ESB

I've been working on my photo page lately (to come soon!), and often refer to the Empire State Building as "ESB".

So, here's the ESB today on the way home from work.

Happy Easter (weekend)

Happy Easter! I know it's late, but Dave, Eric and I just got back from a night out.

We spent Friday and Saturday relaxing at home and getting out around the area here and there. I finally started cleaning up the last of the boxes from when we first moved here five months ago! The closets were way too overloaded.

Tonight we had a great Easter meal over at the Heidelberg (a German restaurant on the upper east side: 86th and 2nd). We ate sooo much food- including a "Fondue For Two" for dessert, which was enough to feed five!





Size of beer glasses are not larger than they appear. This is really how huge they are: 1 LITER. Dave and Eric each had two of these during our visit! You can also order a "boot", or a 2 liter (um, that means the glass would be TWICE as large).

Afterwards, we found a pool hall and played a few violent games of air hockey, then meandered into a Barnes and Noble and bought a ton of books. A very nice ending to a relaxing weekend. I hope you all had a long, fun weekend as well!

Angry people and Spring?

As we walked up to the front door of our work's building on Monday morning, we were greeted with crowds of yelling people jamming up the streets, cops and news crews everywhere, and hundreds of impatient people holding signs and waving papers of some kind, waiting in a giant, unorganized line.

Here's a photo taken from just above our window much later, after the police had cleared out the angry mobs and organized the area. The waiting line goes off to the left and wraps around the building.


The Daily News apparently reported the wrong Daily Lottery numbers (see the article). It was quite a sight to see- it was hard not to peek out the window every 20 minutes!

The rest of the week was actually very good. I got a ton done, including making the final plans for the new production room. I'm so excited! Lots of meetings, organizing and getting a little more ahead.

Tuesday we discovered an awesome little grocery store right outside the PATH station! It's tons cheaper than taking a cab over to Shop Rite (not to mention not full of insane people)! We spent $37 for all the groceries we needed, plus a few goodies! We bought our stuff and caught the shuttle back to our place. It couldn't be any easier!

Yesterday the weather was the worst we've experienced in New York yet! We had to walk five blocks through sleet and whipping winds. Boy, those normal five blocks seemed long!!! The weather seemed extreme, since it was just in the high 50s and absolutely beautiful the day before! This morning, there's snow covering sprouting spring leaves and flowers, and slush on the sidewalks.

We have tomorrow off for Good Friday- awesome! I'm hoping Macy's will have an Easter sale, too. We're supposed to eat out somewhere nice tonight, but we're all sort of tired out. We'll probably veg out for some of tomorrow before heading back into the city.

I [heart] Macy's

GOD I love Macy's. When we moved to New York, I fell in love all over again. The World's largest department store: Macy's. EIGHT GIANT FLOORS of everything you could ever want. Even a restaurant and bar. A café and candy store. A holiday department that takes up the entire eighth floor! Plus, I’m a terrible shopper, and this is the only place I can find clothes that fit me the way I like, and still allow me to express myself.

Also, most of the escalators are still made of the original wood- quite cool. My favorite part about this Macy's is the displays. They spend millions every season. Right now, it's set up for spring. Flowers absolutely everywhere. Statues made of flowers. Trees, tulips, bouquets bigger than a crowd of people. It's absolutely astounding.

This real fountain is made entirely of flowers…


And this photo does not doesn’t give this floor justice! It's breathtaking in person. It's like a jungle of gardens!

If you visit New York, be sure to give yourself time to tour Macy’s in Herald’s Square!

Drinking, drinking, drinking...

THREE DAYS of drinking to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in New York. CRAZY.

We went out Wednesday with friends for drinks at Cafe 31st, Joe O's and then ate over at Ground the Clock. Then Thursday (St.P's) we went out to Tempest and then Molly Wee's on 8th with a friend and co-worker, and out again with her on Friday to Cabooz in Penn Station.

This weekend should be nice and lazy!

Eric in Austin

Welp, it's an interesting two days at work without Eric, who is out on a business trip in Austin. I hope he gets the chance to get to the music and film conference at South by Southwest.

I came across an Orlando Sentinel article online and there was a whole article about the band "Bloom." and Fighting Records, the independent label that was taking care of the band Dave used to be in! I can't believe how great they're doing! And they have 4 bands signed- two of which are touring the UK and Europe! It's great to see how sucessful they're becoming. Chris (one of the partners) has always been a very cool guy- so much drama had happened when he started up his very first label, Cell Records (which is no more). I'm glad he met the right guys and is finally doing what he's always wanted! Go Chris!!! Go Bloom.!!!

Dave, soon to be live!

Dave has been practicing almost every day, preparing to play out again! It's what he absolutely loves to do. He wants to start by playing some acoustic gigs- and there are so many cool places to play! I'm so excited for him!

