Mermaid Parades and Chicken Nuggets

Hi Team...

I've had a very successful weekend since we last spoke. Thursday Alex and I met up at Juan's (aka my new home for the last two weeks of August) and then went out for the Lakers Celtics game at a 3 story sports bar which was quite entertaining. Juan's (drunk) brother decided to inform me that the bracelets I was wearing made me look like I was from Brooklyn. Either I'm not integrated enough in the Manhattan know how to understand what a Brooklyn bracelet looks like, or he was drunk. I prefer the latter option.

Friday Jess (intern friend) plus Melissa (friend visiting Jess for the weekend) met up with David and his crew at a bar where everyone drinks from large fishbowls of who knows exactly what. Ended up crashing at Josh's place which made for an entertaining stroll home at 9:30 in the morning sporting high heels and a short dress with sequins.

After the walk of shame I climbed into bed expecting to catch a couple more zzz's before beginning my next adventure. However, some Spanish religious parade taking place right outside my window had other plans for me. So I went downstairs to check out the racket (after showering and changing to fit in with the rest of society) watched a choreographed child sized Latina dance routine and got a slice of pizza. Circa noon time my neighbor friend Alex calls me and we decide to make the pilgrimage to Coney Island for the 2010 Mermaid Parade, which was described to me as New York's version of Mardi Gras.

Unbelievable is one word that comes to mind when attempting to describe this event. Hopefully the pictures will serve as a better tool of explanation than my words. We pushed through the crowd and watched the parade for a bit before heading to the less than clean over populated beach where the standard occupant has the ability to mortify a small child. We laid out and people watched for an hour or so then I headed back to the city to pick up Chad. What an adventure. I am interested in going to Coney Island again and experiencing it with less transvestite mermaids.

Chad and I had a wonderful evening. Starting with drinks in midtown with one of his British friends he made while working in Parliament who had been on "holiday" for the past 3 weeks. Europe and their vacation time. We told him that two weeks is standard in America, he was appalled. After drinks we met Josh and a couple of his friends at some swanky outdoor place in MeatPacking. I recognized one of the girls from my year in Isreal aka Smallwood. She asked me who I lived with, and apparently I'm not the only person who has beef with Olivia Lichaa. After spot number 2 we went to a dance/club/bar place called the BrassMonkey. Chad and I danced our faces off and ended the evening with a nice plate of microwaved chicken nuggets.

Today Alex and I hung out in Central Park for a couple hours, got rained on, so we went back to his place and watched some Entourage. I met up with Erin at Granny's this evening. We cooked a wonderful meal of chicken, peas, and crescent rolls. We had a very relaxing time catching up, dining on the terrace, and watching the sunset.

Tough life.

The Double Helix

Week two at MoMA has been quite eventful. Tuesday we had the annual staff picnic, which was a catered event held in the sculpture garden. I got to meet a lot of people from my department and chat them up which was quite lovely.

Wednesday I had an hour long meeting with my supervisor, William. During discussion of potential career opportunities/networking connections etc. he informed me that when reviewing applicants for the Business Development Intern position it was between me and Biddy#2. Biddy#2 was a Harvard undergraduate, currently working on her MBA at Yale. William said he was extremely impressed by my essays, targeted work experience, and passion for the Museum of Modern Art; and obviously chose me over Biddy#2. What a confidence booster!

Bonus #2 of Wednesday involves me getting a free watch! Retail price: $100. Every year MoMA has a staff sale where they sell all leftover, damaged, outdated retail items to the museum staff at deep discounts. Hard back art books usually priced $70+ are sold for $5! Everyone who helped set up got to pick out one item for free!

