Big City Living

Koala in NYC

January 17, 2024 2 Comments

The best part about living in New York City is that everyone always visits. There’s no need to travel to see friends, because friends always want to come to see you! New York is the best city in the USA (not biased at all), and there is so much to do.

However, the worst part about living in New York City is ALSO that everyone always visits. If you think it’s exhausting living in the most populated and dense city in the world, navigating without a car, dealing with constant weather changes and no changes of clothes etc., imagine that PLUS showing people around and walking through Times Square. Blegh. My favorite is when someone asks if I’ll be meeting them at the airport. HAHAHHAH No. I will not. What would I do anyway? I can’t go to the gate and I don’t have a car. I will be in my living room waiting for your Uber to arrive.

Anyway, as I mentioned, the complicated part of every tourist’s first NYC visit is that they always want to see and do the same things. Times Square. Freedom Tower. 9-11 Memorial. Top of the Rock. The high line. Broadway shows. The Met. MOMA. The New York Public Library (Carrie was supposed to get married there, you know!). Central Park. 5^th Avenue. And don’t get me started on tourists wanting to go to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I generally advise that it’s a full-day activity and I will meet them when they get back for a late dinner.

I know I sound like a complete B, but it’s very difficult to have tourists in town, when every tourist wants to see the same things that you’ve seen 100 times.

But what happens when the New York visitor used to live in New York, has already done all the things and been all the places, knows how to navigate the subway alone, and doesn’t actually need you to act as a tour guide? Well then, you have fun. And that’s exactly what I have been doing for the past two weeks.

I’m very lucky to have a BFF who lives halfway around the world in Australia, and I’m even luckier that she visits often and we see each other in 3D almost every year.

I met Katherine from Craig’s List, which is where all great friendships begin. (I don’t think I need to tell y’all that is sarcasm, but please do not go searching for new friends on Craig’s List, that is actually how all true crime Netflix documentaries begin, not friendships.) It is, however, how our friendship began. It was March 2014, and I was living in a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment that we had broken into 4 bedrooms. We were searching for a lucky 4^th roommate to join our home. I was living an EXTREMELY miserable life as an attorney, and I was hoping our next roommate would be a fun addition to our crew. Kat showed up to our living room for an interview and we loved her immediately. Her accent, her cleanliness, and did I mention her accent? She had just graduated college and was in New York for a year, looking to explore all of the arts and culture that it had to offer.

The rest is history. She became an integral part of my friends group, and we showed her all of the American things she needed to know, like how cold it gets at Christmas at this latitude (she carried a Christmas tree home from a street vendor with me), and how even though we don’t know much about soccer, we still will drink excessively if the US is playing in the World Cup. We also introduced her to her first Bloomin’ Onion, which, curiously, they do not actually have in Australia. Who knew?

Christmas in Winter, a new concept for an Aussie!

Even though she moved back to Australia in 2015, she came back to visit in the summer of 2016, 2017, 2018 AND 2019. Then she came back to the US for her glorious post-Covid return in 2022, once Australia allowed their citizens to leave again, and she came to Mexico for my wedding. I was so honored to have her there, and I knew I HAD to go to Australia. I had been talking about it for years. Finally, in fall of 2022, I went to visit. We spent two weeks together and had a blast.

Then, 3 weeks ago, she came back to New York. So, what does a person show a “visitor” when she’s seen all the things? Well, as it turns out, mostly restaurants.

A few weeks before Kat’s arrival in the big apple, she sent me her notes app with a full list of 30+ restaurants she wanted to hit. The timing was perfect because the first week she was in New York, I only had two days of work. This left plenty of time for eating. My friends all mobilized because it’s not every day that a person from 10,000 miles away visits! We had a friend fly in from Florida for 5 days, a friend from south Jersey come in for two days, and a friend who was away in Florida for Christmas flew back early to spend time with Kat.

We ate a LOT. We went to Parm. We went to Papaya Dog. She got Halal Guys. We had happy hour at a Mexican place. We had brunch at Bubby’s. We had another brunch at Maison Pickle. We had gelato at Anita. We went to JG Melon’s. We took her to Raising Cane’s for the first time. We went to a HUGE family-style dinner at Carmine’s. We had the special Upper West Side flavor at Ample Hills ice cream (Night at the Museum).

Speaking of museums, visiting museums is her truly favorite activity in New York, but since I don’t love/understand art, I mostly let her get her art fill while I worked. However, she did persuade me to go to the Jewish Museum, which I had never been to before. My mom drove in from Philadelphia for a day visit to see Katherine, and we started the day with bagels, as any good Jew crew does before visiting the Jewish Museum. There was a very interesting exhibit on of photographs of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s collars. Also, there was a beautiful fashion exhibit of Gaby Aghion and the house of Chloe.

First time at Cane’s! The live DJ really is the pièce de résistance.

Besides eating and one museum, we also went to see two Broadway shows. The first week, we went to see Gutenberg!, which was absolutely hysterical. We laughed out loud the entire time. While it considers itself a musical, and there are a lot of songs, I wouldn’t say the music was memorable. The comedy, however, was amazing. Also, the entire show was done by the two main actors: Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells. There were literally 0 other people in the show. The only exception was that 10 minutes before the end, there is a guest star every night, and it is always a surprise. The night we went, it was Billy Crystal and people were agog. It was such a fun addition.

For the entire next week, I entered the lottery to see at least 7 different shows every day, and eventually, I won! I ended up winning tickets to see Kimberly Akimbo, which we both had heard amazing things about, but knew absolutely nothing of the plot. When you win lottery seats, you never know where they will be in the theater, and since the tickets are $40/piece, you get what you get, and you don’t get upset. Well, our seats were in the front row. FRONT! Row AA. This was only the second time this happened to me, the other was when I saw Frozen in February 2020. It was a bit annoying craning our heads, but we could see every actor’s facial expressions and it made the experience even more unique and exciting.

