NYC Real Estate

I'd like to preface this post with saying that I am in no way looking for a luxury apartment in the city (although paying luxury price in any other City!) but this is our experience so far...

Oh the irony of looking for an apartment in NYC. Katie and I are looking to move to a new apartment in the same neighborhood so we kind of know what to expect. We've raised our price from last year so are expecting a few more things for our money:

• level floors
• an oven that doesn't smell like gas when we turn it on
• WINDOWS
• a fire escape
• walls between our rooms
• possibly a dishwasher

You know, the norm.

I don't think that's too much to ask. So far we've seen 2 apartments (just started searching this week) and both were definitely not it. Basically, in NYC you need to see the apartment and put in an application on the same day...also see the apartment once it's on the market at like 9am. 

I also find the 'features' listed on ads hilarious. Last night I looked at a place that said "one real wall between the bedrooms". I do realize that this is on our list of requirements but really? That's a feature that you're advertising? I've also seen 'full sized refrigerator' and 'AC unit included' listed, among other things that one would simply expect in an apartment. I also loved that on our application we filled out yesterday it asked us what we were going to do if we didn't find an apartment by our move in date. The only obvious answer was 'be homeless'. 

Really NYC? I thought you were better then this...but I guess you are which is why a feature in my apartment includes walls. We'll see if I end up in a 5th floor walkup!! Hey, I'll have good legs right?

My 'Summer in the City' Checklist

Hi friends! I've been thinking a lot about all these different things I want to do this summer but have been too lazy to do any of them. SO I figured if I post them online, I'll have more pressure to get them done :) here goes nothing!!

1. Explore downtown
2. Explore Brooklyn
3. Go to lots of rooftop bars
4. Go to movies in the park
5. Have lots of picnics in Central Park
6. Attend lots of street fairs
7. BAR GOLF
8. Give tourists directions and know what I'm talking about
9. Have lots of visitors!!!
10. Take some 3 day weekends and get OUT of the City
11. Somehow make my way to the Hamptons
12. Take a vacation (to visit Katie's dad in Florida..still on a budget people!!)
13. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
14. Go to the High Line
15. Make my way up to Rhode Island
16. Not have an insane energy bill from my AC unit
17. Make the perfect Margarita, Pina Colada and Strawberry Daiquiri. 
18. Find a pretty little brunch place
19. Go out outside of my Upper East Side bubble
20. Splurge at at least 1 'must have' NYC restaurant
21. Meet my Jersey friends down the shore
22. Buy a little grill and become a grill master :) 
23. Find a great place to buy produce
24. Go out in Hoboken
25. Go to some fabulous parties/openings (how I'm getting into these, I'm not sure of yet...)

That's it for now! Don't worry, the list will be added to (suggestions are welcome!) and I'll fill you in on my adventures here!!!

So I went to Greece for MDW...

Ok, that statement may be overkill, but I did go to a house with a Greek mother in it...meaning I think I actually gained 10lbs over the weekend! Happy Memorial Day to me!!


First things first, I didn't go there ALL weekend; I had to celebrate Fleet Week here in the City! I went to a bar called the Frying Pan to celebrate, fittingly because the bar is actually a boat! It's on Pier 66 and has literally nothing around it. A little expensive for my wallet, but worth it for the ambiance, would definitely be a fun place to spend a Sunday afternoon. My friends and I (of course) made friends with some sailors and I learned all about what the differences in uniforms mean, although I couldn't tell you any of the reasons now...

The Frying Pan

On Saturday, I got to truly test out our new AC unit because it was about 112 degrees in NYC. I tried to go read in Central Park and lasted about an hour and a half because it was too damn hot to stay there. It's going to be a little difficult to get used to living without central air!!

Sunday I ventured to a beautiful town on Long Island called Cutchogue. The ride out there was a hot one because our car's AC wasn't working (apparently the universe doesn't want me to be cool these days). While we were there we went out to a winery, to a fun bar called Claudios and saw fireworks on the water, and laid out by the pool. However, the real story was about the immense amount of food Maria's mom fed us! I compare lunch on Sunday to Thanksgiving dinner. I had my first experience with Greek food and a Greek mother! I learned that you can't say no and just to be happy that I'm saving $$ on food. I can't even list all of the food she had for us on Sunday but I can tell you that Katie and I tried to sneak out of her house without having lunch on Monday and were very unsuccessful. She talked us into staying for a cheeseburger (real fast! 5 minutes!). We ended up staying for at least a half hour, having a cheeseburger, salad, orzo, peas, bread and I think her dad offered to cook us some fish that he caught that morning. AH! So much food!!


