case of charm

Fall is flown into the Northeast and I have to say, I’m welcoming it with very open arms! It’s been a great summer, but it’s time to get down to business… it’s too much of a tease to have beautiful weather, only to have to sit at a desk all day. Chilly mornings and brisk walks to work, now that I can handle!

Friday night Ali and I celebrated our 22nd and 23rd birthdays with lots of old and new friends, it was nice to finally have people over at our apartment and celebrate a year of our friendship.

I spent Saturday on the UES (sorry Georgia fans, but Pourhouse wasn’t calling my name for the Coastal Carolina game). I braved the 3rd Avenue breeze for a Crab Cake BLT al fresco at Atlantic Grill then worked my way over to the Met for some wandering.

If you’ve studied Art History with me, you know that my taste is bizarre and eclectic and mostly just weird. I have a soft spot for satirical art and political cartoons (Hogarth is my favorite artist, after all). If you’re in the NYC area, go check out “Infinite Jest” a new exhibit up at the Met. There was an amazing collection, mostly of French and British satirical art, all funny and all what I would love to pepper the walls of my apartment with.

Today was spent sleeping in and not watching any television (thanks Time Warner!). Ali and I have become great fans of the iPhone app “Scout Mob” which shows you deals in your area, that you don’t have to pay for in advance.

We took a leisurely stroll for a deal in the West Village to try A Salt & Battery. We’ve been seriously missing Oxford, so some fish & chips and mushy peas were just what we needed! Oh my god it was so good. Not a real restaurant it’s more like a little diner with stools, tons of vinegar bottles and a pervasively delicious smell of things frying (fish, fries, Mars bars).

Our deal was for 50% off— $9.50 got me a bottle of cider, fish, fries and mushy peas (and the names of 2 popular bars for the displaced Brits in NYC via the cute chef). I told Ali that God sent this food to us straight to our mouths from heaven with a quick stop in the fryer. [FYI: It’s on the corner of Jane and Greenwich Ave.]

As if I needed any more reminders of England… there was a sister store called Tea & Sympathy. I’m embarrassed to admit the amount I spent on Cadbury’s & Bourbon cremes. T&S also had a little restaurant that looked adorable and English and they had all of the food I actually loved in England on the menu. Thank god they’ll deliver to Hudson & Houston!

Too much recounting, my brain hurts. Soup is on the stove and I have a whole bag of laundry to unpack from the cleaners. I love New York. I love not doing my own laundry.

I’ll just cut to the chase- New York is awesome. As a Manhattan-born, cultural event commuter from Connecticut, I always thought I had a pretty good understanding of what it was like to be in “The City”. Well, I kinda did, but there’s also a feeling of just being here that’s hard to describe.

Moving to Manhattan has always been my end goal- a far off chapter in my life that was easy to point to when people asked what I wanted to do with my life. Well, now I’m here, and I’m doing it, and despite my post-graduate poverty, it feels really good.

My fellow interns in my program are fantastic, my supervisor’s great, and the accounts I’m being exposed to are equally wonderful. My commute to work is all but 5 minutes walking, and there’s a J.Crew, metro stop, Whole Foods and a Colombian restaurant all within a 5 block radius.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, I’ve already reported to my Twitter followers (@ccase22) that butter and cereal cost $7 each, and that I live in a 5th floor walk-up with no air conditioning. Time Warner cable has also completely destroyed my long and loving relationship with TiVo. No more DVR’ing for me. But that’s ok because there’s plenty of free stuff to do here. Just this past Monday I went with my friend, Lucie, to HBO’s summer movie series in Bryant Park to see “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”. Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Sorry I’ve been slacking on the posts. I was hoping to get around to Tumblr on my lunch breaks, or after work, but I’ve been trying to soak it all in, because sooner than I think, I’ll be an all-black wearing, coffee clutching, jaded New Yorker!

I’ll be blogging occasionally this summer for my internship, I’ll shoot you guys the link once those get started!

I moved into my new apartment yesterday. Five flights of stairs and (luckily) only some bedding, clothing and accessories to carry up. My window looks out right onto an avenue with every ethnic restaurant you could think of, and I’m two blocks from my office, a Duane Reade (=CVS), several grocery stores AND the subway. WIN!