We loved Kimberly Akimbo. It was very different from Gutenberg! still funny, but also heartwarming, and cute, and I may have even cried once, what else is new!? I highly recommend it.

Besides Broadway and food, we did a lot of walking around the city, through Central Park, up Riverside Park, through and around Little Island, and into shops in Tribeca. We also did a lot of hanging out with big groups of friends. It was a huge change of pace, given that I was mostly a hermit recluse for the entirety of 2023. Who knew that all it took for me to leave my couch was a friend who traveled across the world. She even got me to stay out on New Year’s Eve until 2 am! I later learned that she was out until 5 am, including a late-night Taco Bell run, but I was impressed with myself for my 2 am bedtime.

I don’t know yet when I’ll see her next, but she’s always welcome to come back to New York, especially because she doesn’t ask me to go to the top of the Empire State Building!

Big City Living

We Moved! … Again.

February 28, 2021 2 Comments

We are 2 months into 2021 and I have already failed at one of my annual goals because I have not posted a single time in February! I have an excuse though… we moved! 3 years ago, right around the beginning of this blog, we also moved and I posted about it, and even then, it was not our first apartment together. We are officially in our 3^rd apartment together and we have passed 1 full year of engagement. Don’t ask about wedding plans. The last time we moved, it was a true saga, and again, during Covid, it was a saga again.

Anyway, we have a new place, YAY!

Apartment number one together was about 700 square feet and at the time, it felt HUGE! Both of us had just come from years/forever of living with roommates, so to share a massive bedroom AND have the kitchen and living room to ourselves was glorious. But we knew it was temporary. We had gotten a month free off our lease as a signing bonus, so we knew we wouldn’t want to stay and pay a LOT more money the next year. Then in true NYC landlord fashion, they raised the rent even more than we predicted, so we left.

Apartment number two together, we figured, why don’t we save money for a year, downsize to a smaller place, and save for a bigger place the next year? We tossed a lot of furniture, decided we had to choose between a desk for Chris and a dining table (desk won), and we moved into about 525 square feet. It was SMALL, we lost 25% of our space. But we loved the location on 72^nd Street, a stone’s throw from the Dakota building and Central Park, AND we knew it was temporary.

But then when it came time to re-sign the lease, we figured, why not stay another year and save even MORE money? And then the next year, same thing. Only problem? One month after signing on for a third year, Covid hit. We fled to Texas because we knew there was no way we could quarantine 2 people in 525 square feet and work from home with our very call-heavy jobs.

Our old apartment full of boxes, and then completely empty!

On the one hand, we were thrilled not to be paying more money for an apartment that we weren’t even living in, but on the other hand, we didn’t want to stay in Texas forever and staying home in that tiny space was really not an option. We did in fact return to our tiny home in September knowing we only had a few months to bear.

Thankfully, the rental market was in our favor. Our landlord sent us a lease renewal with no rent increase, but we knew we needed to leave anyway.

Apartment number three, our NEW place is GLORIOUS. It’s more than twice the size of apartment 2. It has everything you could possibly dream of in New York. Two bathrooms. An extra bedroom for Chris to have an office. Natural light (a LOT). A dishwasher. A side-by-side fridge with ice dispenser. Space for a dining table AND a sectional. AND… a washer dryer. IN UNIT!!! We are literally living the dream. I have actually dreamed about doing laundry in my own apartment.

SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES.

Also, I got a Peloton. More on that later. Our second week here, Chris’s table he was using as a makeshift desk started to collapse and he called for me to help him. He got mad that I didn’t come but it was because I literally didn’t hear him. Our space is big enough to not hear each other. Wild.

But… moving sucks. Even though we again hired people to pack us, it is just difficult to readjust to new space, a new neighborhood, a new life! So I apologize for being MIA, I promise I’ll be back now, fast and furious, so I can tell you about my new #BigHomeEnergy. And also my Peloton. Yes, I just mentioned it AGAIN. I didn’t even talk in this post about the complications of moving during Covid, but that’s for another day (soon!).

Big City Living

NYC Outside Date at The Vessel

January 15, 2021 1 Comment

The holiday season is over, but unfortunately the Covid season is not. In fact, it’s worse than ever. You may remember I was crowd-sourcing ideas for social distanced date ideas back in May. I don’t think we had any idea we’d be needing those into 2021, but here we are.

We came back to NYC from Texas back in September, and while I do love the fall and winter here in New York, it makes outdoor dates more complicated. You can’t exactly sit on the ground in a park and have a picnic. I mean you can but it’s not as comfortable and requires many, many layers. Last month, I tasked my fiancé with finding us a date idea. Not only did he come up with one, he came up with two and we did them both!

I hereby give you permission to copy us. When you can.

First, we went to The Vessel in Hudson Yards.

Pros: This is the perfect pandemic date. It’s outside, beautiful, and it’s crowd-controlled because you need a ticket.

Cons: You need to reserve a ticket online and there is a limited amount. Also, in case you don’t know what it is, it’s a spiral staircase. It’s comprised of “154 intricately interconnecting flights of stairs — almost 2,500 individual steps and 80 landings.” This is only a con because I did this after leg day and had already walked 15,000 steps when I was presented with this date night. Thankfully, we paused a LOT to take photos.

Pro: Amazing views of the river and the city. Really, it’s breathtaking. Also, it’s free! You only have to pay if you want a “flex” ticket, meaning you can arrive any time during the day. Otherwise you’re assigned a time slot.