Overall, it was a nice (relaxing) MDW, hope all of yours were nice too!!

The Great Red Velvet War: Crumbs vs. Hens

I'm no food tester (although I wish I was!! Any food network judge openings?) but I'd like to say that I know a good cupcake when I have one. I happen to live between 2 awesome bakeries, one is a chain called Crumbs...the other is one of a kind but known throughout New York called Two Little Red Hens. Basically, I'm lucky I need to walk to these places or else New York would be making my wallet lighter while widening my waist band (see below, B is me, A and C are either of the bakeries). 

Anyway, Katie and I decided to do an official test to see who prevails in red velvet cupcakes. We've already decided that Two Little Red Hens may have the best cheesecake in NYC (still need to try some other places before that's official) but we needed to test the Upper East Side cupcake theory. It was very scientific, making sure we had clean palates and no alcohol in our systems. 

The result: Two little Red Hens has a better frosting, but Crumbs wins with the actual cake.

Update: Katie went without me (SHOCKED AND APPALLED) to TLRH and said the cupcake was better this time and she prefers it over Crumbs! I will have to go back and test for myself :)

Two Little Red Hens

Crumbs

Singles Awareness Day

It's the day all single girls avoid at all costs, Valentines Day. This year was one of the first times in recent memory that I wasn't even a little upset about the 'holiday'...and I think it's because I have so many other things to be happy about this year. I know this probably should have happened around New Years but, it's coming a little late. I looked back at where I was in my life last February 14 and I've come so far!


First things first, I got a job that I love. I am an Executive Assistant at a Social Media Marketing company in NYC that is blowing up! I know being an assistant can suck, but I have an awesome boss. I also work with amazing people. Work is the best when you're guaranteed to laugh at least 10 times during the day. 


I also moved to New York which has been my dream since I first saw the movie Coyote Ugly (saw that before I saw Sex and the City). At one point last year I really didn't know if I'd ever get here...but, per usual in my life, I knew what I wanted and I did everything in my power to get here. I now live in a semi-little (although not for the price range), super cute apartment on the Upper East Side. It was hard to leave knowing that this wasn't like college, that I wouldn't be coming back home, but I've officially moved on to my next stage of life!


I also have amazing friends. This past weekend I got to spend some time with 2 of my best friends from college and it was a great night. Moving to the city, I was afraid that I wouldn't have many great friends here for a while, but I actually moved in with a few close friends who already lived in (or around) the City...and have made some great ones since I've been here!


With all of these amazing things happening in my life I guess I feel that I don't need a relationship to be happy on Valentines Day. It'd be nice to have a boyfriend to send flowers to my office, but after all is said and done, I'm in a great place in my life and don't feel that I need need a relationship to make me happy. If it came around, that'd be even better (!) but I'm also totally cool without it at the moment. There are millions of men in the City, chances are that I'll find one eventually!

Oops, I swear I didn't fall off the face of the earth...

Hi All!


I know I've missed a few weeks here, but I definitely have had some great adventures to fill you in on! I won't go through everything, but let's recap...


Katie's birthday extravaganza was a great time! I spent the day making her a cake and getting things in the apartment ready for her big night! Dinner ended up being a bust. We went to this adorable place across the street from our apartment and, well, I'll let her yelp review tell you the story (it's kind of amazing):


I came here last night for my Birthday becuase it seemed like a great place to go with a group of girls. I had called twice in advance to confirm my reservation for 10 people at 8pm. To make this more clear, I'll list everything that I unfortunately experienced on this birthday dinner. 

1. Showed up with my party right on time at 8pm. Although I had called twice in advance, they did not have my reservation. Not having a reservation for 10 people in such a small area was a huge problem. They were able to get us a table rather quickly, however they just threw some tables together in the middle of the restaurant where we had people walking into our table all night.

2. We decided to order two bottles of wine, one bottle of white and one bottle of prosecco. Our waitress came back 10 minutes later and said they didn't have any of the white wine we ordered. Okay, we decided to just do two bottles of prosecco.

