Give it to me straight

Hey all....

I really need some feedback from all of you.
The last week+ I have been debating what to blog about next. I really think that I'm doing my best to post regularly here about what my life is like, and if you're one of my facebook friends I think you get a good gist there as well.
However, I constantly get people asking me to update them about what my life is like and what I'm up to now that Im living in NYC. First of all, generally my first question to them is "do you read my blog?". Secondly, it's not that I don't want to tell you each individually what I'm up to- it's just that writing a blog about it, and blasting it to everyone I know is much quicker for me and it saves me from telling the same story over and over again to people who have already heard it because I can't remember who I've told what.
Other than the fact that I'm living in (in my opinion) the most amazing city in the US- nothing too fabulous and amazing is going on; trust me, I'd share it with you if I thought it were worth sharing.

So here's what I want to know:

• Give me some specifics! Tell me what it is that you'd like to hear more or less of from me!
• Do you think I post too many pictures? Not enough?

Just let me know what your thoughts are, and I'll do my best to cater to each request. If you know me at all, you know I don't have any issue sharing :)
Please leave it in a comment bellow.

Thanks guys! Lots of love to you all!!

To drink or not to drink

That is the question...

This has been on my mind quite a lot lately. I’m not going to be drastic and make a claim that I’m going to stop drinking all together. Though I have thought about at least taking a month off. But the thing is, in general, I’m not a heavy drinker. So I don’t feel that by committing to taking just one month off would really do anything for me or teach me anything about whatever it is I’m needing to be taught right now. 

It’s no secret that alcohol is a depressant, and I feel like the last few times I have been drunk, I end up more upset than anything by the end of the night. Often crying. I feel like that has something to do with the fact that alcohol also lowers our inhibitions and while most of the time that’s a bad thing- all it does for me is just bring the truth about everything out. I think the reason why I cry when I’m drunk is because when I do drink, I’m finally letting myself feel whatever it is that I’m actually feeling but otherwise suppress. 

As a few (if not many) may already know- I have a really hard time controlling myself when it comes to drinking and texting, and as of lately, emailing. This is generally followed in the morning with a varying degree of regret. Sure, there are times when it’s just funny; but 99% of the time, I’m wishing I had listened to that little voice in my head telling me that sending that message might not be the best idea.  

I feel like to really make a difference in my life, I would have to completely stop drinking for an entire year- and honestly, that doesn’t even sound possible to me, nor does it really sound like something that I’m all that interested in doing. If I were to do it, it would have to be all or nothing. It wouldn’t be “oh a drink here, a drink there” or “just drinks on special occasions, birthdays, wedding, etc.”.

What’s funny, is I don’t even really like the taste of alcohol. I absolutely hate beer. I’m sorry- I just don’t understand what the big deal is. And frankly, I think people must be lying when they say they actually enjoy it. Yes, it tastes that bad to me. The smell of red wine makes me gag. The only things I actually enjoy (truly enjoy) are some white wines- yet I still have yet to find MY wine that I can order and know I’ll always love it; and the super frilly, girly drinks that usually tend to be blue, and probably have more ice and mixers in them than actual alcohol. 

I have also noticed recently that it doesn’t matter how much I drink, if it’s just one glass of wine or 6 cocktails, I’m hungover the next day. I know a lot of people will have just one drink to take the edge off, but if it’s going to make me feel like crap the next day, what’s the point?

I’m not sure what it is exactly that I’m hoping to really get out of this. I’m kind of just using this as my soap box. I’d really like to hear what other people have to say on this subject. Family and close friends, you need not be worried about me. I am not an alcoholic, or anything even remotely close to it- this has just been something that has been on my mind a lot recently. 

NYC is going good. Not great. But really, “great” never should have been an expectation. I’m realizing now that I probably should have set my bar of “ideal” a little lower, but all in all, things are good. I’ve been wanting to show you all what my new apartment looks like, but I want to wait until my room has some actual furniture (right now all I have is a bed- on the floor and a dresser, and lots of boxes). If you’re really dying to see it- I invite you to come for a visit! ;)

Thank you dearly for taking the time to read this. Especially this post. I think this may be one of the harder posts I’ve ever written. Lots of love to you each!

I live here.

