I Love Central Park

Another week in NYC is over.  It was a great week as I settled into the routine more and more with baby Isabelle.  She continues to be wonderful.  Here's a picture so you can all see who I get to spend my day with.It has also been really fun spending time with Kelley.  She's great and has shown me all around the neighborhood and given me all kinds of tips of things to do.  She's great to work with and is wonderfully sweet and flexible.  So, all in all, it has been awesome.

Last night, Kelley and I went out with Isabelle to this great family-style, authentic Italian restaurant for wine and appetizers which was delicious and a lot fun.  

This morning, I slept in again and ended up heading out of the apartment around 1:00.  I first walked South a few blocks and wandered through the Washington square market which is basically a ton of street vendors that set up on a street down near Washington Square.  After that, I decided to go uptown with a goal of seeing Central Park.

I hopped on the subway and decided to get off at 42nd and wander up from there.  So I wandered through Times Square, where there was another street market going on on 8th Street, a much larger scale than Washington Square.  I was excited to see that funnel cakes and kettle corn are nationwide treats.

Times Square was as gaudy and tourist-infested as it is always described but it was surprisingly fun.  I put away any attempts to look like a local because, let's be honest, there were no locals around anyway.  As I walked North towards the park, I saw Rockefeller Center and the buildings got fancier and fancier. I finally made it to the park and ended up spending the better part of the afternoon there.  It truly is an incredible place.  To have such a beautiful, huge park in the middle of such a huge city is crazy.  Here are some pics:

Beautiful... Can you believe this is in the middle of NYC?

Boaters on the Lake.

Toy motorboats with the city behind.

I finally left the park only because I was getting desperate for a bathroom.  But that posed a problem because I had walked really far uptown and there were no Starbucks, which is my default bathroom.  So I hopped on the subway and got off in Times Square again thinking that there would definitely be a Starbucks there.  Of course, there's like 9 every block.  I had to go in 2 before I found one without a crazy line.  

I ended up wandering back through the market on 8th Street because I had kind of skipped past it the first time.  It was crazy.  I ended up walking another 20 blocks or so before I got back on the subway and finally headed home.

It was a really fun day.  The weather was gorgeous and it was fun to go out by myself all day. However, I am extremely excited to know that in just a few days, Lacey and Drew will be here, followed by Dusty and Sara the next day.  I can not WAIT to see them and to get down to some real fun.  It will be awesome.

Much love.

Modern Art is Funny

Life in the city continues.  I'm hanging out in the apartment as Kelley and baby Isabelle are on their daily walk.  We're starting to get into the routine although babies are kind of exhausting. But we'll get it down.

Yesterday, I struck out to ride the subway for the first time.  Stacy had graciously invited me to come uptown and go the Museum of Modern Art with her and her friend, Breanne.  So, I found my subway stop, bought my metro card and headed off to meet them at Penn Station.  That was all pretty uneventful and I was feeling pretty awesome about my complete mastery of the entire city. (Entire city= the village and midtown).

It was fun to wander the 20 blocks up to MoMA.  Midtown is definitely different than my beautiful, brownstone lined neighborhood.  It's the true city, all big buildings and big crowds. But the MoMA was very fun.  Modern art is an interesting thing to me.  There were a lot of really cool things, like this set of Andy Warhol paintings:

But also a lot of really hilariously not art stuff, such as this pile of lint:And this floating gold foil cube:

Luckily, Stacy and Breanne both had very similar tastes in art as me and we spent a lot time mocking people who seemed to think these things were moving.  Breanne was hilarious, she's from Long Island and has an awesome accent.  And it was really fun getting to see Stacy again and hang out.

After MoMA, we went to this ridiculous burger joint inside Le Parker Meridian which is a super fancy hotel.  The burger joint is literally this tiny little room with a booth that sells only hamburgers, cheeseburgers and fries.  And it is delicious.  Only in New York will you find a dingy burger room inside a fancy hotel.  After dinner, we put Breanne back on the Long Island Rail Road and headed out to Brooklyn to see Stacy's place.  Her apartment was beautiful and it was again fun to hang out.  I rode the subway all the way back from Brooklyn by myself and although I got off a stop too late, made my way back without getting lost at all.  I'm feeling good.  

9 days until everyone gets here!  I'm so excited!  Hurry up!

M-I-Z...

I don't know why, but I am always particularly satisfied by beating Nebraska.  Go Tigers!

The Sassy Prepared Me for Real Life...

I spent all day today walking and my feet don't hurt at all.  I thank the many, many hours I had to spend on my feet in the Sassy for that.  Thank you, Sassy.  (And don't bother to comment that nannying and living for free in Manhattan is not real life.  I know that.)

Today was my first real day out in the city and it was everything it's cracked up to be.  I slept until noon which was AWESOME because my body has definitely still not adjusted to East Coast time.  The damn West Coast has ruined me.  Bummer about the morning was that I figured out that my phone wasn't working and since I just got it literally 5 days ago, I was mildly upset.  But Kelley told me that there was an AT&T store on 17th and 6th which would mean all I would need to do is turn right and keep walking.  So, off I went.

I found the AT&T store and went in and got my phone taken care of which always takes grossly longer than it should.  It's not even like I was in any kind of hurry but do they have to be so slow?  I don't understand.  Also, stores and stuff in New York crack me up.  Either they're 4 times bigger than anything you've ever seen (i.e. the 4 story Old Navy next to the AT&T store) or they're half the size with 4 times as many people crammed in (i.e. the AT&T store).  But the people were very friendly in the AT&T store, so that made me completely erase the stereotype that New Yorkers are rude.  I think they can handle my Midwestern desire to talk to strangers.  

