act 3: _______

When I first thought about this “weekend-in-three-acts” thing, I thought I had the three acts all planned out. Unfortunately, act 3 (which I’ve been trying to write for about 20 minutes) never amounted to anything informative, so I decided to delete it.

So, in it’s place I’m going to write about something else: what’s next after NYC?

I’ve been on the East Coast my entire life – except for those times I briefly left the area. I’m a fan of this side of the States. Aside from the insane humidity over the summer and the growing inconsistency of the seasons, it works for me. I started in New York City, moved to Roanoke, spent some time in Charlottesville, and then DC/College Park – and now I’m back in the Big Apple.

After my stint in NYC (maybe 2-3 years), it will be time for a more drastic change. Chicago? Atlanta?

But here’s my problem: I don’t know much about what this “glorious” country has to offer. It’s not mandatory that I live in one of those big major cities. I just don’t know how to pick up and move somewhere. How do people end up in those smaller cities and random suburbs?

That said, I don’t think I’m anywhere close to “settling”. For starters, I’m still single. I have nothing holding me down (well, besides my sanity). Second, not only do I have 90% of this country left to see – I have so much of the world to visit!

I better get to livin’… (sorry about the Dolly Parton reference)

*** Side note: spending time in Atlanta this past weekend got me thinking about where I could see myself after NYC. I like Atlanta. It’s nothing like DC (which is nice), it’s much cleaner than NYC (also nice) and it’s warmer than both places (bonus points).

new things

1. I gave my final work presentation today – THANK GOD. I’m so glad I scheduled those 3 presentations in the same week. Now I can concentrate on the other gazillion things I still have to do for work…

2. I FOUND AN APARTMENT. Gosh, what an extremely tiring process. I don’t want to look at craigslist again for at least 2 months. As a matter of fact, I’m removing it from my “Bookmarks” tab in firefox. I’m so crazy excited about moving into the city because my commute to work will go from 2 hours to 40 minutes. I really don’t think words alone can express my excitement. I can finally have a life/start my new life in New York City. Oh my gosh… I’m soooooo happy.

Oh – and my new roommate (I’m down to one roommate now) is great too! I’m already starting to think of how I want to decorate my new space. And since my rent is so low, I can pimp out my room with all kinds of cool things (and maybe even save up for a new macbook).

3. In less than 7 days, I’m treating myself to a mini-vacation. It will be nice super awesome to get away from the tri-state area for a few days. I CANNOT WAIT. Again, my job is great, but my brain is tired.

nothing day (4/29)

I got very little done at work today. I arrived around 8:50am, read some emails, then all of a sudden it was 10am and my team wanted to have a morning meeting. Our morning meetings usually last about an hour, but that’s mostly because we go off on tangents a lot – mainly about college football and Sarah Palin. My bladder was about to explode around 11:15am, so I got to leave before they rest of my team began their weekly Sarah Palin bashing. I spent the next 2 hours reading over the powerpoint I would be giving to students at Columbia University that afternoon. Before I knew it, it was 2:30pm – time to leave for 116th Street – and it was the end of my work day. I accomplished just about nothing at work.

I’m not the best presenter in the world. It was my first presentation of my organization and I think it went okay. It looked like everyone understood the words coming out of my mouth, and based on the questions asked afterward, I think I did an okay job explaining things. Luckily, my audience was 3 students + 2 event organizers + 1 co-worker, so it was a fairly small and casual occassion. I still managed to get nervous. I absolutely have to stop doing that.

So, as my day 4 (part 2) gift to the world, I gave my work presentation. It seemed like people were generally appreciative of our presence and advice. Even if one of those 3 students apply for the fellowship, I will be happy.

By the way, I’m still searching for an apartment in the City of New York. I’m sick and tired of traveling all over the damn city then not hearing back from people saying whether or not they want to rent a room to me. Commuting back and forth from Connecticut is a draining process – then to add traveling around NYC to that just makes things borderline hellish for me. Please make it stop.