Cons: It’s actually closed at the moment due to some sad events and they are not sure when it will open again.

This was a perfect date in my opinion because it was an “experience” and it was something brand new. I love experiencing things together for the first time. I feel like that’s the most meaningful and fun date, and if you ever go back, you always think about the first time you went.

I had never been to The Vessel before, and I hadn’t even been to Hudson Yards! Hudson Yards is just a very pretty indoor mall. Since we are trying to avoid indoor anything, we didn’t go inside. But it looked beautiful lit up in Christmas lights. I assume the lights were for Christmas but maybe it’s a year-round thing? You’ll have to go and tell me.

For Part 2 of our date night, we walked from Hudson Yards to Bryant Park. This walk in and of itself could have been part of the date night, too. It was a 35-minute walk, and we walked by Macy’s to see it lit up for the holidays. There is something so magical about NYC in December. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of it.

When we got to Bryant Park, I was on the hunt for ice cream I saw on Instagram. Yes, it was about 30 degrees with 40 mph wind gusts (those were a little scary on the top of the Vessel). But I am a firm believer that there is no such thing as “bad weather for ice cream.” Anyway, there were supposed to be these churro cone ice cream thingies called chimneys or something. We did not find them. But it was still magical. There were people skating on the ice rink, and despite being a little too crowded for my liking, I’m happy to say almost EVERYONE was wearing a mask correctly. Over mouth and nose, y’all. Come on. We’ve been doing this for 9 months now, I know you know.

We didn’t ice skate but we did people-watch.

At the Vessel, people kept taking their masks off to take photos, and there was way less of that at Bryant Park. They did have “igloos” meant for Covid safety, or as Chris called them, Covid Cages. Pretty much virus incubators. People seemed pretty thrilled to get in them, though. Count me out.

After some more walking around, we grabbed an Uber (cracked windows) and headed back home.

10/10 for this date. It was outside, fun, festive, and safe. Or at least, as safe as it gets if you leave the house in a big city. Plus, it was FREE and we were home by 8 pm to cook dinner and drink wine in the living room. Have you guys been to The Vessel? Did you find the mystery churro ice cream cones? Tell me what you thought!

Big City Living, Miscellaneous

Holiday Tips… HELP!

December 16, 2020 4 Comments

It’s the most wonderful timeeee of the yearrrr. FALSE. It’s the most STRESSFUL time. Every year, I agonize over holiday tips. Who needs one? Who doesn’t “need” one but deserves one? How much? Do I pool the money? Or do individual gifts? How much did I give last year?

This year is even worse! Everyone is struggling and I am lucky enough to still have a job, all of my family members are healthy, and I even got promoted this year (humble brag). So I’m feeling pretty fortunate. But how does that translate into tips? This is, in my opinion, one of the worst parts of being an adult, right after laundry and understanding the difference between a W2 and a W9.

For tips, first, I need to decide who gets them. You’d think this would be a simple process, but it’s not. Growing up, I remember my mom always left tips for the postman. He even would leave an envelope for us so we didn’t forget. But now, I work a full-time job and if I ever see the mailman/mailwoman, it’s in passing, and they don’t even know which apartment I belong to. I’m one of many little boxes on a wall. Also, they usually have airpods in, and I’ve never had a conversation with them. It’s not like the friendly neighborhood suburban mailmen who actually walk up to your physical front door. But… they’re working so hard this year. And the absentee ballots!! I’m so thankful to USPS!

The guy who REALLY deserves the cold hard cash is the Amazon delivery guy. We get approximately 7 packages a week. Yes, you read that right, at least one per day. But it’s not like we have a relationship with the UPS guy. This is NYC. Again, the packages just sort of magically show up here while I’m working.

Now let’s talk about the people who I actually come face to face with. During Covid, there are VERY few of these people, and even so it’s mask to mask, but let’s say pandemic aside, who else provides services for me that I should tip.

Our cleaning person. This is a no-brainer. She definitely gets a holiday tip. But how much? She didn’t clean for us for 8 months this year. I sent her money periodically while we were out of state, but I know she’s hurting and I’m sure a lot of her clients have discontinued her service. We have her back now (our chore chart didn’t work, more on that another time), but she’s only been back for 2 weeks. And then the even harder question: how much do we give? The amount we pay for one cleaning? Like a bonus? Or a lump sum $100. Or more? This is a more difficult tip to give because it’s usually in person. Or should I do it by Venmo so I don’t need to see her face? Is that cowardly? I have tried googling these answers, by the way, but there does not seem to be a consensus.

There are other people I may tip on a normal year, a hairstylist, manicurist (before I did my own!), even a dry cleaner, but this year, I haven’t really seen any of those people.

In NYC, there is only one group of people who ALWAYS gets tips: building staff. Doormen, concierges, porters, superintendents. They always send around a happy holiday card to remind us of their names so we don’t forget them. Also, they’re the ones dealing with our Amazon dependency. And this year, they are putting their health and safety in jeopardy every day commuting to our building, interacting with 3,000 Doordash delivery men, and with idiots who take their masks down in the lobby.

BUT HOW MUCH?? When we lived on 96^th Street, we had a building staff of 8. We gave $50/person. That’s $400. Split between two people, it was reasonable. But would we have given the same amount if we lived alone? When I lived in that same building as a poor law student with 3 roommates, I think we each gave $50 (total of $200 for the apartment). Whether I gave $400 or $200, we were barely acknowledged for our card.

