First New York Moment(s) of 2010

I gladly kissed 2009 goodbye. Not that it was terrible...it was actually pretty good. I was accepted into grad school at NYU. I finished my life off in Salt Lake City nicely, in the summer time with lots of concert and movie going, and I got to see all my amazing friends one last time. Good times. I will always cherish my SLC days. I got to spend a month at home with my family before heading off to the big city on the east coast. And once here, I got to enjoy the city and play "tourist" before my life went full speed in my first semester. As stated previously, I was overwhelmed and super stressed and pretty emotional. There was a moment when I thought I may crumble. BUT! I finished out my semester...and with a bang, I might add! I'm pretty confident that I will get good grades, thanks to knowing my midterm grades were good and I made great effort to do well on my finals. I find out tomorrow what my grades are!

2010 started off with a bang! I had absolutely no plans, but one of my new roommates invited me to dinner with her and some friends, followed by the countdown to midnight in Central Park, supporting the midnight 5K runners. It's a yearly event, complete with fireworks!! Seriously, there was about 20 minutes of fireworks and we were standing right below them. I also had a celebrity sighting, though I would not have known it. My roomie noticed the girl standing next to us is one of the lead actors on the show Glee. I've been meaning to watch that show, since all my sisters and lots of other people have told me how great it is. I went ahead an snuck a picture of the celeb on my phone camera, having my sisters in mind. I knew they would appreciate it more than I, since I haven't watched the show, yet. I found a few recorded episodes of the show on my roommates DVR the next day, so I watched them. It was her, alright.

To close the New Year's night, I actually got sorta stranded in Manhattan. The train I needed to get out to Brooklyn was not coming, so me and this girl I had started talking to, while waiting for the train, decided to catch a cab together since we were headed in the same direction. We stopped three different cabs, but none of the drivers wanted to take us out to Brooklyn. I thought for sure I would be pulling an all-nighter in the city, just to get back to Brooklyn in time to turn around and move apartments later that morning. But then the girl I was with was like, "I know a guy" (very New Yorker of her, which she was). The guy she had happened to know was a legit yellow cab driver. So she called him up to ask him a huge favor. I thought it was a long shot. He had other people in his cab already, but checked with them to see if it was ok to pick us up, too. They were cool with it, since they were also headed to Brooklyn. So sure enough, this cabbie comes to get us at 4am on some random corner in downtown Manhattan. I get in a cab with four strangers (taxi driver included), and we headed to Brooklyn. The driver dropped his first passengers off, which was the complete opposite direction of where we needed to go, but we knew that was going to happen ahead of time. It was worth it just to not be stranded anymore. Two hours and 20 bucks later, I was home safe and sound. Three hours more, and I was up and moving to Manhattan. A long and exhausting start to the new year, but I would say quite a good New York moment.

I moved into an apartment with my friend Jessica. This apartment has basically been like a second home to me, so I feel right at home here. I stayed here when I came to visit a few times last year, and I also have crashed here several times on weekends since I've lived in NY. And besides that, I've just hung out here quite a bit. It really could not have worked out more perfectly. Jessica was pretty much the first friend Abby and I made when we moved to Salt Lake City back in 2006 and we get along great. I actually took Abby's spot in the apartment. If I couldn't live with both of them, I'm grateful I at least get to live with one of them.

(pictures of my new place to come!)

Perfect Day for a Cab Ride

Or two cab rides, to be exact, because that's basically all I did today is ride in a cab. Of course, this is not normal. Today was "getting my room in order" day. The boxes my parents shipped out to me arrived today, so I went to pick them up at my roommate's work (they were sent there in case I wasn't home during the day). Here's where cab #1 comes in. There were five boxes, all of which I could not carry alone, nor drag down the streets, down the stairs, and into the subway car. A cab, it was. And an expensive cab ride, too. Manhattan to Brooklyn is not cheap. Getting around in Manhattan is not that cheap either, but it's not as bad as going from one borough to the other. And apparently I like to get to know my cab drivers. I ended up chatting a bit with each of them. Driver #1 is from Haiti, works part time as a driver, full time as a school bus driver, and just became a preacher and started a church! I failed to get the name of it, though. He was super nice. Driver #2 is from the Dominican Republic. He has two kids and lots of family that live in here now. I spoke my pathetic Spanish with him, but prefaced it with "I only studied Spanish for four months...not enough to know it well! Entiendo mejor que hablo."

Oh, and both drivers have lived in New York City for about 24-25 years. I told them both that I was going on one week, and they both said, in the same exact tone of voice (which I'm sure you can imagine), "One week?!" They got a kick out of that. :)

Cab #2 took me home from picking up a free IKEA 6-drawer dresser, given to me by a friend (thank you, Suvi!) I love it, it's perfect. It was just the finishing touch I needed to make my room complete. I put up the wall art, and wah-la! I have a wonderfully furnished and decorated room. See for yourself!

The cat likes the dresser, too!

I just figured out probably why I was so chatty with the cabbies. NO ONE TALKS TO EACH OTHER ON THE SUBWAY! You just don't do it. You do it, everyone knows you're new in town. You only talk if you are with people you know. It's kinda crazy, being surrounded by tons of people every day, but not talking to any of them. Sometimes I am tempted. I smile at babies sometimes, when their guardians aren't looking.