The High Line, The Bad Plus, and SNL's Weekend Update

Happy Saturday! I have to catch up on a few days worth of blogging material here, so let's go ahead and get started.

SUNDAY

I spent the majority of my day working on piles of homework that had somehow accumulated. But that's okay, because I wrapped up all of the hard work with a fantastic dinner at Siggy's Good Food with my friends Josh and Sam.

Wouldja look at that beautiful salad? You might not be able to see it, but hiding underneath that delicious avocado is some even more delicious salmon. My body always thanks me for taking it to this wonderful eating establishment.

MONDAY

Made a quick (and much-needed) trip to Trader Joes to stock up on the weekly necessities. Then, it was off to the internship! Monday night, I took it easy and worked on some songs in my room.

TUESDAY

It was another beautiful day here in the Big Apple, and I was itching to get out and breathe some of the crystal clear air (haha), so I decided to go on a little adventure! I've been wanting to check out this place called the High Line for quite some time now. It's located on Manhattan's West Side and runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District all the way up to West 34th Street. You might be wondering... what is it?

It's this.

So... you might still be wondering... what is it?

I'm just going to steal this description right from the website. "The High Line is a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan's West Side. The High Line was built in the 1930s, as part of a massive public-private infrastructure project called the West Side Improvement. It lifted freight traffic 30 feet in the air, removing dangerous trains from the streets of Manhattan's largest industrial district. No trains have run on the High Line since 1980. Friends of the High Line, a community-based non-profit group, formed in 1999 when the historic structure was under threat of demolition. Friends of the High Line works in partnership with the City of New York to preserve and maintain the structure as an elevated public park."

So there ya go. I walked practically from one end to the other on Tuesday, and it was such an awesome place to spend some time. There were people sitting, reading, sunbathing, playing with their dogs, playing music...

...and pretty much everything you can imagine that goes on in a normal park. Only, this one was elevated 30 feet off the ground, and it used to be a railroad track. So cool.

Another great thing about the High Line is that it has numerous options for food running from one end to the other. There were hot dog carts, sandwich carts, gelato carts, and my personal favorite:

An ice cream sandwich cart. Those are two red velvet cookies with cream cheese ice cream wedged in the middle. It was definitely as delicious as it looks. I snagged it from this little truck called Melt. Please do yourself a favor and get one of their ice cream sandwiches if you're ever on the High Line!

Tuesday night, Allison came back from her long visit to Nashville (it was so sad having the room to myself for so long), so it was wonderful to be reunited! I believe we did nothing but watch "Say Yes To The Dress" on TLC for a couple of hours before going to bed.

WEDNESDAY

Started off with the usual morning routine, and then I made my way to my internship. It was particularly busy in the office for some reason, so I was running around all over the place. I like being busy, so I can't complain, but it was definitely exhausting.

About halfway through the day, someone from the publishing side of our company (House of Hassle) came over to recruit some people for a show that was going on later that night. And when I say he recruited, I mean he begged. He really wanted some people for the audience, and when everyone else shot him down, he turned to me. Based on the reactions of everyone else in the office, I assumed that the band was really terrible or something, but I wanted them to see that I enjoy going to shows (in the hopes that they would offer more to me in the future), so I happily accepted. He put me down for a ticket and added a "plus one" just in case I wanted to bring someone else. 

After internship, I made my way to class... which ended up being extremely interesting! We had two guest speakers visiting from the television side of the industry. One is a senior producer for a lot of VH1 shows (everything from Tila Tequila  to Flavor of Love), and the other is a story producer for a lot of shows on TLC and Bravo (right now, she's working heavily on the Real Housewives of Atlanta). All of us are fairly knowledgeable about the music industry but know very little about television... especially reality television. We had questions galore. In particular, I wanted to know how long they actually film the women for the Real Housewives show... as in, how long do these women have to deal with a film crew following them around, recording every little thing that they say or do?

Believe it or not, she said that they are still recording the Real Housewives of Atlanta... and they started filming them at the beginning of February. That is crazy to me! Think about it: if you had a film crew following you around for that long (even if you're not as insane as those ladies are), there would be enough material to make you look absolutely nuts. I don't know why you would ever want to put yourself through that. 