After settling all in I walked down the block to get some food and got hit with my first real NYC sticker shock. No wonder New Yorkers are skinnier, because all they can afford to eat is produce!!! Seriously. A box of Special K cereal is $7. Salsa? I couldn’t find anything less than $5.49! And then… 4 cucumbers for $1.00. I don’t understand! Oh well. 

I worked my way down on the Subway to meet Ali in the West Village (where she will be living this summer! yay for friends!). I checked out her place, and then we walked around until we reached Little Italy, we definitely needed a little comfort food and outdoor dining. 

I decided that I wanted to have a slow journey home and give myself a chance to take in the city a little better and orient myself. So I decided to walk back home from Little Italy. An hour and fifteen minutes later, I was home. On the way I passed through the East Village, the Empire State Building, the Flat Iron Building, Eataly (can’t wait to go!), Times Square, and the Theater District. By the time I got to my door, and saw those five flights of stairs, I was worried my legs were going to give out on me! But alas, I made it, showered and was asleep by 10:15 p.m. Mission accomplished. 

Woke up this morning (several times) to the sound of the city. In fact, I need to readjust the sound of my alarm because I physically CANNOT hear it over the street noise. That could be a problem; however, today, I happen to be a little bit of a nervous nelly for my first day of work. 

So far, I’ve had only a few gaffes, and all food related. Like using a gas stove for the first time and torching my egg. Trying to toast bread without the toaster being on. 

Time to hustle and get ready for work! I’ll keep you updated and later on I will upload some cool photos from yesterday. 

Send some gooooood vibes please. 

Columbus Day was always my invented “Take Your Daughter to Work Day”. I would tag around as he went into meetings with men in suits about men in suits. We’d go to a few meetings, eat somewhere yummy and then finish with a visit to F.A.O. Schwarz.

Over winter break, my Dad had one VERY cool meeting that I insisted on coming along for. We whizzed through the office, saw my dad present the collection, and then shot back up one stop on the subway.

Lorenzo with the wind blown, NYC Avenue look. Battilardo platter.

We gave Osteria Morini a try. It had recently been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times (within one week!). It was Italian, rustic, busy and it smelled so so so good. We started with the Battilardo platter then Lorenzo ordered the tagliatelle, and I got the cappeletti. Holy taste buds I’ve never ordered a creamy pasta that was so light and delicious. Topped it off with an affogato (vanilla gelato with a shot of espresso thrown over).

The Capelletti. 

Take your daughter to work day has certainly been upgraded! I can’t wait until I’m a New Yorker (again) and can meet my dad and my sister for lunches all over the city!

So my Grandmother abuelita is in town from Medellin, Colombia. It’s her first visit to Connecticut without my grandfather in a LONG time, so to cheer her up, my mom and I got her tickets to go see “Come Fly Away”, a new show on Broadway.

The show is choreographed by Twyla Tharp, and features 34 of Frank Sinatra’s songs. There is no dialogue, it features a 30 piece orchestra, and around 15 dancers. The story follows several couples as they fall in love, fight, make up etc.

OK- so the audience’s average age was 75. It was not your typical Broadway show at all, and I would’ve rather seen Promises, Promises or La Cage aux Folles. It was certainly entertaining, and the highlights of the show were:

1. My grandma teared up during “My Way” because it’s my grandfather’s favorite song. I swear nothing gets to me like cute, old people— Amanda Payson, you know what I’m talking about! I pretty much automatically teared up too…
2. The final number was… New York, New York. No surprises there I hope! No matter what show I’ve gone to see, I always tear up at the end. Same goes for stuff like the Olympics and concerts etc. It’s so lame, probably because I watched too much Oprah too young… but I get emotional seeing these people live out their dreams… 

So while it wasn’t my favorite thing ever, it was nice to make my cute Abuelita happy, and to broaden my theatrical horizon.

We ate a DELICIOUS lunch at Kouzina by Trata on 70th and 2nd Ave. it was a Greek restaurant where the three of us enjoyed a traditional Greek salad, perfectly cooked branzino with capers and fresh tomatoes, and then the all-star was the smoked & grilled octopus. Oh-My-God it was AMAZING.