Whirlwind Weekend

Guess who came to my neck of the woods this week? Ta-da!

My parents!!! Here they are taking a little break in Central Park. We did a lot of exploring together, as NYC newbies must do. Here's a little recap of what we did:

Rowing a boat in Central Park: Very, very nice

My dad did all of the rowing, so here's his workout picture:

We just couldn't get enough of Central Park!

The Guggenhiem: We liked it, and we didn't like it.

Maybe if more of the museum had been open, we would have liked it better. The modern art section was interesting, but there was one floor with Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, and Manet. Those were very, very nice. It was a good place to stay dry from the rain too.

Other activités that we did: eating!! Oh yes, we had some good food. We had great Italian at the Isola on Columbus (I got to speak with the owner in Italian!). There are some great croissants at La Toulousaine. And of course, we had to get some pizza.

The . . . not so good food that we encountered. This one was my idea: Ice-cream filled doughnuts.

It sounds great, right? I mean, how could you go wrong with ice cream and doughnuts? It's possible. It was good for like one bite, and then it was all just too sweet. Plus, my ice-cream was falling out of the other end :( sad. My dad enjoyed their advertisements though. They were trying to make doughnuts seem healthy. Come on, it's a doughnut.

Also, we went to this other restaurant that seemed like it would be nice and charming, called Elizabeth's (I think). It could be that we just ordered the wrong food. You never know. Appearances can be so deceiving!

Broadway plays: Awesome!

Wicked and Phantom of the Opera. I would go again this weekend if I had that kind of money! I didn't take a picture inside the theater where we saw Wicked, but here's the Phantom of the Opera.

I know these are the shows that everybody sees when they want to see Broadway, but they're so good! It's totally worth it!

Then there was Governor's Island. I've already talked about it in another blog post, but it was nice as well. Here are some of our pictures:

And last of all, the 9/11 Memorial, which was also very nice. The sky that evening was just fantastic.

It was indeed a whirlwind weekend, and it was fun. Hopefully we'll get to do it again the next time they visit!

Don't you love New York in the fall?

I finally get to say it: "Don't you love New York in the fall?" Name that movie--go!

I stepped onto the metro yesterday, and bam! It was like fall fashion hit overnight. Apparently everybody's got the same schedule but me . . . still, I have been just waiting to say that phrase ever since I decided to move here. I've been thinking of bouquets of sharpened pencils all week. Might have to get me one of those.

Today marks the end of my Barnes & Noble era. It lasted just a little over a month. It was a good place to work. I laughed a lot with my co-workers, but then I also got annoyed at a lot of people. You've got to have both, I guess. And by the way, everyone who is not nice to the hard-working people in cafe-like jobs will get lumps of coal at Christmas. Just saying.

On to more adventures! This picture was taken at Eataly, where yes, they do indeed have shelves upon shelves of cheese (the good stuff). It was a little like stepping back into Italy. They had all of these Italian brands, and of course it was all really expensive. So I just got a bit of gelato. Loved their pistachio!

Now you're looking at the next picture thinking, what the heck is that?

Okay, the picture's not that great, but it's a restaurant under construction on Broadway. Guess what restaurant??? Fratelli la Bufala!!!! Legit Italian pizza! Beautiful. I will cry if they ruin it.

Also, a girl that I know swears that this is a transformer.

Do you see it? Kind of? Maybe? I guess if a transformer were to live anywhere, it would be here in NYC.

And last of all, I went to the 9/11 Memorial on Monday. If you're coming to NYC, you should see this!

Here a just a couple of pictures that I took. The water seems to fall forever. And right in the middle is that black hole, that square. The water pours into that, and you can't see the bottom. In the lower pictures, you can kind of see a few names carved into the stone where the light shines out. Since tomorrow is the 9/11 anniversary, I thought it was fitting. It's a beautiful monument as well, day or night. The museum is nearby too, if you're ever in the area.

Roaches and Raccoons

I moved yesterday! Labor Day was indeed a day of labor as I made sure everything was packed up in the morning. I was able to move and then make it to work at 10:45. Who makes their employees work on Labor Day??? Mine, I guess. Oh! I have some other great news: I got a new job!!!!! I haven't started it yet, but I'll start in the middle of September. I'll still have the internship at the literary agency, which is good. I'm excited!!

Anyway, this was me saying goodbye to Fort Tryon park right across the street from me.

I played one last song on the guitar and then locked the door behind me. On to the next! My new place in the Upper West Side. I like it, but it's like a different city. Everybody's speaking English, and I'm not the only white girl around. There is a huge Dominican community where I lived before. But there's a pizzeria on the corner that I can't wait to try out, and there seem to be a lot of good places to eat. My kind of place :)

I've already checked out the library, and I like it a lot. Interestingly enough, it's in the same building as the Mental Health Department. It's probably kind of a pit stop. If you know you're going in there, might as well pick up some books first, right? That's totally what I would do.

As it turns out, NYC is just teeming with wildlife, aside from us humans that is. Some of us are pretty wild too. I have not seen a skunk today, which is good. I think whole skunk families live in Fort Tryon Park. In the past two months I have seen many more skunks than is comfortable. Even one skunk is a little too much. But, now that I've moved, it's roaches! Not in my apartment, thankfully, but I've seen some big ones on the street today. Also, I saw a raccoon in Central Park. I went walking around the north side of the park and ate half of my sandwich. The raccoon came right up next to the fence and almost climbed over, then he just turned around and left. I was within two feet of him though. Maybe he likes mozzarella too.

I wanted to get a cool picture of Central Park in the evening, but it's kind of hard to see. This spot is called "The Pool." You can see the reflection of the lights in the water. Sorry, I didn't manage to catch the raccoon in a picture. He was gone before I could do it.

Oh, on a different note, I wanted to mention that Ingrid Michaelson's mother died this past week. I normally don't keep up on musicians or famous people at all for that matter (don't want to be a creep!) but since I've been mildly obsessed with all of her music for the past six years or so, I thought she and her mother deserved some space in here. Her song, "Far Away" is one of the first that I learned on the guitar, and that summer I think all I played was Ingrid Michaelson. If any of you want to learn more about her mother, here's a link that she posted. http://www.statenislandmuseum.org/about/elizabeth-egbert/

Here's to you, Ingrid, and your mother. This song is one of my favorites.