Looking forward to fall!

A lot of people are very upset about summer being officially over. Apparently everyone considers Labor Day to be the unofficial end of the season. While I am also sad about this, I thought I should write a post about the things I am looking forward to for my first fall/winter in NYC! There are so many parts that I love about September-December - I want to focus on that instead of the fact that my swim suits will probably not see the light of day for the next 8 months (moment of silence for that, please). And there are other things that are happening right now that I am excited about, too!

• My adult swim team is starting tomorrow. I started swimming with the team during last season, but we just had a 2 week break while they cleaned the pool. Now this season is starting up again tomorrow night and I cannot wait to FINALLY get back into shape. AND to compete at meets!
• Moving into and decorating my new apartment. I've talked about how I am currently living in the building of my next place, but we are moving to the unit exactly 5 floors below us. In a week we will be all done with that and will just have to put the finishing touches on decorating and such! Very excited for this headache to be over (and to not have to be sleeping on a blowup mattress every night).

• Football season! I. LOVE. FOOTBALL. I know a lot of people like college football, which I do too, but my college team WAS AWFUL, so I gravitate more to the NFL. Football is my favorite sport, and I am excited for my first season as a New York Giants fan! Though the Chicago Bears will always hold a special place in my heart, I gotta get with this NYC sports camaraderie!

• Seeing what is going to happen with this guy...I've been hanging out/talking with this guy for a little bit now. He's so awesome (I've written about him before) and I am excited to see what happens with us! Still not looking for anything super serious at this point in my life, but it will be fun to just hang out and get to know each other better :) Big smiley face for that one!
• Halloween. It will be my first Halloween in NYC!! I've had some costume problems in the past (ie - I put on a teal dress with a black belt and called myself a crayon) but this season I want to be so much better and go all out with my costumes! Ahh I need to start looking into different parties at clubs and bars and such to see how my friends and I will celebrate this crazy fun day/weekend.
• TV shows resuming. Now that I have a TV again, I am really looking forward to some of my favorite shows starting up again! The shows I keep up on are Parks and Rec (actually watching a marathon of it right now that's on this FXX channel I just discovered), Modern Family, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Workaholics. But now I will probably be watching a lot more shows because one of my roommates works in TV production. 
• Fall fashion. I love fall and winter fashion. The coats are so cute, and a great pair of skinny jeans makes me incredibly happy. All the fashion trends are great for this coming season, and I can't wait for the weather to change so we can all take full advantage!
• Holidays in NYC. Saved the best for last - SPENDING THE HOLIDAY SEASON IN NEW YORK CITY! This is probably going to be one of my favorite things about living here. I'm already planning going to the Rockefeller Center tree early in the morning to beat the tourists. And OBVI I'm going to participate in SantaCon (been counting down the days to that since I saw all the pics of it last year). It's going to be awesome!

So beautiful! What's not  to love about this?!

So, if you're really sad about summer being over, I am definitely with you on that one. But just think of all the fun that's to come! I'm so excited for the last part of 2013 :)

<3, Charlotte

Pit and Peak: week of 8.26.13

Ahhhh okay I haven't posted in FOREVER - this weekend has been crazy! But I have a lot to write about for the next few days so WOO! I like JUST remembered that I had to pay my rent so I scrambled out of bed to set up that account since it's my first time paying it in this building. I thought that I might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone and post my pit and peak right now, too! (Sidenote: I usually like to do this on Sundays but I haven't had any time today because I've been trying hard to entertain my friend who is in from out of town.)

Without further adieu, here's my pit and peak for this past week!

Pit: The pit of my week is probably the fact that I am not so happy with my "best friend" right now (the air quotes are there for a reason). He has ditched me TWICE 2 weeks ago, and we didn't talk at all last week. Our last conversation was him ditching me for the second time. UGH, I thought girls were supposed to be the dramatic ones! He hasn't even apologized or anything for it. Or made any effort to talk to me about it because he knows I was upset. And I am not reaching out to him first. Very disappointed. I am pretty sad about that.

