dreams come true

ironically, after the title of my previous post, i had my first legitimate star sighting - by legitimate, i mean that i was the one to spot the star, and i saw a face instead of a sweaty back. definitely not a stab at the star status of mr. david cross. ladies and gentlemen, i saw THE marykate olsen boheming it up in greenwich village last thursday night. i had just finished the best meal i've had in new york city yet (the pink teacup - soul food) and we stepped outside to see three typical nyc-hipster types hanging out on the corner. two guys, one girl. as one of the guys unlatched his bike from the street sign, i saw that the girl was marykate and did the classic "hey.. is that.. ?" to my friend. the three finished their conversation, the bike guy rode away, and marykate walked off with her boyfriend. no paparazzi, just strolling down the street. it was awesome, and she looked adorable. wedge heels, skinny jeans (she is a stick), loose-fitting grey tee. this is the closest picture i could find:

considering the olsens have been a part of my life since i was three, needless to say i was stoked. the next day was filled with even more reasons for excitement. jwt extended me a job offer! the internship coordinator told me this is the first time they have offered a position to an intern so early, and i am extremely honored. i know that this comes as a result of the encouragement and praise i've received from my team, and i've been so lucky to work with great people. also hopefully comes as a result of the insanely long hours and hard work i've put in, but besides the point. i don't know if i'll take the offer, but it's such a relief to have such an incredible opportunity in the bag going into senior year. maybe now i can actually fit relaxation into my schedule a bit!

a new york minute

the post title refers to how long it's been since i've posted, not the box-office gold film by the olsen twins that we all know and love.

things have been flying, as they tend to do in this city. work has picked up, with the addition of a few more accounts: jwt has added bailey's, microsoft and jose cuervo to its bill. this has affected my team directly, as bailey's and cuervo are both diageo brands, and one of our best account executives (THE BIG BEAR! as i affectionately call him) has been slowly making the transition to lead the microsoft team (huuuuuuge deal, he will be making millions). cuervo has been the most exciting win - we rang in the victory with free tequila shots at the office...

line 'em up

the interns and i then continued the party afterwards, which led to... well, quite a few things and one big, interesting adventure. i got to tag along to a photo shoot for our international markets the next day and dance life away with some models. very glamorous?

model + make-up artist

the office has really started to feel like a little home away from home. i'm going to miss my team and especially the other interns when the summer is over. each of those wacky kids has found a home in my heart.

definitely miss lindsay. loud. hilarious.

cutie-pie marilyn. chirpy. sassy.


and raph. i think that sly smile says it all ;-)


sadly i don't have a picture of alison yet! i'll work on it. she's precious too.

outside of the office, life has been pretty packed as well. a few weeks ago, the roommates and i went on a dinner cruise around manhattan. it was beautiful, and very humbling to see how small that city really is when you step away from it for a bit. it felt so good to be that close to "nature," even though the hudson might not be the cleanest body of water in the world (newman lake, anyone?).

we also finally made it to a yankees game! i got to see the inside of the stadium that my dad has so lovingly described, the yankees were victorious over the twins, and i even got a little yankee hat souvenir cup of dip n' dots!

last weekend, i traveled with tara and rob to stay with katelyn and go to kate's graduation party. it was SO nice to finally see tara after being so close all summer, and i'm going to miss rob terribly (even through my envy) when he goes to australia for the semester. katelyn is living the dream in dc - her apartment is adorable. it was interesting to compare / contrast washington dc versus nyc. let's just say nyc has a ways to go with cleanliness.

best buds :-)

invading the nation's capitol

outside matchbox for dinner

in a mere 2.5 weeks my time in nyc will be up, and i'll return to richmond for a few short days before jetting off to school again. whirlwind. i'm ready but i'm not ready, i'm excited but i'm not excited, and i'm over new york without being over it at all. maybe bittersweet is the best way i have yet to describe it, but either way i think the next few weeks will have a lot in store as i pack the rest of the summer in!

awesome

happy 232nd, america!

the fourth of july in new york city is something to be reckoned with. stephen came up for the weekend and we took the city by storm :-) he arrived thursday evening and got to stay until late sunday afternoon, and it was a great visit. we saw hancock, wandered around times square, met up with some other jmu kids for fireworks and drinks, saw spamalot, walked around central park and ate cupcakes at magnolia. couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the weekend. it was like the nyc world got a thousand times smaller - i loved seeing all the familiar faces. there was even a completely unexpected cameo by miss samantha ward! i got a text from her saturday morning saying she'd be in the city. when i asked why, she said she and her parents were in town to see spamalot - the very SAME showing that stephen and i were going to see! and we ran into her at the theater - the coincidences are unreal. drew lachey (from 98 degrees fame) and stephen collins (the dad from 7th heaven) were both in the musical. sam even got her picture with rev camden afterwards, which is awesome.

i also got to cross a few more things off the list:
6. get drinks at a rooftop bar - finally made it to the top of 'the heights'
7. macy's fireworks display (largest in the world)

8. see yankee stadium (still have to go to a game) - the new stadium will be awesome
9. eat at magnolia - thousands of cupcakes!

