Life in the Big City: June 2008

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Making it a Home

Living in a very tiny space motivates you find creative, multipurpose solutions to the realities of everday life. Every piece of furniture has to serve multiple functions and fit in the limited space. This has made furniture shopping quite interesting, especially since we're also on a budget. Oh the joys :-)

Recently, we have made couple finds to solve the matter of where exactly our clothing can be stored, since closet space is very limited, and to provide something to sit on/work at other than the bed. These two pieces of furniture should be very welcome assets. Zach can't wait to get his hands on them and put them together, but he has to wait until Thursday when I can drive them in from PA. Hopefully, with a little more organizational space at our disposal, we will be able to solve a bit of the "clutter crisis" :)

I'm looking forward to being back in my little house at the end of the week!

This table will double as a desk--the fold-down sides are great for making it fit in the space, and I love the bar-height with the higher chairs. We got this piece from Target.

Yes, an IKEA dresser. I think IKEA is the quintessential city-living on a budget furniture store, at least from the number of IKEA pieces I've seen on Craig's List. We got it in the darger, Black-brown color. It will double as a TV stand against the wall opposite the bed. Should be a perfect fit!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Street Level

(From Zach)

I have been saving up my words for months and will use them all on this single post, no doubt. Working at THE FIRM does not leave one spilling over with words at the end of the day, but I should summarize some important points on life, THE FIRM, and NYC.

I am loving being a summer associate in a BIGLAW firm. You make more money than a first year and have relatively little if any actual responsibility, so it is hard to get too stressed out, although MB will tell you that I manage to do it. BIGLAW recruiting is an interesting process. Since law students are so immature - remember, most of us have never had a real, full-time, roll-up-your-sleaves-and-get-dirty job - that they are forced to compete for talent using the most time-honored techniques - booze, food, and endless entertainment. I turned down box seats just to write this post... I will not complain about the lunches or the parties. You have to take them and the accompanying hangover in stride and realize that this is a part of the process. In a year, you will be chained to your desk drafting documents, so you should get to know the people you will be working with now (why it matters is a different question considering the chaining to the desk point). For those that don't have anything else to do, check out abovethelaw.com for more insight into BIGLAW and the life of a summer associate in the Big Apple.

My other summers are great people overall, since THE FIRM puts great effort into hiring nice people. My office, which I share it with one other cool guy, has a large window that looks out toward Broadway (Bway in NYC). They got rid of co-ed offices after - well - nevermind, kids, use your imagination like your mom told you to. THE FIRM was recently remodeled and updated, which I am thankful for since before it had a reputation for being really old-school. It still is in its own odd way, although we do have a website now.

For those who keep asking what it is I do, or want to do, at work, please stop asking. It is not that I don't want to tell you, it is just that I can't explain it without killing you of boredom, so save both of us the pain. I could tell you that I worked on an "indenture" but then you would want to know what the indenture was and I would have to tell you that it is something you prepare after the OM ("offering memorandum") and you would have to... You get the idea. It is a different language (that is about all I know myself).

Moving on to popular myths about NYC:
1) Dogs always kick dirt over their business. FALSE. Only recently arrived dogs do this. Unlike dogs in the rest of the world, true NYC dogs just do it in the middle of the sidewalk and move on with life. If you see a dog try this, it is a sure sign they are a tourist.

2) All NYers are mean. TRUE and FALSE. You will find nice people at random and mean people at random, which, based on advanced science, means that there are neither nice nor mean people in NYC --> they are just average people on the whole with a few outlyers. This fact is demonstrated by the stone-faced murder look adopted by the native population that does not say anything in mean in words but does suggest they you have killed recently and will kill again if you try to take that empty seat on the subway.

3) Subways are reliable. FALSE. This statement is the classic case of basing a conclusion on a generalization. It is true that the NY subway will get you pretty much anywhere in the main part of the city at any time of the day or night. What this generalization does NOT reflect is the reality that on any given train, you may be inexplicably stuck in a dark hole far below some street in a car with no air conditioning between two people who collectly weigh close to a ton, or at least weighed that much before they shed several gallons of sweat on you...

4) Broadway is broad. FALSE. It would be more accurate to call it Quasi-Broadway or The Comparatively Broad Way since it is no wider that many streets in thousands of small towns across the interior of the continent.

And Life - I like life. Life is a good thing. Sometimes you forget how much you love being alive, but then tonight I was running in Riverside Park, which is truly beside the Hudson River. I was looking out at the pink sunset over the heights across the river. Riverside Park is an absolute gem, a true gift of Mr. Olmstead that goes on for miles of green. You feel like you are in the middle of a great forest. Anyways, I was running down the stone path next to the cool stone wall that holds up the upper level of the park and was looking out at the sunset through the tops of the trees planted on the lower level of the park. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I am so thankful that I hopped on a bus one cold Sunday morning and signed the lease on our apartment even though it felt like it was so, well, urbanish and kind of gross. It has been great and I can honestly say I like it. I will be glad to move into a nice doorman building with less that 1001 coats of paint on everything and that has more than 1 room, but I am so thankful for this little home.

Thankfulness aside, it is very easy for me to feel like I am going crazy in this studio. I thought that MB and not I, the guy, would be the one that gets fed up with the small size. Given my past living arrangements, which have involved random people waking me up while I slept on someone's spare couch, I really thought I could live through anything. BUT I was wrong. I am the one that craves room for a couch and somewhere where I can get away from, well, anything. I want order, lots of storage space to organize each piece of my life. Instead, I am left with boxes on the floor of the closet which does not have doors because I took them off so that we could actually use the closet rod for its intended purpose of hanging clothes. I am slowly adjusting, kind of. Now, back to surfing Craigslist for a couch.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A Sojourn in Pennsylvania

I'm taking a little break from city life and hanging out in Pennsylvania for a couple weeks, helping Michael run the business while mom and dad are on vacation. Several things have seemed very strange:

1. Driving a car

2. Hearing birds in the morning instead of car horns

3. Seeing green in every direction

4. Not climbing 5 flights of stairs to reach my door

5. Running on the street and not having any drivers honk or curse at you because they had to drive around you.

6. Running on the street and having drivers slow down instead of expecting you to get out of the way.

7. Not having a Filene's Basement within easy distance... (definitely has added up to a savings in the pocketbook department)

8. Going to Wal*Mart

It's been a good week so far, and I've been able to catch up with some good friends and see my nieces (aka, the Princesses) several times, as the pictures below prove.

My very good friends, Katie and Rachel. We've known each other since high school.

Stages of Romance: Katie is dating, Rachel is engaged, and I'm married. What fun!

My little princesses--Alexandra and Raygen. They are so much fun to be around!

And just a little mischevious too

Friday, June 6, 2008

And life continues

Well, here we are, a month into our adventure, and I think we would both say that the norms of everyday life are feeling more normal, which is a definite positive. We have a much better feel for where to find the things we need and how to get where we want to go. Each new weekend has brought fresh exploration and adventures, and I could get really used to this having evenings to spend together thing. We've really been trying to make the most of the opportunity to try new things this summer, since we're in a whole new place, and I think we've been succeeding.

This morning started perfectly for my taste--with a Chocolate Croissant, or pain au chocolate, as it is said in French, since it is a French pastry after all. It's a Croissant filled with a rich, bittersweet chocolate--kind of like the inside of a truffle, not at all like pastry creme. We had them in Paris, and Zach went out this morning before I woke up and got one from the little French bakery up the street. That was a nice way to wake up! He told me that he has a surprise planned for tonight, so it sounds like it's going to be a really great day altogether!

We have been keeping busy on the whole. Last Thursday night, Zach's firm had a welcome reception for all the summers, and they were able to bring a guest. They held the reception at the Boathouse in Central Park, and it was just a beautiful night, with the exception of some gigantic mosquitoes outside. I enjoyed getting dressed up and meeting some of the people that Zach is working with this summer, and the reception was beautiful with some delicious food. It got a little bit late, so I was thankful that I wasn't the one going to work the next morning.

On Sunday, we explored what is known as "Hell's Kitchen" on the lower west side of the city. There are a lot of restaurants there, as it's pretty close to the theater district, but I definitely like our area better. With the weather being warm and sunny out, it seemed to be asking for ice cream, so we bought some at the grocery store and made homemade milkshakes for dinner. Yes, I know, so healthy.

Monday night, Zach came home and said we should put sneakers on for a walk. We stopped by a nearby store to get some sushi and then sat in Riverside Park to eat dinner and watch the sun go down. It's amazing to have such a beautiful park so closeby when you're living in such a big city. The hillside blocks most of the traffic noise, and as the sun went down, the lights along the walking path came on--you could almost imagine you were in the country.

My explorations this week took me to the West Village, which is down at the lower part of the island on the west side. There are a lot of tree-lined streets in the village with beautiful row homes on them and a ton of small bistros and restaurants. It made me remember walking in Paris. I also stopped at Magnolia Bakery, a New York icon, for a sweet treat. They're best known for their cupcakes, but I had a white chocolate fudge brownie. Wow, it was so good! The bakery is a very small place, and from what I understand, there are always people trying to cram inside. They had several mixers going with batter and then other people mixing icing and racks full of fresh-baked cupcakes. So fun.

And, at long last, some pictures from our recent adventures. Enjoy!

From My Wanderings in Times Square