Defending New Yorkers

I've been thinking about posting this for a while, but a recent article pushed me into (delayed) action, and now I fear I may sound like I am copying them. Just remember, they stole the idea from me! The article said that 40,000 Americans who were recently polled voted New York the rudest city in America. I will admit, dozens of people tried to warn me before I moved here, and really anytime I said New York was my favorite place ever, that people were just mean here. Rude, arrogant, dirty, etc. While not everyone in this city is jubilant at all times, there are 8.5 million, so it's a safe bet there are multitudes of both happy and unhappy people.

Have you ever lived here? It's tough. It's flashy and fancy and fabulous, but it is tough. Would you be thrilled to have to carry 7 bags of groceries, or a lamp, or a chair, or a printer, or anything really, several blocks through crowds of people and then up 5 flights of stairs? Forgive us if we aren't peppy when our arms are falling off, or we're soaking wet because its a torrential downpour with high wind-speeds and we don't have cars. Also, it is pretty darn frustrating to not be able to get through to your street because tourists have clogged up the entire place looking at, well, I guess everything. BUT, don't let the seemingly scowling faces fool you.

What I'm about to say may be controversial, but you've got to hear it: New Yorkers are nice people. I have witnessed so many touching acts of kindness in my 4 short months here. People constantly giving up their seats on very crowded subway cars to let a woman, child, or elderly person sit down. Sometimes they give their seats to someone who just looks tired. I can't tell you how many times I have watched a young hippie, or an older gentleman, or a suit-clad stockbroker stop and help a mother carry her child's stroller up the stairs. Every time it brings a tear to my eye, because chances are I had started to judge them on their appearance, and then they go and do something totally unexpected.

Dozens of kind people have started conversations with me just standing at the crosswalk. They make a comment on the wind, or the strange warmth this time of year, and then they ask how my day is going. They don't know me. They don't have to act like they care, but they do it anyway. The teller at my bank is one of the nicest people I've ever met. I live in a city of millions, and she knows me by name. Most of the places I frequent in my neighborhood do. The bank teller in Alabama never tried to learn my name or ask, with genuine care, how my day is going. So don't be quick to judge these Yankees up here!

Yes, not everyone is nice. Yes, there are crazy people here. But you know what? I bet if you looked around your city, you'd find the same mixture of people. We're not so different. The other day, two Swedish women stopped me and asked if I could point them in the right direction. First of all, I was just relieved that I actually knew how to get them to their destination. Second of all, they thought I was a local. So I pointed them the right way, and then I asked how their trip was going and if I could help them in any way. Because that's what New York has taught me.

I've been a little neglectful to the blog....

First of all, I would like to apologize to my poor little blog. It has been so good to me, and I have neglected it for so long! The past 4 weeks have been a whirlwind. And, to be fair, we haven't had internet for 2 weeks. Christmas and New Year's at home was wonderful. I got to spend the week with not only my immediate family, but my extended family (boyfran included) as well. We made our tri-annual trip to Bellingrath Gardens (the sprawling mansion with millions of christmas lights):

Also, I'm pretty much obsessed with my house at Christmas:

I'm also obsessed with my friends:

Too soon, it was time to come back to the city. I had packed up the precious studio apartment and said a (tearful) goodbye (yes, I realize the apartment couldn't hear me, but still). As soon as I walked in the door to our new Central Park apartment, sweet Heather had put out candles on our very bare floor and made our favorite, Brie. It was freezing and a little frighteningly bare, but a great way to break in the place:

I'm not going to lie, the first week was tough. We had all been home around our families and come back to an empty, white walled apartment. I got to working on Craigslist for furniture. After the past 3 months, I can honestly say I am a Craigslist pro. I can spot spam from a mile away. By the end of the week, we had found a huge sectional couch, kitchen table, chairs, and a million other little things for REALLY great prices. Most people rest and relax on weekends. We don't. We move furniture. The end result was pretty worth it though: (excuse the weird iPhone lighting)