10. spot a celebrity. technically i guess stephen spotted him, but i did get to see the sweaty back of mega-star david cross (from arrested development, kung fu panda, she's the man, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, men in black 2, scary movie 2 and, most importantly, pootie tang) in the times square subway station.

here are some other select shots from the weekend.

american flag over the stock market - capitalism at its finest

so funny
an enormous display of eddie murphy's head

bff's in central park

little fish, big pond

by the lapsing frequency of these posts, i'm sure you can tell that the speed of life in nyc has picked up a tremendous deal. i'm currently writing this after having worked a 13 hour day at good ol' jwt. i left at 10pm. then took my hour commute home. madness. i find myself staying late (granted, not usually this late) every day, because i get so caught up in the projects we're working on and can't seem to tear myself away. the other interns i work with are great - five of us sit in one tiny room, with one tiny fan that does nothing to fight the heat. i wouldn't have it any other way though, they crack me up. i am the only non-hebrew, and i have learned more about the jewish culture in my three short weeks here than in my entire southern lifetime. i've learned all about shabbat (weekly sabbath), noshing (snacking) and shmattas (ugly clothes) - i even said "oy vey!" in a club last friday.

in other news, i have a few more things to cross off the nyc list:
3. go to a club - the roommates and i tagged along behind a birthday party to get into the lap of swankitude at mansion. drinks were $16 a pop, there were three floors, lots of laser lights and a pakistani rap troupe. everything i expected and more.
4. eat at serendipity - delicious, check out the signature drink "frrrozen hot chocolate"

4. buy jewelry at a flea market - went to the one in hell's kitchen (apparently the hot and upcoming "gayborhood" of manhattan, according to the queer issue of the village voice, and i can see why because it was adorable) and bought a bracelet i am now obsessed with.
5. see a concert in madison square garden - this was originally a stretch due to finances, but i lucked out in a huge way... more to come on that in a minute.

i'm feeling good about the way the list is progressing. the more touristy things will come in the next couple of weeks, especially when my parents roll into town. bob and t, just a couple'a kids in the big city. i can't wait to see how that turns out...

but back to madison square garden! last monday, i had a coniphany - a word i have just created to describe a concert experience so sublime that it bestows upon the viewer a feeling of euphoria and nirvana (but really it's just concert + epiphany). i saw coldplay, the band with the number one album in our fair land at this time, perform at what has been called the best venue in the us... for free! it was their kick-off concert for the "viva la vida" tour. no tickets were sold, they were only auctioned off online. of course i was completely clueless that it was even happening, but a friend of mine in the dorm knows a sound guy there and got two free tickets. chris martin danced like a little elf and i fell in love. here are my attempts at pictures:

glowing orbs that descended from the ceiling - this was during my favorite song, "lost!"

taken when the band walked halfway around the venue to perform an acoustic version of "yellow" in the middle of the crowd - awesome

definitely in my top three concert experiences of all time, contending with 4th of july dave matthews and house of blues ben harper.

i'll end with a random collection of pictures from various adventures:

dylan's candy bar, huge candy store aka candyland come to life

view of the inside

after poor hil's defeat: "hillary for vp... or else. she's gonna be a salty bitch along with alot of disgruntle women. have mercy on them." made me laugh because of word "salty" and grammatical errors

two men at target buying hundreds... literally... of pillows for no explained reason

a brand, new york

i think one of my favorite parts of new york city is the stark contrast you can find in lifestyle in a mere matter of miles. for example, a few subway blocks north from me, you hit harlem, the bronx and beyond. a few blocks south, and you're right in the middle of the posh upper east side. i wonder how there can be such socioeconomic differences in just a few blocks.

i have checked another item off the list:
2. visit the met.

it was all i could have asked for, and i'm sure i will be back. they were featuring an exhibit on superheroes and fashion, so i saw the original superman, spiderman, batmam and catwoman costumes. high fashion designers like d&g, versace and armani also created couture interpretations of the costumes, forming them into incredible dresses and suits. my fashion major roommates were in heaven. as was miss alice riley-ryan, who i had the pleasure of grabbing lunch with and who also joined us at the met.

classic pollock

my favorite of the day

smirnoff black

after a week in the city, i feel like i'm starting to know the ropes. i can sum up new yorkers in a couple of phrases: people have no concept of heat (i.e. they walk around in three piece suits in the 100+ degree heat wave without breaking a sweat), they do not remove their sunglasses (no matter how light or dark it is, outside or inside), and they love tropicana (i have seen three people on the subway chugging cartons). i'm sure there's more to them than that, but these attributes have fascinated me the most.

