Surviving..

Being away from my family isn't easy, but I think I can handle it... Well, I think I can as long as Bri doesn't write anymore blogs that make me cry and I see her before May. But honestly, so far it hasn't been hard. I can make it.

My job -- not always the best, but it's an internship. I take the highlights and I hold onto them, knowing this is going to help get me wherever I'm going. It's all a part of life and even if I want to throw the phone out the window, I'll push through and be the southern girl that I am to the person on the other end.. it's about the only time that part of me comes out -- New York is not a place to be happy and make random friends with the people standing next to you... So I'm going to make it. I'll treasure the experience I'm getting here.

I say New York isn't happy, but that isn't quite true... it just isn't friendly. I enjoy the time that I get to spend with my friends, even if it's goofing off in the subway on our way to class. But I miss the fact that back home, if you were standing as close as I was to some people this morning, you would know their name and where they were from by the time you reached your destination. If I tried that here (and trust me I havent) people would be searching for my angle, while blowing me off. It's just the way things are here. I understand it, but I dont really like it. I know I would do the same though.. you can't trust anyone in a big city..

So what's the hardest part so far?? Staying sane when all of the little things here and there come crashing in on you and a kid in class says something that tops it off and there is nowhere to go because.. you all live and breathe together... *sigh* But my RA is awesome. She has sound advice and listens when I just have to blurt out how I'm thinking of screaming or throwing that phone out the window... She may not always understand and I might not always seek out advice, just a sounding-board. Someone to listen and not gossip or get annoyed with how annoyed or frustrated I am.

Plus I have a few pretty great friends here. I mean, all in all, each of the kids in our program is great. I love our group and I'm happy for the time spent together. But I'm glad that I have those few who will go with me to see the places that are in my favorite movie, or venture off to some random food spot that is supposed to have the best-whatever-in-new-york. That's what I am happy for.

I'm going to survive. Slowly I'm finding my balance. It's kind of been like riding the subway. Some day you get a seat and you are completely relaxed, other days you have a rail and you are steady but have that possibility of slipping, others you are slipping around though you have a hold.... and like today... there are days when you are stuck in the midst of the crowd, with nothing to hold onto, praying that you will be able to steady yourself with your own weight.... It's unpredictable, but safe, nonetheless.

This is my life.
I will survive ;)

Notes about work

Today I worked on a new product -- Squid Soap. It's the coolest thing; when you use the pump it inks your hand and if you dont wash your hands for long enough (15-20 seconds) the ink stays on. It's the new way to teach kids how to wash their hands. Check out their video: http://www.squidsoap.com/video.html

I also learned about VNRs today -- Video News Release -- it's a pretty neat way to get a free commercial/free advertising.

Oh and I keep forgetting.... My boss received an AeroGarden as a gift from some client. It's the strangest thing. It sits behind me in my office, growing herbs. Well, just check out some pics I pulled off the web.. We're only in the first stage, but I suppose it will be overflowing by the time I leave, right now it's just got the weird plastic things covering the seeds.

Ok that's my random information for the day :)

Have a good evening!

Famous People

I've found a new favorite diner, it's just down the street from my work and across the street from St. Patrick's Cathedral -- Prime Burger (http://primeburger.com/). I walked down there for lunch my first day of work. The other night I realized it was on my list of places that I wanted to visit because I had read it was a famous place to eat and many celebrities stopped in. Then today H and J met me for lunch and we walked down again. When we were paying out the owner or manager let us know that when Sarah Jessica Parker stops in she enjoys a burger covered in chili... also she apparently shot a scene there for Sex in the City (according to a flyer hung up by our seats).

Dinner was another experience. Five of us headed into Manhattan to check out Peanut Butter & Co. which is near NYU on Sullivan (http://www.ilovepeanutbutter.com/). Mmm it was good. I had an Elvis sandwhich: peanut butter, honey, and bananas grilled on wheat bread -- aaamazing :) The honey could have been sweeter....but it was good all the same. The owner was nice too.

