i have the best friends and family

I haven't had a lot of exciting things happen in the past week, so I have been slow to update the blog, but yesterday might have been the best day since I've been here... well, best day by myself.

Yesterday I woke up, checked my e-mails, responded to a few freelance responses from my portfolio (all future jobs/assignments, so not really anything right this moment), and waited on a priority box from mom.

Every time I receive a package it seems to inspire me to reorganize everything in my apartment. So I cleaned and sorted things out in a new way, but the best part was adding my new plates and coasters to the cabinets. It might be two days from my mom's birthday, but I got my birthday present from Mickey (my sister) yesterday. Boy was it worth the wait. Awesome set of plates and coasters. Check them out:

After receiving some of my favorite magazines, cavenders greek seasoning, and other odds and ends, I watched TV for a bit while I worked on the computer (my desk came in and I got cable this week! Needless to say, but my apartment is feeling more and more like home each day and I am spending more and more time in my colorful box).

Around 8 I decided I would go try and find something for dinner, but when I opened my door I had a package from UPS with the return address of an unfamiliar name and address from Missouri.

Intrigued, I brought the box in and decided to open it before I went out.

This is what I opened:

The best care package I've ever received from two of my greatest friends from school. Annie and Lauren and I were in Advanced Magazine Design together, so basically we spent the entire last semester together. So many great memories with them.

Side note: If you don't know this about me already, I kind of like Hannah Montana. Anyways, the "Hannah" box they sent me had "late night snacks," "magazines to keep me inspired," "tiny toiletries for my tiny apartment," and "cups for beer... I mean juice."

There was also a frame for my refrigerator that says "someone in Missouri loves you," and there is a picture from graduation of the three of us along with Julia, who was a part of the crew as well.

Basically, this made my day. Then I got to call and talk to them and catch up. Thanks girls for the package! It was the best surprise!

Last night Morgan and I went to the midnight showing of "September Issue," the new documentary about Anna Wintour and her influence on the fashion world as well as her history and continuing with Vogue. If it is in a theatre near you, I suggest checking it out. Fantastic movie.

the fun side of things

Written yesterday:

I am equally as exhausted today as I went back to the Jacob Javits Convention Center to look at the booths we couldn't get to on Sunday during the New York International Gift Market. I took some down time afterwards and saw "The Hangover;" hilarious. Then I came home, worked on planning my schedule for tomorrow (in and around deliveries and such...).

While Mom and Dad were in town we went to several great restaurants as well as a Mets game at the new Citi Field. The Mets were celebrating 50 years since their Championship win over Baltimore Orioles in 1969. Needless to say, they talked about the game all night and Dad just cringed. On another note, the Mets played the San Francisco Giants. The first professional baseball game I attended was a Giants game in San-Fran. The game was awesome, the food was great, and our seats were top notch! Thanks Dad for hooking us up with those seats!

P.S. Patpat- my tomato knife is in a box labeled "kitchen" in Arkansas

a transformation & in need of a vacation

I will elaborate more in my next post and put up cute pictures of my parents and I from the past few days when they were visiting. But it was more work than play, hence the minimal captions.

My building; On the corner is the Earthen Oven, an Indian restaurant.

I live on the back side of the building. (The Earthen Oven is in the bottom right of this picture; Where the sun is shining through between the buildings is where I am; "HI!")

Some zoom action taking place in this photo.

The building begins. First project, apex shelves.

Classic. Mom directing, Dad working.

Second project. 3x2 modular cabinet type thing, which will act as a room divider. Again, mom overseeing, while dad is hard at work. (I helped put the wheels on, but I get to put together the bed frame and two bookcases by myself over the next few weeks, so don't feel bad for Joe yet.

TADA!!!! Well, sort of. The mattress has arrived, but the frame has not. So I have upgraded from floor... to air mattress... to fold-out sofa bed... to pillow-top mattress on the floor.

Another view (from the bathroom door).

Dad is so proud of his handy-work! (Picture taken from my bed; as I lie on it).

For everyone who has wondered what I've done with my huge window; well, I finally got a curtain. Oh, and a really cute orange clock on the way next to it.

From the hallway, opening up my door: this is what ya see! Dad got in the way a bit, but it works.

