Oh, the wonders of A/C!

It is amazing what a little box shoved through your window can do for your room! And your sleep. haha I have a/c now, kids! May not seem like a big deal to you, but omg, let me tell you. It is FANTASTIC! I can sleep again! And I don't have to wake up drenched in sweat! TMI? Sorry. Just trying to paint a visual of just how terrible life without a/c is. I can't imagine it in a place like Texas. Anyways, moving on swiftly, the latter part of the week has definitely been more eventful than the earlier part. I saw a few films this week in these insane multi-story theaters of NYC. Every time we walked in, I swear I looked so foreign. I can help but look around when I'm on the escalator like I've never been in a theater before. I have no idea why I'm so amazed by these places. I've been going to the Palladium in SA for years. Now THAT is a movie theater. It's so gargantuan, but it's only 2, maybe 3 levels. Here's a picture for those of you who don't live in SA:

We saw A-Team and Knight And Day. A-Team was actually awesome, in my opinion. There was never really a dull moment. Every character was hilarious! The action scenes were okay. Definitely cheesy, but c'mon, what do you expect from a movie about the A-Team?!? Knight And Day was okay too. Not nearly as good, but still okay. I don't particularly care for Tom Cruise or Cameron Diaz, but the movie was still semi-enjoyable. I wouldn't really suggest it. Luckily, it was only 6 bucks. A-Team was 13! Ahh... no more non-matinee movies for me for a while.

The majority of the week really was spent either applying for jobs or wandering around this ridiculous city aimlessly actually kind of hoping to get lost so that I'd have to find my way back. That's usually how I learn my way around cities. After I give a run down of my AMAZING Saturday, I'll post pics of randomness from the past week.

That being said....

Saturday: MATINEE NEW YORK CITY! OH MY GOD!!!!! By far one of the coolest events I've ever attended in my life!!!!!! The day started semi-early. Arrived on Governor's Island via short 5-min ferry ride.

Helped the crew set up decorations (signs, balloons, decorative fabric, etc.) but we were only allowed to do so much before showtime, so I ended up just hanging out at hospitality with other people involved in the show. Almost made an ass of myself because I was talking to this lady for awhile and was already introduced to her by name, then proceeded to ask what exactly her job for the evening was. Turns out she's a singer. And was performing in the event. And most of the people there knew her. Yeah.... I didn't... oops. I'm just glad she was totally cool with me not knowing who the heck she was!!! haha Apparently she's pretty big in the dance scene. Oh well. She was super nice, that's all that mattered. Finally it was time to let everyone into Water Taxi Beach to begin the show... Ahh, here's where the real fun started! Basically, my job was to manage the guest list, meaning check id's and make sure these peeps were legit. Once we knew who they were and that they were good to go, we gave out wristbands. Well, turns out we had 4000 attend this event. Yes, 4000 sweaty, shirtless, ripped to the extreme, ready to dance men. Okay, there were a few women too, but not nearly as many. And we had A LOT of those people stopping by VIP, giving it a try. After we got a majority of the VIP's checked off, we were able to hang out and enjoy the show in the VIP area. I know I said it was awesome before, but I'm really not kidding when I say it was by far one of the most amazing events I've ever been too! (And

I've been to some pretty awesome shindigs!) Everything from the wonderful remixes of Lady

Gaga by Jake's client, DJ Theresa (I think we all know how excited I get to hear Lady Gaga

out and about), to the pounding beats of the Spaniards at the end of the night. The atmosphere was so fantastic! Everyone just wanted to party and have a good time. Regardless of the open bar for VIP's, you didn't see many people who couldn't control themselves based on too much alcohol or whatever drug was consumed. It really was a sincere "I'm here to dance and have a great time" mentality all around, especially in spirit of Pride during the weekend. Okay, enough explanation, it's time for pictures:

Alright, those are all the Matinee pics I have right now. Here's a short video blip of the crowd semi-early. DJ Theresa is still spinnin here. She was pretty amazing. This is kind of in between mixes though, but I think she has potential to be a huge DJ very soon. Also you can see a pretty a sweet view of the city. Check it out:

---insert day and a half break here in writing time... Monday night's phone conversation was definitely not what I needed to stay focused. Instead, it just put me in a terrible mood and made me want to sleep. I think that's over and done with so I guess it's all good. Carry on!---

