Some More Thoughts

It's been about another month since my last post and I think I'm going to continue on with my news commentary, only because stuff is happening and I have an opinion about it. So, read on my fellow blog-keeper-uppers.

Iran and it's election ridiculousness: It's kind of crazy to think that Ahmadinejad could have possibly won this election fair and square with the amount of unrest happening in Iran. Last week I was checkin out The Big Picture blog as usual and they had photos posted from the protests and rallies. We've been hearing about it on CNN and local news networks and reading about in the NY Times, but when you see visuals it makes everything so real and really makes you empathize with what people are going through over there. I personally think a recount is in order and that the police brutality coupled with bans on foreign-media coverage is grounds for thinking something went awry with that election. So, good luck to you, Iran, I hope you get what the people truly want.

FDA controls tobacco: I only heard about this on NPR this morning, but I think it's not a bad idea. The FDA might not have a lot of time on their hands, but regulating cigarettes is probably a good thing. Cut back on that nicotine, clean up the cigs, people might not be so addicted anymore and maybe, hopefully, in a dreamworld, people would quit smoking all together. And Obama himself supports it, and as we all know, he's been a smoker for many, many years.

iPhone 3Gs: I'm not going to lie. I want one oh, so very badly. The fact that Apple was able to sell 1 million new phones in one weekend, is insane (and good marketing). It's the third generation phone and people are still dropping serious cheddar on upgrading their phones. I mean, it can pretty much do anything and everything except drive your car and spoon-feed you., but other than that, it can pretty much do everything else. Say you're lost in NYC and you're looking for some cheap good food, just type your neighborhood into the Urban Spoon application and next thing you know, your phone is telling you where to eat. I mean, how much easier could life get?!

And those are my thoughts for this week. I'm going to try to keep updating more often because I know you're all dying to hear about what's going on in the world from my point of view.

Oh, also, I'm applying to the Peace Corps. I'll keep you updated on that too.

NYC: Part Two, the part that really counts.

The photo above was taken on my most recent trip up to the Big Apple. It's a view of the NYC skyline as seen from the Brooklyn Pier (I think.) I'm thinkin I might go back up again in two or three weeks. We'll see. It all depends.

In any case, I'm really starting to think NYC might be my next move. After all, this blog is about my adventures and the people I meet along the way. How many more adventures and people could there possibly be to talk about in D.C.? I've been in D.C. longer than I've been anywhere since college. I'm antsy in my pantsy and ready to move again! The itch started back in August when I was first looking for a "real" job. As my loyal readers know, I got a job and ended up staying in D.C. But, obviously, I've been ready to get outta here for a while.

I started thinking about moving up north a few months ago. Actually, I was thinking about going back west to San Fran, but with the recent news about this giant thinking about shuttering its windows, I'm thinkin it might not be such a wise move. So why not go north? 

I already knew a few friends from home and college who live there and after going to Israel I met even more great people who live there, so it's almost as though my life is waiting for me up there. The biggest obstacle of making this move happen is a job. Yes, a job. That three-letter word that seems to be everyone's biggest problem these days. I have three friends who've recently been laid off and possibly another today. Still waiting to hear about that one. So, how does someone like me, who has a fairly stable job in a completely unstable field, a lease and a "life" feel like she has the right to want more? Well, because I deserve more. That's why. I didn't see myself being where I am today two years ago. I figured when I graduated from college I'd do a few internships and end up at some kick-ass newspaper chasing cops and photography babies and puppies. Well, those things happened on the internship, but not in the real world. I want that in my real world and I'm determined to make it happen. 

So NYT, Hearst, Conde Nast, I'm comin full speed ahead to you, begging, pleading to take a chance on a rookie who really wants it. If any editors are out there reading this, you can find my resume here.

NYC: Even your ankles get dirty.

I realize it's been almost 2 months since I last updated, but a lot's been going on. So, I'll just start with my trip to NYC on March 14.

I went up to visit my friend Carly for the first time since she's been living there (which is going on like 3 years). I'd been to NYC three times before, but never just to explore. There was always something that had to be done. But this time, I got to explore and had a great friend as my guide.

There wasn't really anything specific that I was dying to see, so instead we just chose a route that would get me through all the neighborhoods I hadn't seen. So we took the train to Times Square and started there. We walked our way down to Greenwich Village moving on to Tribeca and SoHo and finding ourselves in the Financial District at 5 pm. That's a scary place to be at that hour, let me tell you. We also stumbled upon the Fannie Mae bull, which was surrounded by tourists so we did a quick walk-by snapshot of the two of us. It was cute. Then we proceeded to take the Staten Island ferry there and back, and along the way I taught some tourists how to use their camera.

NYC is a pretty interesting place. It's crazy how you can walk from one neighborhood to the other and feel like you're in completely different places. If I were to move there, I'd love to live in the Village. It's so quite and pretty, but everything is still right there at your finger tips. We came across this tiny hole-in-the-wall, soul-food diner called The Pink Tea Cup where we shared some fritters and coffee. It was totally delish. 

I also happened to be in NYC for St. Patty's day. Let me tell you, that was pretty insane. Carly and I decided it'd be a great idea to start the day with Irish Coffees and walk to Central Park (since I still hadn't seen it) and drink beers out of paper bags. So, we packed a backpack with snacks and ventured out back into the city. We were walking around and heard the beats of drums and the sounds of bagpipes from across the park so we followed the sound and found ourselves watching the St. Patty's day parade. It was pretty freaking awesome. Being in NYC on St. Patty's day drinking beer in the park. Awesome. So we watched the parade for a while and decided it was time to get serious and head to the bars. We met up with her BF and all of his buddies from Brooklyn at some bar, somewhere. Probably called O'Reilly's or something... or maybe no, it was McFadden's. There. That's it. Started our party there, where I discovered it's apparently ok for cops to party in uniform if they're from NY. Interesting. We moved on from there to I don't even know where. We'd made the smart decision to smuggle in a small bottle of Jameson's to the bar. Excellent idea when meeting new people on a drunk holiday. We bar hopped from bar to bar stopping to eat slices of NY pizza in between. It was a pretty good night.

All in all NYC was pretty fun. I have no idea if I could actually ever live there or not. Maybe in the nice quiet neighborhoods where it doesn't feel like the sitting is caving in on you. There's defintely never a dull moment though. We'll see... it might be my calling in the near future.

Stay tuned for the next post: 10 days in Israel.