was so much fun and a great way to explore the city! I got to do way more than if I just been by myself. Now I know the subway system much better and have been around to all the different areas of New York. I'm pretty sure I've been to all of them now- which is pretty awesome. Another way I've seen a bunch of them is through this project we're doing for class. We have to go around to different pizza places in the different areas and observe and compare. I know, I know, it's a rough life. :)

And before I sign off, here's some of my random favorite things about New York:

1. Whenever you tell anyone anything you're doing, you sound so cool! Even if it's just something like getting groceries. Everywhere is so famous! (For example: We went shopping in Soho yesterday.... I'm walking my dog in Central Park.)
2. Thai ny- all of my favorite thai/chinese food in one place. All of that PLUS it's really cute- which is really what matters anyway :)
3. The jazz clubs. So legit.
4. The skyline
5. Looking down at Grand Central Station at 6 pm rush hour. For some reason, every day after work, I always stop to marvel at all the people in dark coats staring at the train schedule, and then all running at once when the trains about to leave.
6. Traders Joes.
7. All the music in the stores. I swear, everytime I go into a store or anywhere else that happens to be playing music, it's always really awesome! P.S. , Trader Joes has really awesome music.
8. The train! And the Staten Island Ferry. I'm pretty sure Aisha, the girl who I do all the school visits with, ya I'm pretty sure she knows that I love public transportation because we have taken like every way possible.

ciao
xoxo

p.s. Karen this post is for you :) Sorry you haven't been able to follow me life for awhile ;)

Girl at the rock show

So last week I went to a Jake's rock show at the Highline Ballroom. He's touring with a band called This Providence, and I went to see them perform on Thursday night. There were tons of people there and I got to see all four bands perform (they were all touring together)

It was really awesome to see Jake perform and also really fun to hang out. I thought it was really funny when girls came up to Jake and were like "Oh my gosh- you're in the band! Can we take a picture with you? Can you sign my poster?" Priceless.

Here are some pictures:
p.s. Jake's the one with the penguin shirt :)

I must be dreaming

Patton and I after Fashion Week at Bryant Park!


Sometimes I can't believe I'm here and I'm just hanging out down by the Met and bopping around Times Square. I am unbelievably blessed.

This morning I woke up bright and early to work at the Carolina Herrera fashion show in Bryant Park. Oh. my. gosh. Definitely one of the coolest things I've ever done. I met my friend Patton, from my class, outside and we went to get our credentials and found our way to the front runway. It was so cool being backstage- seeing all the models, all the clothes. And when we were just standing around waiting to be told what to do, Carolina Herrera comes out and is talking to people. Wow- she was so beautiful and it was so surreal to be that close to her. We met some of the other ushers and hung out til 9:30 when people started coming on. I got to stand at the front with a girl from the Fashion Institute of Technology. I saw all the people walking in and all of their fabulous clothes. Christian Soriano was there (Project Runway winner) and appparently some other people that I didn't see. There were so many photographers, and they freaked out when Nina Garcia came in (creative director of Marie Claire and is also on Project Runway). I talked to a few countesses and royalty and showed them to their seat, and I also showed Anna Wintour's ( editor of Vogue) security guy where she was sitting. I was a little afraid to meet her- she's the person they based Meryl Streep's character off of in the Devil Wears Prada- apparently she's looking for 2 new assistants.

Then the show started. I didn't get a very good seat, but I still saw the wonderful clothes. I really like her style- very classic but still very high fashion. All of the peices were like works of art. So ya, the show started, and 10 minutes later, it ended and everyone cleared out. It was kind of funny how quickly it went. Oh ya, and did I mention I got paid for this- super cool!

This weekend I just hung around- I explored the upper east side, and went to Central Park. That whole area is so cute and beautiful- I really love it. I also love walking in Central Park on Sundays. I also walked around down by my apartment which also a very cute area, although a little more funky. 3rd Avenue is fun and has some great thrift stores- which are quickly becoming my favorite thing to do.
Also, last week was a crazy one for work. I went on a school visit by myself (!) and also started a meeting because my boss was a little late. I felt good about them- although I also felt like I was kinda just making things up. We also had two events that I got to go to. One was at FAO Shwarz, and it was a Scholastic event. It's a new campaign called the "Clifford: Be Big" campaign. We brought kids to make valentines for Clifford, and to listen to a Clifford story, read by Debi Mazar (lady on Entourage). That was extremely cute and FAO Shwarz is definitely one of my favorite places in the city. We also had a fundraising event at Bloomingdales that night. In the accessories department, we had drinks and appetizers and basically anything that was bought, we got 10%. I don't think we made much money, but it was fun to be at. I got to hang out and meet some of the board people and other uppity ups in the biz.

