Grand Gestures

Since Victoria just moved here and her boyfriend Ian is still in California, it was time for a grand romantic gesture. I was recruited to help with the project. The project was to go to a bunch of iconic New York locations and Victoria would scream out loud how much she loves Ian. So cute. Sadly, the weather just did not cooperate. It was raining like crazy! So this turned into a grand gesture of friendship on my part :-)

We began our rainy walking tour of New York in Central Park at Belvedere Castle.

Our next stop was The Plaza Hotel:

This very bright sculpture was near The Plaza:

Next up was Radio City Music Hall:
Then Rockefeller Center:
The ice skating rink was more like a lake with all the rain:
Our last stop was the Empire State Building, but on our way the street was blocked off. Turns out someone had jumped from the building, so it was closed and the entire area was blocked off.
So the Empire State Building will have to wait for another day. Victoria took me to dinner at a restaurant called Brendan's Bar and Grill. It was yummy, but a weird place. The entire front area was a bar and everyone was watching hockey, then we ended up at a table around the back. Everything was so close together it felt like Victoria and I were on the dates of the people around us. Good food though. All in all it was a very wet day and we got totally soaked, but it was fun and the end product turned out cute.

Spring Break!

I am now on the last (hopefully) spring break I will ever have! Sadly, the weather is freakishly cold. Seriously, it is 38 degrees outside. Boo. I want the spring weather back!

Last Sunday, we were going to have a BBQ, but we ended up postponing it. I was hoping it would happen this weekend, but it is too damn cold. We did, however, end up going to the Brooklyn Flea Market. We began by eating some super yummy food.

This is an Asian-inspired hotdog. It was a chicken hotdog with cucumber, mango and peanuts in a yummy slightly spicy sauce on top. Sooooo good. Claire and I are going to try and recreate these at home.

Victoria got a ham and cheese grilled sandwich and a Mexican coke. She was beyond excited about the coke!

Claire got the same hotdog that I did. Sorry for the funny picture Claire! Its the only one I had!

The flea market was held inside. I think it was the last weekend of being inside and from now on it will be outside. The building it was held in was really cool though. It had amazing mosaics on the ceiling.

Victoria grabbed a brochure that explained the history of the building. Apparently you can rent the space for weddings. I think it would be an incredible venue!

Getting through the last few days of school before break was hard. Thursday night at 6pm when I was finally done, I was so relieved. However, I have a huge to-do list! Just because it is spring (passover) break, doesn't mean it was the end of the semester. I have a huge paper to work on. I really need to get a good chunk of it done and finish all the research because the week after break I have to do a presentation to the class on my paper. Not looking forward to that! The good thing about this paper is that it is about fashion! My paper is on the cultural appropriation of the word "couture" that is legally protected in France but is casually thrown around everywhere else. I get to read fun books about the history of fashion as part of my research.

Last night I hung out with Claire and Charlie and their friends. Claire made these great chicken adobo sandwiches, Charlie made steak and cheese sandwiches, and I made banana cream pie with a nilla wafer crust and a layer of chocolate. All in all it was a fun night.

I woke up at 7:30 this morning and should have just gotten up but I decided to go back to sleep. I then woke up at 12:30 this afternoon with a headache from sleeping too long. I've just been hanging around today catching up on some tv on Hulu. Now it is time to get some things done and be productive!

First Weekend of Spring!

It has been absolutely beautiful here for the past few days! Because of this, a lot of fun new things have happened.

First, unrelated to the weather, Victoria moved to NYC! She has been staying with me for a few days while she is trying to find an apartment. It has been great having her here and getting to hang out. I've gone to look at a few apartments with her and it has been interesting to get a feel for some of the different areas of Manhattan. Finding an apartment is a pain in the ass though, so I'm grateful for where I live. I keep telling Claire that I am never leaving! :-)

On Friday, Claire suggested that we go have a picnic in the park since the weather was so nice. Prospect Park is actually really close to where we live so we were able to just walk there. We wandered around in the park for awhile looking for a good spot to set up our picnic. We ended up sitting on a hillside under a tree. Claire packed a great picnic with french bread, cheese, grapes, bananas, and cream cheese. It was a wonderful afternoon! The weather was absolutely beautiful, although the wind got a little chilly, there were a lot of people out so we got to people watch, and it was just a glorious afternoon.

On our way back to the apartment we walked through the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of Brooklyn. It is a really cute quaint area. We stopped and got ice cream on our walk back. Birthday cake ice cream is super yummy!

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day. I tried to get some reading done for class and Victoria went apartment hunting. We weren't really planning on doing anything exciting but at about 9pm Claire came in to invite us out to a bar in the LES. Claire hardly ever goes out and it took a little convincing but Victoria and I decided to go. We went out with Claire and Charlie and met up with a bunch of their friends. Charlie's friend is a bartender at the bar we went to, so we were able to get in for a discounted cover charge. It was an interesting place. They made a really good drink that was vodka apple cider with actual chunks of apple in it. Claire, Victoria, and I danced for awhile to some interesting music. It was not your typical club-scene music. It was "middle-eastern-inspired electronic" according to Victoria :-) We had fun dancing. We ended up leaving a little before 2am. All in all it was a fun night.

Today we are planning to go to the Brooklyn flea market in a little bit. This evening Charlie is throwing a BBQ and invited a bunch of people. I'm really looking forward to that. At some point though, I need to squeeze some reading time in. Luckily I don't have class until 6pm on Monday so I can finish that reading assignment tomorrow if I can't do it today.

Meet Up!

Claire found this great website called Meetup.com. It is full of groups of people that do all types of things around the city. I'm assuming it works in other cities across the US. I joined 3 groups. First is a group of women in their 20's and 30's who get together to hang out with the goal of making new friends. The next group I joined is all about exploring everything NYC has to offer. I'm waiting to see what the upcoming events are for these groups.

The group I'm most excited about is one that Claire and I both joined. It is a classic film group. The group gets together a few times a month to watch a classic movie and then discuss it. It is like book club for classic movies. Claire and I have RSVP'd to see Easter Parade in a few weeks and Sunset Boulevard about a week after that. So excited! I think it will be a great chance to meet people who like what I like.

Emily Violet Thompson

One of the best things about going to Oregon last weekend was that I got to meet my cousin Linzie's baby for the first time. Emily Violet, or Evy, was born a few days after I moved to New York. I consider myself to be her aunt and she is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen!

Isn't she adorable?!

*By the way, I hate hearing my voice recorded! I need to remember that for future videos!

My Big Brother Got Married!

I went back to Oregon for my brother Brian's wedding last weekend and I'm so glad I did! It was a really long flight both ways and I was only in Oregon for about 45 hours but it was totally worth it.

The wedding was at the World Trade Center in downtown Portland. It was the Sky Bridge Terrace and absolutely beautiful. Seriously, the rest of my siblings and I are going to just have to get married at the courthouse because we will never even come close to something like this.

The sun was still out when we got there and went down as guests came and the ceremony started.

The view from the terrace
Table settings
Julia, Eric, and Dan before the ceremony started
Me and my grandparents
My dad and stepmom
The happy couple! Brian and my new sister-in-law Aubrey
Kelly and Dan
Julia and Eric
The food was incredible! The champagne for toasts was delicious and I don't normally even like champagne. I was pretty tired by the end of the night so I didn't do much dancing but it was fun dancing with my grandfather. He really let loose! Aubrey was in a sorority in college and she and her sorority sisters did some dance and song circled around Brian that was pretty cute. All in all it was a great night!