Stitchin' and Pitchin'

What a fun week and it's only Thursday! Work is still lame, but the evenings have been eventful! That's my favorite thing so far about this city: it is so easy to go out at night because no one has to drive, you don't have to worry about parking, and there is always something to do. Monday night was spent at The Still again, our beloved Charger bar. It was made even better because the Chargers were playing the New York Jets and DOMINATED! And our fantasy team won too, so it was an all-around awesome football night. We also met another guy visiting from San Diego who lives in Pacific Beach - turns out those PB boys like to come to NYC. We took another group picture too, so hopefully I can get a copy. I can't get over how many Charger fans show up to this bar!

Tuesday was a little quieter, spent catching up on some TV shows, but Wednesday night we met one of our new friends, Dan, for dinner on the Lower East Side. Whoa! Venturing out of our comfort zone! It's like a whole other world down there - the streets are less straight and not all numbered, so it is a bit confusing. It's also NYU land, meaning college students everywhere. It's very trendy and loud, but fun. Got a recommendation from a co-worker for an italian restaurant that was very good, but very small. There are just a bunch of tables pushed together, so you are basically eating with everyone else in the restaurant too. Then we went for frozen yogurt at "16 Handles". Hah! It's a self-serve place with 16 flavors, so tasty! Nice to make a new friend and explore a new area. He is just here for the month for work training, but then will be here one week per month. We're working on getting him to move here full time, but we'll see. (=



Tonight was Stitch n Pitch at the Mets game - that's us at Shea Stadium. It's this organization that hosts one night at each baseball stadium around the country where you buy tickets in a certain section and everyone is knitting and crocheting! So exciting, let me tell you. We went in San Diego with our group (The Clairemont Hookers - miss you!) and had so much we had to go to the one here. The cool thing about tonight (for me at least) was they had "knitting celebrities" at tables by the section! I met some of my favorite designers, including Debbie Stoller who wrote the Stitch n Bitch series and Kay Gardiner, author of the Mason-Dixon Knitting series. We went to our seats and chatted with some of the other knitters.

The problem? New York is already SO COLD!! We were absolutely freezing. I was working on gloves, and just wanted to knit them as fast as possible so I could put them on my freezing fingers! No such luck. So we froze for a while, got hot dogs and nachos, then left because it started to rain! I was so focused on my knitting I think I saw one pitch, a play or two and no hits. Whoops. On the subway home we ended up in a car with 4 other knitters who bailed early, including the one author so we talked with her some more and inspired 2 other girls on the train to learn. Oh the excitement, I know is what you are thinking. But I love it!

We have so many thoughts for outings this weekend, so who knows where we'll end up! Colleen wants us to go see an Irish movie, but we'll see if that happens....

Weekend with friends, and Central Park wonders

Sorry we haven't been updating as much, but really it is a good thing because it means we are settling in. Living here is starting to feel more normal, and as such we have a little less to say right now. But our apartment is all settled (aside from the 2 boxes the post office can't find) and we're trying hard to figure out our jobs. They are fine, and finally working again is nice, but both of our jobs are a bit disorganized and we are having a hard time figuring out exactly what we should be doing everyday. I'm still not convinced that research is going to be my thing, but I'm going to give it my best and will hopefully start doing real lab work soon.

This weekend was great though. It seems that all of our friends from UCSD have either stayed in SD, moved to the Bay Area or moved to New England - it's great! That means Colleen and I finally had friends to hang out with - imagine that, real friends! Not that we don't love spending time with one another, but it's nice to add some others into the mix now and then. Friday consisted of pizza, beer and a med school party. Then Saturday we went to check out MOMA finally (Museum of Modern Art, for you non-NYC-ers) and it was really fun. I love museums, even when I don't truly understand the intention. My favorite was this mounted display of post cards someone had sent that simply said, "I got up at 9:17am today" and "I got up at 10:08am today" and so on. I've already promised Colleen that if we ever don't live near each other, I'm totally doing that to her.



I'm sure there is a deeper meaning to the whole thing, but I found it very entertaining. Unfortunately we didn't get to see a whole lot of the exhibits, but that's the beauty of living here - I can go back!