So... basically I am in love with New York!! I am getting so excited for all the people to come visit too- I can't wait!

ciao

Happy Groundhog's Day!

I don't know yet, but I hope the groundhog said that spring is coming soon! It sure feels like it- I was actually hot yesterday walking around with my coat on. Crazy!!

This weekend was another fun one. I have a feeling that once class starts to get a little more intense, the weekends will be less full of fun things, but until then, weekends are for touring and fun!

Last week, we went out to two very nice restaurants. On Wednesday, we went to Porter House New York with the other two people from our class. It's restaurant week right now, and so we were able to get an amazing meal for significantly less than usual. I had a salad, filet minon, and New York cheesecake for dessert. It was all so great- one of best meals I've ever had. AND.. the restaurant was in Columbus Circle on the fourth floor, and there were huge windows looking out to Central Park and the New York skyline. Wow.

Then, on Saturday, we went thrift store shopping during the day, and that night we went a little farther down to the Lower East side to Allen and Delancey. Daddy's friend from Glenbrook North owns it and invited us to come. Everything was wonderful- and the restaraunt is beautiful with wonderful ambience. But really- everything down to the service was wonderful! I had duck, and Amanda had a lamb chop. We really enjoyed that meal. After, we had quite the time getting back home. On the weekend, the subways are all out of whack, and then the 6 train is being worked on... needless to say, we found our way to Grand Central, and hung out at the Hyatt for a little bit to rest our feet :)

Oh, also, Saturday was the day that we bought our painting! We were walking around east of our apartment, and found about 5 thrift stores all right next to each other. The first one we went to was really good, and I had to be very picky if I was going to buy anything. I ended up buying an awesome belt for five dollars. Then, we walked over to the Salvation Army store, and found this painting. It was quite big, but it was broken. I went over to the sales lady to ask her what the price was, and she was like.. oh ya, I'll give you 15 dollars. So we bought it, and now it's in our living room :)

Sunday was a beautiful day. As I said before, it was really warm outside. I'm pretty sure it was like 45, but that's now warm for us :) Amanda went to the Chinese New Year parade with Mikey, a friend from school, and I met up with Sam, a guy I knew in Boise who now goes to Yale. We met at the Met, and walked around the American exhibit for a little bit. A lot of it was furniture displays, and they even had a Frank Lloyd Wright room set up like a house he would design. I loved it! Then, we went and walked around Central Park, and ran into quite a few kids and a skating party! There were a bunch of people on roller skates who were dancing and skating around- it was pretty funny. Then, we went to grab lun/din at a cuban restaurant, a little south of where we were.

Central Park 2/1

Roller Skating Party! 2/1: I wish this was a video... just imagine all these people dancing like CRAZY!

I then went over to the Upper East Side with Amanda to visit our friends from Vandy, and to watch the Super Bowl at their apartment. It was really fun! We watched the game/read fashion magazines. Definitely my kind of party :)

Pics from 1/24-1/25 weekend

Park at Herald Square 1/24: I can't wait for warm weather to come back to this park :)
Macy's at Herald Square 1/24: Miracle on 34th Street!
Union Square farmer's Market 1/24: So much fun.. and so many apples
Carnegie Hall 1/25: Our seats were a little far back- but the acoustics were so great!!
Grand Central 1/24: The random squash tournament in Grand Central Station that we kept going back to :)
Bryant Park 1/24: After our skating adventures!! It was so cold!

I'm in a New York state of mind...

This weekend was so much fun!! I can't believe how much stuff we did. On Friday night, we met up with some sorority sisters and went to two different bars with them. I was a much bigger fan of the second one, Ginger Man's. It had a really cool, neighborhood pub vibe.

Then, Saturday morning, we got up and went down to Union Square to do some grocery shopping at Trader Joes. Can we pause for a minute and bask in the greatness of Trader Joes? Cheap and GREAT!! ... and long lines. Anyways, so we got out of the subway at Union Square, and noticed that there was a farmers market looking thing in the little park that's there. We walked around there for a bit and mainly looked at all the cool art- and there also seemed to be a lot of apples and apple cider- so we also got some free sniffs in- oh man the cider smelled so great! We then went to Trader Joes to get the groceries for the week.

