Sunday Funday

Kathleen and went back to the museum yesterday since the last hour was free and we only got through one and a half floors the previous time, before a ridiculous delish sushi feast on Broadway.


This was in the Hall of Human Origins. How did they get my likeness so spot on?


We found a playground with a Western theme. Kathleen on a buffalo


Kathleen crossing the playground in a prairie schooner


Kathleen slipping and falling on the bridge


Me sweating in the Grand Canyon!

After dinner we decided to go to Target where we picked up quite a few snacks, and I got to take advantage of Kathleen's team member discount and I BOUGHT A TV!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so so so so excited to have a TV! I didn't think I'd get one just because I don't watch TV, but I found watching all my movies on my laptop incredibly tiresome. So now I have a grand ol' 26" with a built in DVD player to watch them on. I can't believe I finally took the plunge and have a TV now, it's a little surreal!


In the cab ride back from Target, Empire State of Mind came on, and Kathleen says it made her want to go to Times Square. I was pretty awake, especially since I took today and tomorrow off work, so we went down to Times Square at midnight for some 24 hour Starbucks, shopping at Forever 21, and pictures on the deserted stairs!


Mmmmmm caramel macchiato on the stairs in Times Square... sooooooo beautiful


FRUIT BOWL!


I don't think you can see it but the Times building behind me has the New Years Eve ball on top with 2011 lit up.

Now if we ever wake up and an get out of my apartment, we have plenty more in store for us today!

Still Storming the City!

Kathleen and I have been so busy and crazy in our running arounds that I haven't had a spare second to update! The stormy snow that we were out in ended up laying anywhere from 14-19 inches of snow on the city overnight (statistics are varying) and inbetween snoozing my alarming clock that morning I received a text message from my boss informing us that we had an official snow day and didn't have to come in! What fun. Kathleen and I ventured down to Central Park, which took longer than we thought it would, because the snow was so thick and high just outside my apartment we couldn't drag ourselves away from playing in it!


If anyone's seen The Nightmare Before Christmas, this is me trying to be Jack Skellington when he runs into the pole in Christmas Town and falls backwards and poofs down into the snow... I didn't get quite the same experience, but it was fun trying!


Kitten playing in the snow


Making our way to the subway with some shoveled snow!

No words or pictures could justify how gorgeous Central Park was. Fresh, white powdery snow and everything as far as the eye could see was outlined in white, and with all the mazes of tree branches above, it was almost too much to take it.




A beautiful pathway actually shoveled down... but maybe by the weird skiiers that were wandering through?


Crossing crazydeep Sheep's Meadow in snow above our knees? Fun at first; painful in the end!


Kathleen is the new Chuck Norris


Definitely hard to believe I played volleyball here in the summer!


The Angel of the Waters hath become The Angel of the Snows


When the wind kicked up, the avalanches started coming down!

After emerging from Central Park, my feet were so frozen I wasn't even sure if I was walking or not, I couldn't feel anything. We went into the Apple store on 5th and 59th just outside the park and I took off my boots and socks and just defrosted my feet for awhile.


We walked down 5th Avenue and visited Tiffany's. The man who greeted us was so friendly! He reminded me of the toy store owner in Home Alone 2 who gives Kevin the Christmas ornaments. AND we met Tiffany... she was operating the elevators. Then got into a subway around Times Square for me to make my dentist appointment (blah). After that we got Starbucks, then a pastrami sandwich from Guru Deli by my work (mmmmmm) then bought junk food and came back to my place and napped before heading out for Caribbean food on the East Side and then karaoke with Betsy, Ronnie and Caroline. By the way, all the karaoke places in NYC are the private rooms ones. Fun!


I started us all off with Ke$ha. My bad!


Did I throw in Taylor Swift? Um... yes.


Can't remember what song she did, probably Hannah Montana or Jonas Brothers or something. You know how she loves those.


Why isn't she 21 yet??

On Friday it was one of the teachers' last days so we all went down to the Chinese place underneath us (Ginger House) and it was their last day in business so there were $4 drinks for like an hour, before they started just bringing free beer to all the tables! Needless to say, crazy night. After they went dry we tried to meet up with another teacher around Union Square and when that didn't work, Kittens and I went to watch The Law Firm comedy troupe at the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre. "No one's made Dale Carpenter pay for anything in... a week and a half".

Yesterday we slept in (sooooo good for Kiki!) and went to the Natural History Museum. Dinosaurs galore! We went in for the last hour for free.