update on the nyc list i made: i have accomplished 1.5 things on my list so far.
1. bought a stuffed puppy at fao schwartz
.5. become a regular at a local shop (i have found the location, but becoming a regular takes a while)

in the past couple of days, i have done a lot of roommate bonding and shopping. i also visited central park, where katie, my friend across the hall, and i wandered lost for hours. but it was beautiful - an oasis in the middle of organized chaos.

you can rent paddle boats and ride them around the lake - i've definitely added that to my nyc to-do list.

i also started work today - and i think i'm going to really enjoy it. the building is huge and, in true creative industry style, decorated to a tee with bright walls and mod white furniture - tre' chic. there are four other account management interns and we have all been assigned to different clients. i scored a sweet account. when the human resources supervisor announced that i would be on the "diageo account," i thought it was designer clothes or something. however, no. diageo is the distillery that produces such college and club faves as smirnoff, jose cuervo, guinness, red stripe, dom perignon, hennessy, tangueray, baileys, captain morgan, goldschlager, ciroc, and crown royal. in the first meeting with my supervisor, judson, he pulled out a fifth of smirnoff black and gave it to me as a "welcome to the team" gift. welcome indeed! needless to say, that extra weight was super fun in the subway at rush hour, but worth the hassle :)

disco balls, jorts and roller skates

tonight i saw my second broadway musical - xanadu. if the name sounds familiar, that is because it is also an eighties film starring olivia newton john. it is a spin on ancient greek mythology, but set in venice beach, california during the year 1980. you can imagine the genius. to aid in the visualization, some imagery:

my favorite promotional phrase? "xanadu: on broadway. seriously." it was actually entertaining though, and the tickets were free. so no complaints here.

bright lights, big city

my twin long, with the puppy i purchased day one from fao schwartz

angle #2

angle #3

and my lovely view :)

i got a hundred guns, a hundred clips

yeah, so also... i am in new york city! forgot that little piece of this puzzle. this was my first glimpse of its majesty as my parents and i drove to our new jersey hotel last night.

tonight is my first night, and i am settling into my tiny, quaint room in plimpton hall on the upper west side. it's eerily similar to moving into gifford freshman year - but without the instant comfort of having helen with me. but my roommates seem great. three of us have moved in so far. there's april, a financial planning major at texas tech from lubbock, texas, who will be interning in the financial district. and there's hillary, a fashion merchandising major at colorado state who hails from the great state of nebraska. she'll be interning with diane von furstenberg, a high fashion designer. i'll go ahead and admit, i have no idea who this designer is - but the group of girls we were chatting with earlier ooh'ed and ahh'ed with jealousy when hillary mentioned that she would be working there, so apparently my fashion awareness is slipping...

i was a little overwhelmed by the city at first, especially after boarding the wrong train and ending up in the heart of harlem with good ol' bob and t-bone, the whitest of all white tourists. but after a really solid get-to-know-you conversation with april and hillary, i'm feeling better. the girls both start work tomorrow, so i will be on my own to make the most of this city. problem being: no clue where to start. i need something that will not be totally lame to do alone. and i just realized how ironic it is that i'm worrying about being lame as i'm watching the movie "clueless" alone.

i think i'll just ride around on the subway, looking like i know exactly where i'm going and that i'm in an enormous hurry to get there :)

bruiser

i am recently obsessed with bikes, more specifically this little gem. bruiser, as he'll hereby be known, makes a lovely addition to the cote household - and just in time for me to leave him for eleven weeks :( walking the streets of new york today has already made me miss him.

it's up to you, new york

in t-minus one week, i am moving to new york city for ten weeks. the big apple. to take a bite out of a lifestyle so completely different from any i have experienced so far, i have no idea how to prepare. i'm a little bit preparation OBSESSED, so needless to say the comfort zone is already out the window. but i am so excited...

to combat my feelings of preparation helplessness, i have begun a new york list. just a few things i will challenge myself to do while i'm there. maybe i'll update this as i check, check, check mark things off that list :-)

this summer is a "big moves" one for lots of people around me. some will be changing lives through educational programs like teach for america, while others are business-card-collecting their way up the corporate ladder at major banking firms. exciting! but big moves are nothing compared to the big picture, so i hope i can keep both in mind.

nyc, unnnhhhhh yeah :-)

home

what is it about being at home that makes me so productive?

i think it's the fact that my mom cleans my room.

begin here

I've decided to try this on for size. In my world, fewer of us are taking time for ourselves. Time to think, look or do the impossible - nothing at all. I'd like to start doing more of that.

Begin!