Sunday adventures in the park

After my first stroll through the park I couldn't wait for another one... so when I had a free Sunday morning I decided to take a picnic lunch and continue exploring the park. I'd say Frederick Law Olmstead found success in his design for Central Park. It's pretty incredible, a giant park in the middle of a bustling city with lakes, ponds, ice skating rinks, a castle, and a zoo. Once you get into the park you hardly realize you're in NYC until you get glimpses of tall buildings over the tops of the trees.

 

Strollin' in the Park

I got off work one day and needed to run a few errands- one of which was to a store across Central Park on the east side. I started looking up the subway routes and consulting my map and then thought I'd see how long it would take me to just walk straight there since it was such a nice day. Maps told me 19 minutes. I figured I could handle that and headed out for the first of many adventures through Central Park.

The ice skating rink in the background

 

Yep. There's even a zoo in Central Park.

 

 

I can't believe I was going to take the Subway- or that I live one block away and hadn't been spending more time there! I learned my lesson and have spent a few more afternoons in the park... more pictures to come :)

 

Mormon Helping Hands

I was blessed to have not been really been affected by Hurricane Sandy, but there were lots of people not too far away that were. My stake has organized service days every weekend since the hurricane, so each week I've gone out and donned one of the famous Mormon Helping Hands yellow vests.

 

House #1

The first week we spent the day cleaning out a yard that was literally covered in a couple feet of seaweed and reeds, with mangled debris on top of that. We met the homeowner at another location in town, and he gave us his address and directions and the comment that we would recognize his house by the fact that all of Jamaica Bay was in his yard. He wasn't kidding. At the end of the day we had a pretty good pile of stuff out on the street- to add to all the other piles of stuff on the street. It is a pretty sobering sight to walk through the neighborhoods and realize that all these piles of broken stuff are things that once graced the homes of people in these neighborhoods and surrounding areas- all carried and destroyed by the power of the storm.

 

8 people. 5 hours. A lot of stuff- plus another sizable pile of seaweed/reeds not shown.

 

Smiling because we're wearing our yellow vests :)

 

Week 2 I spent between 3 houses. At the first house we were hauling the belongings out to the sidewalk for a woman who spoke no English and appeared to live by herself. I don't know how she was planning to move everything on our own, it would have been impossible. She wasn't even on our list- the people whose houses we were supposed to be at weren't home and she happened to see us and flagged us down. We were able to communicate enough for her to tell us if something was "okay" meaning that it should go in the stay pile, or out to the curb for sanitation to pick up. Most everything had to go to the curb.

 

Yes, our all girl (okay we had one boy) team managed to haul out the fridge, stove, etc.

House #2 was an elderly couple who needed their walls torn out. We spent a couple hours ripping out wall paneling, gyp board, and insulation. At house #3 we ripped out a wood floor. It was pretty incredible to think back to how I spent the beginning of this year building a house, and now look at the same materials as I am tearing them down. Materials that seemed so strong and difficult to work with fell apart and came out with ease after being soaked with water and battered by the storm.

 

Week #3 was spent cleaning out all the belongings of the summer home of a widower, and then tearing out the walls and floors. Basically everything in the house had to go. Books, videos, furniture, cabinets, dishes, etc. What had once been a full and happy house, a summer retreat where they were obviously fond of entertaining, was an empty shell by the end of the afternoon. 

 

Week 3's pile.

 

 What amazed me the most was not the strength of the storm- although it was obvious from the destruction that it had been extremely powerful- but the strength of the people. The homeowners were exhausted and dirty, but not defeated. Even if they weren't sure how they were going to move forward after this, not once did I hear a "why did this happen to me?" or "this isn't fair" or any of the number of things they had every right to say. Instead it was "thank you" and "have you checked on my neighbor Bob? He might need help." In every neighborhood I visited, people were looking out for each other. Making sure that their neighbor was okay- often before their own houses were in order. In some cases, these people had spent the last 3 weeks helping everyone in their community, while their own house sat in disarray- without power, without heat, and full of water- because they knew there were others out there who weren't capable of recovering without their help.

 

Everywhere we went we were instantly recognized (thanks to our yellow vests) and thanked. People stopped their cars or went out of their way to walk to us to tell us how much our help meant to them and to their neighbors. The first week we were sitting in a playground eating lunch (provided by someone in the community who was giving free lunch to all the helpers and anyone who came by) when a woman walked over to us. At first I thought she was coming to get after us for sitting in the middle of the play area (in our defense it was the only place where we could sit and have a back rest and we were tired after moving stuff), but instead she came to tell us how grateful she was for us. She told us how we were the talk of the island, how we had been there first, and that we were the only ones still there. Other people echoed her words throughout the weeks.

