Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Spring around the corner???
It's so warm out today! And it's only going to be warmer tomorrow. I'm on my way back up to Chittenango this weekend to spend time with my family and friends and enjoy a mini vacation away from the hustle and bustle of the bronx. Maybe when I get back here on Monday the snow will all be melted and I'll be able to find a parking space close to the apartment? Either way I'm looking forward to spending time at home and having the opportunity to see old friends and just relax.
How rude of me in my last post not to mention Valentine's Day. Without a doubt, I had the best valentines day of my life. I don't think Chris was sure what to get me so he went ahead and got me multiple gifts, all of which were beautiful. My favorite as always were the roses. Nothing compares to having fresh beautiful flowers by your living room window while you drink your morning coffee. On top of that Chris took me to a great Italian place in little italy. I had Lobster Ravioli which was AMAZING. It was my first time having that and I enjoyed it immensely.
I'm really ready for spring and I really would love to lose some poundage. I only wish there was a way to lose weight without giving up amazing food like cheese and pasta.. oh and I despise exercising. Chris and I both love to eat and we love to eat good food. Cooking and eating good food are two things that make me extremely happy. It just doesn't look like it's in the cards for me to be thin.
Chris is meeting me at Fordham tonight so we can go out to dinner on arthur avenue again. My treat. I never really appreciated Italian food before I started experiencing Little Italy in the Bronx. The bread, pastries, cheese, seafood, and meats are SO FRESH! I'm so lucky to have a neighborhood like this just blocks away from my workplace and minutes away from where I live. Oh, and Manhattan is just a 20 min train ride away. I know I have to enjoy this while I have it because nothing last forever. I know I'm a country girl at heart, but I can't deny that there are tons of exciting things to do in the city. I can't wait for summer so I can do it all!
Things I want to do this spring/summer:
-go to coney island
-go to the top of the empire state buiding w/chris
-picnic in central park
-visit the botanical garden (it's free saturday mornings!)
-GO TO THE BRONX ZOO ( i almost forgot!)
-explore van cortlandt park (it's huge)
-explore brooklyn
-visit MOMA
-buy art on the street from local artists to decorate the apt
-go to beaches on LI
-walk around nyc a lot and lost weight the fun way
-go to the seaport
-see a celebrity! Preferable someone cool like Robert DeNiro or Kate Winslet. It's my mission to see at least 1 every year that I'm here.. (In 2010 I saw Julia Stiles!)
This list is a work in progress. There are so many things I have left to do.. too many to list.
How rude of me in my last post not to mention Valentine's Day. Without a doubt, I had the best valentines day of my life. I don't think Chris was sure what to get me so he went ahead and got me multiple gifts, all of which were beautiful. My favorite as always were the roses. Nothing compares to having fresh beautiful flowers by your living room window while you drink your morning coffee. On top of that Chris took me to a great Italian place in little italy. I had Lobster Ravioli which was AMAZING. It was my first time having that and I enjoyed it immensely.
I'm really ready for spring and I really would love to lose some poundage. I only wish there was a way to lose weight without giving up amazing food like cheese and pasta.. oh and I despise exercising. Chris and I both love to eat and we love to eat good food. Cooking and eating good food are two things that make me extremely happy. It just doesn't look like it's in the cards for me to be thin.
Chris is meeting me at Fordham tonight so we can go out to dinner on arthur avenue again. My treat. I never really appreciated Italian food before I started experiencing Little Italy in the Bronx. The bread, pastries, cheese, seafood, and meats are SO FRESH! I'm so lucky to have a neighborhood like this just blocks away from my workplace and minutes away from where I live. Oh, and Manhattan is just a 20 min train ride away. I know I have to enjoy this while I have it because nothing last forever. I know I'm a country girl at heart, but I can't deny that there are tons of exciting things to do in the city. I can't wait for summer so I can do it all!
Things I want to do this spring/summer:
-go to coney island
-go to the top of the empire state buiding w/chris
-picnic in central park
-visit the botanical garden (it's free saturday mornings!)
-GO TO THE BRONX ZOO ( i almost forgot!)
-explore van cortlandt park (it's huge)
-explore brooklyn
-visit MOMA
-buy art on the street from local artists to decorate the apt
-go to beaches on LI
-walk around nyc a lot and lost weight the fun way
-go to the seaport
-see a celebrity! Preferable someone cool like Robert DeNiro or Kate Winslet. It's my mission to see at least 1 every year that I'm here.. (In 2010 I saw Julia Stiles!)
This list is a work in progress. There are so many things I have left to do.. too many to list.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
been a long time!
Sooo it seems that I haven't posted on this blog since September. A lot of time has passed since then and I have been living in Woodlawn with Chris for almost 5 whole months. I moved down here after accepting a position at Pace University in downtown Manhattan. That only lasted about a month when I was then offered a much more attractive position at Fordham University ( better pay, better commute, better title.. etc...). Things have been going pretty well and I've settled nicely into my routine and LOVE that I finally have a "normal" work schedule with weekends and holidays off. I have to say that working at a college or university is the way to go and now that I've discovered this, I can't see myself working at any other type of organization.
The Bronx is a very fascinating place. Growing up in central new york in a cookie cutter small town with almost no diversity, the only impression I had of this borough was shootings, gangs, and bad neighborhoods.. this impression being totally formulated by the media. I knew that J-Lo once lived here and that was about it. I didn't know that it was the northernmost borough, or that it's the only borough that's actually part of the mainland NY. I did not know about the Botanical Garden, Bronx Zoo, (the real) Little Italy, Van Cortlandt Park, Woodlawn Cemetery, let alone the neighborhood I now live in, Woodlawn, an all Irish neighborhood. There is really so much going on in the Bronx that so many people can't imagine unless you visit. One of the coolest things about living in the Bronx, in my opinion, is how close it is to Long Island and the friends of mine who reside there... and the beaches!!
So things are going well. Chris is doing great in his fourth year of teaching and is currently applying to grad school to obtain his 2nd masters degree. We are having a good time and while we are still adjusting to living together and have our struggles, we are very much in love and happy. I'm so grateful to be with him after a year of having a long distance relationship. It's hard to imagine now that we went weeks at a time without seeing eachother.
Winter in NYC is quite an experience. People here FREAK when it snows! But after being here for one of the craziest winters they've had in a long time, it's easy to understand why. It's not much the amount of snow that causes the problem, it's the number of streets that need to be cleared and the issue of where to put all the snow. Another problem is clearing the sidewalks. In residential neighborhoods, the property owners are in charge of keeping the sidewalk in front of their house clear.. this rarely happens at the same time, if at all. We had an ice storm the first week of February and I had to call out of work due to the fact that I could not walk the ten mins to the train station due to the inch and a half of ice that had accumulated on the sidewalks. I got halfway down the first block and had to turn back! In the city there are so many people and so many methods of transportation that a snow storm throws everything off. It's something, as an "upstater" that took me a couple months to understand.
I can't wait for winter to be over. I'm craving warm weather and sun and I can't wait to take weekend trips to various beaches on Long Island. Chris and I will take walks together and buy fresh foods from the farmers market and I'll lose these 15 pounds that have settled in around my midsection ( hopefully). ugh.
For now I will leave you with some pictures to help illustrate my time here:
Sunrise. This is the view from our living room window of Woodlawn Cemetery, burial place of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Herman Melville, etc...
The Botanical Garden
Me on the Brooklyn Bridge, back when I was working at Pace University in the Financial District
Woodlawn Cemetery
Me eating a cupcake. one of my favorite NYC activities!
Fordham University. This is the building I work in.
Fish Market in Little Italy (Bronx) where you can eat oysters on the street. Chris LOVED this. Me- not so much.
Chris in his classroom. :)
Beach near Central Islip, LI when I went to visit Hackford. hope to go back here once the weather gets warmer
The Bronx is a very fascinating place. Growing up in central new york in a cookie cutter small town with almost no diversity, the only impression I had of this borough was shootings, gangs, and bad neighborhoods.. this impression being totally formulated by the media. I knew that J-Lo once lived here and that was about it. I didn't know that it was the northernmost borough, or that it's the only borough that's actually part of the mainland NY. I did not know about the Botanical Garden, Bronx Zoo, (the real) Little Italy, Van Cortlandt Park, Woodlawn Cemetery, let alone the neighborhood I now live in, Woodlawn, an all Irish neighborhood. There is really so much going on in the Bronx that so many people can't imagine unless you visit. One of the coolest things about living in the Bronx, in my opinion, is how close it is to Long Island and the friends of mine who reside there... and the beaches!!
So things are going well. Chris is doing great in his fourth year of teaching and is currently applying to grad school to obtain his 2nd masters degree. We are having a good time and while we are still adjusting to living together and have our struggles, we are very much in love and happy. I'm so grateful to be with him after a year of having a long distance relationship. It's hard to imagine now that we went weeks at a time without seeing eachother.
Winter in NYC is quite an experience. People here FREAK when it snows! But after being here for one of the craziest winters they've had in a long time, it's easy to understand why. It's not much the amount of snow that causes the problem, it's the number of streets that need to be cleared and the issue of where to put all the snow. Another problem is clearing the sidewalks. In residential neighborhoods, the property owners are in charge of keeping the sidewalk in front of their house clear.. this rarely happens at the same time, if at all. We had an ice storm the first week of February and I had to call out of work due to the fact that I could not walk the ten mins to the train station due to the inch and a half of ice that had accumulated on the sidewalks. I got halfway down the first block and had to turn back! In the city there are so many people and so many methods of transportation that a snow storm throws everything off. It's something, as an "upstater" that took me a couple months to understand.
I can't wait for winter to be over. I'm craving warm weather and sun and I can't wait to take weekend trips to various beaches on Long Island. Chris and I will take walks together and buy fresh foods from the farmers market and I'll lose these 15 pounds that have settled in around my midsection ( hopefully). ugh.
For now I will leave you with some pictures to help illustrate my time here:
Sunrise. This is the view from our living room window of Woodlawn Cemetery, burial place of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Herman Melville, etc...
The Botanical Garden
Me on the Brooklyn Bridge, back when I was working at Pace University in the Financial District
Woodlawn Cemetery
Me eating a cupcake. one of my favorite NYC activities!
Fordham University. This is the building I work in.
Fish Market in Little Italy (Bronx) where you can eat oysters on the street. Chris LOVED this. Me- not so much.
Chris in his classroom. :)
Beach near Central Islip, LI when I went to visit Hackford. hope to go back here once the weather gets warmer
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)