The New Years Resolution

I guess it is now an appropriate time to share with you all what my New Years resolution was. Since I'm living in this wonderful new city with no shortage of things to do, I resolved to do one new NYC thing per week. This way I'm "forced" to get out and do new things and explore this awesome place and it will give me something to write about each week :-)

For my first full week in the apartment, my new things consisted of starting my new classes (most of which I really like), meeting people at school, learning to take the subway (actually going pretty well), and trying to figure out where things are (thank god for the iphone). Some highlights of my public transportation experience have been: a mariachi band performing in the subway car while it was moving, a woman on the bus preaching at me about god and religion, and a really gorgeous guy (seriously male model material) sitting across from me who I will probably never see again. Its a weird experience seeing so many people every day and knowing that I will never encounter them again.

My plan for this week's new thing is to go see an exhibit at the Pratt Manhattan Museum about green fashion. Its .4 miles from school so I'm planning to go see it before my 1 class on Wednesday evening. Best of all, its free!

Last night ended up being pretty fun as well. Most of the day was spent relaxing, except for a long experience trying to go to Target to get the final things I needed for my place. In the evening though, I hung out with Claire, her boyfriend, and his friends. Her boyfriend Charlie lives across the hall from us. He was going to have a boys night out with his friends so they were all at his place hanging out before going to the bar (people don't even leave for the bar until 11:30 around here because last call is at 4am!). Claire and I went over to hang out and have some wine with them for awhile. It was Charlie, his friend Lenny who I had already met, and his friends Dave and Ian who I had not met. It was great to meet some new people and hang out. I feel like we all got along really well and I immediately felt comfortable around all of them. Once they were ready to leave, Claire and I headed back to our side of the hall and ended up staying up talking until 1:30 in the morning. It was a great night. I really like living here!

Claire has 2 cats. Pepper is a 7 month old black kitty and he is so sweet. He'll pretty much let you do anything to him! He had a bath today though and it was too difficult to get a picture because he wouldn't hold still. This is Sparrow. She moved in the same day I did. She is 10 months old, but still so tiny!! We've become pretty good friends :-)

The Apartment

I promised pictures of where I am living, so here they are.

The apartment in general:

Close-up on the mural that Claire painted in the hallway:

These are from when I moved in:

These are after I've unpacked and started to decorate. There is still a way to go, but its feeling pretty homey now:

The desk was a grand total of $20 at Ikea. Gotta love that place.

This is the view out of one of my bedroom windows. Its so nice not to be on the street side of the building!

I still have some pictures to buy frames for and then I'll hang them. I'm also keeping my eyes open for a new rug. Claire is planning to paint the radiator bright red as a contrast. Claire and I were also thinking about doing something like this to the wall above my headboard. This is done with puzzle pieces painted gold. I'm thinking puzzle pieces painted silver would look nice with the paint color in my room.

Waiting for Class to Begin and a Quick Update

I'm waiting for my first class of the day to start so I thought I would post a quick update of what I've been up to.

I'm pretty much unpacked in my place, but I still need to get hangers to put the rest of my clothes away. Claire and I have been getting along great. I haven't really had a chance to explore Brooklyn yet, but its definitely something I hope to do this weekend.

Tuesday was a REALLY REALLY long day! I added Biotech & Pharmaceutical Patents last minute so I had a 9am class on Tuesday. I'm very happy I added the class though because it is really interesting material and the 2 professors are adjuncts who are partners in law firms around here. They will be good contacts and said they would help us with anything, including employment stuff. After that, I had a long break until 2:30. I spent a fair amount of time in the library trying to finish the 120 pages of reading that I had for my 4pm class. Then I went to the cafeteria and totally felt like the new student in the middle school cafeteria. Everyone was really absorbed in their groups so I sat by myself just surfing the internet. Oh well. At 2:30 I had Cyberlaw. The professor seems to be great and this class will also be really interesting.

After Cyberlaw I went to Antitrust. I'm less excited about this class and thinking about dropping it. The professor is somewhat intimidating and he assigns a ton of reading. I'm currently signed up for 16 credits, including antitrust, which is the maximum amount of credits I'm allowed to take. Unfortunately at the end of class, he called out a few names (mine included) and asked if we would be in class on Monday. That means we are on call for the readings. I didn't want to tell him that I was thinking of dropping it, so I said I would be there on Monday and prepared to discuss the reading. Luckily I have until Tuesday night to drop a class, so I'll give it 1 more chance on Monday and then drop it if I don't like it.

After all of that, I still had International Copyright at 6pm on Tuesday. The professor is pretty interesting and entertaining, but the reading assignments look like they'll be pretty boring. Just reading statutes and very few cases. I finally got to leave school at 8pm. I left my house at 7:45am and didn't get home until 9pm. Super long day! I rewarded myself with Thai takeout, which made everything a little better.