Peak: The peak of my week was hanging out with my best friends that have finallyyyyy all moved here (And my friend that's visiting is in that group too)! Oh my goodness this past weekend was so so SO much fun being partially reunited. It was a crazy weekend and I am so sad that it is over. More fun times to come for sure though now that all the NYC crew is here! :) We did some things that I def need to post about because I had no idea those things excited in this city. A very fun weekend with some of my favorite people. Really doesn't get any better than that.

Okay, I will be so much better at posting starting tomorrow - so many cool NYC things to write about! Hope everyone gets to sleep in tomorrow in honor of Labor Day. I need this break so bad and am going to try to take full advantage of the laziness it encourages :)

(PS - I promise I will respond to comments I got this weekend tomorrow! You guys are the best.)

<3, Charlotte

New apartment (part 1)

I have been talking about this for a few posts, but I am officially moved into my new apartment! Here's the deal why my move isn't final. So I found this apartment on Craigslist (and my roommates ROCK, got lucky on that one). The girl that had my room moved out last weekend and I could move my stuff into this place whenever. Unfortunately, the building is renovating this apartment unit, but we got the same exact one 5 floors below. We're moving there on September 7th (after we put in the temporary walls again and such).

Living room right when you walk in!

Another view of the living room.

Soooo, I am living like a semi-homeless person/college student again. I don't want to order furniture to this apartment if I'm just going to move in 2 weeks, so I am sleeping on a blow-up mattress. I also

Hanging rod and some of the pink bins.
#collegeliving

have saved these bright pink (not upset about it) bins that I had all throughout college, which is what a lot of my stuff is in for the time being. And I have a hanging rod in my room for the clothes that don't fit in my closets because I don't have a dresser or anything yet.

Even though this situation is not completely ideal, it is MUCHHH better than the place I lived in before this. Luckily I LOVE the color pink, so I'm not really upset about my room looking like a pink explosion happened in it :)

My windows (love this view)! And those
beautiful bins.
Also note the blow-up mattress.

It's so nice, everything is set up since the girls have been living here for an entire year- I've been just hanging out and watching TV in our living room all day. My roommates are really cool and so nice. Since they're both not here this weekend we are going to do something this week to get to know each other better. (Well, they already know each other since they were roommates before, but I don't know them very well OBVI)

I could definitely get used to this living arrangement! Just have to worry about moving into our new place in a couple weeks.

Very very happy right now!

<3, Charlotte

Pit and Peak: week of 8.19.13

It's time for the usual week in review! Lots of peaks this week, but I think I have one that stands out the most :) Let's begin, shall we:

Pit: The pit of my week was dealing with summer apartment roommate. Basically, my summer apartment was owned by this guy who leased out 3 rooms to people. A new guy moved in for the last month and he LITERALLY had a different one of his friends sleeping on the couch in our teeny tiny living room EVERY NIGHT since he got there - so since I only had a little time left there I confronted him about it and let him know that that wasn't going to fly. All of last week when I was in the apartment packing to move IT WAS SO AWKSAUCE! And he completely trashed the apartment common space with his friends. Apartment living gone wrong over there.

Just walked over to my window and snapped this bad
boy. (Like the lights on our balcony?!)

Peak: Related to the pit, the peak of my week was OFFICIALLY moving into my new place! All my stuff is here as of yesterday and I could not be any happier. I've been hanging in our living room all day (my roommates are both gone until tomorrow night bc they both went home for the weekend, mixed emotions about that bc they're both so cool but it is kinda nice to be able to adjust by myself and have some alone time). It's SO NICE to have a livable space! And the view I wake up to is completely unreal - I can't get over it!

Ahh New York life is great :)

<3, Charlotte

Exploring Soho!

The other day my friend Kristy and I decided to really explore Soho. When my friends lived around there last summer, I had been in the neighborhood a few times, but I knew NOTHING about NYC back then. Now that I have a better grasp of the city I wanted to really explore it!

Such a cute area!

We decided to meet there and grab a bite to eat, then walk around and shop. I absolutely LOVED it! The neighborhood is definitely one of my favorite in New York - I could really see myself living there in a few years.

The outside seating area of Soho Park (courtesy oyster.com)

Obviously we had to get food while we were there, so we went to this place Soho Park - it was GREAT! They have outdoor and indoor seating, you order your food at the register and then they bring it to you. Very efficient, and the food was REALLY good! I was bad and got the french fries - they came with 2 different dipping sauces (there's a list of I believe around 6). Ahhh I was in heaven!

After stuffing our faces, we walked around and went into a few stores. I had heard great things about shopping in Soho so I had pretty high expectations, and actually being able to experience it was amazing. Unfortunately I didn't end up buying anything - needed to hold onto the little money I had that day. But I think I want to go back soon and do some good quality shopping!

A great day in a great New York neighborhood. I love living in this city!

<3, Charlotte

My first Soul Cycle experience

Last night I was supposed to go to dinner with my new roommate (I've kind of moved in to my new apartment, details to come about that in another post). We wanted to have a girls night where we went to a cute place, drank wine, and got to know each other better.

Then, yesterday, I got a text while I was at work:

"Hey, do you want to go to Soul Cycle instead tonight? We can get dinner and drink in our apartment after, I just really want to go and get a good workout!"

Now, I am really not a fan of exercise in general, that's why I joined an adult swim team, because I don't like working out if I'm not training for something. But I had heard some interesting things about Soul Cycle and how it is an amazing workout (even though it's pretty pricey), so I decided to go.

We went to the 8:30 class in Noho. It wasn't packed (which I guess apparently these classes always are), but that's probably because we are the only crazy people who would do this on a Thursday night (Seriously cannot believe I did this instead of actually going out!). The place was SUPER fancy - very white and chic - I loved the atmosphere! They do a great job of setting the mood of the entire place.

These are the fancy shoes. They are difficult to walk in.
That was fun to figure out!

You have to get these special shoes for the bike. Because it was my first time, they were free, but usually they are $3 and clip into the bike. So you are basically chained to this piece of workout equipment and forced to spin your brains out. Also you need to book your bike in advance! (Especially important for the classes the fill up, unlike the one we were in).

The class itself was great! They incorporated core exercises and free weights for various upper body lifting. And all that was done while spinning! I was a little disappointed of how out of shape I was. I couldn't do the entire thing all out. Swimming is in a 2 week hiatus right now because the pool is closed, but once I get in shape I want to go back again.

We actually decided that we are going to go back right before Thanksgiving. That will give me time to improve my overall fitness AND then I will be able to eat as much as I want during the holiday! Win-win situation over here.

So yes, overall AMAZING experience. Our instructor was great, and I had a good time (despite feeling like I was dying for the majority of it)!

<3, Charlotte

Weird Things Seen Around NYC: protests

This is happening outside my apartment...

I like him :)

Alright, I promised an update about the guy that I saw on Saturday night (I mean, the whole thing made it to the peak of my week - there's some good stuff there!). Here it is:

I went to get drinks with Kristy and Chloe before going out. Our friend had bought a table at a club in Midtown, so we wanted to drink a little beforehand. The guy that I was going to meet up with was going out in Murray Hill that night, so we wanted to stop by and say hi for a few minutes and then head to the other club. (For all I knew, this guy could be a total WEIRDO! I hadn't seen him in over 2 months and I had no idea what his deal was.)

He texted me that they were at Joshua Tree (known to be the DOUCHIEST bar in
the neighborhoodall of Manhattan). I didn't know what to expect. We go into the bar and I saw him from a distance. I didn't really know what to do - should I just go up and say hi? Should I take 10 shots beforehand? I was having a slight mental breakdown.

Where the magic happened...Joshua Tree.

Kristy and Chloe went to the bathroom to give me time to say an initial "hello" and kinda scope out the situation. I decided to just go for it.

I walked up to him and tapped his shoulder. He turned around and I gave a little "hey!". A grin spread across his face and he gave me a hug. We started talking and literally didn't stop the entire night (aside from when we were dancing, of course ;)). It worked out well because Kristy and Chloe hung out with his friends that were at the bar too - Kristy ended up staying out with them until 4am! I feel bad, we didn't go to our friend's table at the club, but this was definitely a better decision.

Anyway, he was just like I remembered him. But better. Literally so so so nice and incredibly fun - I can't believe that it took us this long to meet again! And today Chloe told me that all of his friends kept telling her how nice he was and how he was such a good guy (I would call bullshit on that, but he went to high school with one of my friends from college who said literally the EXACT SAME THING about him).

Obviously he ended up coming back to my apartment and staying the night (sparing some details here :)). I wasn't sure if that was all he was looking for though. I've said this before, but I really don't want something serious right now in my life. So even if he only wanted something for that night, I would be okay with that - I had A LOT of fun.

But yesterday afternoon (he left my place in the morning to go home to Jersey to go to church), he texted me asking how my day was. AND we talked all day today. We both told each other how we don't really like texting, so that's a pretty big deal for both of us.

Soooo yea. He is great. I am so happy with the situation right now - for now I don't want it to get too serious, especially us being so young and just entering the real world. But there is definitely something awesome there between us. I don't want to let this go, at least for the moment. :)

Could I use ANY MORE smileys in this post? :)

<3, Charlotte

Pit and Peak: week of 8.12.13

Soooo much to be happy about this week! Obviously have to do the low point and high point so here it goes:

Pit: The pit of this past week for me was Wednesday. I was EXHAUSTED and at the end of the day, all I wanted was for my mom to pick me up from work, drive me home, do my laundry, and feed me. Of course she cannot do that since my family still lives in Chicago, and I am a real person now so it's time to accept those responsibilities. UGH.

Peak: The peak of my week was definitely LAST NIGHT. My friends and I met up with this boy that I have been talking to that I met my first night out in NYC. I wasn't sure how that would go because I hadn't seen him in over 2 months and I was pretty drunk the first time when we met, so who knows if that was worth pursuing. But it ended up being totally AMAZING and he is SO COOL! I'll write more about it in another post. But ahhhh literally last night was the perfect night :)

An overall GREAT week! Let's hope next week is just as good, or better! (Which it will be since I'm going to start moving into my new apartment!!!)

<3, Charlotte

Why (my) guy friends are the best friends

Girls suck.

There, I said it. We are always bitching, always getting in fights, always looking for ways to drop those last few pounds because we're so fat. I have a solid group of girl friends, I'll have you know. But they have gone through Social Darwinism for real. Survival of the fittest. They are the ones that have superior traits!

Getting back to the point of this post, guy friends are the best. I've already told you guys about James, my best friend in the whole entire world. But he is not who I am going to talk about. There's a whole other group of weirdos I need to introduce you to!

I have a core group of friends from college. It is me, 7 guys, and 2 other girls. And it is the best thing in the world. For some reason, this group just works well together. Everyone is pretty different - we have a few of them who majored in classics, some in business, some pre-med. We are all over the place!

All of us (minus 1 of the girls) before a formal event we all went to. FANCY!

But when we hang out, there is no drama. Everyone is just looking to have a good time, not start some kind of bitch fight about the girl across the room wearing the EXACT SAME shirt as them. Even if there are fights, they don't last very long. There was actually this HUGE fight that broke out when we played Beer Olympics. That's the thing about this group, they are very relaxed, but SUPER competitive. Luckily everything was resolved by the next day and everyone jokes about it now. Phew!

3 of the guys from this group are actually moving to NYC soon! And I am SOOOOO excited because I have missed them all so much! I used to go to their house (yes, my 7 best guy friends all lived under the same roof our senior year of school and they managed to survive) every afternoon and just hang out for hours. Yes, that means that I have heard a lot of conversations girls don't typically hear. Yes, that means that I am AMAZING at Nintendo 64.

It makes me incredibly sad that I can't just see all of them any time I want - I don't even know when we will all be in the same room again. UGH.

They seriously are the best!

<3, Charlotte

Toys "R" Us in Times Square

Last night I went back to being an 8 year old. I got dinner with James and while we were passing the time before his bus at Port Authority, we decided to go to Times Square. While we were there, James turned to me and asked "Have you ever been to the Toys "R" Us here?".

I gave him a blank stare back. Of course I have never been to the Toys "R" Us here, I'm not six years old! Instantly catching his mistake and remembering that someone who doesn't go to NYC before they are 21 (that was me, folks) doesn't make Toys "R" Us a priority on their to-do lists when they get here, he said, "WE ARE GOING NOW!"

I have truly never been in such a magnificent toy store! There were so many different sections - you have a spot for toddlers, a Jurassic Park spot, a Barbie section (that would TOTALLY have been my fav when I was little).

T-Rex!