I'll post pictures of the cool stuff I found for my room next post. Please excuse the non-enthusiasm, I am finishing up my first campaign today! (This means I haven't slept in about a week.) We are still settling in to our new apartment, and it really is starting to feel a little bit more like home. After a notice that our power was going to be turned off, and a pirated internet fail, we have survived the move in process. We now have lots and lots of room for visitors! I could write on and on about the adventures we had in trying to buy things for the apartment, but I don't want to put yall to sleep. We have lots of visitors coming the next few weekends, so I will have plenty more to write about soon! Come back next week when I am sure to be having a panic attack about turning 23 on Tuesday. (HOLY. CRAP. OLD.)

It's Christmastime in the City....

Well, lots has happened since my last post! Many things were up in the air, so I decided to wait to post until everything was finalized. For starters, I am officially gainfully employed! Starting January 1 (well really the 2 because New Years is a Sunday), I will now go by "Junior Account Manager" at The 7th Chamber. For those just catching up, yes, this is the same company I am currently interning for in the city. While my new salary would be a small fortune at home, as you can imagine, things cost just a tiny bit more up here. (Care packages anyone?! :)) Either way, we are looking forward to this next Ramen-noodle eating phase of our lives! Heather (who is now an assistant and Simon and Schuster Publishing) and I decided to celebrate our employment by getting in the Christmas spirit. We took a trip to see the teensy tiny tree.....





It is fabulously spectacular. After employment was out of the way, we started frantically searching for a place to live. Now, this would be really easy in practically any other part of America. However, finding my third apartment in 3 months as well as hunting for a new office location for our company put me in real estate hell. Seriously yall, brokers here have a special ring in hell dedicated to them. They are the slimiest human beings I have ever come in contact with (definitely no Christmas spirit with them!). Aside from it being just me and Heather, my college roommate Megan moved up here and is now our new intern! So after looking at multiple beyond small 3 bedroom apartments, I stumbled upon a 3 bedroom for rent by owner. Jackpot! This meant no brokers fees, no paying for walls to be put up to turn it into a 3 bedroom, and best of all, it was in our price range. After Megan had been in NYC a whopping 45 minutes, we drug her (drug literally...she was still on a relaxant from her fear of flying) to an open house for an apartment on the Upper West Side... on Central Park West. Love at first sight. It has original hardwood floors, awesome big windows that we can turn into window-seats to read in, lots of light, half a block from the subway, and did I mention it is on Central Park West?! Let me reiterate by showing off this view:

That would be our front yard. After a little haggling by my professional haggling dad, we put down a deposit. We officially sign on Tuesday, and I can not wait to start getting settled! It has so much character and potential, I am so excited to start making it our own. Plus, we will have room for everyone to come visit! We all felt it was very important to be able to have our own rooms to shut the door after a long day of work (especially since Megan and I are currently sharing one room and one bed) and we found the perfect place. Heather and I are legally and financially responsible for the apartment, which makes us feel excited and terrified at the same time. I'm old!

We have spent the past few days exploring Christmas around the city, since the season it almost over already! On Friday, we headed over to the Columbus Circle Christmas Mart. It was overwhelming and really cool at the same time. Most things were still vastly overpriced, but I did pick up a neat present for the boyfriend for Christmas (can't tell what it is for obvious reasons!).

I love Columbus Circle in general, but between the LED lights and the statues of elephants (Roll Tide) and the Christmas vendors, it really was magical. Yes, I realize that was cheesy. But seriously, you should see it! On Friday I will finally fly home for the first time in 3 months, and get to stay at home for a whole week! I am sad to leave my comfy little studio in Hell's Kitchen, but really excited to get settled on CPW. Enjoy a few more pictures from the past few weeks, and have a Merry Christmas!!! See y'all next year!! :)

New Apartment Building

My boss' precious British kiddos I babysit (we decorated the tree)

Love my little studio! That is a Santa lava lamp, incase you were wondering

Nutella and waffle and banana goodness from the Christmas mart!