Yesterday was pretty good. I got into 2 classes that I had been waitlisted for. Yesterday I only had one class, IP Business Transactions. Its going to be a great class but the professor was really boring and repetitive. He kept saying the same things over and over, particularly things he would start to say and then say, "but more on that later." The class will be good though because it covers exactly what I want to do in practice.

Class is about to start, so I'll cut this off now. I promise to post pictures of my room and the cats this weekend!

I stayed the first night in my new place last night. It went really well. My roommate Claire and I hung out then we got pizza with Charlie the neighbor. My first New York pizza was incredible!!! We also watched The Men Who Stare at Goats. It was totally bizarre but really funny.

My boxes are being delivered today so I can finish unpacking. Tomorrow I am planning to make an Ikea trip and get a table top for 2 sawhorses that Claire had so I can make a cheap desk. I also need to get some groceries.

I really think this will work out well. Anyway, just a quick update today but here are the pictures I have taken so far. Sorry about the quality, my camera died right away so these are from my phone.

Times Square during the day:

Ferris wheel inside a huge Toys 'R Us in Times Square

This is the Apple Store entrance. The actual store is down a glass elevator or glass spiral staircase.

Phantom of the Opera was amazing!!!

Dad wanted some wine but could only bring it in the theater in this sippy cup

My first New York cheesecake. The best cheesecake I've ever had!

We saw the Guggenheim but only 2 small sections were open. I'll have to go back sometime.

Quick Update

First full day in NYC:

Its been a big day! We started with a quick breakfast at Starbucks, then took a cab to the new apartment. The cab driver went past Ground Zero. The memorial they are building looks like it is going to be beautiful. I finally met Claire and saw the apartment. Its going to be perfect! After that, we took the subway to the school. Trying to find the subway station was a little complicated but its not far from my apartment. The ride to school went pretty quick. I can totally do it every day. We just looked around the ground floor of the school, so I don't really have a good feel for it yet.

After that, we went to Times Square... again on the subway with a slight complication. Its a little confusing trying to figure out which way we are trying to go while completely disoriented. Times Square was really cool. I took this video. Hopefully this works!

From Times Square we wanted to see FAO Schwartz and the big piano. Turns out the Apple Store was right next door. We ducked in there so I could get new headphones since mine broke on the plane. There was a neat glass entrance on the street level then a spiral staircase or glass elevator down to the store. It was so crowded! Then we stopped in FAO Schwartz. The piano was cool but there were people on it so we didn't get a chance to try it. After that, we decided to walk along the edge of Central Park. I definitely need to come back when it is warmer and I can enjoy it!

We eventually got cold and took a cab back to the hotel. We ate at the T.G.I. Fridays across from the hotel then wandered around Penn Station.

Tomorrow I have orientation for school from 10-3. Then we are planning to go to dinner and go see a show. We are hoping to get tickets to Phantom of the Opera. I'm crossing my fingers!!! If not, we are going to see Wicked. I'd love to see either of them so I'm really excited!

Final Days In Oregon

I'm moving tomorrow morning!!!!!!

The past week has been a total whirlwind. I was staying at Laura's apartment while she was out of town in order to get Kitten all settled. When Laura came home I went to stay at my parents' apartment. It was a tight squeeze but worked out nicely. I had about a million things to do including closing 1 bank account and opening a new one at a different bank. You would think that a bank called "US Bank" would have locations in New York. Last time I checked New York was one of the states in the US :-) The people who helped me close my account were great and actually said they would watch to see when my final check cleared and would close my account so that I didn't have to wait a few days and remember to call and close it.

There was also a whole extravaganza with my deposit check. I sent it to my new roommate overnight mail but it didn't show up for 3 days! She needed it by the 10th so she could pay rent and every day the mail would come but the check wouldn't. It got to the point where I almost wired her the money but it is ridiculously expensive to wire money. Luckily it showed up on Friday!

Thursday afternoon I went to visit Julia at OSU. She just moved into Bloss so I helped her start to decorate. Then she took me to dinner. Although dorm food is notoriously bad, there is a stirfry bar in one of the dining centers that I used to eat at all the time when I was in college, so we ate there. So yummy!

Friday afternoon I went to Portland with Jason. We stopped off in Tigard to see Megan and her adorable daughter Lizzy. I hadn't seen Megan since Lizzy was born so it was great to see them! After that I dropped Jason off at Clint's house and went to Vancouver to hang out with Linzie. Since Linzie is 9 months pregnant I took her to get a pedicure and then we went for dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory. I love that place but sadly there is not one in New York :-(

After hanging with Linzie I headed back to Clint's and ended up going to the Cheesecake Factory with Clint, Jason, and Emily. It was so great to be back with the high school group! We then went back to Clint's house and hung out then went to bed at about 3am.

