you are so lucky

another post! already! let's have a recap then:

Friday after work I met Will at the ShakeShack aka the most glorious hamburger stand in the land and had a lovely post-work week dinner. It was a little chilly out but at least this time I was smart enough to wear jeans so the mosquitos could not get to my legs... again. After that we went for some celebratory drinks and then on the way home, waited 30 mins for a single downtown 1/2/3 train to appear whilst four uptown trains went by on the other track.

Saturday there was an arts festival in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, which I had never really been around before (except to go to the ice cream factory). So after brunch in Brooklyn Heights, we headed to the waterfront Fulton Ferry landing area to check out the exhibits and galleries. Witness the weirdness:

glorious friday

I'm kind of confused as to why the subway is always deserted on Fridays. I mean, do most people not have to go to work on Friday? The rest of the week I have to smoosh on the train and stand for pretty much the whole ride, but Friday is like a magical breath of fresh air. Or maybe people sleep in on Fridays? Can that be my schedule?

Last night there was a little publishing people get together after work (happy hour, woohoo) and I got to meet a lot of nice young professionals. Aw. Usually I'm pretty quiet and somewhat awkward in social situations where I know one, maybe two people. I tend to cling to them and not volunteer stories much. So I brought along a friend (who happens to be a fellow Ohioan) but she had to leave early. Not to worry though! I soon discovered what I should have already known: publishing people are totally chill. We talked about *gasp* what books we are reading and what our guilty pleasures were in high school (again, in terms of books.. duh). So despite being at a table of people I had pretty much never met before, I was quite at ease.

Ah, books. What do you call an object/idea/something you are intimately familiar with that always makes you comfortable? Like if I were a ship captain, books would be my helm. If I were a tech person, books would be my computer. If I were a graphic designer, books would be my inDesign... and so on. Just walking into a bookstore restores in me a sense of calm and also excitement. It it called a bedrock? Is that the word I'm looking for? My brain must be too crowded with thoughts of anticipation for the weekend to present this answer.

promise

I've been procrastinating on updating this thing because I've been telling myself that I need to figure out what I'm doing here. Should I just keep randomly updating about my life? Should I pick a theme for the posts (book reviews, food porn, etc) and try to stick with it?

But now I think that was really just me be lazy and you know what, I'm just going to post whatever I feel like posting (for real, not like once every three weeks). What you have missed in the meantime: Rosa came to visit (from Texas!). She is the mouse in this picture.
Then Cheng and friends came to visit (from Ohio... duh).
Plus Angela and friends came to visit for her bday. So basically the last days of my summer were filled with wonderful visitations but alas, that means I was too lazy to take any pictures for myself which means I haven't got any more evidence of recent shenanigans. Not that I've been up to much... just work, laundry, and catching up on TV watching.

Which, btw, is pretty exciting. I mean the Gossip Girl kids are at NYU making me all nostalgic (except when they make things up like ROOFTOP DRINKING PARTIES and then I just get angry). Mad Men is beautifully written (as usual) and yet still shocking (lawnmower in the office + drinking = bad things). SYTYCD is back and I can't wait for the 30 Rock premiere, especially since I saw them filming an awesome looking episode outside my office building recently.

And yes exciting things are happening in publishing too (though not, I should note, in movies. I can't remember the last time I saw a really good contemporary movie). No I haven't gotten myself a copy of The Lost Symbol and no, it's not even on my reading list. I did spend a good deal of time at The Strand the other day and found some cool East Asian books to add to that list, however. Now I just have to get my butt over to the library to request them.

Lastly, in terms of food the most recent new restaurant I have tried was the Hand Pulled Noodle place on Doyer St. Beijing niu rou mian it was not, so needless to say my undying craving for that 6 kuai bowl of noodles/beef/veggies/quail eggs has not been fulfilled. But for only 5 bucks it was definitely satisfying.

I'm not going to leave off by revealing my weekend plans because then I will be forced to blog about them at a later date, instead of waiting till next week to recap. Hah. Let's see if I can outwit my own laziness-ness.

i heart office supplies

I'm not ashamed. I do. I heart post-it notes, and paperclips, and files, and of course pens. They are all awesome bc being organized is awesome. At least that is how I feel at the end of this first work week, when I'm still figuring out where everything is and what everything is. My desk is pretty much good to go, but I'm going to start tackling the other offices next week. That's right, on my watch there will be no such thing as a missing or disappearing folder. Big dreams, I know.