 

I'm grateful to have been able to be a part of Mormon Helping Hands these past few weeks. I'm so grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The past two weeks we've held a thirty minute Sacrament Meeting before heading out together to serve in place of our usual meetings- because serving others is what the gospel is all about. Treating our brothers and sisters as Christ would, with love and compassion- ready to help in any way necessary. Hopefully it doesn't always have to take a hurricane to remind us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things that go BANG! in the night... and the day

Halloween came and went and I failed to blog. Mostly I failed to do anything for Halloween. So this is my Halloweenish blog ;) Moving to the "Big City" can come with lots of scary things... but the things that have managed to freak me out the most? No, not leaving work at midnight or leaving for work at 5am and walking home (both of which I have done). Turns out the oft-used phrase "the city that never sleeps" is actually an accurate description of New York City! I actually feel less scared leaving my apartment late/early than I did the houses I lived in during my time in SLC-  there are way more lights and people out at all times here. It's the things that go BANG! in the night at my own apartment that keep freaking me out...

Anyway... back to the things that have given me a heart attack. #1 The radiator. Remember in the movie "Elf" (super excited that it is now the time of year to watch the movie- one of my faves!) when Buddy calls his dad about the scary thing in the kitchen making lots of noise. I have one of those. Didn't know it made noise, and definitely was not expecting it to all of a sudden make noise in the middle of the night. Here is a picture of the culprit. Looks harmless right? Ha.

The culprit. In addition to making noise it leaks. A lot. But that part is fixed now. Not the noise.

It was the night of the hurricane- I went to bed when it was late and the winds had clamed down. About 3 in the morning I was woken up by a loud clanging noise. It was so loud I literally thought it was the fire escape outside my window crashing to the ground- thought maybe the storm had picked up again. But no, it was only the beastly little radiator in my room turning on for the first time of the season. And yes, it makes that noise every time it turns on. And no, it doesn't actually put off any heat, go figure.

#2 Pigeons- the ones that live outside my building. I don't like birds and these ones keep giving me a heart attack.  At 6am one of the first mornings after I moved into my apartment I was getting ready for work in the bathroom. All of a sudden there is a white shadow in the frosted window and a strange noise. It freaked me out. I couldn't figure out what it was until another shadow came by and I realized the sound was the flapping of wings. They come every morning and it still gives me a start every time it happens.

Culprit #2 Caught in the act.

Those were my "Halloween spooky" adventures. In all truthfulness I quite enjoyed my Halloween not doing anything Halloweeny- I watched Captain America with popcorn and hot chocolate :)

On an island... in a hurricane

Well Hurricane Sandy has arrived! It's kinda crazy to think about how I'm stuck on an island in the middle of a hurricane. At this point all public transportation has been stopped and bridges/tunnels are all closed so I definitely won't be leaving Manhattan any time soon!

I'm doing fine so far, and probably won't have any problems where I'm at. Work was closed today- the whole mall at the Time Warner shut down yesterday afternoon and was closed today, and will now be closed Tuesday as well. During all my trips up and down the stair Saturday I did get some supplies in case we lose power. Things were pretty picked over, but I got food, water (it was pretty fun to haul a 24pk of water 3 blocks and up my stairs), and batteries so I should be good!

I went to Duane Reade for a few extra groceries this morning just in case- it was pretty crazy to be out at 10am and have everything on the street closed and dark. Lots of stores had taped up their windows in preparation.

Since that little trip out this morning I haven't been outside, but I have ventured down the stairs to the exterior doors of the building to peek outside. The wind was blowing pretty loud when I was down here taking this picture- but it was even louder the next time I went down for a peek.

 

I can't hear or see the full strength of the storm from my apartment- I'm pretty protected on the back side of the building. But what I can hear has definitely been getting louder and there have been a few loud cracks/crashes- not sure what they were...

So far the power is still on, it has flickered a few times but managed to still stay on. I lost internet for awhile but it came back on- lucky for you since that means I can update the blog.

My Place

Without further ado, here is the grand tour...

 

We'll start with the stairs. See all the way down, actually you can't even see all the way down the bottom of the stairs. It just keeps going. If you need motivation to lose weight or be in shape, move to NYC. You'll walk so much (especially if you live in a walkup), and food is so expensive that you'll inadvertantly be on a diet and in shape in no time!

The hallway view from my doorway

Up first are the living room and kitchen- all completely furnished :) My roommate has a loveseat coming to go in front of the bookcases- well hopefully. As it's currently in a warehouse in New Jersey waiting to be delivered, who knows...  Also, since we're the corner apartment at the back side of the building, all of our windows look out to a lovely view of... brick walls. The living room and kitchen windows look into these little alleys on either side of the building and the bedroom windows look out to this random gravel covered brick enclosed open space in the middle of the block. Not a great view, but at least we get natural light into the apartment!

Living Room

My kitchen is pretty awesome. It's bigger than my room. You think that's an exaggeration but its not. Compared to the kitchens in all the other apartments it is huge! Which is fine with me, I'm quite enjoying being able to cook and not having to eat out every night like I have the past 2 weeks :)




A pretty amazing kitchen for NYC

Yum! My first meal in my new place

Just had to show off my cute cereal bowls that I got at west elm with my discount :)

The bathroom is right off the kitchen- it's small but it has everything you need!

 

And finally... the closet. I mean, my bedroom that is the size of a closet ;) The entire width of my bedroom is what you can see in the picture plus about 18". It's nice and cozy. All that would fit in my room is a twin bed, so that's what I bought. I've been sleeping in a queen bed for the last few months so it was a bit of an adjustment the first night! I did not sleep well at all. In the middle of the night I rolled over and smacked my knees on the wall. I actually have a bruise (to be fair I had smacked my knee on a gate the day before and had a small bruise- this just made it bigger...).

My fantastic view

 

Using my Hurricane Sandy 24pk of water as my nightstand

The actual closet

 

It's so great to be in my own place. And I have plenty of time to enjoy it this week since I'm stuck inside due to Hurricane Sandy!

No more suitcases!

No more living out of a suitcase- I'm finally moved into my apartment! Yay! I've been subletting a girl's room for the past few weeks while she was out of town. It was much cheaper than being in a hotel until my apartment was available, but it meant I couldn't really unpack anything...

Saturday was the big day! Thanks to my friend Frances- my best friend in elementary school in California, who happens to live in NYC (yay, I know somebody here!)- and her boyfriend Matt for helping me move. It was SOOOOO much easier to haul my giant suitcases to the taxi and into the apartment with their help, especially since I didn't even have to carry the heavy ones up the stairs :)

We had an ornery taxi driver on our little moving adventure- we got to my apartment and he pulled to the left side of the road (it's a one way street and my building was on the right side). So we mentioned we needed to be the on the other side and he said "why didn't you tell me?!" Probably because we had already given the address and the even numbers (which my address is) are on the west side of the road, didn't think we needed to explain that but apparently you do- at least to this guy. I guess that's just not common sense, even for someone who makes a living dropping people off at addresses all over the city, go figure ;)

After we brought my suitcases in we headed off to Cafe Lalo for brunch. You may recognize this cafe from the movie "You've Got Mail." Frances and I went here a couple weeks ago when I first arrived and she wanted to take her boyfriend to try it. They have about a billion different types of eggs and really yummy desserts.

Brunch at Cafe Lalo

The great thing about the Upper West Side is that there are little cafes and bakeries like this all over the place- if only I had the money to go try them haha.

Did I mention my apartment is a walkup? And I'm on the 4th floor? Yeah, it's just a few stairs... I spent all Saturday afternoon walking back and forth and up and down the stairs between Bed, Bath & Beyond, Duane Reade (like a Walgreen's- but with some groceries), and Whole Foods buying all the essential since I basically just brought clothes and my computer with me. Luckily they are all within about 7 blocks, but I could only buy what I could carry at the time so I had to make a couple trips to BB&B. They do deliver, but it just seems like a waste of money when I live 1 1/2 blocks away and I have two legs ;)

What I really miss? Walmart. Yeah, never thought I'd say those words. In fact I was laughing thinking of a conversation Krisann and I had one day on a beginning of the school year/new apartment trip to Walmart. We said how excited we were to graduate and be able to afford to shop at Target instead of Walmart, because that somehow felt like moving up in the world haha. And now, I wish I had a Walmart- unfortunately the closest one is in New Jersey, and the only Target on the island is way up on 125th on the East Side- because it would be so much more affordable to get all the basics!

But anyway, here I am! All moved in :) Next post with pictures of the new place!