Pilates and Burritos

Does it cancel out the good if you eat a burrito right after a Pilates class? I hope not!

I get in such a health conscious mood when the weather turns nice -- like it's been doing lately! The sunshine and warm days inspire me to exercise and eat healthier and drink lots of smoothies!! (I still enjoy a good ol Salted Caramel Cupcake though...)

Today I tried Pilates for the first time ever. My friend Summer, a server at Hill Country, teaches Pilates and set it up so that  HCers could go in once a week for a group class. Today was the first one and even though only 3 of us were there, I think it was very successful! 

It was a small enough group that we could still get one-on-one attention from Summer which was great and we could all easily go out for Mexican afterwards :) 

The biggest difference I noticed between Pilates and many other forms of exercise is how much you have to focus on various muscles and body parts as you're working out. It will definitely take some getting used to, but I really enjoyed Pilates and hope to return in the next few Mondays!

Playing Catch-Up

Hello my friends!!

I know, I know, it's been too long. At first it was because nothing that interesting was happening (well except for a spray tan that left me darker than I've ever been in my life...) but don't worry, after nearly a month, I have plenty of fun happenings to report :)

I went home to Ohio for a week over Easter which was wonderful! Except for the part where I had a major cold... which quickly became laryngitis. Oh, then I had to get my wisdom teeth all removed :/ It's alright though, I'm just glad that I was home for all of that and could be taken care of by my sweet parents.

Ohio was filled with family events, church, ice cream dates with my sister, recovery, amazing home cooked meals, and a little thrift shopping. But I did, for the first time, actually miss the city and especially my friends here.

Back in New York, I jumped right back into work at Hill Country. Arriving on a Thursday afternoon (after many delays and what ended up being a 16-hour bus trip) and heading into work that night.

Last weekend I felt like I was living at HC. After working there 8 months I finally had my New Hire Orientation (a 3 1/2 hour event, it did include pastries from our sister restaurant so that made it worth it). It wouldn't have been so delayed except the last orientation was scheduled on the same day Hurricane Sandy rolled into town...

I'd taken my laptop into Manhattan and got to relax at the wonderful Birch Coffee, a new favorite spot of mine, between orientation and the time I actually went into work.

Friday morning, there was a semi-secret concert by Brad Paisley at HC. NashFM, the first country radio station in NYC has been hosting a few little events in our downstairs area and let me tell you, when I picked up the phone my first day back from Easter to hear a guest wanting to make reservations for after the Brad Paisley concert, I got pretty excited! I woke up early and headed into HC once again, and got to watch Mr. Paisley live and up close, playing for just a couple hundred people, packed into the club level of HC. What a great perk of my job, no?

I had another fun, cultural experience on Saturday. My friend Mindy is part of the company at Elisa Monte Dance which had their 32nd Anniversary Season Gala last weekend. After some schedule shuffling, Selina and I, as well as some other HCers who we saw there, were able to go out and support our girl! It was an awesome show.

I'd never been to a dance gala like that or seen much modern dance. I was in awe of the grace and synchronization of the dancers as well as the abilities and endurance of a well-trained human body.  My dance repertoire is mostly fun and I hadn't experienced pieces that held so much emotion and stirred up feelings like these did.

My latest new experience was last night -- I went to my first Broadway show!! My high school always has a senior trip to NYC (I didn't actually go on the trip my senior year, having gone to France the summer before and not having the money for both. Oh well, I thought, NYC is close enough to Ohio, I know I'll make it there someday... Little did I know that 3 years later I'd be living here!) and lucky for me, one of the chaperons is not a fan of the Broadway show part of the trip, and gave me his ticket! Yay!

Yesterday morning I found out there were two tickets up for grabs if I could find a friend who wanted to join me, so I called on Samantha who also had never been to a Broadway show! I have to admit I was a little skeptical of seeing Spider-Man: Turn Out the Lights on Broadway... I mean, it's action-packed Spider-Man! And what, now he's gonna sing? But it was great! It took me a bit to get into it but by the end I was loving and very impressed with the stunts and special effects. They stayed true to the comic book nature of the story as well as bringing in the musicality and choreography of Broadway.

It was a nice night (loving this warm, spring weather!!) and we kept it true to New York form. Grabbing dessert at Roxy Delicatessen in Times Square before hitting up the Broadway show then finishing the night by meeting up with Selina for supper (at 11 o'clock at night... we run on a different time schedule than most) in Koreatown.

