bad news shoes

When Alli visited we went shopping at Century 21, a discount designer store in Manhattan. They had an awesome shoe selection - DANGER, WILL ROBINSON. I succumbed to instinct and ended up buying a couple of pairs of wonderfully cheap, cute shoes.

Exhibit A:
Cream buckled flats. I want to wear them to a tea party. I wish I liked tea...

Exhibit B:
Gladiator sandals. Or, if you prefer, "Jesus sandals" - though I feel these kicks are way more badass than Jesus's ever were.

Today the weather was pretty nice (by my upper-Midwestern standards, of course), so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to give my new sandals a trial run.

Bad call.

As it turned out, I had to travel into Manhattan to do multiple errands for my internship. Then I ran some materials to one of our writers in Park Slope on my way home. This amounted to miles more walking than usual.

And my new sandals? They absolutely obliterated my feet. I was hobbling home at the end of the day. But at least my feet looked good, right? Well, I realized my feet were filthy when I got home. The dirt and dust of the New York city streets and subway found its way to my soles.

I now know why:
a) New Yorkers prefer to walk around in tennis shoes
b) I was the only sandal-clad person I saw all day


Um. So I won't be wearing those shoes to work again.

being allikat

I've known Alli since second grade, and we've been best friends since freshman year of high school. We've spent countless hours eating Acoustic Cafe hoagies, watching Dawson's Creek, beating any and all competitors at word games - especially Taboo (team AlliKat is certifiably unstoppable) and creating ridiculous videos and stories. Post-graduation we went to the same college, where we took many of the same classes. Our houses are approximately 100 yards apart.

Six years later, we're still the nerdy, lazy and hungry girls we were in high school (embarrassingly pictured above). The only thing that's really changed is distance - she's in her last semester at UW and I'm here in New York.

Luckily, not much can really get in the way of our friendship. Alli flew out here for the weekend, and we were back at it.

We saw HAIR on Broadway, watched dragon dancers in Chinatown, walked to Ground Zero and ate New York style pizza. But Alli and I usually have the best time together while simply sitting around at home. We uncovered a ridiculous UW Photoshop job, watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, discussed funny examples of fandom and planned our futures together (not exactly an exaggeration).

The only negative aspect to the weekend was that Alli was hit by a really badly timed bout of food poisoning: three hours before her flight back to Madison. She should be in the air right now, so I hope she's hanging in there.

We will be reunited when I visit Madison over Easter weekend, but until then I'll just have to look at old photos and wait for AlliKat's next Taboo routing.

dc and nyc: part two

In DC, Nick and I went to a couple of museums but spent most of our time at his place. In New York, we were truly tourists - camera and city map in hand.

To prepare for visitors, I've been compiling a master list of interesting/recommended places to visit, see and eat at since I moved here. I think Nick and I completed half the damn list in three days. Here's what we did:

Tuesday: After arriving in Brooklyn mid-afternoon, we dropped off our luggage at my place and walked through Prospect Park. Though it wasn't very warm, I wanted Nick to see the park. Then we went on a date (!!) at a Moroccan restaurant in my neighborhood I'd been meaning to try. It was okay, but I've said it before - there is no better Mediterranean food than Med Cafe on State Street. I'm experiencing pangs of longing just thinking about it...

Wednesday: Somehow I'd managed to pocket and bring home two sets of keys from my work over break, so I went in to return them that morning. Since we'd already be in DUMBO, Nick and I jumped at the easy opportunity to go to Jacques Torres, a chocolate shop I praised previously. For Valentine's Day, I gave Nick a coupon for hot chocolate and a cookie, so he cashed it in...and agreed it was the best cookie he'd ever had.

A view of the Manhattan Bridge from DUMBO, my work neighborhood. DUMBO stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass - it used to be a manufacturing district but is now one of the city's arts districts.

We then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and into the city. We didn't encounter too many angry bikers this time!

A view of Brooklyn Bridge looking toward Manhattan.

Next on the agenda was an afternoon in Central Park. I hadn't been to the park yet since it's been kind of cold, but Wednesday's weather was perfect. And the park was gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. We sat on a huge rock overlooking an ice rink and talked for almost an hour (as a man in a business suit napped nearby), walked up the mall and through the Ramble and visited Strawberry Fields. On a good day, it takes me about 45 minutes to get uptown, but I'd really like to go back to read and relax, when I'm feeling ambitious.