But in our building now? We have 6 people, and again the past two years we have given $50/person and we have been treated like KINGS. A majority of our building now is rent controlled, so I think it’s abnormal for people to give that much. It was SO appreciated. I almost felt bad. If we could afford $400 in the other building, should we have given the same here? How do you split that by 6 evenly? Should it be an amount by person?

And more importantly, do you give the same amount each year? There is a such thing as inflation. And this year, as I said, we are more fortunate than many others. Do we adjust for that? Our expenses have decreased. Well, Chris got me a ring so I should say my expenses have decreased. And the final question, do we put cash in an envelope for everyone? Or do we split it up into individual envelopes? It probably appears nicer together because the amount it higher, but is that the point? Shouldn’t it be personalized?

You can probably tell by the amount of question marks in this blog post (28) that I do NOT have any of the answers. How do you guys dole out holiday tips? Any tips, pun intended, are appreciated.

Big City Living

Crying In NYC

December 7, 2020 5 Comments

It’s beginning to look a lot like… we’ll be staying in the house for Christmas. That’s not exactly how the song goes, but we are still deep into this global pandemic and it’s not looking like it will clear up by Christmas, or New Years (or Easter 2020, as some people may have thought).

It sure has been a depressing year. Trips canceled. Lonely in-apartment nights. Enough DoorDash delivery to keep the restaurant business afloat (almost). And I don’t need to remind you of my own personal tragedy, being canceled last minute from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

If you’re feeling like you need a good cry, and these constantly streaming Hallmark movies aren’t doing it for ya crying in the house, then this blog is for you. I compiled a list of great places to cry in NYC. I started brainstorming this list 7 long years ago, before I quit my job as an attorney. Back when I was practicing law, I cried in public at least 5 times a week. I don’t know if I’d say I’m proud of this fact, but I do think it qualifies me as a bit of an expert.

Recently, even Meghan Markle commented on this phenomenon in the New York Times. She said,

[My cab driver] explained that New Yorkers live out their personal lives in public spaces. “We love in the city, we cry in the street, our emotions and stories there for anybody to see,” I remember him telling me. “Don’t worry, somebody on that corner will ask her if she’s OK.”

Sometimes that’s true. People ask if you’re ok. But most times? They’re too busy to notice. Which is great for me, because I usually don’t want anyone asking me about why I’m crying. I just need a good cry, ya know? Let’s start with the one the Duchess of Sussex witnessed.

The Sidewalk

New Yorkers walk everywhere. So it only makes sense that our cry-fest begins here. We are on our way somewhere. Deep in thought, deep in podcast or playlist, and all of a sudden, a deep depression hits. Do we wait to get somewhere enclosed? Hell no. We let it out on the street corner. Most of the time, we’re walking too quickly for anyone to see our tears. Or it’s winter and they’re frozen to our cheeks anyway. If, god forbid, we are stopped at a traffic light (and there’s actual traffic… because if there isn’t we’re jaywalking), then someone may see our tears. Not to fear, there is likely someone much more interesting on that corner asking for weed money on singing very loudly for all to hear. What if we don’t make it to the sidewalk in time??

The Elevator

This is a classic. Perfect for a quick cry. It’s isolated, enclosed, and feels like a womb. It often smells like urine or some residual curry, but not to worry, once the tears are flowing, your nose will clog up anyway. Main issue with the elevator cry is when you think you’re home free on a solo trip and then it stops and a random person gets in. Thankfully, normal human elevator etiquette is to stare at the wall and make zero eye contact until getting off to say, “have a good day.” Tears do not usually derail this social contract.

In the Lobby to Your Doorman

This is usually reserved for drunken tears. This should be our LAST RESORT. Let me repeat, do not do this regularly. You need to face this human the next day. And the next. You need to pretend you are just a normal happy person who orders from the same Chinese delivery place 3 times per week. Better to not cry in front of your doorman. However, if you MUST speak to someone about your tears and drunk dialing your parents is not an option, it’s best to cry to your doorman after 2 am. Then the doorman knows you’re just drunk and gives you a free pass (even if you’re not, I suggest pretending). ONE FREE PASS, GUYS, use it wisely.

In a Crowd

This is hit or miss. If it’s a crowd of New Yorkers, they will likely not bat an eye. New Yorkers DGAF about you, and even if they did, they probably don’t at the moment because they are too focused on why there is a crowd, and annoyed at how big it is, because they have places to be. If it’s a crowd of tourists, you are in for a bumpy and intrusive ride. Tourists always ask too many questions. During Covid, I do not recommend even being near a crowd, so let’s take a rain check on this one for now.

On the Subway

HIGHLY recommend this. First of all, pre-pandemic, subways were crowded and nobody looked at anybody. Even in the pandemic, people are reading Kindles, listening to music, trying to breathe as little as possible and not touch anything. A lot of concentration is involved. Nobody bothers you on the subway. On the off chance that a homeless man tries to comfort you (this happened to me in 2014), it will at least make for a fabulous Facebook status.

At a Bakery

Guys, this is fool-proof. You’re already there buying sweets for yourself so the assumption is that you’re depressed or PMS-ing. Why not add some tears for good measure? It almost makes more sense to be crying in a bakery than to have dry eyes. Plus, that banana pudding is just SO DELICIOUS, they may be tears of joy.

At Home

Pre-pandemic, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this. Your roommates or significant other will ask questions. It’s too intimate. You’ll need to pretend you were watching an episode of This Is Us, even if you’re clearly watching Great British Bakeoff. But during Covid times?? We need to normalize crying at home. First and foremost, crying with a mask on is not fun. It’s messy. It’s runny. The snot combines with the saliva and then you wipe it with your mask which gets wet, and then gets cold and freezes, it’s just not a good idea. So if you don’t want to cry with a mask, that leaves one option.

