I live in New York

Because sometimes even a year and a half later, I still have those moments where I say to myself, "I live in New York."

Year Two and the Journey Contines ...

Year one is over. I’ve tumbled through some of the most difficult times I’ll have here and incredibly, I’ve landed on my feet. It’s been a serious year. I’ve fallen into a strict routine and I think it stems largely from being restricted financially. In my head I know exactly how much money I will have each month and I know exactly what I can eat, when I can order carry out and when I can go out for drinks on the amount I make each month.

I’ve ordered from Dang Lai palace 47 times this year and each time I ordered the same thing. The reason I chose that place last March is because it was the cheapest dinner I could order and it had the lowest delivery minimum, $7.00. For $9.57 I can get Lo Mein with Chicken, an eggroll and tip the delivery guy. My routine isn’t just financial though, it doesn’t stop at Dang Lai it’s borderline OCD and it has threatened my spontaneity. Since I know once I get home from work, I won’t be going out – It’s not fiscally responsible, I shower. Immediately. In flip-flops. I have inside clothes and outside clothes. The inside clothes never get to go outside and the outside clothes don’t get to touch the bed. Except for pants, outside clothes are typically worn one time. Once they are pulled from the closet/dress, they don’t go back in until they’ve been cleaned. It’s a dirty city.

Once I leave the shower, the flip-flops stay on the feet until it’s time to get in bed, which is when I put socks on. I’m not even going to go further into the details of my “routines”. The point is. Year 2 is going to be about breaking free from the binds of money. Not letting my paycheck dictate what I do. When I move in a few months, I’ll be more careful about the apartment I’m moving into – I’ll live a little more within my means. Below are a few more resolutions I have for the coming year:

• Breaking free from the bindings of money (already said)
• Enjoying life again
• Getting excited about the simple things (I can’t tell you the last thing I was excited about, I don’t remember how to be excited)
• Upgrading my wardrobe – Sorry Old Navy, we’re probably breaking up
• Making a new friend – New friends have so many expectations but I think it will be good for me to let my guard down and meet someone new. I tried to when I first moved her but, she called all the time and wanted to hang out – it was really stressful and I couldn’t handle it.
• Finding out what I really want – Maybe I don’t even want to live here. Maybe I’m only here because 16 year old me told me to be here and I was too chicken to tell her no. Maybe I really want to live in LA?
• Finding a job I love! – This will be a tough one

Additionally, I want to blog daily, or so and even build the courage to let someone finally read it! Here is to year #2.

Please take note of the image above, it's part of my order history of the last year. Dang Lai Palace used to be Happy Palace. :)

What do we want? Fair Wages. When do we want it? Now!

Even striking isn’t done the same here as it is in St. Louis. Obviously there are distance restrictions that dictate how far from an entrance someone can be when protesting or striking. In a city like New York, a far distance from the facility entrance could very possibly be closer to your bedroom window or more specifically, mine.

I’ve never been a union worker, never been on strike – I did however cross a picket line to go to work at a hospital when the nurses were striking (they were OK with it, I assure you). I can’t sympathize with the PM Construction team from Beth Israel Medical Center and after their behavior during the month of August; I can’t empathize with them either. While I have no idea what it’s like to strike, I can appreciate the desire to be paid what the rest of the night construction crews at other hospitals are getting paid. With that being said, is it really necessary for me to wake up 3 times a week to 30 men shouting and blowing whistles for 3 minute intervals? I’d stop and ask you the following questions but I’m afraid with your ear plugs in your ears, you won’t hear me. Perhaps you can scrounge up a pair of those for me after you address my following concerns. Are you fighting me? Do you really think the controller up in the Beth Israel building can hear your shenanigans once he passes you to get into his cushy office? He can’t. I’m willing to guarantee this – I will bet you a years worth of uninterrupted sleep on this. You might wonder how I know this; I know this because I was a witness to 4 of the 7 years of the ongoing Congress Hotel strike. They managed to stay off of my hit list by quietly pacing back and forth in front of the hotel in protest. Even Obama can’t help them, he’s protested twice with him, America, that should have been our first indication he wasn’t the man for the job but that’s a topic for another day. This is about Beth Israel and their PM construction crew.

If you want my advice, perhaps there are other methods you can use to drive home your point. The shiny black coffin strategically placed by your team near the entrance of the hospital has probably proven effective, no?

Fall in Love with New York -- in the movies...

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I have high expectations for fall in New York transforming my life from mundane to a replica of the movie, ‘You’ve Got Mail’ – complete with cashmere turtle necks, sweater sets and tights. I know this fantasy is unrealistic, I’m going to feel slightly let down when October 1st rolls around and I don’t wake up in a brownstone on the Upper West Side expertly appointed with shabby chic furnishings and Laura Ashley fabrics. I’m still going to go to sleep each night and hope but, while I do that, I’ll be watching other movies set in New York, don’t expect a post begging me to wake up on the set of, “The Taking of Pelham 123”…

[New York Movies I’m going to Love]

• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
• Arthur – I can’t wait for the remake starring Jennifer Garner and Russell Brand
• Ghost
• Curly Sue
• When Harry Met Sally
• StepMom
• Unfaithful
• Kate and Leopold
• Big
• Cruel Intentions
• Miracle on 34th St.
• Sex and the City
• Eloise
• Serendipity
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s
• Maid in Manhattan – Gotta love a movie that includes New York and Weimaraners
• Manhattan
• Two Weeks Notice
• As Good As It Gets
• Elf
• Definitely, Maybe
• Autumn in New York
• P.S. I love you
• Bride Wars
• The Devil Wears Prada
  

[Shows I will Love]

• Will and Grace
• Mad About You
• Mad Men
• Seinfeld

I don't have a New York I.D. but I've yelled at a stranger. I'm legit.

I’ve gotten past the first month, first job and almost through my first summer in New York. It’s been tough at times but I now officially consider myself a New Yorker, I can point to an apartment and say, “See that gray building? That was my first apartment here in New York.” I noticed when I moved here; everyone likes to talk about where they’ve lived, where their first apartment was and how they decided where they live now. I’m officially a part of that club!

Riding in a cab past 26th st. on my first day as a permanent employee of Agency Rx, I excitedly pointed out that Grey brownstone I called home for my first 6th months to the new, Vice President of Account planning who pointed out almost immediately the first apartment he lived in as a married man. It was also the apartment where his first baby came home to and it was also his last home in Manhattan. We share more than a cab that day, on our way to the midtown office of CDM, two strangers from 2 different generations and 2 different rungs on the corporate ladder were able to share one common thread and one moment of reminiscence. Obviously, our career paths were already and would remain similar but that’s not so much personal, what we shared in the cab was personal and an cherished detail of each of our lives. Both apartments marked beginnings and in a way ends.

Driving past 244 e. 26th st, I was reminded of the first day I walked up those stairs to check out the place. It was February and the city was being drowned with freezing rain. It was my second week in the hotel and I needed to get out. I trudged up 2nd avenue from a 6th floor walk up in the East Village that was absolutely not where I was going to live all the way past Stuy Town (pronounced Sty) Park almost a mile in this freezing shower, my umbrella quit working about a half a mile earlier and I was a wreck. The tips of my hair were icicles and I remember thinking to myself, if this girl is even half normal and close to my age, I’m moving in tomorrow. I walked in, looked at the room. It was small and furnished with a twin bed and a floor lamp, the apartment itself was a tad on the un kempt side – there were cracks I was constantly terrified roaches would crawl out of and I spent most nights there thinking bugs were crawling on me but I took one look at Irene who was laid back with a relaxed demeanor and I just blurted out, I’ll be your room mate if you want to be mine – we agreed and 2 days later, I moved in.

It was a great first apartment and not nearly as scary as I just described it – honestly I only encountered a few bugs and only one crawling on me. What, it builds character and will give me bargaining chips just in case I ever end up having kids!

And the Asian Saves the Day ...

I consider myself fortunate to not have to be one of the tourists who look at their maps and try to navigate the city in 4 days or less missing many of the great and interesting sights. New York is there for my taking! I can spend an entire day getting lost on just one street or one avenue walking in and out of all the little shops. I do find myself envious of those time crunched tourist in a way. They have the vim and vigor I lack. Just like anywhere you come to call home, you have those Saturday’s where you wake up, look out the window and think, “Leave me alone, today I’ll stay under the covers and watch ABC Family, eat a 3 Musketeers Bar in bed and stalk the same 30 people on facebook.” That was me just 3 short hours ago. After moving to a new apartment and interviewing for a permanent job all in the same week, walking around in 90 degree weather was not written after “Eat 3 Musketeers bar in bed” on my to do list, which, was already crossed off. It was time to get out of bed and do something.

The first 30 minutes of my neighborhood exploring made me realize, if we had a couch, today would be the first of many where I would declare to hate it. It was hot, none of the eateries I was coming across appeared to serve fountain diet coke and I felt like my entire body was built of lead. First, I walked south 4 blocks then west 2 blocks, then south again where I found a store called “Surprise! Surprise!” I hate surprises. More than surprises though, I hate not knowing what the surprise in question is so of course, I went in. “Surprise! Surprise!” is literally a store filled with overpriced crap during my visit I noticed a selection of lamps, none of which were the same, already built cheap furniture and a huge selection of glassware. As I walked around this ridiculous store, I was hardly surprised to find most of the merchandise for sale appeared to have fallen off a truck headed to a respectable retail location that doesn’t have a hand painted sign. Browsing around this store just filled me with more hate and confirmed the fact that my original plan of candy, bed and facebook was the winner. However, the thought of backtracking unhappily to my apartment and climbing the 3 flights of hot stairs only to shower again and wait for my room to cool back down seemed more daunting than continuing to walk south and further explore the area. So, I continued to walk south …

I stumbled into Cooper’s Square which I declared on the phone with my brother to be stupid and vacant except for a bar called, “The Asian Pub”. I walked past “The Asian Pub” 3 times thinking about how much of an oxymoron this was. On my 3rd walk by I noticed they had a fantastic little garden draped in grape vines, a fountain in the center and a charming brick patio. The enchanting patio and the fact that they had $3 Lychee martinis was enough to coax me inside. I saw ‘day saver’ written all over the little Asian Grandmas face that greeted me when I walked in. Even though Saturday’s are not their day to serve brunch Grandma agreed to make an omelet for me, my bill turned out to be $10 - for brunch and 2 martinis, the tables around me offered excellent eaves dropping and the patio offered an escape for all my early morning hatred. Thanks to the Asian Pub for turning my day around!

My hearty brunch served up by the Asian grandma!

Chips and Salsa at an Asian Pub ...

A lot can happen in a year ...

It’s the end of a year, a year full of life changing chances, choices and experiences. Just one year ago, I started my internship with Two West in Kansas City. During my first 3 years of post college life I’ve looked back on my choices and thought, “if only I would have stuck that unpaid internship out!” or, “If I wouldn’t have changed my direction from agency to client side.” You can sit there and ask “what if” for days but it’s never going to accomplish anything and that is exactly what I learned in April of 2009 sitting in my gross office at Augusta Winery. That was not what I wanted, what I wanted was the hip cubicle in a trendy office with creatives that had blenders and microwaves set up at their desk and on the last week of June that is what I got. There weren’t any blenders or microwaves at Two West but I did have a window and exposed brick making my cubicle ultra trendy! Did I expect it would bring me to New York? Not a chance but I knew Two West had something huge in store for me – so I took a chance, packed my car and went west.

Today, one year later, I’m moving out of my first New York apartment and I can’t help but feel nostalgic about it all. At 16, I had a better idea of what I wanted to do than I did in the past three years, I didn’t know the details but I did know I was going to live in New York and as my mom reminds me, I was going to have a high rise apartment where I could sit in my bay window and watch the city lights just like “Miracle on 34^th st.”. I don’t have a high rise apartment and the only lights I can see from my window are the ones coming from the Stuyvesant town apartment across the street from me but next summer, I hope to have a roof top pool (I’m just gonna dream big). When you’re 16 and live at home attending a sheltered all girl private high school in a quiet little town, anything seems possible. Then, when you tell your parents you want to go to school in Chicago you don’t they will but they believe you, so they drive you there and literally drop you off in this huge city with a stranger as a roommate (who turns out to be a crazy who does drugs), you tend to turn a little gun shy – suddenly New York seemed a little lofty. I had to find a new path luckily someone disguised that path I was taking by leading me to Kansas City first so not to scare me. I guess I had to see what it was like to live in a pretend city so I could earn back my rights to live in a real city. Without taking that chance and moving to Kansas City, I never would have remembered where my heart really belonged.

To put this over the edge of “nostalgic” to “corny” I’ll add this next section -- I visited Tiffany’s on Sunday which is where this love affair began almost 10 years ago and just stood in the sterling silver aisle furthest to the right on the 3^rd floor and among the buzzing of the tourists moving from case to case bumping each other with their shopping bags gazing down at the pieces of timeless treasures in the impeccably polished cases, I swear I saw 16 year old me fawning over my newly purchased glistening bauble knowing this purchase was just the beginning of something amazing. Looking down at my now gently worn, severely loved and iconic .925 sterling silver “Return to Tiffany’s” bracelet purchased on my first date with New York, I noticed, like me, it’s not shiny and new anymore but it’s developed a nice luster and I’m not afraid of letting it get a little scratch because you have to fight for what you want and take those risks.