I quit my job in Toledo in November to move to New York City in December. Except for some freelance opportunities I've taken advantage of, I no longer have a steady source of income.
So today, I did what any responsible unemployed person would do.
I went on a shopping spree.
Well, what else do I have to do with my time?
As I mentioned before, Ali and I went shoe shopping on Sunday, but I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, which were Ugg knock-offs. So I did a bit of Internet research and found that Famous Footwear had the exact ones I was looking for - for 1/4 of the price of regular Uggs.
But before I got to Famous Footwear, I found a cute pair of brown shoes at Payless, so I bought those. Then I found the boots I was looking for along with a pair of black ultra low boots, and bought both. On the way home, I also snatched up some suede brown boots to go over jeans at another store.
Luckily, Brent wasn't even upset when he saw four shoe boxes in the living room when he got home. He was just happy that I was going to have something to wear around the city during the winter other than my tennis shoes. He did ask if it would matter if suggested that I stop spending money because I didn't have a job.
I replied by looking at the shoe boxes and looking back at him with a helpless stare. I mean come on! They're shoes! And they're SOOOO cute!
Brent just sighed - he knows when he's beaten. Shoes have that power.
'Nuff said.
Monday, January 14, 2008
When women go shopping, they are not messing around!
I got an unexpected, but great phone call during my one-night stand on Saturday with Brent. On the other end of the phone was Ali, a former colleague. We worked together at The Blade newspaper last summer while she was there as an intern during her summer break from college. We had fun during the three plus months she was in Toledo, playing board games, tennis, and going out to dinner.
As luck would have it, she told me on the phone that she was on her way overseas and had a day-long layover at a New York City airport. But rather than be stuck in the airport all day, she asked if I was free to hang out. I of course said YES! I FINALLY had a friend look me up the next time he or she was in New York! Yay!
So we met up at the subway station near my place late Sunday morning and walked uptown to Europan to eat brunch and catch up on each other's lives.
Afterward, we spent the next FIVE hours walking from around 64th Street to Soho, which is more than two miles, and stopping in tons of shoe stores, Old Navy, and interesting shops along the way. We were ultimately headed to Muji - an IKEA-like store that opened its first U.S. store in November.
Though they had great stuff there - lots of plain white, but beautiful dishes, teapots, and other housewears along with office supplies, pillows, and clothes, it was EXPENSIVE. Ali said it was probably the exchange rate that made it seem so overpriced. But she found a cute skirt and a T-shirt for both her and her mom there, so the walk was worth it.
And since she goes to Yale, she said we'll be seeing each other more often after she finishes a semester studying in Argentina - how awesome is that?! - because she often comes into the city when she wants a break from classes. Yay!
Thanks for a fun day Ali!
As luck would have it, she told me on the phone that she was on her way overseas and had a day-long layover at a New York City airport. But rather than be stuck in the airport all day, she asked if I was free to hang out. I of course said YES! I FINALLY had a friend look me up the next time he or she was in New York! Yay!
So we met up at the subway station near my place late Sunday morning and walked uptown to Europan to eat brunch and catch up on each other's lives.
Afterward, we spent the next FIVE hours walking from around 64th Street to Soho, which is more than two miles, and stopping in tons of shoe stores, Old Navy, and interesting shops along the way. We were ultimately headed to Muji - an IKEA-like store that opened its first U.S. store in November.
Though they had great stuff there - lots of plain white, but beautiful dishes, teapots, and other housewears along with office supplies, pillows, and clothes, it was EXPENSIVE. Ali said it was probably the exchange rate that made it seem so overpriced. But she found a cute skirt and a T-shirt for both her and her mom there, so the walk was worth it.
And since she goes to Yale, she said we'll be seeing each other more often after she finishes a semester studying in Argentina - how awesome is that?! - because she often comes into the city when she wants a break from classes. Yay!
Thanks for a fun day Ali!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
On top of the world
I had my first one-night stand on Saturday, and it was fantastic!
Before you jump to conclusions - my one-night stand was with my fiance, Brent. Sheesh!
I got the idea from the fantastic book "Forget About It" by Caprice Crane, which I totally recommend to anyone looking for a good book to read.
For our one-night stands, both Brent and I take turns coming up with a fun activity to do together every other Saturday. The caveat is that it has to be something we've never done before, and may never do again, hence the one-night stand.
It sounds harder than it is, but it probably will almost always will be a restaurant we've never eaten at before along with an activity we've never done.
So since I came up with our first activity yesterday, Brent will need to come up with his idea in two weeks. That means we'll get to do some sort of New York-y thing twice a month, which is probably all we'll be able to afford anyway!
For my turn, I poured over some of the "stuff to do in New York" books I've gotten as gifts to find a good romantic restaurant because I was in the mood for romance!
Right when I saw the restaurant called Chez Josephine , I knew I hit money. My middle name is Jo because I was named after an uncle who died before I was born. But since that's a guy's name, Brent usually c
alls me Josephine as one of his pet names. Since he hates surprises, I gave him the hint that we were going to "my place" for dinner followed by something spectacular!
And since we were going somewhere romantic, it gave me an excuse to dress up!
alls me Josephine as one of his pet names. Since he hates surprises, I gave him the hint that we were going to "my place" for dinner followed by something spectacular!And since we were going somewhere romantic, it gave me an excuse to dress up!
For some reason, I had the urge to wear my red pumps - red equals romance, after all, and paired that up with skinny jeans, a red fitted shirt, and a black stretchy belt cinched around my midsection.
I also had the urge to do something different with my hair, so I channeled the '80s and crimped the top half. Honestly, I have no idea whether I looked stylish or just plain silly, but I felt pretty fashionable!
Many blocks later - with many Band-aids wrapped around my toes and adhered to my heels - we got to the restaurant and sat down right away at an intimate table with candles. Brent had the salmon - of course - with veggies, and I tried some delicious angel hair pasta with squash and tomatoes.
After my feet had some time to rest, and after Brent made me ruin the surprise by telling him where we were headed, we walked another few blocks to the tallest building in New York City - The Empire State Building at Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It was the world's tallest building for 40 years, from its completion in 1931 until the World Trade Center's North Tower was built in 1972. It then became New York City's tallest building once again after the World Trade Center towers were destroyed in 2001.
It took FOREVER to get to the top because we had to weave through line after line in room after room and down hallway after hallway, but finally we rode two elevators to the 86th floor observation deck.
Because we went at night, the view was SPECTACULAR. It was a clear night, so we could see for 20 miles in every direction. The city stretched out before us in three directions and we could see the Hudson River and New Jersey in the other. Though it was freezing, it was also romantic.
Then we capped off the evening with a subway ride home because there was no way I was walking yet another step in those great-looking, yet ridiculously painful shoes. It hurts when you're trying to be beautiful!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Sometimes Hell's Kitchen lives up to its name
As I've mentioned before, I live in the Manhattan neighborhood known as Hell's Kitchen. It's roughly the area between 34th and 57th streets from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River.
Since I've been here, I've heard several stories about how Hell's Kitchen got its name. But my favorite version, and the most common one I've heard, involves a veteran police officer and his rookie partner. The pair were watching a small riot on West 39th Street near 10th Avenue, and the rookie is said to have muttered, "This place is Hell itself" to which the veteran cop replied, "Hell's a mild climate. This is Hell's Kitchen."
Though it has come a long way since then - and is actually a place I feel safe living in - it's the following SHOCKING story that make it live up to its namesake. This story was first pointed out to me by a source who wishes to remain anonymous. Let's refer to him as J. Wilhelm - no wait, that's too obvious. Let's call him Jim W. - a former colleague and president of the Erika Ray Blog Fanclub.
Though my source pointed it out to me first, it's come up in conversation many times with neighbors in a "did you hear about this story" kind of way, seeing since it happened a mere 4 blocks from my apartment.
Anyone seen "Weekend at Bernie's?" Apparently these two 65-year-old guys did too. And they thought they could get away with cashing their friend's Social Security check. Oh yeah - their friend was DEAD. But they were smart enough to know that their 66-year-old friend would have to be present to cash the check - so they ROLLED HIM TO THE CHECK-CASHING SHOP IN AN OFFICE CHAIR. All for a whopping $355, which they didn't get. Thankfully, they got arrested instead.
It's rare, but I am truly at a loss for words.
Read the whole story here.
Since I've been here, I've heard several stories about how Hell's Kitchen got its name. But my favorite version, and the most common one I've heard, involves a veteran police officer and his rookie partner. The pair were watching a small riot on West 39th Street near 10th Avenue, and the rookie is said to have muttered, "This place is Hell itself" to which the veteran cop replied, "Hell's a mild climate. This is Hell's Kitchen."
Though it has come a long way since then - and is actually a place I feel safe living in - it's the following SHOCKING story that make it live up to its namesake. This story was first pointed out to me by a source who wishes to remain anonymous. Let's refer to him as J. Wilhelm - no wait, that's too obvious. Let's call him Jim W. - a former colleague and president of the Erika Ray Blog Fanclub.
Though my source pointed it out to me first, it's come up in conversation many times with neighbors in a "did you hear about this story" kind of way, seeing since it happened a mere 4 blocks from my apartment.
