New York, I love you.

My final days in New York City have come and gone.

I'm sitting here, in my wonderful home in Charlotte, reflecting back on not only the last week I spent in that magical city, but the entire four months I lived there. You know how they (whoever "they" are) say: "Time flies when you're having fun"? Well, those mysterious beings are certainly correct. I had the most amazing semester, and I feel that it just went by in the blink of an eye. 

Allison and me on the very first day... wayyyyy back in August, when we discovered this awesome view was only four blocks from our front door.

I honestly didn't even know how to start this final "New York City Adventure" post.

So, I'm just going to briefly touch on my last week.... and then whatever happens after that, happens. Cool? Cool.

This last week was filled with so many shenanigans and food and friends and music and happiness and thankfulness and goodbyes.

I drank some delicious coffee (with a complimentary chocolate) from Leonida's, which is a gourmet chocolate shop right down the street from Bank Robber Music.

I went back in time with my friends, and ended up at McSorley's once again!

I ate delicious, $1 New York pizza at 1:00am. (Which, by the way, is the only way to do it. It tastes better at 1:00am).

My friends and I went on a little adventure to the East Village and ended up at a subway stop where they were doing some of the most annoyingly loud construction in the world.

At least Josh was happy and excited!

Then, on Wednesday night, I went to my final Belmont East class.

... and we got to go on a tour of the NBC Studios. I know. BEST CLASS EVER. 

(Those are the only two pictures I could take... they didn't allow cameras in the actual studios. But believe me, they were great.)

Anddd, because I was down by the Rockefeller Center, I decided to take a little looksie at the Christmas tree.

It truly was magnificent. And I couldn't resist posing with it.

On Thursday, I went on my own, little adventure... I wandered around in SoHo, NoHo, and Chinatown, looking for Christmas gifts and enjoying the beautiful, winter weather. 

And, on my way home, I accidentally hopped on the wrong train.... It seems it was meant to be, though. Because I ended up at this subway stop, where I was witness to the most beautiful singing voice I have ever heard in my entire life. I am completely serious about this.

I stood right in this very spot and listened to mister Freddie King sing his heart out for a good 15 minutes. My train came and went TWICE while I listened, but I didn't care. As I've said to others already, his voice brought tears to my eyes in the best way possible. 

Thursday evening, I went to go see my friend, Finn, play some fiddle in a play that was put on at Juilliard. Yes. THE Juilliard. So neat.

I can't really remember what happened on Friday... but I have this photo as proof that I at least did something.

On Saturday, I went back to the flea market. On my way home, I couldn't resist picking up a slice of chocolate cheesecake from Junior's. 

Hands down, the most delicious cheesecake of my life. Can't handle it.

On Saturday, Allison, Olivia, Sarah Margaret, and I all went to brunch at Iris Cafe for one, final cup of delicious coffee and avocado toast.

(Yesterday morning, my mother surprised me for breakfast with her own version of Iris Cafe's avocado toast. I have to say, it was the same... if not, better. Now, I can make my own!)

On Monday, I had the absolute longest day of work (from about 10:30am until about 7:30pm). But, it was my final day in the office, and I soaked it up as much as I could. I hated to say goodbye to the wonderful people I've been lucky enough to work with this whole semester.

That evening, I met Adam and Eric for a drink at Floyd. It was so relaxing and cosy and perfect.

Tuesday was my final, full day in New York... and I decided to cram as many things into the day as I possibly could. I believe I definitely succeeded. 

First things first: I took a stroll down to the promenade to soak in the view and drink some Tazza coffee.

I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful last day. I did nothing to this photo to enhance anything. The sky was LITERALLY that shade of blue.

And I took the subway up to Central Park to wander around. (Part of me secretly wanted to get lost somewhere deep in the park... that way, I'd have a good excuse to miss my flight the following day. Then I realized how impossible that would be... and how terrifying it would be if it actually were possible).

I listened to more great subway musicians on my ride back to Brooklyn.

(I was worried that this guy would lose his keyboard any minute... it was hanging by a superrr thin string around his neck. Hope that worked out for him.)

I met some Belmont Easters for dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant down the street, and then I raced over to Rockwood Music Hall in the East Village. The fabulous jazz musicians at Mona's were having their CD release show!

And it was so perfect. It was an evening of singing and swing dancing and all-around good music. 

After the show, I raced BACK to Brooklyn Heights to meet up with the Belmont East crew for one final drink at Floyd.

(I stole this photo from Olivia. Thanks, lady.)

It was such a perfect ending to a perfect final day in New York City. 

On Wednesday, I said many "goodbyes" (to people AND to the city itself). After packing my entire life back into two suitcases, I made my way to the airport.

This was my attempt to take a final photo of New York from my cab. Didn't work out as well as I'd planned.