The rest of the week seems so mild mannered in comparison to Saturday. Watched the English Patient with the NYU kids on Sunday. Great movie. Just incredibly depressing at the end, in case you haven't seen it. I could definitely see why it won best picture though. Other than that, I've been doing the same old routine that I've gotten myself into: Wake up whenever, eat some delicious Chocolate Cheerios (if you haven't tried them... they're amazing. Kinda like Coco Puffs. haha), apply for jobs for a few hours, get outside and go for a run, shower, venture into the city until I'm tired then come home and discuss all this with friends and fam (meaning whoever is on Skype at the time). Here's a good time to pitch Skype to anyone who doesn't have it. If you don't have it, you should get it! Especially if you have a webcam! Then I can see you, and talking while seeing someone is practically like hanging out!!! haha If you DO have Skype, then ADD ME!!!!! Because I'm not a cool kid with iChat, Skype will have to do for now! :)

Considering I've done so much exploring in this city, I've decided the best way for you to get a grasp on what I'm seeing is to actually show it to you. I capture random pictures along the way, mainly to send to my parents, but hey... Why not share with my lovely blog followers? Considering there are so many of you! haha So, that's what will follow. Pictures of my daily life and the randomness it entails:

My wonderful A/C unit. Thank you, lovely unit for allowing me to snuggle up with blankets at night and get legit sleep (or try to...) on a regular basis! Hooray AIR!

So I spent most of Monday wandering around Williamsburg, hoping to stumble upon a "Now Hiring" sign somewhere (I didn't really found them, but I forced my resume on some poor souls anyways). If you know anything about Williamsburg, you know that it's pretty freakin weird. Well, the people are weird. I've accepted that. I actually kind of like it. Well, I happened to pass by and had to do a double take of this junkyard. I mean I know junk for the most part is random by definition, but c'mon. A gorilla with sunglasses typing on a keyboard with a jean vest, a venom blow up that's not fully blown up, looks more like he's stoned out of his mind on the chair, it's hard to see but there's a black bear riding a bicycle in the background, and to the left is a polar bear just chillin on top of the white car (no pun intended.) haha So yes, this definitely caught my attention, and I couldn't help but laugh.

I strolled into Barnes and Noble today, partially looking for employment, partially looking for a cure to my boredom. I suppose in my case, the two go hand in hand. Anyways, I happened to find the extraordinarily popular book, "Eat, Pray, Love" and decided I'd give it a shot. Don't gasp too hard, although I know it is difficult to imagine me reading. It does happen from time to time. So I picked up the book and actually, instead of going for the intro or perhaps reviews about it, I went straight for the last page to take count of the number of pages. Haha Sorry legit readers, that's how I roll. I like to know what I'm diving into, number-wise. Content comes second to length of book. *This is all still a setup for the picture.* So I bought the book then found a spot on the steps of Union Square. A perfect spot, might I add, where the sun was shining just right, yet the breeze was still flowing like a gorgeous April day in Georgia, and I decided to indulge in my recent purchase. Now, like I said, I'm not a big reader, so it takes a reeeeeeeally interesting book to fully capture my attention. My ADD usually runs rampant by about the 3rd paragraph of anything and I start people watching or searching/hoping for any distraction to take my eyes away from the pain of focusing on lots and lots of tiny words. Today was different. Maybe I wanted to not be distracted by the world. Maybe I wanted a distraction from the world for once. I suppose that makes for a perfect setting for a book. And that's exactly what happened. I was in UNION SQUARE, where there is constantly commotion all around, including people chatting, music blasting, street performers, cell phones ringing, noisy vehicles, cabs honking, etc.. Yet, somehow this book captivated me from the intro. I'm kind of glad I didn't read that in B&N or else I might not have even made it out to my perfect spot on the steps. I sat there for about an hour, without looking up and checking that the world was still carrying on around me. I honestly don't think I cared if it was or not. I was so into this book. I'm sure if you've read it, you know exactly what I mean. Well, after about an hour I was bound to break at some point. However, this time, it wasn't necessarily my ADD. It was the fellow sitting a few feet away from me to my right who decided to bust out his didgeridoo and start whaling away. I don't care how captivating a book is, if there's a freakin didgeridoo going off next to you, you're gonna be distracted! It's like someone blowing a vuvuzela in your ear. More so, it's like 30 someones blowing vuvuzelas in your ear bc it doesn't stop!!!!!! Who has that lung capacity!?!? Ugh. Anyways, I don't think I've ever actually been around anyone playing a didgeridoo until today. Any other day, I don't think I would have minded, but today... I was in the zone!!!! THE ZONE!!!! C'mon! He then proceeded to play the same 3 chords on his friend's guitar for about 15 minutes before I quit and left. Oh well, maybe I'll find that zone again tomorrow when I take my new book to Central park... Wow, so much for short captions. Sorry, guys! But let's be honest, who doesn't love a good didgeridoo story?