Perhaps just this year, let’s cry at home. But once these vaccines start rolling out, we will be crying and mourning this lost year for many months to come. Bookmark this page and be ready to let the tears go.

Big City Living

Let’s NOT Have a Parade

November 25, 2020 2 Comments

I am here to bring you the heartbreaking news that I have faced my worst disappointment of the year. All of my Thanksgiving hopes and dreams, stolen from me at the last moment. If you haven’t guessed it yet, you probably haven’t been following my blog for a full year. If you have been following me from the beginning, you know that the ultimate event of the year is THE Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I’ve watched it every year of my life, near or far, and the last two years, I was lucky enough to be in it.

Don’t believe I’ve written about it before? Here are some examples:

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade November 22, 2017
Macy’s Parade Ultimate Viewing Guide November 22, 2017
Thanksgiving Day 2017 November 24, 2017 (yes, I posted 3 times about the parade in 2017. No regrets whatsoever)
I’m In the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!!! November 19, 2018
I’ve Peaked – My Macy’s Parade Fantasy Come True December 7, 2018
Breakfast Clown Comes to Town (a poem) November 27, 2019

This year was going to be EXTRA special though, because I was supposed to be in it WITH MY SISTER. We are both Macy’s Parade FANATICS. Caps intentional. She was in the Parade’s 90^th year in 2016! I was there in the grand stand watching and shouting her name, of course.

And this was going to be our year!! We were elated. A good friend of mine had a connection and got us in as float escorts. Did I mention I’d also have a friend in my group? First time ever to participate with people I knew! So many exclamation marks!! And now… nothing.

Let me rewind a bit. Of course, with Covid-19 still raging, I knew this Parade would be like no other Parade before it. We were invited to participate in early October, so we already knew there would be huge precautions including no real route or spectators, pre-recorded sections, all local participants, mandatory Covid testing and face covering… it was going to be a whole thing. But I was still excited. Can you imagine me telling my kids I was such a Parade Junkie that I marched in the one that was in the middle of a global health pandemic? I could. In fact, I did imagine it. Every day.

We’ve all had our share of disappointment this year. I had a lot of plans that were canceled. A trip to see my brother. A work trip to a military base in South Carolina. A trip to Copenhagen with my mom and brother. A trip to AUSTRALIA. I had plans to go to 15 new fitness studios in NYC and to see the NYC Ballet finally perform the Nutcracker. All of those hopes were dashed. Since March, I’ve tried to keep my expectations excruciatingly low for the year. My only hope now is to not get sick and not find out the winner of Great British Bakeoff by reading their darn Twitter spoilers.

But the Parade… I thought it was actually going to happen. Last week, we got our assignments emailed to us and I was going to be a Float Escort on the NY Life Float. I had set aside time in my work schedule to get my mandatory Covid test two days before the Parade. My 5:30 am alarm was set. And then I got the email.

Long explanation that says SORRY NOT SORRY.

SORRY NO DICE. The email basically said they had to cut down participants even more, sorry. And they said our participation would be deferred to next year. However, I don’t believe that part for a few reasons I won’t go in to, but suffice it to say, that has not been the case in other scenarios. And to make matters worse, I can’t even WATCH the Parade! There are absolutely no spectators allowed. So despite the fact that I live on the Parade route, and that I was literally going to be in the Parade last week, now I will be watching it on TV alone at home and crying.

Which is a great segue for the next blog I’ll be releasing this week, one I have been meaning to write for 7 years: best places to cry in NYC. We’ll all be needing it this holiday season.

I have absolutely zero plans for Thanksgiving, but if you do, I hope you plan on celebrating safely and with members of your immediate household. Hopefully, I’ll be back next year with a more festive blog.

For now, here are some old photos through the years of Parade-watching. Check the captions for the years.

1990 in the Grand Stand, My baby bro is in that bundle of blankets.

Big City Living

The Chore Chart

October 23, 2020 No Comments

I used to believe: “If you want something done well, you need to do it yourself.”

Slowly but surely, I have migrated to the camp of: “Why would I do something if I could pay someone else to do it for me?”

It’s been an evolution, but the busier I got after college, the less inclined I was to spend my “precious time” doing tasks I didn’t want to do. And truthfully, my fiancé has had a huge influence on my thinking. It’s not necessarily that he can’t do things, it’s just that he doesn’t want to. And when you are working 80+ hour work weeks, I completely understand not wanting to spend your valuable free time putting together a bookshelf or cleaning the floor. It’s all about delegating! There’s an app for that: TaskRabbit.

You might say I had my “come to Jesus” moment when we first moved apartments together. My fiancé said hands down we were getting people to pack for us. Meanwhile, I BAWKED at the $1000 price tag. But then I realized it was $500 each, and the amount of time I would spend sourcing boxes, packing etc., (and badly – I’m not a professional!) definitely made it worth hiring out. And let me tell you… I’ll NEVER go back. We lived a completely normal life until the morning of the move. There was no “we can’t have eggs, our pans are already packed,” or “what the heck box did I put my underwear in!” It was THE BEST.

But back to cleaning. We both hate cleaning. Does anyone like it? I am not a messy person, in fact, I’m pretty tidy. But tidy is not the same thing as clean. And my sweet fiancé?? I don’t think he’s ever cleaned a toilet in his life. Pretty much the first month we moved in together he sent me a piece from the New York Times about it. The Times publishes almost the exact same article every year. The gist? You’ll be in a happier relationship if someone else does the cleaning.

In the 2017 piece, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School created a study that found, “People who spent money to buy themselves time, such as by outsourcing disliked tasks, reported greater overall life satisfaction.”

