Remembering Aprils

As with previous months, the responsibilities of my expanded job position and ups and downs in my personal life have prevented me from blogging as regularly throughout April as I would have liked. Thus, affecting my Year Three in Preview, where "posts of present accounts of being will end with 'a year ago- and two years ago- today' links to the past of becoming until the third year comes full circle and the 'Becoming a New Yorker' blogtale is complete."

So here is a year ago this month and two years ago this month for April:
April 2008
April 2007

Attack of the Swine Flu!!!

... Oh never mind. It's just a sore throat.

Facebook maps swine flu hysteria

A Year Ago Today:
My First Pair of Valentinos
Phone Photo Ops - Valentino
Two Years Ago Today: Indiscriminate Sunday: Societal Service, Cat-Sitting Cash & Tradition Choices (in Random Order)

Downtown, We Have [No] Problem

NYTimes.com Quotation of the Day:
"First thing is, I’m annoyed — furious is a better word — that I wasn’t told."
- MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG, after a plane normally used as Air Force One and two fighter jets flew over Lower Manhattan.

I heard about this the next day from someone in Georgia, but I'm sure I would have been concerned, too, if I had seen a low-flying Boeing 747 speeding in the shadows of skyscrapers and trailed by two fighter jets.
Read More
Not a quote of the day, week or month. Just of whenever. Until the next quote that moves me.

A Year Ago Today: What Do Guacamole, Brisé volé, and Hookah Have in Common?
Two Years Ago Today:
West Side's Tale of Whoa
Phone Photo Ops - Horseback Riding in the City

Happy Administrative Professionals' Day

... to me!

A gift card to Sephora and Starbucks from my bosses.
April 22, 2009 was definitely better than April 22, 2008.

Company name and logo blacked out to protect confidentiality agreements signed at the start of my employment.

A Year Ago Today: My First NYC Emergency Room Visit
Two Years Ago Today:
City Walk #5 - Lower East Side 1
Phone Photo Ops - City Walk #5

Another Day, Another Dollar, Another Headline

Just another day in New York City when three of your bosses are in The NY Post.

A Year Ago Today: No post
Two Years Ago Today: Phone Photo Ops - City in Bloom

Thoughts from Today's Meanderings Around the City

Leaving my apartment:
New neighbors moving in on the 2nd floor.

Somewhere on Madison:
Poodles and Bug-A-Boo strollers. Yep, we're on the Upper East Side.

Walking up Seventh Avenue:
Lived almost a year in Hell's Kitchen - yet it still feels weird that I'm walking through Times Square and I'm almost home.

Walking down Ninth Avenue:
And tonight, we're eating in Brazil ... on Ninth Avenue.

A Year Ago Today: No post
Two Years Ago Today:
Phone Photo Op - Skyline Sunset
Phone Photo Ops - Ready to Assemble

Out in Public

On our way to The Public Theatre to see "The Good Negro", we apparently passed someone from Desperate Housewives coming out of the subway at Broadway-Lafayette. I didn't see him, but Tokii did.

And I finally realized that we were next to Sterling Brown in the theatre.
Special thanks to Gina for walking up to him and starting a conversation because trying to match his face with his character in "Army Wives" was driving me crazy.

Side note: Rachel Nicks, a close friend and former Juilliard classmate of Tokii and Gina's, was incredibly moving in "The Good Negro." If you missed her on stage at The Public Theatre, you can see her onscreen in "Life Support" with Queen Latifah. She is a talented and promising young artist.

Public theatre, street fairs, outdoor cafes, gorgeous weather ... Days like today are why I moved to New York.




A Year Ago Today: Dear Younger Self
Two Years Ago Today:
Six Months to Almost Furnished
Six Months to Final Repairs
Phone Photo Op - Free Ben & Jerry's

Shameless Plug

I was at a TastingNYC event at Taj tonight with Natasha (M. - not to be confused with my roommate Natasha S.), chatting about her "real" life without the "Tough Love" cameras while our friend Stacey flirted with a handsome guy named Larry over $6-wine specials. Natasha is no longer working with the Sex and the City tour group since she began her own tour company ShopNYC Tours.

Natasha has created a series of comprehensive shopping tours catered to your retail needs and preferences with convenient door-to-door mobile transportation, eliminating the stresses associated with available parking, slaloming crowded sidewalks, or lugging bags through subway turnstiles. At an affordable price (especially relative to the costs of parking and taxicabs in New York), she really does create a memorable VIP shopping experience in some of Manhattan's best-kept retail secrets and hidden gems.

If you are ever in NYC, you should go shopping with her! Tell her I sent you.

ShopNYCTours.com (Use code TUFLUV for 10% off any shopping tour!)

A Year Ago Today: "Things I Love" Thursdays - Random Acts of New Yorker Kindness
Two Years Ago Today: Connecting in Chantilly & Beyond

Phone Photo Op - South of Madison Square Park

Looking north from below Madison Square Park at sunset.


A Year Ago Today: "Things I Love" Thursdays - Random Acts of New Yorker Kindness
Two Years Ago Today: Connecting in Chantilly & Beyond

Phone Photo Op - Hell's Kitchen

I was walking the roommate's pug - ignoring the comments of random passersby, like "Whoa! It's Frank the Pug!" - and while picking up "Frank's" poo in a plastic bag, I got a warm fuzzy feeling.

Because I stood up and realized (yet again) that I live on a beautiful Manhattan street.


A Year Ago Today: No post
Two Years Ago Today: In Bryce's Words

50.5% of Current New Yorkers Were Made, Not Born

From a beautiful article by Adam Sternbergh published in New York Magazine:

A recent poll found that even in these times, almost half of young America wants to move to New York. On the following pages we spoke to 160 people who recently followed that dream—and 30 who achieved it.

The best thing about living in the city of clichés, is that there is enough New York here for anyone who dares to follow their dream of becoming a New Yorker.

A Year Ago Today:
Phone Photo Ops - Harlem Blooms
Search-Term Saturday: I Don't Know
Two Years Ago Today: The Moments You Wait For

Quotation of Whenever: The Year of the Renter

NYTimes.com Quotation of the Day:
"For the last three years, it was the bigger the better. Now the key words are smaller, livable and affordable."
- DOLLY LENZ, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman, on the New York City real estate market, from As Some U.S. Markets Level Off, Housing Slump Hits Manhattan

And this week, my roommate and I were able to negotiate a 16% drop in our own monthly rent with our landlord!
Not a quote of the day, week or month. Just of whenever. Until the next quote that moves me.

A Year Ago Today: Cerebral Albums
Two Years Ago Today: Easter Brunch & Libations