Time Flys

Wow so I have really been slacking on this whole blog thing!! My one year in New York has come and gone. I cannot believe that it has only been one year, it seems like it has been a lot longer.

To catch up I did go to the Yankees game and had a blast!! High Tea at the plaza is something every girl should do at least once. It brings back those childhood memories of having tea parties with your dolls. I was filling my time with school for the most part and fun with a group of friends that are true New Yorkers. They tell me all the stories about what New York was like before and what it was like to actually grow up in a big city.

It is strange to think how well I fit in with them,it is like I was meant to be here. I am even getting cynical and annoyed with the tourist,which is so silly since I still am one!! You can just pick them out of a crowd right away by the way they walk and stare at everything. I can just imagine how I looked a year ago taking in the beauty of the city with wide naive eyes. My future here in New York is uncertain. I am busting my ass right now trying to finish school. I am taking 15 credits and writing my thesis. I will graduate May 16th. I am so proud of myself and I know I can get through this. I will be the only person in all of my family to have a masters degree. That is pretty good since I am also the first person in the family to graduate from college.

My thesis is focusing on Women and Philanthropy, and how they started fighting for change in this country long ago and will be even more influential as time goes on. We will see if this thesis holds true once I actually get my facts and figures but lets face it; women were the ones creating non profits and providing services that were not being supplied. They were giving their time and money to causes they truly believed in. With the transfer of wealth approaching in the next 10 to 20 years women will hold the purse strings. They will be deciding what gets funded.

Well until the next free moment I have, enjoy life and take full advantage of it because it seems to be flying by.

Berly

6 Months in the Big Apple

Hello,
I am so sorry that I have been slacking in writing about my fun adventures! This month marks my 6 months here in New York City. I have been thinking about all the fun things that I have been able to do so far. I have been to....
- The Natural History Museum
- Museum of Modern Art
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Whitney (ok I am going to it tonight)
- Statue of Liberty
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Central Park (had a great 4th of July picnic there with the girls)
- Rocksoff concert Cruise
- MTV show taping
- Martha Stewart Show
- TODAY show
- Wall Street where George Washington was inaugurated
- Trinity Church where Alexander Hamilton is buried

I am not sure if that is the full list of not but WOW that is alot of fun stuff packed into my full time student schedule. I was also working 30 hours a week! LOL.

My 26th Birthday is coming up next month and I bought myself Yankees tickets. I am very excited to be going to a game. The girls and I are going to the Plaza for High Tea as well. Plus to cap it all off I am inviting everyone down to my favorite bar to have some fun and cake!

I have been thinking alot about my life. I have done alot of things so far but I still have my list of things I still want to do. Moving to New York and being on my own is the biggest adventure of my life so far, but I want more. I think that it is important to have a list of goals, dreams and adventures. To many people get caught up in just getting by everyday to stop and realize where they are heading or what they are missing. I hope that everyone will take the time to make a list of what they want, even the small things.

Memorial Day Weekend

Wow so to kick off this lovely holiday weekend, I went to see Top Gun. The movie was being shown on the flight deck of the USS Intrepid. I have to say that was one of the coolest things I have done in the city so far, and the best part.... it was free!! With the sunseting and the New York skyline in the back I was all set to watch some Navy ships and fighter piolts! On saturday I went with my friend and her parents. We walked all down town lower Manhattan. We went to the 9/11 museum. It was so sad to see all of the missing flyers that people had put up to search for there loved ones. I did not get to see the towers in person before they came down but the video they show the towers and you can see how it was like its own city within the city. It makes it even sadder. I was impacted when it happened but I was younger and never really thought about how it affected each individual person. I had only thought about how it affected us as a country. Along our walk I also saw trinity church where Alexandar Hamilton is buried and I was able to see were George Washington was inogerated. That evening we went to a great resturant named Coniack. I had the best steak. Ofcourse the weekend would not be complete without a trip to Bull McCabes. I love hanging out there. The next day I just rested and took it easy. On monday to close out the weekend I actually got some work done and turned in some resumes. I met up with a friend and we went to boarders and dinner.

Earlier in the week I was able to see the ships come up the river for fleet week. It actually looked like the game battleship with all the different ships surrounding the main aircraft carrier. It was fantastic to see.There were so many officers in the city for this holiday you could not turn around without triping over one. I hope all of you had a great weekend too!

Straight A's

Well it seems I have not had time to blog since February. During the last two very busy months I was working, finishing up school, and having fun. All the hard work has paid off! I received my final grades for the semester and I made straight A's. That is pretty fantastic. Some of the fun events that I attendant during the last few months include going to an MTV show taping, a Martha Stewart taping, and of course as always hanging out at Bull McCabes.