But now it’s a global pandemic and my same fiancé who couldn’t live without his cleaner is now scared to have someone come into our safe haven home. The main problem? Our house still gets dirty. In fact, it’s way worse because we are in it 24/7! The only food we eat, we make in our own kitchen. The only bathroom we use is our own. We aren’t taking vacations and sleeping elsewhere. It’s a mess. Literally.

I knew I needed to nip this in the bud as soon as we came back to NYC, so I started priming Chris for this idea of splitting chores. While in Texas I mentioned how I didn’t want to be in charge of all cleaning. Then I talked about how he wanted to split tasks. I have learned from working with children that the more buy-in and choice they think they have, the better the result. So I asked him:

Are there certain things you prefer to do?
Do you want to do the same chores every week?
Should we switch off?
What are the things we should make sure we are cleaning daily/weekly/monthly?

Then I took out my scrapbooking box from under the bed (this is NYC, a lot of stuff goes under there) and got to work. I even crowdsourced on Facebook to see if people had ideas or templates. Most templates I saw online only were for children’s chores. I only two examples of couples splitting chores, which I found semi-troubling (Thrifty Mom and Our Little Apartment).

I spent a long time figuring out the color scheme I wanted. Too long, if I’m being honest. Then I used a paper cutter to measure out the exact dimensions so it was even. I used a tiny puncher to round all of the corners. I layered paper within my chosen color scheme. I found sparkly stickers to spell out our names. Then I had to divide the tasks evenly.

Chris said he had no preference of tasks and that he’d like to switch off. I made my chart and I made our names on separate pieces of paper so I could switch them week to week. I looked on Amazon for cute, pretty, and strong magnets. I needed something that would stick through lamination, and I wanted them pretty since they were going to live on our fridge (which is visible from pretty much our entire apartment because New York).

I made a check list with mini circles that would hopefully match up with my magnets, and two columns for tasks to do, and tasks that were done. In theory, this was so that we could do the chores slowly throughout the week/month and know that at least they were getting done at some point. In reality, we have been leaving them until Sunday and then doing them all. I told you we hate chores! Procrastination is the name of the game.

Here’s how it’s going: the chores are getting done but we hate it. I feel less anxious because I’m not living in filth but I do dread Sundays. And 2.5 weeks in, Chris asked me to text our old cleaning lady and ask her to come back. She hasn’t written me back yet, but I’ll keep you posted. At least it looks cute!

Big City Living

I Miss New York

August 19, 2020 2 Comments

You always hear “I <3 New York” from tourists and residents, but you rarely hear “I Miss New York.” In fact, in the past few weeks, New York has been getting a bad rap. There are articles popping up, even in the New York Times, about how “New York is Over.” And then there are die-hard New Yorkers who are coming for them. It’s become incredibly factious.

And honestly, the die-harders would probably say I have no right to speak on the issue, since I “fled” the city on March 14^th. I’ve crossed the 5-month mark. This is by FAR the longest I’ve been away from my home city since I got there. Not that it was exactly my choice.

Speaking of my home, last week was New Yorkiversary! August 12^th, 2010. A decade in New York – minus 5 months. And it feels so wrong not to be there for my anniversary, not to be able to celebrate with my friends or with my sister who lives 13 blocks from me (now 1,500 miles away).

Anyway, being away from New York, I feel like it gives me so much more of a right to stand up for it. I can talk about all of the things I miss. The things that make New York unique. Now, from an outsider’s perspective. Also, I still pay more than $3,000/month for a 500 square-foot, one-bedroom apartment, so I feel like I have a right. One does not pay that kind of rent for an uninhabited apartment unless one really loves New York.

Here are some of the things I miss:

Singing like no one’s listening… because they’re not. Sometimes I like to sing to the music in my ear pods. In a subway station, walking down the street, wherever. Sometimes alcohol is involved, sometimes I’m just feeling the song. And nobody looks at you twice because you can be guaranteed that you are not the weirdest thing they saw that day.
Wearing anything you want. Again, there are weirder outfits than yours. Crocs and PJ pants to the bodega for emergency Sunday morning Gatorade? Bra not mandatory. Speaking of…
Bodegas. I don’t miss the cats (IYKYK), but I miss that there is always a corner store open with anything you might need. Advil, sausage, egg and cheese sandwich, foil. Pretty much anything. Also, you can walk there!
Walking. As you read a few weeks ago, we went to Top Golf for a social distanced date night. And as we both ordered drinks, we looked at each other and realize, “EW one of us has to drive??? Lame.” In the five years of our relationship, we never have had to deal with that. Even on vacations, we had Ubers or public transportation.
Doormen. Not all people have them, but it’s much more normalized in New York. I miss drunkenly asking my doormen how their day was when I get home at 1 am. I miss the feeling of always having someone to smile at when I get home (I know some people would hate this – I’m friendly, I can’t help it). I miss someone to empathize with about the weather. I wonder if they miss me?
Running into friends in Central Park. When the whole city centers around the same park, it’s easier to accidentally find people there.
Flexible/Multiuse Space. Hear me out. New Yorkers are THE BEST at using the space they have. Whether it means building custom bookshelves that literally go to the ceiling, or having a table that functions as a desk, a dining table AND a library, there is no wasted space. I cannot imagine owning an ottoman that is not a comfortable chair, and also opens for storage. Or a TV that is not mounted on the wall. In Texas we a half-full walk-in closet in our room. In New York, it would be an office. Or a nursery. I think this makes New Yorkers incredibly talented and creative designers/innovators.
Sidewalk Waterers. Is anyone in NYC keeping them accountable?? If a sidewalk gets watered and it isn’t on my Instagram story, does it even get clean???
Food. I swear, guys, I didn’t realize the quality of food we have in New York. Don’t @ me, of course I knew about the Michelin star restaurants. I’m talking about fast-casual. The things we order from Seamless. Every restaurant we order in from in New York is AMAZING. If it isn’t, it closes. It’s crazy the sh*t food they get away with here in Texas. I had a sushi roll the other day… let’s just say I wish I hadn’t.