Anyway, after class I was so exhausted, and all I wanted to do was go to bed... but I decided that I should still go to the show. I offered my "plus one" ticket up to some of my friends, and Josh took the bait. We made our way over to the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, got our free tickets from the box office (which are normally $25 a piece!), and made our way into the show...

...which ended up being absolutely wonderful! We were originally only planning to stay for a little bit (just to make an appearance), but Josh and I both stayed for practically the whole show. That photo up there is of a band called The Bad Plus. This trio (consisting of piano, upright bass, and percussion), played what I've decided is "freak out jazz".. as in, they were so good, it made me freak out a little bit. Apparently, they've been around for quite awhile, but this was the first I've heard of them. Hellooo? Why did none of my friends ever think to introduce me to their music? 

Anyway, it's safe to say that what I thought was going to be a bad night of music ended up being one of the best nights of music. I will definitely take that guy up on any other free ticket offers he has in the future! 

THURSDAY

I spent majority of this day working on a song for a songwriting competition that my mom found for me awhile back. The North Carolina magazine, Our State, is looking for a "North Carolina song" to feature in an upcoming article. I've never written a song about the wonderful state, so it was a fun little experiment to see if I could come up with anything. And I did! I'll start trying it out at some shows here in the future.

Unfortunately, our little cement block room isn't the best place to record anything, so the quality of my recording isn't top notch. When it came time to do my vocals, I didn't have a microphone stand, so I had to improvise.

Thank goodness for Old Fashioned Oats.

Thursday night, I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience.. one of the coolest things I've been able to do yet since living here (and I have done a lot, guys).

Thanks to fellow Belmont Easter, Amber, I got to be an audience member for Saturday Night Live's Thursday dress rehearsal of the Weekend Update! I wasn't able to take photos of the actual SNL set, but it was so awesome... Alex (another lucky Belmont Easter who snagged a ticket) and I were literally on the floor. As in, we were about ten feet from Seth Myers and all of the other actors and actresses the entire time. It. Was. Unreal. Both of us kind of wanted to cry. (I swear I'm not that emotional.. I just get really excited sometimes... and when I feel extremely blessed, I just want to cry).

Anyway, it was great. It was really awesome being there for the dress rehearsal, because we were basically the guinea pigs. They tested all of their material out on us to see what we thought was funny and what really didn't work at all. They kept what we liked and trashed what we didn't for the real show at 8pm that night. AH. This life just gets better and better! I can't stand it.

After that, I went over to the Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn to watch my friend, Finn, play a little show.

It was a long, but incredibly wonderful day.

FRIDAY

It rained. This was only the second time since I've lived here that it's been so gross, so I took advantage of it. And I did absolutely nothing. And when I say nothing, I mean pretty much nothing. I didn't wake up until 11am, I went to the gym for awhile, and then somehow, it was 7pm already. I watched two Lifetime Movies last night, if that tells you anything.

SATURDAY

That's today! All I've done so far is eat breakfast and drink coffee (liquid gold) and type up this blog (which took my quite a long time.. that's what I get for waiting so long to update). In a bit, I'm going to go for a little run and check out the Dumbo Arts Festival that's going on down the street. A little later today, I get to go to this awesome free festival/concert. I will update about that later!

From Chris Thile to Bon Iver (my week of amazing music)

I know, I know, I know. What's happened to me? It's been a week since my last post... slacking big time.

Honestly, I have done a terrible job of documenting the last week with photos... therefore, I've completely forgotten most of what has happened. It's a one time thing (I think). Won't happen again! (I think).

I do, however, want to talk about a couple fantastic highlights from the week. Everything else would seem trivial in comparison, anyway. I just so happened to have TWO amazing concerts to attend within a span of a few days-- concerts that I've had tickets for for months. And both were absolutely amazing! Completely exceeded my expectations. (And I had some high expectations, lemme tell ya).

On Wednesday, after a long day of internship and class, my friend, Emily, and I raced over to Rockwood Music Hall in the East Village for a Chris Thile show. Doors opened at 9:00pm (which just so happened to be the exact time I got out of class that night), and when we finally got there, the line was already pretty long. I was so worried we wouldn't find a good place to stand.

But boy, was I wrong! Check out this view I had for all two and half hours.

