Still Alive!

So I just set a new record for longest time between posts. I've been working quite a bit, so I haven't had time to get to this, but thing's should be slowing down now. Maybe I'll be better than once every two months. Winter has finally left for good (I hope), so we're looking at 50s/60s now which is amazing. Pack up the scarfs and jackets!

Since the last time I updated you (all 3 of you that read this), I've managed to fit in some fun stuff between work and work and work. I went out to Newark to see the Sharks lose to the Devils. It's a nice arena, but Barry Melrose was right.

We went to see Billy Elliot on Valentine's Day which was great. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone coming. I always love watching kids who are 10 years younger than me and 100x more talented than I'll ever be...

A couple weeks ago, I went up to Buffalo with Colleen to visit some of her family. Checked off my 3 must-do's: saw a Sabres game, saw Niagra Falls, and ate at the birthplace of the Buffalo Wing (which I have been strangely obsessed with lately). And for the record, "Let's Go Buff-a-lo!" is and always will be the best chant in all of sports.

This past week was a good one. I finally got to see a concert at Carnegie Hall! Colleen and I sat in one of those cool little boxes for the Morrissey show there. The show wasn't quite as good as when I saw him at The Fillmore, but just being at Carnegie Hall was enough to make my night.

The next night was one of the better concerts I've seen in a long time - Gaslight Anthem at Webster Hall. These guys are one of the best new (at least new to me) bands to come around in a long, long time. Seriously, check them out, no excuses.

I've been trying to avoid going to the same restaurants here since there are hundreds, but I've found some favorites I've been frequenting which says a lot:
-Fornino is a pizza place a couple blocks away from my apartment. Definitely my favorite pizza here by a long shot: Lombardi - prosciutto, wild arugula, parmesean, mozzarella. Can't be beat!
-Bagelsmith is the bagel shop right next to Fornino. Cinnamon raisin bagel with blueberry cream cheese at least 3 times a week - those old Folger's commercials about the best part of waking up are a lie.
-Great Jones Cafe is a cool little... well, cafe... down at Great Jones and Bowery. An amazing cheeseburger, sweet potato fries, and far and away my favorite wings.
-DuMont Burger is the only place that rivals Great Jones in the burger department. It's a couple blocks from me, and an equally huge and delicious burger. The Mac n' Cheese is pretty incredible too.

That's about all I've got, hopefully I'll be back to the blog world (I refuse to use the word blogosphere) soon.

Happy New Year?

So I'm still not so good at updating this on a regular basis - surprise, surprise. A lot has happened since the last post, so I'll try to remember the past 2 months as best I can...

-Made 3 trips back to CA - one for Thanksgiving, one for a wedding, and one for Christmas/New Years. All fun, but I'd much rather take one of those "Get Out of Freezing Weather Free" card now...
-Actually I'm adapting to the cold surprisingly well. There have really only been a handful of those days that make me spontaneously swear on the sidewalk days.
-Learned that wind chill really isn't a myth.
-Confirmed that it'll be a while until the novelty of snow wears off and I complain about it like everyone else... Sure the sidewalks and gutters in Manhattan are nasty, but it's not so bad.
-Taken a liking to Thai food.
-Seen a modern dance performance (Alvin Ailey for anyone in the know, which I wasn't).
-Been to the ER more times than in the past 12 years of my life (1 to be exact).
-Played ice hockey with people much, much better than me.
-Gone to a few Rangers games.
-Started Yelp-ing about every amazing restaurant I go to. http://malmassy.yelp.com
-Discovered that there really is a such thing as an amazing bagel.
-Lots of work around the apartment, it's almost done (aside from a set of curtains and hanging up my posters). I put a few extra holes in the wall when I attempted to hang a 9 foot curtain rod by myself, but beyond that, everything's still in one piece!
-Discovered the joy of vinyl (Colleen got me a record player for Christmas, love it!).
-Seen some amazing concerts - Bon Iver in particular.
-Started actually working pretty hard.
-Started working out again. It's hard to make excuses to lay on the couch when the gym is just 3 flights of stairs down.
-Finally (just this week) got my first haircut since moving - yeah, 4 months.
-Learned that there's still a such thing as "traffic" in my morning commute despite not driving to work. What takes me 15 minutes on off-hours can take 40 minutes at rush-hour.
-Realized that the bar has been raised for a quality bar (ok, I swear that's the only crappy pun I'll make this time)... like free wood-fire pizza with every drink or ski-ball...
-Finished the CPA exam.(!)
-Got into the zone of actually cooking myself dinner every night after work, which has slowly turned into never cooking for myself.
-Feel like I pretty much know my way around all of Manhattan (ok, I guess just from SoHo on up, but I'm still pretty proud of myself.

That's about it for now. I'll end like I do everytime - by promising to write more - but all 5 of you who read this know how likely that is.


P.S.
A blog just wouldn't be a blog (especially a blog from Brooklyn) if I didn't try to push some music on you. Here's my top 10 albums from 2008:

1) Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
2) Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
3) Sigur Ros - Meo Suo...
4) Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
5) She & Him - Volume One
6) The Cure - 4:13 Dream
7) The Gaslight Anthem - '59 Sound <-- Check them out!
8) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
9) The Rosebuds - Life Like
10) Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground
11) Fleet Foxes - self-titled
12) The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
13) Alkaline Trio - Agony & Irony
14) Nada Surf - Lucky
15) The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

Not So Weekly Update #2

So I already completely failed at making this a weekly blog, but I doubt anyone was actually counting on that.  I’m finally getting settled and coming home after work instead of running various errands (productive or not) around the city.  My almost-completely-Ikea/Crate&Barrel-furnished apartment feels like a home now, just lacking a few things like side tables and barstools for my half-counter/half-kitchen-table.

I spent my first 2 weeks here subletting in the Lower East Side and then the next 10 days subletting in the East Village, now I’m out in Williamsburg (the first stop in Brooklyn  from the 14th street subway line).  I’m only 3 blocks from the subway which I had severely underrated until I realized how unpleasant it can be to walk to the station when it’s below-20 (at least it’s not 20-below, but is there really much of a difference?) in the morning.  There are about 40 apartments in the building, but only 10 or so of them actually have people living in them which is half-nice/half-eerie.  At one of my sublets and at my new place I had some issues with hot water which was miserable.  The only good that came of it is that I actually know what I’m going to say I’m thankful for at the dinner table next Thursday.

I’ve been doing my best to do fun things around the city, but that has mostly entailed going to concerts which feels new since most of the venues are new to me here.  I went to a half-reading/half-concert thing at Highline Ballroom in Chelsea where authors who write about the music industry read between musical acts.  I saw Passion Pit at the Music Hall of Williamsburg (which is 4 blocks from where I live, but the good shows all sell out in presales that I’m apparently not savvy enough to get in on) as a part of the CMJ Festival.  I saw Conor Oberst (my favorite album so far this year) at Terminal 5 which is a crazy converted nightclub with 3 balconies and a giant disco ball (not to be confused with JetBlue’s new Terminal 5 at JFK that’s advertised all over the city).  I checked out Kaki King - who’s an amazingly talented guitarist - with The Mountain Goats at Webster Hall which had a little bit of a Fillmore vibe to it.  I’ve been to two Rangers games, and I’m starting to come around to them (hopefully the Yankees aren’t next).  I haven’t even had much time to enjoy the nightlife beyond that, amidst all the lugging suitcases and furniture around town.

The most exciting "New-Yorky" thing I've done so far was stand in Times Square for two hours on election night with tens-of-thousands of people watching the results come in on all the news channels.  I'll never forget the cheers and hugs or singing and dancing in the streets that night.  I'm pretty sure the city actually never did sleep that night...

The weather was unseasonably warm for the first month that I was here, but this week has been unseasonably cold - which leads me to believe that it’s never actually seasonable.  The highs this week were in the high-30s, while the highs last week were in the low-60s - quite a swing.  There’s a chance of snow tomorrow, so maybe I’ll see what everyone’s talking about when they say the city is miserable and disgusting in the snow.  

Christmas is starting to get in full gear here with the decorations in Grand Central and some shop windows getting the X-mas treatment.  There’s an outdoor ice rink that’s free in Bryant Park which is a block away from my office, but I haven’t gotten the chance to check it out yet.

Fortunately, one of my graduation presents was the NHL online package, so I can watch the Sharks online if I stay up for the 10:30pm start and 1am finish.  It figures that they have an amazing start the season I move away.

That’s all I’ve got for now, hopefully it won’t be so long before my next update.  I’ll be back in California quite a few times in the near future for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a wedding, so it’d better be warm there!

Listening to: Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band

Watching: Mad Men season 1

First Week

It seems like forever ago that I decided to move to New York, but I'm finally here! Work started on Monday, so I couldn't really keep putting off the move (due to not having a place to live) for very much longer. I'm still not into my place yet, but hopefully that'll change by the end of the month. I arrived Saturday afternoon and the weather was great. It stayed mid-seventies all week, but today was a bit cold. I was hoping global warming had won the battle against the New York winter, but it feels like winter's about to put up a fight.

I'm subletting an apartment on the Lower East Side for last week and this coming week, and then I'll have to find another spot for a week or so. I'm enjoying this area a lot, pretty different than the Upper West Side where I was last summer. It only takes me about a half hour from my door to the office in the morning which is great for adjusting to starting work at 8:30.

The first week in the office was training - the same course I took when I interned. It was looking to be a pretty boring week, but the instructors were great and we had some really fun people in the class. I might have actually learned more about 90's movie quotes and British culture than auditing which is quite all right with me. Friday night, the entire class went out to happy hour down the street which was great. Seventy-five 22 year-olds with their PwC laptops filling up a bar.

I've been able to watch the Sharks games on the internet, the 10:30 games are going to be tough on worknights though! They play in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, so I'm going to try to catch a bus there after work and go to the game. My dad's going to be in town this weekend and we're going to see the Rangers/Penguins play at MSG which'll be my first time there since I was 9 or 10 years old.

That's about all I have for now. I'll try to post on a weekly basis to stay in touch with everyone since I'm usually not great at that. Thanks for reading!

What I'm Reading: "Rock On: An Office Power Ballad" by Dan Kennedy
What I'm Listening to: The National
What I'm Watching: Lost - Season 2