Hallowinteryween

 My first Halloween In NYC! That's totally a lie, I've flown in to NY for Halloween the past 3 years. (Still surprised I moved to NY...).

This was a weird one because it SNOWED! Apparently this is the first time it's snowed in October since the Civil War. This is not a good sign for the winter to come.

As ya'll know I like to make my costume. Given I just moved to New York, started a new job, and am still using a paper box as a kitchen table, I haven't had much time to figure out a costume. Good thing I came across the Chelsea street market and found oversized hoodies for $7! Turned a blue one into a bird costume.

Also big thanks to Liz for packing a hot glue gun for me! When I was unpacking the boxes she did, I'll be honest, I was pretty confused by some of the things she deemed packing worthy (piano sheet music book? really? what am i going to do with that here liz...). I thought the glue gun was another one of the items to fall under the useless category until I made my WHOLE COSTUME out of said glue gun + mini sewing kit! boom. like a boss.

I went with Ana and her coworkers to Canal Room for an 80s dance party.

Red Bull, Blue Bird, and an Ear of Corn. SOOOOOO 80s

Just met these guys 15 minutes ago, but we look like BFFs ammiright?! #instantfriendship

Ana doesn't like this picture, but it's better than the others. come on girl, keep your eyes open!

The dedicated party monsters who braved the snow to shake some bootay

This one's for smeggs

My First SNOW!

It was SNOW problemo

Bear was ready!

CC Sunset Week 3

Made it through another week without burning the building down! Celebrate with a gorge sunset...

Nerd Alert! MTVN Halloween Party

Halloween Costume party my second week at work can only mean good things. The marketing girls + Brian decided to go as a super sweet posse of nerds. Didn't take much costuming, we are all pretty nerdy to begin with:

And that's PRE costume. #justplayin

I'm wearing my Dad's Caltech sweater. Crew Neck. And must've been a crop top, it was even short on me!

Stacy, me, and Justine, the Nerd dream team

He's the bomb. Best Costume Ever.

The MTV Entertainment Group party was at this really awesome bar/club in Chelsea. Open bar means SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS!



Mid-shelf Tequila = Instant Friendship



Had an awesome time partying with my coworkers on a school night!

Spotted: Bill Cunningham!

In the w village!

He's a fashion photog for the NYT. Cute lil old man who rides his bicycle around town capturing fashionistas. They made a doc about him earlier this year (it was awesome - worth watching).

Poopsie Impersonates a Rock

Recycling Comedy Central style

Respect. My. Authorit-tah!

Challenge: Accepted

The building across the street (Saatchi NY ironically) challenged us to a game of hangman. So here we are.


(work is fun so far!)

East coast sunset

Almost as good as a Cali sunset! Almost.

Better Being Underground

Lunch from this little place around the corner that's tucked into a basement unit- so tasty!

Kale | butternut squash | sprouts | walnuts | shallot vinaigrette

Wild mushroom soup

Inception Cat

Cat within a box within a box.

And yes, that box is my makeshift table. I'm fancy.

Poopsie x 2

If there was a thought bubble it'd be something like "... What the!"

Brekkie, Get. In. Mah. Belleh.

Trying to figure out some savory breakfast options I can either make or take to work. I was doing the whole stop-at-starbucks-on-the-walk-to-work thing, but I don't want to end up fat and broke. Hopefully going to try these recipes out soon! But gotta get groceries first. I dont even have salt and pepper.

I don't really lovvvvve zucchinis, but this looks pretty tasty:

Zucchini Potato Fritatatatatatat

This has bacon in it, so it looks promising:

Breakfast Casserole

Lale found this one - looks AWESOME. Can't think of a better use for a microwave. But there's no toaster at the office so I dont really know what I'd put said poached egg on.

Poached Egg a la Microwave

I like anything that involves a muffin tin:

Breakfast Cups

What to be, What to be...