Well I apologize to everyone who has been asking me to write an update sooner. I can’t believe I’ve been here for almost a month! It still seems like I just got here yesterday.
A lot has happened since I arrive, and yet, it feels like nothing has happened all at the same time. The very first night that Emily and I got into town, she started working at a really cool sports bar in downtown Brooklyn (O’Keefe’s). She got very lucky landing this job before she even got into town and has turned out to be even better than she ever expected it to be. That same night, I met for the first time my new roommates, Lois and Rose. Lois and Emily know each other from Arizona where they met working for the same catering company; and Rose is good friends with Lois’s > sister's > roommate.
The following day, Rose took us to view the apartment they had found for us the few days before. It’s in an area of Brooklyn called “Bedford-Stuyvesant” or “Bed-Stuy” (pronounced Bed-Sti) right on the border of Clinton Hill, near Williamsburg.
I was trying my hardest to be as optimistic as possible when getting off the subway to view it- but hard as I tried... I wasn’t sold. Which was especially hard for me as all of my other roommates were absolutely head over heals in love with the place and the neighborhood. When we finally got into the apartment to see where we’d be living, I was having a very hard time visualizing what it would look like. When we first viewed the place, it was two seperate one bedroom apartments that had a door that led to a spiral staircase connecting the two apartments. We were told that our landlord had a wonderful team of contractors that would come in and gut one kitchen and turn the two-one-bedrooms into a five bedroom duplex for us.
Now, I know I’ve never lived in NYC before, nor have I ever had the chance to visit someone who lives here to see their apartment; but on only about 5-6 hours of sleep- I was struggling to see what all my other roommates saw in this place. It’s really not the best feeling in the world to be signed up to live with five other people, and you’re the only one who not only isn’t completely sold on the place, but do not even be on the same page as these 5 other people. But, if I know one thing about NYC, it’s that real estate doesn’t last long. I knew that if we didn’t make a decision (and fast) about this apartment, it would be gone. I also knew that trying to find a place for six people to live was never going to be easy. Essentially what it boils down to, is that I felt obligated to sign the lease on the apartment even if I was less than thrilled about it. I later expressed these things to one of my roommates, and how I regret not speaking up for myself about the fact that I wasn’t 100% on board before making things official.
I am here to learn. Since I never finished college, and don’t have plans to go back anytime in the near future if at all- this is my college. This is the school of hard knocks (for lack of a less cheesy description). I am living, and boy am I learning.
After spending the first week on the Upper West Side, with my friend Anna and her husband Marcos, it was time to move in. When we signed the lease we were told that our upstairs portion of the apartment would be finished by September 1st if not sooner and the bottom portion of our place would be finished by September 7th. Emily and I were so looking forward to finally having a place to call our own. Emily and Lois both had to work on the 1st and Rose wasn’t able to move in that day- so I was the first to make it to the apartment. Bombshell... Our apartment was not only NOT ready to move into, but it was hardly even close. “Apparently” our landlord had failed to mention to the contractors exactly when everything was promised to be finished so they had been working at a slower pace. The upside of everything, was that both our upstairs and our down stairs were being worked on at the same speed and would be ready at the same time rather than having to wait an extra week. The downside of this meant that someone needed to be in the apartment whenever the workmen were there to watch over our stuff. Just in case you’ve ever wondered... sitting in an apartment with no furniture, no internet, and no TV, is booooooooring!!
After three days of this Emily and I were very much in need of some refreshments (if ya know what I mean... and I think you do). As it turns out, a nephew through marriage (my Aunt Andrea is married to Michael who’s sister’s son is Ricky: my new neighbor!) was looking for an apartment in Brooklyn at the same time I was, and the apartment on the forth floor of my building was available! We all moved in on the same day, and were going through the same hard times with our apartments not being fully ready; so they were more than happy to join us that evening. It was fun having automatic friends, especially when they already knew people in Brooklyn! Emily and I had gone “window” bed shopping a few days earlier but hadn’t purchased anything since we weren’t 100% about our exact move-in date or how much we were interested in spending on beds. By this time, enough was enough- I was sick of sleeping on the floor; I needed a bed ASAP. I went back into the city to purchase a bed I’d had my eye on. I was a little sad to find out that they weren’t able to deliver it for 4 1/2 days, but just knowing one was on its way was enough for me!
Since all the “excitement” of moving into an unfinished apartment and finally getting my bed, nothing really actually exciting has really happened. I’m sorry to report. I know a lot of people are expecting me to write home about how amazing and fabulous my life is now that I’m living here. It’s not that it’s not, it’s just that I’m still getting settled and don’t exactly have the funds to do anything super fabulous. Besides, I’m waiting for people to come visit me before I do any of the touristy things. I know a lot of people (ahhhemm roommates ;) think that since I live here now I won’t want to do typical touristy things. Think again. I cannot wait for people to come visit me so I can have a reason/excuse to finally get to do these things!
I’m sorry if for some of you, this update is not exactly what you were expecting. I don’t want to come off as being negative, or upset, or even maybe to some of you, naive. I just want to be honest. I don’t want to sit here and write about how amazing and fabulous my life is here, when it’s not... yet.
I’m still learning so much and slowly but surely every day seems to get a little better.
I’ve only gotten myself lost twice- and I’ve gotten myself out of it without too much stress.
Last week I interviewed with a photography agent to be an intern. I haven’t heard back yet, but please keep that job for me in your thoughts and prayers- it seriously would be such a dream for me. Just yesterday, I interviewed with a photographer to intern with, and got the job! I’m so thankful! Since it is an internship, it’s not paid- but I knew coming here that finding a job exactly like this was highly likely. And I’m so lucky because I can roughly make my own schedule with this photog, and work as little as one day a week if I want to- so plenty of flexibility to find other (paying) work. And get this, the best part... this photog is a WOMAN!!! Someone up there is listening to my prayers!
I hope everyone’s decent into fall is going well. Enjoy some pictures below of my first few weeks in NYC!
So much love to you all, and as always, thank you for reading!