Despite the fact he hasn't played in quite a few months, he sounds like he never stopped. Maybe it's because he's more relaxed than he was a year ago. He was in a full time band, trying to hang on to a full time job, and trying to balance his personal life. The band was hard work, but it wasn't any fun; there wasn't much room to grow for a guy who's so creative and independent. And his finance job was way too stressful- not to mention how terrible working in finance is for such a creative person! Living in little cubicles...

And now we're here. And it's amazing!

There are 2-3 people that have asked to jam with Dave- and there are so many rehearsal spaces in New York- which makes sense here, but it was so hard to find in Orlando- then you had to worry about cost! Here, you can rent by the hour, and there's already a full drum kit and P.A. set up!

Dave will be starting his own band again, probably this year! Look out, New York! ;)

Dave posts!

Dave went out for a walk today and took incredible photos of the area. So inspired, he actually POSTED! He's placed a few of those photos up there as well. Check it out!


And, I've gone through all my notes and finally updated my posts myself! So much has happened; take a walk into history ...baaack... baaaaack... back two weeks ago... (see 3/1-3/11)

Lou box

Louie loves boxes, big or small, whether he can fit in them or not...

Friday night dinners

We've decided that every Friday night, we're going to eat out someplace different. So, if I continue to keep up the blogs, you should get a brief description of a different NY restaurant once a week!

Tonight we walked from work on 31st and 10th down to Houston Street, where we wandered around until we found an Italian restaurant called Rocco Ristorante over on Thompson Street. Very well priced, awesome neighborhood feel, AMAZING FOOD.

Dave got clams over linguini. Eric got blackened scallops and veggies. I got the meat tortellini. We had a great meal with Italian beers, and finished up with incredible desserts.

On the way home, we walked all through Greenwich Village. We passed by Jekyll and Hyde's, a mad scientist-themed bar where the servers are actors. It looks cool from the outside- kind of like a haunted house. The sidewalks in New York often have large grates in them where you can hear and feel the subways rumbling under the city. Outside the bar, I heard people laughing and shouting- they must have the bar in the basement. They hold a "Scaryoke" every night, where I hear they give you a shot every time you sing. I think we're going to visit there next weekend (we were just too stuffed to stop for more drinks).

Worked with work

Ok, lame title. I did meet with my boss, though. I was completely honest and told him exactly how I felt. He thanked me for being so honest (I hope he was) and said he now understood why I felt the way I did. We're going to try and work something out.

I don't know if anything's really going to come out of this, but I said my peace. I feel much better.

I wish I could elaborate more, but I made this blogger very public. I have to restrain from getting into too much detail sometimes, so it kind of sucks. Some of the people who might read this may be from the Publisher I had worked at, and that I may end up doing work for through this studio, so I want to remain somewhat professional, but I feel like I'm doing the opposite of what bloggers are for: a collection of journal entries to write things out. I feel like I have to hold back the details and restrain my words. I guess it's more for entertainment than for myself.

Bumble & Bumble 2

WELP, I did it. Free of charge, too!

The styling floor is on the 7th- quite impressive. My stylist was "Valentino". I wonder if that's his real name? He did a great job.

Of course, I ended up probably spending the same amount on hair products that I would have spent on my hair cut. Ah, well. At least I'll look good while I'm poor. ;)

Bumble & Bumble 1

I decided to get my hair cut at a top-notch New York salon... Not for a huge makeover or anything- just a trim, really (I'm trying to let my hair grow long again). I know it was going to be expensive, but I had placed some money aside to treat myself.

...Enter: Bumble and Bumble.

The downtown location is in the top floor of a building that is off a side road with no sign. At the bottom, there was a club where banners for Style Magazine were hanging about. Photographers were taking photos of beautiful people standing outside the club doors.

We went up the stairs and into a gigantic elevator (M.I.B. style) that took us up to the 8th floor. The floor was one huge open space, with almost an unfinished look; concrete floors and small trendy tables spread apart from one another as if to take up space. There was a cafe in the corner that served complementary cappuccinos and fresh baked pastries. I checked in so they could let my assigned stylist know I was there, and found a seat. Two sides of the floor were all windows overlooking the amazing New York scenery and the amazing Jersey City skyline across the river.

After 30 minutes, (20 minutes after the time of my appointment), I checked to make sure they still knew I was there. They were very confused and concerned, since my stylist had gone home sick hours ago, and I was the last time slot of the night! They apologized profusely, and made another appointment for tomorrow night.... and COMPED me!!! Awesome! Dave wanted to ask if he could take a quick look at the staff to see who looked a bit peaked. He had asked about making an appointment and found out his hair cut would be $95! I wonder what mine would have been?

Target Spree and Chilli's

Wee Hooo! We went on a Target spree!

