Happiness

I admit that I have been focusing on everything else that exists right now except for this amazing blog (that I think about 5 people might read).

But lucky for all of you, taking pictures is something that I was able to have some fun with while I was in California for a little over a week in December.

For all of you fellow New York folk, this is what you were missing on the west coast on Chrismas Day. In complete honesty, these pictures taken at the beach were taken when there was ice on the streets in New York.







Then came the birds : and you know that I cannot go without photographing things like squirrels and kitties and such so I held back and only included two of the many many pictures that I actually took of these winged creatures.




And here is my tribute to Sprinkles. I miss your cupcakes, and I miss visiting you and eating you with friends and Winter Dream tea lattes.

Sorry this post is so short, so hopefully the pictures are stimulating enough to make up for my lack of an interesting story.

Happy Birthday to You

Happy first birthday to Mary's Mix Tape.

So much has happened over the past year, and not enough of it was written down. I keep a sticky note on my computer. On this sticky is where I write down my brilliant ideas for blogging - and I am sad to say that there are 7 things on that list that I have been neglecting for so long, that if I tried to compose something clever it would probably turn out very badly.

Example:

I have the words "a house with more than 23 windows" written down on this pastel yellow sticky, and although I can remember exactly when I saw this image and counted all the windows and thought that I just HAD to blog about it, I truly no longer have any clever thoughts to share. Just as I am writing about it now I will be deleting that topic - I can no longer recall what on earth I could have spent a few paragraphs blabbering about 23 windows for. It was a pretty house though.

Delete.

My second post last year was during the first real snow storm in the city. And I find it fatalistic that as I sit here writing exactly one year later, a sister storm, bringing the first real snow of this season is falling perfectly outside of my living room window. The sidewalks were covered in the salts today before it even began to snow. These are the salts that make the floors of the subways white. Just as it began to snow a simply perfect snowflake landed on my boyfriend's eyelash.

Perfect.

I have to admit that I do like the snow. But I am also excited to be escaping this freezing cold city for almost two weeks to dwell in the not so cold and much sunnier Los Angeles. Then when I come back and finish my third semester I can not feel so bitter when it is six degrees outside when I walk to school in the morning.

Time Goes Away

It has been way too long since I have gone out with my camera, so yesterday on my 20 block walk home from class I decided to take the scenic route and capture some of this beautiful city's holiday charm.




It is a special feeling living only four blocks away from these beautiful sights - and I hope that I never stop appreciating that for as long as I live in New York City.

More Than Useless

This is my new day planner. I love this company - your first thought is that the books are recycled, but they aren't - this company uses post consumer products, so these journals and unique books don't even use the energy that it takes to recycle paper. I am even sending in my coil from my appointment book last year so my book will be made completely from previously used materials!

You can find out more info and see these amazing books at papergeist.com.

Safe in the City

I took a big step this year and put my name onto a lease for an apartment. Although, to be frank, I was somewhat apprehensive of this at first. Finding an apartment in The City was not an easy task. After a restless red-eye from LA to NYC we decided to go out the first day at about 11 am to start the hunt. We looked at about 8 places the first day and could only talk ourselves into considering one of them as a possible place of residence. We agreed to get up early and try again on Friday, and if nothing else turned up we would choose the place from the day before. Friday turned out to be another crazy day schlepping around New York running up and down countless flights of stairs.

It was starting to near the end of our second day - we only had two appointments left. We arrived at W 55th Street to meet Mike who was over 15 minutes late and as he shook our hand kindly said "I do not have a key to get into this building." You could imagine the frustration "what do you mean?? We love this area and want to see this place" I did not say those exact words, and started with "oh, that's okay." When really I was thinking "This trip was pointless and a waste of time."

Then out of nowhere Tom and Otis come into the picture. A current resident (and his cute dog) who has overheard the conversation and invited us into his apartment in the same building with the same layout as the one we are interested in. In my head "does this happen?" Answer: Yes. He was very friendly and we liked the inside of the place enough to agree to meet Mike back at the apartment building an hour and a half later - with the condition that he would be back with a set of keys and a bottle of wine for Tom.

When we arrived back at the infamous apartment building I was surprised to see Mike on time and waiting for us with keys in hand and ready to go. We walked up four more flights of stairs and right into a perfect little apartment. We knew right away that this was the one we wanted. We filled out the paperwork and were into our new place in a matter of days. Thanks Mike!

As we started meeting people in the building we came to find out that this actual building had been very recently the location of multiple robberies - one of which happened to our neighbor. "Uh... scary" - especially considering that CohenSmithChang (the agency through which we got our apartment) conveniently lost a set of our keys on the day we moved in. I started not feeling as safe as I had hoped I would in my first legitimate apartment.

The moving process was a little hectic. We had absolutely no furniture - so the hunt for that began immediately, and I quickly found a chair that I really liked. As Pasha and I were opening the front door to our building, with humongous chair in hand, three men approached us. "Do you need any help?" At first I did not want any random people coming into my new place because of the key situation and robbery mentioned earlier. I took another look and realized that these were just the type of people whose help we could use - Mormons. I don't remember the two brothers' names, but Elder East-Hope (who didn't look old enough to be an elder to me) seemed a very fitting name for a Latter-day-Saint who helps people move furniture. Next came Lou - the big guy from Queens who helped us move the 20 ton media cabinet we thought would be a nice addition to the living room. Big Lou really liked to talk. As I sat in the back of his burgundy van with no windows I learned a lot about old New York and all the old buildings and how much money the city makes from giving people tickets. Lou was a really funny guy - when I tried adding to conversation he would look extremely bored, but as soon as he could talk again he would get so excited. He was not shy to tell us that we had the second to worst piece of furniture that he had ever had to move in all of his days as a "Man with a Van".

After a week I finally got the guts to take the lock off the door (that's right me and a screw driver and a door) all by myself. I took every single piece (it was pretty heavy) to the "Lock and Key" guy down the street and he re-keyed it all for me in no time. I put it all back on the door and now can say I really have the most perfect apartment in New York City. It is simple, safe and comes with its very own StairMaster!

Now, the only thing I really still need is a couch.