Konversations with Kara

Let me start off by saying Meredith and Allie are amazing roommates. I don’t know how I always get so lucky going into a blind living situation, but I am currently 3 for 3. However very reminiscent of my freshman year of college there is an odd man out. You can’t quite place your finger on it but something is just off. This time, the odd man out is Kara in all her obnoxious, loud chewing, drawer banging, door slamming glory. As you can tell I am quite agitated by how truly annoying she is. It doesn’t help that she breaks out into Spanish randomly because she just can’t help herself. Let me take you through a typical morning with Kara.

Well she wakes up at 5:00am every morning and hits snooze until 5:30 am for her morning workout.  A normal person would not hit snooze since when they have another person in the room 5 feet away. She rummages through her drawers to find the perfect outfit to sweat in. Besides the alarm, this isn’t the part of the morning that is annoying. Most times I hear the alarm wake up, lay there annoyed for about 30 minutes and pray I fall asleep, because this girl doesn’t have to wake up until 9am. Kara comes back from her workout turns on her computer loads different news stations onto her computer so she can get caught up so “she doesn’t look stupid at work”. She also pours herself a giant bowl of cereal and chews it 20+ times to make sure it is really thoroughly chewed. Its almost like she is putting her mouth to my ear it is so loud. After this she showers and monopolized the bathroom. Luckily I am still “asleep” during this time. Now she is rummaging through the drawers for the perfect outfit and yet for some reason she thinks by slamming the drawers she will miraculously move faster. However all she is doing is making my final moments of “sleep” awful. Nothing like waking up at 5am for no reason and then lying there for 4 hours trying to get some semblance of sleep.

But the real kicker was the night before my birthday, where she must have felt comfortable enough to rattle off her list of OCD demands. Here are a few:

1.     Needs the bathroom to herself form 7-8am (thank god this doesn’t effect me)

2.     If you are in the bathroom you need to keep the door cracked so she knows she can enter (has she heard of knocking?)

3.     The cracked door also allows for less fog on the mirror and there can’t be fog on the mirror because however will she know what she looks like in the morning (does she know she can wipe it with her hand? )

While she rattles off her list I sit quietly on my computer, its taking everything in me to not go “I’m almost 23 years old, bat shit crazy” on her. Because I just can’t take it anymore I ask if I can make ludicrous demands since it’s my birthday. She just stares at me; I ask if she can eat her breakfast in the kitchen because she chews like a cow. I also offer the suggestion of buying a $20 full length mirror from K-mart if it is so hard for her to wipe fog off the bathroom mirror. Luckily since this ordeal she hasn’t mentioned anything to me about my off the handle approach to the situation which I do feel bad about and have since reflected on my actions.

Either way, Kara is a character that will forever live in my mind because everyday she has a new story about her Columbian boyfriend who is crazy or how she just wasn’t able to physically hail a cab and had to walk home in the rain because she just doesn’t know how to do it. Even though she is nuts, it takes all kinds to run the world and I appreciate her for her naïve yet blunt way she sees the world.

Other Notable Events Since Writing This:

o   Locking herself in OUR room with her boyfriend

o   Confessing that she doesn’t love her boyfriend

o   We watched glee together….so she can’t be that bad right?

"Blind Dates", Gay Bars, and Drag Queens

Well its been a couple days and I wasn’t sure where to go with this one but I figured I would tell you of my trials and tribulations with all sorts of men in my NYC life.

Exhibit A: Kurt

He is a friend of 2^nd floor Anna. He is living in Jersey City for the summer. We met at a bar one night through Anna and he seemed nice but I wasn’t remotely interested, but like I said he was nice. A couple days later Anna tells me that Kurt thought I was attractive and wanted my number and would it be okay for her to give it to him. I said sure why not. Well being the nice guy that he is he calls me up (chivalry isn’t dead!!!), I totally didn’t answer because I 1) wasn’t that excited to talk to him and 2) I really didn’t know who it was until I texted him clarifying. However he wanted to take me out to eat. At first I was leery, but I knew from the hour I hung out with him while mildly intoxicated at a bar that he was harmless. So I forged on and made plans for Thursday evening for what I considered a “blind date” since I didn’t overly really remember him. However being the thinker that I am I made sure to say me and my roommates were going out at 8ish so that I would have an out. Here are the funny/interesting things that happened in chronological order:

1. Forgot he had strawberry blonde/red hair (sorry red head friends)
2. He also had Justin Bieber hair circa 2009 (cue hair flip)
3. He was a spitting image of Shaggy from Scooby Doo (picture a gumpy, slumpy walk)
4. He was wearing light wash slightly torn jeans and a t-shirt (dude this is NYC)
5. Had no idea where to eat (I’m gonna need a little more direction here bud)
6. I had to pick where to go (sometimes I don’t like making all the decisions)
7. Convinced him we needed drinks so I could put up with his boring personality (but I swear he is nice!)
8. Asked if he could hangout with my roommates and me that night (umm..no)
9. Awkwardly met my roommates on the front stoop of the dorm where I realized I didn’t have my key, but it was fine cause I was with my roommates
10. In an attempt to end our "date" there he didn’t get the message and followed us to the liquor store
11. Finally got him to leave and told him to text me next time he was in the city (still not sure why I said this last part)

