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!
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