I arrived at the airport 2 and half hours early, because I knew that I was probably going to run into some sort of weight problem with my bags (seeing as I could barely lift either of them more than two inches off the ground).

I really wish that someone would have taken a picture of me with all of my stuff. I guarantee you that I looked insane. Just picture me with two GIANT suitcases, one giant guitar, and three other bags hanging off of me. It took me about 10 minutes just to get from the cab to the kiosk at US Airways.

First thing I did was weigh both of my bags. One was 48 pounds... the other, 59 pounds. Let's just say, I threw away quite a few things in the airport (including some bedsheets). One of the US Airways ladies saw me about to throw away my hangers, and she asked if she could have them for the coat room. I was more than happy to give them to her! In fact, I almost wanted to open up my suitcases and have a little yard sale right there in the airport. 

After stuffing the garbage cans full of my things, I went back to weigh the bags... both of them were 50 pounds EXACTLY. I don't know how I did it, but I practically received a round of applause from all of the US Airways workers. They said they'd never seen anyone do that in one try before. (This is a skill a didn't realize I had... is there a job out there that I could apply for that would be impressed by this?).

Then, in the blink of an eye, I was on the plane, watching New York City get smaller and smaller from my window.

Note: I didn't take this photo. My phone was turned off. But my view literally looked JUST like this.

It is hard to believe that my semester in New York City has come to a close. As much as I wish it could have been longer, though, I feel that I really did take advantage of every moment of every day. I didn't leave thinking, "I really wish I'd done so and so". To bring this blog full circle, I feel like I really "gave every moment a taste". (Metaphorically and literally). Hehe.

Thank you all so much for following me throughout this entire adventure! At times, the last thing I wanted to do was sit for an hour and create a blog post... but I kept trucking along, because I knew that there were others out there waiting for the next installment. And I am beyond happy that I chronicled my time in the Big Apple. Thank you all so so much.

This isn't the end of my blog posts... However, I won't be posting about every single moment of my life anymore. Just little things here and there about my music, recipes, and random thoughts. (Aka: I won't be "giving EVERY moment a taste".... I will only be "giving little, tiny bites". Hehe.)

In conclusion, I <3 New York.

It was so hard to leave, but I know that the city will always be there... I'll just have to go back and visit every once in awhile. 

Now, I'm off to start my next, great adventure.

<3

Nat 

Riverside, manicotti, and Manhattan skyline slivers at 1:00am

The weather here in New York City has been absolutely ridiculous.

...And when I say ridiculous, I mean beautiful.

Every single day since I've been here has been been filled with sunny, blue skies, and an average of about 80 degrees with a light breeze. With the exception of one very quick, intense downpour, I haven't seen a drop of rain in two weeks. Part of me wishes there would be at least one day of rain, because there are so many museums I'm itching to go to, and I feel like it would be a slap in mother nature's face to be inside on a nice day.

Oh, well. I guess I'll just have to keep enjoying this weather... (*sarcastic sigh*).

SUNDAY

This beautiful day started out with the most delicious breakfast at a little Polish restaurant here in Brooklyn Heights called Teresa's. They are apparently known for their super thick French toast made from challah bread, but I didn't want French toast (blasphemy, I know.. don't ask me why).

Instead, I stuck to a spinach and feta cheese omelet with (the most delicious) hash browns and toast. And coffee, of course! It was so tasty and also so filling... I didn't eat again until about 5pm.

Oh, and I went with these guys:

After deciding we couldn't stuff our faces anymore, we left, and I raced to the 2,3 train on Clark Street so that I could make it to something at 1pm at Riverside Church.

Just look at this beautiful building! When I was a junior in high school, I was lucky enough to join our Chamber Choir on a trip to NYC, where we sang in the sanctuary of this amazing place. The acoustics are beyond explanation, and the architecture is just as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.

But on to why I was there on Sunday...

One of my mother's friends from Charlotte, Therese Bartholomew, has been working on a documentary for the last several years. Her life story is heartbreaking, but amazing, and when I found out she was going to be screening it in NYC, I knew I had to go. The film (titled "The Final Gift") left me with tears in my eyes, but a warmth in my heart. She's just such an incredible human being. I don't want to go into her whole story here, but I found a trailer for the film:

It was so wonderful to see her and her husband here in New York, and it was also great to be back at Riverside once again.

MONDAY

I started off with my usual routine (wake up, fruit parfait, gym, coffee) and headed off to Bank Robber Music for another day of interning!

I am slowly, but surely integrating myself into their little community... Every day I'm there, I meet another person, and I am being trusted with more and more tasks. What's so great about the office I'm working in is that ALL of us are in the same room together. All day. This allows me to not only see what goes on in a licensing company, but also hear conversations that they have with artists, lawyers, record labels, etc. It's such a cool environment, and I feel like a little sponge, soaking up as much as I possibly can!