After the museum we got street gyros sooooooo f'in good! Then Starbucks in the snow at Columbus Circle...

...then some shopping around Herald Square, then we went up to Times Square. It's so fun just to stand outside, or walk around in the streets there. Then Kathleen had to go to Toys R Us. Did you know that's the store I've spent the most time in in Times Square? Probably cause Kathleen always wants to go there?


...they do exist...


I wanted to bring this pengie home with me!

Sunday sleep in again today, and still 3 full days left in the city holler!

Winter City Fun!

Here are some uber-fabulous photos from mine and Kathleen's time out and about in the snow storm yesterday

We were aiming the snow at the face of the statue. Kathleen came the closest getting his eyebrow. Some guy wandering through joined us, throwing fast pitched from much further away. We still won!

It wasn't actually snowing at the time, which means that yes, Kathleen artificially sprinkled that snow in my hair. But it was falling off the trees from above


Kathleen throwing snow at the pigeon. It was a fun game... for us.

Herp derp.


This was during a MISERABLE walk down 5th Avenue. Cold, wet, hail-like snow pelting our faces, couldn't look up... blah!


She was trying to make it snow


She sat on a pile of snow at Columbus Circle.

And now since I have a snow day from work (the first in my life!) we're going to go to Central Park to play in the snow! Before my dentist appointment. Blah.

Herp Derp.

Day 1 of Kittens in town was yesterday! After coming to lunch with me and my coworkers, she did her own thing until I got off work, when she made it back to Chelsea. We got Starbucks, and then walked along past Union Square to Crocodile Lounge, this great little bar that gives you a free pizza with every drink. And the drinks are cheap. It sounds like a scam right? But it's true, and amazing, and no strings attached!

After that we went back to Union Square, where Kathleen made a snowman, and then we started throwing snowballs at a birdhouse in a tree (that little hole was the only target!) and some nearby FDNY started throwing snowballs at us too, it was fun!



Afterwards, we went up to Rockefeller Plaza and watched some fabulous ice dancers along with some very balance-challenged adults out on the rink.



There was also some crazy half-hobo, half-artiste guy out there really gettin' down on the ice... I'm serious, he was looking like Michael Jackson down there! He really made my night.

After that, it was a stop in Times Square, named for the good times you have there, before buying ice cream and going back home to eat it up while watching Bruno. One productive winter day.

I Left My Brain On the E Train When Kathleen Came To Town

Yesterday I had to prepare for Kathleen's arrival to New York City yaaaay. I cleaned, took in laundry, did a little grocery shopping, bought her some Chinese food to have when she got in, and tried to connect my wireless router (to currently no avail), and sleepily left my place at 9p to make the deceitfully long journey via subway to JFK to greet her plane landing at 11p.

The majority of the trek was spent on the E train, and as soon as I got on it, I just leaned against the edge-seat railing and turned my music on and closed my eyes. I clearly fell asleep, and even though I felt people squeezing onto the benches next to me, I didn't bother to wake up, or react to some ice cold breezes blowing in when the doors opened. But I was lucky I woke up at my stop to transfer to the AirTrain... but I never did recover from my nap on the subway, because I was tired and out of it for the rest of the night! AirTrain to Terminal 7, to arrivals and baggage claim, and waiting forever until Kathleen came out, swimming in dad's overcoat and scarf, ha!

I woke up to lots and lots of heavy snow, with enormous flakes. It's been so beautiful to watch, even if I kept accidentally inhaling it on the walk in. It doesn't just fall straight down, it swirls all around.



Now I'm just hoping she can follow directions and get on the train down here so we can have lunch! Nom nom nom.

The San Francisco Saturday

Thanks to my dad, I learned about the San Francisco Giants' world series trophy making it's stop in NYC on the national tour this weekend. I couldn't believe we still got to bask in the glory of their winning, so I had to go, and I dragged 4 friends along with me, and since apparently none of them cared about the Giants... or baseball... or sports in general, they all must be really great friends.





The trophy was on display in the afternoon at a bar called Finnegan's (?) in the East Village, which had SF everything up (even the 49ers) so it would seem that it is a San Francisco bar that would have been nice to know about when the World Series was actually going on. We had never been before but I started seeing a trickle of SF hats coming from a certain direction, and we turned a corner and BAM! (bus?) the Giants had thrown up all over everyone in the great long line, it was a refreshing sea of orange and black. It was really crowded and a long line, but we waited through it and got to see what turned out to be a little bit of a disappointing trophy (shouldn't it have like, diamonds on it?) but it was very fun to be in the spirit and witness the greatness.



