So Long, Farewell!

After taking a three month hiatus from this blog, I’ve decided to completely close this chapter of my life.  Reading back through my posts, I believe I’ve accomplished exactly what I needed to without even knowing I was doing it.  I now have full documentation of my journey to New York City–the ups, the downs, the joy, the stress, everything that consumed my mind, body and soul from start to finish.

At this point, I could certainly continue writing.  In fact, I have a queue of about seven posts in draft but after reading through them I decided not to post.  I don’t want this blog to turn into a “look at me!  look how great my life is! look how great I’m doing for myself!” theme.  Because as much as I can update you on that stuff, I wouldn’t find gratification in writing about it anymore than you would enjoy reading the showboating.

So I would like to end on a high note.  I made it. Thank you for reading, and I certainly hope NYC Bound brought you inspiration and motivation to chase after your dreams.  Or at least you got a few laughs out of it. 

So cheers.  Here’s to a new chapter in my life.

[Side note:  me and my colleague have already starting another blog.  Instead of being a document journey or showboating blog theme, it is aligned around a realistic view of 20-somethings living in nyc and the antics that ensue in every aspect of our lives (work, dating, sex, you name it).  It is more edgy, candid and in-your-face.  In an effort to maintain anonymity, I won't share with you the site nor will I share our author alias.  But if you're relatively active in the blogging world, we're not that hard to find. ]

Change

Preface:  Lots have changed in the mere 2 months of my absence from the blogging world.  Changes for the better and some traumatic changes as well.  I fully intend to write about it soon, since writing is more or less my emergency fire escape.  But know I’m alive and well, and have missed writing for those that care to read.

—–

Speaking of changes, I recently went through old memorabilia boxes of mine & had some good laughs with my sisters.  It’s funny looking back at stuff that were at the center of my world during different times of my life.  My 13-year-old self couldn’t live without my Sanrio stationary, tin bins, stickers and all the mindless, waste of money items you can stomach.  As I sifted through pictures of myself at 16-years-old — sticker pictures, professional pictures, pictures of myself imprinted on pillows and keychains — I came to the realization that apparently at this age, I was completely self absorbed and obsessed with myself.  Lol…but then again, what 16-year-old isn’t, I suppose.  And as much as I hate to admit this next obsession, at the age of 17 & 18, I found high school folders and binders plastered with cliche love quotes.  Corny phrases like “No boy is ever worth your tears, and the one that is will never make you cry” and “The worst way to miss someone is when they’re right next to you and you can’t have them” are the very evidence that finding true love was my number one mission.  lol…naive, indeed.  What is equally funny is seeing how much the L.A. Lakers & Kobe Bryant were ever a constant throughout every age group.  [Side note - no one can ever tell me I'm a band wagon Lakers fan.  I have the posters, apparel, hats, homemade fan posters, old games recorded on VHS tapes labeled "DO NOT TAPE OVER!", pieces of paper I practiced writing "Mrs. Kobe Bryant" on, you name it...to prove otherwise.]

While sorting through these boxes [placing the mountains of purple and gold aside] I came across a necklace from my freshman high school boyfriend.  The following conversation ensued next:

Me: Do you think I should keep this, Trish?
Tricia: Ew, no throw that thing away.
Me: But this is the first time I ever got jewelry from a guy!
[10 seconds later...]
Me: Actually now that I think about it, this is the ONLY time I ever got jewelry from a guy…
Tricia: Well, you should probably keep it then…it’s your first & last time.

lol…my sister is SO nice!

It’s funny how looking back you can see how much has changed, and how much stays the same.

These Streets will Make You Feel Brand New, Big Lights will Inspire You

Just when you think you’ve done all there is to do in this town, you come across something else amazing.  That’s why generally speaking, New York City is the best place to live.

Ever.

Period.

Hands Down.

Fact.

In an effort to not write a “my life is greater than yours” post, I will just post some highlights that I managed to take pictures of:

Guest at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, Radio City Music Hall...FRONT AND CENTER

Taylor Swift getting her moment. Beyonce, Jimmy Fallon and Andy Samberg on stage too.