I hope your last few weeks have been just as delightfully eventful as mine! And I'll really try to do better at consistency... TTFN :)

Guide to Letting Go

I'm sad about my time at WeSell ending, but not bitter or hurt. I understand the reasoning and am still hopeful for a position there in the future. I'm very thankful for the opportunity, the friends I made and all of the skills and knowledge I acquired there.

That being said, after I left my internship for the last time yesterday, I headed to Hill Country where I was surrounded with comforting, supportive friends. I decided to let myself be sad last night but really my night was pretty great.

Here is how I let go last night:

What Next?

Well, my internship is not turning into a job. Pretty disappointing but due only to money, not to me or my skills.

Guess this means it's time for a new adventure :) Where or what that will be is still to be determined, in the meantime I'll be picking up a lot of hours at HC and am open to suggestions.

I'm very sad to be leaving behind such a great group of people but, as always, excited for the new possibilities that are opened up and the new adventures to be had.

Source: amazon.com via Ashley on Pinterest

Things I'm Thankful For

Sometimes it's easy to just look at the negatives (like that I'm going to be working about 60 hours a week for the rest of the month or that my space heater is trying to kill me or that I lost 2 $30 MetroCards over the weekend...) and it's times like these where I just have to enjoy the little things that make me happy. So I thought I'd make a quick list of some New York-specific things that have happened in the last couple days that have made me happy.

1. The super/man (hehe he's not Superman, he's a man who's the super of a building I walk by on my way to the subway) who's usually sitting outside his building and says hello and tells me I work too much and that I need to take some time to have fun because life is too short to work all the time!
2. Getting a computer right away at the library THEN getting my tickets printed no problem AND finding books I actually want to read! (Going to the library has always caused me problems here...)
3. Being asked by another graphic designer if I'd just redesigned the header on a website at my internship because it looked really cool! (Check it out if you like and if the background is just black, refresh it)
4. All week the D train has arrived at my 34th street station right as I was getting there and I was able to get on it right away!
5. My new phone. My first smart phone (I'm finally in the 21st century!) which I probably would not have felt the need to get if I weren't living in New York.
6. That I live in a house with some cool people who go into action when they hear the carbon monoxide detector going off in my apartment instead of a) not knowing what it was or b) ignoring it and waiting for me to get home and deal with it.
7. The awesome people I work with at Hill Country who notice that I haven't been around much and tell me they've really missed me.
8. Having entertainment during my commute on the subway - usually awesome breakdancers. Tonight a troop of 4 brothers, the oldest about my age and the youngest probably 8? They were done after performing for the car I was in, then they just turned on their music and were flipping and jumping off the doors and twisting around the poles just for fun and it was so fun to watch. Those guys are so talented! Much respect for breakdancers.

Those are just a few things off the top of my head, but those are the things I need to remember. Being thankful for the little things isn't something that should be reserved for Thanksgiving, it should happen everyday.

From the Greyhound

Hey all!

(*****Sorry that it's been soooo long since I've posted, I wrote this Thursday night but Blogger wasn't working so I'm just now actually getting to publish it :( Lots has happened since this that I may write about later, but I wanted to share these adventures*****)

Thanks to modern technology I am writing this post using the free wifi on a Greyhound bus! Yep, I'm on a Greyhound headed home for the weekend for some family stuff.

I probably don't need to tell you that I've been busy, but I will apologize for not posting recently (and missing another Mug Monday...) There's just been a lot on my mind and a lot going on. But right now I've got 13 hours on the road and wifi so what better to do than write a blog post :)

It snowed for the first time yesterday! Which was really pretty exciting. I don't like winter much at all but I do enjoy some snow.

It was rainy-snowy when I was walking to WeSell, then it came down in big, beautiful flakes that we watched out the windows. Joe from Jamaica was all excited because it was only the second time he'd seen snow. Of course from what I hear, snow in New York is pretty for about 5 minutes before it turns black and gross. So that's unfortunate.

The walk home was not so fun then. I don't have a pair of boots (for rain or snow) and I was wearing about the worst shoes I could be for walking through snow: a pair of flat that rain tends to soak through the bottom of. And by the time I was going home there was a good inch and a half-two inches of snow on the ground! And it was still coming down, blowing right in my face as I walked the third of a mile home. Uphill. In wet shoes. Hehe, just trying to sound like one of "those people," that is all true though...

It was strange also because the trees still have most of their leaves. So here's these trees looking like summer or fall and then branches hanging cause they're extra weighted down by snow!

