City life is incredibly fun but man, it is expensive! All of the temptations I’ve mentioned before (shopping, going out and eating out) are now strictly moderated. City life’s pleasures tend to stack up money-wise pretty quickly. In order to maximize my savings, take care of my expenses and STILL have a life, I’ve come up with a decent budget plan. Hm, this must mean I’m growing up. Ah, adulthood.. rearing your ugly head.
Now the thing that I do love about New York is that you really don’t have to spend a whole lot (sometimes even nothing!) to continue adventuring. Take walking for instance–it kills 2 birds with 1 stone! Exercise AND sight-seeing! Best of all, it’s free!! People watching is also a fun thing to do. Everyone stares at everybody.. it’s frickin’ ridiculous. I can’t tell if you’re admiring or judging but either way, I’m going to do it right back at you. And the subway.. man oh man, I love the subway. You can go anywhere the subway goes as many times as you want! With the unlimited metrocard, you might as well take advantage of it! It runs 24 hours and it goes pretty far.
Last weekend, I decided to be more proactive about the walkability of Manhattan. The week prior, Peanut and I ran to the Empire State building. It’s about a mile away (~20 NYC blocks = 1 mile) so it wasn’t that bad of a run at all. Anyway, I thought it’d be good to run a longer distance.. say to Central Park. Tim told me that he once ran to the Park and then IN the park.. that’s, like, a 40 block distance. 40+ actually. So I was like, what the heck, why not?? Sure, Tim did track in high school and works out regularly but if HE can do it, so can I!
And so I did. Peanut and I ran to Central Park from Gramercy, ran within the park, kiiiinda ran back (actually we walked most of the way.. hey, we were tired!) and drank gallons of water while we cooled down in front of the AC at home.
Pictures to prove all of this:
We walked past the Helmsley building but didn’t actually walk through it.. I don’t know if you can but anyway, the dog and I walked on Park avenue most of the way.
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The path at the 5th avenue entrance. Yes, Peanut and I walked down 5th avenue amidst all the crazy shoppers and tourists. Ugh, it was an absolute NIGHTMARE for runners (not that I’d call myself a runner just yet but you know what I mean).
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Victoria Gardens @ Wollman Rink! This is a tiny amusement park in the middle of Central Park.
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Hahaha I mentioned before that there isn’t a lot of grass here unless you go to a park. Well, I guess Peanut must’ve missed all the grass because he spent about 10 minutes rolling on his back (and consequently rolling down the small slope). And no, obviously, he is not neutered nor do I plan on fixing him.
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We passed the apple store off of 5th and man, the line was crazy long. This was the weekend the new iPhone came out.
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The day after, I was feeling even more driven to keep up the running so Peanut and I ran south this time to Battery Park. We ran along the East River on FDR and man.. what a view and what a WORKOUT. About 5 miles total on Saturday and then another 6 on Sunday! My legs were exhausted!!!
Part of the midtown skyline. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL that day; perfect for a run!
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Manhattan Bridge in the foreground with the Brooklyn Bridge and part of the downtown skyline in the background.
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This is one of 4 waterfalls that’s an art.. thing?.. displayed through mid-October. You can read about it here: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/waterfalls-display-opens-on-harbor/index.html?hp Oh, and that’s Brooklyn in the background.
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Peanut was SO tired from our run that every time we passed a spot of grass, he’d seriously just collapse and REFUSE to get up. We walked the entire way back home.
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Anyway, another reason I’ve been slowing down with the nightlife activities is the fact that my friends have been busy! Tim’s been working late hours and Cindy’s been kinda MIA (or maybe I’ve been MIA?) so we haven’t seen each other for quite some time. Yes, I only have 2 friends and I’m okay with that. 
We went to Dos Caminos for dinner last week (the midtown location but my coworker Steve went to the one in Gramercy/Flatiron and saw Matt Damon and Ben Affleck there!) and Mexican food here is.. well.. it’s not the same. I agree with the Yelp reviewers that the guacamole IS delicious but man, I can make the exact same thing AND make it better.. so, ha! Anyway! Tim works in the Metlife building and I could not resist taking a picture of it with Grand Central station in the foreground.
So pretty! Forgive me for the blurry photo but I took it on my phone so give me a break (I got the new Blackberry Curve for Verizon Wireless and it is a MAJOR upgrade from that crappy Motorola Moto q9m that I had.. MAJOR upgrade)!
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Tim is actually on vacation in Germany visiting his lovely girlfriend, Lena, so Cindy and I had to make do by ourselves this weekend. With no experienced locals showing us the ropes, we didn’t really know what to do, haha. Well, that’s not entirely true.. we watched “The Dark Knight” on Friday (I liked it!) and tried our best to avoid and out-walk the tourists in Times Square.
Oh! And we made it out to CONEY ISLAND on Saturday!!!
My coworker Jason goes to Coney Island all the time and raves about it and although I’ve heard how “ghetto” and “dangerous” it is, I wanted to see what all the hype was about. You guys, honestly, it’s just like Santa Cruz.. except the amusement park is bigger, WAY bigger. More rides and stuff.
It was RIDICULOUSLY hot, though. Man. I think Cindy and I sweat out about 5 gallons each. Seriously.. it was crazy, CRAZY hot but it was really good to get out of the city. We are planning to go again next Saturday!
Today, Cindy and I did girly stuff.. spa pedicure and manicure. Another thing about New York is that women put in a lot more effort into their looks and hence, I’m a lot more self conscious!!!!! I actually put an effort into my appearance now. I KNOW! ME, ERIKA RAMOS, CARING ABOUT MY APPEARANCE! I’m usually so laid back that I’ll walk Peanut in a ripped high school PE t-shirt and boxers with my uggs, unshaved legs and hair uncombed, greasy, and pulled back in an ugly ponytail.. always with no makeup, my glasses, and probably some food stuck somewhere between my molars. In my defense, I only did that because I saw others do it so I knew it was okay to be ugly in public! That doesn’t fly in NYC, man. Nope, you can’t do that here. I suppose it’s good for mankind that I look presentable in public.. oh and it’s not bad for me either.. not bad at all.
Anyway, where was I.. oh yes, the spa! Some woman actually brought her 3 year old daughter in for a pedicure. A PEDICURE. What is a 3 year old girl going to do with painted toe nails???!?!?!!!!! She doesn’t even understand what it is! All she sees is bright orange on her toes! Whatever, to each his own.
Besides the girlification, Cindy and I roamed Chinatown for some last minute dim sum, tapioca milk tea, fresh lychee by the pound and then ended up walking through Little Italy to eat MORE (cannoli and Italian ice.. SO GOOD. SO GOOOOOD). I swear.. if I lived in Little Italy, I think I’d be morbidly obese. All the apartments are above restaurants and cafes. There’s absolutely no way you can fight off that temptation; it’d be too hard to NOT be fat.
Oh, and on the subway.. guess who I spotted..
TAYLOR MOMSEN. She plays Jenny Humphrey on “Gossip Girl.” She’s only 14 years old and almost 5′8″. She is beautiful in person and very skinny. When I saw her, OH MY GOD, I started FREAKING. OUT. Cindy doesn’t watch GG (how blasphemous!) so she was all calm and stuff but man. I had to control my celeb-craziness because 1) the subway was packed and 2) I was already sweating from the heat and humidity and at this point, I was teetering on the point of dehydration because I was sweating even more from the celeb-sighting excitement. I thought about approaching her but I don’t think anyone would want to talk to me when I’m THAT sweaty (and I know she was too.. it was really hot today!!!!) plus I think it’s kind of disrespectful. She’s only a kid and she’s already on TV.. I didn’t want to make it awkward for her on her day off so I just sneakily took some blurry photos with my phone (as if taking secret photos is any better, right?). Too bad the flash went off on the last one. Whoops! Good one, Erika.. way to be sneaky.
Goodness, it was really hot again today. The heat will continue this week.. ugh. At least I’ll be in the wonderfully air conditioned office freezing my butt off SO much that I actually (get this) USE A PERSONAL HEATER. Yea. 90+ degrees AND humid outside but I use a heater in the office. Funny, I know.
<3
E
PS – I don’t know what it is but I swear, pictures taken of me on iPhones are very flattering. Andi took this of me with her brand spankin’ new iPhone (3G anyone?) when I got home today. This is me newly tanned, ridiculously sweaty and still freaking out about Jenny Humphrey (ignore my ugly facial expression please):
And yes, if you must know, I have lost weight. It’s still a work in progress but progress has been made. Thank you, 4 flights of stairs and walking everywhere because I have no choice.
