Earthquakes, hurricanes, and terrorist alerts. Oh my!

September 11, 2011

I know. I’m a terrible blogger. I just haven’t had it in me to write the past couple weeks.
We survived the earthquake, which was kind of a joke for anyone from the West. We survived the hurricane. Anouska, Adam, and I went upstate to the Hudson Valley where Adam’s parents live. Funny thing is the Hudson Valley ended up getting hit worse than NYC did. We lost power Saturday night upstate. Not only did we lose power, but we lost the ability to have running water and flushing toilets. Adam’s parents conveniently have their water pump hooked up through electricity. Oh goodie. When we tried to get home Sunday night we found that some of the roads had been washed away, trees were blocking others, and the main freeway we needed was closed. It was nightmarish. We didn’t make it home till 6pm Monday. I missed work and Anouska’s classes were canceled. Nousk and I drank lots of wine with dinner Monday night. We needed it. Adam was great throughout it all, trying to strategize how to get us home, how to get us power, etc. It was definitely an experience.

Jen and Nick came to visit last weekend. It was really great to see them. I had a great time going around with them. Jen and I ran 5 miles on Friday morning through Central Park. We ran by Mark Ruffalo who was out on a stroll with his son. Jen didn’t realize who he was, but I had been staring him down trying to decide whether he really was Ruffalo or not. As I passed within inches of him and looked right in his face, I decided it was totally him. My first celebrity spotting! We had sushi with Adam and Anouska that night, and Adam gave us a tour of his lab at Columbia, which was really cool and nerdy. Saturday I called around on apartments then went shopping with Jen and Nick. We all got really tired shopping (poor us) and went back to their hotel for a bit before heading out for dinner at this small Italian place that I can’t remember the name of. Oops. It was good though. Afterwards, Jen and I sat for a while in the bar at their hotel and drank amazing sangria. Dangerously sweet and tasty sangria. Sunday night I went for a pint with Jen and Nick at this Irish pub called St. James Gate. It was a nice little pub with decent enough nachos and sweet potato fries. Monday morning me, Jen and Nick, and Anouska and Adam had brunch at Alice’s Teacup, which is an Alice in Wonderland –themed tearoom. So cool! While we were waiting for a table, we strolled around and Adam pointed out Strawberry Field to us and the hotel where John Lennon was shot. After brunch we said our goodbyes to Jen and Nick, then decided to hoof it back uptown. Anouska finally allowed Adam to buy a chalkboard to hang up in the apartment. He was so thrilled that he bought it on our walk home from brunch with Jen and Nick.

I started school on Tuesday along with my new part-time job at Teachers College Press. I’m still working at Mediabistro, but it is only part time as well. So far I am enjoying my TCP job. It is a 10 minute walk from the apartment. TCP is affiliated with Teachers College, which is part of Columbia University. I will be working two days a week for the business/accounting part of the press, and one day for acquisitions, licensing, and permissions. I’m learning a lot about publishing from the job, and have been able to apply some of the information I’ve learned in class to this job. Speaking of classes, I’ve had two of my three classes and thoroughly enjoyed them. My Book Publishing instructor is the publisher for Harper, which is an imprint of HarperCollins. He knows what he is talking about because it is what he does daily. I am a bit star struck by him. My Multimedia Financial Analysis (gag) instructor is interesting and knows the business well too. He works for NBC. I think I’ll continue to enjoy my classes, especially since there are only 12 people per class. Apparently there are only 100 students in the M.S. Publishing program total. I like the smaller classes. I also like that I can easily walk the 10 blocks from Mediabistro to my classes.

September 14, 2011

Anouska and I looked at two apartments tonight. I liked them both and plan on applying for them. I have decided to appoint Anouska as my General Counsel. She did all the talking with the broker. She is really good at it. She shall make a fine lawyer.

Dan arrives this Saturday. I am so excited. It will be brilliant to finally have him here with me.

We are now in the sixth season of Monarch of the Glen, and we are not impressed. Adam keeps swearing the show off, but then watches it with us anyway.

Anouska and I have been good at exercising this week. We’ve gotten in the habit of getting up early every morning to run and do a P90x video. I have definitely noticed I have more energy throughout the day.

Ok, I am off to bed. I must become more disciplined in blogging. Ugh.

Jazz Age

Sunday, August 21, 2011

It’s raining. The thunder is intense and awesome. Anouska and I had every intention of running today. Really, we did. But alas, it looks as though our best efforts have been foiled. We will probably do a P90x video instead.

Anouska is taking an online ‘writing diagnostic test’ for her law school. Adam is working in the other room, which is for the best since he has strong opinions on commas that Anouska doesn’t always agree with. It can get intense when those two start debating dependent and independent clauses. Adam keeps his Bedford Handbook handy at all times now. These are my kind of people.

We went to the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island yesterday. It was one of the coolest events I have been to. It is put on by this band, Michael Arenella & his Dreamland Orchestra, which plays music from the 1920s. The band is authentic sounding, and the band leader, Michael Arenella, definitely plays the part to perfection. In between sets, old records were played on gramophone players. There was endless dancing by the attendees, as well as dancing exhibitions and lessons by Roddy Caravella and his Varsity Syncopators. Caravella was a good dancer, but he and his partner were so pleased with themselves that they were irritating to watch. He also featured himself in every dance number, even though he wasn’t the most interesting to watch. It was kind of sad, actually, to see this Caravella guy grasping onto his delusion that he is Gene Kelly when he has clearly seen better days. Don’t get me wrong, he was clearly a great dancer, he just should have allowed his other dancers more floor time. Anyway, my favorite moments were watching Anouska and Adam dance. They are incredible. Anouska just bounces around Adam. They make a great team. The two of them taught me a basic step, which was fun. I only danced once with Adam, in the corner of the dance floor, so no one could judge me. I wasn’t meant to move my arms and the rest of my body independently of my legs. This is why I do Irish dance. My upper body is used to being a board. I bust a move like a refrigerator. It isn’t a pretty sight. Anouska and Adam said we can practice more in the privacy of the apartment. Adam said I have perfect rhythm and timing, so at least I’ve got that going for me.

I’ll post some of the pictures and videos I took of yesterday. My outfit wasn’t authentic at all, but it was comfy. I did get compliments on my head band, which I got at my good friend Aly’s store, Paisley Skye. A professional photographer stopped Anouska and asked if she could take her picture since Anouska’s scarf matched her eyes. Anouska was taken aback, but of course consented. It was cute. We had a fabulous day and enjoyed crashing on the couch that night. And watching Monarch of the Glen for hours.

I am now watching Lily (Anouska’s bunny) hop around the apartment. Her hoppings-about are confined to the rug because she slips on the wood floor, which scares her. Hehe. She is adorable and fluffy. I miss my Lily kitten. Yep, I’m a crazy cat lady.

Tomorrow I have to bring the heavy poster thing that I had to bring home with me on Wednesday back to work. I worked my first cocktail party for mediabistro.com on Wednesday. It went fine. I just had intense blisters and had to carry a lot. I had worn heels (mistake) to work, which had already given me blisters. When it was time to go set up for the party, my boss, Heather, me, my coworkers, Mary and other-lady-whose-name-I-don’t-remember, gathered up a box of books, three heavy posters and their stands, and all the little incidentals we needed and walked down to the Union Square Lounge. Walking was Heather’s idea. I don’t mind walking, but when the bar is four blocks over and 16 blocks down, and you’re carrying two 15 lb. posters, and wearing heels in which your blisters have just burst, it isn’t much fun. We set up the party in time for the guests to arrive. Part of my job is to chat with guests who are on their own. I saw some nerdy looking guy standing at the bar by himself so I marched over and introduced myself. We chatted awkwardly for about 2 minutes then I walked away. I found out later that he was one of the featured authors for whom the party was for. Oops. And here I’d felt bad for him. Oh well. At least I got a copy of his book. That I stole, which is another part of this story. So the four featured authors read a bit from each of their books and the guests were invited to ‘tweet’ that they were there to some address and they would get one of their books for free. I am only paid to stay for the first hour of each party, so when 7 pm rolled around, Heather told me to take some of the smaller papers and signs home, oh and one of the giant 15 lb. signs too. I was stunned. Really? You want me to just carry one of those heavy signs all the way home from 16^thStreet to 125^th? Oh, ok. I’ll just do that. That’s when I decided to just take one of the books. I didn’t have a Twitter account, but I was tired, my feet were bleeding, I had to carry a ridiculous amount of stuff, I didn’t know where the nearest subway entrance was, and my Google maps had stopped working on my phone, so I felt I deserved a book. Once I had hobbled out of the bar (up two flights of stairs, which was fun) I called Anouska and told her my situation. She instructed me on where to go and what trains to transfer to, saving me yet again. I made it home an hour later, after many odd stares on the subway (it didn’t help that the case for the heavy poster resembled a rifle case), and lots of slow limping. Needless to say I am not looking forward to lugging all that back to work tomorrow. Wah waahhh…

Ok. I’m going to do P90x now.

Michael Arenella & his Dreamland Orchestra

Anouska & Adam learning the Charleston.

Adam napping.

Awesome outfits!

Me, Adam, and Anouska waiting for the ferry to Governors Island.

My work ID for mediabistro.com. You can barely tell it is me.
Anouska and Adam studying outside Max Cafe.

New York, New York!

Friday, August 5, 2011

My flight arrived in at 5:30 this morning. I hadn’t slept much on the plane, but felt surprisingly well, despite the lack of sleep. I found my way easily to the baggage claim and waited for my two ginormous suitcases, while sweating profusely. I am so not used to the humidity. My green suitcase came off first and I was able to grab it ok. I prepped myself for my overweight, 69 lbs, blue suitcase. It almost dragged me along the conveyer belt, but I persevered and heaved it off in time to save my pride. I am not quite sure how I managed to transport both suitcases, the massive duffle bag and my laptop bag out to the curb and the taxi queue, but I did it. I wasn’t about to spend $5 on a freaking trolley! No, sir! It was totally worth careening into the nice man in charge of getting me a taxi, just to save those $5. The taxi-getter (Yes, not all the words in here are real. It’s a hard time, ok?) asked, “What do you have in here? Bricks?” I told him that no, I was in fact carrying my entire life in that suitcase. I must have looked desperate because he just laughed nervously and handed me my taxi ticket. My taxi had arrived by then, so I warned the driver about my heavy suitcase, then got in the taxi. My driver was really nice. He is starting graduate school for criminal justice this fall at some school in the city. We’re best friends now. Hehe. By the end of the ride we’d become invested in each other’s lives. He was getting concerned about where I was going to live, and I was getting worried about him working so much while going to school. Bless our hearts. I needed sleep.

I got to Anouska and Adam’s at 7 (fast ride because it was so early), and they helped me in with all my crap. I ate breakfast, chatted with Nousk, then took a nap around 8:30. I woke up around 11 and Nousk and I ate lunch. I started filling out the forms I needed to hand in at my job interview that day, but had to hurry and get dressed before I could finish them. Nousk and I left the apartment at about 2pm, stopped by Columbia where Adam was working in the lab. Adam had was awesome and had printed off 10 copies of my resume. He is an amazing guy. When Anouska and I got to the subway station at 125^th, we were lucky enough to catch an express train downtown. I still needed to finish filling out my papers, which I did on the subway. It was a feat in and of itself. I’m sure my handwriting was illegible, but I didn’t care. We got off at 34^th Street, then hoofed it five blocks up and two over to Park Ave. I was literally running in heels through the streets of Manhattan. I allowed myself a few seconds to think of Adrienne and Sex and the City, then came back to my sweaty, sweaty reality. We made it into the lobby by 2:45. I proceeded to use Anouska’s back as a desk for the rest of my forms, while she looked up phone numbers for my references in my phone. I seriously could not have done any of it without Anouska. At 2:55 I made it breathlessly to the fourth floor and was called into my interview. The interview went well, despite my sweatiness and tendency towards nervous laughter.

After the interview, I met up with Anouska at the Starbucks a couple blocks over. We sat in there and chatted for an hour or so, then started the trek home. When we got home we went with Adam to Fairway, which is a massive grocery store that is partially outside and inside. It’s cool. There is a whole refridgerated section that is freezing to go into so they have huge coats you can put on to walk through it. Nousk and I just ran through it, shivering and whining every so often. Very mature. We had amazing steak for dinner that Adam cooked perfectly. It has been a great first day.