After our trip to Trader Joes, we went down to Herald Square because we needed to go to Kmart. I forgot that that's where Macy's is... not just any Macy's... but THE Macy's. It was pretty awesome- there was also a huge line of people lined up around the store- I have no idea why. We think it was a makeup sale or something...

Then we met up with Kenny, a guy Amanda works with, and went ice skating at Bryant Park! It was pretty surreal- and so beautiful to be able to skate in the middle of the city like that. It was... beautiful and so much fun.

Once our faces were just about frozen off, we decided to head back home. We went to Grand Central to catch the subway and ran into a squash tournament! It was like some international, really big deal thing in the middle of Grand Central Station. Anyways, after that, we went home.

So yesterday was pretty packed, but today was a lot more relaxed, but no less amazing. We went to Carnegie Hall for a performance from the Met orchestra. There was a mezzo-soprano whose voice was... beautiful. The whole thing was just so beautiful and amazing- Amanda and I had so much fun.

Oh ya, and when we got home, we had a dance party to Elton John. Hold me closer tiny dancer...


ciao :)

Pictures of the apartment

The pic on the left is our family room- look at the cute pics we printed!




The pic on the left is my room- the window is on the right.











The pic on the left is of my awesome lantern light- there's a really bright lightbulb in there!

Lights, Camera, Action!!

So... as of last night we have lights in our family room/kitchen area!! It is so exciting, but it seems to be so bright. We don't really know what to do with ourselves. Also, the other day, we went to TJ Max and got creative with our decorating skills. I now have a light in my room too. I bought a lantern thing and we went to home depot and bought light bulbs and a thing that plugs into the extension cord outlet that the bulb can plug into. That probably sounds a little confusing, but basically I have a light now. Also, I bought a shelf for five dollars and I hung my posters in my room. I have also created some tables out of our moving boxes. Last night, we hung up a bunch of black and white pictures from the internet above the couch in the family room. Our apartment is starting to look more like a home! Now, the next issue of business is the sink. It seems to be clogged... and we haven't been able to fix it. Small issue, but I'm sure it will get figured out.

On the working girl front, this week has been pretty laid back. Since we had our huge event Monday (which went really well) I've had two days off this week. We worked from 1-11pm on Sunday and 6:30 am-2 pm Monday so we definitely needed a break. Oooh- something exciting- I got my first cab by myself!! I put my arm out and it came right up to the curb. I was very proud of myself. :) I was put to work making lots of posters and signs, since apparently my bubble letter/free hand skills are commendable. The link below is to the clip of our event on Mtv- the posters that are hung up were made by yours truly :) Another really exciting thing that happened this week was the free stuff I got at work!! I got some awesome free hats donated by Anthropologie, and apples and bagels, which were left over from the event. Needless to say, yesterday was a very exciting day.

In the next coming weeks, Amanda and I are trying to plan lots of fun stuff to do. We're going out next week to a restaurant that is discounted because of restaurant week that's going on right now. We're going to go with the other two from our class. On Sunday we're going to go to an orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall- student tickets are 10$!! We're also going to go to a gallery opening on Saturday. Let's see.. last weekend we went out with our new friend, Ramona. We went to two bars for her friends' birthdays. Also, during the day, we went to the dollar store, and on the way back we found this cute, cheap boutique. We were so tempted to get some shoes, but the weight of our bags from the dollar store kept us away... probably a good thing :)

Also- my camera is on its way!! I'm so excited to get it- and I will be posting pictures very soon.

ciao :)

http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/333661/martin-luther-king-jr-day-a-day-of-service.jhtml#id=1603059

Children for Children

Today was my second day of work and it was really great- really full and really great! I got to work at 9 am. I take the 6 subway to Grand Central station, and then walk up a few blocks to 6 E 43rd St., which is the building where Children for Children is. I love my commute because I get to walk through Grand Central- it's one of my favorite things! :) Anyways- so today when I got to work, I finished up this project that I was working on yesterday and called some non-profits around town, like Big Brothers Big Sisters, and invited them to our event on Monday. We're just trying to get the word out as much as possible. Then, I was assigned to create the letter writing project for the event on Monday. I created worksheets about "How to write a letter" and wrote a little bit about how Martin Luther King, Jr. made a difference speaking out about things that he believed in, and that these kids should write a letter to the president, the senator, or someone else to tell them how they feel about an important issue. Anyways... I felt really cool creating that worksheet and making a sample letter for the little kids to copy.

