Back in D.C.

Well, I am back in DC. Have been since Friday evening. One reason I love the East Coast: It's like Europe -- in a few hours, you can be somewhere completely new, unlike in California (where I grew up), where five hours of driving in any one direction and... you're still in California. The Greyhound bus service is great for moving around the East Coast: cheap and easy. So I left Connecticut on Friday morning. Since I didn't really have a reason to rush back to DC, I decided to give myself a few hours in New York City (I had to make a connection there anyway to get the bus back to DC, so why not). I had hoped to meet up for lunch with some law school friends who are working as summer associates in NYC, but alas they have like, actual jobs right now, so they couldn't meet up. So it was just me.

I have to say, there is nothing quite like a day in the City to lift one's spirits. It was a perfect day, too: I got in around 11:00AM, and it was sunny out, slightly breezy, probably in the mid-70s and not humid. I inevitably ended up in Times Square again (because that is where the Port Authority bus terminal is and, let's face it, I always inevitably end up in Times Square when I am in New York, purposefully or not). Because, unless I am seeing theatre, Times Square is not my most favorite part of the city, I high-tailed it out, and walked north towards Central Park. I grabbed some lunch at a diner (it was "meh"), and then parked myself under the shade in Central Park, and proceeded to read my book. It was, in a word, delightful. I got to intermittently people-watch, which I always like to do in New York City. I would have liked to have walked around and explored more, but I was lugging a bunch of crap with me -- my heavy laptop case, my grocery bag of clothes, and my purse -- so walking around would have been both unpleasant and impractical. So I enjoyed the scenery and great weather instead. Central Park is like one of my favorite places in NYC anyway, so it was all good.

On my way to Central Park, I spotted The Soup Man, the restaurant that inspired the "no soup for you!" bit from Seinfeld

Central Park. How could you say "no" to this?

I love this town

New York City: always love to see you, always hate to have to leave you. I hope one day I can make it back, permanently.

Anyway, I am back in DC now. On Saturday, I went to a Washington Nationals game, against the Colorado Rockies. It was a sunny day, but holy hell was it hot. I had seats in the sun (naturally), so I even splurged and bought a Nationals baseball cap at the stadium so that my face wouldn't fry. Even then, about halfway through the game, I had to move into an empty seat in the shade, because I was starting to feel like I was getting heat sickness or something. Unfortunately, it was a bit too late, and while I didn't get heat stroke, the back of my neck and the tops of my shoulders got a bit cooked.

You know who else got cooked? The Nationals. I didn't get to the game until the top of the 3rd inning, and already the Rockies were up 3-0. Bad sign. The game ended up 7-1 Rockies; the Nationals only got their one home run in the 9th, and besides that, I can probably count on two hands the number of times a runner even got on base, through the whole game. It was kind of bad. The Nationals could neither hit, nor strike people out. The halves of innings where the Rockies were batting, probably lasted twice as long as the half of the inning where the Nationals were at bat. Too bad, so sad. Other than the heat and the outcome, though, it was fun to go to the game, and I am glad I went. You can do worse for $25.

Entering Nationals Park

Washington Nationals v. Colorado Rockies

Scoreboard. Not actually reflecting the sad state of the score of the game, however

In other news, I get to start my job tomorrow! Security finally came through. Won't be able to blog about the job, so this will be the last update on that front. But at least I can start, and this odyssey is over. Huzzah!

There and Back Again: New York

Right now, as I am typing this, I am about 32,000 feet in the air. Specifically, on an American Airlines flight back to Chicago from New York. In less than a week, I will be on another American Airlines flight to New York; a day after that, I will be on a flight back to Chicago. The cause? Callback interviews.

I had a callback interview with a prominent New York firm earlier today. For those of you who do not speak law student, a "callback" interview is the second round of interviews for a summer firm job. Again, shades of sorority rush: after the first "round" of OCI interviews at the school, we minions will get invited (or not) by firms to interview again, this time in the specific office for which we applied, which for me was the New York office. All expenses paid, too. This, of course, is only if they liked you the first time around. Interestingly, the two (and so far only) callbacks I got were with the last two firms I interviewed with. So I guess, like a fine wine, I get better with time?