I had a wonderful vacation. I went back home to Nevada to see my family.I had fun riding mini bikes and helping my brother work on his car. I took my littlest brother to the fire station where the guys showed him all the engines and where they live. It was a great experience. I would like to thank the Carson City Firefighters! While I was home I made the decision to get Lasik surgery on my eyes. It has been fantastic not having to where glasses anymore. My mom and I went to Davis Creek on the way to take me to the airport and it could not have been a better way to end the trip. I was able to see baby ducks, geese and squirrel. One of my favorite things is just sitting in the middle of nature on a sunny day soaking it all in.I was also able to go to California during my vacation and visit my aunt, uncle and cousin. We had a great visit and Bea is getting so big. It is always relaxing to go and spend time near the ocean.

It is always nice to go back to where I grew up. Although I have come to the realization that I now think of New York as my home and where my life is. It was a weird feeling after all these years to have a different place to call home, and not just a place where I am attending school. I am so happy here and I have great friends here. I love having a place that I feel completely like myself all the time. This summer I hope to take advantage of the beautiful scenery here in New York and find some fun free events to attend. I have a whole list of fun things I want to do and I will make a point to write more about them as they occur.

Hope everyone has a great summer!

Lady Liberty

Well I have to say that seeing the Statue of Liberty is very patriotic. I can just imagine how all the people who immigrated here through Ellis Island felt as they passed her to get to America. I have to say that it was much easier to become an American in that time though. Now it is almost impossible. I would like to think that lady liberty was a beacon of their hope to find the American Dream. The American Dream has become this idea we all strive for but rarely are able to attain. I have been lucky in the since that I have gained a college education, and that I am working on a masters degree. That should help me move up in the world. Whether it will or not is going to be interesting. I will probably leave so broke that I will not be moving on up to middle class.

This New York experience is something I would never have passed up. It has been everything I had always imagined and seen on TV. I still can not get over the architecture and the history. I love being able to go to a park and forget that you are in a city of 8 million people. I love sitting on a park bench and watching all the people go by. People playing fetch with their dogs (yes people still have those here), pushing there children in a stroller, eating the street vendor food, all while listening to a person play a saxophone somewhere in the park.

You can get any type of food you want almost any time you want it. Each part of the city is unique and I do have to admit I have become a bit of a home body and stay in my neighborhood more then I explore other parts of the city.

Next week I plan on walking the Brooklyn Bridge if the weather is nice. Until then farewell and best wishes from New York!

Who I am

Wow you know there is nothing like being completely on your own to make you realize who you really are. Of course I have been on my own before, when I went to Missouri, Las Vegas, and when I had my own apartment. None of those times were me really being on my own though. I lived in dorms and then even with my own apartment I had my family there. Here I am truely on my own. I have realized that some of my views were not always expressed or I didn't realize I believed them until now. For some people back home I am not called the Party Pod, because I have been snatched by aliens and turned into a pod person. I love my family very much but I think that this time is for me to learn some life lessons and to understand what my true oppions are.

So far I have learned that I am a very strong independent women. I am adventerous and I love being in a city where you can go somewhere new everyday. I have learned that I am still not the social butterfly I wish I could be. Making new friends has always been hard for me. I also am so bad about connecting with people. Tons of guys have been asking for my phone number but I rarely give it out. I think that is good common sense but also I am blocking myself in. I actually like having a beer and I love playing darts.

All of moral values are still the same. I am responsible, giving and happy. I have found that I smile a bit more everyday. Sometimes it is hard being compeltly on your own, especially in a city this size. You can be surrounded by people on the sidewalk, in a building or on the subway and still feel completly alone. The things that I wanted in life and the things I knew about life have completly changed. All I want is to enjoy my life and see what comes next.

The Beauty of a Bar

Well since I have been here I have notice that there are an abundance of restaurants, cafes and most of all Bars. I am not a big drinker but I found myself walking past a Bar named Bull McCabes, which is an Irish pub. I was instantly drawn to it and went in for the first time one night last week. I felt right at home and the bartenders were all very nice and chatted with me. Well of course I did get very drunk that night,a combination of hot Irish bartenders, good atmosphere and the need to be around adults.

I have discovered though that even though you should not consider bartenders your friends since you are paying them for a service, these bartenders have actually gone out of there way to make sure that my classes are going well and that New York is treating me well. I am so pleased to have some where to go where I feel comfortable and right at home.

Today I have found a new use for my favorite bar, this idea courtesy of my dear brother who apparently has all the brilliant ideas, I can study there! The cafes are always so crowded and you have to buy something anyway. So I might as well spend my four dollars at the bar I love and buy just a soda or energy drink. What I love most about New York is that at that bar they do not serve food so you can just bring in your own. The beauty to studying at the bar is that it is not busy during the day, and so far does not have the distracting hot Irish bartenders there at that time.

So all in all I may just end up living at the bar, but no body needs to freak out. I am on a budget and I know better then to become an alcoholic! I just want to have some fun!