The fun of Wednesday did not stop there. After work, my new intern friend, Jess and I headed to the East Village, met up with Erin, and witnessed our first ever poetry reading at the Nuyorcian Cafe (http://www.nuyorican.org/) I heard about this place from one of my NYC Daily Deals emails and it is only $5 for students on Wednesdays. The venue was everything one would imagine from a poetry cafe: hipster scene where everyone knows each other, intelligent dialogue, and interesting tattoos. Anyway, the most entertaining performance of the evening was a duet. One woman read a poem infused with words like: double helix, interstitial tissue, coagulate etc. Not one sentence of her (seemingly forever long but probably around 7 minute) prose resembled any time of coherent structure. I figured she must be a medical student and this is how she unwinds after a long day of studying. The second woman did...wait for it...interpretive dance! Interpretive dance to Lady#1's medical poetry. It was priceless. I almost took a video with my phone but I figured the bright light may be distracting and obvious.

Anywho, today I must go pick up my watch at the staff sale and Russell asked me to show him around the museum for a little bit. Jess's friend is coming in today from Bahhston (Boston) so we will probably all hang out since my former weekend warrior, Erin Bartlett, is coming down with the "I work 11 hour days" disease. Also, Chad might be coming in on Saturday to visit as well! Things are looking up friends and family.

Just wait for my Sunday post...should be mind blowing as usual!

**The picture is not actually the Double Helix Dancer but close enough**

Life Lessons

Hello All

Weekend number two in the big apple will be characterized as a series of learning experiences.

#1. Remember identification when attempting to consume alcoholic beverages.

Thursday evening Russell and I traveled down to Avenue A and 1st St (also known as very far away from 97th and 3rd) to meet up with Erin for some after work (her not me) drinks. This around the time I realize I had forgotten my ID. Therefore, our first choice in alcoholic establishments was out of the question. Plan B let me into the bar because the bouncer "had empathy for the youth." haha whatever that means.

#2. Do not lose important entry mechanisms.

Long story short, went to a club Friday night. Pregamed (hard, maybe too hard) at Granny's beforehand with Russell and another study abroad friend, Joe. Had a grand old time at the bar, but somehow managed to lose my 'get into home card.' Got that situation settled at the front door, however, I'm sure the sir or maam that let me up at 3:00am was not too excited about it.

#3. Do not eat street meat when hungover.

Saturday morning we waited in line outside of Nevada Smiths for an hour and a half. Clearly, I got hungry while waiting in line and drinking out of my special Captain and Coke concoction, so I purchased a street meat shishkabob. This street meat shishkabob did not settle with my stomach. Two hours later, once settled in at a new (not Nevada Smiths) but still a lot of fun bar with our new friends we had made while waiting in line at Nevada Smiths, my food decided it didn't want to be inside of my stomach anymore. After puking in the bathroom I realized it would be a wise choice to go home and rest. And rest is what I did.

This rest was interrupted by Team Midwest, packing up all of Erin's things. My new friend with lots of potential is back in Ohio with a broken shin bone. Sadness.

Sunday, after aforementioned mistakes, I decided to be a productive member of society. I woke up, went to the Guggenheim museum which was fabulous! It was the Puerto Rican festival today so there were cops at every subway and corner, because apparently those kids get a little crazy during festival hours. Either way it made for entertaining subway rides. After the Gug I met up with Kemma at Madison Sq Park and her friend for the "Big Apple BBQ Block Party" which was quite tasty! Afterwards I even managed to thwart off the temptations of purchasing something at American Apparel and went home and finished up some stuff for work tomorrow!

In conclusion, this weekend I learned some valuable life lessons about responsibility and street meat.

I Want You To Want Me

Also if you have time you should check this out. Currently on display in the Architecture and Design exhibition at MoMA. The interns took a tour of the exhibition on Tuesday and this piece absolutely blew my mind. Essentially a five foot tall 3 foot wide touch screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZUaXDm4qik

xx

Naked In CandyLand

Yesterday Russell (study abroad friend who is still in the city) and I went to go see Get Him To the Greek...for $12.50 a person, gotta love NY pricing! The movie didn't blow my socks off but P.Diddy or Diddy Dirty Money as he now likes to be referred to as was surprisingly hilarious! Afterwards we got some pizza and discussed our big plans to rage our faces off Friday night, camp outside of Nevada Smiths (http://www.nevadasmiths.net/) in order to get a seat for the Saturday 2:30pm England vs USA match...if that plan becomes a reality I will be a) surprised b) happy c) most likely very drunk...but if not I will be attending $5 all you can eat BBQ ribs in the park!