Hope you all enjoy the 2/3 decorated apartment.

Let the pictures speak for themselves, I'm exhausted.

"Around the corner"

Let me clear one thing up before I fill you all in about my past few days:

If I go to the park, "it's just around the corner." If I go to the grocery, "it's around the corner." If I have tea or go to Pinkberry or Lincoln Center or a restaurant or the flea market, etc, "it's just around the corner." (Hopefully you see where this is going). I live in about a 5 block, 3 avenue distance from almost EVERYTHING I need or want. I'm steps from Central Park, a hop away from Columbus Circle, a block from the flea market, minutes from everything.

But over the past week I have apparently said, "Oh, I did this or I did that..." and my mom consistently replies, "Well, where it or is it near you?" and the answer to everything has been, "Oh! It's just around the corner!"

I don't notice that I say it as often as I have, but in reality I am "just around the corner," from a lot of things. It is so much easier to say "around the corner" than to say "it's about two avenues west and six blocks uptown." --- My equivalent analogy to this is: "My parents home in Arkansas is around the corner from our church."

Back to reality, today I had an interview with a business company for an editorial job. Not design, not writing, but copy-editing. And if you know me, the difference between two, to, and too causes so much confusion that I would rather rewrite an entire sentence than use "too." This meaning, copy-editing is not my strong point, and if you happen to be an english person or a grammar freak, then you already know that editing is not my forte, which is made obvious throughout my blog.

Nonetheless I did not take the position, but I got a couple of names to call and look to for freelancing design, as well as people in the design industry. This is good and this is a plus! Next week I am meeting with someone I spoke with today about design. This man has done incredible work, so I am looking forward to meeting him.

(I seem to be going backwards here, but just hang tight, I'm going to cover everything)

Last week, my friend Morgan (pledge sister from Mizzou who is from PA but lives near me in the city now) went to Cilantro for margaritas and guacamole! Hands-down it might be my favorite place to eat up here, I mean, I have already blogged about it twice. I am taking mom and dad when they come up here on Thursday.

Morgan and I had a great dinner and made plans to have brunch and go to the Met to see the Muse to Model exhibition one more time before it closed on Sunday, August 9. The exhibition was put on by Marc Jacobs and Conde Nast. Even Mickey, who will admit museums are not really her thing, would have enjoyed this exhibit completely.

Morgan and I met on the Upper East Side for brunch at Good Health. I had an open-faced omelette with grilled vegetables (go figure) that were marinated in this teriyaki sauce. And I am not a big fan of teriyaki but after I finished I had to ask.

Afterwards we walked to the Met and spent over two hours in the exhibit and read everything on display, and studied the gorgeous couture. Then we went up to the roof, and snapped a few pictures (with both of our little apartments in the background..... meaning we could see the tall buildings that overshadow our boxes.

Morgan has the photo of me and my apartment, but here is Morgan with hers

My cooking life

Kitchen Success!

Wednesday I went to the market and got amazing fresh fruits and vegetables. (They aren’t Daddy Joe’s Arkansas-homegrown-vegetables, but they were fresh nonetheless and hit the spot for dinner last night). It was nice to be able to eat in and cook myself what I wanted to eat. I sautéed asparagus, fennel, peppers, portabella mushrooms, onions, etc. and marinated them with a filet of tilapia and had a fantastic dinner. But after putting the fish on the grill I realized I don’t have any plates. I have plastic cups and ice cream bowls (thank you Amanda) and Gladware containers. None of which are a plate equivalent. So? I washed the styrofoam tray the fish came on originally and used it as a plate. It’s amazing how resourceful I have become with the lack of typical amenities. I dumped all the cooked veggies in a Gladware bowl.

After fixing myself dinner, which I will proudly say, in total only cost $6, and I have another tilapia filet leftover.

Basically, this put my PB&J to shame.

Besides all the vegetables, I proudly made several bowls of fruit that I could throw in my bag, take to the park and enjoy there. So as I write, I am having a bowl of fresh pineapple, mango, bing cherries, and raspberries. (Saving tip #2: don’t buy precut fruit, it is nearly a 200% mark-up. So I bought all local whole fruits and have cut them up myself). Yes, I bought a whole pineapple and cut it into pieces with a butter knife.

Utensils. Over two years ago, I bought my first kitchen table. It is very 50s with a red vinyl top and chrome legs. The chairs were my grandmothers and nearly rusted shut (old school metal folding chairs) but DIY, I covered the chairs in black damask vinyl and gave them a new coat of paint. What does that have to do with my utensils? Everything.

I don’t have room for my table or chairs in this apartment, but the $7 set of utensils that are red and white frosted plastic (I guess that is a way to describe it?) are still with me, 6 knives, 3 regular forks, 4 mini forks, and 2 spoons. ­­

Today I went down to Washington Square Park and enjoyed the sun and breeze before heading to visit a friend at work. After a quick coffee break and hello I walked around Union Square, oh how I miss it (Last year I could walk there, but now its 20 minutes on the train). While walking in Union Square I checked out the farmer's market. Eggplant, cucumber, peppers, heirloom tomatoes, green beans, spinach, basil, squash, zucchini, garlic.... pure bliss!

After I loaded up on vegetables I came back to the apartment, dropped eveyrthing off, checked the mail, (thanks Patpat for my nothing letter, made my day! Glad you got to see Karen) and then ran by the grocery mart to grab some actual chef's knives. (So much easier to cut all those vegetables with a real knife, compared to a butter knife).

And I had again, the best dinner. The eggplant was my absolute favorite! hit the spot! I grilled the veggies on the George and also had a nice little filet of salmon alongside. Yum!

Now you have heard all about my cooking experiences thus far, and my love of vegetables!

maggie

my life - currently

I apologize that I haven’t blogged in a few days, and I wish I could say it were because I was working or off doing something really cool. But if I said that then I would be lying.

And for the most part the past week hasn’t been very eventful, besides moving in to my sweet new shoebox in the sky of the Upper West Side.

But seriously, last week I spent most of my time waiting on boxes to arrive (since I had to be there to sign…. and they all tended to come around 5 o’clock or later. I wish I would’ve taken a picture of my apartment last week. It was full of 30-50 pound boxes overflowing with… clothes, towels, kitchenware and books. Finding a place for everything, was nearly impossible, as I had no hangers, no storage to put anything in. I finally went to buy hangers but then it took a couple of days of motivation to get everything put away. Now my shoebox looks empty again: one lonely air mattress with one pillow, green sheets and a brown blanket.

I was finally able to go to the grocery store now that I have forks, spoons, knives, and plastic drinking cups from every bar in Columbia, Missouri (yes, I made sure before I left Columbia that I had minimum ten cups to bring with me; who needs to purchase glass when you can have Shakespeare’s, Tin Can, Big 12, Heidelberg, and Mizzou outfitting your cabinets? Maybe it’s just me). Slowly but surely I’ll be filling up my apartment.

Many people say New York is a pocket-empting, no saving, type of town. But guaranteed everyone that says that does not understand the amount of free things to do or get. Yesterday I walked out of my building and found a futon, side table, and random stuff that someone was throwing out because they were moving. Whereas, I’m not the one to take a mattress off the street, I grabbed that table and carried back to my apartment. Last year I found a free TV on the street, and this year I have a table, thus far. Hey, pay it forward.

So I’m between two things that I should buy (not today, not tomorrow, but when I actually have a job with an income) for my “kitchen.” Currently I have 2 gas burners to cook on, a sink, and an oversized mini frig with a very mini freezer. Also my GF, George finally arrived in the mail last week. I cannot live with my George Foreman! So the question at hand is: should I buy a microwave or a confectioner oven? I know the microwave is practical and I’ve never lived without one but is cooking time the only advantage to the microwave? There is a lot you can cook in the oven and not in the microwave, but is there a lot you can do with a microwave that cannot be done with a mini oven?

My dad told me I cant put a microwave in a cabinet so my four square feet of counter space is limited. I don’t have room for both appliances. Living in the 21^st century would you ever think this would be as big of a decision as it actually is?

Big news of the week: grocery shopping; I finally have milk, cheerios (can’t find trix!), hummus, and ingredients for PBJ; I’m pretty much set.

What’s next? Continuing the job search and meeting people. Confinement in a white wall room with basically nothing in it, can really make a person crazy. Thank goodness for technology, although I dropped my itouch in the bathtub. Not cool.