Maybe I should explain a little about the event we're having on Monday. It's the biggest event of the year for CFC (Children for Children). It's called the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. There are like thousands of kids and families coming to do hands-on service projects at two locations in the city. They are two public schools, and the projects are like making scarfs for a homeless shelter, bandanas for an animal shelter, etc. So... needless to say, the office is really busy right now in trying to bring this all together.

Anyways, in the middle of the day, the other intern, TJ, and I went to drop off packets for service projects at two different non-profit organizations around the city. We went to Chelsea and the Upper West Side, then we grabbed lunch at the Europa Cafe in Times Square and walked back to work. When we got back to work, we traced a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. and created a paint by numbers for the kids to paint on at the event. Also, later we had a staff meeting to celebrate my boss, Mark's 26th birthday. woohoo!

So- there's kind of a snapshot of work. I'm sure I'll talk more about it later- but that's kind of what goes on in the office. After the event- I'm going to be doing a lot more school focused things that I'm really excited about. I met with Aisha today, who's the one who goes to the schools and trains the teachers on service learning and helps implement the curriculum that I will also help write. I'm super excited about all of it! Also- another thing I'll help with is called Be The Change, which is basically a database for recently incarcerated youth to find community service work that can really benefit them and teach them valuable skills. Right now, it's all kind of overwhelming, and most of the time, I'm just trying to soak everything in. But I think I'll get the hang of it all really soon.

Here's a snapshot about home. When I got home from work today, Amanda was already cooking us some food. We had awesome quesadillas, and ate them on our little ottomans with kithen towels as placements. It's pretty funny- we don't have a kitchen table, but we pretend like we do. We're going to fix our apartment up this weekend I think... I hope. I think I get my bed this weekend! Yay!

I'm in New York!

I'm finally here! I'm officially at 28th Street in my new apartment. I'm sitting on the floor right now in my new room, looking outside at the snow flurries. Amanda is downtown with her mom- they went to look at the building where Amanda works and Marta wanted to see Times Square. She works right next to the Stock Exchange! I am in our apartment, unpacking my clothes and watching New York 1, the local news station.
Last night, I got in on time to Laguardia, and took a short cab ride to my new apartment. Amanda and her uncle met me on the corner and helped me bring my stuff up to the apartment. There I met up with her aunt, Amy and mom, Marta. Soon after that, we walked two blocks to a nice place called the Turkish Kitchen. We met up with Ramona, who graduated from NYU two years ago and used to work for Amy. We soon found out that Turkish food is basically Mediterranean food- I had a dish that was very similar to a gyro. After that, we came back home and watched Grey's Anatomy.
I wish I could post pictures, but I lost my camera right before I came here! As soon as we take some on Amanda's camera I will upload them. But I'll try to explain how my apartment looks anyways. We're on a really high floor, which is great, and we live in a pretty residential area. When you walk into the apartment, the kitchen is right on your right. It's clean and nice- it has a dishwasher, oven, stove, coffeemaker, microwave, and some spices that Trish left for us (She's the woman who's subleasing the apartment to us.) Directly on your left is the huge closet- which is my closet! I'm so excited because it's like 3 of the Vandy dorm closets! Then you walk into the seating area which has a brown couch, short bookcase, T.V., and rolling stool things. All of the furniture was left for us. Then if you walk straight through another door, there's my room! Amanda's room is to the left across from a bathroom. So that's our apartment. It's very cute and I think it has some character. I'm so excited to actually get my pictures up and put my bed together. My bed is yet to be found- so right now I have a blow up mattress to sleep on. We also have to get some lighting- there are no lights in the bedrooms.
I'm so excited to be here- but I'm a little nervous about my job. I have yet to go find out how to get there- I think that'll be a project for tomorrow. Our project for today is to get some food from the grocery store- I'm really excited about that! I'm sure it will become not as fun after awhile- but it's our first trip to the grocery store. Hopefully we can find the Trader Joes nearby.
Anyways- I'm nervous/excited. But I'm sure once I get a feel for where things are and how things work- I'll just be so excited to be here.

Testing, testing...

This is a pic of Lizzie, Momma and I in front of the Met when we went to New York City in 2007.



p.s. I love Karen! :)