And if I don't attend that, there is always a Saturday Hula Hooping workout that Erin and I signed up for, good for any Saturday until November. haha can you imagine a bunch of people hula hooping, for exercise in the middle of Central Park. It will be classic.

The great thing about interning three days a week is Wednesday is your Friday! But don't worry Scotter, I am pretending as if I am a full time contributor to the economy and have dedicated Thursday and Friday as my "look for full time employment" days. I ate lunch with another intern Jess whom I quite enjoy, down to earth biddy who likes to party :) I think Jess will be appearing more in this blog and my life this summer outside of work. Cliques of trendy, wafey, East coast artistas are rapidly developing, more to come on that topic next week.

After work myself and Erica (biddy from Texas who works in retail graphic design) headed over to 51st and Lexington--in the rain mind you with one umbrella...I felt like Farnsworth Bentley (A+ if you understand the reference)--to hear Will Cotton, an artist who works in the vein of photo realist paintings, speak at Sotheby's. He was very intelligent, genuine, and extremely interesting. Main themes included indulgence and desire coupled with a certain "wonderful loneliness."

Nothing touches me more than to listen to people talk about art.

NOTE: attached images are PAINTINGS! Absolutely amazing.

xx

Haley

Sandwiches on The Subway

Good Evening Followers!

Today was my first day at MoMA. My subway journey is not too terrible, I take the 6 to 51st, the E to the 5th and 54th stop, and the walk to MoMA is about 2 minutes. However I would like to point out are some key differences between the London Tube and the NY Subway:

• 96% of Londoners appear to be friendly, presentable and literate...15% of NY subway riders display these qualities
• New Yorkers represent a melting pot of odors, levels of sanity, as well as varying lengths of armpit hair in your face (regardless of gender)
• Escalator and stair etiquette is completely disregarded in NY
• In NY extremely overweight, terrifying looking old men walk up and down the train cars with a cooler trying to sell you sandwiches (which are most likely infused with either drugs or diseases) <--This actually happened to me on my way home today
• One thing they do have in common, and also happens to be one of my favorite ways to gauge if we live in a decent human society, is that commuters on both the subway and tube will assist women with babies in strollers without a second thought by helping them carry the stroller up the stairs....touches my heart every time

Fast fwd to work. Out of 44 interns, there are 2 males and 2 people from the Midwest (myself included). Everyone I met today was extremely nice and I only saw a couple potential SmallWoodians so that is good news. I met with my supervisor, William, in the Sculpture Garden (see picture) for an hour today to talk about my internship and what I will be doing this summer. I won't meet William's boss, Ruth, until next week as she is in Toyko on business!

I grabbed some lunch at a cafe on 54th street and sat outside while I chatted with Morgan and compared her to Mookie and Nolan. After lunch I returned to the Sculpture Garden to complete some readings that William gave me... a really interesting piece on what constitutes good design and bad design by Anthony Bertram and a graduation speech given by Glenn D Lowry (the MoMA Director) in 2005 that absolutely puts Quincy Jones "speech" to shame.

"The two most important observations are that serendipity is a powerful force to be courted not countered and the second is that you should always be guided by waht truly engages you intellectually and emotionally." -Mr. Lowry

I think I will like my job very much :)

xx

Haley

NEW YORK

Hello friends and family,

I have decided to reinstate my blogging activities because I know you have been missing my witty banter. Additionally, Mr. and Mrs. Guy have given me the confidence to reconnect with social media by insisting that I was a fantastic blogger.

Let me catch you up to speed on my days in the "big apple." After a fabulous 12 hour drive with Scotter and Jillian and one amazing parking job by the traveling beret herself, we arrived at 1760 3rd Avenue, aka my new home. For all of you who may not be too familiar with the city I am living in the "upper east side" (see image to right) My place is very nice I have two roommates: Kemma originally from Nigeria, goes to school in Iowa, currently interning at Credit Suisse and Erin, originally from Ohio, lived on the upper west side last semester for school and currently interning at Lucky magazine. Both very nice, slightly reserved, and 20 years of age. Phew! No psycho/dirty/annoying weirdos!