Monday evening, I had class, but afterward, I walked down to the promenade to check out the skyline at night:

Sorry the photo quality is so terrible! It really was quite beautiful. It's just as spectacular at nine in the morning as it is at nine at night.

TUESDAY

Tuesday was "let's go on an adventure to Little Italy" day! And we did. Allison, Josh, Eric, and I all took the subway to Canal Street (Chinatown) and walked our way over to the main area in Little Italy, Mulberry Street. Our goal? To sit down and eat a delicious, Italian meal for lunch.

This turned out to be a lot more difficult than it sounds. There are SO many choices in Little Italy as far as restaurants go, and the hosts/hostesses at each and every one are constantly throwing themselves at you to get you to sit down. That made me not want to sit down at any of them.. it was too hard to read the menu, because they would pounce on you if you even hinted in the slightest that you might want to sit down and eat.

But, we waded our way through it, and made the decision to sit down at Cafe Napoli, because there was a great table outside under the shade.

All of us (with the exception of Josh) ordered the manicotti...

And it was as delicious as it looks. I had every intention of saving half of it to eat at a later time, but it was too good, and I was too hungry, and...

... this was ten minutes later. Needless to say, I didn't need dinner that night.

Tuesday evening, I decided to try out my first NYC open mic! A music friend of mine, Desmond Myers, happened to be in town, and he let me know that he would be playing at the open mic at Bar4 in Park Slope. Like me, Desmond used to play the open mic at the Evening Muse in Charlotte, and it has been a couple of years since I've seen him. He's been living in Germany for the last two years- following his dream and playing music every chance he can get. He brought along several friends from Germany (who are in the United States for the first time) to play with him, and they blew the audience out of the water. He is a talented one, that's for sure.

I was also able to perform that night, and although it's been a couple of weeks since I've played out, I'd say it went pretty well. It was just so great to be around so many musicians, and I will definitely be back!

Around 11pm, Desmond and his friends decided it was time to head out... but because they were leaving the next morning, they wanted to do one more thing before they left NYC...

... walk on the Brooklyn Bridge.
And that's what we did! That's a photo of a sliver of the Manhattan skyline at 12:30am.

And here's an extremely blurry photo of Desmond and me:

When it hit about 1am, we said our "goodbyes", and I decided to head in for the night. I had been lugging my guitar with me everywhere we went, and my arms felt like they were going to break off.

WEDNESDAY

Once again, I went about my usual daily routine and then hopped on the train to work! It was another great day at Bank Robber Music.

At 6pm, I left, and hopped on another train to make it to class in the Chelsea district. We had two wonderful guest speakers-- one from Octone Records and the other from Mom and Pop Records. They were so energetic and passionate about their work in the marketing departments of these labels, and even though the class lasted for two and half hours, I was pretty much engaged the whole time. Ah. I can't believe I get a course credit for this kind of thing!


Anyway, that's all I've got fer ya, folks! I am off to the gym.. then coffee... then shower... and then I don't know what yet. I'm feeling all "musical" today, though. Maybe I'll go take my guitar somewhere and keep working on my Kickstarter songs. Yeah, I think I'll do that.

<3
Nat

Interning in the Greatest City on Earth (in my opinion)

It's official.

I've just accepted an internship for the upcoming fall semester...

In NEW. YORK. CITY.

For those of you who might not know me super well, I absolutely love New York City and have always said that if I had the opportunity to live there (for even just a short amount of time), I would jump on it. This little lifelong dream became a reality a few months ago, when I was accepted into this wonderful program here at school called Belmont East. Along with about 25 fellow Belmont students (and NYC fanatics), I'll be traveling up on August 16th and staying through December.

Although I was accepted into the program awhile ago now, I think it has only just recently hit me that I will be living/studying/working/hanging out/eating/exploring/frolicking in the greatest city on earth. I keep sitting here thinking, NEW YORK CITY. ME? A WHOLE SEMESTER. WHAT?

As far as the internship goes, I couldn't be more excited! It's with a little sync/music licensing company located in the Financial District called Bank Robber Music (Heh, get it? Gotta love their humor already).

A sync/music licensing company may sound incredibly boring to you, however, it's anything but. These are the guys that pitch artists and their songs for film, TV, commercials, etc. It's the greatest job on earth. Not only does Bank Robber Music have an incredible artist roster (that includes Bon Iver, She & Him, The Tallest Man on Earth, Beirut, and M.Ward to name a few), but they have SO MANY great placements (ranging from music placed in Subaru commercials to episodes of Grey's Anatomy and House). They have a small team at Bank Robber Music, but they know what they're doing. And best of all, they all seem incredibly friendly and welcoming.

...The other awesome thing about this internship is that they only need me two days a week. So, the rest of the time, I can do all that eating/exploring/frolicking I was talking about. AH. Not real, right?!


Life can be so fantastic so often.

<3
Nat