Here's the painting for Colleen and her love of cats:


Apparently it's a line from an old mob movie indicating that some dirty job had been completed - I want to figure out an adaptation for my own life. (=


Saturday night we finally ventured down to Brooklyn where our friend Adam lives to check out the bar scene down there. We ended up at a Cal Berkeley bar of all places, and felt very at home. They even have a variety of board and card games that you can check out from the bar. Another bar has bocce ball courts in the back, but it was too crowded to play. I have to admit, Brooklyn is much cooler than I would have thought. It's funny, because it isn't so far out of Manhattan (although WAY far from the Upper East Side!) and yet it feels like a whole other world. There are actual houses, and people drive places. Imagine that! The funniest part is how quiet it is - in Manhattan, you don't even realize how loud the general background noise is until it's gone! All in all a good outing, so I think we'll be venturing down there again for sure.

Today was spent being very lazy, but finally at 5pm Colleen rallied me for a walk in Central Park. I just can't get over how great the park is - every time you stumble on interesting things, interesting people. There are these 2 guys who set up a show of sort by the fountain where they jump over people. They talk in unison and are very entertaining - good showmen. The best, however, was the random roller rink we found. Just along one of the wide paths was a large group of people skating (on old-school roller skates mostly) around a make-shift oval. They were playing music and most of the skaters were dancing as much as skating. We watched them mesmerized for a long time, marveling at how they are better dancers on skates than we are at all. Just not fair! It got us talking about how lucky we are to live here, how grateful we are that we actually made this move, and how great this city really is.

Hope you all come to visit us soon!

San Dieeeego SUPER CHARGERS!

So we may have moved from the world's finest city, but our hearts still belong to the San Diego Chargers. Sadly, we do not get ESPN at our apartment, and given the likelihood of an east coast team playing at the same time as our beloved Chargers, we are generally out of luck for watching them from the comfort of our apartment. Plus our TV just can't compare to the giant HDTV we watched all last season (thanks Brant!).

But no fear, we have found the ultimate thing in NYC - a Charger bar!!! I know, unbelievable. We didn't think it could exist, but near Union Square is a bar called The Still. When you walk in, you'd think you were back in SD - it's packed with San Diegans in Charger jerseys, singing the Charger song and talking about Hodad's hamburgers and Phil's BBQ. Too good to be true! Sure, there are other people there too, but the bar plays the Charger game on a huge projection and actually plays the sound for the game (which helps a rookie like me figure out what's going on). We made some new friends (including a couple we met on the subway there) and even ran into some fellow UCSD alumni. Given that it is again Footballday (what some people call "Sunday"), we are about to put on our jerseys and head back down. Check out the fun we had last week and why we can't wait to go again today!

The bar - woo Chargers!


The whole boisterous group - I still can't believe how many there were...


Soooo cute - which means a lot coming from me! This mom and her 8 month old daughter in matching jerseys! And every time we all cheered, she started to cry. Whoops. And poor Conor was here to visit, only had 2 days in the city, and we made him watch the Charger game. Sorry!


It was someone's birthday...that's how dedicated this group is!


The game got intense...and sadly, the Chargers blew it in the last 2 seconds! But no fear, there is always next week. (=


Alright, let's go Chargers - win this one! Off we go....

We've parted ways...

...well, kind of.

Kendra started work on Tuesday, and I'll be starting next week. In a sense, we're moving on from each other, considering that since July 18th, we haven't been apart longer than a few hours, but we're just becoming responsible members of society again. You would think that two people spending that much time right next to each other would get a little tense, but that hasn't happened. She's a good person to move to NYC with :)

As far as my extra week off, I spent all day Tuesday in the park, trying to get a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, figuring out logistics for living here on Thursday, and finally going to a meeting and trading in my license on Friday. The DMV here wasn't so bad, but I was a little upset to have to hand over my California driver's license. Even when I asked if there was any way to get it back (you know, for sentimental reasons) all I got was a cold, "No" and was sent on my way. Now in 2 to 3 weeks I will be official with a New York State ID card. Wow. For a girl who never thought she'd leave California, that's kind of huge.

Kendra's been doing great at her job already, even if it is a bit intimidating. She was told earlier this week at a bar that she's "probably the most accomplished person in here" when she said that she works with pediatric brain cancer. I'm so proud of my best friend!

Once I start working, we'll give another update. We're really getting settled now and absolutely loving it. We were talking about how it will probably really feel like home once we have a routine, which is also in sight.

Now that you've heard from us, make sure to leave us messages of encouragement as we start being real grown-ups.