life according to my iphone

oh new york. i cannot wait to have this relationship with you.

not much to post about. work is work. just getting ready for fashion week and applying for jobs.

here are some photos of my life so far

AC units for dayss

an awesome street market RIGHT outside my apartment

gormet rice krispie treats?

ah yes, to smell like play-doh

us open kickoff

what a better way to end a long week than lunch with a good friend and an open bar.

friday for lunch, my friend cici and i went to lunch at vapianos in union square. cici is a fellow intern but we are actually friends from london as we studied abroad in the same program together. small world. vapianos was a favorite of our group to go to in london.

so delicious.

that night, i met my future roommate, alex, at a bar called public house for an hour of open bar. yes, an hour of open bar. one of her friends won it and 50 of their friends could go. i thought it would be a great way to actually meet some people in this city.

twas great to get out and socialize and explore the lower east village.

*******

saturday was spent reading in bryant park and just relaxing. i ventured to the trader joes, which was so nice because it felt like home and was actually so cheap for new york standards.

that night i was working my first event for pr. i was running check in for a tennis cocktail event at a swanky hotel on 5th avenue. about five tennis stars showed up including :

sloane stephens

john isner
who by the way, is 6'10"

li na

victoria azarenka

feliciano lopez =))))

it was pretty cool to see all these athletes. all tall, fit and gorgeous. the cocktail party was so classy and swanky. it was a great experience to work the event. when i first imagined my life in nyc, i pictured myself going to these classy industry parties...except i was a guest, not working it ;) but i still enjoyed it. i was so official upfront with my ipad and guest list.

*fun fact: i actually had no idea who any of these players were. so when sloane stephens and her mom (who were technically hosting the party) came to the door, i said, 'good evening! are you here for the event? can i have your last name please?' wow. MAJOR FAIL. thankfully there was such a commotion over her arrival, i don't really think they heard me...hopefully. shake it off.


two articles that i love that i thought i would share :
 from thought catalog -  5 Reasons You Should Stop Judging Yourself
 from a website i found - The 30 Most Satisfying Simple Pleasures in Life

the three b's

since coming to new york, i have been warned of the three b's that plague manhattanites, especially young women. what are they?

- booze
- brunch
- bagels

im not gonna lie, i love all three of these things...but mainly brunch.

betches LOVE brunch

in college they tell you - sleep, social life, good grades - pick two. i managed to get by through college picking sleep and social life with decent grades. hey, i graduated and am in New York, so obviously i did something right.

as for the three b's, thats tough. i would probably choose booze and brunch, so i could have bottomless mimosas at brunch, or wine in the evenings. i could do without bagels...how unjewish of me is that?!

however, since i managed to pick two and half options in college, im going to believe i can manage to do the same with the three b's.
once i get my workout clothes/running shoes shipped over, it'll help me manage them all.

**********

this week is the last week before fashion week craziness happens. basically two weeks of being at the office from 930am - anywhere from 9pm to 1am. YAY!
today was a bit tough. it was a long day and there was not much to do. i ended up running four errands - buy plastic forks, mail some letters, pick up charts, buy lightbulbs, all in the rain...yeah, not the most glamorous tasks. it made me a little antsy to start applying to jobs asap, but I am being patient and putting in the work and my dues at this place.

holding the glorious fashion week seating charts 

in the rain

pathetic umbrella

book or magazine? 902 pages and gave me an arm cramp to hold for too long

****
AND ERMAHGERD I JUST SAW A SECOND (OR MAYBE THE SAME ONE) MOUSE IN MY APARTMENT. UGH. WELCOME TO NEW YORK.

if you had to choose 2 of the 3 b's, which would it be?

dream professions

i am not a patient person. i have always described myself as the type who doesn't like to let the paint dry (and this has led to many messy art projects!)

this trait of mine has proven to bring lots of stress when i think about the future. i like to know my plan of action - for the next five steps. it helps in the work world, when i try to be five steps ahead of myself, but for my future, it is frustrating.

i have already talked about being able to sit with uncertainty, but its hard! 