Emily had heard of this free music festival going on in Williamsburg. On our walk to the festival, we found tons of fantastic photographic areas. You can totally see the resemblance, right? > Emily and I on the Williamsburg Waterfront with NYC in the background > I still can't believe I live here sometimes!!!


I'd heard of Centro Vinoteca from a blog I follow (Missy Maintains). It sounded too good to be true that for $22 you could get a delicious brunch with unlimited drinks!! Emily and I were not let down, delicious indeed :) > Emily got the eggs benedict > I got bacon, eggs, and home fries > Emily and I with our yummy bloody Mary & Belini


Time Square... I hope I don't have to come back here very often. It's utter chaos. A note to those coming to visit one day: If this is something you want to see, you might be on your own; I'll meet up with you when you've had your fix. > Grand Central Station: I am so in love with this building! I wish I had a reason to pass through here every day! I also can't help but think of Gossip Girl every time I'm there ;) > Central Park: I felt really lucky that Anna and Marcos lived so close to CP, it was such a lovely day when I went to go see it. I can't wait to spend more time there!! > My toes: I know this is kinda gross, but I just wanted to point out how much walking I've been doing. What's really funny is that one day I came home and looked down, and this is what my toes looked like- I didn't even feel them hurting that badly!


Boom Restaurant was hands down the best lasagna I've had in a very long time. I was almost sad that Emily and I were on our way out for the evening so I couldn't take my left overs home! > Fred's was a really great chill bar just up the street from Marcos & Anna's house, plus I got a "free" umbrella! ;) > Marcos suggested we not leave the Upper West Side before we had a chance to try out Crumbs cupcakes! They're no Saint Cupcake, but still...They were DELICIOUS!! > Cafe 71 was one of my favorite places when we were staying with Anna & Marcos- it's just a deli, but they had such an amazing assortment of food!!! I want to go back!!!

the road to NYC

I’ve decided that this will end on a “...to be continued” note because in just the week it took me to leave Omaha and arrive in NYC, a lot happened. I hope you’ll bear with me and read it all! On that note, enjoy...

I spent most of Sunday (8/15) and all day Monday(8/16) getting all of my stuff together and packed as much as I could so I could fully go out Monday and really enjoy myself and not have to worry about everything I needed to do before I left in the morning.
For my last night in Omaha, I knew I wanted to go into Blue because I knew that would be the only way I’d get to see my cousin Brandon one last time. I had such a fun night! I was so surprised who was able to make it out considering it was a Monday night. Thank you all so much for coming!!





