Happy One-Year Anniversary to us!

What we've accomplished in the past year:

- Found two apartments in New York City. One without having jobs, and the other on the second try. Neither with a broker. We are pros.
- Managed to survive this recession! It's good to already be poor when the economy hits the tank; less of a change for those of us without all that much money in the first place.
- Found a group of Charger fans and watched every game last year. Now we have a new bar and really cool T-Shits :)
- Convinced almost all of our friends to come visit (I think the prospect of New Year's Eve in New York helped).
- Convinced one friend to move out here with us; Andie gets here August 1st!
- Made my mom, dad, and grandma come to New York for their first ever visit. And they all survived, but I think Grandma may have had the best time :)
- Had visits from most of Kendra's family as well; we love guests!
- Watched movies on rooftops, in the park, and on piers.
- Gone to a New York Philharmonic concert. For free. In Central Park. Although, eveyone else there was a little more cultured that us; we forgot the wine, cheese, and prosciutto.
- Watched elephants parade down 34th street.
- Saw two Tony-Award winning plays.
- Made visits to Philadelphia (for Thanksgiving; thanks Adam), upstate New York (for the outlet mall), and New Jersey (for a hockey game). And now Kendra is in Massachusetts. I think Connecticut will be next...
- Made some fantastic new friends.
- Voted, in person, for the first time ever.
- Figured out the subway and bus systems. I don't think I remember how to drive a car...
- Learned that even though you don't need a designated driver, you still have to be able to get home.
- Survived our first Northeast winter.
- Visited most of the major landmarks. Although, I've still only seen the Statue of Liberty from a ferry, but that's less crowded, anyway.
- Seen most of our favorite LA musicians here. We still miss the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood though...
- Attempted to compete in a relay triathalon, but then we both got swine flu.
- Survived a global pandemic!
- Managed to get robbed only once.
- Bumped into a few celebrities, including Tea Leoni at Starbucks, and Julia Roberts at a play.
- Been told that we look "very New York." Thanks, we try :)
- And we were both accepted to graduate school programs in the city; Kendra to John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and me to Teacher's College, Columbia. We're excited.

In conclusion, it's been a great year. We've definitely had our difficult times, but overall it was the best decision we made of 2008. It's been fantastic.

Elephants? On 34th St?

Yes! The circus is here and that means elephants! Only how do you get elephants into Manhattan? Well you walk them in of course! (= Turns out the Queens-Midtown Tunnel isn't big enough for the elephants to come through in a truck, so they walk! Trunk-to-tail in fact, in the middle of the night, through the closed-down tunnel and all the way down 34th St to Madison Square Gardens. Yes, they *actually* close the streets of busy Manhattan so a crowd of ten elephants can stroll the streets. Accompanied by clowns, horses and the ringmaster of course! Now who wouldn't want to go out in the cold at midnight on a Monday to see this???



Armed with hot chocolate, warms clothes, and a drive to stay awake despite the hour, we huddled in the cold and waited anxiously. The streets were closed, with lots of police and flashing lights around, and guardrails had been put up along the sidewalks, hopefully to protect us from charging elephants (although I don't think they stood a chance!) The elephants were proceeded by a full motorcade, and then woo hoo! Elephants on 34th St! They were so cute, holding each others tails with their trunks and just walking... It was one of those things that even as you are watching it, you just can't quite wrap your head around the concept. Sorry the pictures are a bit lame - bad lighting and seriously, those elephants move a lot faster than you would think! Following the elephants was a procession of horses and an assortment of clowns, and bringing up the rear was the clean up crew - a street sweep to deal with any elephant messes. (=



Otherwise things are good - we're both waiting to hear from grad schools to see what our futures hold, and yearning for warmer days. It almost feels like spring one day, then snows the next! No fair. I'm not even sick of the cold so much, just all the junk you have to put on in order to handle the cold. St. Patty's day was an exploration of Irish pubs of all types, and we've been to good shows and sporting events. I'll go through pictures soon and do some recap. We've explored some new neighborhoods, met up with old friends, and even made some new ones. Really seems we're putting down roots in NYC and loving every minute of it. Hope that all is well...Say hello! We miss you and hope you will come visit! We're finding some good places, so we'll show you a good time.



For more about the elephant "event", check out the Daily News article: Elephants!

Sorry for the silence....

But we are alive and well...and covered with snow! It's quite a day outside today - when I left for work this morning we were already up to 7 inches and it didn't seem close to stopping. It may have taken until March, but we finally got a real snow storm. (=

So this was supposed to be posted last Monday - whoops. Anyway, we will have a real post VERY soon, I promise. We've had some fun the last week and will certainly be sharing! Thanks for your patience and hope all is fabulous with you as well!

While running in Manhattan...

...I observed the following:
- A german shepherd wearing a vampire rain-cape
- A guy walk straight into a tree
- A mutt with red booties
- My first ever raccoon

Only in New York

Another Birthday and More Visitors!

