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!