Epic summer tk.

I'm getting so excited for this summer. The Summer Friday schedule was just released at work (which, of course, just happens to work in my favor this year after the chaos that I walked into last year), and I am busy planning the next month/entire summer full of fun activities. Here's how the calendar looks so far:

5/7 - Kentucky Derby (actual plans tk, but no doubt it will be something fun)

5/17 - seeing HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING on Broadway, starring Daniel Radcliffe

5/18 - Theory sample sale at Clothingline

5/21-22 - the Taste of Nolita, including samples from 7 restaurants and drink specials at a few bars

5/23 - Young to Publishing Group happy hour to kick off BookExpo America at The Frying Pan

5/26 - my parents arrive for Memorial Day Weekend; we're seeing SPIDERMAN: TURN OFF THE DARK on Broadway that evening

5/27-30 - tourisming, good meals, brunch, family time, etc. with my parents & bro

6/23-26 - home to Minnesota for a weekend at the lake

7/4 - 4th of July at Coney Island, including the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. I must see this once in my life.

7/15 - Harry Potter 7 Part 2

7/22-24 - visit D.C.? Maybe?

8/?? - one week during the month of August will be the Central Park Film Festival, which I thoroughly enjoyed last year and CAN NOT wait for this year. I want to try and go to at least 2 or 3 of the movies this year!

9/2-5 - Minnesota for Labor Day weekend, which may just have to include a trip to the Minnesota State Fair

And lots more tk. These are just the bare bones of the fabulosity that is summer in NYC and Minnesota.

What are you looking forward to this summer??

The Birthday Weekend of Bad Behavior.

This is a little late, but I was hoping I'd have a chance to upload my pictures from my camera before I wrote this post. But instead, I've been stuck in Minnesota for an extra 3 days due to the outrageous weather in NYC. 2 weekends ago for my 23rd birthday, my best friends from college, Becca & Tamar, came into town to celebrate with my in NYC. It turned into a wild/amazing/super fun birthday weekend and I'm so happy that my friends could make it! So, instead of my own amazing pics, here are some jacked from Tamar's facebook album instead to illustrate the highlights of the weekend...

Laughing hysterically on Friday night after the first Evening of Bad Behavior. It was a long and hilarious night that resulted in basically a tour of all of the East Village and SoHo by way of bars, clubs, and friteries. (me, Becca)

We spent Saturday touring and taking Gossip Girl pictures, like this one at the New York Palace Hotel. (Tamar, me, Becca)

We made a run through Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree and skating rink and to fight our way through the hordes of people. It also made me realize how much I hate tourists. (Becca, Tamar, me)

Saturday night started off at the Stumble Inn, joined by my friends from NYU. (Gillian, me, Sara, Laura, Erin, and poor Natalie was cut off!)

This was also at the Stumble Inn... group photos as the night continued were harder and harder to come by! (Becca, Tamar, me)

It was a fantastic weekend, and I intend to share more of my fabulous photos as soon as I get home to NYC and am reunited with my camera cord to upload my photos! Coming up next: The Best of Christmas 2010, What I'm Wearing New Year's Eve, New Year's Resolutions, and The Year in Review. (Hopefully... we'll see what I get done in the next 2 days!)

Countdown to birthday/Christmas/New Year's/freedom.

Being a young professional apparently means being overscheduled.

There's A LOT going on this week: It's the start of finals week of my 3rd semester of grad school, my 23rd birthday is Wednesday, my 3 besties from college are coming Friday morning from Maryland, California, and Montreal for My Big Birthday Weekend of Bad Behavior, and it's Sales Conf at work this week.

For you non-publishing folk out there, that means a week of the pub office (my department) presents 75 books to our Sales & Marketing departments... and repeats in 6 meetings spread over the next 4 days. 75 x 6 = A LOT OF BOOKS/A LOT OF TIME SPENT IN MEETINGS. It also means I will be away from my desk for virtually the entire week, getting none of my other work done, and answering zero incoming emails until Thursday at 3 p.m. when it's all over. AND THEN I am responsible for completing a massive meeting minutes packet & change memo for everything that comes out of Sales Conf.

Which means no chance of doing homework at work this week. (Although, I DID find time to blog during lunch...)

On the bright side, though, Friday-Sunday, I'll be laughing/eating/drinking/shopping/playing NYC tourist with my best friends in the entire world, and then next Wednesday night when finals & work are all wrapped up, I'll be heading home to Mpls for Christmas. I'm excited beyond words for the weekend; I just have to figure out how to survive this week first!

What's better is that every single one of my friends working full-time while in grad school is experiencing the exact same thing right now. It's nice to know I'm not the only one with a crazy schedule... and somehow, we'll all get through it.

Oh, hey, it's almost August.

So the thing about being a young, single, working girl going to grad school... is that by definition, my life is SO busy. Also, because I just moved here in January, all of my friends/family are always coming to visit me, and thus, making me even busier.

