The beauty is...

Interesting article from the NY Times:
Newcomers Adjust, Eventually, to New York
How does this apply to the little lamb you know and love?

The city and I are doing well. I'll fill you in on the nitty-gritty details of our relationship. This is Page Six material, y'all.

You might say that I've always had a bit of a crush on the Apple. I was romanced by the idea of this amazing city of dreams, through film, print, song. We'd had a couple of one-week stands, but I was ready to move on to something more stable. So here I am, with a lease until July '09 and a job similarly guaranteed.

Upon arrival, things moved into an "it's complicated" status. Because, boy, things are complicated. As if searching for a place to lay my little head down to rest at night wasn't exhausting, add to that learning to navigate the underground labyrinth of the trains (New Yorkers don't call it the subway), being fiscally responsible in a town that urges splurges, and carving out some sort of niche in this town of a million faces. Complicated only begins to describe it.

But lately I've found myself slipping into a level of comfort. I still have these crazy moments where I realize "I live in New York" with regularity.

Sometimes it's, "I live in New York," as if I'm emerging from a dream that keeps on going even into my waking hours. In those moments, I realize I'm not here on some extended vacation - my little spot on the UES is home.

Sometimes it's, "I live in New York," when I see myself as a New Yorker. This happens mostly when tourists ask me for directions, or in the mornings when I come out of the Penn Station exit and trot past visitors from far and wide coming out of their hotel. Put in such close juxtaposition, I see a stark contrast.

Sometimes it's, "I live in New York," and that's the most fun of all. These moments occur when something so typically New York happens and I chuckle to myself about how cliche it all is. Or when something so unusual happens that it could only be taken for normal in a place like the City. I like those moments the best.

So, I feel like Manhattan and I have slipped into a new stage - the "In A Relationship" status, if you will. I like it here. I like the pace, I like the opportunity, I like the people. However, maybe we should still leave it at "in an open relationship," because as much as I love this city, I still get homesick for my family and friends, for my home in Texas and for my home in Norman.

What the sources in the Times article say is true. The timeframe is different for everyone, but sometimes it just clicks. For the most part, this great big grand place and I click rather nicely. And the beauty is when I have those New Yorker moments.

Working for the Weekend

Everybody's workin' for the weekend.
Everybody wants a new romance.
Everybody's goin' off the deep end.
Everybody needs a second chance.
-- Loverboy, "Working for the Weekend"

Thank God that week is over. I've never been so ready for a weekend countdown, y'all. Seriously. As we used to say back in Texas, "BLESS." That's my commentary for what this ridiculous week turned out to be.

Apparently, it was rough all around the office, because all of my coworkers feel exactly the same way. Of course, they don't say things like "BLESS", since they're not Southerners for the most part. So I am extremely pleased to have my first real weekend since I've moved to New York. It's kind of crazy that I've lived here for so long now and have yet to spend a weekend here, in town, doing just what I want to.

I was actually supposed to be in Tallahassee today and tomorrow for work, but a certain tropical storm named Fay stopped that from happening. Silly hurricanes.

So what am I going to do with this gift of a weekend? I'm equipping myself with a good book - I found a historical fiction about Alexander, who is my favorite human in history, a camera, my Metrocard, a map of Central Park and all the time I want to spend wandering around. I'm also bringing along Where to Wear, the ultimate shopping guide to the city, and New York's 50 Best Places to Enjoy Dessert. You know, just in case.

P.S. For you Sooners, I bought my plane tickets this week for my visit back to the land where the wind comes sweeping down the plains. Prepare yourself because I'm coming home in a month! =) And if anyone has a spare student ticket to the TCU game, help a girl out!

I'm gonna lose all kinds of indie cred for this...

Katherine has her heartsongs, and Megan has her theme songs. So my hybrid version of two (for the current moment) is this amazing album I had forgotten how much I loved.

Please buy, burn, DL or otherwise treat your ears to Keep It Together, by Guster. If you aren't already super music savvy, that is. (And you could even be behind the curve and still be up to date on this one; the album is from 2003. I can vividly remember buying this at Best Buy in McKinney. Weird.)

Some key listens that particularly speak to me:

"But you can't hide standing under these stars.
They know everything - they know where you are.
You're in your head you're all turned around with it,
And they're shining down their light to bring you back again."
- Careful

"Ramona, you're Miss Oklahoma,
and you miss Oklahoma.
I'll get you what you want."
- Ramona

"And the boats went out at night,
and the choppers in the sky,
They searched but they could find no trace of us.
So far away from everyone
and everything starts today."
- Keep It Together

"I'm awake, you're still sleeping.
The sun will rise like yesterday.
Everything that we are now
Is everything we can't let go
Or its gone forever, far away
I hope tomorrow is like today."
- I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today

I know this post is random and out of character, but remembering that I had this little gem on my iPod just saved me from pulling my hair out during a very stressful day at work.

So consider yourself educated, retroactively. I'll consider myself tranquilized.

Celebreality

So, I had my first celebrity sightings. I was kind of wondering who the first celeb I spotted would be, and it could not have been better.

Throughout the summer, a local radio station puts on a thing called "Broadway in Bryant Park," where the stars of various shows perform a couple of songs for free, and it always draws a huge crowd. I had gathered up a small group of theater fans from the office to take a lunch break and check it out this week, mostly because of the slated performance by the cast of an upcoming show - called "13" - by my favorite composer, Jason Robert Brown. We were kind of late, so we got stuck standing to the side of the stage, which was actually fine with me, as long as I could hear them sing. After the performance, I turned to make a comment to my friends, and guess who was standing right behind me? Yeah, this dude:
That's JRB, himself, by the way. This man is a genius. Seriously, if you like theater (or just great music, especially piano, he's a beast on the piano arrangements), and you haven't heard The Last Five Years or Songs for a New World, go download them now.

So I turn around, see him there, and freak out. I'm so lame. I finally (okay, maybe 20 seconds later) got my act together, and walked over to where he'd gone to congratulate the performers/talk to his friends and meet him. Sadly, I had forgotten my camera at home that day, which was incredibly unfortunate. But I did get an autograph. From my idol. Sweet.

In meeting JRB, I had inadvertently positioned myself right by the holding area where the actors from each show were coming and going between performances. Which equals more celebrity sightings. I met the adorable miss Bailey Hanks, aka the new Elle from Legally Blonde: The Musical. She's just as precious and sweet as you'd expect her to be. And I met the current (and final) cast of Rent.

All in all, a celebrity filled lunchbreak. It was also a great lunch for another reason - for the first time, really, I felt like I actually live in NY rather than feeling like a tourist on a prolonged visit. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it kind of felt like this whole New York life is reality. Weird.

Now, I feel like I should also mention another sighting I had this week. In case you didn't know, Wendy Kopp is the founder of Teach for America, and she was also named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People this year. She works in the same office I do, but on a different floor. It's kind of an unofficial game around the office - Spot Wendy. Especially for the new employees like me. So, I was very excited when she walked past me on my way to work on Friday. Of course, she has no idea who I am or that I have anything to do with TFA; in fact, I bet she wondered why the heck this random girl in front of Starbucks was grinning at her. So that counts as a pseudo-celebrity sighting.

Finally, a couple of sightings that weren't of celebrities, but were interesting to me. I got to see my mom and stepdad this weekend! I took a little day trip down to DC, where they were staying for a conference. It was really, really great to get to visit with them. Plus, I'd never been to DC, so we did a little sightseeing too. The last sighting happened during our outing to the White House. We were walking down the street from the front lawn, when who should walk past me but my friend Rod from OU. Isn't it just a crazy small world?

Alright, that's my update on my celeb-reality. Now reality for the rest of the weekend is going to involve vegging out on the couch and getting a lot of work down before the next crazy week starts. And I'm perfectly okay with only seeing tiny versions of celebrities on my TV screen.

here and there.

Some trivia you might be interested in:

• I walked home from work yesterday. It was roughly 5 miles. In 3 inch heels, no less.
• Also, I went out of my way to ensure that Tiffany's was on my route home. Some things just never change.
• Gold nailpolish is the greatest invention ever. Thank you, Chanel.
• I'm doing lunch in Bryant Park tomorrow, so I can see the cast of 13 perform in their Broadway series. Camp + Last 5 Years = Ah-Mazing
• I'm going to DC on Friday to see mi madre. It's my first Bolt Bus experience, and I'm hoping it's a good one because Rena and I want to take the Bolt to Boston soon!
• Jonathan Horton is competing in the Men's Gymnastics All-Around tonight. I've been watching him compete for years back at OU, so I'm very glad the entire world can see just how amazing he is.

Also, I've been inspired by my friend Cherilyn to do a video blog. What should my topic be?

Rainy Days and Mondays

I suck at updating lately, apparently.
But you know what didn't suck? Yesterday.

The morning threatened to bode a less-than-great day. Bad hair days + running late + a gross yogurt cup from Amici = Not a fantastic morning. And then it rained, which you'd think would make this day go from blah to blech. But not for me.

My mood is often very contingent on the weather, and of course sunny days are the best, while hazy gray days are the absolute worst. But I love it when it actually rains. (Especially on occasions like yesterday, when my hair was already worthless and I was safely indoors.) I particularly love the rain when I'm having a so-so to bad day. Its cleansing qualities are unmatchable.

So I sat here at my adorable desk, being productive and listening to the steady thrum of the raindrops on the windows. And, almost like magic, the potential for a no-good-very-bad day washed away. I was done with all my work by 6:30, and out the door - and here's the kicker - without my laptop to do more work at home.

It had cleared up and I was in far too good a mood to just jump on a train home and sit there. So I wandered around Midtown, up and down 5th, just enjoying the summer breeze and people watching. I stopped in Bendel's to size up some handbags I'd been perusing online, scoffed at the line of tweens waiting to get into Abercrombie (wtf?), chatted with Kathy and generally meandered until I ended up on the 6 back home.

And the great day didn't end once I got home. I bought groceries for the week (for less than $20, believe it or not), cooked myself a delicious dinner while watching Olympic diving, finished Breaking Dawn and got to sleep before midnight.

I told you yesterday didn't suck. I could get used to that.

P.S. Today seems to be continuing the trend started yesterday afternoon. Here's to making it last!

P.P.S. Only a real FF like myself would use a Carpenter's song as a blog title. Oh, golly.

Nothing to do but daydream of John Mayer.

"My baby takes the morning train.
He works from nine to five and then
He takes another home again
To find me waiting for him."
-- Sheena Easton, Morning Train

When it comes to getting work done, I've always been pretty efficient. I was usually the first person to finish every test, I can knock out an A-level five-page paper in a couple of hours, etc.
That is, I'm efficient once I make myself sit down and start a project. I tend to subscribe to the philosophy of "works best under pressure", which is a fancy way of saying, "I like to procrastinate, but I'll still get things done and on time."

So imagine how weird it feels to be sitting here on my second day of work writing this little blog to you at 9:30 in the a.m., not because I'm putting off some action item, but because I really have done everything I need to do. At least without other teammates sending me their pieces of the project to put together. It could have something to do with the fact that I worked 11 hours yesterday. At the time, it just seemed easier to get the job done rather than set it aside and come back, but now I've learned my lesson. Thought it was nice to stroll in this morning, knowing there was nothing big looming over my head.

Now that I think of it, I haven't told you anything about work, have I? Well, I absolutely love my coworkers, for one thing. It's probably a good thing that a certain few of us have desks spread around the office, because this level of efficiency would drop drastically if I was constantly surrounded by those crazy new friends of mine. Speaking of desks, mine is HUGE. As in, I don't even use half of it. With two phone lines. And it's in a pretty nice location, though I'm slightly jealous of Justin's giant window view.

So far, it looks like a typical day of work for Emily is going to include plenty of time on the headset phone, lots of Pandora stations (a QuickMix of Jason Mraz, Sara Bareilles, Arcade Fire and MIKA is my favorite), more Excel spreadsheets than should be legal and, not to be punny, but tons of legal pads. I like that. I also like walking past Madison Square Garden on my way to work every morning. It just keeps a little of that "I'm working in NYC" magic going.

Okay, hopefully that was a more satisfactory post than the last couple. I'm going to try to fill the hours until my call this afternoon with decorating my desk, scrounging around for spare office supplies and sharing my newfound SLX skills. Not to mention the activity mentioned in the title of this post. ;)

Um, I think those are empty...

There's just been too much going on for me to explain in great detail. I promise I'll be more faithful in updating as soon as real life starts, which is tomorrow. But here are some highlights:

• Baltimore is cool, as long as you're by the harbor and stay out of the blue light district.
• I LOVE working for TFA.
  
• Training was intense - 10 hour days, with maybe two 15-minute breaks, for 10 days straight - but very informative and helpful.
• My cohort has a theme song, "Don't Stop Believing." And we're the Triple Threat.
• My coworkers are amazing.
• "Then the ice melts, and it's like second drink," became a recurring quote for the weeks.
  
• The Orioles suck. But the Hippo is amazing.
  
• We did karaoke twice. And killed it, twice. Apparently, December 1963 is our staple.
  
• I would love to tell you my Patron story, but I don't think I should post it on here. ;)
• On the same note, ask me about McSexyCanI?
• My RD is adorable. I just love her, which is good, since we're going to be working together a LOT!

I'm sure there's a lot more to talk about, I just can't think of it now. If you want to see pictures documenting this, check my album on Facebook titled, "Then the ice melts and it's like second drink!"

Oh, and my furniture came in! (Don't even ask me about all that drama.) I posted pics of the decorated apartment in the "Many the Miles" album.

Again, I promise a better post is on its way! But for now, I need to get back to reading Breaking Dawn. =)