First Day at Work

Today was my first day at BMG. (Click on "BMG" and then the link to learn more about where I work).

Let me first detail the fashion crisis that began last night. (If you don't care about this part, skip down a few paragraphs.)

On my way home from a long day of picking up things for the apartment, I realized that my black pumps are still in transit from LA, meaning I had no work-appropriate shoes. Luckily, I turned the corner and found myself standing in front of Payless. I walked in and started browsing. First of all, "Payless" my butt! But oh well. I managed to find myself a good pair of wedges for a decent price and left with success.

I came home and set out everything for the morning, including a button down shirt which had wrinkled in my suitcase. No problem, I'd just hang it in the bathroom during my morning shower and let the steam release the wrinkles. That works, right? Nope. After scouring the web for solutions to my conundrum I discovered the following:

• Heat a large saucepan with about an inch and a half of water on the stove. When steaming, remove from the fire and run the bottom of the saucepan along your clothes, just like you would an iron. If you can spray your clothes lightly with water or Febreeze beforehand to create steam, even better.

It works!

Ok, moving on.

I made it to work with a 20 minute walk, stopping on the way to grab a muffin from a delicious bakery. I was greeted at work with an incredibly friendly staff. I share an office with the VP of film & TV in the marketing and licensing department. Needless to say, I'll be learning a lot in this office, both from my officemate and the rest of the staff with whom I work

I got to use just about the coolest device in the world today (my organizational nerd is about to come out).

This is a scanner! The tiniest scanner I've ever seen and it's 8.5" across. Amazing.

On my way home, I picked up a hot plate from a Japanese self-serve deli, only it wasn't hot. The food had clearly been out since lunch but I was starving so I took what was left from the mostly-empty bar (I can best compare it to that self-serve prepared foods area at Whole Foods, except nothing was fresh, the selection was minimal, and the place was more like a 7-11). I ended up with a plate of hard-boiled eggs, sushi, stir fried vegetables, and a crab-and-celery mixture. The meal was shockingly good. Or maybe it was the hunger.

I stopped at Borders after that and got Not For Toursits - New York. Let the exploring begin. Or should I say continue?

There's a car under there somewhere

Either this car is dressed as snow for Halloween and doesn't know it's January, or the owners of this car are going to be pretty peeved when they return from their vacation.

Juice Generation

While it may look like rusty water, this is the most amazing vegetable soup I've ever had. Celery, carrots, yellow and green peas, corn, zucchini, potatoes, mushrooms (yes, I'll even eat mushrooms for this soup), onions, broccoli, and a few other veggies make this the most veggie-packed and flavorful soup on this side of vegetarian and dairy-free.

If it were warmer outside I'd get one of their highly inventive fruit smoothies (acai, mangosteens, blueberries, pomegranate juicen, and banana, anyone?) but instead I'm going to follow this up with one of their tea concoctions, Cold Warrior: a blend of organic green tea, fresh oranges, ginger, echinacea, vitamin C, and zinc.

Should I also join their marketing team?

Juice Generation | 9th Ave & 45th St

39th & Lexington

Hollaaaaaa.

View of the East Bay from my bedroom window

Arrival

Having just read Aloni's blog, I am currently inspired to write my own. Time will tell if I keep up with it. I had the intention of maintaining a photoblog ("phlog"?) anyway; some writing can't hurt. Naturally, I named it after a Jason Mraz song.

My first few days in New York have been wonderful. Here is a play-by-play (and probably the longest post I will ever write):

Thursday:
After 12 hours in transit* I arrived at LaGuardia Airport and made my way to Murray Hill, where my new roommate, Elana, was waiting for me. I was greeted with a hug and a warm welcome, putting me entirely at ease about having a roommate I only met over Skype. After unpacking and arranging the couch as a bed (my own bed had yet to be delivered) I headed out with a friend I met in Chicago, who has since moved to New York and is now a DJ.

We went to Gallery Bar, a bar that also functions as a gallery space. The DJs, Murdertronics, were spinning a mixtape they recently made and my friend introduced me to a bunch of his friends who were there. I was also finally introduced to DJ Moptop, whose name I heard all over Chicago and now he lives here.

We went to one more bar and stopped for some quick delicious Indian fast food before calling it a night, and I finally made it to sleep around 5:30am. Needless to say, I needed a nap the next day.



Friday:
I woke up starving and headed out to explore. I stopped at the first diner and ordered a scramble and potatoes. Guess I looked exhausted because the incredibly sweet, elderly waitress asked if I was ok. I was.

After that I was off to locate groceries. I stopped at two bodegas, buying whatever came close enough to what I was actually looking for, before I discovered a large grocery store with a decent variety of products.

Not long after, I headed to an area that Google Maps tells me is the Flatiron District. I killed some time there and then headed to the cousins' apartment across town for Shabbat dinner with the three cousins (Galete, Dalya, and Nora), the significant others (Jonathan and Henry), and two of Nora's friends. After a huge delicious meal courtesy of Nora (crispy baked eggplant with ricotta, penne in vodka sauce, warm zucchini salad, and garlic bread) and Dalya (caesar salad with homemade dressing) we played a game Nora calls salad bowl. Lots of fun was had!



Saturday:
I started Saturday off with a trip around Astoria to pick up housewares. The 99 cents store served me well, but 99 cents stores are everywhere. The beauty of going to Astoria was Site, a store that might as well have been teleported from Division & Damen (in Chicago, where one can find handmade specialties, artsy crafts, and overpriced details for the home such as monogram soy candles; yes, I bought one) to its current location.

On my way to the train I picked up the best shawarma I've had in the U.S. My camera phone doesn't do it justice, but a picture will soon be posted. Thanks to my recent trip to Egypt I was able to make the street-corner chef smile by saying "shukran" ("thank you") before walking away.



Sunday:
Today I visited some home decor stores in Hell's Kitchen to finish up buying the things I need in my room (desk lamp, oscillating fan, dream catcher... the basics). During my stroll I discovered an amazing health-smoothie and tea bar, which I wrote a post about from my phone but apparently it didn't go through so expect it shortly following this post.



All in all, a successful first weekend in New York.

As for the worst winter they've ever had, I think everyone here should give Chicago a try and then see how much they complain about the weather. 36 degrees and sunny today; I couldn't ask for better!


*On Monday, I realized that I had not yet booked my flight to New York. The only affordable flights made several stops; the one I chose made three. After a 5:30am (PST) wake up call, one flight from LAX, and one flight from Nashville I was delayed in Baltimore with only Pennsylvania standing between me and New York, where I finally landed at 8:30pm (EST).