Anyone seen "Weekend at Bernie's?" Apparently these two 65-year-old guys did too. And they thought they could get away with cashing their friend's Social Security check. Oh yeah - their friend was DEAD. But they were smart enough to know that their 66-year-old friend would have to be present to cash the check - so they ROLLED HIM TO THE CHECK-CASHING SHOP IN AN OFFICE CHAIR. All for a whopping $355, which they didn't get. Thankfully, they got arrested instead.
It's rare, but I am truly at a loss for words.
Read the whole story here.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Well it SHOULD be abandoned
When I moved into my apartment in Hell's Kitchen, I noted in my Dec. 8 post that it was directly next to an abandoned, graffiti-clad building with a padlocked chain on the front door and giant posters attached to it up to six feet above the sidewalk.I lied.
Apparently, I live next to an OCCUPIED graffiti-clad building that's has a brand-new hole in the side, now that someone wrenched open the wooden boards that were used to board it up. The hole is big enough for someone to fit through, but it sure as hell isn't anywhere I'll be going anytime soon.
Well, what can you expect from the second-oldest apartment house in Manhattan?
Apparently, in its heyday, it was all tricked out with marble fireplaces, uniformed "hall boys" to help the tenants, and the latest technology - the hydraulic elevator and the telephone.
I read up on the eight-story building, built in 1881 and named the Windermere, after seeing dozens of firefighters and police officers surrounding it the other day. There were so many of them that they actually had to close a portion of the street (read: right in front of my apartment building) and evacuate the area due to "hazardous conditions" which I later learned was a suspicious gas leak. One of our doorman suggested that someone was trying to blow up the eyesore, which has been in the middle of some serious litigation for years.
Most of the tenants have settled and moved out of the building. I say "most" because apparently, seven tenants still live there. I don't even want to IMAGINE what type of condition they're living in. But apparently court orders are protecting them living in the deteriorating building - one that I have serious doubts that it was ever as glorious as some claim.
Before we decided to move in to our building, I was encouraged by the scaffolding surrounding the neighboring building. But during the course of the blowing-up-the-building conversation that I had with one of our doormen recently, he said the scaffolding has been up for the last decade - probably holding the Windermere together.
And even though the building is a prime piece of Manhattan real estate, it was designated a city landmark in 2005 and isn't going away anytime soon. Damn.
Friday, January 4, 2008
I just didn't want to die in my sleep
I was just following the directions.
Next thing I know, I hear the wailing sound of a fire truck just before three firefighters wielding axes are beating on my apartment door.
And I was perfectly fine. And absolutely nothing was wrong. How embarassing.
Let's start from the beginning.
I was innocentely chilling out on my couch around 8:30 p.m. when I heard four piercing beeps. Chloe immediately jumped up to go hide in the bathroom (wuss) while it took me a minute to realize the blips were coming from the smoke detector.
Since my apartment is the size of a walk-in closet, I quickly looked around the room and observed that there was, in fact, no fire.
But it wouldn't stop beeping, and I couldn't get the battery out, so I twisted it off the ceiling and saw that it is actually a carbon monoxide and smoke alarm combo.
So between the beeps, which were so loud that I'm sure I was waking someone up in Finland, I read the directions on the back. They said the noise I was hearing - four quick, intermittent beeps, meant the alarm detected carbon monoxide.
Then I saw the WARNING! which states: "Carbon monoxide cannot be seen or smelled but can kill you." Oh shit, I thought. That must be why I've had a pounding headache all day and felt like a slug - I've been inhailing carbon monoxide!
So I read further under the warning. It said:
"If alarm signal sounds:
1) Operate the test / silence button."
Easy enough. But it wouldn't quit going off, so, naturally, I thought that meant my apartment was so saturated with the invisible poison that it was only a matter of time before I dropped dead.
So I read on:
2) Call your emergency services (fire department or 911)
3) Immediately move to fresh air - outdoors or by an open door/window
Number 2 seemed rather extreme, so after I got the building superintendent's voice mail, I opened the windows to let in the frigid air and called the emergency gas number I found in the phone book to ask them what I should do.
The woman who answered might as well been an answering machine because she didn't answer any of my questions and didn't offer any advice. All she asked for was my address, then said she was connecting me to the fire department.
OK, that's fine. They're the ones with the expertise, I thought. So I once again explained the situation to the fire department dispatcher, and before she hung up on me almost immediately, she said she was dispatching the fire department.
About five minutes later, I was dwarfed by three firefighters in full firefighting gear who came inside my apartment to check the carbon monoxide level - which was at ZERO. Seriously.
But they were nice enough to take the time to explain why the alarm may have gone off and what to do next time, which is reset it by taking the battery out and putting in a fresh one. If it continues to go off, DON'T open the windows, but call them immediately so they can see where the leak is.