******

there are so many things i want to do with my life, so many places i want to go. if you haven't noticed yet, i have added a new page to my blog - "32 Before 32" which, obviously, talks about thirty-two things i want to do before i am thirty-two. this list is pretty intense, as i would like to travel to all the continents (except antarctica) by the time im thirty-two. i may not accomplish everything, but i will try.

last night i was talking with my friend megan and we were discussing what we would want to be if we could do anything we wanted. 

here is my list : 

- be a pop/rock star : the idea of getting up on stage in front of thousands of people who are singing your lyrics back to you? i just think that could be the most invigorating experience. however, i have zero singing capability. so this isnt a matter of being afraid to go after my dream, this is a matter of not having any talent to go after my dream

what a rush

- be on SNL : this plan is a bit more attainable. along with singing, i just think that having a job that is just about trying to make people laugh would be so much fun. i have played around with the idea of taking some improv classes in nyc just for shits and giggles. but yes, being the next tina, amy or kristen, i'd be okay with that ;)

love these women

- be a rich housewife : i have no shame in admitting this. i would not mind being a stay-at-home mom, making my kids lunches, taking them to soccer, playing beach volleyball in between all this. yeah, this could be a nice life. id be the real housewife of san luis obispo, london, or wherever i end up

- a professional scrapbooker : you heard it from me first, so dont go stealing my idea. i want to get a cute little apartment by the beach and just scrapbook all day. people send me their pictures, their budget and any ideas, and i just create a scrapbook for them.

can this be my office please?!

any of these i would be happy with.

*********

and now for some entertaining pictures of my adventures in new york

this was in whole foods. make your own trail mix bar, which i LOVE,
because i dont always want raisins in every damn trail mix i buy 

just an idea of where every starbucks is in the vicinity

this restaurant was MADE for me. a menu full of peanut butter sandwiches.
this one is chocolate peanut butter, cherries, and coconut.

someone left their clam on the stairs of the subway...

at my work today. i died.

memories & mice

this week at the office, someone brought three large bags of m&ms - plain, peanut and pretzel. i guess they were for the AE's only, but i snagged a few peanut m&ms before learning this fact. as soon as i crunched down on them i was taken back. i cannot remember the last time i had peanut m&ms, but they instantly brought me back to high school and made me think of halloween, going trick-or-treating with my friends on a foggy night, and then coming back to a house to trade candy, eat our favorites and just talk and talk until our parents picked us up.

it is so crazy how memories work. i was not surprised to find out smell is the strongest sensory memory, but taste is also a huge one for me. here are three things that trigger memories for me. of course there are hundreds, but these pop up to me right now

• eating clam chowder makes me think of lion king 2
• eating cheetoh puffs (oy vey, when was the last time that happened?) makes me think of the disney movie motocrossed (ps totally didn't put together that the movie is based on twelfth night, just like she's the man...the world makes sense again)
• fog - this smell has two as i distinguish two different types of beach fog. one brings me back to high school soccer nights games and makes me miss that terribly. the other type is more fresh and transports me back to morro bay with its fog and ice plants, back when i was younger and my family would go there every weekend to spend shabbat with family friends and those days were some of the best days of my life

i find it so fascinating how we can instantly be taken somewhere by a taste or smell.

**************

anyways, today i have moved into my FIFTH accommodation and, thankfully, last until my new place. i am just so tired of moving around, but in two weeks i will be in my new home! speaking of which, i bought my bed today, so it is starting to get more official!
at the moment i am staying in an adorable studio in gramercy...with a mouse. the tenant had no idea there were mice here and after five minutes of being in the place, i saw one scamper across the kitchen. immediately i went out and bought mouse traps :/ unfortunately i have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom, and im a bit apprehensive to do that. however, as long as the little guy keeps to himself, or goes in the trap, we will be okay.

i also dropped off my laundry at a laundromat for the first time! and i was an total obvious newb.
i put the clothes where? can i just leave them here? when do i pay? here is how you wash my clothes blah blah blah
the laundry man just laughed at me

im googling affordable ways to get involved around the city, as it is still kinda lonely :/ thinking of signing up for a soccer league which is always a great way to meet people and get a work out, so win win.

for what its worth...

the mother has left the city, and i am once again, solo.

thankfully i am starting to become good friends with the other interns, and once i am finally settled in my new apartment, i will start getting more involved in the city through clubs, or sports...you know, with all the free time i have.

today someone in our office dropped her phone in the toilet and we needed to put it in some rice. there was no rice in the office, so an intern went out on the errand to buy rice...

later our office ran out of light bulbs for something and needed someone to quickly go buy more, so out i went. as i was going down the elevator, a service man who was at the desk when i was given the task made a comment about how interns are treated like trash and are forced to kiss ass to get the job they want.