My friends from NYU all refer to it as "revolving door syndrome." NYC is just a great place to visit for all of our families & friends, so we're constantly having visitors - which means constantly cleaning our apartments for when our mothers come to town, planning amazing weekends of tourism-filled-fun, going out partying hard-core when our college roommates are staying with us, and eating expensive, decadent restaurant food on culinary tours of the city when our foodie brothers come to visit.

Which is all great in moderation. But there is no such moderation in "revolving door syndrome." One visitor leaves, and the next one is already arriving. Don't get me wrong - these are all people that I love very dearly coming to visit me. But man, it's draining!

Notice, in the last 6 weeks of no-blog-posting, I've crossed about 10 things off my NY to-do list because my wonderful mother and best friend both came to visit recently and played tourist with me!

Up next for me: Looking forward to a relaxing August. I'm done with summer classes next week, and have almost an entire month off to catch my breath and focus on just work, hitting the gym, and sleep.

Shake Shack.

I experienced Shake Shack last night, and it was pretty damn good. I'd say it was definitely one of the best burgers I've ever had before. Maybe it's not worth all the hype (it's been featured on several FoodTV best-of shows), but it was definitely good.

But the whole experience is really what makes it. The Shack is located in Madison Square Park, and only has outdoor seating at the picnic and bistro tables in the park.. It really is just a shack that turns out burgers and fries. The line is always at least 20 people deep, if not an entire block.

The burger itself was smaller than I expected, not the monster burgers you see at some places these days. It was slightly greasy, in a good way, with gooey cheese and perfectly tangy dill pickles on top of a buttery bun, perfectly sized for the burger. And the cheese fries were pretty good too.. But mainly because of the cheese sauce. The fries themselves were a little well done for my tastes.

I didn't try the custard, but I've heard it's amazing. Instead, I opted for a $4 beer, a rare find in Manhattan.

Overall, I thought this was better than 5 Guys, but I don't think I'll feel the need to run back down there all the time.

Top of the Rock.

For those of you who have done (or want to avoid) the top of the Empire State Building, I recommend hitting up the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center.

1. It's cheaper (tickets are $20 for adults, as opposed to $40 for the top of the Empire).
2. You can gawk AT the Empire State Building.
3. After Top of the Rock, you can head down to Magnolia bakery for their famous red velvet cupcakes (supposedly the best in NY). Magnolia's at the corner of 6th Ave. and 49th St. and it makes for a perfect snack after a sunset trip to the Top of the Rock.

I did this with my parents and my aunt and uncle, and it was a really fun evening. Rockefeller has a really neat history behind it. It was built from 1930-1939, entirely during the Great Depression... not the kind of project you'd expect when half the country was in soup lines. There's some history videos in the concourse before you go up to the top, and I highly recommend pausing to watch them.

Snow again in the city.

My parents came in yesterday from Minneapolis to be greeted by a "monster Nor'easter." Kind of. There's only 6 inches accumulated in the city, but everything is shut down. No classes at NYU tonight, which is great for me.

We were planning a whirlwind tour of the city, but we'll have to see with the snow what we can do. First on the list for sure, though, H&H Midtown Bagel. As I posted a few weeks ago, it's the best bagel I've had. In my entire life.

We're planning on going up to the Top of the Rock, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center, then the famous Grand Central Oyster Bar later tonight (it's a Friday during Lent, so no meat!)

We'll see how this goes, but we might have to find a nice warm museum for the rest of the day!

I like museums.

I spent yesterday being touristy with Lauren, a friend from college making a short stop in New York on her way home from China. I finally saw the American Natural History Museum, but unfortunately, the outside of the building is really the only thing that really resembles Night at the Museum, which made me sad. There is no Hall of Miniatures. There is no Teddy Roosevelt statue. And there are WAY more dinosaurs than one measly T-Rex.

We then went for afternoon tea at Alice's Tea Cup, my new obsession. A delicious lunch of raspberry, pumpkin and buttermilk scones, various tea sandwiches, chocolate mocha cake and a handful of amazing, sweet, savory cookies accompanied our personal (adorable) tea pots chosen from a menu of SEVEN pages of tea creations. I went for Red Fruits, a black tea steeped with raspberries, currants and strawberries, and Lauren had a little creation called the Boston Tea Party. There are three Alice's locations, two on the UES and one of the UWS, where we were. If you have the chance, go there. It is wonderful.

The other wonderful thing about Alice's is that they are all decorated most whimsically with fairy wings for little girls, glitter, illustrations from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and photos from a fabulous photo shoot of a woman dressed in Alice having various tea party activities in Central Park. They also do birthday parties, bridal and baby showers.

Mom, get ready to have my bridal shower and all of my baby showers there. And my little girls' first through at least ninth birthday parties.

The rest of the day involved wandering, playing with my kitties, and being awesome with my friend.