Yep. Literally 10 feet (max) the entire show. I could see every bead of sweat on Chris Thile's forehead (okay, that may be weird). And he looks slightly demonic in this photo, but it's just because he was probably in the middle of some crazy mandolin solo or something.

The entire concert (once again, two and half hours) was literally just him and his mandolin. No one else. No other instruments. And it was beyond amazing. He captivated the audience (of about 150 people) the entire time, and he played everything from Bach to the Beach Boys (with a little bit of Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek, and his own stuff thrown in). You could tell everyone else was just as obsessed with him as I am, and you could literally hear a pin drop the whole time. Also, he did TWO encores (the first one including one of my favorite songs of all time... "Doubting Thomas".... gets me every time).

I was laughing and crying (and swooning) from start to finish, and I've said it a million times already, but this was the best 30 bucks I've spent in a very, very long time. Gahh. I just love music. And Chris Thile.

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Saturday, I went to the second concert. Bon Iver. This time, instead of a venue fit for 150 people, I saw the show at a venue fit for 6,000 people. And it was completely sold out.

This was my first time seeing Bon Iver live and my first time seeing a show at the world-famous, Radio City Music Hall. I have to say that there was quite a lot of hype about both Bon Iver and Radio City Music Hall, so my expectations were pretty high for this one.

And it was absolutely stunning.

The whole thing: venue and show.

It's been a LONG time since I last saw a show at such a large venue (in fact, I believe the last mega concert I went to was when my parents dragged my brother and me to KISS when we were 11 and 9). It was a little difficult to get used to at first... I'm so used to being able to stand up for a high energy show like Bon Iver... and I'm not used to people constantly getting up, walking down the aisles, blocking my view... to go to the bathroom or get more booze or whatever they were doing. I wanted to shake every single one of them and say, "You spent $60 to see Bon Iver tonight, and all you seem to care about is candy and drinks! This isn't a movie! It's a concert! Music! You should sit down and listen."

But I didn't say any of that, don't worry.

And after awhile, I was able to tune all of those distractions out and actually listen to the concert.

Justin Vernon's voice was so beautiful, I don't even think I can put it into words. He sounds just as amazing live as he does on his albums... and his range is incredibly impressive. Like Chris Thile, he put on a rollercoaster of a show. As in, I was laughing and crying and dancing and singing and thinking the entire time: "I. Love. Music."

The encore was my favorite part. I don't even know what happened. Everyone ditched their seats, and for the first time the entire show, all eyes were on the band. No one left to go to the bathroom or get another glass of wine. It was magnificent.

I didn't speak after that.

I just hopped on the F train to get back to Brooklyn Heights, and I went to bed, dreaming of music.

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I do have to say that one of my favorite parts of both concerts was the fact that both Chris Thile and Justin Vernon seemed so humbled by the presence of the audience. These are two guys that have played all over the world (for audiences from 150 to 6,000), and they genuinely seemed so amazed that so many people came out to listen to their music. Chris Thile was blushing the whole time (part of that may have to do with the whiskey he kept sipping on), and Justin Vernon kept saying "Wow. Thanks, guys. Thank you so much for listening to my music."

Ah. I just love it when you can tell an artist plays because they love playing music.

I'm sorry again that I completely forgot about everything else, but in my opinion, those concerts gave me quite enough excitement for one week. I just love everything. EVERYTHING.

<3
Nat

My first visitor and our many adventures!

It is 9 a.m. on Monday... I'm sitting here, writing in my blog, fighting the urge to go back to sleep by clutching my coffee (from the single cup coffee maker I just bought), and trying to find a sitting position that's comfortable enough, because my legs and arms feel like I've just completed my first triathlon.

Why, do you ask?

My mother came to visit me this past weekend. And she has run me straight into the ground.

Only kidding, of course :). I am tired, and I am sore from walking so much, but I would not have traded one single moment of this weekend for extra sleep. (Plus, walking is good for you. I haven't been to the gym in three days, and I feel better than ever).

My mom and I went on quite a few adventures over the span of two and half days, and I had such a wonderful time with her. She's the best.

FRIDAY

At around 7 a.m., I got the phone call that confirmed my mom had landed at the LaGuardia Airport! I hopped in the shower, and thirty minutes later, she was standing in our lobby. Since she's the first visitor I've had, I was more than excited to give her a little tour of our world here in Brooklyn Heights. She'd barely taken a step into the building before I'd whisked her bags away and told her to get ready for breakfast. (Now that I'm writing this, maybe I ran her into the ground haha).