Time for my fav pic:

It's Tiger's mini-me! I wanted to steal this kitty so bad! I loved him so much I'd even be cool with buying him! He's adorable!!!!!!! Ahhhhh fuzzy kitty tummy!!!!! I don't understand how anyone could resist. I just wanted to hold him, but the evil woman running the adoption tent kept muttering "no touching allowed." Ugh, even as I type this, my eyes wander up to the picture and I just want to run back and grab this handsome little fella. He's entirely too cute for his own good. I hope he finds a good home. Someone who will love him even half as much as I would.... Okay, now I'm sad again.... :(

Alright, I think that's a long enough update for now. Sorry for the delay. Thanks to a completely unnecessary conversation the other night, I was terribly distracted and lost my focus or motivation to write. However, thanks to my new book, all I want to do is write, so it's very possible I might sneak in another post tonight or tomorrow. I really wish I had my typewriter now that Uncle Martin bought me a few months back. I miss that thing. One last thing: Shout out by special request to Stephen... Yes, it's true, I miss you tons!!!! Come visit NYC if you live through reading this blog! If you make it this far, I can almost guarantee you just skipped to the end to see if you were mentioned, but I ruv you anyway! hahaha Okay, that's all for now. Later, kids! :)

Blog 2: Attempt 486.... Let's see if I finish this time!

For some reason, I've had a mighty case of writer's block lately (or perhaps just pure laziness) and have been unable to produce my second blog entry for a few days. That's a bad sign for blogs to come if I'm having such trouble this early on. OR MAYBE it's a good sign that I can fight the laziness off and still toss up a decent blog in less than a week! Let's give this another try, shall we? Here we go...

Well kids, it's Tuesday, June 22. As of 6 pm tomorrow I will have been a New York resident for 2 whole weeks!!! Exciting? Ehh, it is for me! Let me enjoy this a little while. I'm now done with one week completely solo. That makes me sound like a loser, but what I meant was basically I've been galavanting around this crazy city without my best fwend, Leya. Luckily, I've picked up a bit of company along the way. In case the beginning of this paragraph hasn't captured your attention, the next bit should. Ladies and gentlemen, I've made a couple friends here! OMG! *gasp!* (wait wait... that's not the interesting part.... here comes the good stuff! So good, I'm starting a new paragraph)

I made fwends thanks to my MOM! haha It's like a 'your mom' joke, but it's no joke at all, sadly. Anyways, somehow through my mom and friends of the family from church, I was connected with a girl in NYC. Apparently they gave her my info and she was cool enough to holler holler holler and invite me to Oscar Award Winning Movie Sunday with her crew. I felt like Paul Rudd in 'I Love You, Man' where his mom sets him up with that dude to make friends! (his night definitely took a different turn than mine luckily! haha) However, it turns out they're really cool kids! Plus, if you know me at all, you know I'm always down for meeting new people. Anyways, we watched Titanic. I know what you're thinking.... Best movie EVER! haha Not really. But it was definitely fun just getting to know a few new folks. Hopefully more eventful news to come from this group soon. We'll see.

Ahh, I feel like that was the most exciting part of the blog. I gotta step up my game for the rest of this. How can I make you readers happy? Oh! I know!

PICTURE TIME!!!!!!

I had a few complaints that the last entry was too long, so for you kids who don't like to read, we'll set this up like a picture book and sum up the past few days with Twitter-like explanations:

Thurs night: In my last blog, I forgot to mention my near death experience. Apparently cab drivers in Brooklyn NEVER know where anything is and my driver was more intrigued by lame conversation than reading road signs. A) He asked ME for directions... WTF, dude? I thought that's what GPS is for! and B) He ended up in a one way road going the WRONG DIRECTION!!!! Buses, cars, and cabs were all coming straight at us. I saw my life flash before my eyes. You were all there. That's love! Anyways, I lived to blog another day. Phew! Thanks, Mr. driver from the video game Crazy Taxi! Jeeeeeeeze! (that was actually the brief version....)

Friday: Went for a run in Central Park and accidentally stumbled upon this little diamond. That's right, the Guggenheim! Sa-weeeeet! Didn't go in... I was sweaty and gross.... :/

Saturday: Took a nice trip out to the American Museum of Natural History. (NERD ALERT!) Ran into my good ol' dancing partner, Mr. T-Rex. In case you haven't seen me do my sweet T-Rex moves, I might have to upload a video of that. If you're lucky...

Sunday: Hit up Puma City to watch Brazil vs Ivory Coast. Lots of Brazil fans. Lots of soccer craziness. Definitely a good time!

Alright, for playing along and making it this far, you also get a video! HOORAY! So basically, in this video, this complete moron was drunk out of his mind and decided to play human foosball. Watch and learn why that's a bad idea, in case for some strange reason you didn't already know. Sidenote: Playing any sport while drunk is probably a poor choice, made worse by trying to play with a vuvuzela in hand. Just watch:

Fail.