So there's my almost brush with celebrities. I think I'm off to bed. Night friends :)

A quick summary of the past week :)

It has nearly been a week since I've blogged, and I can't believe it. Nearly every night I make a promise to my self that "tonight will be the night" and I'll go to sleep instead. Well, I'll catch you up on the active lifestyle I have been leading.
I worked Tuesday through Friday of last week. We had class again on Wednesday and Thursday night a group of us went to dinner at an amazing pizza place. Grimaldi's (http://www.grimaldis.com/zagat.htm) is listed on the top ten of most New York pizza charts, often topping out at number 1.. and.. many stars visit there ;) After some great pepperoni pizza, we headed down to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory for dessert. Triple Chocolate = heaven. Their ice cream is also listed among the top in New York; though they have only a few flavors, they are amazing and located on the promenade. A walk outside provided a lovely view across the water to Manhattan. It looked peaceful all lit up and surrounded by water.
On Friday, four of us went to a improv comedy show put on by NYU students. It was hysterical and suprisingly clean. I love improv and they did an impressingly good job at it. Afterwards, we enjoyed a pleasant hour or so of trying to figure out how to get home. Certain trains close after midnight, and other trains run new routes.. needless to say, it took us awhile to figure out where to transfer and such, but we made it home.
Saturday was our first outing as a class. We met at the AMMI or American Museum of Moving Image in Queens. It is mostly an interactive museum, which was so much fun. The first activity included dancing in front of a camera that recorded your actions, then tranformed them into stills that were printed in a flip book form.. I now have a flip book of me and two other girls dancing. :) Next we created a short film by taking stills and running them to make motion.... just the opposite of the first. Then.... I got to be Audrey Hepburn. Kind of. In a sound booth I was able to dub my voice over Audrey's in a scene from "My Fair Lady." After taping two lines, I was able to watch Audrey say "The rain in Spain, falls mainly on the plain" -- while listening to my voice say it. It was pretty neat. Others included changing soudtracks or sound effects in clips, or playing with a green screen. Overall I enjoyed it. To top it off we had lunch at an authentic Greek restaurant, Uncle George's. It was amazing and the lamb on my gyro literally fell apart as it was so tender. Mmm now I'm hungry again. After that we watched a rather boring documentary.. I won't mention the name, mainly to spare the director, but let's just say I kept falling asleep and I never do that in movies.
Saturday night ended with a group of us taking Times Square by storm. First stop -- Starbucks. We were in much need of caffeine regeneration. Next we headed down to Roxy for dessert, since our lunch was so large. Their cheesecake was good, though we didn't have a sandwich, we did catch a glance of one and they are ridiculous. Next we headed to a tourist shop, it was a must. I actually found some cute boots there :) Random, but it worked. From there... It was Toys "R" Us. The store is wonderful. I swear I became a kid again. We wandered around for at least an hour, then I stood in line with two other girls to ride the giant ferris wheel (which is located in the middle of the store). We got the Toy Story seat... it was fun.
The next stop -- M&Ms World. There we were scanned to find out what kind of M&M we were. My roommate and I took a pic with the green M&M, then we bought some to snack on :) we ate her friends.. haha... ok. Across the street we checked out the Hershey's store. While the lights on the outside are amazing (seriously) the inside is small and rather unimpressive, but we still found a photo-op with a lady dressed as a Hershey's factory worker. From there it was home.. we were pretty tired by then.
Sunday: a day of rest and church. A group of about 14 of us met for breakfast at the Park Plaza Diner, then took the subway down to Brooklyn Tabernacle for the noon service. The choir was just as wonderful in person as on their CDs. The pastor that preached was good as well. The building -- gorgeous. Overall it was a great service. The rest of the day was lazy until dinner when we went to Supermac, a diner that serves variations of macaroni and cheese.
Monday -- again a lazy day, though I did get a few things like cleaning and laundry done. Plus Heroes was on tonight. Ohh it was good.
Well that is all I have for you. It was a quick summary.. but I have work again in the morning, and once more I've managed to stay up later than I ever planned. But if you want to check out my pics go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31179820@N00/

Have a wonderful day... Miss you all!

Ok I have a meeting at 8:30, which means leaving by 7:30 (rush hour), so I need to get up in about 6 hours...

Quick overview.

I'm in New York and I still can't believe it half the time. I have wanted to be here since I applied for Baylor. I saw an article in a Focus about some kids who did the BUNY program and I knew that's what I wanted to do. Before that I really wanted to go to NYU.. basically I just knew I had to move to New York. Well, I'm here. Finally :) It is sinking in.

Work was ok. I updated a media list all day, so I basically called at least half of the 50 states, asking regional publications for an update on their editor for our contacts. But in the morning my supervisor is actually going to explain to me what I'm doing, the rules, the expectations, the teams I'll be rotating between, etc. All the stuff I wish I could have known today :) But it was a crazy day and I made it through. She did say that Tuesdays will probably be my most boring days with remedial work, though, that's a bonus. It really wasn't too bad, so I'm ready for the stuff she views as fun... and she's probably about 24 and a bit crazy, so I think she knows whats fun :)

What else... class started. I love Joe. He's crazy, fun, serious and intelligent. Hoorah for a good professor! We did a lot of just getting to know one another and learning about the class tonight. I found out that Saturday we will be going to the AMMI - Museum of the Moving Image - that should be cool.

Ok I really gotta go.. .love to all :)

Goodnight New York

Today.. I discovered New York.

I took the subway into work today. I found out that using the right directions is key to getting where you want to go. First I used the directions to get from Times Sq to Chelsea Market (my destination, after getting into manhattan), after realizing I did a bit of backtracking and was fine from then on out. My work is located right next door to a starbucks :) No they are not on every corner, almost, but not quite. Also, it's not a terribly busy part so the getting around was easy.

After taking a couple pics I headed down to Bryant Park, which I am in love with, and walked to Times Square. I met up with D at the Starbucks across from the Hershey building, it opened on Friday and the barristas were uncommonly friendly and fun. After sitting for a bit we walked down to the New Amsterdam Theater and then met up with the other girls. For lunch we took the subway to Chelsea and found the market.. Actually we did a bit of walking and finally stopped to ask a girl where it was. Little did we know it was the very cool looking building we had walked past a few blocks back. I really liked the modern design on the outside, but the signs were nondescript.. so anyway, we made it back there. It is a very neat building holding many little cafes, the market, a few bakery's, a florist shop, oh! oxygen network.. and my grandfather's favorite - Emeril Live. Yes the famous chef was just above my head... I think, or he was behind the shops we went into.. Somewhere around there... The VIP line was already forming by the time we finished and were leaving. Anyway, needless to say we enjoyed Chelsea.

This evening was the highlight. After perusing a few webistes I found the Brooklyn Independent Cinema was doing a showing of two films at Barbes, a pub just a bit farther into Brooklyn. So the four of us hopped on the subway and... couldn't find the place. At first, because of the article we read, we thought we were looking for an actual theater. So after walking we asked some folks and they pointed in what happened to be the right direction... still lost.. another guy stopped us, but was annoyed because we were looking for what apparently wasnt a popular place... finally we ran into a few guys who just happened to be going to the showing.. finally. :) We got there in time for standing room only, but at least we made it inside. The first film was Vacationland. It was excellent. It was just under 30 minutes, but afterwards the director, Lance Edmands, and his main actor went to the front for a Q & A time. I love independent films and this was definitely intimate, the room was probably 12X20 or so. Anyway, we think we'll become regulars there..

Ok my big day starts tomorrow so I'm off to bed. Goodnight folks :)

Once upon a time in New York City

I'm finally here.

Our flight was a bit late on Saturday - due to ice on our plane. Once we got here, D and I took a taxi to our dorm. Let me tell you, we had quite a bit of luggage :) After N helped us move everything inside, we signed in with R and made our way to our rooms.... which are huge. Seriously, everything you hear and see about New York is a tiny little room with tiny bathrooms. Oh no my friend, I have a rather large closet -- twice as big as what I had at school. No shelves though, that's a bummer. Two tall windows, high ceilings, a big bathroom. I share the room, but there's room to share. My roommate, V, is pretty cool. Tomorrow we are off with D and N to check out our jobs, see Times Square, and do a bit of wandering.

So far, I've seen the area around our dorm, Target, our school building (aka a Chinese Nazarene church), and places along the way. -sidenote: the target is two stories and insane; seriously it feels like a mad sale is going on and everyone has rushed there. I guess it's just a big city feel, but crazy. The cool part is the escalator for the carts.. hard to explain but it takes your cart to the second story while you ride another escalator.- Tonight was our first stop in Manhattan, other than that it's been Brooklyn baby. I'm ready to check out more of the city, it's just been a lot of getting settled, grocery shopping, getting my internet working and figuring out how I'll afford food ;)

Brooklyn Heights is just as pretty as the pictures. Well, a the drizzly days are not helping too much, but it is still nice, very calm. The weather has been warm, though a bit wet. It has been a bit chilly at times, but not near as cold as I was expecting. I know it's been a warm winter so far, but I think the whole city is waiting for a change.. they're just expecting a crazy switch one day, going from 55 to below 0. We shall see.

I guess that's about it. I've met just about everyone here - they all seem pretty nice. Tomorrow we have another meeting to group us all together, and Tuesday is the big day -- I'll start my internship and school starts.

That's all for now, sorry I'm not bursting full of exciting details... I've yet to meet (as Meagan says) "my future" or any celebrities or see anything really famous... so far, it feels like London with cute little restaraunts, stores, etc. Maybe tomorrow there will be more...

Getting things done..

One more thing to check off my list. I have officially created a blogspot away from myspace.
Welcome to my world :)