Alright, I'm going to back-track a bit back to December when a miracle happened: My father came to New York. The same man that, when I told him I was moving said, "I'm not going to New York" and left the building. That's right, and he loved every minute of it :)

Here he is in Central Park. He really liked the fact that there were squirrels there, which I also think is kind of funny.


We even made it to an Irish pub to have a Black and Tan.


I have to admit that he did very well for a guy that hates the big city. There was only the one incident on a crowded subway car that was interesting: I don't think I've ever seen my dad so worried about how we were going to do something, but it all worked out! It was great to have him here and I hope more family comes soon. And maybe now he'll worry a bit less :)

And then jumping back to the present, Andie came to visit! She was in Connecticut for work training and got here just in time to celebrate my birthday. Now Kendra's not the only one who is old...

We went for a walk in Central Park even though it was freezing, but got a chance to do some advertising for North Face.


I just like this one a lot:


After Central Park we headed down to Bryant Park to go ice skating, always a good idea when guests come in the winter.


And then it was time for my birthday! I was sick on my actual birthday (which wasn't very fun) so we went out and celebrated the night after at a bar in the East Village.

Me and my birthday crown on the bus. Talk about high class.


We also went to our favorite Mac and Cheese place, only to find that the restaurant was closed. The only thing open was the take-out and delivery section, so we ordered our s'mac and went to a bar on the corner to eat it. Only in New York, right?


Andie, Kendra, and I at the bar.


Last week, after our new president was inaugurated, a strange thing happened: Kendra got to teach me a little something about sports! She's been going to hockey games to see the San Jose Sharks since they became a team...One of those father daughter things she and Bob have. So for her birthday she was lucky enough to get two set of tickets for hockey games, which means I get to go too! We're going to see the Sharks in New Jersey next month, thanks to Mark, Michelle and Scott, and got to see the Rangers play last Tuesday night. Now we wanted to look like real Ranger fans when we went to the game, so we stopped by a local sporting goods store on the way and bought shirts. We are so cool.


We even got to see a fight!


So that's what has been going on the last couple weeks here in the freezing North East. We're looking forward to Super Bowl Sunday, even if it is a little weird to see the Cardinals in there. I still say the Chargers should have made it...

Rockin New Year's Eve and Best Birthday a Girl Could Ask For

Hello! Disclaimer: We have been "borrowing" internet from our neighbors, and apparently everyone decided to rearrange their apartments because we no longer have access to their networks. Point being, we no longer have internet access in our apartment, so we can't update the blog with any regularity. I'm sorry for those who still check in - we are very excited to share our lives in NYC with you, just please be patient with updates. We'll try to be more frequent and more brief to keep the interest high! (= And please leave comments so we know you are still out there in cyberspace reading about our adventures. Now onto the festivities!

In case you didn't hear, a group of our San Diego friends braved the cold and came to visit us for New Year's! We felt very lucky to have so many visitors, especially with limited spaces to offer for comfortable sleep. We managed to fit all 8 of us in our less than 500 square foot, 1 bathroom apartment - and we even got a little bit of sleep now and then. (= I had to work a couple of the days, but Colleen was a wonderful tour guide and showed people the sights.

At the Met, with Michelle and Mark.


The really cool light show they were doing on the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal.


Most of the gang on the roof of our building - I love this picture. Clockwise from bottom left: Mark, me, Scott, Colleen, Dan and Michelle.


Michelle, Colleen and I on top of the Rock - ie the top of Rockefeller building: it's expensive, but the view is very cool.


New Year's! Dan is amazing - he works in an office building at Times Square, so we got to have a party with a heater and a stunning view of the ball drop. And let me tell you if our coats don't get the point across: it was FREEZING that day. So thank you Dan for saving us from the cold.


Nice view huh? We had to get there at 3pm because they shut down all the streets, but we had plenty of sustenance to get us through the night. We played mafia and charades, and danced the night away - for sure the best birthday ever.


In our party garb.


Adam, Mark, Paul and Scott (and the ball).


Almost 2009....


Happy New Year!!!


After getting a little bit of sleep, we finally got ourselves together and went ice skating at Central Park on New Year's Day. Somehow we kind of dropped the ball on skating pictures, but here's the best we have.




One things I learned during with visit is that I apparently have a dance, aptly coined "The Kendra Dance". As in, when I dance, I have very limited moves that I do over and over. Here is Dan, who apparently perfectly does The Kendra, perhaps better than me.


We had the best time with everyone - thanks for coming! We are sad now that you are gone, see? Come back and visit anytime!

More Snow! Happy Holidays!

So after the first exciting snow, we got a lot more! It snowed all day - giant snowball-size flakes! Very thrilling for these California girls. We even braved it and went on with our plans. I thought the snow building up on the garbage on the street was very picturesque.



But not actually as pretty as the snow on our neighbors shrubs.


What can I say - I've never lived where it snows. Even footprints in the snow are interesting.


I love Christmas lights and thought this tree was so pretty. Christmas in the city has been so wonderful.


Merry merry Christmas to you! Looking forward to New Year's - we have friends visiting so there should be some great photos to follow...