Various photos taken in Central Park.

After walking through the park, we ate frozen yogurt at Red Mango, which I'd been wanting to try since I saw it on an errand for my internship. It's really similar to Tangy Sweet, a place Ashley took me to in DC last month. Nick and I then walked to Strand Bookstore, where I couldn't help myself and bought a book and a totebag. I love that store. Finally, I got to take Nick shopping! He needed some new clothes and wanted me to help him pick out shoes and shirts, so we went to SoHo. It was entertaining, but man - that boy is picky! :)

Illustrating how exhausting our day was, the following exchange occurred Wednesday night:

Me: Tell me a story.
Nick (starting to tell the story of our day): Katie got up at Nick o'clock...
Both of us laugh hysterically
Nick (embarrassed): ...I was thinking of what I was going to say Nick...
Our hysterical laughter becomes uncontrollable

HAHA! Apparently for my boyfriend, fatigue turns the words nine and next into the word Nick.

Thursday: We ate ourselves into sedation. The day began with lunch at Dub Pies, the Aussie/New Zealand pie shop near my house. Nick said the pies were better than the ones he had when he studied abroad in Australia, a high compliment. Then we took the train uptown to the famed Magnolia Bakery, where we ate and rated cupcakes! We split our vote: B/BC. Overall, the frosting was sugary and good but the cake was too dry - definitely a bit overrated.

Cupcakes from Magnolia. Nick wanted another cupcake before our NBC tour, so we went again today.

We walked around Rockefeller Center a bit and then headed to MoMA, where we happily spent a couple of hours. I love modern art, MoMA has the best collection of it I've encountered, and seeing it with Nick is really a lot of fun.

Pollack, Monet, Warhol, Rothko...we went a little photo-crazy in MoMA, we were so excited to be there!

After the museum, we had to go to FAO Schwartz, which was totally gigantic. I was a little disappointed: the store bears no resemblance to what I remembered from Home Alone 2 (no turtledoves!), but toys change with the times, I suppose.

Finally, we traveled deep into Brooklyn to Di Fara, one of the best pizza places in the city. All of the pizzas are made individually by the owner, an incredibly Italian man named Dom, who is one of the last major artisanal pizza makers. The pizza was absolutely out of this world. People willingly wait hours for Dom to craft their pizza, but ours was ready in about a half hour.

Our indescribably delicious pepperoni, sausage and onion pizza & a sneaky shot of Dom, the man who made it

Friday: It was the other intern's last day at work, so I went in to work and say goodbye. On Fridays at my internship, we always order lunch from someplace neat and eat together - they invited Nick, so he got to see the office and meet all of my co-workers.

Saturday: The main event of the day was a long awaited tour of NBC studios! We got to see three or four different studios - including the Today Show and SNL. I think it'd be cool to be an NBC page after graduation...maybe I'll apply!

A couple hours after our tour, Nick boarded a bus back to DC....so that was the end to our intense week (which was almost like Europe redux)! Now I'm 1) missing him and 2) waiting for Alli to arrive on Thursday. More good times will be had soon.

taking on dc and nyc: part one

The past week could be more or less accurately summed up by the words desserts, pizza, art and Planet Earth. But let's face it - I'll probably get in all sorts of trouble if I leave things at that. So behold: a RATHER LONG description of the last wonderful and exhausting seven days.

First, a little background knowledge. I was originally supposed to take a bus down to DC last Saturday, spend a couple hours with Ashley and meet up with Nick after his flight arrived that afternoon. As it happened, Nick's flight out of Madison was canceled, rescheduled/rerouted through Minneapolis and he ended up getting into DC at 10pm. Thus, I spent most of Saturday with AJ, which was awesome! We were able to enjoy lunch (a lot of yummy, garlicky lunch) at the restaurant where she works, see a couple exhibits at the National Gallery, watch Enchanted (which I giggled and gasped at the entire time, just like a 7-year-old) while eating massive amounts of Easter candy and have a drink at a Russian vodka house - all before Nick got back into town. Basically an amazing vacation in itself!

Nick finally arrived and we settled in at his parents' house. I got to meet his family for the first time, which was great. One night Nick and I made dinner for them - we're quite the cooking/baking team. In Brooklyn, we baked macadamia nut cookies; Nick must've eaten at least a dozen within a day or two.