School of Journalism at Columbia

Our new street from Central Park!

Mom Comes to Visit, plus Thanksgiving!

As I promised I would begin with Heather and my trip to the premiere of the Radio City Rockette's Christmas Spectacular! It was fabulous, and we felt super New York going to an opening night. 

I'm a little behind on my blogging (again) so lucky for yall I have a lazy Sunday afternoon with nothing to do but update my little online diary! (Also, this helps me stay off Twitter and other social media where everyone is going nothing but arguing about whether or not Alabama will make it to the National Championship. Sheesh people.) After Ellis left, I had 5 days to prepare for mom's arrival. She got in early Saturday morning, and we started exploring immediately. If you know my mom, she doesn't sit still. We are not exactly alike in this aspect. So we went out and began our tourist weekend. Mom had never been to Top of the Rock, and as it is, in my opinion, the best views of the city, I was on board with this idea. Plus it's only 2 avenues over so it's a short walk! (See above picture)

After basking in the magnificent views, we headed to the Upper East Side (via a short trip up 5th Ave. for some window shopping) to meet with Heather and try out Serendipity! In case you don't know, it is a quirky tiny restaurant with loads of character that serves the world famous "Frozen Hot Chocolate". Also, a movie was made about it starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack. If you haven't seen it, check it out and you'll see what I'm talking about! Well, the wait time was 2 hours just to get the drink. Luckily, Bloomingdales and Dylan's Candy Bar are on the same block (coincidence? I think not). As mom had never been to either of these, we overwhelmed her with the pure amounts of sugar at the candy bar, and took in some holiday cheer at the famed clothier. We headed back to Serendipity, and we got in a little early! Being the chocolate connoisseurs we are, we each ordered a different version of the frozen drink: original chocolate, peanut butter, and mint chocolate. After much consideration, we decided peanut butter was our favorite!

After we were filled to the brim with chocolate goodness, we had to catch a cab to make it back to my neck of the woods for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring...wait for it... HARRY POTTER! Ok, actually it was Daniel Radcliffe, but that counts right? I have been begging people to go with me to see it because he is leaving soon and it will be Joe Jonas, and who wants to see that?! After some reluctance, she agreed. I was feeling great finding us decently priced seats and went up to the box office to pick them up, while the lady just stared at me and told me we didn't have any on file for that night. Turns out, I bought them for the NEXT Saturday. Wow. Being the great mom she is, we bought the only good seats they had left for the night, which were a tad more expensive than my cheap nosebleed seats. We got lucky because they were about 6 rows back from the stage and were awesome. I'm here to tell you the boy can act! He did a fantastic job and it was really evident he loved what he was doing and gave it his all. We laughed hysterically throughout the whole thing. Needless to say, mom was glad I talked her into it. We waited outside after to meet the cast, but hundreds of screaming teenagers kept me from meeting Harry, uhh... I mean Daniel. However, we did get to meet John Laroquette, who mom loves. Here's my (illegal) picture of him talking to us after the show:

On Sunday,  I, in true only me fashion, woke up with a head to toe rash from an allergy to a medicine. After dousing myself in benadryl cream, we headed down to the Meatpacking District for our lunch reservations at the Spice Market. It's right across from where I work and I've been wanting to go so I was really excited mom suggested it. Heather met us and we, yet again, gorged ourselves on fine food. It was beyond delicious, and we ordered lots to try from. I showed them where I work, then we headed to Chelsea Market for a bit of shopping. Mom had really been dying to hear Tim Keller preach (we use his stuff a lot at church in Fairhope, and he is the pastor at mine and Heather's church), so we headed to the UWS for the 5:00 service. After leaving satisfied, we headed home and conked out for the night. Monday I had taken the day off to be with mom, and I woke up to a much worse rash. What would her trip be without an ER visit right?! I am happy to say that the ER here got me in and out in under 45 mintues. On Thanksgiving week. Truly unheard of. They dosed me up and the rash started clearing in less than an hour! We then headed to Macy's for many many hours. Tuesday I went to work, and met up with mom and 2 of her high school friends for dinner at Hundred Acres in SoHo. It was, yet again, delicious. Wednesday we headed to the airport to go to Atlanta for Thanksgiving.

