Lamest Hurricane Ever.

So with all of the people texting me begging me to evacuate, telling me to be safe, telling me to prepare etc. etc. I thought I was going to get to experience history living through Hurricane Irene in NYC.  I thought it would be epic, something people would talk about for years.  I was so prepared I had massive amounts of food and bottled water plus two full pitchers of filtered water and I filled the bathtub with water.  I rounded up all my flashlights and candles, covered the windows, moved my electronics away from the windows, I kept all electronic tools for communication constantly charged in case the power went out so they would last as long as possible. Argo shut down for 2.5 days, the subways shut down, all signs pointed to epic.

and what happened? NADA.  There was a lot of rain and some mildly strong wind but no damage, no flooding, no power outage, no water service interruption.  BORING.  I know we were really lucky and I stayed up almost all night Saturday scared something was going to happen.  There are tons of people who were not so lucky and my heart goes out to them.  I just wish they hadn't hyped it up so much.

Anyway here are some pics of the whole experience

Park was empty right before the storm

Rainy mist moving in over the empire state building

Stores closed up shop

Argo closed all weekend

Some people ignored the park closed for hurricane signs

Sunday morning when the storm was barely over people flooded outside again

Empire state building still standing afterwards

This was the most damage I saw

Subways still closed

Mostly just debris everywhere

Some shops still weren't open Sunday

Yuck.

So my cousin is pretty cool ...

Shameless plug: buy her gorgeous work, I know I am

http://society6.com/Sammie_Jean

Earthquake

Apparently the shaking of my building and bookcases was the result of an earthquake in VA that could be felt as far north as here.  Logically enough, living in NYC, my first thought was not "earthquake!" but rather something along the line of "another terrorist bombing!?"  Luckily it was not a bombing and everyone seems to be ok :)

This seems to be the worst of the damage:

DC Earthquake Devastation

"Thanks to all of you for your kind words of support, as we look to recover from the devastation of today's quake!"

via famousdc.com

The Lake House

This weekend we went to Erin's dad's lake house with Erin and Grant (good friends of ours who just got married this summer).  We had a BLAST hanging out with them.  We went tubing behind their boat, canoeing and almost went water skiing (I backed out at the last second but maybe next time). My muscles were SO SORE the next day but as they had not been worked out in a while I told them to stop complaining, it was good for them.  I love hanging out with Erin and Grant and they invited us back for Labor day weekend.  SO EXCITED!

The married lady :)

View from the back porch

notice Pietro's new haircut

Their adorable dogs 

Their dog, Rico, went tubing as well. It was an impressive/funny site

Friends

So Cara came to visit NY with her fiance Seth and I saw her both Tues and Wednesday.  We walked around Tues and had lunch and went shopping and sat in the park drinking mango lassi.  Wednesday we went to dinner with Seth and Kristine, a mutual friend who also just moved to the city.  It made me realize how much I miss my friends.  Ever since Pietro left it has become abundantly clear to me that I have no close friends in the city yet.  I have several acquaintances and friends at work and friends of friends who I don't know well, but I miss having someone you can call to hang out anytime, who will come over at a moment's notice.  Pietro said this is why I should have lived with roommates but I like living by myself, I just don't want to be alone all the time.  Friends will come with time I guess I just have to be patient.

On a more random note I took this picture last night because the building was so cool looking.  According to Seth it's called the lipstick building :)

Sad Day

So Pietro left today to go home to VA for a month :( Since we saw each other everyday it's going to be a big adjustment being all alone. Thankfully I will see him again next weekend when I go home for the weekend but then after that I don't know.

We celebrated his last weekend in town by eating lots of delicious food and hanging out with his friend Zack and Zack's gf Katie in their apt in Midtown.  I liked their neighborhood a lot and wouldn't mind living somewhere like that in the future for cheaper rent but the restaurants around it are more expensive :-/  But I did get to take this cool picture while walking to the subway stop on the way home

Also on the way home we stopped at this food truck that Laura recommended to us called Wafels and Dinges which is like delicious heaven spread on a warm fluffy waffle mmmmm definite new weekly faturday tradition

Hopefully Pietro will come back to visit for future faturdays...

Nighttime in the City

In the past few days we have been out walking at night twice.  The first time was to go to a cupcake bar with Pietro's friend Dale and the second time was a nighttime foray into Chinatown for a bubble tea craving.  Anyway the point is I got some cool nighttime photos, check it out:

fish market in chinatown, bleck

Haha had to slip that one ^ in there :P

Epic Day of Eating

So this past Saturday we ate the best meal that we've had in NYC so far.  We went to a Peruvian restaurant called Panca and had yucca, picante de mariscos, tiraditos, and sangria.  I highly recommend this place for anyone coming to the city. Pietro said it was the best Peruvian restaurant he's been to in the states :)

Anyway we documented our epic meal:

^Empire state building in the background 

NOMNOMNOM

We saw a couple episodes of "Friends" and we noticed the street signs in the outside shots of their apartment building.  That night after dinner we found that intersection and the building for fun and took some pictures :)

Lastly we went out to a bar with Pietro's good friend Mike Wang.  The bar was called Fat Cat and it was cool because it was filled with tons of games.  At least twelve pool tables, fifteen ping pong tables, two foosball tables, and 5 shuffleboard tables (?), and several chess tables.  

It was slightly nerdy but we had a lot of fun anyway :) on the way home we stopped at a food truck that Laura recommended called Waffles & Dinges and it was also amazing.  So warm and fluffy and delicious and topped with gooey goodness.

Enough talking about food, I'm getting hungry again

Girl Scout Cookies

So last night when I was lying in bed I was craving girl scout cookies (probably because a certain someone ate all of the frozen ones I had saved from this past spring).  Anyway I then started thinking about how they have ice cream flavored like girl scout cookies now, and I wondered if next spring maybe Argo could feature drinks that taste like girl scout cookies as a seasonal thing.  They already have the Chocolate Mint which is tea, milk, chocolate syrup and mint, which tastes like the Thin Mint cookies.  So this morning I experimented trying to create a drink that tastes like the Samoa cookies (the chocolate coconut ones) and I made one that was delicious!  Its black tea and almond milk with coconut and chocolate syrup.  The almond milk gives it a more cookie like taste.  My manager encouraged me to submit the recipe to the corporate office so I will :)

Saturday Night Out

So I know I'm behind in getting these pics off my camera, but I've been at work a lot the past few days.  We've been hanging out a lot this summer with Pietro's friend Carlos who is also in the city.  Carlos celebrated his 21st birthday this past weekend and a few of us all went out to celebrate.  We had dinner at this cool restaurant in the East Village and then we all went out dancing.  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we went even though I was really tired while we were out because I had been at work all day.

In other news I'm glad because I have next Saturday off :) I plan on enjoying Faturday to the fullest :P