(8/17) Tuesday morning was a wee bit rough, but a girls got to do, what a girls got to do when she’s got her sights set on the Big Apple! I puled myself out of bed and finished packing up my car to head off to St. Louis, MO to pick up Emily. I made it to STL in pretty good time, considering I left about 2 hours after I had originally wanted to...
It was so good to finally see Emily! We haven’t seen each other since high school! I love friendships like ours that can still remain in tack even when 7+ years have gone by without seeing or really even talking to each other. That night Alaina and Emily had really wanted to see this jazz singer, Kim Massie who was playing in down town STL. Unfortunately that night, I only took Holga/film shots- so there’s hope that eventually I’ll do another post someday... but if you know me, it probably won’t happen. Listening to Kim sing was a BLAST! I had so much fun with my roomies that night! I can’t wait for us all to be together under one roof again soon!

(8/18)Wednesday morning was another early morning so that we could make it to Columbus, OH by 3 or 4 o’clock so Emily could get in as much time as possible with her boyfriend, Brian. A couple of weeks ago, I was at B&N to pick up a book for NYC when something caught my eye: “Drive and learn French”!! It was only $10 and I had JUST told Emily and Alaina a week before how I really wanted to learn how to speak french. It was too perfect to pass up. Emily and I had a good time learning how to say “what time is it?”, “it’s over there”, “it’s hot”, and a variety of different colors. When we first got in, Emily and I both were feeling a little sticky, so we went for a dip in Brian’s pool- it was such a perfect August afternoon!
Originally Emily had said that Brian had big dinner plans for us, but by the time dinner came around, we were all too pooped to go anywhere. Emily and Brian had remembered about a time they’d made their own pizza, and how good it was with a bit of egg as the protein- so we decided we’d make pizza for dinner! It was soooo delicious! That night, we made two pizza’s, 1: whole wheat crust with olive oil, spinach, broccoli, red bell pepper, onion, egg, and of course, cheese. 2: regular crust (Boboli) red sauce, grilled chicken, broccoli, red bell pepper, onion, and cheese. We washed it all down with a beer, or two (or three...) or in my case, wine :)


(8/19) Brian and his roommate Chris Hall both work for Honda so since our time in OH was limited, Emily and I met them at Honda for lunch that day. Honda does a VERY good job of keeping everything top secret, so I wasn’t able to take any pictures inside- but I thought it was only fair that my little baby got to take a picture with her momma!


After lunch, Emily and I went for a walk around Antrim Park. Half way along the path, we found a few little paths that led closer to the water so we decided to follow them and see where they went! The water was a little dirty... but the paths were really neat. Emily and I both agreed that certain spots reminded us of our high school days spent at the creek.


Since the pizza was so delicious the first night, and we still had one crust and plenty of veggies left, we decided to do pizza again. Another whole wheat with olive oil, broccoli, red bell pepper, spinach, egg and cheese.

The night prior Brian had introduced me to his friend Yousuf. Yousuf celebrates Ramadan is and fasting for the month where he can only eat and drink after sunset and before sunrise. Wednesday night he had invited us over to his house for tea and coffee the following night, so we left down town Columbus and headed back to Yousuf’s. Yousuf made me the most delicious mint tea I’ve ever had! We had to cut the tea a little short because all of us were planning on being up and out the door before 6AM the following morning.

(8/20) I got the idea to pick a bouquet of wild flowers off the side of the road, because there are some really beautiful flowers all along the highway. Emily and I wanted to have something to give to Andrea (my step mom) when we got into North Carolina so we got busy picking flowers on the side of the road before we even left Ohio. When I used to work for Cheer Ltd., it became a tradition to stop at every state sign as we drove... Emily and I were only able to stop at two signs :(


By the time we got closer and closer to NC, Emily and I were both getting really excited and we kind of stopped paying attention to our directions. The plan was originally to get into NC early enough to have plenty of time to hit the Greensboro water park- but Emily and I went almost 100 miles out of our way; so by the time we back tracked and finally made it to the house, there wasn’t really enough time to make the water park worth the money. We ended up going to the country club that my family belongs to, let me tell you... a dip in the pool has never felt sooooo good! We finished the night off with some good ol’ BBQ for dinner (I’d been craving a pulled pork sandwich for a long time!)