Today I went in to WeSell, taking my suitcase and carry-on with me, and worked a pretty regular day. Afterwards I had some strange experiences, strange as in my life is always an adventure!

I went to Hill Country to buy some Salted Caramel Cupcakes because I talk about them all the time to my family and I want them to get to try them! (Shhhh they don't know that I'm bringing them...)

If we're being honest though, that's not the real reason I went into HC. I actually went in to get a haircut. No, seriously. One of the cashiers is actually a hair stylist by trade and I'd mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was wanted a haircut and he said he'd do it for free! So we'd been trying to work out a time and it was supposed to happen the last 3 days but something always came up or didn't work out right. I really wanted the haircut before I went home so he said to come in to HC and he'd do it real quick. So I went in and someone else covered the register and we snuck to this little room on the side where the dumpsters are kept and he gave me trim! Haha. Sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do!

After my haircut and saying hi and bye to all my friends there, I headed back uptown and stopped in at Cafe R for some supper (shrimp tempura sushi!) Then it was off to the bus station - Port Authority.

I'm pretty excited for my first big Greyhound adventure. Even though it's a 13 hour ride and I have a transfer that I'm a little nervous about, I have a "free spirit, travel loving, adventure seeking side" (in the words of Wendy) that makes me giddy for new experiences.

I got to the bus station and had no idea where I was going or what to do. I had to find the information area so that I could get my ticket (I had bought one but had no way of printing it...) I've done a lot of flying and am very comfortable in airports but this was a whole new ball game. The problem is that people can tell when you don't know where you're going and they jump on that.

I was looking at a map and a man came over asking where I was going and said to follow him and he'd get me there, he knew the whole place. I declined and he joked that I just didn't want to have to tip him, whatever that's supposed to mean... I then asked someone working at a kiosk there for help and they directed me to the Greyhound information center which I found easily and got my tickets printed, after a lady offered me her ticket that she wasn't using and was expiring today, all I had to do was pay the difference between her $65 ticket and what I told her my ticket would cost.

I searched my tickets for a gate number but no luck. I was standing outside the Greyhound check in area and debating if I should go downstairs and look around since I'd heard that's where I would check my luggage when a man in all black with a cap on his head and badge hanging from his neck walked over and asked if I knew where I was going. He then asked my age and if I had ID to prove that and explained that he was a cop and there's been a lot of runaways going through that station. I hesitantly showed him my ID and he said I was fine, and he's just making sure. Then he made sure I knew where I was going and advised me to get there quickly because there are a lot of bad guys hanging out up there on the lookout for girls who aren't from New York and don't know where they're going. Comforting.

Once I got to the gate there were no more issues, except the lady in front of me bumping me with her big old bum every time she stood up or sat down on the floor, which she felt the need to do every  time we moved up in line while waiting to start boarding.

I'm sooooo excited to be going home for a little bit. It will be wonderful to be with my family.

A Post with Lots of Pictures of Yummy Food

Sorry all! I know I've been really bad about posting lately. I worked 57 hours last week and had a lot of late nights which resulted in my time at home going towards cleaning or doing laundry or trying to plan out how I'm getting places for the holidays, rather than to writing blog posts. I even missed Mug Monday :/ I didn't get home from the office until around 11 and I'm pretty sure all I could do at that point was eat a Salted Caramel Cupcake I'd brought home from Hill Country over the weekend and called it good hehe.

Mmmm rich, gooey caramel

I had a good weekend, mostly just worked at Hill Country but I did go out for brunch on Friday with a friend from Resource. We went to a French Cafe that's pretty new and had some yummy frittatas.

Tea, bread, and frittata

It was really fun to catch up with her and see how things are going at Resource, as well as get a copy of the Fall issue which actually has my name in it! She lives in Williamsburg so I met her there and had my first Williamsburg experience. Except it was raining so it wasn't the full experience of that hipster mecca. Don't worry though, I'll be back to visit her again and have a better report :)

Other highlights from the weekend... I knocked out a few Pinterest projects including cleaning the tray in my toaster oven and trying out what I'm dubbing the most painful mask in the world. It seemed like such a great idea and I was told later in the day that I looked "gorgeous! Did you do something different? To your face or hair or something?" So I guess it was worth something. But wow, I was nearly in tears peeling that thing off. If I use it again I would not put it on my entire face. Be warned!!