...and James next to it. (Doesn't he look
COOL?! Not.)

Best of all, there is a giant Ferris Wheel in the middle of the entire store! Ahh it looked so fun but I didn't want to embarrass myself and ride it. Or pay for it. #impoor

Ferris Wheel! Sorry, I reallyyy need to
get better at taking pictures. Let's just
blame my crappy phone for this one!

Overall though, it was definitely a lot cooler than I was expecting it to be. I don't have a picture of this (James took it on his phone) but in the bike and scooter section I tried on this SWEET helmet that had these spikes going down the middle. It looked like I had a neon mohawk! Yes, I went all out and literally turned into a child during the half hour I was there. It was also funny because we were both wearing our work clothes and running around the store acting like little kids - there was just so much to see and do! No regrets about anything at all.

No matter how old you are, if you ever get some free time when you're in NYC try to put it on your "places to go" list!! You can thank me later :)

Oh to be 8 again...

<3, Charlotte

Weird Things Seen Around NYC: naked cowboy edition

Serenade me, señor

About a boy

SoOoOo dreamyyyy

Yes, I copied this post title from that movie with Hugh Grant. Yes, this post is about a boy. No, I am not looking to be tied down in a relationship at this point in my life. (See this post for my current thoughts about that)

So why am I writing this post?

I am actually not entirely sure! So I met this guy wayyyy back when at my first work happy hour at the beginning of the summer. Some of you may have read that post, but to fill everyone in, he works in NYC but lives in New Jersey. He went to a college in NYC so he tends to not come back during weekends (actually, he has never been back during a weekend now that I think about it). I can understand that, 4 years of this city would be a lot, everyone is entitled to take a break!

The thing is, I haven't seen him since that happy hour! I am not a big texter - I get frustrated with how long it takes to type stuff out, and I would just prefer to talk to someone in person. So we don't text that much, just a couple times a week to basically check in and see how each other is doing. He is also bad at texting, which for some reason falls under "my type". If a guy is good at texting, I consider that a warning sign.

Save the date for Saturday!

But anyways, it apparently was his birthday last night (which I found out when he let me know that he was in the city for it). But I had just finished up with swim practice and needed to take care of some personal housekeeping stuff, so I couldn't see him.

We just always miss each other on timing, our work schedules don't work well together either! We have also invited each other to various happy hours over the summer, but, not surprisingly, the timing has always been off.


Since I'm not looking for anything serious right now, I am keeping this on the backburner. I don't get upset when things don't work out because I know that when the timing is right, I'll see him again. :) We got along reallyyyy well, there was something there for sure. I need to see him again in person to properly assess.

Supposedly he will actually be in NYC this Saturday and we are going to see each other for a little...we will see if that actually works out!

<3, Charlotte

First post on the Blogger platform!

Hi everyone!

Okay, so I have been blogging for a few months now on http://crazynypostgradlife.wordpress.com/ but I'm not sure WordPress is where I want to stay, so I've decided to try out this platform instead. Sorry if everything looks lame for right now, I'm still figuring things out. AND the posts that I've uploaded here from that site are kinda messed up, too. AHHH so much fixing to do!

Anyway, if you are just discovering this for the first time, welcome! Hope you enjoy reading about my NYC experience so far. Can't wait to see what this amazing city has in store for me next! (And I also cannot wait until my site looks super cool - this interface is UNACCEPTABLE right now)

<3, Charlotte

Day trip to Governor's Island

Yesterday, I was able to cross something off of my Summer Bucket List - taking a trip to Governor's Island! My friend Lizzy had texted me on Friday asking if I wanted to go to this French festival or something like that that was taking place there. Honestly, I didn't completely want to go all the way there, but I felt like actually going to Governor's Island wasn't going to happen unless I decided to commit to it, so I decided I should go. (Sidenote: get prepared for a picture FRENZY on this post. I took so many because it was so neat there!)

Festival from afar

It was incredibly fun! Not only is it nice that the ferry ride there is free, the island itself is so beautiful. The festival was primarily for children, but there were a lot of people our age there, as well.  There were vintage-looking rides, live music, food, and a ton of random things to see and experience!

Live music!