Why wasn't Tim Lincecum around?!

Tower Heist

The city has taken over the whole street block where my work is located to film a movie supposedly called Tower Heist with a ridiculous number of names in it... Ben Stiller, Jon Voight, Dave Chappell, Casey Affleck, Eddie Murphy, and Matthew Broderick. We can look down and see their catering truck, and we're all wondering how we can all be smooth enough to look like we're working on the set to get some of that amazing looking breakfast food...

My only question is when I'm going to see all of these movies that are constantly filmed here. They already did some Mr Popper's Penguins by the Flatiron with fake snow a few months ago and where is that?! It sounds amazing, I loved that book.

Couldn't Help It

I've never been ashamed to admit that I like Taylor Swift! But everyone likes to give me a hard time about it. I like to make fun of her and joke about some of the uber-cheesy lyrics, but overall I'm a fan of Miss Swift.



Thanks to my sister, I finally got the latest album over Christmas and only listened to it this week. Overall I think I still like Fearless the most, but there are some stellar tracks on this one. Taylor Swift IS really girlie and high school-y, but every now and then it's nice to have a song that's not about being drunk in a club and having a one night stand, but about the actual charm of a relationship and liking each other. There's music for every season.

Sleet. Is. Ewww.

I'm still not sure I understand all the nuances of weather out here. For instance, when the radio reports "frozen rain" ...wtf? I thought that was snow. Isn't that what The Magic School Bus's Inside The Water Cycle taught us all in third grade? But apparently it's not. Today is just miserable. And mother, so much for not "being out in the snow". Today it is grossly gray and leaky and miserable outside with sleet.

I crunched through snow this morning that was iced over because it was lightly raining outside. That is the worst! Snow is relatively dry, and white and pretty, but to be walking through the ice and having rain still come down on you is just blah! I tried to walk where there was traction on snow, but it was hard to gauge depth at the corners and curbs, and the closer to the subway stop I got, the more trodden the path was and therefore tracked down to slush and ice, and terrifying to walk through (the only real ramification is slipping or falling in front of other people and just feeling stupid). I like the snow! I do not like the sleet.

The New York AIDS Walk

In light of my desire to take advantage of more of the opportunities around me here in New York City, I have taken the initiative to form and lead a team for my work to join the 2011 AIDS Walk in New York City this year on Sunday, May 15.

I got the idea because Jayna was signing up to do the AIDS Walk with the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) and I told her I'd be interested in walking too, so she sent me all the information. I was going through the lists of teams to find the HRC, and I thought, I don't even know anyone on it, and why don't we form our own? So, I talked to my boss and HR and got the go-ahead with it. At first I was a little nervous and tentative, wondering if I actually wanted to go through with being team leader, going to training and orientations, blah blah blah, but I decided to do it and now I'm really excited about it! I sent the mass email to the New York and Corporate at the end of the day on Friday and already have 2 people signed up with us.

To Register or Sponsor... we're team StudyGroup #0176
http://www.aidswalk.net/newyork/



I'm looking forward to the leading the whole project!

The Second Storm

I tried to stay up last night to watch the snow fall, but it was just a few brazen flakes by the time I fell asleep. When I woke up, the world was freshly under roughly 9 inches of snow with the sun shining, and no signs at all of the furious storm that left us with the thick powder.





When I left for work around 8:15, my blocks had not be plowed, and the first shovelers were outside working on their own door front walkways. This meant I was stepping in and trudging through almost a foot of fresh snow. It felt really weird to be in the middle of the city, walking to the subway as though I was exploring a winter forest.

There was a taxi pulled over to the corner in a state of defeat, a team of 3 men helping to push a car that could not get out of the dirty snow in the street, and a bus that had half-turned a corner before giving up, and everyone started filing out. It sure was beautiful to see everything so fresh, and Central Park was just a vision of white.

Midtown was so much more adjusted and plowed. The cars and taxis were all kicking up sludge and slush in the street, it almost looked like they were driving on a foot of water. In short: slush: gross, snow: good!

See You Snowmorrow

I said this to Jenny and Jayna and thought it was such a hit, although they didn't quite get it. Another storm is moving in, it should start snowing just about any time now, but I'm looking forward to it, I really like the snow and haven't gotten enough of it yet.

I am so mentally exhausted from today, dealing with healthcare and insurance. I could go ON and ON about how much I HATE the healthcare in this country, but there's no need for politics here. All I have to say is that it is really ridiculous that someone as relatively healthy as I am, requiring only a snippet above the average for dental and medical work, is saddled with medical bills... AND I HAVE "INSURANCE". It gets my blood boiling, so I have to stop talking about it. But I was dealing with that ALL day today, so I'm ready to go home and just forget about it.

I hope my mind will be off of it... snowmorrow.

The Parkbench in Snow

This weekend was mild. A trip with Betsy, Casey and Ronnie to explore some reknowned places in the Lower East Side including an authentic Belgian French fry eatery appropriately titled Pommes Frites, and a ridiculously amazing sweetery called Doughnut Plant where I had a creme brulee donut, topped with the fired sugar.

On Sunday I visited a church near my work called Gallery Church, probably named because it is not only located in the famous Chelsea art neighborhood, but also it's building space is an art studio. They were so friendly, and like genuinely friendly, that it was almost over the top. After the sermon the pastor introduced himself to me, and girls around me were inviting me to lunch, etc. I was too shy to go to lunch, but I welcomed the friendliness.

Afterwards, it's wasn't even noon, so I felt like I had the whole day ahead of me, but I had nothing to do. I wandered down to the Flatiron and went into Madison Square Park (not to be confused with the Garden venue) and it was so peaceful! It was still under snow and it was quiet, and beautiful, all white. I sat on a park bench and read in the snow.



Overall I really like the wintry cold as opposed to the melting summer. As long as you're prepared for the cold, I like feeling it on my face and being bundled up on the streets. Now back to a Monday at work.

Dark Day

Michael was one of the first teachers I met here at the New York Center. He remembered me from when my profile was on the staff home page almost a year ago when I was in San Diego, and he liked to make jokes about how I wrote I was a pisces and liked long walks on the beach. He used to be a part of the academic administrative staff, but went back to teaching because he missed the students. He has been with the school since it was located right by the Twin Towers on Murray Street.

He was SO friendly, always addressed me by name, always smiled, and always came to happy hours! One happy hour, he told us about how he had closed on his condo in Jersey (and for the longest time we were all wondering, is he selling or buying? because we had had a few drinks in us when we got the news, and forgot to ask). But then he would always have things delivered to the school for him, like new blinds, etc, and we learned that he had bought it.

Today we learned that Michael died. He got caught in a riptide and drowned. There's something about those seemingly controllable events (when it's not old age, or health) that just drive you mad. I wasn't terribly close to Michael, but he was so friendly, and I just adored him. To hear that he died, so suddenly, is such a frightening disaster. I just think about how I won't pass him in the hall and his gray hair and great smile and say "Hi, Kristin!" and I wish that I had known I wouldn't have an opportunity to pass him or have a conversation or say something nice about him again. It is so unsettling.



And in the end, there's nothing like the reminder of our mortality to put life into perspective, and to realize how very lucky, fortunate and blessed I am just to be alive today, independent of considering I have a place to live, friends to hang out with, and food to eat. There's no telling when a cab might jump the curb and hit me, a hostage might take me in the bank and shoot me, or I might overdose on coffee and suffer a heart attack... so everyday God preserves me, I am thankful.

Cloudy With 100% Chance of Snow!

Yesterday Jayna and I were checking the weather and it said there would be 100% CHANCE OF SNOW! Yikes!



So I leave my building today and it felt like I walked into a snowglobe. It was swirling everywhere, and there was a light dusting of snow on almost everything. And surprisingly, it didn't even feel that cold, I've felt it colder with clearer, sunnier skies. It was pretty steady, and going every which way though, so I couldn't really look up (I needed sunglasses-- or snowglasses?) and it kept going up my nose if I breathed in too heavily.

I was so happy to be in it though, it's so fun to live in a place where it snows... as long as you have the right clothes and are prepared for it, there's really no reason to hate it. Also, being in New York City with no car, no responsibility to shovel the snow or salt the sidewalk, all I get to do is enjoy it, including watching the heavy white flakes fall outside the window.

You Always Say Goodnight, Goodnight

This is me and Mat at his newly-bought house back in California, after of course, an amazing session of Rock Band









So tall in his standing frame! I wanted to share because he's been one of my closest friends (admittedly on and off) since I was a freshman in high school (14 years old!)