So, yesterday after my morning class, I headed over to the hell-place (also known as O'Hare International Airport), and got on a flight out to New York. Which was delayed. But since O'Hare is a vortex where timeliness goes to die, this was not unexpected. The flight was otherwise uneventful. Which is the best kind of flight, really. The one good thing about the lateness, though, was that I got to see a really cool sunset over the Manhattan skyline as we were landing. That was pretty sweet. I dunno-- just flying over New York and landing at the airport, seeing from the window all these things I had come to know this summer, I got really, really excited to be back. It was a very similar feeling to the one you get when you go home to see family after a long absence. So I think that says something about what I want, where I want to be. Also, thank god things in New York are open late. I was still able to get a real dinner. A city that never sleeps: My kind of town.

Also proving that my life actually is Groundhog Day, once in New York I found myself again in Times Square (seriously, why do I always end up in Times Square?), where the hotel was located (for a nostalgia connection, it was a hotel right across from the theatre where by boyfriend and I saw Porgy and Bess one of the times he came out to visit me while I was working in the city this summer). This was actually a logical placement, as the firm was located just off of Times Square, at 51st and 7th-- within walking distance.

The hotel was very nice-- très modern, suitably trendy. I wish I could say I got a decent night's sleep, but there was this really low like throbbing vibrating noise-- from whence it came I do not know-- that I could both hear AND feel in my bed. So that was weird. And prevented me from sleeping for a long while.

The actual interview was just OK. It got off to a kind of rocky start: I got to the building right on time, but then went to the wrong floor (the firm apparently takes up several floors, and when I saw this one guy get off at a lower floor with the firm signage, I assumed that was the floor. I was wrong, and ended up putzing on the wrong floor for several minutes, confusedly, until I was able to find someone to direct me upstairs. Needless to say, this made me a few minutes late to the interview, which is never a good way to start things out, and I felt like a putz. I wish there was a way to signal to people that my dingy-ness is really just confined to things like directions and mundane everyday life details, but doesn't translate into my work. When I am not in a focused "work" situation, I think I live in my head a lot, thinking about what I need to do, considering my work and obligations as I go about the day, and thus miss the everyday random life details. Like what floor to go to. Legally blonde, indeed.

Callback interviews are kind of like OCI interviews with a firm, on steroids. Instead of interviewing with one or two people at once, one time, you go through a succession of people-- in my case, four-- one at a time. The lawyers you meet with run the gamut from 2nd or 3rd year associates, all the way to partners. If you don't know what this means, don't worry, it is not really important. Seeing as how it seems unprofessional to go into details about the individual interviews on a blog (even an anonymous blog), all I will say is that I thought a couple of the interviews went well, a couple were a little more lukewarm. So we shall see how it all pans out. I am not really holding my breath, due to the wrong-floor snafu, but you never know. It's too bad too-- everyone I spoke with sung nothing but praises about the firm's work environment, like the fact that everyone cooperates with everyone and gets on with everyone, and are generally on friendly terms, not just professional terms. As one interviewer put it, there isn't really any "yelling." The cooperative and congenial atmosphere at Northwestern is something that I have really valued and benefited from as a student, and would love to work at a place that is similar. Alas.

After the interview, I went to a Starbucks and sat there for a couple hours doing work and taking a phone call for another project I am working on. After that, I had a couple hours to kill, so I putz'd around Hell's Kitchen for a while, checking out some of the indie shops. It wasn't a neighborhood I spent a lot of time in while I was in New York this summer, so it was nice to get to see a couple new things.

And now here I am, heading back to Chicago. We are in theory landing in like 40 minutes. Due to the nature of where I am seated and the internet on-board, I can't post pictures, but I did take some while I was walking around the city. When I get back to Chicago I will edit this post and add them. I have to say though, getting wifi on a plane is pretty baller. Even if I had to pay $10 for it.