We ended up going on this swing ride. The line was kind of longer than was necessary, but we figured that we should go out on the limb and wait for it. Since it was so hot outside it actually felt so nice to be swinging in the wind! Definitely was funny to see how old the ride was though - I spent a lot of the ride hoping that it wasn't going to break and that my swing wasn't going to go flying on its own at any point. Yes, we did have to pay $3 to go on it, but it was definitely worth every penny spent.

Swing ride!

Pocket wall

One of the coolest things that we saw was this giant sheet with a bunch of pockets on it. You could take a piece of paper and write ANYTHING you wanted and put it in a pocket for someone else to discover and read. Now, if this had been something in an adult environment, things would have gotten OUT OF CONTROL. But all the written things we found in the pockets were so cute. I remember one was something like "Help Africa". Absolutely adorable to think of the little kid that wrote that for others to read.

One thing they don't ever mention about Governor's Island (or at least I never heard it before) was how pretty the view of the Financial District is. I was in complete awe seeing it from that angle - I took so many pictures it was unreal. (OBVI I needed to upload one to Instagram!)

Yup, this is on my Instagram :) Absolutely b-e-a-utiful!

We weren't even there for that long, but by the time we had walked around the entire island, I was EXHAUSTED. An incredibly fun day, and I'm so glad I got off my lazy behind and did it! I will definitely be going back sometime in the future. (And now I have something to add to my NYC Checklist! Still don't know how much I like that title btw)

<3, Charlotte

NYC Checklist

I thought that just having the category "NYC Living" would suffice for this, but I don't think it does. I want to make sure that I have accounted for all the things that I've done in NYC in one unified place.

But fear not! I've come up with a solution.

I've added a new page to my blog - "NYC Checklist". Now I will have a more organized way to archive neat things I've done in this amazing city!

Also, I definitely would appreciate any tips and suggestions on things I should do in NYC - I love when I get your input on things, and I'm sure there's TONSSS of things I am unaware of that are constantly going on, and tons of places that I don't even know exist!

UGH. Also not entirely sure I like the title "NYC Checklist". It's not really a checklist because I don't have things on it that I haven't done that would technically be "unchecked". So I am not sure what I should call it. Open to suggestions on that, too!

<3, Charlotte

Weird Things Seen Around NYC: sign placements

Something about this isn't exactly kosher...

Girls' night out

See?! It looks SUPER tiny when you walk up to it!

I get incredibly happy when my friends from different groups meet and get along great! This is what has happened with Kristy and Chloe. I've brought them together multiple times and they love each other! It makes me so happy that everyone can hang out and we all have a great time. :)

Last night, we decided to have a classy girls' night out. This was partially because we haven't done that yet since being in NYC and partially because we were all too hungover yesterday and wanted to keep it more tame last night. Kristy made reservations at 9 at Sotto 13, located in the West Village on 13th Street between 6th and 7th Avenue. Her friend Kelly was coming with us too (I'd met her before and LOVEDDD her so even more reason this night was going to be great!).

Walking up, the restaurant looks so minimal and tiny - I didn't know what to expect. However, when you get inside, you go to a big room in the back and it is SUPER trendy. Tall ceilings, mood lighting, high-top elegant tables. It was beautiful!

Inside!

Because OBVI us girls are always watching our figures, we got a few little plates to share with the table - I absolutely DEVOURED the brussels sprouts. They were AMAZING (and I'd like to think healthy, too). Also, the Summer Sangria at Sotto 13 is TO DIE FOR. We got one pitcher and decided that that would be our main drink for the night. Several pitchers later and we were giddy and happy as could be. Definitely made the right call on that one.

It was suchh a fun night! We felt so classy and grown up. So New York!

Definitely one of my favorite trendy food places in NYC! What a good time.

<3, Charlotte

Apartment Search Day 2: When a broker cancels your appointment

The cancel button was pushed on me today :(

Sooo I was supposed to meet with another broker this morning. And she canceled on me last minute.

VERY UPSETTING!

So now today I guess I'm going to try to look up some places online and reach out that way - maybe I can schedule something else for this afternoon.

UGH, I just feel like I've lost a valuable day in this search.

Frustrating.

<3, Charlotte

Weird Things Seen Around NYC: Homeless people in the subway

How lucky to have a sitting homeless man greet you when entering the subway!