Close Encounters on 3rd Avenue

Two weeks in and Gregg and I are still gradually adjusting to life as New Yorkers. After being ignored by the 20+ art related jobs I've applied to during the month of August, I began passing out my resumé to retailers around the city and less than 24 hours after an interview with Barnes and Noble I jumped on the schedule as a full time employee. Easy enough. Right now I'm stationed primarily in the children's section and have begun important tasks such as helping clueless fathers find gifts for their children and installing colorful and densely packed Halloween displays. Apparently its just around the corner.

In other news on the job front, I was asked to come in for an in person interview at the Guggenheim Museum fancy I know regarding an un-paid, once a week internship position in which I would be assisting a teaching artist with a class in one of the five boroughs. The interview turned into the final round of a Miss America pageant when myself and the three other interviewees in the room had to pull a piece of paper out of a box with a challenging situation we needed to explain how we would handle. Only instead of answering questions about world peace or our stance on gay marriage we had to explain that if little Johnny wanted us to do his work for him we would explain to him that then it wouldn't be his work and that he wouldn't be as proud of it. Or something like that. Lets just say I found the experience a little excessive for a one day a week internship. Still waiting to hear back.

I have always been cynical of how in movies shot in Manhattan chance encounters with unexpected acquaintances change the out come of one's life, or at least one's day. I am no longer a cynic. On Saturday night, Gregg and I were standing on a subway platform with plans to roam the streets of the Upper East Side in search of a relatively affordable restaurant when we heard someone say his name. Before I go any further, keep in mind that there is only one single person who lives in the entire city that Gregg has met prior to moving to New York. His sister's college friend, Chris, whom he met briefly at her wedding over a year ago. So who could possibly be saying his name on the subway platform? The same Chris, who happened to be standing feet from us waiting for the same subway. What the odds? I have no idea. Very slim I'd say. Regardless we met up with him and some of his friends later that evening at a bar in SoHo and had a fun time. So maybe the movies aren't so far off.

Another fun surprise for us came last Monday night when we headed over to Chelsea for an improv show at the Upright Citizen's Bridgade theater. The venue is famous for giving many famous actors and comedians their start and we wanted to check it out. The theater was tiny and by the time we got there the only space available was standing in the back directly behind a couple who felt comedy shows were the perfect time for snuggling and eskimo kisses. I disagree. The surprise was that one of the comedians was an actor on 30 Rock, one of our favorite TV shows. The show could have been made better only if Alec Baldwin himself had appeared and autographed Gregg's bare chest as I anticipate Gregg would have requested.

So we are doing pretty well so far. It is not so hot that we need to take three cold showers a day to stay sane. Things are looking up.

-Libby

And now presenting Times Square!

New New Yorkers...Yorkers

New City. New Blog. I think Gregg and I have been busy enough over the last few weeks to fill 5 blog posts. Since our last update we have enjoyed a visit from my parents, packed up our philadelphia apartment, drove a U-Haul to Manhattan and carried all of our belongings up to the 4th floor of our un-airconditioned and elevatorless building. Not an easy or enjoyable task. Which may explain why after two days of attempting to fit four rooms worth of our stuff into one we took off and drove to the midwest for two weeks to enjoy time with our friends, family and space!

Incase you were wondering it is an 18 hour drive from New York City to St. Louis where we stayed at a friends for the night and an additional 4 to Kansas City where we enjoyed four days eating cheesecake on the Plaza, eating hot dogs at a Royals game and eating caramel brownies at my house. We also had the privilege of being schooled by my Grandma in Rumikub and loved seeing my cousin Stephanie and Aunt Virginia who came down for the day.

Next up was Tulsa where we had a great time hanging out with friends and drooling over the spacious houses everyone seems to have acquired during our year in Philly. Gregg was reunited with his real true love, racquetball and I enjoyed painting toe nails and having gigglefests with my girleypoos.

Our final stop was Dallas where Gregg begged me to take him to the Dallas Museum of Art. Fine Gregg, but just this once. We also got to visit a very cool aquarium that once again confirmed my belief that octpuses octopi? are the most horrific looking animals in the sea. The rest of our stay was spent in the swimming pool, enjoying authentic margaritas and preventing a curious cat named Puma from chowing down on a tiny, defenseless hamster named Squishy.

After two weeks of traveling the Midwest on vacation it was very weird to go home to New York City and get back to real life. Upon coming back to the city our apartment seemed hotter and smaller than we remembered it. The loft bed we purchased to save space is too hot to sleep in and has become nothing more than a storage unit for our bed during the day. We drag the mattress to the floor each night and surround ourselves with fans on full blast. We finally installed some window blinds in an attempt to cool down the apartment and prevent the sun from waking us up hours before our alarm clocks would even consider making a sound. It truly is hot out here and were are often tempted to ride the subway up and down the city just to enjoy the air-conditioning.

We're getting used to things and are having a good time exploring not only the area we live in but the rest of the city. One area I would prefer never to "explore" again is the DMV where we spend 3 hours in line to get NY Drivers Licenses. Now that we have internet securely installed we are full speed ahead on our job searches. Gregg is going to be doing some consulting work for the company he worked for in Philadelphia which is really fortunate and I have applied to about 80 million jobs and am expecting a call any day now from at least one of them.

We hope everyone has had a good summer and we'd love to hear from you!

-Libby

Movin' On Up

We're In!!

Barely...

Avoiding the giants playing badminton in KC

A long awaited reunion

Obligatory cousin picture

Can you guess which one is the true Royals fan?

Kansas Citians + some weirdo

Three girls, a margarita, and Gregg about to hit the floor

The most girly evening EVER

Romos!

Enjoying the wide open spaces of Woodward Park in Tulsa

Gregg and his family at an aquarium that looks eerily like Jurassic Park

Us enjoying the great outdoors.....while inside...

FINALLY!! WE FOUND NEMO!!! Quick. Someone call Marlin