Ah, New York City. Love to see you, hate to watch you go. Until next time... in about four days.

On a completely unrelated note, looking out my window to the left, I am seeing lightening over the horizon. This is not disconcerting at all...

If War is Hell...

Then moving is Purgatory.

I apologize for my absence from blogging, but I have spent the last week under a pile of boxes, trying to create a cohesive apartment from a pile of CaCa. My boyfriend and I finished hanging the wall decor today, so after 8 days, one late-night wall-painting session, many bent nails, and another huge bookshelf later, we are about 90-95% "there." When the apartment is all put together (still waiting on a wall painting and some cleaning/final organizing), I will of course post pictures. I do have to say, even more so than the other place, this apartment feels like a "real" person apartment.

This whole process has been a nightmare, though. First there was the crazy move-in, and my freaking out a bit when I found out some of my furniture was nic'd up from it. Then the slow progress made putting everything in its place and organized, having to clean boxes and boxes and boxes out of the apartment, getting a new (HUGE) bookshelf because my boyfriend is a library. I think this move was harder because we were combining both my boyfriend's stuff and my stuff, instead of mostly my stuff plus some of my boyfriend's clothes, so there was a lot more crap to wade through. But in the end, it does feel more like "our" apartment, which is nice. I of course was stressed beyond belief the whole week. My mother, to her credit, raised me in a pretty much immaculately clean household. While I am not as fastidious as my mother, I do thus tend to have a higher clean (or at least organized) standard, so living in chaos is very personally stressful for me. I was not happy. I am now happier because our apartment now actually looks like one.

The neighborhood we are in is interesting. Only a few blocks west is cutesy Andersonville, with many little boutique-y stores and restaurants. Andersonville is also apparently Chicago's "little Scandinavia" (or what is left of it), so it will be an opportunity to get re-acquianted with "my people" (Norwegian Pride, b*tches), with a splash of some Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food places. And yet all the way there, and a fair ways south, is apparently "new Chinatown," which is really more like "new Chi-Kor-Viet-town," with some random Italian restaurants dotting the whole way. So, in a weird way, its almost like where I was in New York: Surrounded by Asian and Italian food. Except Chicago is, ya know, cleaner. So I am looking forward to exploring and getting to know the 'hood.

That's pretty much it for today. This really crappy week is behind me, and I am calm again. In conclusion: I hate moving.

Speaking of New York, I will be in New York in less than a week, and then back there again less than a week after that. I got some callbacks from OCI, which definitely also helped calm me down, as for a while it was either radio silence or rejections from the firms, which kind of made me feel like a tool. So hopefully despite being real whirlwind trips, the callbacks in New York will go well. It would be super sweet to be in New York again next summer. And since the firm gigs would be paid, and my boyfriend's job is a school-year thing, maybe he could come hang out in the city with me as I sublet a place or something. So will keep my fingers crossed.

Got to go now: now that the place is finally together, we are actually cooking dinner, rather than eating out or getting takeout. Yay!

Last Day in the Big Apple

Well, the day has finally arrived. In T-minus 9 hours, I will be on a plane out of New York, heading back to my "real" life in Chicago. New York, it has been real. I had a fabulous, and very eye-opening, experience, and would not have traded it for anything. Am sad to see the summer come to a close, but as that Semisonic song goes, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." And so it goes, time marches forward.

For my last day in New York, I decided to head out to Coney Island, and have a "real" summer day. I love theme parks, I love rides. I love the beach and the ocean, and I love when those two things are combined into one experience. I grew up going to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, so summer was always equated with at least one trip to a theme park, usually the Boardwalk. It just wasn't summer without. So now I finally can say that I have had a full, "real" summer.