Oh! After brunch I stopped by this Italian Bakery that's really near my subway stop home and totally delicious! A treat for the Bronx, I must say. My dad got us pastries from there for breakfast one morning when my parents were moving me out here and he was exploring the area. I've been meaning to go back but waiting on money and finally felt like I could spurge a little. This is what I got there:

It was delicious and a nice sweet treat since my brunch had been so savory.

In case you can't tell, I really like taking pictures of my food :)

Happy Days at Hill Country

One really cool thing about working at Hill Country is that celebrities are frequent visitors! 

Living in New York, I could, and probably do, walk by celebrities on the sidewalk every day and have no idea-- there's just so many people and honestly, they usually look just like anyone else. I can pick models out of the crowd but television stars, musicians, and actors are a little trickier. 

Which is why working in a nicer restaurant is great! Celebrities often eat there (Idina Menzel, Neil Diamond, Jesse Jackson, John Legend are just a few I've heard about in the last couple weeks) and someone is bound to recognize them and spread the word that so-and-so is sitting at table 43. 

I'd been working at HC about 3 weeks before my first celeb sighting. It was Jaclyn Smith, one of the original Charlie's Angels. I was at the cash register and had no idea who she was or that she was even famous as I searched for a Small tank top she was buying for her daughter. Luckily, she was more in the other cashier's era and he urgently whispered "Do you know who that is?!" 

I've been waiting for another celebrity to come in and, hopefully, to actually know who they were and recognize them. This weekend I got my wish! 

I worked a double Saturday and while I was on my break and eating downstairs, a server came over to tell Ebony and I that The Fonz was there! Honestly, I've never seen Happy Days, but I do know who The Fonz is and have seen some of Harry Winkler's movies. I happened to end my break and get back to work right as he was leaving which led to me being the one to check him out at the cash register! I was pretty stoked to actually talk to him a little. 

He was super nice and shorter in person than I would have thought (although I hear they always are!)-- I had a good 4 inches on him in my cowgirl boots! Here Comes the Boom is his latest movie coming out soon and he was recommending that to everyone. He also said he loved the place and will be back so maybe I'll get to see him again!

It definitely added some excitement to the evening and is a fun fact to tell people!

Fall Is In The Air

Can you feel Fall in the air? Maybe it's just me but there's something thrilling about the start of a new season. And having only experienced summer so far in New York I'm excited to be here for another season.

I am a very sensory person and perhaps it's my creativity or my being whimsical, but I have strong connections between the senses and pretty much anything (as you may have noticed from my Rainy Day Music post). Or maybe everyone is that way, I'm not sure because I'm not everyone :)

Walking back from lunch one day last week, I commented on how "Fall" the day felt. Pointing out the cooler temperatures, light breeze, the golden sheen to the sunlight, and how it even smelled like Fall. Or at least what I guess Fall smells like in the city, not quite the same as Fall in West Liberty...

The results of some teamwork pumpkin carving last fall

Anyways, there are plenty of things associated with Autumn in most peoples' minds: pumpkin flavored everything, desserts consisting of apple and cinnamon, leaf piles, hay rides, going back to school (so strange for me not to be doing this year) breaking out the sweatshirts and jeans, Halloween, apple cider, pumpkin carving... And football.

Football has always been a big part of fall for me, which I didn't really think about until I went to college. Friday nights without a football game just seemed empty and sad. And it's not that I'm even a huge football fan. I understand it well enough to get by but there's no way I could have an in-depth conversation about it, or even watch an entire game intently. Nonetheless, I had been going to football games most of my life, thanks to my dad being a high school football coach for most of my life. Then, in high school, I was in marching band and the flag corps so I was at every game.

Senior year flag corps 2010

Working at Hill Country on Saturdays reminds me of being at home for college football games. Of course it's the Texans or Longhorns or Cowboys playing instead of the Buckeyes, and it's multiple people, drinking and cheering, rather than just my dad, who still probably cheers and hollers about as loud as any of the guys at the restaurant. It's amazing how these little things, just being around guys excited for the sport, yelling for and at their team, can take you to a whole different place while reminding you of the time (season) you're in.

Overall I guess the point of this post is to point out how certain things will always be associated with certain times. In this case there are many, many, many elements that prove to me that it is indeed Fall, some are sensory--golden light, chill in the breeze, scent of apple-cinnamon--while others are memory or tradition-based--carving pumpkins, watching football. I never really thought of football as a big part of my life and yet, mostly thanks to my dad, it was a huge part of my life as well as an identifier of Autumn for me.