Laura visits NYC

This weekend I had my first New York City visitor. One of my best friends from college, Laura Vest. She has been overseas for the last 16 months in Mali, Africa being a rock star for the Peace Core. She was here for 4 days. It was her first time in New York and we had a perfect spring weekend in the city.

After I picked Laura up from JFK we came straight into Manhattan and headed to the Village. Laura had her first taste of New York City pizza and then we proceeded to walk around Washington Square Park. I took her to one of my favorite bars, McSorely's. It's very "old New York" and you only have two drink choices, light or dark beer. I just love it. I'm showing Laura how to do a "waterfall" in the picture below. An impressed stranger snapped this photo. I asked him to send it to me and he did!

We were tourists for the rest of the weekend. We had bagels for breakfast, rode the Staten Island Ferry, saw the Statue of Liberty, checked out Wall Street, perused through the Chelsea Market, walked the High Line, and navigated through Times Square. We found a beer garden in Battery Park and Laura could not resist having her first true American cheese burger and hot dog in over a year. It was a huge moment for her! We rounded out the weekend with a night out on the town, brunch, a Yankees baseball game, and a trek to Harlem.

Laura wanted to meet some NYC Malians and find a restaurant that served Malian cuisine. After some quick research online we headed up to Harlem. It was so much fun to watch her speak Bambara and to see her blow every one's mind. "Who is this little white girl in Harlem who knows how to speak our language?!" Everyone we met was so hospitable and inviting and the entire experience was incredible.  We had rice with peanut sauce and Laura showed me how Malians eat with there hands. It's a specific technique where you ball up the rice and then eat it off the tip of your fingers. NYC Malians do not do this. Everyone that saw us laughed at us and thought it was really cute...

It was an exhausting weekend, but one of the most eventful and most fun I've had yet. Thank you, Laura. I miss you already! I love it when friends come to the city. So who's coming to visit next?!

I'm Blogging

The Empire State Building on an overcast day in February.

Welcome to my blog! I've never embraced the whole blogging thing. I'm finally ready to jump on board with this little trend. Facebook is good for fun and brief facts, but it's difficult tell the whole story. This blog is meant to be a personal venue through which to tell a more complete story of what's going on in my daily life here in New York City and as a way to stay connected with family and friends.

I also hope to have this be a collection of the experiences, memories, ideas, people and basically a random compilation of all the things I adore. This past year I have really tried to concentrate on looking at the bright side of life. Before I felt stagnate, stuck and unsure of how to get what I wanted out of life. Things got pretty damn depressing.

I agonized over moving to New York City. Why? It's been a goal of mine for such a long time, but I was getting very good at doing what I thought I should do rather than what I actually wanted. I had a great job in Wilmington, Delaware, my family was super close in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I had an amazing boyfriend waiting for me in Lawrence, Kansas. Living in NYC was what I wanted, but other than that there weren't a lot of reasons why I should.

Ultimately I realized that this is my life. The only one who will be disappointed by the things I don't do will be me. When I finally made the decision I can't even describe to you how giddy I was on a daily basis. Six months later the giddiness has worn off, but it has left behind a lingering satisfaction when I wake up each morning and remember that I am in the coolest, most diverse and thrilling city in the world.

I'll leave you this time with my favorite quote. I had this written in my bathroom mirror for the longest time before I moved to NYC.

Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back soon!