Life. Is. Good.

As PJ always says, “Life. Is. Good.” And it is. Really really good.

Mostly I’m just really excited because, after months (actually 2, but still) of waiting, I got a job! I start this Monday and I honestly can’t wait. It’s at a company called John Wiley & Sons. I’ll be working in publicity, which is exactly the department I wanted to start in. The only downside is that the office is located in Hoboken, NJ, which is about a 45 minute commute from my apartment. Even that, though, has a silver lining: The building is one block from the Hudson River, and there’s a park along the river that has incredible views of Manhattan. Another cool thing: three blocks away is Carlo’s Bakery, which is where the show Cake Boss is filmed.

I feel so incredibly lucky to have all my dreams coming true so quickly. Within four months of graduating college, I’ve moved to my dream city, landed my dream job, and am living very happily with the love of my life.

As always, PJ and I have been having plenty of New York adventures. A couple weeks ago, we took a few double-decker bus tours that took us Uptown, Downtown, and to Brooklyn. We got to see some things we haven’t yet, like the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, South Street Sea Port, the Guggenheim Museum, the Met, etc. If possible, I fell in love with New York even more. There’s so much to do and see; we really do have everything we could ever want right here at our fingertips.

We also got to check out the only Chick-fil-A in NYC a couple weeks ago. Yay food that reminds me of home!

Last week we celebrated our 3-year anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been so long, and yet so short!

So, basically, I can’t imagine being any happier right now. :) 

Two Months Later...

And another year older!

So much has happened in my life since I wrote last, I feel like everything has changed, and yet nothing has changed at all!

I finished school on July 15, so I now officially have a Certificate in Publishing to go with my bachelor's degree. I'm so happy to be done! Now I'm job hunting. One thing I definitely learned from SPI is that I am really interested in and excited about the marketing/publicity departments, so I've been applying to any open positions in those areas. I've had one interview so far, and will hopefully be having a follow-up in the beginning of September.

After my classes ended, I was very lucky to be able to go home for awhile. I initially went home because my little sister got married! The wedding was planned in less than two weeks, so almost no one, including my sister, knew I would be coming home. It was lovely to surprise her! And to see family. I was so happy to be there for that special occasion. She made a beautiful bride:

I ended up staying a week longer than I'd initially planned. I got to spend some quality time with lots of family, especially my mom. :)

I've been back in New York for a couple weeks now, and I'm constantly reminded of how much I love it here. The lure of being with PJ everyday notwithstanding (and it was very difficult being away from him), I love living in the city! Now I'm just trying to make our apartment as fun to live in. It's slow progress, but it will be beautiful when it's done!

Today was my birthday, and besides last year's, it was the best! [Last year PJ proposed to me, and I've been able to wear the most beautiful ring in the world as a souvenir for the past 365 days]. PJ took a vacation day so I wouldn't be alone. We slept in, had a great lunch at Peanut Butter & Co., and spent some time in Washington Square Park. The weather turned out to be beautiful. Then we came home, had a nice nap, and went to dinner after Olive Garden. Next to Olive Garden, which is in Times Square, is the M&M store. We went there afterwards, and I picked out a present using the gift money my Nanny and Papa sent:

I like to think I made a pretty mix. After THAT (long day!) we went to a movie. It was such a nice, relaxing day with the man of my dreams. Some more highlights:

Seriously, one of the coolest restaurants.

Washington Sq. Park fountain and arch. If you look really closely, you can see the Empire State Building under the arch.

Elvis M&M! 

I hope I didn't forget anything! I promise not to go two months again. Also, happy 1 year engagement to my love, Patrick Fontillas! <3

I Want to Be a Housewife

Not really, but I have been missing my free days this week.

I've been going to NYU's Summer Publishing Institute for a week now, and it really is one of the neatest and best opportunities I've ever had. I was a bit naive, though, about how rigorous would be. Every day this past week, I spent about 12 hours between the time I left my apartment and the time regular class ended. I then met with my project group, came home to do homework, and had about 5 hours to sleep before I had to wake up and do it again. For those who know me, I need a whole lot more sleep than that to be at my most cheerful, if you know what I mean.

Other than that, though, I really do love the program. I've heard from some of the most powerful people in magazines in the last few days - the editors-in-chief of Glamour, In Style, Food Network Magazine, New York Magazine, and Real Simple just to name a few, plus people from Penguin, Hearst, Scholastic, Newsweek...seriously, the list goes on and on. And the next several weeks are the same. So truly amazing.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get a lot done personally for awhile. I've been wanting so badly to finish writing my thank-you cards to my wonderful family for being at my graduation and being so generous to both PJ and me. If any of you are reading this - I'm so sorry for neglecting you, but I promise you'll have a card coming your way very soon. I miss you all and appreciate everything you've done for us!

Thinking about writing those cards has made me realize how much I really really miss home. I thought my adjustment here would be much harder than it has been, but lately I've been thinking more about my family and how much I'm missing out on this summer. I'm so blessed to be so closed to almost all of my family, but it doesn't make it easy to be so far! I miss a lot of my friends too, and I can't help but feel guilty that I didn't spend more time with them when I could have.

So here's to hoping that I get to see some of you soon. As always, hugs and kisses to everyone!

Back to School!

Today was the orientation for NYU's Summer Publishing Institute.  I have no idea why it was on a Sunday, but that's New York for you. Tomorrow the actual program begins and...

I am SO excited!  The orientation was wonderful, and the directors are incredibly nice, funny, entertaining, professional, and enthusiastic. Starting tomorrow, the next three weeks will focus on magazine publishing.  The schedule is incredibly intense, and a part of me (bigger than I'd like to admit!) will be sad to see my free summer New York days end.  Many days go from 8:30 or 9 in the morning until 7 or 8 at night.  It will be hard, but I'm so excited to learn about the industry more.  Everyday features speakers from huge companies (Glamour, Elle, Rolling Stone, Hearst, Conde Nast, Real Simple...the list goes on and on).  There's also a career fair, resume workshops, programs that teach us how to use publishing software, and a major project.  I'm sooo excited for all of it!

Another drawback is that almost all of the program is held downtown, which is at least a half hour away by subway.  I'm going to be having some verrrrry long days very soon.  My apologies in advance if you don't hear from me or if I'm hard to get a hold of for awhile!  Hugs and kisses to everyone back home.

Ashley xx

A Week and a Half Later...

I meant to update this sooner, but I guess I never got around to it! Sorry!

So last week was pretty uneventful, mostly because poor PJ was sick. He was sick for the better part of the week, so mostly we just laid low, stayed in, and hung out. It was nice, but I felt like the week went by so fast.

We had a wonderful holiday weekend though! Friday I got to do some shopping at the Forever 21 store in Times Square, and PJ got off early for the weekend. Saturday, though, was the best day! We took a tour through Central Park, and it was easily the funnest thing I've done in New York. We saw a lot of the sites of the park and got to see some of the buildings that celebrities live in! The ones I remember are Brad and Angelina, Woody Allen, Yoko Ono, and Denzel Washington. It was a beautiful day. Here are some pictures from the tour:

Getting ready to start the tour. This thing was pulled by a really nice guy on a bicycle that told us about everything.

This is one of the big fountains in the park. Behind it is one of the lakes, where we saw two geese with their baby AND a few turtles! 

This is Strawberry Fields, a memorial to John Lennon. It if very near where he was shot and killed outside of his home, which we also saw.

This is the fountain from Friends!! :D

After our park tour, we did some shopping and took the subway to where my classes will be starting next week. The area was kind of dead; I think it's primarily corporate. My building is only a block or two from where the World Trade Center stood. Then we came back uptown and went to dinner at Juniors, a famous diner in Times Square with incredible desserts.

On Sunday we laid low, but we had more fun on Monday! We went to a late lunch and decided to go to the movie theater to see Hangover II. On the walk there, I spotted a sign outside of a bar boasting their 150 unique shots, one of which was a Harry Potter shot! I just had to stop by and ask about it, so we ended up doing a shot randomly in the middle of the day! Gotta love New York. :) We went to the movie and then dinner (which wasn't too fabulous).

And now it's Wednesday. We've got a lot to do this week. Our bed finally came, so PJ will be putting that together soon (pics to come!) I also have some pre-institute homework to do by Sunday, which is the day of the program's orientation. I'm so excited to start, but I'm going to miss the freedom I've had the past couple weeks!

I promise to write again soon and update you all on the progress of our apartment and wedding plans! Thanks for reading, and special hugs and kisses to my family - I miss you all very much!

First Week in New York

I seriously can't believe we've already been living in Manhattan for a week! Things are so great here. This was definitely the right choice for us! Brace yourselves; this may be a long post!

First and foremost, PJ's job with the New York Times is going great! He loves it already. Everyone is super nice and friendly to him. He even got a Macbook to use in the office and at home! It's a rather relaxed environment -he has no really rigid dress code and gets to dress the techy-version of "business casual." And his hours are 10am-6pm, which is essentially perfect. He's been choosing his benefits and will be learning more about what he'll be working on specifically in the coming weeks.

We love love love our apartment! I've been gradually working on getting it put together and cleaned up. The bathroom is basically done, and the kitchen doesn't require much effort. PJ has his desk and computer chair set up, and we've bought a brand-new bed and mattress that we're waiting on. Also, thanks to some generous  family members, we have a brand-new 32" flat screen Sony television! We've never had a flat screen or HD TV before! The cable people are coming on Tuesday - so excited! So things are coming along. I still have long to-do and to-buy lists, but we have time. We can already see ourselves living here for longer than a year. I love love love our bathroom especially! I've added lots of storage and the tub/shower is wayyyy better than our old one. The building is nice too. All the doormen are wonderful and incredibly nice. There's garbage AND recycling on every floor. And we just had our laundry sent to a place down the street that washes, dries, folds, and delivers it for you - all for $1/lb of laundry.

Like I mentioned before, we're basically in a prime spot, and I looove our neighborhood. Things I've found so far that are within walking distance:
-Central Park
-Columbus Circle
-Lincoln Center
-Bed, Bath, and Beyond
-Best Buy
-Rockefeller Center
-Times Square
-The New York Times building
-Madison Square Garden
-Macy's (and all the awesome stuff around Macy's)
And I'm sure there's even more that I haven't discovered yet! There's also great food everywhere, and practically every place delivers - for FREE! In our little "block" alone, there's a great pizza place, a great Mexican place, a great diner-type place, a really awesome and stylish contemporary kind of place, a great "we have it all" place (pizza, burgers, sandwiches, pasta, salad, dessert, bread, etc.) And there are still a million different places we haven't tried.

We've spent a lot of time just hanging around and enjoying each other's company, but we've had some New York-type fun as well. We had our first New York brunch, I ate a nice lunch in Central Park one day, we've done some shopping and dining and riding around in cabs, and we even saw a small concert at a dive bar this weekend.

I really do love it here. Hopefully the next week will bring just as much excitement, but just will some better weather!

Also, now that the whole moving-to-New-York thing is taken care of, wedding planning is back! I'll write more about that in my next post. :)

Just Like Freshman Year...

At the end of my freshman year, I was good at two things - procrastinating and all-nighters. I've been really good at the first thing lately, but  not so good at the second! I had a 12-15 page paper due Monday that I finished around 2am this morning (for those keeping track, it's Wednesday). I probably could have finished it Sunday night into Monday morning, but I decided to sleep and take the possible grade penalty. That's how I know I'm getting old. At least there are only 4 finals standing between me and graduation. And I can't really procrastinate on those!

A week from right now, I'll be arriving at my apartment in NYC for the first time! I honestly can't wait to be back there, and to show my mom the city. I really feel like I'm on the brink of my new life, and I can't wait to actually start it.

I'm also SUPER excited to decorate the whole place. We're only going with an air mattress right now, so I'll be able to buy all new stuff to suit my tastes. First up - a monkey bathroom courtesy of Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Good luck to everyone during finals and your next steps in life!