My first day in the city consisted of Erin (college friend Erin not roommate Erin) and I going to one of the 13 H&M's of the city to exchange a dress I had purchased in Indiana for two new ones (obviously). H&M alone was an exhausting experience as we waited in an enormous line to both try on and purchase the aforementioned items of clothing. But, being the energetic young women that we are, we then decided to people watch in Central Park for a bit and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Interesting tidbit about The Met. Recommended price of admission is $10 (which I paid in full as I support the arts) However, the ticket man informed me that you are allowed to pay whatever amount touches you. I ask, "so you say 'recommended price is $10' and they say 'lets make it $5 this time'" He responds,"absolutely, New Yorkers think they own this place and demand tickets for 25 cents." hmmm....

Thursday night Erin and I watched the Celtics Lakers game at a bar close to my spot called Brother Jimmy's with Zach and a couple of his friends (also known as the last time I will see Zach Lichaa this summer as he is absolutely not okay establishing a friendship) Whatever.

Friday day Erin and I got our tan on at Granny Sally's 18th floor terrace on 72nd and 2nd avenue. Tough life. Friday night we met up with Russell (a kid we studied abroad with) who was staying at his cousin's place for the weekend. Erin and I have quickly discovered that a) you cannot buy liquor at a CVS/grocery store etc in NYC and b) liquor tax is expensive! We began the evening at a BYOB sushi bar (who knew places like this even existed!?) where we met Russell's cousin Alex and his two friends. Also known as the time where Erin and I finished a bottle of rum. After BYOB sushi was over, we went to 49 Grove in the meatpacking district (again refer to map) which is where all the cool/trendy/wait in line and pay way too much for drinks clubs are. On the walk over to the sushi bar a gay black man and his friend approached me on the street and said "girl, you are working that skirt, and your legs are looking amazing" I reply: "Thanks! You go girl!!" We had a grand old time there, circa 2:00am ish Erin and I decide we would like to finish our evening and take a cab back to Granny's (and obviously stop at a pizza place around the corner before heading to the apartment.)

Saturday morning...wake up on Granny's 1972 floral couch and realize that I have to walk home in my skin tight black t shirt, short white skirt, and 3 inch heels through a (as they call it in London) "yummy mummy" neighborhood. aka rich white people walking their dogs and small children after finishing brunch. Great.

After a mortifying journey home, I receive a text message from my new friend (and neighbor as it turns out) Alex: "hey, wanna grab some breakfast." Me: "Duh." So I shower and go out to breakfast with Russell, Alex, and friend. We then went back to Alex's place (which is soooooooo nice and a block away from me!) and watched a movie. Walked back home around 4 o clock when an extremely overweight, greasy haired man says in a thick New York/Jersey accent "Ey, I like your outfit." Me: "thank you!" Him: "You're welcome" haha and people said New Yorkers were rude!

Saturday night I call my friend Josh Fishman who I hung out with a lot during I-Core. He is in the 3/2 Accounting MBA program at IU and is interning here for the summer. I decide I want to laugh so we go to The Comic Strip Live comedy club on 82nd and 2nd. We go to a tequila bar beforehand (as it is extremely important to be slightly intoxicated for comedy clubs). We saw 3 different comedians there and had great seats at the show! Afterwards we went to a random bar on 88th for a couple of beers and departed around 2:00 am. I tried to take the subway home, but I felt a little creeped out and tired of waiting for the train so I took a cab home instead. Don't worry Scott I was extremely aware of my surroundings!

Now it is Sunday afternoon and my roommates are still sleeping! Geez O Peterson! I think today I will get my affairs in order as I begin my internship tomorrow, do a practice run through of my commute to the MoMA and maybe hit up the Gagosian Gallery on Madison which I have been dying to go see!

I've had a blast so far and am trying to keep busy so I don't get lonely...I miss you all very much!

xx