As we were the next in line to take off, on time, on Delta, the day before Thanksgiving, we are told that we have to return to the gate for a passenger. Some man was having a "panic attack" (I know panic attacks, and he was not having one. He was beyond calm, no sweating, no heavy breathing, nothing) and needed to get off the plane. It "happens to him all the time." Uhhh then why are you flying on the busiest travel day of the year?! After a mockingly unapologetic "apology" from the man, we got back in line and finally took off. Thanksgiving was too fast but so much fun to be in Atlanta with my family! I truly missed them all and am so grateful to my uncle for buying me a ticket! 

Stay tuned for some big news later this week, and also, Megan (my college roommate) is moving up a week from today to be our new intern! Happy December everyone! :)

Way over due... All settled in (again!)

I know it has been a really long time since I've blogged. I got bogged down in moving and visits with friends and neglected my blog! So, I'll start by saying I'm sorry, and thanks for sticking with me! The weekend of the LSU game, I finally got to move into my own apartment! Heather came over Saturday morning and helped me lug my bags down to midtown (via taxi, a very sparse luxury). We then lugged all my bags up 5 flights of stairs (I live on the top floor, and there is no elevator). Did I mention she's a saint?!  I couldn't have done it without her. As soon as we got in, I threw my bags to the side and started baking! I know, you're thinking, Emily, you can't bake anything. Not true my friends! I bake the best Brie cheese around. Saturday was special for about a million different reasons.

Not only did I have the company of my good friend Heather, my crazy/awesome/funny friend Jack Hall, who just moved from NYC to DC right before I got here, AND my witty/sports loving/reality tv guru/media relations partner in crime Nick Snow was in the city for a tennis tournament! All of them ended up in my apartment, which was overwhelming because I hadn't seen that many familiar faces in weeks, and so comforting! We ordered pizza and drank wine and ate brie and cookies and watched football (poor Heather, she was a bit surprised how much we get into games). I literally could not have put together a better move-in night. It was the perfect way to break in my new apartment! (Well, besides the loss. But we will NOT discuss that).

My first week in my apartment flew by. If you asked me a year ago if I could live alone in NYC a block from Times Square, I probably would have thought you were crazy. I've never lived alone anywhere. Let me tell you, I love it. Yes, it does get lonely. Maybe it's because I slept on a couch for 5 weeks and I now have a massive comfy bed. Either way, I love my little alcove. It is homey and warm and girly. (The massive amount of Christmas candles that Heather and I bought from Macy's definitely add to this, as do the fuzzy blankets from Macy's. I may have a slight obsession with Macy's home department.)

Before I knew it, it was FINALLY time for Ellis to come visit! After a delayed flight, he finally arrived on 11/11/11 at 11pm. We ordered in a late dinner and watched Elf at midnight. Happy all around. On Saturday we both woke up with nasty colds, but we got out and tried to get tickets to a show. That didn't work, so we went and had a massive breakfast. Commence, food coma. Got back, turned on football (Penn State game, ouch) and took a 3 hour nap. It was perfect. Since we hadn't seen each other in 6 weeks, laying around all day and catching up on life was truly ideal (thanks colds for making us lazy). Sunday, we went down to the 9/11 memorial, made the usual trip to Century 21, ate lunch at P.J. Clarke's at 3 World Financial Center on the Hudson, and headed back uptown to see Brooke Shields in The Addams Family. All were fantastic, and it was a great way to end the (way too fast) weekend. By the time the play was over at 6, we were exhausted. Hence more ordered in food, and more lazy time. He left at 4:30 Monday morning, and I am still trying to catch up on sleep! Here are a few of my fave pics from the past few weeks:

Broadway

It's Christmas at Macy's!