(8/21) It felt really nice to be able to really sleep in, and in a bed! We woke up and went to the farmers market where Andrea had a groupon to use. It was the cutest little shop I’d ever been to, and not at all like a “normal” farmers market. Since the water park idea had gone out the window the day before, we decided to try to make it happen again... only to fail... again... Turns out my families passes are not good on Saturdays, so for all 6 of us to go, it would have cost over $200 (maybe even $300) so we scratched that idea. When all else fails, go to the country club :) After swimming at the CC, I told everyone that we HAD to stop at Bojangles so everyone could try their french fries. I’m glad Boja’s didn’t let me down. Everyone loved them! They are seriously the most amazing french fries, EVER. Shortly after we got home, Emily and I went for a run. There is a pretty cool little trail that goes along my parents neighborhood. Holy bucket, I am out of shape!!! After a post run shower, we were told to meet down at the dock right behind my parents house (they live on a man-made lake) for a surprise put together by my brother, Noah and my dad. Neither Emily or I had any idea what to expect, but was thrilled to find them floating up on a big pontoon boat with a chilled bottle of wine waiting for us!




After the boat ride, we ate a delicious dinner out on the back patio. The weather, and evening was perfect.
(8/22) Was pretty boring, spent most of our day either at the AT&T store, or packing.
For dinner we went to Natty Greene’s Brewery- YUM!! After dinner Emily and I showed down town Greensboro a good time at their (I would assume, only) gay bar and made some new friends!


(8/23) I went with the fam to drop the boys off for their first day of school. It was pretty cute seeing them so nervous for their first day of high school (for Noah) and at at a new school. It brought me back to my first day of high school, I surprised myself with how clearly I remembered it!! After a little nap, Emily and I were a little hungover, so we stopped at a Chick-fil-A for a little fast food - hangover cure. It did the trick. Following lunch, we picked up Gabriel from school (Noah was already off on a camping trip with his class) and headed over to the Apple store to get my iPhone. Now, if you’re a facebook friend of mine, or if you regularly read my blog... you know that the “Vote for Melanie” champagne was still going strong. You better believe that Gabriel, Emily, and I took our roles very serious and went to every single computer in the apple store and voted. After a long day of waiting on my iPhone, and packing, we ended the night with a Grasshoppers game (Greensboro’s AAA baseball team). I even drank my OWN beer!
Emily and I were leaving the following morning at 4AM so we decided not to go to sleep so we would get some good sleep on the train.


(8/24) When we arrived at the train station, we were positive we were there in plenty of time, but the Amtrak agents let us know otherwise. Emily and I each had the maximum amount of bags allowed (for free) plus one or two extra. I knew we had a lot of stuff, but don’t think I realized HOW much that really added up to be. At last we got onto our train and settled into our seats. It was kind of a bummer at it was so early in the morning because everyone was sleeping and all we wanted to do was scream and giggle with excitement that we were finally on our way to NYC! After one or two little “night caps”

Emily and I finally tried to get some sleep. I say “tried” because the two men sitting directly across from me were snoring SOOOOO loud! I wanted to punch them. I think I maybe got a total of 2 possibly 3 hours of sleep before pulling into Penn Station around 3:30PM...


Check back soon to continue reading all about my crazy journey....

visitors

Ever since I made the announcement to move to NYC, I had about 100 people saying they'd come visit me. Even people I'd just met. I feel like I remember a lot of people saying they'd come visit me when I moved to Oregon- and I only got a small handful of people to actually follow through with that. Hell- when I moved from Eugene to Portland I even had people saying they'd come up to visit who never did.

Man, if I had a dime every time I had a person promise to visit me... my NYC rent would be paid for! The statement usually goes a little something like this:

"I'm gonna start saving, and come visit you!" - friend, random, or the like

"Oh okay..." - me

"No really I am! I promise!!" - them

So I'm just gonna put it out there, I'm gonna make a list of all of the people who have said they're coming to visit and see who actually follows through. (In no particular order)

1. Merideth
2. Nicole
3. Melissa
4. Meg
5. Kate
6. Tim
7. Sarah G.
8. Sarah P.
9. Katie
10. Sarah B.
11. Amber
12. Alisa
13. Anne
14. Brad
15. Donovan
16. Emily
17. Eric
18. Kyle
19. Heidi
20. Kim
21. Mike
22. Shaun
23. Mallory

I'm sure there's even a few that I'm forgetting in there somewhere.... but I think that'll do for now.

Now it's real people! It's in print! ONLINE!!! Start saving those pennies and get out here to the east coast!!