I'd just like to say that Rockefeller Center is pretty frickin cool. I've been wandering around the concourse, which is this underground maze of stores and shops connecting all the buildings in the complex so that one theoretically never has to step outside during the workday. You just go straight from the subway to the deli and into your building without ever seeing the light of day. This is nice now because it's 5 million degrees out, and I suspect I will appreciate it even more in the winter when I don't have to trudge through any sludge and worry about ruining my boots.

Also the shops pretty much run the gamut... There's Subway and Dunkin, of course, plus Starbucks and the necessary Chinese and Japanese places. They've got all the major food place covered (including Burger King for some reason) and Duane Reade and even a place to shine your shoes! I saw a bunch of business men sitting there and I had a serious Mad Men moment. Or is shoe shining still cool now?

Anywho, looking forward to next week for several reasons, one of them being I'll get my first real paycheck (sorry past part-time jobs, you don't count). I'm also a little nervous bc I'll officially be on my own to figure things out at the office, but I think since my colleagues have been so nice and helpful so far, I'll be ok. Fingers crossed.

you can't stop the heat

I'm sorry, but August is a worthless month in terms of weather. I have modified my schedule so that I now take two showers a day: one in the morning to wake up for work, and one when I get home bc I'm all sweaty from my walk back from the subway. Sorry impending water shortage, mother nature is making it impossible for me to care at this point.

Work is going well... I can't believe the week is almost over and then I will be officially on my own to run things! I guess the one good thing about August in this case is that it's a slow month for the industry, so I suspect I'll be eased gently into my position. Already I feel pretty official about it--I mean I have a spiffy photo ID now, that I keep in the same place as my unlimited metrocard. If that doesn't spell working woman, I don't know what does.

Not having a TV means that I have to find other ways to amuse myself when I do get home in the evening. Tonight: ironing and cooking for lunches. Excitinggggg I know. And I go to bed really early now. Though I still get more sleep than the UPS guy, cuz apparently he goes to bed at 11 and gets up at 5. In the AM! And I thought 7:30 was bad.

Next week Beijing Friend Rosa comes to visit!

Beautiful Day

It was in the 70's and partly sunny. Nice weather to reflect my nice mood. New York, I re-love you. I once was bitter but now am satisfied, was terrified but now I'm calm.

So 10 interviews and 3 months of searching, pulling out my hair, having near-heartattacks, and eating lots of icecream to stave off depression, I finally have a job offer! And I have accepted, and start work a week from Monday. Calloo callay! It happens to be perfect timing to go home for a week, too, so that's an extra added bonus. Basically, everything is falling nicely into place... finally.

After a wonderful day of walking around in the city, celebrating with margaritas, an arepa, and a Chickalicious cupcake, I'm now watching SYTYCD with J. You'd think it couldn't get much better, but actually tomorrow I'm going to meet up with China friends in Chinatown for (a Chinese) lunch :) And the day after that, Cheng and his mom come to visit. We're hoping to make another Brighton Beach run (and therefore hopefully eat some more vareniki).

I realize I've been very terrible the last couple months on keeping this thing updated, so I promise to do better now that I have good things to say. Now, off to enjoy the summer's last dose of Cat Deeley!

Weekend in Brooklyn

This is what I have consumed this weekend:

1 platter of 2 pupusas from the flea market red hook vendors (pupusa = fried tortilla stuffed with cheese/beans/meat and covered in homemade slaw and sauce)

1 mini marble scoop of blackberry icecream

cereal with fresh strawberries

1 iced coffee from ozzie's

1 frozen chocolate covered banana from louie g's

1 bread thing with artichokes, onions, eggplant, and goat cheese from grand army green market

Also this weekend we attended free first Saturday at the Brooklyn museum and caught the end of this cool concert thing outside the Brooklyn library. Also went shopping in Park Slope. What I didn't do was go to brunch or check out the botanic gardens... these things will have to wait for next week, when my lovely guests from Ohio arrive :) I just hope the super finally shows up to make the repairs on our apt by then... grrrr....