August 6 – 12, 2011

So I have been terrible and not kept track of every day’s events. Here’s a brief overview of what I’ve done each day:

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Slept in till noon. Went to Max Café with Anouska and Adam, which is an awesome little hang out place for them to work on stuff. Saw Captain America after running several blocks from one theatre to the next. In the rain. Really enjoyed the movie. And the run. Got some frozen yogurt at Pink Berry on the way home. Split pomegranate yogurt and salted caramel yogurt. At them on the steps of one of the buildings at Columbia. It was a nice night.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Went for a run to Central Park to see Adam’s friend Hendrick in the New York City Triathalon. I am out of shape. Met up with Hendrick and his friends and family after and had an amazing picnic of burritos and tacos while waiting for the awards ceremony. Got talking with an interesting woman who is Hendrick’s bookkeeper and is also a playwright. I don’t remember her name, but one of her plays just finished at an off-Broadway theatre. We also chatted with a high-end magician and his wife. Yep, a magician. Apparently he does parties with Mick Jagger and other big names that he conveniently mentioned to us. He was nice, but definitely different. Hendrick ended up taking first in his age group and second overall! It was amazing. We all freaked out. He was in shock. After we packed up everything, Adam, Nousk, and I started our long trek back home. We stopped and played in a fountain on the way, which was delightful. By the time we got home, we had run/walked about 8 miles. Woot!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Got a call that I got the job at mediabistro.com! Took the subway downtown for Nousk to lodge a complaint against her former employers at the EEOC. We also went to get my NYU ID card and look through the bookstore. There is no real set campus for NYU. Their tagline is that “The city is our campus,” which is cool in theory, but irritating when trying to get things done. Urgh. Ate some delicious pizza then headed home.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Started my new job. Called Jen on my way to the subway. Found my way downtown all by myself. I was pathetically proud of myself. I only had to call Anouska once to verify that I was walking in the correct direction. I have a hard time with directions when I’m not surrounded by mountains for references. In my haste I dropped my phone, which promptly shattered on the sidewalk. I grabbed up the pieces and kept walking. A block and a half later I realized I didn’t have the battery. I ran back to where I had dropped it, and lo and behold, the battery was still there on the sidewalk. Rough morning. I called Dan before going into work, so he could give me a pep-talk.

My boss, Heather, is nice. Met the others on the ‘events team’. I was shown my desk and told to look through the last gal’s emails to get familiar with it all. I helped one of the other ladies, Mary, make nametags for cocktail parties in Portland and LA. Basically what my job will be is helping hosts organize cocktail parties in NYC and 20 different cities around the world. I’ll be required to attend the first hour of at least one NYC cocktail party a week, until school starts. My first one is Wednesday, August 17. Geh! I worked from 10am-6pm. I had been too nervous to eat more than a banana for breakfast, then was too nervous to eat lunch. On my way home, I wasn’t able to get on the first train because it was so packed full of people. Seriously, nobody even got on or off. When the next train came, I was desperate. I was dripping with sweat and starving. The doors to the train opened and it was packed, but I shoved my way on anyway. Once the doors closed behind me, I was able to lean back against them. I’ve never been so close to strangers in my life. The further uptown the train went, the more the train thinned out. At the next stop, a large man squeezed his way on and told me his life story. We’re now best friends. His name is Vick, he is from New Jersey, Florida originally, he works at the Olive Garden in Times Square, and he and his ‘girl’ are going to move to San Francisco sometime soon. He has never been on a roadtrip or camping. He was loud, sweaty, and hilarious. At one point he accidently elbowed some guy in the head and said, “I’m sorry, sir. I’m sweaty and fat.” No one else was talking on the train, so it was pretty great. Everyone was listening to our conversation. I’m going to enjoy the subway.

Wednesday – Saturday, August 10-13, 2011

Nothing too specific to report. Don’t have to work again till Monday, August 15, because Heather is out of town. Lots of job and apartment searching. Lots of silent anxiety attacks about getting an apartment, which seems to be impossible in NYC. Lots of delicious food. Lots of staying up till 2am with Adam and Nousk watching episodes of Monarch of the Glen on Netflix.