For halloween I apparently want to be something awkward. How cool is his penguin suit?!

I'm in New York, trick | Werkin' it

So in the chaos of moving, kiiinnnda forgot about the whole I'm-starting-a-new-job thing. Worked out for the best, because if I wasn't so distracted with the other million things going on I'd probably just fixate on how unprepared I am for this. I've only ever had one other first day, at Saatchi, and that was light years ago.

First day was a 9-5 day of orientation, but it was at the main office so I got to do this commute:

o hai timesquare

Learned about benefits, vacation days, and got myself an ID badge. Totes official now.

if only my high school class photos looked like this

Day 2 was at my office, which is in Soho. It's actually literally next door from Saatchi New York and there's a lot of neon orange in CC so I really couldn't get too far away from Saatch!

Was greeted by South Park, so I knew everything was going to be ok. Like a good new employee I got to work at what I thought was on time (9am), but apparently MTV doesn't get cracking until 9:30-10.  I live 8 blocks away. Quick math tells me I can sleep in until 9 and still be at work on time. yesyseysyeyesyesyes

I'd like to point out we (Katie Jenna Liz and I) named Poopsie after Cartman. My life has come full circle. 

It's no kid's table, but I have some fantastic cubemates - the other manager on my team and 2 creatives.

New Jersey sunset from my cube. I think I can see Snooks from here.

End of my first week! The walk home in fall rain while listening to This American Life. And yes that's a fitness umbrella. Gotta hang on to those media goodies, I don't get them anymore!

Speaking of, had to run out and get some rainboots. When it rains, it pours here. It's some crazy heavy flow. Like at the end of a football game and the team is doing that thing where they dump gatorade onto the coach - that kind of precipitation. None of this LA "rain" which packs as much moisture as those misters in line at Universal Studios.

Had a great first week! Lucky for me, MTV/Comedy Central is a lot like Saatchi - young/fun people and a casual environment (flip flops in the office are legit style). Already feeling at home with the team, and although I'm still trying to figure out what's going on, the projects that I'll be working on seem really great. I turned in my first assignment and got a shout out from the VP so, you know, YAY! Now gotta not mess up week 2 and I'll be good.

I'm in New York, trick | Departure

It happened! One way ticket to New York. Tingles of excitement. 

I've spent the past couple of weeks frantically packing, so haven't even begun to think about the significance of leaving LA. Also when I say "packing" I really mean "getting too frustrated with sorting everything out so just trashing it instead". Apparently living in the same city for 22 years turns you into a hoarder.

This pretty much sums up my experience packing: uncovering items I didn't even know I had (floppy disk? really? really. this should be in a museum) and bear playing in boxes.

mustn't forget to pack the cat!

Speaking of the Bear Taking Flight saga, it actually went ok! There was one part of having to pull her out of the carrier and physically hold her through the x-ray machine that was slightly traumatizing, but overall it went scratch-free. 

Here we are chillin in the lounge before the flight:

wine, cheese, and watermelon. you fancy huh

Here we are settling in to first class (baller shot caller, thanks for the miles dad!)

I'm still slightly perplexed as to how airlines allow pets on flights (what if you have allergies? or cat scratch fever?) so I packed some benadryl and prepared a "sorry about the dander" speech. But the people around me had screaming kids so I quickly became anti-apologetic. 

ptfo for about 3 hours and woke up in new york! 

let it begin!

First Night in New York

official new yorkers. do we look different?!

I'm in New York, trick | Setting Up Camp

My new home! Totally lucked out and found a super cute (super tiny) place in the West Village.

Awesome thing about the apt #1: 8 blocks from work. It takes me 10 minutes to walk there. awesome.

Awesome thing about the apt #2: around the corner from the apt the used in friends! some may not think this warrants to be the second best thing about the apartment. those people obviously do not know me and my priorities. this is definitely awesome.