About 30 minutes later, a representative from the gas company showed up to do additional tests, and found the levels to be much less than the maximum allowed. And while he was there, he made sure there was no gas leak.
So while I was extremely embarassed, I have to admit that I felt better knowing that I wasn't being poisoned and would most likely wake up the next morning - as long as Brent doesn't read this posting 'cause he'd totally kill me for being irrationally safe.
But better to be safe than sorry, right? RIGHT?
Next thing I know, I hear the wailing sound of a fire truck just before three firefighters wielding axes are beating on my apartment door.
And I was perfectly fine. And absolutely nothing was wrong. How embarassing.
Let's start from the beginning.
I was innocentely chilling out on my couch around 8:30 p.m. when I heard four piercing beeps. Chloe immediately jumped up to go hide in the bathroom (wuss) while it took me a minute to realize the blips were coming from the smoke detector.
Since my apartment is the size of a walk-in closet, I quickly looked around the room and observed that there was, in fact, no fire.
But it wouldn't stop beeping, and I couldn't get the battery out, so I twisted it off the ceiling and saw that it is actually a carbon monoxide and smoke alarm combo.
So between the beeps, which were so loud that I'm sure I was waking someone up in Finland, I read the directions on the back. They said the noise I was hearing - four quick, intermittent beeps, meant the alarm detected carbon monoxide.
Then I saw the WARNING! which states: "Carbon monoxide cannot be seen or smelled but can kill you." Oh shit, I thought. That must be why I've had a pounding headache all day and felt like a slug - I've been inhailing carbon monoxide!
So I read further under the warning. It said:
"If alarm signal sounds:
1) Operate the test / silence button."
Easy enough. But it wouldn't quit going off, so, naturally, I thought that meant my apartment was so saturated with the invisible poison that it was only a matter of time before I dropped dead.
So I read on:
2) Call your emergency services (fire department or 911)
3) Immediately move to fresh air - outdoors or by an open door/window
Number 2 seemed rather extreme, so after I got the building superintendent's voice mail, I opened the windows to let in the frigid air and called the emergency gas number I found in the phone book to ask them what I should do.
The woman who answered might as well been an answering machine because she didn't answer any of my questions and didn't offer any advice. All she asked for was my address, then said she was connecting me to the fire department.
OK, that's fine. They're the ones with the expertise, I thought. So I once again explained the situation to the fire department dispatcher, and before she hung up on me almost immediately, she said she was dispatching the fire department.
About five minutes later, I was dwarfed by three firefighters in full firefighting gear who came inside my apartment to check the carbon monoxide level - which was at ZERO. Seriously.
But they were nice enough to take the time to explain why the alarm may have gone off and what to do next time, which is reset it by taking the battery out and putting in a fresh one. If it continues to go off, DON'T open the windows, but call them immediately so they can see where the leak is.
About 30 minutes later, a representative from the gas company showed up to do additional tests, and found the levels to be much less than the maximum allowed. And while he was there, he made sure there was no gas leak.
So while I was extremely embarassed, I have to admit that I felt better knowing that I wasn't being poisoned and would most likely wake up the next morning - as long as Brent doesn't read this posting 'cause he'd totally kill me for being irrationally safe.
But better to be safe than sorry, right? RIGHT?
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Home for (one of) the holidays
As luck would have it, one of my good friends, Ryan, was getting married in Toledo on New Year's Eve so he and Jen could start the new year off as a married couple. Aww!
And even though the Secor building in downtown Toledo wasn't quite finished yet, the decorations were amazing and they had a beautiful, traditional Jewish ceremony followed by a fun reception in which people were hoised on chairs and the guests danced around them in circles.
So though I wasn't able to celebrate Christmas with my family on Christmas, I asked my mom to keep up the decorations so I could have Christmas with my family on New Year's Day. They even held off on opening gifts on Christmas so they could do it with me. Aww again!
So after a whirlwind of running errands and catching up with a select few friends and family members, I got back to New York late last night to continue the job search.
Wish me luck!
And even though the Secor building in downtown Toledo wasn't quite finished yet, the decorations were amazing and they had a beautiful, traditional Jewish ceremony followed by a fun reception in which people were hoised on chairs and the guests danced around them in circles.
So though I wasn't able to celebrate Christmas with my family on Christmas, I asked my mom to keep up the decorations so I could have Christmas with my family on New Year's Day. They even held off on opening gifts on Christmas so they could do it with me. Aww again!
So after a whirlwind of running errands and catching up with a select few friends and family members, I got back to New York late last night to continue the job search.
Wish me luck!
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