Overall I realized no matter how hungry I get in this city, I refuse to go on boring dates, it is too much effort when I could just go to Chipotle. Ok I'm lying, a girls gotta eat

Exhibit B: Lee

I really thought that coming to NYC to find a gay friend was kinda weird. Like why do you have to have ‘gay” friends. Why can’t people from the LGBT community just be your friend? However I will say Lee is my first NYC gay friend. He is 33, he is from South Carolina, and he says, “Bless you heart” frequently. We met a few times through random intern meet and greets but it was Friday after the awful date that we clicked. We were at a work happy hour where I was hungover and I spilled about my date. While I was just about to go home and pull myself together he told me we were going to a gay bar with drag queens. I said that I had never really been to a gay (except Rumors) and that I was game. On the inside I was quite nervous because this is very out of my element. So we went to the Lower West Side. He gave me a quick history of the area and the gay community and the stonewall riots (look it up if you don’t know about it). Luckily for me drinks buy one get one free, which for anyone who can divide, is a fancy way of saying half off drinks. So I got a drink, then another one, and then another one. Meanwhile a man in a tiny skimpy underwear get-up danced around (gosh I’m so Midwest modest and prude). Finally it was 6pm and Lady Uppercrust took the stage. She pranced around and lip-synced songs by classics like Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand and was very impressive. She knew Lee and would chat with us in between sets. She was lovely I might add, but this whole time I am still drinking. During one of her sets she overheard me say I had never really seen a Drag Queen during a live performance. She stopped her show immediately, and dramatically I might add, and whisked me up to the stage. She made me tell what seemed like my life story to the crowd and made sure the bartenders gave me a drink for free. When I sat back down I was feeling pretty good. Next thing I know a small tan man with a bouquet of 2 dozen roses appears and tells me I am the most beautiful woman in the world. Which leads me to….

Exhibit 3: Small man who spoke little to no English

He gives me these flowers and all he can say is “muy bonita” repeatedly. Now I am not sure if he was straight gay or indifferent. But the sight was quite comical. Luckily Lee shooed him away and my new Irish friends to my right laughed along. But small man didn’t stop there. He then brought me a singular rose (which I assume he took out of the bouquet) and tried his whole “muy bonita” line again. I smiled and said thank you but turned my head because it was getting weird. In his last ditch effort to win my love, he went to the photo booth in the bar, took four pictures of himself which ranged from a serious face to a kissy face and handed me the pictures. I lost the pictures somewhere in my dorm, but let me promise you, it is comical. Despite him not being my type, I am pretty impressed that I could snag a man at a gar bar.

Other shenanigans happened that weekend that would be mundane to you but I’ll leave you with this. I received a text from Kurt today that was a picture of guacamole he was making at home because he remembered I said I have an obsession with guacamole. It is unfortunate that I am still in the “nice guys finish last" phase of life.  

When Roommates Arrive

So today was a normal day, woke up ran around the city, making several wrong turns. But today the roommates came! 

DISCLAIMER: I would like to note that these are my very first impressions and they are subject to change.

Meradith: Clear skin, perfectly poised, sarcastic, plays lacrosse

Celebrity look alike: Alexis Bledel

Allie: funny, also sarcastic, also plays lacrosse, torn hamstring

Celebrity look alike: uhh doesn’t have one

Kara: (please note it is pronounced Car-uh) nice girl, Columbian boyfriend, gave us chocolates

When I speak of her via text I will only use the red car emoji

[I am little leery writing about these people however I have no intentions of telling them this blog exists or adding them on facebook. However in my pursuit to be honest as possible I am going to blog on without fear of the consequences.]

So Meradith and Allie are friends from Penn (which I was unaware was an Ivy League school). They have been to NYC a few times because they only live 2 hours away. Which is cool they know a little bit about the city but are still willing to explore. They have dude friends who are on the upper west side and the goal is to meet them and pray they are attractive and not douchy (rare combination). I really clicked with the both of them because they were friendly and open right off the bat and super sarcastic and funny. I only have 5 weeks left and I don’t have time to for shy timid people, this is NYC.

Which brings me to car-uh. Nice girl. Decided to go hang with her boyfriend the first day and totally missed out on the initial roommate bonding time. She is the one I share a room with. She has to wake up at 5am everyday which is pretty stupid since I can roll out of bed at 9am but worse things have happened. (I should also note the saying “worse things have happened” is my motto here when things go wrong.) Back to car-uh. She is really smart and her internship is at American Express where she works with all the Mexico clients. She speaks Spanish and is really unsure of how she will handle her internship. Which is annoying because clearly she is a genius if you talk to her for more than .5 seconds. While she is a nice person I am unsure if she is my kinda person, only time will tell.

Other notable people are:

Sam who reminds me of a tiny pixie with her hair and slender frame. She is very well accomplished, mentions her boyfriend every other sentence, extremely catholic, once lived on a floor with sorority women and told me she hates them. I don’t think we will be friends even though she invited me to a bar that Ernest Hemingway once ate at.