Awesome thing about the apt #3: Near a bunch of tasty restaurants and fun bars, like the Spotted Pig (Shayan's fav), Mamouns (my fav), Fat Cat (basement bar that has cheap beer, live music, and GAMES! Scrabble, ping pong, chess, shuffle board, you name it. Plus it's called Fat Cat). Awesome.

Awesome thing about the apt #4: I actually got the apartment. I came out last week to apartment hunt and woo wee, there were slim pickings. One of the apartments had the shower in the kitchen. And it had a glass door! At least opaque that ish if your'e going to put it by the refrigerator. Another had the wonkiest flooring, it was like a carnival fun house. And pretty sure one of them was a crack house. There was a good one I applied for and didn't get and with one day to spare I started to sweat. That, and it was like 90 degrees out. So the fact I got a cute apartment is awesome.

NOT at all awesome thing about the apt: it was filthy and totally not ready for me when I showed up. the door wouldn't lock, there was wet paint which inevitably ended up on my jeans, broken glass on the floor, stupid stuff like they left the wrapping on the brand new fridge, but then wedged it up agains the wall so you couldnt take the wrapping off (like. why.), and gum stuck to the floor - it was a hot mess.

Called the super and this magical Puerto Rican guy came over and fixed all my problems. He was amazing, super friendly, and like a ninja warrior with his fix it skillz, but I couldn't understand 90% of what he was saying. Something about waking up at 5am and being 45.

And although Bear did great on the flight, she did not enjoy the cab ride into the city. at. all. Yall know nyc cab drivers drive as though they think they're in Fast Five (awesome movie, top 10 movies of 2011 for sure) so she got all shaken up and then proceeded to hide behind the toilet for 6 hours. She did this when we first adopted her too, behind the toilet is her jam.

After her half a day in hiding, she eventually came out and went back to her typical cat doings, sitting and looking fat.

sup.

Spent 2 (pathetic) days in the apartment with only 1 piece of furniture (Jami's twin sized air mattress - thanks gf!) and then recruited Ana for a trip to Ikea. It started out awesome with $5.99 ribs and Swedish meatballs (NOMS!) but ended up baaaaaad. We ended up being there for 7 hours and by the time we got to the self service bins, we realized there were only 2 of us and 3 carts we had to push. And I don't know if you've noticed, but I am NOT a yoked person. I somehow pulled out some super woman shit and was able to drag boxes 4x my weight and balance a mattress on a rickety Ikea cart. It was not a pretty sight. Awkward city.

Anyway, as much as it sucked I ended up with a real bed and apartment full of furniture so it actually feels like home now! It's not done yet, so consider this photo tour a work in progress...

Narrow kitchen. Not meant for fat people.

Fireplace! It probably works but I'm not going to risk setting the place on fire - Luckett and I have bad experiences with fireplaces. Almost smoked out Shutters.

candle cluster. attempt at ambiance.

bed. with drawers. even though I threw out 80% of the stuff I had in LA, i still have kind of a lot of stuff. paintings, including Kevin Best's Poopsie In Outer Space piece to be hung soon. I need nails.

There's a loft that I guess I could technically sleep in, but it's such a hassle so for now it's storage space. Hallway leads to the bathroom, closet, and front door.

Not pictured:

• Cardboard box I'm currently using as a table until Ikea's Utby is back in stock
• Corner bumpers I'll have to put on the edge of the counter above my bed as to avoid inevitable concussion
• Monster pile of paper boxes I have yet to figure out what to do with them. NY has all these confusing trash rules that I haven't figured out yet. Yeah, I know, I can't figure out the trash. Dumb.
• Closet - it's darker than a cave. Gotta figure out some sort of lighting solution. Tap lights?
• Bathroom. I mean. It's a pretty run of the mill bathroom and it's also a hot mess. I gotta make a trip to the container store. I'm currently using shoeboxes. Not cute/no need to put that on the internet

Architectural Digest spread coming soon.