 Beautiful

Brooke Shields (and her boobs)

My company did the campaign for the Rockette's Christmas spectacular, and my boss was nice enough to give me tickets to the opening show tonight, and I get to bring Heather with me! Thanks for reading, I promise to be more prompt next week! :)

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday from NYC! It is a chilly 39 degrees and I could not be happier about it. Love the cold! I started today off by getting our traditional office work bagels from famed Murrays, and ran into Sarah Jessica Parker (hello, Sex in the City!). Last weekend, Katie Beard came in town from Philly, where she is a childlife specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. It was SO good to have a friendly familiar face to spend the weekend with! Friday night we went out to a little hole in the wall sushi joint, and then headed to famous Magnolia Bakery for some cupcakes!

They were delicious! Apparently New York really loves Halloween, because virtually every store/place I enter is decked out. I'm ok with this, as I pretty much love any kind of holiday decorating. After eating ourselves into a sugar coma, we passed out for a good 10 hours. It was AWESOME and much needed. Saturday morning I decided it would be a good idea to take Katie out for a traditional NYC brunch. We headed to Good Enough to Eat and once again ate ourselves silly:

If you can't tell, the food here is really good. We then headed down to Times Square to see if we could get in last minute to see Daniel Radcliffe's play. Didn't go so well. Instead, we headed down to where I work in the Meatpacking District/Chelsea/West Village and did a full days worth of just hanging out and shopping. I wanted to show her parts of the city that tourists don't normally go, and we had a blast! Randomly, we ran into John Kerry having a serious talk on his cell:

I tried to get a non-stalkerish distance away before I pulled out my camera, cause I'm sure he just wanted to be left alone. Still, very random/cool. Before we knew it, it was time to get back to watch the Tennessee game! We picked up a large delicious pizza from Patsy's and headed home to curl up to watch the game. We all know how that ended! (Roll Tide). Sunday we got up and walked from my apartment on 89th all the way through Central Park to the Museum of Modern Art (about 2.5 miles). It was a gorgeous day and the temperature was perfect so we took our time and enjoyed the park. The museum was.... interesting. I will never understand why people are paid ungodly amounts of money for ripping a piece of paper and framing it and it ends up in the MoMa?! Who knows. After about 2 hours, we were a little tired of the random weird art, but we were definitely glad we went! Sundays in the city at a museum just can't be beat. Plus, we still use our student ID's to get discounts. Here are a couple more pictures from our weekend!

We had a blast! Thanks for reading, come back again next week :)

I am no longer homeless!

The most relieving news I could give you is that I have a place to live in November and December! It is a studio apartment in the mid-40s between 8th and 9th aves (Hell's Kitchen), so a very central location.  It is an avenue and a half from Times Square, which could cause some problems when the area gets really congested around holidays, but the street actually feels like it could be a mile away from TS, so that's great. The apartment is a studio, which pretty much means I live in one room, but after living in the Alpha Gam house for 2 years, it feels monstrous. I have a full sized kitchen and bathroom, and most importantly, DVR and a large HD TV with all essential channels! The girl I am renting from is a Broadway actress who most recently has been in Jersey Boys and Legally Blonde, but I will keep her name private out of respect to her space, but I will say that she is fantastic! She had a few other people interested, but said she just "felt in her gut" that I should be the one to live in her home. I think this might be because I made her feel sorry for me by explaining emphatically that I was homeless and going to have to give up my internship (true!). Here are a few pics of the place (she decorated all Anthro... love!):

This consumed my entire week last week, so sorry for no fun posts from then! Stay tuned shortly for an update on mine and Katie's weekend, as she came in from Philly to visit :)