Cowl

So I've taken up knitting again, but this time, in the ROUND. It's a lot of fun and much faster than straight knitting...or else it seems that way. I got my yarn at the Stockinette Cafe just around the corner from where I live, and they have this awesome yarn called Twinkle. It's so luxurious, and I used the one called Ash.

Yesterday I was 18 rows in and I realized I was making more of a mobius strip than a regular circle. So, I had to undo it all but starting over wasn't too bad and I finished it the same day anyways. Here is a picture of my cowl!

Now, on to bigger and better things! Also excited for my corks to come soon so I can make my cork board :)

BOO!

Hey everyone,

So tonight is Halloween, and also my brother's birthday! We had a great birthday/Halloween/baby shower brunch with all of Matt and Kat's friends. Virginia was also in her bat outfit (see Matthew's facebook) which was to die for.

Yesterday my best friend Elisha came in to town to visit me for a few days, so i'm stoked! We spent the afternoon in the city walking around Soho and the Village and stopped in this cool cafe called Think Coffee. We both had Spanish lattes....I'm not sure what made it Spanish but it had a good spice to it :)

We then ended up at the Halloween Parade down 6th Ave. I have to say it was slightly disappointing, maybe I was expecting more like the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Here is us waiting for the show:

All in all we had a fun time in the city. Tomorrow we're going to hit Times Square, Central Park, Rockefeller Plaza, Lincoln Center, and anything else that looks appealing. If anyone has suggestions, we're open to it.

Whenever Elisha is here I always feel craftier and want to do fun projects. Last night I had ebay fever and won a bid for 200+ corks! You may ask why, but I want to make a nice cork board! I'm really excited and I want to get my craft on this week.

On the job front, still looking for work, although trying retail too. It's still tough no matter what, but it seems like the temp office may have found some more jobs for me.

I hope you all have a fun Halloween, and as a tribute to the King of Pop watch the Thriller video.

Anniversary

Tonight was Matt and Kat's one year anniversary, and since they couldn't go out to dinner because of their new baby I cooked them dinner instead. Now, I have this weird rule for myself that I don't eat chicken parmigiana unless it's my grandmother's recipe. Well, today I made her recipe for chicken parmigiana and it turned out quite well. I also made brown sugar, thyme, and butter glazed carrots with baked pistacios, ricotta mashed potatoes, and (thanks to my best friend Elisha) pumpkin cheesecake brownies. I also tried to set the mood as well with some candles and light jazz :)

Here is the picture of the brownies:

At the end of dinner Virginia got a little fussy but I managed to get her back to sleep.

I love my little niece.

All in all it was a good day and tomorrow it's back to work! Until thursday....

Virginia

Yesterday, my brother and sister-in-law had a BEAUTIFUL baby girl! Her name is Virginia Eleanor Drumm. I'm so very excited to be an auntie! Note my excitement:

Needless to say it's been a little crazy the last day or so, but it's been really wonderful. Just straightened the place up for when they get back tomorrow morning...the calm before the storm :) The other day before everything started Kat and I were hanging out in the living room and she emphatically tells me "I CAN STREAM NETFLIX ON MY PHONE!" And yes, it's an iphone, because Droid wouldn't come out with it right away.....hopefully it wont take too long! Also, there's this ice cream shop a block away and it's really dangerous. It's closing for renovations in a few weeks, so I can justify going in every couple of days, right?...right?!?!...Right. Thank you.

Treasure Hunting

Yesterday was my first day of interviews (at temp agencies). The first one was great, the recruiter was easy going and pretty funny, though we had a little red sox/yankees rivalry. It seems that in a few days I should be receiving a call from them, hopefully. After that I ran into the city for a walk-in interview because this company said they took walk-ins from 9 am- 12 pm. Well I hustled and got there within 10 min, huzzah! Until I went inside....The office was kind of grungy and this lady ushered me over to her desk. She asked me what I wanted to do as she poured over my resume and I told her I wanted office experience. She looks at me and asks "do you have any?" I say no and she immediately says, "well, you'll have to completely rewrite your resume to show the office experience you have." I plainly said to her "I don't have any," what does she want me to do, make it up? So I left, gladly.

The next three hours were spent on an adventure trying to find a good briefcase. You would think in New York City you could find anything you wanted...not so. It's not that easy, either. Every place I went i'd ask someone where they knew of a store that sold them and each person would give me a place, like a little treasure hunt. After walking over 20 blocks in the heat with pointy shoes I decided to call it a day and somehow managed to drag my butt a few blocks to the PATH station. (the end result? Many blisters and I bought the bag on amazon.com that night)

While I remember this now, when I was getting lunch I asked the woman at the register to give me a copy of the receipt. She said to me "you don't need a receipt." I said EXCUSE ME?!?! and then she fished it out of the machine. Thanks lady for telling me what I do and do not need in my life.

My brother arrived home yesterday, and we were all glad to see him. Now that he's back Kat is ok to go into labor :)

Today will be a quieter day, I'll be working on my excel skills and applying to more jobs. Thus it continues.

Day 1

So today was the first day I called/emailed temp agencies, while also applying for other jobs. Luckily I was contacted by one temp agency and have an interview set up for tomorrow. I then thought it would be smart to walk to target 12 blocks away and then back with everything i bought...not the smartest if ideas, but the only choice I had. Plus, a woman HAS to have a full length mirror in her room. I'm itching to go into the city, but I'm not sure what to do, maybe tomorrow i'll venture in and see where it takes me.

NY!...well, actually, NJ

Hi Everyone. Right now i'm starting a new chapter in my life. The one right after college where you don't know what to do with yourself....yeah, that one. I am now living in New Jersey with my brother and sister, while I search for a job and get my bearings around New York City. To bring you all up to speed i'll recount the last couple of crazy days.

I started in Evansville, IN where I led Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur services for Temple Adath B'nai Israel. I started my journey after the Break Fast of Yom Kippur where I drove 3 hours to my friend's house, Fred Onovwerosuoke (check out his website, he's fantastic!) in St. Louis. Now, as I was driving i noticed this huge lightning storm ahead of me. It looked cool from afar with all the shapes it was making, but I was getting slightly nervous. Well, when I arrived in St. Louis the storm was right above me. the lightning looked just like this:

That wouldn't be so bad except for the torrential downpour that immediately followed, where I couldnt even see the edge of my own lane, let alone the edge of the highway. Somehow with an almost dead phone in this crazy storm i made it.

There wasn't much down time since a few hours later I got up to make my flight at 7:30 am. I was afraid we weren't going to make it out of the airport but thankfully we were cleared. On the way up the captain got on the loudspeaker to tell us that we would be experiencing moderate to severe turbulence. It was kind of like a REALLY bumpy roller coaster ride, and definitely with the stomach drop. But all was well and I made it to Philly...Philly?? yeah, I'd rather go by train than fly to Newark after that.

So I picked up my two pieces of luggage, mind you they are both over 50 lbs, and my two carry ons and headed for the train. Well, you have to take a train to 30th st. station where you can then take amtrak. The problem with all of these trains are that they are not meant for a woman with 2 huge pieces of luggage...it's one at a time, also with a big gap between the platform and the train. So I enlisted the help of a few nice men who pushed my other piece. I felt bad for the guy who was really having a hard time rolling it through the amtrak train as I was cursing under my breath for stopping every 2 seconds because my bag kept getting caught on the chairs.

Finally, I made it to Newark and my sister, Kat, picked me up and brought me home. So, here I am. Tomorrow I will brave the wild looking for a job in the City, and I hope I come out alive...also with a job.