Tonight I visited a place in Queens, which seemed very nice. For lack of a better adjective, the apartment, my room, the neighborhood, my potential roommate… all of it was nice. So, I really, really hope she gets back to me soon. I want things to work in my favor this time. I need a break from Craigslist.

on the town (3/29)

Today was another long day with Adam, Adam’s mom, and Ryan in the big city of New York. I guess my body was still tired from yesterday’s walking adventure because it didn’t take long for my feet to start hurting today. We went to the Empire State Building for some fantastic views of my hometown:

Obviously, it was a perfect day for pictures. It was a perfect weekend for just about anything. I wish the weather could stay this nice for forever.

Here are some pictures of yesterday’s photo adventure:

I still don’t know whether those pumpkins were real or fake, but it’s still hilarious. Why is John looking at Barack?

It’s REALLY hard to take decent pictures on the Brooklyn Bridge. I thought the car lights looked kinda cool though.

It’s almost my name on a fake license plate! Clearly, whoever put “DIVA” on the license plate was using the name as an adjective, rather than an actual name… Bummer. It’s so hard being me.

So, today is 3/29 and I gifted myself some new kicks :) The last thing I need is a new pair of sneakers, but oh well.

I also had a nice time tonight with Adam and his mom while we shared a slice of cheesecake in the middle of Times Square. It was chocolate swirl and absolutely delicious. I wasn’t planning on staying in the city that late, but it was hard to pass up a piece of cheesecake and quality time with nice people.

That’s my for-real gift of 3/29 (the sneakers don’t count).

nyc ain’t so big after all

There are over 8 million people in New York City and somehow, I always run into people I know.

Last summer, I ran into one of my uncles (who was running with one of my younger cousins in tow) around Central Park. Only one of my several uncles lives in NYC, so that was really random.

Two nights ago, I ran into one of my friends from high school (in Roanoke, Virginia – almost 500 miles away from here). Wow. I graduated from high school almost 7 years ago. Yuck.

Seriously? How am I pulling this off? Maybe I’m just awesome at being at the right place at the right time.

condo, co-op, or rental?

I need to leave the state of Connecticut. My daily commute to NYC is at least 2 hours each way and I spend well over $300/month on transportation. 

wtf.

Here’s the deal. My dad really, REALLY wants me to buy a condo in Manhattan. Or maybe Brooklyn. One of those 2 places. Anyway, I’ve already told him that I’m absolutely not ready to take on a mortgage and take out a loan for $100 gazillion to pay for it, but he doesn’t care. He believes that if I properly budget the (very) small amount of money I make from my nonprofit job (as well as take out loans), I can afford a condo. 

At the same time, I’ve been constantly checking craigslist to find inexpensive places to live in Manhattan (with roommates). So far, I’ve been successful – there are plenty of rooms available for under $900. This is much more agreeable with my salary. 

And NOW, I’m beginning to learn about co-ops. I’m still not 100% sure about what they are, but it doesn’t hurt to do research, I guess. 

So, basically I’m open to suggestions/comments/anything on the best way to go about this. I can’t see myself spending more than 3 years here in NYC, so yeah. My head has been swarming with all kinds of information, but I have no idea where to start. 

blarg.

killer commute

I’ve been commuting to New York City almost everyday since July 21st and I hate it. When I’m going to work, I leave the house by either 6:50am or 7:20am, depending on how I get to the train station in Connecticut. It’s a 45 minute Metro-North ride on the express train. Then I have to get off the train and either:

a) take the subway (which takes approximately 15 minutes), or

b) walk (1.1 miles according to google maps)

By that point, I’m exhausted. And that sucks because I still have 8 hours of work ahead of me.

And then there’s coming home…

If I’m riding back with my Aunt, the commute back is around an hour and 20 minutes. If I’m on my own (aka. taking the bus), the commute is over 2 hours. I hate that.

