Friends from Jersey Visit- Josh & Michelle

Since we didn't have any visitors this weekend Philip and I weren't sure what our plans were for the day...but we just ran some errands and took a nap in the afternoon. I never take naps but after 3 hours of running, it really hits me in a few hours after I sit down. That night we found out that Philip's friend from Kiewit - Josh and his wife Michelle, who live in New Jersey, were coming into the city Saturday night. Josh and Michelle are both from Hartington, Nebraska and were living in Omaha for awhile before Josh was transfered to the Willis Avenue Bridge job that both him and Philip are working on here in NYC. Since they were coming into the city we wanted to have some plans so Philp made reservations at a BYOB (bring your own beer or wine) restaurant near us called Afghan Kebab House. So we bought some wine and beer and had some delicious kebabs at this cute restaurant not too far from our place. We had a great time with Josh and Michelle that night and were excited that we would be seeing them again on Sunday. They had invited us to see the musical Spamalot the next day with them because they had two extra tickets. The musical was absolutely hilarious! All of us loved it and couldn't believe how funny and crude it was. This is definitely a must see! I am huge fan of all musicals - and this show actually made fun of other muscials and was very entertaining. We all really enjoyed it.

Before the show on Sunday Philip and I had brunch plans with a couple from Omaha, Paula and Mike, who have also recently moved here about a year ago. We had never met them before but through a mutual friend I was recommended to contact them since they are both our age and come from similar backgrounds. It turns out that Paula and Mike live right down the street from us on 78th & York. So we made plans that morning to have brunch at this cute & cheap brunch place called the Barking Dog. It was perfect. Paula, Mike, and Philip & I all had a lot in common. They are both from Iowa like Philip - so he was excited about that (maybe they can watch some Hawkeye games together) and they both graduated from Creighton in Omaha. Paula comes from a non-profit and public relations background like me too. It was fun talking to them about how expensive it is to live here, the fun bars and restaurants to try out in our neighborhood, the job search and what to expect our first year here. It was a great brunch and I look forward to hanging out with them more!

My Favorite Run of the Summer

This past weekend was the first weekend Philip and I didn't have guests for awhile and we had made plans to take advantage of Summer Streets, which is where Park Avenue is blocked off from all traffic from 72nd Street all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge from 7am - 1pm on Saturday. So even though Philip and I went out the night before to his work friend's regular evening hang out - Ship of Fools, we still got up early and met my marathon running friend, Susan, at 72nd & Park Avenue at 8:30am. This Saturday was my longest training run - 17 miles and I was so excited that I had people to run with me. The run was awesome. There is nothing like running on Park Avenue with all the tall sky scrapers beside and ahead of you. It felt like I was running the NYC Marathon...I felt special as if it was a privilege to be able to run down Park Avenue which is usually busy with traffic. It was fun seeing all the bicyclists, walkers, roller bladers and runners taking advantage of this special event - that only happened 3 times this summer!

So Philip ran with Susan and I to the Brooklyn Bridge and then he took off since he wasn't going to run 17 miles today. He hasn't even started his official training yet. He will be running the Philadelphia Half-Marathon on November 23rd with me and I'll be running the full-marathon with the goal of qualifying for Boston which is a 3:40 time for my age group. I am going to consider my Women's Nike Marathon in San Francisco on October 19th to be my longest training run for me so that I can stay on track and have my fastest time in Philadelphia. Last year the Philadelphia Marathon had the most Boston Marathon qualifyers and it is known to be one of the fastest and flatest races. The great thing is that Philadelphia is only a 90 minute train or bus ride from NYC so Philip and I can make a short weekend trip out of it and neither of us have been there so it will be a fun to explore Philly for a couple days too. So that's the goal - and I have much more running ahead of me...but I'm really excited about it. :)

Anyways, the run on Saturday was the best. After Philip left us at the Brooklyn Bridge (he rode the subway home) Susan and I continued to run across the bridge and then ran back to 72nd Street and finished by running the 5 mile loop through Central Park. (Photo on right is of the Reservoir Bridge in Central Park.) It ended up being about 3 hours of running, but it was awesome. The weather was perfect, I had great company and we had the coolest route to run. I don't think I could have done it without Susan - she is such a great running partner. And we were done by 11:30am and had the whole weekend ahead of us. And the best part was Philip had made lunch for me when I got home and had our apartment clean and everything. I'm a lucky girl. It was a great way to start off the weekend.

Times Square - A Day of Sight Seeing

On Sunday we wanted Dave and Kayla to see more of New York City since they really only had one full day left to explore. So we thought a bus tour would be the best way for them to see everything. Philip and I went with them to Times Square where they bought their tickets for their downtown bus tour. The CitySights bus tours are great because you can hop on and off at any stop and a new bus will be there every 5 minutes. It's kind of like a free bus ticket all day. On the tour, Dave & Kayla stopped off at Battery Park and took a small boat cruise near the Statue of Liberty and they also went back to Chinatown to buy some more purses!

After they had been riding around in the heat all afternoon, Philip and I met them back at Times Square for dinner at the ESPN Zone. I think Dave & Kayla were exhausted from their busy afternoon in the heat and we all enjoyed a good 'ole American dinner in the air conditioning and a chance for us to watch some more Olympics on the 100 or more televisions at ESPN Zone.

Although the subways took FOREVER to get home that night - we all had a great day and were pretty tired. I hope Dave & Kayla had a good time and were able to say they saw a lot of New York. On Monday they met Philip at his work and started the 15 hour drive back to Iowa in two days. They just made it back last night!