There are a lot of other things I miss about New York, but some of those things aren’t happening now anyway because of the pandemic. Those things include: sports, Broadway, boozy party brunches, the people in general, and the subway entertainment (I’ve been gone too long if I miss them). But I’ve got big news, we officially booked our tickets to come back to New York! One month and counting. It feels so wrong to be missing my 10^th 9/11, but I will be thinking about my city and the struggles it will continue to get through as we remain New York Tough.

It will certainly be a challenge to work from home together with my new-fiancé in our tiny-home, but I can’t wait to get back to my city. I left a piece of my heart there, and despite what the internet-trolls say, I know it’s still there! Pandemic notwithstanding.

Big City Living, Miscellaneous

Frozen on Broadway

April 24, 2020 2 Comments

Do you want a build a snowman??? Since it’s supposedly snowing some places in the north in late April, I figured it was the perfect time to talk about going to see Frozen on Broadway back in February. Ya know, back when we could do things like go to plays, sit next to people, hear people sing from a stage and not on zoom in their own living rooms. SIGH.

Anyway, as you may remember from my 2020 goals, I wanted to go and see three Broadway shows this year. I had already seen Mean Girls (twice!), and thankfully, I won the Frozen lottery before Broadway went dark. I knew that Frozen was on my to-see list, and I wanted to be prepared. Unbelievably, I had never seen the movie (GASP!). For some of you out there currently quarantined with your small children, this probably seems physically impossible, but it’s true. Thankfully, my no-long-emoji-fiance loves Frozen and bought a 3-year pre-subscription to Disney+ so he could watch it on repeat. Ok, that’s a lie, he got Disney+ solely for the Mandalorian and Marvel movies, but still. Lucky for me, I had Frozen at my frost-bitten fingertips.

At the beginning of January, I invited my best friend to my house so we could binge Disney movies and I could braid her hair. Many hairstyles were done that day, but better yet, I was initiated into the Frozen cult and now I cannot LET IT GO. (Get it?)

Once I saw the movie, I was ready to see the Broadway show STAT, but I had to wait until I won the lottery. Ballin’ on a budget! My very first blog post talked about tips for (cheaply) living in New York including free stuff and discounted stuff, the only way to live. Broadway lottery is a big tip.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait too long to see the show – I won the lottery on February 28^th for the next night. I asked my best friend if she wanted to be my +1; it only seemed right since she was there with me when I saw the movie for the first time. She had already seen the show, but supposedly they had recently changed some of the music, so she had mentioned wanting to see it again. Sure enough, she said yes to being my +1 and we started to plan for the next day!

I LEAPED down to Times Square on February 29^th to pick up the tickets. (Get it? I’ll stop with the puns now.) You may remember, the hard part about lottery Broadway tickets is that the “winning tickets” are sometimes crappy seats, and sometimes not together. I went to the theater two hours before showtime and got the tickets. They said Orchestra Row A, and I couldn’t believe it. Were we in the FRONT row?? They also said “Partial View,” which I’d hoped didn’t mean allll the way to the side.

But first, we went to dinner at Carmine’s, a New York City classic. It is great for huge family gatherings since the portions are MASSIVE and there are usually many leftovers. For the first time in forever, (pun again… I can’t stop!) I went there with only one person and we knew we couldn’t have any leftovers. We ordered one dish between us, and trust me, it was more than enough. The plate was larger than our heads combined.

Chicken Marsala over Fettucini. Enough for an army of 2.

We rolled out of there and hustled to the theater, which was thankfully next door because ironically, it was FREEZING. The usher led us down the aisle, allll the way down the aisle, to the front row, DIRECTLY behind the conductor! That must have been why it was “partial view” but it was so awesome to watch him conduct the whole show. He was not in the way at all, and I mostly forgot about him except for the times I was specifically watching him.

The show was FANTASTIC. I expected the production value to be high (I mean come on… we are talking about Disney money here), but it even surpassed my expectations. Olaf the snowman was hilarious, and the Let it Go scene made me audibly gasp! I loved all of the outfits and sparkles, and DUH the braids. I could NOT get over all of the hairstyles. Fun fact, my emoticon on Disney+ is Elsa, and it has been since before I even saw the movie. She had a braid, I couldn’t resist. How could I possibly not like a show about winter and cold (my fav season), with plenty of sing-along-able music (love), and braids (DUH). It was amazing.

I highly recommend seeing Frozen when Broadway is open and we are able to see shows and gather in groups again. I may even be slightly biased since this show and dinner at a restaurant were some of the last things I did in New York. I miss my city so much, and I can’t wait for things to get better so we can resume a bit of normalcy. In the meantime, if you have a Broadway itch that must be scratched, Andrew Lloyd Webber is streaming some of his biggest musicals online for limited times. Each show goes live on YouTube on Friday at 2 pm ET and usually remains viewable for 48 hours afterward. It’s not quite Elsa and Anna, but it’s still pretty awesome.

My main tip for when you see Frozen: expect to find confetti “snow” in your hair and clothes for WEEKS after. I had to shake out my clothing at the door of my apartment, and I looked like I had large dandruff flakes in my hair as well. #worthit

Big City Living

Mean Girls on Broadway

January 29, 2020 2 Comments

On Wednesdays we wear pink. And we also go see Mean Girls on Broadway. Let me tell you it was SO FETCH. It was probably my favorite day of the year so far. And that’s only because October 3^rd hasn’t happened yet.