Saturday we slept in then Clint made us all breakfast. So nice! Then we decided to go to the Chinese Gardens in downtown Portland. It was free in honor of their 10th anniversary. That place is beautiful! Then we decided to get Panda Express (since we were in a Chinese food mood after the gardens). After that, Jason and I had to head back to Eugene so I could get some sleep before the big day Sunday would be. I took a bunch of pictures over the weekend but just realized that I shipped my camera cords so I can't post them right now.

On Sunday I helped my parents move into their new house. It is beautiful!!! I'll try to take a video to post later. Moving took a long time but everything was in the house by about 3pm and then Lauren, Austin, Julia, and Eric came by to help unpack. After unpacking what seemed like a million boxes we decided to go get some Mexican food for dinner at a restaurant down the street from the new house. Moving is an exhausting experience! This is the view from their backyard.

Today I went to the eye doctor to get a new prescription. I just got new lenses for the glasses I already had since I love them but I also decided to spend the money and get prescription sunglasses as well. I think they are pretty cute... much cuter than putting on my big non-prescription sunglasses over my regular glasses :-)

After the eye doctor I went to pick up Sara at the airport. I'm so happy she decided to come home early so I could see her again before I leave!

Then I went to ship my boxes. I ended up with 5 boxes that I needed to ship. I compared shipping costs and FedEx was significantly cheaper than UPS. Turns out I had completely misjudged how heavy my boxes were. I was expecting the cost to be about $300. Luckily I was wrong and it only cost $200!

Tonight is my going away dinner at Red Robin. It sounds like about 10-12 people are coming. I'm really excited!

Then I fly out with my parents at 8am tomorrow!!!

Excellent News!

I sold my car and found a place to live in Brooklyn!

The car sale went well. It all happened yesterday. This guy emailed me to see it. He had just moved to Eugene that morning. He came over in a rental car and checked out my car. He wanted to take it to a mechanic so he called one and set something up and he drove both of us out to the mechanic. The mechanic wasn't there and his "shop" was in 2 mini storage units and was totally sketchy. Since this guy had just moved to Eugene he had a million things to do and decided that he was comfortable buying the car without getting it checked out. I was asking $9800 and we agreed on $9300 so it worked out nicely. Sadly the bank was closed by the time we were done so I'll deposit the money tomorrow.

Pretty much immediately after finishing with the car I had to call this girl Claire with the great apartment in Brooklyn. We talked for about half an hour and got along great! She and I agreed that I would move in! She is a jewelry designer and starting her own business doing that out of the apartment. She said all her design stuff is kept in her room. The apartment is beautiful and the room is huge! I get to rent it furnished so that is even better. The only tiny downside is that it is a 4th floor walk up, but I'm choosing to look at that as built in exercise and a good thing.

After all of that my dad and I went out for dinner at Mekelas to celebrate. So yummy! Julia went back to college today so we all went out for breakfast at Original Pancake House. It is my friend Jason's birthday today so we are going to see Sherlock Holmes tonight. I'm so happy to finally be able to relax and enjoy my break now that all the major things are done and out of the way!

Happy New Year!

2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year already! I move in 12 short days! I already moved out of my little house. I'm crashing at Laura's for a few days and getting Kitten all settled in. When Laura gets back from the east coast, I'll be staying with the parents.

Potentially good news on the housing front. The really great place in Brooklyn (that someone was coming to see today) is still available. The girl who lives there said the person who came to see it isn't going to work out. We are going to chat on the phone tomorrow and if that goes well the place is mine! The best part is that it is totally furnished so everything will be a little easier.

New Years Eve was fun. Eric and I have wanted to have a movie marathon for the past 2.5 years He had never seen Breakfast at Tiffanys (the greatest movie ever!) and I hadn't seen any of the Terminator movies. We decided to keep NYE relaxed so he brought some sparkling wine and fancy cheese and we ordered pizza and settled in to watch 4 movies: Terminator, Breakfast at Tiffanys, Terminator 2, and The Fast and the Furious. We also watched the ball drop in Times Square. It is crazy to think that I could actually be there next year!

Today I went to my parents' place to watch the Duck game. Although a sad result, the game was really exciting. Ohio State just outplayed us. So many people on the team are returning that next year should be great!

After the game, my dad took me out to see the new house. It looks incredible! I had seen photos but couldn't really imagine the layout and all the details. It is seriously amazing. I'm excited to get to stay there a few nights before we fly out to New Yrok.

A quick goodbye to my little house. House, you were so good to me for the past 2.5 years! I will miss you but not the spiders!