Best Saturday cont. - Dave & Kayla's Visit

On Saturday night we wanted to show Dave & Kayla more of the city so we decided to get dressed up and go to Chinatown and Little Italy. Kayla was pretty excited about Chinatown because she got some great deals on some purses...where we had to go to a hidden room. :) After our walk of people trying to sell us something every two steps we ended up walking just a few more blocks to Little Italy. I had never been to Little Italy on a Saturday night and I couldn't believe how many people were out in the streets! Every restaurant had outdoor seating and it was wall-to-wall people in the middle of the streets with music. We ended up finding a cute Italian restaurant right away and had a great meal. Here's us at dinner on the right.


After dinner we had plans with Philip's skiing buddy from Queens, Chris, to go to his girlfriend, Erin's, House Warming Party in Brooklyn. So we thought we would actually walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to get there. It was a beautiful view but none of the pictures came out very good because it was so dark.


When we got to Erin's apartment for the party, it was all about the Olympics for awhile and watching Phelps win another gold! We've been watching a lot of Olympics lately and it has been really cool because Philip and I actually got to see the US Swim Trials in Omaha this year! But anyways, the party was really fun. We got to meet some new people and it is always a good time hanging out with Chris and Erin. She has a very nice apartment and all of us had a great time. Here's some photos of Philip with Dave & Kayla (above) and Chris & Erin and me and Erin at the party.:)

The Best Saturday

I had one of the best days on Saturday. It started in the morning when I had to do my long run of 12 miles for my marathon training. I decided to try a new route because they had a special event going on in Manhattan called Summer Streets where they block off all traffic on Park Avenue from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge and make it available for runners, walkers, bikers, roller bladers, etc. from 7am - 1pm. They even had free bike & skate rentals available throughout the route. It was so awesome! I felt like I was running a New York City race without as many runners. I was able to run on Park Avenue all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge and decided to run across the bridge since I was there and then run back. There are not many days where you can actually run up and down Park Avenue. Usually it is bustling full of cars and taxi cabs and you only have this opportunity a few times. Philip and I are going to run it this Saturday for their last day of Summer Streets. I can't wait.

I also made plans to meet my old college and Omaha friend Chad out for lunch on Saturday after my run. Chad was visiting NYC this week and actually had a really great time here...I was pretty jealous. With some friends he knows here, Chad partied in The Hamptons, went to a Yankees game, got the last foul ball of the game, and even went to the same bar Philip and I went to last weekend - The Joshua Tree. Chad is one my favorite guy friends. I think it's because we have the exact same birthday - December 9th! Here's a photo of us after we had lunch at this cute lunch place called Opal.

On Saturday afternoon Philip's youngest brother, Dave, and his girlfriend, Kayla, flew into town from Iowa. They were coming to drive Philip's truck home on Monday so that he can sell it since neither of us need a car here. But since Dave and Kayla didn't have a long time to stay and neither of them had been to New York, we definitely wanted to show them a good time. So we started by walking around Central Park showing them my favorite spot - the Jackie Onassis Reservoir. I couldn't believe how busy the park was on Saturday - it was a zoo. But I think they had fun just walking around New York and seeing the city. Here's a few photos from around the Reservoir.

Philip's Fun at Work

Even though this is my blog...Philip also had an exciting week that I thought I'd share. On Tuesday night, he went out with some buddies from work to this popular bar among his work guys called Ship of Fools on the Upper East Side. On Wednesday he went deep sea fishing for an organized event for work. For those of you who don't know Philip works at Kiewit, a construction management company, headquartered in Omaha but with offices across North America. He was transfered to NYC in June and was sent to build the new Willis Avenue Bridge which connects Harlem and the Bronx. See photo on right. It's a $612 million swing bridge project. It's a pretty cool job besides some of the shady areas around the bridge. But it has been a great experience so far overall for Philip.

On Thursday night I was able to go to the Ship of Fools and met several of the guys Philip works with here on this job. They were all very nice and seems like they have a good time together. We actually went out with a bunch of them last night too to celebrate one of his co-worker's birthday at a place called Brother Jimmy's for their Monday night special of all-you-can-eat wings, rib tips and beer for $15.95. Not a bad deal - we definitely got our money's worth as well as 2 complimentary birthday fishbowls!

Another Busy Week...Temping & Interviewing

Since my last blog post I was working at LVMH counting inventory of Givenchy and Guerlain makeup and perfume. I worked another day last Tuesday and my supervisor told me that they give all the temps a goodie bag! So I went home with a bag full of makeup and perfume that had to be worth at least $350! There is definitely some perks to this temp deal. :)

On Wednesday I had a couple interviews during the day. One was with a great company called Hess Corp. They are the leading global independent energy company that offers a lot of opportunities in both temp and permanent work. I interviewed for their temp pool, but actually heard back and they'd like me to interview me for permanent work as well. So that is always encouraging. I also had a great interview with a huge nonprofit in NYC - Public Health Solutions. They promote public health and over 200 programs to the New York community in all five boroughs. I am hoping to hear back soon from them as well.

For the rest of last week and Monday I worked at Armani Exchange in their E-Commerce department helping with their website features. I was in their corporate office and it was pretty cool to see the "behind the scenes" of the store. Models were being sized for clothes, showrooms had layouts of merchandise, everything happened in this building...very neat. No free clothing with this gig though.

Today I didn't have a temp assignment so I've been applying for jobs and actually recieved a call from one and went to a preliminary interview already today! I have another interview on Thursday for this position.

Hopefully one of these jobs will work out...and I'll be employed and insured soon, but in the meantime, I've been having fun seeing so many different companies in New York City.