A December Goodbye!...?

Several months and 67 posts later, I think I'm going on an indefinite hiatus. I used to blog from work a lot, but now I don't really have time. And as time has gone by (I've lived in New York for 7 months now, plus the three from the summer of '07), New York has become less of a strange, new place and more like home. If I get the urge to blog again, I'll be back, but for now, I just don't have anything to say or really the time to do it. So happy holidays, happy life, happy everything. And look me up if you're in the city!

Seasons Explorings

Since my internship at New York ended the week of Thanksgiving and my new one at Fast Company starts Monday, I've spend three weeks kind of lying around the house doing nothing and being unmotivated. Clearly that's affected the blog. I generally do better when I'm on some kind of regular schedule, and since I've been staying up until about 6 a.m. watching The Office and 30 Rock seasons on Netflix.com and then sleeping until 2:30 in the afternoon, clearly my schedule is anything but regular.

Bundled up Times Square-goers on the night of the first snow.

I do get out of the house every once and a while, though, and I've had several Christmasy adventures in the city lately. Saturday was the first snow of the season and my first snow in New York, which doesn't seem to make sense right now since it's 62 degrees and rainy outside just a few days later. Jenny and I met above Times Square around 10:30 that night, grabbed some hot chocolate from Starbucks and made our way though the snowflakes over to the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. The tourists were still out in full force, even at the late hour and even though the tree turns off between 11:30 and midnight. Jen and I wandered around in the cold, watching silly tourists and listening for Southern accents. We found a few, which is always nice. The crowd started to dissipate after an audible "aaaw" when the tree shut off at 11:45.

Bright lights, big tree.

Though it was about 20 degrees outside, we continued out Christmas tour and checked out some of the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. Bergdorf's windows were amazing and extremely elaborate, and the windows at Saks had some great designer fashions, including a long, green Zac Posen formal gown that was made exclusively for the window. Amazing.

On Tuesday I met Meggie and Jenny at Union Square to check out the holiday marketplace they have there. Tons of little stores lined what is usually a hangout for college kids and homeless people, and though almost everything there was too expensive to buy, a lot of the crafts and art was really nice. It would be a great place to grab gifts for people if I could afford to spend about $40 on everyone on my list. We wandered for a while, then grabbed some Thai food in the East Village that turned out to be pretty good. More wandering around the area commenced, including random shopping trips in Strand Bookstore, Virgin Records and the Trader Joes Wine Shop, where I got three bottles of red wine for less than $12. Steal!

Margaret gets here Friday, and we have beacoup tourist plans, including the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, Little Italy, Central Park and ice skating. I haven't done any of this stuff (except the Empire State Building last summer with my cousin Ashley when she was here on a school trip), so I'm excited. Sometimes it's nice to pretend I don't live here and enjoy the city with a pair of tourist's eyes.

Snippets from IM: Hit That Haircut

Christine: i dont like her haircut too much
Zachary: i like it
Zachary: bangs are in
Christine: oh, ill say
Zachary: oh lolz

A Triumphant Return, or The Last Two Weeks

And I am back! Crisis averted with the computer – I thought it was a goner when I dumped juice all over it, but the fine people at Apple were able to save it. Apparently none of the liquid got into the computer, just on the keyboard and the top case, which caused everything to kind of disconnect. All of the individual pieces were fine, but they replaced my logic board just in case. Thank god for Apple Care, too, because even though it was liquid damage and they should have charged me the $1500+ it would have cost in repairs, they were amazing and didn't charge me at all. Product loyalty, people. It really does mean something. And though I've had this computer for two years and three months, this is the first time it's acted up and it was completely my fault. Pay a little more, get a lot more. Go Apple!

Goodbye New York, hello Financial District.

Anyway, enough plugging. Though nearly two weeks have gone by since my last real post, not that much has happened. My internship at New York ended, the jobs I was up for either went for someone internal (as always) or went on a hiring freeze (as always), and I took an internship at Fast Company magazine. It's a great, very Wired-like magazine, the interns actually get to do real work and they pay as well as most of my friends' full time jobs. I think this is a great move, and I can have the internship for between three and six months, so at least I know I'm secure there until May if I need to be. And I can actually live on the wages, unlike at New York!

The most amazing Thanksgiving meal EVER.

Thanksgiving has come and gone as well. Jenny and I had long been planning an epic Dip Day and Battlestar Galactica marathon, and that's exactly what we did on T-giving Thursday. The amazing dips included the legendary chicken dip, classic rotel cheese dip, one of my constants the French onion dip, a sadly unsuccessful but still decent guacamole dip and mini-sausages in barbecue sauce. Top it all off with a liter and a half of Coke and Dr. Pepper and you've got yourself quite the Thanksgiving feast. Sure, it may look disgusting in the photo, but man was it good.

Be my guest.

December 10 through January 10 is quite the month for me. This coming weekend is my last weekend to myself for a while, but I'm totally okay with it. Next weekend my sister Margaret comes to the city for the first time, so I'm really looking forward to showing her around and doing some touristy stuff that I have never done and never really have a reason to do (ice skating, Statue of Liberty, carriage ride in Central Park, etc.). She heads out on the 15th, the same day I start work at Fast Company, then I head home the next Sunday (the 21st) for Christmas week. Back on the next Monday night (the 29th) at around 11:45 p.m., Meghan and Christine arrive on Tuesday for a week-long New Years reunion. Meghan is moving here for good and Christine is visiting from Chicago for a little over a week, so we're all pumped and looking forward to the insane adventures I'm sure we'll get into. Not to mention our first New Years Eve in New York City!

I've accidentally taken a little holiday for myself since my internship at New York ended the Friday before Thanksgiving and I don't start at Fast Company until December 15th, and though I've been sort of bored, I've been keeping myself entertained and not spending money. And now that my computer is back in working order, things can only get better.