Yanks Clinching the AL Pennat!

My first EVER Yanks game...without a doubt grinning from ear-to-ear!

Not to mention, I’m no longer feeling lonesome anymore!  Successfully made a circle of friends whom I absolutely adore, my social life is beginning to boom.  My life in the past two months has gotten increasingly better and better and better.  I don’t mean to gloat, but I just can’t fathom how much one place can make me love life more than I knew I could.  Indescribable and unimaginable the energy this city feeds to it’s inhabitants.  I literally get a natural high just walking the streets and tilting my head to the sky, appreciating all that surrounds me.

A life-long, born and raised New Yorker recently told me “everyone should live here at least once in their life.  It will change you forever.” I’ve been around since May, been living in the city since July.  Not even a year, but my outlook on life and the person I am in general has been positively affected by this city.  And as cheeseball as it may sound, this city is changing me to a better person.  Hence, my initial statment:  New York City is the best place to live.

Ever.

Period.

Hands Down.

Fact.

In the infamous, classic words of Frank Sinatra:
I want to wake up in a city, that never sleeps
And find I’m a #1 top of the list, king of the hill
A #1

These little town blues, are melting away
I’m gonna make a brand new start of it – in old New York
And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere

It up to you – New York, New York

Office Perks

My new favorite thing to take advantage of:

Getter VIP treatment on business trips.  You know…being put up in an Exec Suite at the Borgata Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, free massage/mani/pedi/facial, free food and drinks (Bobby Flay steak and lobster, oyster in a half shell, poppin bottles all night?  Yes, please!), gambling cash that isn’t mine but getting to keep the earnings, black label access everywhere.  Turns out it’s not so bad.  In fact, amazing…

Who said you can’t mix business with pleasure?

Movin’ on up!

I was more than an hour late for work just the other day (thanks every taxi in stuy town deciding to be unavailable…).  The rest of my day didn’t get any better since I was deeply hungover, catching up on work, and lots on my mind (intentionally being vague…may decide to blog about what who has been on my mind soon ).

It also didn’t help that the weather in the city has been getting colder and colder by the hour.  If you’ve been following my blog, you know I only came to New York with one suitcase, filled with my wardrobe from May aka summer clothes.  So I’ve been completely unprepared for any temperatures below the 60s.  Long story short, I had my sister ship me a box full of my winter clothes a week ago, wasn’t home for the pick up, rescheduled a delivery, USPS never redelivered it nor did they notify me they were going to ignore my redelivery request, and just decided to return the package to sender.  Disaster.

I know, I know who cares, this stuff is boring…but have to mention it because USPS’s lack of customer service and utter failure as a courier was adding on to my shitty day.  I was fighting and screaming at USPS all day, hungover, desperately trying to catch up on work piling up in my inbox and still couldn’t shake what was on my mind.

It was only 3p, but I was packing my things to leave.  No point in sticking around trying to work when my productivity wouldn’t be as efficient nor would my concentration be 100%.  Just as I was getting ready to walk out of the office I got a call from our mail room saying I had a package waiting for me (no, not my winter clothes unfortunately).  I wasn’t expecting anything since no one who would send me a package knows my work address (at least that’s what I thought…).  I received a tote that I’ve been meaning to buy with a message attached, but no sender.  I wondered who I spoke to about this tote and tried to link it to who would be so kind to send it to me…with no such luck.  Will keep you posted if the mystery sender become revealed…this definitely helped cheer me up.

But then when I returned to my desk, my boss pulled me aside.  I was for certain he was going to question my tardiness this morning, and was going through my mind a plausible explanation (since the factual one wasn’t going to cut it lol).  Luckily, he wanted to discuss good news not bad news!  He asked me if I would be interested in joining in on some refresher training sessions that our department is currently in the process of conducting.  The training is completely over my head and a few steps above my position, but he requested I be a part of it since he thinks it would be beneficial to my growth in the company.  Relieved that I wasn’t been called out on my late start that morning and shocked by his belief in my growth potential, I went from a sucky day to an ok day, to a good day.  I’ve only been with the company since July, so the fact that my direct boss trusts my work ethic enough to invest so early means the world to me.