Anna Kay: Southern Bell, really good at beer pong, doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, I wish she would just have an opinion. Has a shitty boyfriend who tells her she’s fat…he’s gotta go.

Leann: CBS intern, odd hours 2am-noon, also someone who is just too nice, kinda gets annoying, but also a nice person. Not 21, doesn’t have a fake (stupid)

Georgetown boys: attractive investment banker interns, very generous with their booze, boarderline douchy but will tolerate it for free alcohol.

Well that seems to sum up the cast of characters in my life. Lets hope they don’t find this blog and hate me forever. And if they do, well I’m out of here in 5 weeks. Dueces. 

Thoughts at the Apple Store

Apple Store

Well my first four days in NYC have been a success. Well maybe more of like the Junior Gemini roller coaster, at Cedar Pointe, so nothing too intense. Some of my biggest challenges have been

o   learning the subway – I have spent far too much money going the wrong direction

o   buying groceries is annoying because you have to carry them and I am weak

o   finding bars that have good specials – luckily last night I think I found the bar I will claim as my own

o   my phone taking a shit on me as well as my computer charger – hence why I am at the apple store

I have met some pretty cool people in my building and by some I mean two. No one really wants to venture out and meet new people. The first is Leann who is from Buffalo. She’s cool but not 21 so how much time I actually spend with her will be limited. Then there is Anna Kay from South Carolina and has many monogrammed clothing items. She’s not in a sorority but I would totally send the dingy for her. We actually discovered the bar the we will call out own, The 13^th Step. It is practically 13 steps away from our dorm which is perfect for us to stumble home to. I am getting anxious to try new places and venture out of East Village but I want to do that with someone who knows the city. Which leads me to my first NYC encounter with an adorkable dude named Chris. He is an RA on the first floor. He offered to take me around the city and show me is favorite spots. He plays drums in a jazz band and often frequents the many jazz bars in the city. He also slipped in there that he had a girlfriend who is living with him in his dorm but this weekend she is moving out and heading to Switzerland for the summer. I’ll keep him on the back burner and take him up on his offer to explore the city, but I’m not trying to be a home wrecker.

I also find it hard to believe that people, more specially women wear heels in this city. I for one love to wear heels no mater the circumstance, but I probably walked 10+ miles in a 24 hour period and had bloody blistery feet from shoes I wear all the time. I applaud the women who can wear heels because I just don’t think they are cut out for me in this city. Carrie Bradshaw lied to me with every high heel she purchased.

In regards to the fashion part of this blog it is tricky because none of my roommates have shown up yet to take my picture of what I am wearing and there is no full length mirrors in my dorm. I’m holding out for a roommate to show up with one. Until then I am going to trust that I look good and fake it til I make it. I can also already sense my style evolving and I love it. Until next time my friends!

P.S. I got the charger I needed for free

pre flight jitters

Here is the blog I wanted to post while I waited for my plane but I was too cheap to pay to connect to the wifi. There are clothes for me to buy in NYC…ain’t nobody got time/money for wifi.

People watching might be my favorite past time, especially people who are traveling to NYC. The person I have enjoyed eyeing the most is a teen/man/boy in light wash denim jeans with a hanes under shirt and cowboy boots and aviators all while drinking a caribou coffee. I can’t tell if he is tying to hard or if he pulls it off effortlessly. I am debating on talking to him, he looks like someone interesting to become friends with. But I am also very leery of anyone on my flight. Everyone in New York is crazy…which I guess is the reason I am going? (to be determined).

I am very interested to see how people dress in New York. I often think if ill stick out like a sore thumb or be able to pull it off. The goal: NOT to look like a tourist. So with that in mind I might add a style section to my blog and post the outfits I wear. So stay tuned, this journey has just begun! 

New York's Eve

Tonight is considered a holiday in my world. Anxiously waiting for tomorrow can come so I can fly into New York City where all my hopes, dreams, and aspirations will come true. Talk about putting a lot of pressure on a situation. But if I had to sum up my feelings about this next big adventure in my life the only word I could use to describe this feeling is numb. I don't really feel anything right now. My brain is a soupy bowl of mush. I'm pretty sure the only thought that is running through my head is, "how can I squeeze one more pair of shoes in my suitcase?". In addition to feeling numb, I also have a list of concerns about NYC. In no particular order here they are:

1. What do I do if I get mugged?
2. What do I do if I get kidnapped?
3. Can I survive off Ramen noodles?
4. Is it possible to eat out on a budget?
5. Will I ever feel lonely?
6. Will I make new friends?
7. Does McDonald's have a dollar menu?

This is a varied list from extreme to not extreme, but all very valid concerns.

So I encourage my friends and family to follow me on my journey through NYC. Read about my struggles and triumphs as I navigate the city while I channel my inner SJP (Sarah Jessica Parker/Carrie Bradshaw). My goal is to make the most of my 6 weeks in NYC and live as epically as possible. I want to challenge myself to meet new people and experience things I would normally never even consider. I will try my best to be as candid as possible all while being irresistibly fabulous.

"If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere"