My First Thanksgiving

This year was the first time I've ever cooked my own Thanksgiving!
Of course, after high school, there was a Thanksgiving or two that I didn't go home; but I would always just go over to someone else's house and eat all of their food... So this year was a pretty big deal for me.
Since all of my roommates and I are all from the west coast, it just made the most sense for us to all stay in Brooklyn for the holiday. As soon as we realized that we would all be home, we got to planning our menu:

• Turkey 
• stuffing
• mashed potatoes
• green bean casserole
• sweet potatoes
• sweet potato fries
• cranberry sauce
• gravy
• rolls
• pumpkin curry soup
• lemon meringue pie
• peanut butter chocolate pie
• yam pie
• And of course... beer, wine, mimosa's ;)

I have a long standing tradition in my family of always doing the mashed potatoes, so I was delighted when my roommates said they'd let me make them for us!

Every year, one of my favorite things to do is get up early, and watch the Macy's parade on TV. Now that I'm living here, I really wanted to take advantage of being able to finally going to watch the parade live in person. I had heard that the night before the parade, you can go walk the parade route and watch them blow up the balloons, so of course I immediately put that on my "must-do" list. 

As it has, many times in the past, NYC likes to put me in my place and laugh at me just a little bit...

I got off my subway stop around 7:15pm, it wasn't until almost 8pm that I finally made it out of the subway station, and onto the street. Apparently I'm not the only one who thought it would be fun to go check out the balloons.

Once I finally got out to the street, and just around the corner of the Museum of Natural History, I finally got my first glance of the balloons!

I finally made my way through the mass of people to 77th street and Central Park West to walk down the route to see the balloons up close and personal!

I started walking down Columbus towards 71st street but there were so many people, it literally took me 40 minutes to walk from 77th to 76th, and across Columbus, so I decided I had seen enough. It would probably be better if I just went home. I was originally planning on going back in the morning to catch the actual parade, but after that fiasco- I decided that maybe the parade was better left a TV tradition. 

As soon as I got home, I started making my pie, and rolls!

After cooking until 3am, it was time for bed. After all, we were planning on getting up at 7:30am to put the turkey in the oven! 

My roommates Lois, Alaina, and I all got up and got to cooking and last minute shopping right away!

Before we knew it, it was noon, and our house was filled with lovely people, and beautiful music!

I have the most talented friends and roommates!

Finally around 4pm we were finished cooking and got to eat our feast!

It was so fun collaborating with all of my roommates each cooking different dishes. 

Emily's pumpkin curry soup with roasted sunflower seeds:

 Allen's green bean casserole: 

We had a few minor setbacks including accidently turning off the oven at one point, burning the sweet potato fries, and blowing up a stick of butter in the microwave... oops. 

Our turkey was honestly one of the most delicious I've ever had- ever!

All in all, it was a really wonderful first Thanksgiving experience. I couldn't have asked for anything better. 

A huge thank you to all of my roommates, and Brian, Chris, Marcus, Cecil, and Cherie- without you guys, this day never would have been the same!

Internship

What a whirlwind the last 2 months have been!

I can’t believe that that’s all it’s been since I’ve moved here! There is always so much to see and do, I feel like it’s already been 6 months!

One of the greatest things I’ve been lucky enough to experience is my fabulous internship! As you may remember, before I even got here, I had high hopes of finding a female photographer to intern/assist with. Mostly because this industry is mainly powered by men, I really wanted to work with another female to see how SHE does it, and to help keep me motivated if ever a man tries to take me down! I definitely set out to  find an internship with a fashion photographer since that is the area I’d like to specialize in, but I also know that I have SO  much to learn, and that working with a pro photographer in any area would really help me. Back at the end of August, I spent hours and hours on Craigslist looking for job and internship opportunities. When I interviewed with Jill Lotenberg of Jill Photography, she explained to me that the majority of her business nowadays is commercial, and head shots. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I knew I needed to start somewhere! This was only the second interview I had been on since having moved to the city, and she pretty much hired me on the spot!

The first shoot I went with her on was to photograph the founder and CEO of Jump Apparel Group, Glenn Schlossberg. Jump is celebrating their 20th anniversary and Jill was hired to photograph him as well as some behind the scenes shots for the front cover of Fashion Manuscript Nove/Dec 2010 issue. It was really exciting for me because the moment we stepped off the elevator and I saw logo on the wall, I knew I’d heard of Jump before! It took me a second, but I definitely wore a Jump dress to a winter formal, or some sort of formal dance when I was in Jr. high or high school. 

