Autumn in New York... (Minus Richard Gere and Winona Ryder)

My birthday and Halloween have come and gone, which means that Christmas displays can be seen all over the place already. The day after Halloween, Walgreens had already replaced all of the leftover orange and black candy with red and green candy canes. What would Walgreens do if there was a bigger market for Thanksgiving candy?? What this means to me, is that I can now focus on finding my favorite beautiful fall tree outside my window, and digging out all of my cozy scarves (that really aren't hidden because I wear them year-round...) and that I get to start watching more of my favorite cuddly-type movies when the weather gets nasty out.

What this also means, is that today, our New School collaborative team of Milano and Parsons students found out if we reached the final round of the J.P. Morgan Chase Competition in New Orleans. I've blogged about it on my grad school blog here: Idealist Milano Grad Blog. Well, I am very happy to report that we have been invited back to the finals and will be heading back to New Orleans on November 17th to present to a panel of judges! The first place prize is $25,000 for our nonprofit client, the Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association, NENA which is helping residents rebuild their homes in the Lower 9th Ward. The next two weeks will be busy with planning and practicing our presentation and supporting those who will be presenting. It's been a fantastic experience so far and I can't wait to go back to New Orleans to show off what we've done!!

Octobre.

Did anyone else go outside today and wonder what month or day it is? I did. I'm confused. It's too cold for October, too dreary for a Thursday, and too exhausting to not be finals week.

Sometimes, there's nothing particularly wrong with a day, but everything just seems a little gray. What gets you all through the day? I like to look at creative stuff like this: Cool crafts Or ridiculous things like this: Rock stars with Kittens among other things...

(Sigh...) Maybe a dose of Where the Wild Things Are this weekend will pick me up.

Lower East Side Murals

I love public art, especially in the form of murals. I've worked on a few murals in my lifetime, and I would be happy I could do it for a living. But since I can't, I enjoy checking out all the wall art NYC has to offer. Here is just a sample of some of the great murals I found in and around the Lower East Side.

A bit of the weekend...

Watching The Maltese Falcon under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Hanging out in Williamsburg.
Pool Parties in Williamsburg. Hipster haven.

Mid-Summer Night's Dream

It's the middle July and I've been missing for a while... Summer is busier than I always think it will be. My days have been filled with a full-time internship at a nonprofit consulting organization, dealing with apartment issues, scouting out free NYC events (movies in the park, Pool Parties, and picnics in the park just to name a few), freelancing here and there, socializing over non-academic issues with school friends, hosting out-of-town visitors in our tiny treehouse, taking the full step to vegetarianism and working with Ben to create new music/radio/art/film/literary endeavors. In a few weeks I will be taking some much needed time off in the motherland- Iowa. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with those I've been away from, to breath in some fresh Iowa air, eat delicious Iowa sweet corn, and live the slow Midwestern life that I love. BUT, before I leave the big city, I want to finish some projects I've been working on for a while. Check back soon for updates!!!

Summer is here!

I have officially finished my first full year of grad school at Milano, The New School in Management and Urban Policy. I have learned a lot and changed quite a bit as a person (in a good way!) in the past 2 semesters and I'm very grateful that I've had this opportunity! Ben's parents were here last weekend and we had a wonderful visit with them. We walked all over NYC and ate at delicious restaurants and saw some really fun New York sights. One of my favorite meals we had was at Gemma, a restaurant right next door to my apartment. Definitely the BEST French toast this lil' lady has ever had...

My Random Thoughts on a Rainy Monday Night

I have discovered that I like, no LOVE, grapefruits. But there is just no polite way to eat them, so I do it at home where I can be as messy as I want to be.

It's probably the universe telling me something when every single store has stopped selling my favorite kind of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. (Yup, I Wikipedia'd it to find out that it was a limited batch.)

I spend way too much time thinking about food and ice cream, obviously.

I like to read the ads in the subways, first in Spanish, then in English to see how much of it I understood.

I never realized how much I actually do like little dogs, until I watched them for a long time at a dog park. They are cute little monsters.

I miss Chicago and my friends there.

I miss Iowa and my family there. (And friends.)

I miss Bogey, my cat.

East Bound and Down is a great new show I discovered last week, thanks to my friend Erin.

My boyfriend has helped me to discover that I am actually a neat freak. (Despite what all of my past roommates would believe, lol...)

I really love where I am at in my life right now, in all aspects. It's taken a long time for me to get here.