Coney Island was pretty interesting-- about what you would expect: rows of carnival-type booths with games and food and other side-show type stuff, with amusement park type rides interspersed. What was interesting though, was that unlike the Boardwalk I was used to, this wasn't just one theme park. Rather, it seems like a couple different companies had their designated space along the boardwalk, with their own rides, and the tickets were not interchangeable. Luna Park is the most major of the companies, and has the most rides, split up between a couple of different locations. They also apparently control The Cyclone, apparently one of the oldest wooden coasters in the country (and it is looking its age). I got there about 1PM, and to my dismay, right as I walked up to Luna Park, they were closing it down for three hours so that a camp of about 200 ten-year-olds could have a run of it. So that was annoying. Luckily, there were the other companies' rides, and I was able to go on all of the major ones as a pay-as-you go thing. And eventually, at 4PM, I was able to go to the real Luna Park; it only took about an hour to get through the rides I actually wanted to go on, and in the end it was probably better for my sanity that I wasn't fighting through a million kids to get on the rides. So, all's well that ends well. I just felt bad for the other groups of campers (there were several) that were getting kicked out at 1PM as well, to make way for the one camp.

I definitely carvinaled it up, and did most of the throw-up rides (I am pretty intense about my thrill rides and coasters, and will do pretty much anything. I do, however, draw the line at rides that dangle-- not flip-- but dangle people upside-down for a few seconds. Just hate it. But other than that, bring on the speed!). Also dug into a traditional dipped ice-cream cone which was melting faster than I could eat it, so I ended up having to actually run to the ocean (it was closer-- and probably cleaner-- than the bathroom) and use the water to clean off my sticky, gooey hands. And I even played some carney games. Yes, indeed I felt like I was ten again.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the day. Actually was a good beach day, as it was warm but not hot or too muggy, and partially overcast but also bright because there was some sun. So the gods were with me today for my last in the city.

View of Coney Island as I left the subway station

Apparently one of the more known (or at least older-- circa 1920) attractions at the boardwalk. I did not go on

View of the Atlantic coast and ocean, from Coney Island boardwalk

View down the boardwalk which, to my surprise, is still made out of boards (or, wood planks anyway)

Stuffed toy I won for breaking 2/3 dishes at a ball toss. Apparently, I have a mean right throw

Oink! Won an Angry Birds piggy in one of those watergun race things. That game was always "my game" growing up. Nice to know I still got it!

Another view down the boardwalk

More information about Coney Island and its various attractions can found at theConey Island website, as well as at the NYC Parks website. More information about Luna Park can be found at the Luna Park website.

After I got back, I showered off and got ready for my final hurrah in NYC: Dinner at Butter, the restaurant where my favorite Food Network celebrity chef, Alex Guarnaschelli, is the head executive chef. My boyfriend and I are huge Food Network nerds, so stumbling upon this restaurant during the second week of my trip was like a godsend (had no idea where it was, but apparently in SoHo, close to where I am/was living). So I had planning to come to this place for my final meal in New York-- seemed like a fitting, fancy end to my journey here. I was prepared to spend a fortune, but was pleasantly surprised to find out when I got there tonight that thanks to Restaurant Week (more like restaurant month) NYC, there was a pre-fixe menu of three courses for only $35. It was a very good deal; the food was superb, I got to foodie-geek out, and yet spent less than I have spent in the past, for a lot "more" of an experience. The only thing that could have made the evening perfect, was seeing the chef-in-chief herself (and getting a picture; alas, neither happened). I felt a little silly being alone there, but I figured that I was also eating there for the boyfriend, since he could not experience it with me, and I knew he would want to.

Anyway, pictures below.

On the ground in front of the door. Tried to get one of the door, but the lighting was too poor

Swanky waiting area for Butter

Regular menu for Butter. I ate off the pre-fixe menu, which was on the other side

Executive chef Alex Guarnaschelli! (you know she went to Barnard before becoming a chef? Who knew)

First course: Corn chowder with chives and bits of shrimp meat. Delish. Just how you would want corn chowder to taste, with just the right hint of seafood from the shrimp. Also, not too thick and not too thin. A great soup

Second coure: flatiron steak with scallions and a sauce. I am not sure what kind of sauce it was, but it paired very well with the meat. I think it had red peppers in it, so some of that cooked-pepper smokiness came through and really added a nice depth to the meat, and played off the savory, meaty flavor of the steak. Ordered steak medium and it came just perfect, nice and juicy. Only complaint of the whole meal was that the scallions were a little stringy and thus hard to cut, but this did not interfere with an ability to eat them, or their deliciousness

Third course: Gingersnap and vanilla ice cream sandwich. Ice cream had a nice rich vanilla bean flavor, and the ginger cookies were hearty without being brittle (I am not a brittle cookie kind of gal. I like things more on the chewy side). All I can say is, yum!