It gets better…right before I was walking out the door for the day, a senior exec from the marketing department approached me.  She said that a little bird told her that I’m an aspiring writer and offered me some copy writing projects whenever my plate isn’t so full.  I immediately accepted and told her that while I am not published anywhere, I would love to help out with smaller projects and campaigns to test the waters.  I was amazed about how quickly and easily people were willing to help me gain experience and move up.

Life is funny that way…start out rock bottom and somehow find your way to the top.  Word on the street is my stock is rising.  Better invest now!

20-Something & Proud

Fact of Life:  Being a woman in my 20s can be confusing.  I’ve had a love/hate relationship with my age for quite sometime now.  One moment I’m proud to be a young and carefree girl and the next moment I’m shunning my youth.  This feeling consumes me, everywhere I turn…at the grocery store, nightlife, work, dating.  I can’t buy wine without a strange look from the cashier who over-examines my ID convinced it’s a fake.  At bars, I can’t “act my age” without the notion of disregard from 30-something spectators.  At work I fear sharing my age will impede my advancement.  And on the dating scene, when I share my age with a man who is seemingly interested, the usual reply is always “wow…you’re still a baby!” or something of the sort.  Even the media nowadays makes the 20s feel like your teenage years, labeling  30-somethings the “new 20s”.  Is being a 20-something really supposed to suck?

After further scrutiny of my age, I realized something.  In the midst of my over-analysis and suffocation of my youth, my 20s are flashing before my eyes.  No, I can’t change my age.  But yes, I can enjoy it while it lasts.  I’m young, carefree, wild and outrageous.  That’s what your 20s are for:  To be selfish and experience life with little to no obligation to anything but yourself.  To relish in life and not feel guilty, self-conscious or resentment about it.

That’s right, you 30-something reader…shake your head saying “silly 20-something.”  But while you’re shaking your head, I’m going to go out, get wasted on a Monday night, make a fool of myself, get up in the morning, grab a bagel and coffee, pop an aspirin and jump straight into work fresh as new ready to take your job.  Well, that’s a little harsh but you get my point…being you ain’t as good as you once were [cough in your 20s cough].

So I’ll laugh and happily flash 1987 when the cashier cards me for wine.  I’ll appreciate it when I’m in my 30s and I no longer get carded.

And I’ll smile at the 30-something woman at the bar judging my every move.  Because the truth of the matter is, her criticism is just nostalgia incognito.

And I’ll use my age to my advantage at work.  Yes, I’m brand new to the corporate scene.  But this baby’s got a lot of miles in her and is dying to take a road trip.

And I’ll agree when men call me “a baby”.  Darn right, I am a little puppy.  And you should appreciate it too.  Because have you ever tried to teach an old dog new tricks?

Fact of Life Updated:  I am a proud 22-year-old woman livin’ it up NYcity no longer masked with shame or confusion.  Here’s to my 20s…:)

From Hell’s Kitchen to Murray Hill

I recently made the move crosstown and am officially an eastside city girl!  So my westside story goes like this…I was desperate to find an apartment when I landed my job.  I was tired of looking so when I found the 3-bedroom apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, I was relieved and eager to finally move and settle in.  Though both the roommates were great, the location was phenomenal, and the building was classy…the actual apartment was not my style at all.  In fact, I’ve never seen an apartment like that ever.  Decor galore, the shared living space was laced with different antique vases that the owner had collected during her many travels to Europe and South America.  One whole wall was covered in shelving units that housed complete sets of all green, yellow, and orange vases-each color on it’s own row, just like you’d see in an antique shop.  Basically the whole apartment looked like a rainbow threw up inside-colors clashing everywhere you turn.  Not to mention too many decorations.  I lived there for a good three months and probably didn’t see every item in the living room.  Yes, it’s that much.  The owner has lived there for about ten years, and in this ten years has accumulated enough…enough…well, for lack of a better term, enough SHIT for 5 New York City apartments.  She was a pack-rat in the truest form of the word.  Needless to say, this was not my style.  So far away from  my style in fact, that I was unhappy to come home from work every night.  Drama queen, I know.  But it just never felt like home to me, like my own place.  No where in the apartment felt like it had my style or stamp of approval.  Not even my room…my rooms walls were painted bright orange.  And the ceiling?  Royal blue.  Oh, and the best part?  You know as a little 9-year-old girl, you probably had glow-in-the-dark stars on your ceiling?  Yeah, my room’s ceiling was deck out in these glow-in-the-dark stars.  The colors clashing and glowing stars were enough to drive me crazy and run me out of there quick.

Luckily, I found a more suitable living situation crosstown.  I am now living on the 10th floor of an awesome apartment off of Park Ave. with amazing roommates.  The neighborhood is amazing too.  Young professional crowd (like myself), awesome bars nearby, closer walk to work, did I mention it’s off Park Ave?!  I can already tell this is home.  Though I enjoyed HK a lot, I am so excited about Murray Hill.  I’m just going to have to find a new fruit vendor, and since I no longer have a doorman, I’ll have to find another person to tell me a daily joke I can’t understand.  Check out my ‘hood below:

Home, sweet home!

Year One in Review

I just realized that it has been one year since I’ve started this blog.  I remember starting this blog with no clear direction of what I would be writing about.  My intentions were to get my writing juices flowing and to get people interested in what I write about.  A year later, I don’t believe the direction is more clearly defined since I usually just write about what’s on my mind.  But I did accomplish my initial goals of making writing a part of my routine life and getting people interested in what I say.  Looking back, there are countless moments that I thought to myself “I have to blog about this”.  Though I didn’t always follow through and write about it, it’s definitely positive progression for my creative mind.  I sometimes catch myself narrating my life in my mind like pages of a novel or waking in the middle of night jotting down an idea for a new creative writing project.  Crazy as it may sound, I think it’s great that I’ve grown with just one year of blogging.  See for yourself my growth.  I’ve placed links below of some of my favorite posts in the past year.  It’s very surreal reading through these and seeing how much has changed in just one year.

Time

Only the Strong Survive

Gap in the Dream

Something to be Proud of

Self Discovery

Dear New York

The Countdown is On!

Urgent Update!

The Thrill of Spontaneity

Survival of the Fittest

Breaking through the Finishline

Happy One Year, NYC Bound.  Here’s to another even better year!

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

On my way to work today the fruit vendor on my street waved as I rounded the corner and handed me the freshest red apple he had, which he sets aside every morning for me.  I smiled as he handed me the apple and gave him my usual ‘next door neighbor’ rated discount.

During lunch today, my favorite deli saw me enter and immediately went to work on my usual turkey salad sandwich.

During my usual 3:00 break, I went to the Starbucks directly below my office and had to stop the barista from making my usual grande iced caramel macchiato with soy milk and tell them I’ve switched gears in light of the Autumn Pumpkin Spice Latte season.

On my way home, I stopped by my local Duane Reade and the cashier that checked me out knew me by my first name and asked me if my volleyball season had started yet.

The cherry on top of my day:  walking in my building being greeted by my favorite doorman that always tries to tell me a joke.  His accent is far too strong to understand the punchline, but each time I laugh anyway because he’s far too kind.

Some may find this kind of monotony rather boring.  Me?  This routine makes me feel more and more at home.  Who ever said New York didn’t have hospitality?

Leave New York Alone!

Did I really only blog once during the whole month of August???
September will be a better month, I promise!

I’m coming up on my two month anniversary of becoming a New Yorker, and I must say this city has the potential to swallow me whole.  What do I mean by that?  Well simply put, I can get lost in all this big city livin’ and forget there is a whole different world outside of the hustle and bustle of this island.  I hadn’t realized how much I’ve forgotten in the mere two months of my Manhattivity (my lame attempt to coin a new term…a fusion of Manhattan and captivity if I’m being too far advanced )  This past weekend I went to Baltimore for the Virgin Mobile FreeFest (an all day rock out with your cock out, orgasm in your eardrums, music event to say the least).  I came down from the city, and my best friend Matt and a bunch of his friends came up from North Carolina.  It was a great, refreshing weekend outside of the city noise.  It was particularly calming for me to deeply breathe in fresh air and open my eyes to see the color green instead of grey outside the window.  I mean, it was by no means the greenery and wilderness of southern soil but nevertheless soul soothing.  The weekend not only gave me the change of pace I needed, but I was also able to relieve my growing loneliness and refill my barren social cup (depressing, I know).  All this was the cherry on top of the unheard of excitement that….

I got to rock out with my all-time favorite band: Blink-182!!!  Such an amazing show, they were even better live if you can imagine that being possible.  Plus they were hilarious between songs – although I just realized this very moment that Travis never spoke one word.  Very typical, I suppose.  At any rate, those guys know how to put on a show and I hope they make a new album.

So while I was away from New York refilling my social cup, I started keeping a mental tally of how many people criticize my new home.  I was only away for two days and this mental tally was quickly becoming too hard to keep track of.  The way I see it is, there are only three different opinions of New York: 

1.) You are an ultimate tourist who loves to parade midtown claiming you know all about New York.  You swear by your most recent copy of zagat and carry it like a nun to her Bible.  You love it here, buttt…you don’t think can never live here.  Can’t take it for more than a week at a time.  Week-ling Weakling.

2.) You hate New York.  You don’t understand how people can enjoy living here, let alone visit such a place where peace and quiet is fairytale-esque and it is not uncommon to go from smelling pizza to urine to roasted nuts to trash in mere seconds.  Plus, why are people in such a hurry all the damn time?  Weak Sauce.

3.)  You absolutely adore New York.  Washington, DC who?  Hell, NEW YORK CITY was and always will be the capital of America.  If you don’t live here [yet] you can picture yourself strutting down the city sidewalks like you own this town.  If you do live here, you continue your strut.  If you were born and raised here, hell…you probably do own this town.  Or at least you know someone with a key to the city.  You think ‘Holy shit, I really live in the best city on earth’ at least once a day, everyday (especially if you’re a transplant).  This is me. 

 I couldn’t believe the profound consensus of people at the FreeFest that comprised of opinion #2.  You’re probably thinking how could I possibly know everyone’s opinion.  So let me illustrate…at the concert (like many concerts), there was a jumbotron that people can send text messages for everyone to view.  Some of the messages and audience reaction are as follows:

Jumbotron text #1:  “Go Yankees!!!”
Audience reaction:  “Boo!!!!”

Jumbotron text #2:  “NY Giants Represent!”
Overwhelming audience reaction:  “BOO!!!”

At first, I thought that everyone just hated New York sport’s teams.  But then this appeared:

Jumbotron text #3:  212 in the house
Unbelieveably overwhelming audience reaction:  “BOOOOOO!”
…this next one from an extra colorful hater: ”F*** New York!”

What the hell…New York didn’t do anything but be.  Sure, New York has its issues (high prices for one, which is my fav to complain about…that’s another story) but you don’t ever hear people with such a strong distaste for any other city but NYC.  What did New York ever do to you?  I can’t fathom why so many people outside of this general tri-state area feel this way.  I have no theory.  I suppose all the pride the other side of the fence carries for this beautiful city makes up for the animosity.  Because if you’re from New York, boy are you proud to share it.  And why shouldn’t you be?  Afterall, what other place of residence can accomodate 40 million annual unique visitors and allow these visitors over 100 million keepsake photos a year?  I didn’t think so…

Although I have no answer, I do have a few parting words.  So I tell you, all you NYC haters out there, to LEAVE NEW YORK ALONE!  This city deserves some level of dignity for undoubtedly being the face of the U.S.  I’m not telling you to love the city.  But c’mon, show some respect.