After grabbing some quick coffee at Tazza (because my mom demanded she needed coffee before she could do anything), I gave her a tour of the Hotel St. George. Then, Allison, my mom, and I all walked down to the Iris Cafe (of course) for breakfast. Mom and I split the avocado toast with two soft eggs... which was amazingggggg. (You're going to find that a lot of the things in this post are about food. I'm a foodie, but my mom is too. Put the two of us in the same city, and we're unstoppable).

Then, we sauntered down to the promenade so that she could take in the beautiful view...

Ehh.. let's try again...

Much better :).

I let her relax a bit after that. I mean, she had been up since about 3 a.m.... I guess she needed it.

After she rested for about an hour, it was time to get a move on. We decided to walk all the way across the Brooklyn Bridge.. and keep walking... to find my internship just off of Wall Street. It was a success :). Since my internship is located right down by the 9/11 Memorial, we spontaneously decided to get tickets for that for later in the day as well.

Then, my favorite part of the day. Lunch. We hopped on the subway to go to...

LITTLE ITALY. 

I hate that I didn't get a picture of it, but there was a street festival going on while we were there.. it was a little insane. There were amusement park rides and carnival games and booths with unlimited refills of pina coladas all the way up and down Mulberry Street. It was difficult, but we somehow found a place that was a little out of the fray called Amici II.

And we had the most delicious penne vodka lunch with salad, bread, and their house wine. After all of the walking, the carbs were good. Our plates were completely clean.

After deciding we could no longer stand the hoards of people and loud rap/carnival music that was engulfing Little Italy, we hopped on the train to head back to the 9/11 Memorial Site. So glad she was able to see that while she was here.

Our evening ended with... can you guess?? More food. (I promise we spaced our meals out a bit).

I took her to Fatoosh to get some good ole New York falafel. We got it to go and sat down by the promenade to enjoy the beautiful view at night. I think I've got her hooked on the promenade. And falafel.

That was it! Day one: complete.

SATURDAY

Mom surprised me by going to get coffee for us and having it ready for me when I woke up. It was then and there that I decided she couldn't leave.

Because we'd already walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, I decided we should go down to the Brooklyn Bridge Park and explore. (The photo up at the top is from that morning). We ended up walking pretty much the entire perimeter of Brooklyn Heights as well.. and stumbled across a wonderful Farmers Market just down the street in the process!

It's literally 3 blocks from my front door and it goes on EVERY Saturday. Plus, they have the most delicious peaches. I will definitely be back.

Then, it was off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

But before, we decided to make a quick, little stop about a half mile from the museum...

... to visit the building that my Grammy lived in when she worked in New York City in the 1950s. It was absolutely beautiful.

And we got a photo of us standing in front of it :).

Grammy- the building next door is for sale if you ever decide you want to move back to this street!

It's only $24.5 million.

On the way to the Met, we ran into a German-American festival. Naturally.

Then, finally, we made it to our destination.

And it was so beautiful.

And so large.

If you tried looking at every piece of art in this museum, I think you could be there for days. Maybe weeks. We were there for about 3 hours and only covered about a fourth of the whole building. It was pretty amazing to see the famous works of Picasso and Monet (my favorite) and van Gogh in the flesh. They have such an amazing and extensive collection! So crazy.

Plus, the Met has a beautiful rooftop view.

Since the Met sits right on the corner of Central Park, we decided to take a little stroll through there. On the way, we grabbed coffee... I think all of the artwork did something to our brains...

It was (once again) an absolutely beautiful day. Perfect for the park.

Just because we could, we decided to get a couple glasses of wine and split a pretzel while we people-watched.

Then, we hopped on the subway to head back to Brooklyn Heights to get rejuvenated before we went on with the rest of the evening.

We decided to have dinner in the East Village at a little French bistro called Jule's.

They supposedly have live jazz every night of the week (although it was a bit more like blues)... Regardless, it was wonderful, and we had a perfect spot right outside (where we could people-watch) and still listen to the great music.

We each had a delicious house salad (with goat cheese croutons), bread, and we split the flank steak dinner with mushroom cream risotto. It was so delectable, I can't even put it into words.

To wrap up our wonderful evening, I decided we should walk down the street to Swift to grab a couple of Irish coffee dessert drinks (and the bartender just so happened to be a real Irishman). It was a perfect ending to a perfect day. It was a long day, though. As soon as we got back to the room, we passed out.

SUNDAY

We woke up and grabbed a delicious breakfast from the little diner across the street (Clark's).

Then, we made our way over to Williamsburg so that I could introduce her to the awesomeness that is the Brooklyn Flea Market.

This was our view while we sifted through various vintage clothing items and antiques:

We stayed for a couple of hours and then hopped back over to Brooklyn Heights. She had to leave to catch her flight at 4 p.m., so we only had a couple of hours...

And because every great trip starts with food and ends with food, we had to at least grab lunch before she went back to Charlotte. And because I live in Brooklyn and had yet to eat pizza (I know, crazy right?), we decided to stand in line at the famous Grimaldi's down by the Brooklyn Bridge park to get some.

From start to finish, we waited for probably about an hour. But it ended up working out great, because we were actually hungry by the time the pizza was ready. Now I can say I've eaten at Grimaldi's. Been there, done that. It was good, but I don't know if it was an hour wait good.

There's our pizza.. the bag offered a nice protection from the pigeons while we ate. We decided to take it down to the Brooklyn Bridge park and sit down by the water... such a beautiful view.

...And we're not really sure what was going on, but there was an entire bridal party down by the park...

... and they were filming the couple with a gigantic boom camera. Mom and I think that it was for some TLC show or something like that... Although, it could be that they just wanted to go all out with the videography. (I think the first guess is more exciting, though. We'll just stick to that). What a great way to end her time here. Only in New York.

And then my mom left :(. And it was back to reality for me... as in, back to a pile of homework. All is well, though. It was such a wonderful weekend! Not only was it great to see my mom, but we explored the city together, and she is a great companion (mostly because she likes food as much as I do). I have many more visitors coming in the next couple of months, but I'm so glad she could be the first!

Now, time for my internship! I hope everyone has a wonderful start to the week.

<3
Nat

A beautiful day, a Broadway musical, and free ice cream

Happy Thursday from the Big Apple :).

It is an absolutely beautiful day here-- I am awake, alert, and in a really great mood (and I haven't even had my coffee yet).

Not too much to report from the last few days, but I do have pictures, and that's always fun.

MONDAY

Internship day, and then I met up with my long-time family friend, Elizabeth Honeycutt for dinner. She and her boyfriend live right around the corner from where I work, and they introduced me to this wonderful Thai restaurant called Bennie's.

That's it!

TUESDAY

There aren't really enough words to express how it felt to be here in New York on September 11th. I already posted a little something on my Facebook about this, but I will reiterate a bit here as well. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning (sunny, with a little fall-like smell to the air), and I decided to take my coffee down to the promenade to sit and think and stare out across the water at the beauty that is the Manhattan skyline.

I've wandered down there several times, but this morning, I was amazed not only of how many people were on the promenade, but also of how incredibly quiet and still everything seemed. I feel like I haven't sat in silence like that in so long...

This wonderful time allowed me to remind myself of how blessed I am and how although this day marks a tragedy for our nation, it is also a symbol of how people come together even through pain. We are much more amazing than we give ourselves credit for sometimes.

Now, for a little story-time:

After this perfect start to my day, I decided to take the train over to the New York Public Library to see if I could find a book to suit my fancy. When I hopped on the subway, it was extremely quiet... I was starting to think that it was going to be like that all day...

...and then, a man burst through one of the emergency exit doors, talking nonstop about some book that he had just published (and was clearly trying to sell to all of us). The book is called "Don't Beat Your Children, Or They'll Turn Out Like Me". Sounds great, right? And he kept quoting things from it.. like, "I send my kids to school so they learn to steal.. 'cause that's the American way" or "How do you know if you're in a bad neighborhood? There are a lot of churches".

Yeah. I'm pretty sure he was trying to show off some jokes of his, but none of them were really funny, and they all just sort of made us a little bit uncomfortable.

And, about two minutes into his little spiel, another man burst through the other emergency exit door, blowing this little horn and screaming "THE MESSIAH IS COMING! THE MESSIAH IS COMING!"

It was insane. Pure insanity. I felt like my brain was going to explode from overstimulation after coming from such a quiet, peaceful, reflective morning. I really wish I'd taken a video or something.

While all of this is happening, the woman sitting directly to my right made eye contact with me... and I kid you not... at literally the exact same moment, we both smiled, shook our heads, and said "Only in New York". 

That's it :). Sorry if that story was incredibly boring. I just didn't want to forget about it, so I figured, what better place to write it down than my blog? Thanks for indulging me.

Tuesday night, I wandered back down to the promenade to look at the skyline again. Every September 11th, they turn on these beautiful lights to symbolize the twin towers. I wish I could have taken a picture to show you how far the lights traveled up into the sky.. it was amazing.

And then, I made my way back to Mona's for some more wonderful, traditional jazz. This time, I brought Josh along with me! I think I've got him hooked as well.

It is so easy to lose track of time in there... we didn't even leave until close to 2 a.m., and I think we could have stayed longer.

Side-note: When we left for Mona's at 11:00p.m., there was a man in the subway playing the guitar... and he was literally just sweeping across the same three notes. Over. And over. And over. Again.

When we came back through the subway TWO HOURS LATER, that man was sitting in the exact same spot. Playing the exact same three notes. Over. And over. And over. Ahhhh it was so insaneeee.

I was impressed by his dedication to those three notes, though.

WEDNESDAY

Internship. (Everyone was in a cranky mood for some reason... I had to literally go buy a huge bag of mini Milky Way bars for the boss, because he apparently "needed chocolate". And "quickly"... I didn't know what that meant, but I decided not to ask. Hahaha.)

Then, I made my way down to Times Square to meet up with my fellow Belmont Easters.

I am not joking when I say that my assignment for class last night was to see "Once", the musical, on Broadway.

And it was so wonderful! After seeing the movie, I wasn't sure as to how it would translate on the stage, but I was definitely impressed. It truly was "all about the music", and the songs were performed flawlessly. Just wonderful. Ahh I love shows.

After sitting in a dark theater, engulfed in lovely music, it was a bit overwhelming to step back out into the chaotic lights and insane amounts of humans gathered in Times Square.

It had been a long day. We said our "goodbyes" to the city and took the train back to Brooklyn to go to sleep.

TODAY

I have a lot of work to do! My lovely mother is coming to visit me tomorrow (yayy), and I'm trying to clean, do laundry, and work on all of my homework so that I don't have to worry about it while she's here.

But first, I'm about to walk down to DUMBO, because Jeni's Ice Cream is HERE. In New York. And I mean THE Jeni. And she is driving a cute, little truck and passing out FREE scoops. Anyone in Nashville- you know why I'm excited.

I hope everyone has a lovely day :). I will update after my mom and I have all of our adventures this weekend.

<3
Nat

New song, Fashion's Night Out, and a MoMa adventure

First of all, happy Sunday, lovelies :).

Secondly, I have a new Kickstarter song for you. This is "We Can Already Tell", and it's written for my Kickstarter backer, Michael Morris. He wanted me to write a little song about a couple of dear, dear friends of mine and the wonderful love they share. I had a lot of fun with this one, and if anything, I hope you smile when you listen to it :).

You can download "We Can Already Tell" for FREE here!

Okay, so now that I've made sure to mention the song, I will continue with the bloggish part of the blog.

THURSDAY NIGHT (A.K.A. FASHION'S NIGHT OUT)

What a whirlwind of an evening! When you last heard from me, I was frantically getting ready for a free St. Vincent show that was supposed to going on in SoHo. I left my room immediately after posting my blog, and after catching a ride on the subway, I ended up standing about twenty feet from the front door of "Rag and Bone" (where the show was supposed to be held).

This is what I looked at for about an hour. All the while, people were walking past me with the most interesting outfits on that I'd ever seen in my life. I mean, really. And there were so many tall human beings, too. I couldn't tell if everyone seemed like giants, because they were all models... or if they were just wearing ridiculously tall heels. 

Long story short, I never got to see St. Vincent. Turns out, it was RSVP only. Myfreeconcerts.com really needs to make sure they specify this in the future. There were many, many angry fans around me. I didn't really care too much, because the entire time I was standing there, I kept seeing people walk past with cupcakes. I knew there had to be free cupcakes... And close.