that made me think about the talk the ceo gave us, and how she said when she graduated from college, it was so easy to get a job. for my generation, it most certainly is not. and yeah, this internship comes with tasks that sometimes make me think, this is what i moved out here for?! but i know this work will pay off. and im counting on it. 

even though it would be nice to just get my dream job or at least a job in my dream company right away, i would rather have to put in the grunt work to get there, because it will just make it that more satisfying. but im not gonna lie, if glamour or self magazine were to walk into our office tomorrow and office me a position there, i would sure as hell take it.

sometimes as i walk the city, i wonder - is this where i want to be? of course it is. i have been dreaming about coming to nyc since i was a freshman in high school. i continuously pinch myself to remind myself that i really have made it here...physically.

im still in the awkward transition period where i am not in my 'home', so i dont feel completely settled, and i haven't completely gotten into my rhythm. i don't know where i will be going to get my groceries, to get my laundry done, to go to the gym...and i am not a creature of uncertainty. i like to know whats going to happen five steps from now. so this experience is good in teaching me to be okay with uncertainty. a wise, loving person once told me how important it is to be able to sit with uncertainty in your life. so thats what im doing. im 'sitting' with uncertainty. i know i have this internship till i run out of money, but i dont know when ill get a job - the goal is to be employed by my birthday, november 25, which shows i am also very optimistic haha.

but im in a good place with good contacts and a good possibility of getting to where i need to be.

if all fails, or i do end up getting my 'dream' job and i find that this place is not for me, it is good to know california, or even london, will always be there. yes. id love to move to london. anglophile forever and always.

<3

summer fridays and tourism

ever heard of the term summer fridays?

well it is just about the greatest idea ever. so many companies in new york have summer fridays, in which companies shut down early. hell. yes.

to continue with amazing news, one of my good friends that i met whilst studying abroad last fall in london starts an internship with the company i am working for on monday! its such a small world and i am so stoked to have another friend in the city!

and speaking of small worlds, in the two weeks i have been in the city i have met FOUR people from san luis obispo/5 cities area. wth right?!

anyways, this weekend was spent being a complete tourist. why?! well my mama came to nyc and is visiting with my cousin till wednesday! it was great to see a familiar face, to spend quality time with family, and to actually eat full meals ;)

saturday morning we walked around the upper east side a bit. another great thing about this city? on saturdays in august they shut down park avenue to cars and its only for bikers and pedestrians to ride/walk/run up and down. it was such a beautiful day for that as well.

after breakfast we really wanted to show my cousin around as much as possible because it was her first time to the city! we went to tiffanys and drooled over the diamonds. oh em gee were they beautiful.

a beautiful mosaic in the subway.

we walked around 5th avenue for awhile before heading down to soho to do some more affordable shopping. lunch of course had to come from chinatown! i googled a dim sum place and hoped for the best. the door was hidden by some barricaded building and looked a little sketchy, but we proceeded inside. Once inside, we took a long escalator up and were taken back to find this amazing space waiting for us! quite impressive! it was huge and very good, though we couldn't really understand what anything was...which makes sense why my stomach rejected the dim sum a few hours later :/ but ill spare any details on that.

little italy

after lunch we went back to lay down for a bit and rest our feet. mine are still not acclimated to the new york style of life. we then met up with a family friend to walk around the FiDi (financial district) and see the freedom tower. quite impressive! we walked around a bit more before i returned to my room to rest as the dim sum was not diggin my stomach.

sunset over jersey

sunday morning we had a delicious breakfast on the upper west side near my apartment.

 breakfast was followed by a lovely walk around central park. i still have yet to see the entire park.

this was just followed by more exploring before going to see a movie. movies here cost $14.00 a person!!!! ridiculous. however, the theatre was the most ridiculously amazing theatre ever! the seats were like first class plane seats, maybe better. so wide. so comfy. and...they reclined. so much leg room. it was insane. i probably could have fallen asleep. so amazing

the line to get INTO trader joes :/

 after the movie we went to ellens diner in times square. its a regular diner, except all the waiters and waitresses are trying to get on broadway, so in between serving tables, they take turns singing songs. quite entertaining.

well tomorrow starts week 2 of work and my last day filling in as a junior account executive. kinda glad for this. friday was actually so busy. i came to work with tons of emails to answer and so many things to do ASAP. but thats the best way to learn.

throw me to the sharks, baby!