NEW YORK!

New York was incredible. Amazing. I am a little ashamed... I took... 4 pictures. I know. As embarrassed as I am, I can honestly say I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was taking everything in. Living in the moment! I guess that's the free spirit side of me ;-).

Rant for a second- in the world of cell phones, digital camera, iPods, etc., I wonder if we can get so wrapped up in capturing events that we may not be experiencing the moment as much as we can. For example- when I saw The Arcade Fire at ACL this year, I was standing next to this guy who was LITERALLY on his phone for the entire concert! He was checking Facebook, playing Words With Friends, and who knows what else. There were a couple of times where he noticed some flashy effect on stage and took a picture. Really? It was an amazing show, and you're playing Words With Friends? Yikes.

Back to New York! I got in late Friday night and hung out with my friend Camille. We explored her neighborhood, East Village, and found a really cute coffee shop.

Saturday was completely devoted to going to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was my SIXTH time to go to New York (yes, sixth), and I had still never been to the Met. Ever since I had to read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler I have wanted to go so bad! It is a HUGE museum, so I had never attempted to tackle it on my other trips because my time was limited.

After getting lost for 2 1/2 hours (long story, but I knew I was lost when I couldn't walk any further because I reached the East River...), I finally made it!

If you have been to the Met, you know about the Egypt exhibit. Amazing! There were a ton of mummies, sarcophagus, canopic jars, Egyptian jewels, and even a 3,000 year old fawn!!

^Creepy, huh?

Another really interesting exhibit was the military exhibit where there were weapons, military uniforms, and armor dating back to the medieval times. I was able to get a shot of the knight display that is also on the cover of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler!

Not the exact shot, but close enough! :-)

There were TONS of other exhibits, but again, I was just experiencing it without worrying about getting just the right shot with good lighting, focus, etc. Other interesting exhibits included the ones featuring musical instruments, European paintings, contemporary art, the American exhibit, and the various period rooms.

My last stop was the rooftop garden where there was an amazing view of Central Park and the skyline.

Beautiful!

After the museum, I met up with Camille and we ate at a Japanese fusion restaurant where we ended up getting in a conversation with some Sikh guys next to us about gold diggers. One of them had a bad experience with a gold digger in Vegas. Random conversation, but fun.

FINALLY- I have no pictures from this, but I kind of wish I took SOMETHING! I went to The Village Vanguard, a legendary jazz club in New York that is world-famous. I saw Tom Harrel's quintet perform. AMAZING!!!!! Jonathan Blake was on drums, which was mind blowing, and of course Tom Harrell was AWESOME. His compositions were a lot more contemporary/accessible avant-garde that I was expecting. The hostess seating me put me in the very front row since I was by myself!! It is definitely one of the best concerts (if not the best) I have ever been to. I'm so grateful I had an opportunity to see them perform. 

All in all, it was a wonderful, action packed trip. Can't wait to go back :-)

NEW YORK!!

I decided I wanted to go somewhere during UT's bye-week next weekend. SO, I went on Orbitz and decided I wanted to go to New York. Their airfare from Austin was RIDICULOUSLY cheap for that weekend (I'm talking under $200 round trip, total), so I just booked the flight.

I'M SO STOKED!

Ok, that is all. More to come!

Flakey-Flake Flake

**This was originally written on September 7th! I just took a while to complete it... go figure...**

I promise I like blogging, I really do! As you have probably noticed, my last post was from seven months ago. Oops. I have been busy with life ;-).

Looking through my journal entries over the past few years, I notice right around New Year's I think back on the year that has just passed and how eventful it has been. Well, I guess I see myself as having a pretty eventful life, because 2010 was exceptionally eventful! Ladies and gentlemen, a brief look at what I have been doing since last March!

1. Emi and I took a FABULOUS trip to New York!

2. I ran my first half-marathon (with Emi as well!)!

3. Sadly, my wonderful Toyota Corolla, Betsy, was totaled in a car accident on March 25th. I sprained my neck and was in a lot of pain for a while, but the silver lining is that I was able to purchase a cute green Nissan Sentra I proudly named Clover.

 

4. I moved into an awesome apartment right along the Greenbelt. I literally walk outside of my apartment and I can go on a hike!

5. I went skydiving for the first time! Incredible! Anyone who knows me well enough knows I am TERRIFIED of heights so the fact that I jumped out of an airplane at 13,000 ft. and enjoyed it is a miracle :-)

6. I was able to go to Japan to attend my cousin's wedding and see my family! At least one post will be dedicated to that trip. Too much to mention for now!

... I guess I keep asking myself why I keep starting and stopping blogs. I think I have a few reasons:

1. If I don't get some sort of creative writing outlet then I will get depressed thinking that the only writing I really do are e-mails at work all day long.

2. I think the quality of my writing is deteriorating the longer I'm out of practice. When I write in my personal journal it's completely sloppy because I know the content will not be seen by anyone's eyes but mine :-). Writing in a blog will hopefully force me to evaluate my writing.

3. I can entertain people who are bored.

 As you can tell, not feeling too insightful tonight. Meh, I guess that's part of the fun. Thanks for reading and I promise there is more to come!