3. 10 more minutes later, our waitress comes back and said they didn't have any prossecco. We changed our wine yet again.

4. We all ordered our food; three of us including myself ordered the gnocchi. 5-10 minutes later, our waitress came back and said they were out of gnocchi.

5. Three baskets of bread were thrown on the table, no bread plates, no silverware, no napkins.

6. Quickly after the bread, our food came out. Very quickly actually which is usually a good thing. Too bad we were STILL WAITING for our wine.

7. The two bottles of wine finally show up 10 minutes after receiving our dinner. Unfortunately, it's hard to drink wine without any wine glasses. And once we finally received wine glasses, we received 6 of them. We were a party of 10. And our waitress never came back with the remaining 4. I had to go and ask for more glasses.

You would think that on a Saturday night, a restaurants busiest night, they wouldn't be out of food and wine by 8pm. I complained to the guy who sat us down and he argued with me becuase he "didn't see the problem". Then I went up to the hostess and told her it was my birthday and this service was terrible and I was so disappointed.

To their credit, seeing how upset I was, at the end of dinner they came out with sparklers, 4 different desserts and sang Happy Birthday to me; something my friends did not request. It was a nice gesture, unfortunately the rest of the evening was so dissappointing, it was hard to make up for it.

The food was good and fairely inexpensive. For 10 people, the bill only came out to approximately 30 dollars each.

I can't stress enough how unfortunate this was because I really though this would be a great place. It's so fun and girly inside, it seemed like a great place to go with a big group of girls. I'd like to give this place another chance but I'm so upset about this terrible service I just don't think I can. It's a small place and it's always very busy and I really did try to give them a chance through the first few mistakes but it really was just one too many.

I'm not going to say don't go to this restaurant but I just wanted to share how I had really high hopes and was unfortunately completely disappointed.

That said, the night ended up being fun, we played hopscotch around the Upper East Side. The best place was Iggy's, a karaoke bar. The birthday ladies, of course, sang (or yelled, whatever) an amazing song (don't really remember what it was)...as it turns out, one of the mic's was off...probably better for the audience that way!

I also participated in NYC's Restaurant Week...twice! A New York City resident's duty I think...my first experience was at a restaurant called Barbounia. Nice ambiance, but the food wasn't everything I thought it should be. My second experience, at Ajna Bar, restored my trust in restaurant week! It was simply amazing. I got the short rib that melted in my mouth, the scallop appetizer was amazing, and lava cake dessert (which I think can be fairly boring and standard) made me roll my eyes and actually say 'mmmmmmm'. You know it's good then. Basically, I wish I made (a lot) more money so I could go there once a week. 

My parents came for a visit...first things first, I cleaned my apartment so they believe that I, in fact, can live on my own (just kidding mom and dad!!). We went on an adventure to the Upper West Side, which I've really never been to and now I love! But, irst we went down to see my current office, and then we walked down to where my new office is! Then, we went to lunch at one of my favorite spots, Tasty Cafe, and then spent the afternoon at the Museum of Natural History. It was a nice little visit and great to see my parents!

I am also currently dreaming of palm trees and white sand, maybe I'll get a good tax return?? Just imagine this for me:

Look good? K, let's go!!!

What a Weekend...

It seems that it's been a while since my last post...that can only mean one thing...I've been INSANELY BUSY. More or less, just work and trying to catch up on zzzzz's (and my latest book!), but I did have a pretty great weekend. Here goes!


I had plans on Friday to hang out with my long lost friend (not really long lost, she lives 10 blocks away but has been MIA lately, not cool) and a quiet evening in one of our apartments quickly turned into a pretty awesome night. Another friend invited me to her family friend's restaurant that recently opened in the East Village called Heartbreak. If you're in NYC you should really check it out, it's pretty awesome. I've now been there twice (once before it opened for a tasting) and I haven't been disappointed yet! This was a feast (I was still full on Saturday morning). We started off with a few different different kinds of appetizers (2 of each for our table of 10):

• House Cured & Smoked Wild Salmon w/ Honey Mustard Dressing
• Roast Baby Beet & Goat Cheese Bacon Dressing, Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
• Mache Lettuce, Bacon, Butter Croutons Salad
• Schupfnueln, Bacon & Sauerkraut
• I'm pretty sure we had some home fries in there but I can't find them on the menu.