This little chocolate ganache/banana cupcake from Georgetown Cupcake was absolutely delicious.

When that little adventure failed, I wandered from SoHo to the Chelsea District to catch a free Lucy Shwartz show that was supposedly going on at the Anthropologie there. After my disappointment with the St. Vincent show, I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Not only was her set great, but Anthropologie totally pulled out all of the stops and offered free refreshments for everyone.

That right there is a blueberry vodka lemonade. I had three of them. I could have had more, but I was alone, and any more than that, and it would have been kind of weird. They also had the most delicious herbed bread available... that they literally brought out on a clothes rack. No, really. They put the bread on little hooks and hung them from the rack. Everyone pounced on them like a pack of savage animals. (I must admit I, too, clawed my way to the bread). I brought a banana with me and carried it in my purse for the whole evening, just in case I got hungry. But after the bread, there was no need for it. (Also, anyone else notice how this night consisted of my two favorite things? Music and food. That's all you need in life).

THEN, I decided to meet up some friends at the Rockerfeller Center to watch a bit of a show.

Everyone else called it a night after that, but Josh and I decided to enjoy Fashion's Night Out a little bit longer. We just wandered around in circles for an hour and a half, getting lost in the throngs of people.

WHEW. I've gotta say.. I love Fashion's Night Out in New York City. Such a lively little night.

FRIDAY

This was the day that I made my video for my Kickstarter song. It was not the easiest thing in the world to accomplish. Not only was it about 90 degrees that day, but after walking about a mile in the heat up a hill with my guitar, I felt like my arms were going to fall off.

And then, when I'd finally settled into a quiet place at the Brooklyn Bridge Park to record, I realized that it was going to be next to impossible to get rid of the constant "hummmmm" sound from the wind and the helicopters and the boats and everything else. Also, a family decided to sit down right next to me as I started to record the song... and they talked... a lot... But that's okay! It made for a great setting, and I was able to get at least one semi-good take.

Friday evening, Allison, Josh, Eric, Adam, and I all decided to finally take advantage of Free MoMa Fridays! I'll give you a smattering of some photos from the evening.

I know.. crazy, right?

And then, my personal favorite. Monet.

After this wonderful adventure, we were all a little pooped. Who knew that walking around a museum for two hours could make you feel like you'd run a half marathon? I went back to the room, popped in my library rental DVD of Water For Elephants (which is not nearly as good as the book... surprise, surprise) and fell right to sleep. 

SATURDAY

After my usual morning routine, I went downstairs to pick up a package that was waiting for me... And look at what had arrived!

My lovely business cards (designed by the wonderful, Bobby Herb)! I am officially an artist now, I guess. (Grammy- I hope you are happy. I will send you one soon :)). 

I don't know if it was the business cards or what, but for some reason, I got a sudden jolt of creativity, and I spent the rest of the day working on a song for a little contest I'm thinking of entering soon.. I'll update you at another time about all of that.

Also, we were under tornado watches and warnings and flood watches and all of that all day, so I wasn't keen on venturing out into the city to do anything. (Side note: Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I'm absolutely terrified of tornadoes. You would all be very proud of how I handled myself during the morning storms. Didn't even flinch.. sort of).

For the evening festivities, Josh and I decided it would be fun to go see my friend, Finn, play at a little French bar on the Upper East Side. The place (called Brasserie Julien) had a such a neat ambience, and the jazz music was absolutely wonderful. It was such a relaxing ending to a relaxing day.

SUNDAY

Josh, Allison, and I had breakfast at my favorite place! Once again, the Iris Cafe did not disappoint.

This time, I decided to order the Skim Milk Chai Oatmeal with Currants and Walnuts.

It was tastier than it looks. I promise. It was sooooo tasty.

The rest of the day has consisted of homework, homework, and more homework. That's alright, though! The weather is absolutely beautiful, and I was able to walk down to Montague street and sit at a little table outside to work on everything. There was a little street festival going on today as well, and I was serenaded by some lovely opera music while I worked.

That's all! I'm off to the gym to get a workout in before I get back to the homework. (How many times can I use the word "work"?).

:)

<3

Nat