I bought all the paper towels, tissues and napkins I could ever want. Eric finally bought some towels and much needed apartment items. I also bought a few new video games.

Afterwards we went to CHILLI'S!!! Lame, I know, but it was like a piece of home. They just put one in Newport! It just happens to be one of my favorite chain restaurants, and it's only 5 minutes from home. It was great to have a beer, eat the chips and salsa I'm so familiar with, and order a hearty, southwestern meal. MMm-MMM!

I'm so easy to please.

Funeral

Dave's Uncle Bobby unexpectedly passed away this week, so I went to the wake in Long Island with Dave to see his family and lend support. Bobby was only 51. He had three sisters. He had a daughter and an ex-wife. He had a girlfriend and tons of friends. He also had a huge family who loved him very much.

I never got the chance to meet him. I had heard he was a happy, partying guy, and sometimes a prankster. He was very open in speech, very opinionated. He thought of religion as long-winded, and loved to talk politics. I had heard crazy stories about Bobby in the past. My favorite one was when he worked at a construction site: He accidentally stepped onto a board with a nail sticking up out of it- and when he jumped up in shock, he hit his head on another wooden board above his head with a nail sticking out of it! He went to the hospital bleeding from his foot AND his head, and had quite a time explaining it...

There were TONS of people there to say their farewells. There were tears of sadness, laughter as people shared their stories, and family gathering together that hadn't seen each other in years. A huge amount of people introduced themselves to family members as people who had worked with him. Bobby was truly a great guy.

The priest came and spoke some about Bobby, but then began to get into heavy tangent about religion. Then, the fire alarm went off. The priest kept talking through it, ignoring it, and lecturing about spreading the word of God. The fire alarm continued- you could hear the people who worked at the funeral home, running around outside the doors, trying not to raise their voices, saying, "There IS no fire!" and "I can't turn it off!” We quietly glanced around at each other... a few smirks... As the priest finished, he spread his arms out wide and said, "Peace, Amen". The alarm stopped at that exact second.

Bobby's girlfriend said aloud, "That was Bobby". We all laughed.

Furiousness to think about

I need to really think this all through. A few major things have been going on at work, and I'm really starting to think about how this place works. There's a lot more going on than I wanted to realize, but it's all coming out now. I'm going to have to really grin and bare it if I want this department to work. Lots of bugs to work WITH, rather than work out.

My boss is out of town and Eric and I need to really think deeply about how to tell him how we feel. Lots of drinking went on at Eric's place last night. Lots of emotions: anger, sadness, and just plain ...speechlessness.

To the gym!!!

Yep, we did it. We joined the gym were we live. Not bad!

I took a "before" photo to refer to. You know, to look back and scoff at when I look like a Goddess and all. Yeah, that's it.

Dave always goes crazy when he works out- it's hard to keep up! He's already quite fit, plus since moving here he's gotten leaner. Before he gets to the weights, he starts out on the Elliptical machine for 30 minutes using one of the higher programs... I'm up there at my own pace with NO program, breaking a sweat. You should see him lifting weights! He’s such a psycho.

Speaking of psycho, lots of craziness went on in the 2 days Eric and I weren't at work. There's a whole lot of work to do. We need to cut the strings loose and get down to business. We're so busy doing other jobs, we haven't been able to start up on our own. This is going to be a tough few weeks.

Back and mostly rested

We're back! Whew! The flights were so close to being delayed due to snow! Despite all that snow, it was beautiful. The snow that fell earlier today were large pieces, dancing, refusing to land, gently floating around like feathers caught in the wind. It's great to be back.

Dave's trip to Orlando sounded awesome- he ate, slept and partied with everyone. He said going downtown was weird. Before, it felt like a city filled with music and bars. The streets seemed overcrowded at times. Now, it just felt like 3 blocks with small groups of people. I can't wait to visit again to see for myself.

Dave revisited all his favorite spots- Bar-B-Que Bar, Maui Jacks, and finally, Tanquerays. He saw just about everyone. He's pretty exhausted but feels great!

The trip to Palm Beach Gardens was good- lots of rest! I actually didn't feel like doing a whole lot. I pretty much just vegged out. I didn't even see anyone else but my parents! Maybe it was the weather (mostly cloudy and breezy). I didn't even take one picture!

As I flew back home, I already missed the "beachy" area where I grew up. I miss the boats, the ocean.... The air was so moist: a great break from the NY winter air! Maybe we'll look at the Newport apartments again when our lease is up. They're right off the river across from Manhattan (breathtaking view!), there are always boats sailing by, the air smells fresh, and there's always the sound of seagulls and the water slapping against the sea walls. Ahhh, home.

Eric's back at work today, even though his stuff STILL hasn't arrived yet! It's supposed to be here early tomorrow; there were snow delays.

We unwrapped our new IKEA couch and we love it! In fact, as of right this minute, it's already getting great use.