For more information, see the Butter website.

And with that, my grand adventure is over. As a final hurrah, I have compiled a bunch of music videos set to songs about New York City, since that is where my heart is right now. And with any luck, I will be back next summer, and eventually, permanently. I ordered them to kind of show my "journey" through the city over the last couple months. Until next time, keep it real New York!

Thanks to all who compiled these videos. Note: I did not make, or claim any ownership, to the songs, photos, or videos contained herein.

Oh, and I finally did find out what "Manhattan" means, since I had always kind of wondered. "Manhattan" comes from Manna-hata, a term in the 1609 logbook from Henry Hudson's yacht identifying the surrounding area. It translates to "island of many hills." Fair enough.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

So, I made it to the Bronx Zoo today, and despite some mild shadiness in the two-and-a-half blocks between the subway (actually, really El stop, since halfway through the Bronx the subway stops being a subway) and the entry to the zoo, it was actually fine (something I have learned about New York: have an I-am-pissed-off and unpleasant face, and people will leave you alone. Good defense mechanism). And I am glad I went. I am always a sucker for animals, if you couldn't tell from this blog, and this place had quite the selection, way more extensive than the Central Park Zoo, and surprisingly not much more (at least if you got the general admission ticket. With some of the add-ons, or the "full experience" ticket, it could start to get up there price-wise). Anyway, it was a nice afternoon, although now I can barely move from stiffness brought on by 3.5 hours of non-stop walking. But it was worth it. Rather than me blabber on, I am just going to let the animals do the talking, since they are the stars of the show.

Entryway to the Bronx Zoo from Boston Ave. in the Bronx

The first animal to greet me, were camels. Camels are silly animals. They do a really exaggerated chewing motion, and it is entertaining. I actually went on a camel ride around the ring. I am glad I didn't get spat on

Don't know what kind of bird this was, but it looked suitably exotic. Something from Asia, since that was the section of the park I was in at the time

An Asian species of crane, drinking from some skeezy-looking water

Big Kitty (aka Snow Leopard... no, not the OS) taking a silly nap

"Ugh. I gotta learn to lay off the weekend parties. All those rum-and-cokes make for a really unpleasant Monday, ya know? What, you thought all those drinks in those commercials were "soft?" How else do you think we get through 30 takes for a 30-second shot?"

Polar bear totally flaked out. Don't blame him. The North Pole New York in the summer is not

Tee-hee-hee. Polar bear bum. He's being silly. I thought this was absolutely adorbes

A baboon of some type. They are kind of intense in person, actually

Cheekeh monkeh!

Some Ibex (Ibi?)-- which are basically Savannah goat-type animals

So, there were like, all these peacocks, just chillin' all over the zoo. Not in enclosures, just allowed to roam free. Is this normal? They didn't give a shit about humans being there, either. I think they excepted us to move out of the way for them, in typical peacock fashion

Some kind of Savannah deer-like animal. From the "African Prairie" habitat enclosure. Many different species of animals put all together in one

Including lions. I have always wondered how like zoos, when they put predator-type animals and prey-type animals together in the same enclosure, prevent the predators from, you know, eating the prey, when clearly that is not the goal...

King of the jungle, man. That dude is not to be trifled with

When I first saw the lions, that old familiar song popped right into my head and, well, I can't resist:

Now good luck getting THAT out of your head for the next two hours :)

Peacock sighting number 2

Giraffes. What to say, other than that they are pretty bamf animals just generally

Freaking peacocks, again!

Some exotic-looking white bird

No trip to the zoo would be complete without seeing the pink flamingos

You know there are more plastic pink flamingos in North America, than there are actual pink flamingos in the world? That is sad, both for what it says about the status of pink flamingos as a species, and for what it says about the tastes of the American public

Lemur! Silly lemur, eating food while hanging upside-down

...Because this isn't terrifying at all. Nile crocodile, looking like he is going to eat you

Ring-tailed lemurs just chillin'

Another cool looking bird. Don't know the species

Tortoises native to Madagascar. I always thought tortoises were bigger

C'mon, lil' dude. Don't be shy, some say "hi!"

Some cute red-tailed mongeese(gooses?). Cute, that is, until they take down an MF-ing king cobra...

Some red lemur-like animals hanging out behind a mini waterfall

I got to watch the sea lions get fed fish. They were very excited to get fed. It was adorable

Another sea lion hamming it up for the onlookers

PENGUINS!

Not sure what he was, but this guy was a handsome looking fellow, so I took a picture. Some kind of sea bird

Puffin!

Another regal-looking bird, I think in the crane family

The stork. Poor guy looked kind of lonely in his habitat by himself. I felt bad for him

Vultures...are frickin scary birds. You should have seen the wingspan on this thing. Not surprising that they are descendants of freaking velociraptors

Bald Eagle, aka 'Murica, aka USA! USA! USA! Seems appropriate since it is Olympics season

Grizzly bear was hiding behind a fallen tree, trying to cool off in his little pond

Can kind of see his head peeking up from behind the log

Getting up-close and personal with a tiger. Thank god there was glass

Hands-down my best picture of the day. And a fitting end to the day, as well

And again, on that note, because I can't resist:

And with that, there was my day at the zoo. Very fun, but also very tiring. I hope you enjoyed viewing these pictures of the animals, as much as I enjoyed taking them.

If you are interested in visiting the Bronx Zoo, you can find the information at the zoo's website.

The Bronx Zoo is located at:

Bronx Zoo
2300 South Blvd
Bronx, New York

There hours are as follows: March 31-Nov. 4, they are open Monday - Friday 10:00AM-5:00PM, Weekends & Holidays 10:00AM-5:30PM. Fall/winter hours are: Nov. 5 - March 29, daily 10:00AM-4:30PM.

This is family-friendly entertainment. Bring the kids!

And finally, lest you think I didn't do anything Sunday, I did in fact go out and explore Chinatown a little more in-depth (sad, considering I live on the edge of it). I wandered around the (very) crowded streets, and even managed to pick up a few things I had been wanting, namely: some steel chopsticks, some of those ceramic Chinese soup spoons (which are far superior to regular spoons for things like soup), and a Chinese tea set, ceramic. Which, considering that was a fair amount of stuff, did not set me back too much. Chinatown prices I guess. You know what was ridiculous, though? My boyfriend has been wanting a real cast-iron wok to cook with (he is a foodie, and a pretty intensive cook). So I thought, New York Chinatown: logical place to find such a wok, I will look there and have an authentic one shipped back to Chicago. Damn, you would have thought I was looking for the Holy Grail. I only found one shop that had them, and then they were ovepriced. I talked to the BF about it, and we both decided we could get a better one for less online. It was just sad.

Anyway, here are some shots I took down some of the streets of Chinatown.

The unfortunate thing about Sunday was, it was super hot and super humid. I kept drinking fluids, mostly water, but just could not keep up. I think I got pretty peaky and dehydrated, in the end. After Chinatown, I went over to the Antiques Garage Flea Market in Chelsea, but I really only could stay for about 20 minutes before I literally had to find an air-conditioned Starbucks, and just sit for awhile. Otherwise, I was getting very parched and a little light-headed. But, I did manage to find a cute decor piece for the apartment before I had to abandon ship. So not all bad.

Still can't believe tomorrow is my last day in the city. It's gone way fast. I had a blast, and I am sorry to see it go. But, on to the next thing. Can't beat the clock, in the end.