I’m so ready to find a place somewhere in NYC. Seriously. Getting an additional one hour of sleep every night would be so amazing.

a taste of my childhood

Throughout my 3rd grade year I had a couple of daily rituals involving food:

In the morning, I went to a shabby convenience store close to my school – P.S. 145 – where I bought exactly 10 “sour powers” (aka. sour straws). It was the breakfast of champions…

And after school, while walking home/to my grandma’s school, I’d stop at one of these Papaya places and get a papaya drink. I really loved those drinks.

yum

Today, during my daily mid-day walk, I went to Gray’s Papaya and got one of those awesome drinks. It was super tasty… and I experienced a brief moment of nostalgia (3rd grade was my favorite year of grade school). No, that’s not the same location I went to back in the day, but it’s close enough.

a series of unfortunate events

I’ve been in Connecticut for 8 days and I’m still unemployed.

…what else is new?

Aside from applying for jobs and going to a couple of interviews in NYC, it’s been kinda difficult to fill my time. Most of my time has been spent:

• watching movies
• watching the ABC Family channel (shoot me now)
• playing Brain Age 2
• reading Guns, Germs and Steel
• organizing and reorganizing my temporary room
• reading all the entries in my google reader
• talking to friends on gchat
• “window shopping” on amazon.com

Luckily for my sanity, I had a the chance to break from that routine and join some friends in NYC for an All-American 4th of July celebration.

After couch shopping for a hot minute, Adam, Ryan and I went to a very American restaurant (Wildwood BBQ) for a very American dinner. One whole chicken, pulled pork, sausage, 2 pitchers of beer, mac and cheese, corn on the cob, and $150 later, we were mostly full and satisfied… although, I don’t think I’ll ever eat there again. Anyways, after dinner we met up with a friend of Ryan’s and made our way to a very casual party-shindig to view the fireworks. Fortunately, we had a pretty clear view of the sky:

Unfortunately, as soon as the first fireworks went off, the combination of smoke, clouds and rain put a damper on the rest of the show. Lame. It didn’t matter anyway because everyone was beginning to really enjoy (I didn’t) the extreme liqour supply at the party-shindig.

Saturday with Adam and Ryan began with a delicious breakfast and a bake fest gone wrong – a little worse than the one Adam and I had in May. On the whole, our banana bread and blueberry “cornbread” turned out okay, kinda… Eventually we ventured away from the apartment to attend the free NY Philharmonic concert on Governor’s Island. Of course, the event was canceled as soon as we got to the ferry. It had been raining all day.

We didn’t have the best of luck this past weekend.

To pass the time, we went to Governor’s Island anyway and took a look around:

A little history lesson…

I have no idea.

I really like taking pictures of flowers.

One of the waterfalls around NYC.

Extreme T&A… and another statue I can’t explain.

To top off our not-so-fortunate day, we had dinner at Pizzeria Uno – the last mishap of the day. Service was terrible and our pizza was bad. Go figure.

Eventually, my NYC vacation and all-American weekend came to an end. Despite all of the unfortunate events of July 4th and 5th, I still enjoyed hanging out with the guys. Now it’s back to the Connecticut grind until I make my way to Atlanta next week.

torn

I’ve been searching for a post-grad job for months now. MONTHS. And you know what? I haven’t landed a single interview.

Is there something wrong with me? Who knows.

Anyway, beyond the “lack of interviews” issue, I have no idea where I will end up after my lease ends in July. I will either end up in Washington DC or New York City. Those are the options. A big part of me really, really needs/wants to get out of the DC Metro area. On the other hand, there’s a small piece of me that really wants to live in Eastern Market. Sure, I never got the chance to really live in the District (I only worked there), and perhaps my view of the area would change – I’m not a huge fan… but now isn’t really the time to give DC that chance.

I really want to explore a new city. New York isn’t 100% “new” for me – I was born there and lived in the Bronx and Manhattan until I was 9. What I’m craving is to experience the city as an adult. I want to explore a completely new environment. I also want to live in a city where stores don’t close at 6pm because the government workers have retreated to suburbia. And did I mention most of my family lives in the NYC/Northern NJ/Connecticut area? I miss them.

Washington DC is okay, I guess. The metro is clean. I know people here (Everyone from UVA ends up here at some point in their lives + current school/work friends). It’s close to my parents’ house (well, not really – but closer than NYC). There are good restaurants. I know my way around…

I think that’s it.

Either way, none of this will matter if I don’t get a job in NYC. Things will be worse if I don’t get a job AT ALL.