As if that wasn't enough, for dinner, I had strips of veal with mushroom-cream sauce on top of a potato pancake (I have never had one before and am amazed and in love!!!). The real treat was our dessert (again, 2 of each):

• Linzer Tart
• Black Forest Tart
• Warm Apple Strudel
• Black Viennese Pancake (amazing!)
• Chocolate fondue (my FAV of the night!)

The best part was that the NY Times was doing an article about the restaurant while we were there and it was free!!! On a side note, I may have stolen the other side of the table's fondue, BUT they weren't eating it! Can't let melted chocolate go to waste people!!!

http://www.heartbreakrestaurant.com/

Now we're on to Saturday. I slept in, made eggs, was super lazy...then went to a bar steps from my apartment for dinner and the Jets game. It ended up being a pretty exciting night considering the Jets won (although I did get yelled at for wearing Colts colors but, I'm sorry, I don't own anything green and I happen to look good in blue!). Anyway, I'm very happy to report that I found a place with really good wings and personalized sized kegs within walking distance to my apartment. 

To continue the 'if it's free it's for me' trend of my weekend, our next stop was to a bar where my roommates coworker happens to bar-tend. I finally got to meet her which was nice, and I got free drinks! Yay for me! I also got my ass kicked in beer pong, but, whatevs, I beat many-a-frat boy in college and am totally fine with that record. Plus, I didn't have my glasses on and couldn't see anything!

Sunday, on the other hand, was NOT a free day. We went to the Uptown Lounge for brunch which was actually a pretty good deal for good food ($15 for brunch and 2 drinks), I'll definitely go back there sometime. Then, I bought my new phone!!! Droid 2, so happy with it. I got a lot of grief going into work with it on Monday (a place full of Mac's) because Verizon was making a 'big announcement' on Tuesday. I am very happy with my decision. My phone can do pretty much everything the iPhone does AND it has a keyboard :-).

In other news...Katie found a pretty looking boy who lives 'directly' across the street from us while she happened to be checking out the police activity going on outside our apartment last night (don't ask, not sure what happened) I call her a stalker, she says she just happened to see him..then stare for 5 minutes! I think she's been watching too many Friends episodes before bed.....

wish I had a picture to insert here...

That's all to report for now! Oh, and we got some snow, they were fully prepared this time and it was about 5in. Salted and plows at the ready but I still have garbage from before Christmas lining my streets!!! 

NYE in NYC

Hey y'all! Hope you're enjoying the first few days of 2011! To celebrate my first year in the City for New Years Eve, I had to go out, even though I knew to expect crazy crowds and overpriced bar parties, it's all part of the experience. 


On December 31 I did everything in my power to avoid midtown, getting home from work on the 30 was bad enough, thank GOD my work was closed on the 31. Katie works in midtown as well and she said it was crazy! Even though it's usually a mess in midtown during the holidays, we kind of miss the crowds uptown...not on NYE! It was packed up here too! We decided that Gossip Girl is to blame, making the Upper East Side a tourist destination. 


Anyways, I got to see a few friends from college thanks to the holiday! On Thursday, I offered my couch up to my friend Brad who is finishing up a cross country road trip in NYC. After he left Thursday morning, I met up with 2 of my best friends from college (+ 1 boyfriend) for lunch. Katie got out of work early so she got to join as well. It was great to catch up! Jess was staying with us for the night to go out partying!


That night, we got all dolled up, ordered 2 pizzas (Katie thought ahead for leftovers) and played Apples to Apples while pregaming....catching 2 cabs was a little difficult, the trick is to catch them on the Streets, not the Avenues (where everyone else is). After I caught us a cab we had the most terrifying cab ride I've ever been on, we got from 83 St. to 10 St. in about 15-20 min, ON NEW YEARS EVE! Terrifying. 


We made it out alive and went to get into the bar...all of us are 23 or 24 year old college graduates, the bouncer did NOT believe that Jess was 21! He asked for 2 credit cards because the first one's signature didn't match the signature on her license. Redic. The bar, however, was great. We went to 13th Step in the East Village and it was actually not crowded because it was huge inside! That was a nice surprise. The drinks were kind of weak (expected that because we all paid ahead of time) but it's fairly hard to water down beer without people noticing so eventually we were all drinking beer. 


All in all it was a good party with great people. Made it home safe and no hangover on Saturday! It was a successful first (of many) New Years Eve's in New York City!