For those of you who are lost, you should really brush up on your Mean Girls movie quotes. From here on out, I promise to tell you about my experience and not just quote the movie. My experience was AWESOME. Really. You guys know I set annual goals for myself, and the best way to make your goals a reality is by telling people so you stay accountable. In this case, I told all of my friends that I wanted to see 3 Broadway shows so they would invite me with them. TADAA my plan worked! Well, sort of.

My good friend has a way better memory than me (or is better at setting alarms on her phone), so she remembers to enter the lottery online to win tickets to Broadway shows almost every week. She even enters for shows she has already been to. Two weeks ago, she won tickets to see Mean Girls on Tuesday. Unfortunately, she asked me if I wanted to see it, and also asked her coworker, and we both said yes. I told her it was fine and I could go another day. Little did I know, another day would be THE NEXT DAY. And better yet, it was WEDNESDAY!

The way the Broadway Lottery works, for the non-New-Yorkers among us, is that you enter online, and then you find out the day before if you won. The tickets aren’t free, but they are drastically reduced. In this case, they were $47.50 each. The main drawback is, you never know where the seats will be, or if they will be together. Also, the person who wins the tickets needs to be present with their ID to pick them up. My friend, even though she won the lottery, said I could pick someone else to go with since she had already seen it. I picked my sister, and she was thrilled to join me even though she hadn’t even seen the movie. (She doesn’t even go here!!) My friend went to the theater to pick up the tickets and be my sister’s and my official Mean Girls photographer, and then left to go home. What a good friend, amirite??? She’s no Regina George. Plus, we got lucky. The seats were together and they were orchestra row R.

Even though my sister hadn’t seen the movie, she had me, Mean Girls trivia extraordinaire, to coach her through the experience. I explained how OBVIOUSLY we needed to wear pink. I took out all of the pink in my dresser (literally, I laid my shirts out on my bed and sent pics to my sister) and asked her which I should wear so we could match. True to her word, my sister showed up in a bright pink dress and a light pink, sparkly scarf in her hair. We both had packed snacks, like professional show-goers. In my sister’s bag – chocolate covered raisins (in a Ziplock bag so they didn’t make noise, duh), and a bottle of water. In my bag – cut up pieces of apple, lifesaver gummies, and chocolate mint bark thins. We were ready for show time.

It was SO GOOD. Like… one of my favorite shows in the past few years, and I have seen a LOT! And better yet, my sister loved it and she didn’t even know the story beforehand! She said it reminded her a lot of real high school dynamics (she works in a school), and she especially liked Damien, both the character and the actor, who she recognized from when he played one of the elders in Book of Mormon.

It was a fun experience for me to see a familiar story acted out in real life, and I loved the addition of the musical numbers. I had a bit of trouble understanding the words when Regina sang, and when I said that at intermission to my sister, she said the same thing. Actually, she may have said it first and then I said, “omg me too.”

But by far, the funniest part of the show was Aaron Samuels, the main character’s love interest. I am pretty sure that they didn’t cast him thinking he would be the funniest part, but… let me explain. On any given day, it doesn’t really matter if you can sing. And most of the time, you can’t even tell if someone isn’t a fantastic vocalist. But when you’re on the stage of a Broadway production, surrounded by amazing vocalists, it should be a prerequisite. And if you CAN’T sing? Let’s just say, people notice.

Poor Aaron Samuels, though, or I should say, poor Cameron Dallas… he was TERRIBLE. I mean really really bad. In the first Act, he only sang a few lines. And at intermission I said to my sister, “what is going on with him? Is he sick? Is he really bad? Did you hear that?” So, we did some research in the Playbill. Usually, the playbill is filled with paragraphs of stage credits for each leading person. Shows in high school, shows on Broadway, traveling productions in the US and abroad… this guy? He has 20 million Instagram followers. And zero stage credits. We had a serious a-ha moment. He was cast because he is an influencer!! It made so much sense. There were screaming girls in the audience, all in attendance to see their favorite YouTube sensation. No matter at all that he couldn’t carry a tune to save his life and there are thousands of starving actors in NYC dying for their big break. Honestly, it pissed me off. But also, it cracked me up.

In Act 2, he sang a lot more. There was even a scene that was supposed to be a quiet scene in a bedroom, but it was difficult not to gawk at how bad of a singer he was. The entire theater was tittering and talking, and at first I thought people were making fun of him, but NOPE. It was his teeny bopper fans fawning over him! When the show ended, they jumped out of their seats to give him a standing ovation and rushed the stage door to try and grab selfies with him. Meanwhile, I googled him to figure out what his talents were that got him 20 million followers. They were definitely not singing or dancing. (Spoiler alert: they don’t exist. But he did struggle with addiction and started a charity about that.)

UPDATE! I saw it again! I was saving this blog to make sure I posted it on a Wednesday, and in the interim, I actually saw the show AGAIN! After attending the show, my sweet emoji-bf who was out of town told me he was so jealous. To my surprise, he said he had always wanted to see it. I knew he loved the movie but I didn’t think he would be interested in the showtunes version, but I was wrong. 6 days later, my friend won lottery tickets AGAIN and of course I said yes!! And I attended the show with him and he loved it.

Overall, the show was a GREAT time and I would recommend it 100%. Take yourself, take your boyfriend, or take your kids, especially if you don’t want to be a regular mom, you want to be a COOL mom!

1 2 3 … 6 Next »

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: