City life!

I LOVE city life. I love that I can go out for drinks and not have to worry about the drive home. I love that everything I need is within 5 blocks of my apartment. I love that pretty much every store and restaurant has a delivery policy. I love that this city is incredibly dog friendly. I love that there is no other comparable city.

New York City, I love you. I don’t think I’ll ever leave you! Maybe for a weekend trip or a short vacation, but I love you too much to ever leave for good!

What’s also great is that there are always people visiting! Who can resist the Big Apple? My friend Ryan is in town for the week and on Thursday, Erica arrives! Yay!

I went out for a jog this morning. I know, I know.. all this walking, all the stairs and yet I still need to exercise. Peanut and I ran along the East River for about 40 minutes. I feel good! I’m starting to feel the pain and exhaustion in my legs though.. I’m so out of shape but this is a good start!

So, like I said, this city is so wonderfully walkable and the public transportation is great. I don’t take the bus so I’m not really familiar with it (I’m actually kind of afraid of buses..) but it seems reliable. There are times when the subway is delayed but you know, that kind of stuff happens. I admit I get really irritated when the subway is delayed. Time is money and people need to get to work!

My parents recently returned my leased Volkswagen GTI to the dealer. There is absolutely NO WAY I would’ve brought that car to NYC. It just doesn’t make sense! Plus, parking here is ridiculous and I’d be paranoid about scratches and bumps. Oh, and you can’t forget the gas prices.. I don’t even know where the gas station is! Anyway, if you are car-less but need one for the day, you can get a Zip Car. Tim’s a member and reserved one for a couple hours this past Saturday. What’d he need the car for?

COSTCO!

I took the photo while we were in the car. Anyway, Cindy, Tim and I drove over to Brooklyn to pick up some essentials at Costco. It was 2 stories! I’ve never seen a 2 story Costco! Afterwards, I picked up some items at The Container Store and Bed, Bath and Beyond. I think I’m pretty much set in terms of furnishing my room.. except for my bed frame. Oh, I got my mattress yesterday! I bought a memory foam mattress from overstock.com. I highly recommend it! So anyway, I was dead-set on building an elevated bed frame but after spending an arm and a leg on closet organizational stuff at The Container Store, I think a box spring will do just fine. No need to cram things under my bed!

Alright, enough writing and more pictures! All of these are from my Facebook and taken with my phone (I don’t use my digital camera as much anymore but I will soon! Promise!).

Peanut napping.

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The protesters outside of my office building. They were particularly loud this day.. banging on buckets! The police arrived and enclosed them in a fence, haha. I have no idea what they’re protesting, by the way, but they’re here every single day. It’s usually just a handful of people.. this was a special day, I guess.

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I took this while walking on Exchange Place.

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My roommate Nick and Peanut. He’s not sleeping, he was blinking, hahaha. Oh, Peanut!

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Tim and Cindy in the zip car.

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The Brooklyn Bridge.. obviously taken from the (moving) car.

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The buildings across the street from my apartment.

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3rd avenue around Gramercy.

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Pravda for Nick’s birthday. I like this lounge.

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MMM, Sam’s Falafel cart! This is probably the cheapest place in the city. $3 for a sandwich! And it’s actually delicious! I get one whenever I have cash (like once a week? I never have cash).

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Stuyvesant Square.

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Peanut at the dog park with another beagle!

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Well, that’s it for now. Leave me comments!!!

<3

E

Summer just started..

and it’s already blistering hot! Actually, today has been cool relative to the past couple of days. weather.com made me furious last weekend! 89 degrees but it feels like 97. What the heck is that about??!

Life is easier when one has an AC. Unfortunately, life is hard because I am without. I got through the weekend lying on the floor in front of my roommate’s air conditioned room. I’m not joking. That is seriously what I did while they were out last weekend, haha. No worries, though, the AC is coming soon! Thanks Ryan!!!!!

Peanut was uncomfortably hot as well. I think it’ll take him some time to adjust to the heat. He gets so winded after our walks! Walking + heat + flights of stairs to my non-air conditioned apartment = exhausted Peanut. It is cooling down, though. Who would’ve thought I’d welcome 85 degree weather?

I am pretty much settled now in my new apartment, aside from my lack of furniture. I still need to get, well, everything. Anyway, my roommates are pretty awesome; we get along well. We just got our couch and Nick picked up a wireless router last night at the Apple store off of 5th ave (it’s open 24 hours!) and what’d we do? Hang out together in the living room with our laptops propped open, of course!

Not much else has changed. Work is good but busy. It’s summertime and people are coming to visit! I’m excited!

Anyway, I actually have some work to do before I meet with some friends in a couple hours.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DADDY!!! =)

<3

E

Settling in.. Part 2.

I can move cross-country no problem. 1 way ticket? Fine with me. All my belongings packed in 3 boxes, 2 suitcases and a duffel bag, ready to be flown from SFO to JFK? Sure, let’s do it.

It’s moving WITHIN Manhattan that’s difficult.

My stay at the temporary apartment ended yesterday. Moving on Monday was hard work! 3 large boxes, 2 suitcases, 1 large laundry basket, 1 duffel bag, 1 dolly, 2 large bags of shoes, 1 pillow, 2 bags of linens and 1 huge pack of toilet paper (thanks, Costco!) up 4 flights of stairs. Sure they’re short flights but still–STAIRS ARE STAIRS! Shoutout to my new roommate Nick for carrying the boxes up. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I’ve officially been a Manhattan resident for a month. ONE MONTH! I have a lot to do to get settled. I need to buy my furniture and storage stuff! Right now, everything is laid out on my floor in a disorderly fashion. DVDs strewn about. Piles of clothes scattered around. Toiletries and makeup all over. I’m excited to finally put everything away but it’s difficult when you don’t have time to do so!

Peanut is coming tomorrow!!!! It might be best for me to clean up tonight so Peanut will have space to walk around our new room. I wonder how he’ll react to this city. City dogs are hilarious. They go to the bathroom in the middle of the sidewalk. Peanut is used to doing his business in nature’s bathroom–grass and plants. There’s not much grass here unless you go to a park. Good thing my street is tree-lined; Peanut will have his options.

When I lived in the Village, I walked through Soho to get to the subway. Now, I walk on Park Avenue to get to the subway. PARK. AVENUE. I walk by Lexington Avenue and get a view of the Chrysler Building down the street.. like, way down, but still! I live pretty close to Gramercy Park; it’s a private park in which only the residents living in the surrounding buildings have access. It’s the only private park in Manhattan. Another good thing about living in Gramercy is that I live 4 blocks away from my buddy Tim!

So, for those who aren’t familiar w/ NYC, Gramercy is on the east side, northeast of Union Square. I’m really close to East Village (which is currently one of my favorite neighborhoods). Gramercy is a pretty and safe place to live. I’m glad everything worked out!

The weather is getting ridiculous. It was humid and hot earlier this week and it rained last night. It woke me up! It’s cloudy today and we have 84% humidity. EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT. Oh, but it gets better. It’s going to be in the high 80s and low 90s this weekend.. with isolated t-storms. And it’s just going to get worse as summer hits the city. 90+ degrees w/ 100% humidity. I need to get to Home Depot asap and get an AC unit! I’m glad I picked up lunch on my way to the subway this morning. I don’t need to face that heat and humidity until I get off work.

I’ll update w/ Peanut’s adventures soon. Yay, I’m so excited!

<3

E