The point of no return

Whenever I used to talk about moving to New York, people would always say, "Well, the worst thing that could happen is you move up there for six months and it doesn't work." It was weird, that was every single person's first comment. I remember thinking that if I could just make it to six months I would be home free. Well, I'm nearing my seven month anniversary here and there's no sign of it not working.

It's so strange to think that I've already been here for seven months. It's gone by so fast. A lot has happened. I was laid off, found a new job, fell in love, made some great new friends and had scores of great experiences. New York is everthing I thought it would be and more. I used to worry that I would move up here and be disappointed, but that's definitely not the case. This is where I'm supposed to be and I'm so glad I took the risk of coming here. I can't imagine looking back on my life and regretting never taking the plunge, selling off my life, leaving my friends and family and everything I knew to follow a dream.

I followed that dream, and it's become my reality.

New York wrap up

I know, I know, I've been a slacker. I'm sorry. The more I settle into day-to-day life here, the less there seems to post about. BUT here is a wrap up of what's been going on:

* One thing that I definitely should have posted about was going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time. Now, this isn't necessarily a "New York" thing because you can see it almost anywhere, but the fact that I got to see it for the first time here made it that much cooler. We found a theater in Chelsea that plays it every Friday and Saturday at midnight. For those of you who don't know, (which hopefully isn't many) actors act out the movie as it is being played behind them on a big screen and lip sync the lines. It adds to the humor and overall strangeness of the movie. I've seen the movie before, but have never seen it live, thus making me a "virgin." I won't tell you what they did to "devirginize" the virgins, but it was pretty hilarious. Overall the cast was awesome, especially Frankfurter.

* I helped redo my boyfriend's apartment and it turned out really great. It went from a small, midnight blue loft studio to a modern, cool, warm apartment with great furniture and art and an awesome backyard. Yep, it has a backyard in Chelsea which is pretty rare. I think I missed my calling as an interior designer. We threw a housewarming/Memorial Day barbecue last weekend and it was a big hit. I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun there this summer.

* The weather is still pretty strange. It'll go from being 80 degrees to 50 within a day, which kind of sucks. I'm just ready for summer already!

* Things are okay on the job front. Still temping for ICE doing data entry. That should hold up till July or August. A new opportunity just opened up here yesterday, so that would be great if it came through. I'll tell you more about it if it does. Fingers crossed.

* The months of June and July will be absolutely crazy. We literally have something to do every weekend. The first weekend in June is Rich's birthday, then it's his parent's big 40th anniversary party which we are helping put on, then the Rays are in town, then I'm going to Florida for a week, then we're spending two weeks at the Jersey Shore for July 4th. Phew!

Well that's about it from here. I'll try to keep you updated more often! Miss you guys!

The fashion 'Onion' = Genius

Like The Onion? Like fashion? Like making fun of fashion? Well, your dream has finally come true. Introducing WWWWD: the fashion equivalent of the Onion. The name obviously coming from the highly respected WWD, it debuted during Fashion Week in February and was so popular that it has come back for a second newsletter and will continue until it collapses (so who knows how long).

Now I love and respect fashion as much as the next fashionista, but I also love how ridiculous it is. Now we actually have a site devoted to making fun of every downright stupid fashion disaster with totally fake parody articles! Why did this take so long??

My New York birthday

My 23rd birthday was May 4 and I celebrated in style with my boyfriend. I'm lucky enough to be dating the best guy on the planet, and he treated me like a princess for my birthday with a New York staycation.

We started out by going to see Jersey Boys (I wore the tan strapless dress I got in the sample sale mentioned in the post before this). It has to be one of the best plays I've ever seen, ranking up there with Wicked and Phantom. Go see it if you can. Then we went across the street to Victor's, which has amazing Cuban food and awesome sangria.

The biggest part of my birthday was staying at the Palace for two nights. We had an amazing room that had a perfect view of St. Patrick's Cathedral right across the street. I lazed around on the day of my birthday and ordered room service for lunch, then we went to Daniel for dinner and had a great time. My "gift" (in quotes because the whole experience was a gift) was a heart earring and necklace set from Tiffany.

Every part of my birthday was quintessentially New York, and every part of it was fabulous. Thanks so much, babe. <3

Successful sample sale

The first time I had ever heard of a sample sale was in the Shopoholic book series (it's a fun series, I recommend it for some light reading). The main character is visiting New York from London when she hears there is a sample sale that day. "What is a sample sale?" she asks. The women go on to tell her it's the most fabulous thing in the planet. You go to this secret location where designers' collections from last season are all on sale by a huge percentage. The catch? You have to fight the other women around you for the one or two items to chose from.

Well, I went to my first sample sale last Thursday with my friends Jessica, Leighanne and Meredith. We all bought the "VIP" tickets, which were $20 and included early entry into the sale, plus a gift bag, and were buy-one-get-one free so we only ended up paying $10 each. I heard about it because I'm on the mailing list for WWD (Women's Wear Daily). I'm usually annoyed by their constant "breaking news" e-mails, which basically just tell me which designer's profits have fallen. But this one had "MARC JACOBS, DVF AND OTHER DESIGNERS UP TO 80 % OFF!" as the headline, so of course I clicked on it.

It seemed more civilized than other sample sales and I figured it would be a fun experience. I didn't go into it actually thinking I'd buy anything. The doors opened at 5 for the VIP people, so Jess and I got in line around 4:30. Meredith and Leighanne couldn't get there till 6. By 4:30 the line was about half way down the block. At 5 I heard it was around the corner. But we were early enough to have about a half an hour of push-free shopping.

The whole Marc Jacobs and DVF shoutout was a bit far-fetched since there was probably about five items total from the two designers. But there was some really cute, cheap stuff to chose from and I ended up buying a white button-down shirt dress and a tan sleeveless bubble dress for $45 total. Not bad, right? Unfortunately for Meredith and Leighanne, it was an all-out war by 6:00 and they couldn't get by the masses to find anything. Oh well, now we can all say we've been to a sample sale. One more experience you can only get in New York.