Here's the cover!:

Look! That's the inside of the magazine with MY name in print!!!:

A few weeks after I assisted on that shoot, Jill asked me to assist her while she shot THIS!!:

Now, I’m no Top Chef fanatic, but I knew this was pretty cool. I was also really excited because she told me I could invite anyone I wanted. That same week, a friend of mine from high school, Shaun, was in town visiting so I invited him as well as all of my roommates. It was just one of those lucky nights when a bunch of them were all off and three of them were able to come along! It was such a lovely evening, and I must admit, that I think we all had a moment or two that night when we thought to ourselves, “I can’t believe this is my life, I’m so lucky”.

(left to right: Marcus, Lois, Shaun, Alaina, Emily, me)

Shortly after that event, Jill asked me if I would be available to go with her on an overnight trip to Boston for a shoot. When I got her text message, I stopped dead in my tracks and could feel myself grinning from ear to ear. Not to toot my own horn, but I am well aware that this was not something that she was offering to her other interns- it really hit me then, that I might actually be doing a really good job. I had never been to Boston and of course wanted to jump at this opportunity! Not only that, but she also informed me that this would be a paid trip! As if I really needed to be convinced even more!?

I really feel so lucky to have this opportunity and still sometimes can’t believe how this sort of just fell into my lap. As far as how long I’ll be working for Jill, I’m really not sure. I believe I’ll be done in or around January sometime. But I am fairly confident that this internship is only going to lead to bigger and better things. I hope to do a recap in a couple of months when all is said and done.

Below, enjoy some photos of the different locations we’ve been so lucky to shoot in!

Chef Marcus during the cooking demonstration at 5th on the Park:

On location in Queens: 

Last week we went back to 5th on the Park to get some shots of the building. This is the view around 6PM from the 25th floor overlooking Manhattan. Off in the distance, you can see the Empire State building: 

Atop a Brooklyn condo, shot by Jill:

Workin' hard for the boss lady: 

Downtown Brooklyn in the background, me, Allie, Clair (other interns) and Jill, far right: 

Update: My computer is (obviously) back up and running. It was extremely frustrating however to not have my computer for almost 2 weeks. Though I have to give my roommate Alaina a HUG thank you for letting me borrow her computer almost every day while she was at work!! If this has taught me anything it’s, BACK UP!! Sometimes computers just crash, and there are no warning signs. It’s a good thing I love what I do, other wise I don’t know if I’d be able to put up with the amount of money it costs to keep this going. 

I hope you are having a lovely day!

Until next time.....

A 

Death Wish

So my computer has decided it's had about enough of me.
I don't blame it. Sometimes I make it work really hard for me.
Unfortunately, what this has meant for me is that my logic board is a goner.
Thankfully, there is a great certified Apple repair store really close to me! (The Mac Support Store)
I took it in last Friday because Thursday evening, it just stopped turning on. I was really baffled because I had been using it throughout the day with no problems whatsoever.
Well turns out apparently your logic board CAN go out without any warning of any kind :(
I had decided before I even took it in, that if it was going to cost too much, I would just get a new computer. Fortunately, they were able to figure out what was wrong with it and told me it would be ready and good as new in about a week (for the bargain price of more than a month's rent, but still cheaper than a brand new one!)
So here I wait... for my computer to come back to life.
I'm really glad I didn't have to get a new computer for a few reasons (even though a new one would have been fun): #1- and most importantly, I can't afford it. While I'm working on trying to find a paying job, I'm still without one. #2 I don't know what I would have done if I had to buy all new music to replace my lost iTunes library, not to mention I'm sure there are a number of photos I haven't backed up yet; and mostly that I know there is no way in hell that I could afford to repurchase all of my photo software: Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge, etc.

I am extremely thankful (for this, and many other reasons) for having five roommates right now. They are being quite gracious letting me use their computers while they are at work, or not using them.
It's sad really, how attached I am to my computer. I wish I didn't depend so much on it, but I really do.
So please to not fret everyone, I'm not purposefully leaving you high and dry on the blogging front. As a matter of fact, Thursday morning, I had sat down and started drafting a new blog when I was distracted by more important things, like getting my website (better) up and running!!!
I am extremely proud to announce, that www.abbeycorbett.com is now officially a website!!!
This is also really exciting news, because I also ordered business cards with that web address AND a new New York phone number! - Don't worry, my cell number has not changed, I just got a google number for business purposes.

On that note, please do check back in a week or two- I promise to update, and with photos very shortly after getting my computer back at the end of the week!!
Much love,
A