And of course Monday: I was on house arrest for the day waiting for my new a/c unit to arrive. Little did I know, it REALLY sucks trying to install one of those things on a window when you live on the 2nd floor. There are just trash cans outside below my room, but with my luck, when I install it, there will be a garbage man out there, or perhaps a puppy looking for food. And BAM! There goes my a/c unit. So, I'm waiting for the apt handy man to do it for me. So much for girl power....

That's about all for now. I have a pretty exciting day tomorrow, so I will more than likely blog about it tomorrow night or Thurs morning. I hope everyone will be watching our boys battle it out against Algeria tomorrow at 10 am EST! If the officiating is anywhere near as bad as the last game, I quit you, World Cup! That's a serious threat there! Alright, hope you enjoyed the latest blog. I tried to be as brief as possible. Until next time, folks! :)

Well hello there, world! (Jen) haha

Ahh, Friday. I wish I could share the same enthusiasm for you as everyone else, but I just don't. Don't get me wrong, Friday, I like you and everything. It's just that everyday further into the week is another day I don't have a job. Someday I'll look back and wish I had enjoyed this time more, so with that being said, I'm making it my mission to enjoy the day!!! Friday, I vow to love you just as much as everyone else today. First, I shall blog (I started this at halftime of the USA vs Slovenia game, I don't foresee this being done until well after the game. Thanks to my ADD)

It's been just over a week here in the Big Apple (well, Brooklyn). I've quickly adapted to falling asleep to the sweet sweet sounds of sirens. I live right next to a hospital and police dept. Also, my overwhelmingly Puerto Rican 'hood makes for an especially interesting mix of sounds, ranging from the "dum dadum da, dum dadum da" repetitive beat of reggaeton to the constant unnecessary screaming about god knows what. Honestly, I don't even think the people yelling know what they're screaming about.... Oh well, soon I'm sure I too will be proudly touting a PR flag around my neck, draped like a cape, perhaps some PR flag sunglasses. Maybe a big belt buckle. Perhaps a customized pair of Nike ID's with the PR flag on them? Too far? Yeah. Just a little. I'm just trying to fit in, and maybe prep for next year's Puerto Rican day parade in NYC --

- Look it up. It's totally real!!!! Other than that, the neighborhood is cool, I really like my neighbors. Very polite, and seem to look out for each other. Feels surprisingly safe considering all the graffiti and such around. Could be worse...

(Insert break to finish watching this match without typing obscenities on my blog because of how outrageous these calls during this game are!!!! OMG!!!! C'mon, USA!!!!! C'mon, refs!! Quit screwing us over!!!!!!!!!!! UGH!) <---- My apologies for the outburst. It could have been worse.

After a pretty eventful week of galavanting with Leya, my second week has been much more low key. Why? Oh, probably because I have to find a job. haha Have no fear, though, kids. I'm definitely looking. Being in the city makes me want a job more than ever. I want a purpose here. I don't mind all these random excursions around town as I get used to my surroundings, but ultimately, I just want to work. I want to be in the music business already. I want to feel important. I want to be a baller, like Jen or Heather. Okay, maybe not that far just yet, but soon!!! I just want to do what I came here to do, and that's music. So let's get the ball rolling, so I can make money.... and buy all the sneakers I want (and trust me... there are LOTS of sneakers in this city that I want!). haha :)

Speaking of sneakers! My roommate is the king of sweet kicks!!! He's got billions (ok, maybe like... 50) of pairs of sneaks, and I want them all. Too bad he's a size 13 or something. Maybe I can fit both my feet in one shoe and hop around. Maybe not. Other than his incredibly amazing taste in athletic footwear, he's just an all around great guy! Extremely hospitable, quite outgoing, muy importante (he manages dj's), and just a fun person to be around. He's been a big help in getting me settled in comfortably. I really like just hanging around the apartment in the evenings with him. Makes this place feel like home. Perhaps I'll stay in BK a little longer than I intended. We'll see.

As for today, I'm feeling a bit better (been sick the past few days), but not trying to test my luck too much. The day is gorgeous, I can't help but want to go for a run in Central Park. So, run in Central Park is what I shall do. I'll probably just chill out there for a bit as well. Enjoy the sun while I still can. I really want to play tennis, and use my new tennis shoes I bought last week. I need to find a partner asap. I think that's enough reading material for the day, kids. Maybe on my way out, I'll take a few pics of the wall art around the neighborhood so you can get a better feel for my lovely view off the L train. Until next time, I bid you all adieu.

Here's a quick view of my tiny room for now. Nothing special, but gets the job done.