After my phone returned to functionality, I headed straight for the Old Navy.  (Had to see that coming.)  Turns out Old Navy manages to stay cheap even in NYC.  It's a beautiful thing.  After that, I set out to wander.  I walked all over my neighborhood which was super fun.  I walked through a street bazaar.  I walked through a couple of parks.  I walked all around NYU.  I found LOTS of good stores.  I realized that tourists really do stick out.  I found the the movie theater. I found Trader Joe's.  And, most importantly, I found H&M.  It was great.  Also, I never once felt like I was lost or had to get out my map.  I think I've mastered the city (or the 20 blocks around where I live).

Tonight, Kelley took me down towards Bleeker St. and Washington Square which is a really cool area.  We ended up going to a comedy show which was in the basement of a techno club which was fun.  My personal favorite comic of the night was the guy who only got to go for like 5 minutes and had to spend most of the night getting people off the street to come see the show.  He just seemed sweet.  The rest of them were pretty vulgar but still got some good laughs out of me.  And it was really fun to get out.  Kelley's been great about showing me around and telling me about all the things that I have to try while I'm here.

I'm headed to bed and am going to meet Stacy and a friend of hers at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA if you're cool) tomorrow which I'm very excited about.  This city is so fun!  Lastly, if you're reading this, pick up the phone and call me right now.  Do it.  I want to hear from you.  

Much Love.

More Life in the City

I've discovered a few things about babies in the little bit of time that I've been here:  grown adults (myself included) will do literally anything to get a baby to smile, the bugaboo is the coolest stroller out there, baby einstein is literally crack for kids (I already knew this one, but it has been reaffirmed), and life would be a lot simper if I could be entertained by a plastic ring dangling in front of me for an hour.

I also have developed a theory that babies live in warp speed.  Their days are like 4 hours.  They grow rapidly.  They do everything we do, just quicker.  I'm still working on the theory.  After I do a double-blind experiment of some kind, I'll let you know if it has any validity.  (I may have already forgotten everything I learned in research methods... Sorry, Dr. Fine... Like Dr. Fine reads my blog, but just in case.)

I've been in New York for about 50 hours now and it is pretty much what I expected so far.  It's a little more intimidating than I thought it would be, but I think that's because I've been fighting through the worst case of jet lag I've ever had which is weird for me.  Traveling doesn't normally bother me.  I think I may be getting old.  But Kelley and Richard are very fun and little Isabelle is adorable.  I had my first couple of hours alone with her yesterday afternoon (by alone, I mean Kelley was in the next room) and it went well.  She really is a sweet baby, so I think it's going to be a lot of fun.  I already love the neighborhood I'm living in and I'm already slightly addicted to a coffee shop called Ciao for Now (thank goodness Kelley is in the know.)

Today is the big day.  I'm going to finish typing this and then head out on my own and go exploring.  I have the map my mom sent me and the location of the nearest H&M, so I'm pretty much set.  I'm really excited for everyone to get here so that we can really have some fun.  I've been keeping a list of fun things for us to do and it's long already, so everyone should be pumped.  

To my fellow Canyonites, I miss you like crazy.  I've decided I'm going to be an avid texter, so everyone hop on board with that.  Liz, we probably can't text because you live in Africa.

Everyone else, hop on board.  I love you all!

New York, New York

I'm in NYC.  Talk about culture shock.  The departure from the Canyon was definitely odd.  I can't really imagine not seeing these people every day.  They are so much a part of my life now.   But it was easy to see the purpose of the year.  And turns out it is really kind of fun to be able to run to Starbucks whenever I want.  

We left the Canyon on Monday, after a very long night and early morning of cleaning.  I moved all my stuff up to storage, so they're not completely rid of me.  We had to be out of good ole' Condo 55 by 10:00 AM.  A bunch of the prop staff came to say good-bye which was really hard.  They're such solid people who cared for me so well.  But we said good-bye and hopped in the cars.  From there we made a stop all together at the A-Cafe in our beautiful town of Antelope, OR.  The messy good-byes happened there.  Luckily, I knew that I was going to see several of the interns within a couple weeks in NYC, so that made things a lot easier.  Also, the reunion is in December.  Still, it's weird.

From Antelope, I jumped in with Drew and headed towards Portland.  The drive to Portland is beautiful, along the Columbia River Gorge.  I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Portland with Drew and her mom which was super fun.  We did things like get new phones, go to Ross and drink marguaritas.  It was great.  I had a midnight flight on Wednesday, so we decided to go out beforehand.  We met Nick and funny Chris whom I had never met at a bar called Henry's in downtown Portland.  We ended up all over the place Wednesday night and it was really fun.  It got me stoked for New York and, you know, actually going places.  As much as I love board games, it'll be fun to go out and be a real twenty-something for a little while.  Just a little while though.

Anyway, I had the red-eye and it was killer.  The loud lady who was really enjoying the in-flight movie was in my row.  I loved her.  She also yelled at me for putting the window up while we were landing because it was putting a glare on her TV.  And, although it's childish, I wanted to see the city as we flew in.  But whatever, I'm here, so I guess I'll see it plenty.  And you don't want to take on the lady.

I got to the city and found a taxi and said the street before the avenues just like you're supposed to and headed into the city.  I've been here a few hours now and am figuring out the routine with the beautiful baby Isabelle.  I'm dying to sleep but I want to fight through it in order to adjust to the east coast time.  3 time zones crossed.  Get used to east coast Kate.  

I have my cell phone back.  Call me!  Pictures will come soon.