Our main destinations in DC were the National Gallery and Newseum (again!). At the National Gallery, we spent most of our time looking at modern art and walking through the Sculpture Garden.

There was a really neat LED light installation above a moving walkway in the gallery's concourse, which I'd heard about from Leland. I walked it three times in 24 hours.

Here's a photo by Nick (he took most of these photos) of the East Wing. This was taken shortly before we encouraged a girl to do a cartwheel in one of the museum's giant elevators.

A work by Lichtenstein in the Sculpture Garden. It rained basically the entire time we were in DC, but we were unfazed.

We also watched HOURS of Planet Earth, the most beautifully shot nature series everrrr. On Tuesday afternoon, we took the Bolt Bus to New York: my first chance to entertain a visitor in my new home!

More later...

semi-spring break

I have the next week off from work and it's spring break at UW. This is good. This means Nick is visiting!

He's flying home to D.C. tomorrow, so I'm taking the bus to meet up with him there. We're going to spend a few days at his parents' house in D.C., bus back to Brooklyn and spend a few more days here. I'm really excited! I have much planned for us to do - chocolate, museums and pizza are all high on the list.

AND the week after Nick leaves, Alli is coming to visit! Expect many photo-filled blog posts...

apple stores, cupcakes, t-shirted roof cat

Apple stores in the city are crazy. My iPod had been acting up - skipping songs, re-starting randomly, etc. - since October. I took it in to the 5th Avenue Apple Store a couple of weeks ago, but their fixes failed to remedy the problem. Luckily, the store itself was enough to make the 2-hour round trip uptown worth it. It's obviously modeled after the Louvre (above is a photo from the Apple website). You enter a giant glass cube, descend a spiral staircase and then you're in the large, underground store. It's also open "24/7/365" ... I wonder who buys MacBooks and iPhones at 4AM. Anyway, in hopes of one day having a working iPod, I went to the store in SoHo today. It's two stories, with a big auditorium space where they give product demonstrations. I watched a Photoshop presentation while I waited for my appointment. AND they replaced the faulty iPod with a new one, so I'm quite happy with the outcome.

On the way back from Apple, the F train went express at 7th Avenue in Park Slope. Essentially, this means they skip a few, smaller local stops in between bigger ones to make up for lost time. My stop is the first one skipped on the F line. Usually I'm annoyed when this happens, but today I decided to walk home and take a much needed pit stop...to buy cupcakes!

Now that I'm an experienced D.C. cupcake rater, I'm ready to move onto local fare. I've been meaning to visit my nearest baked goods purveyor, Ladybird Bakery, since I moved here (I actually stopped by yesterday but didn't have any cash, so no dice). But yeah, there was no excuse for me not to go there today. Here's what I thought:

Ladybird Bakery (Park Slope) - 2 cupcakes; $7.25 for both


Brooklyn Blackout: Chocolate cake filled with chocolate pudding and topped with ganache frosting. The cake was somewhat crumbly and not chocolate-y enough for my taste. The frosting was quite good and - unlike some ganache - not too overwhelming. B

Red Velvet: Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. The cake is really red and dense, but tasteless. The frosting was rich, but nothing special overall. BC

Average: B/BC. I'm not sure if I'll buy cupcakes from here again - they were kind of expensive and not as tasty as I had hoped.

Miscellaneous notes:

- Earlier this afternoon, my roommate Jeremy ran into my room yelling, "KATIE! KATIE! Look outside! There's a CAT IN A T-SHIRT!" He proceeded to point out the window, where indeed - there was a cat in a t-shirt on a nearby rooftop. I grabbed my camera in two seconds flat. The cat looked so confused as to why he was in the middle of a roof - in a t-shirt, no less. He soon disappeared, but the entire situation was hysterical.
- I went to beginners' yoga with Jeremy this morning. There's a studio less than a block away. I'm pretty inexperienced and, well, bad, but it was an ideal way to energize for daylight savings' time.
- I met a guy from Wisconsin last night who works at a nearby Aussie/New Zealand pie shop. He seemed excited to meet me and I'm sure I'll see him there again. He called me "sister" ... not exactly a Wisconsin term of familiarity. He must've picked this up in the city!
- I reaaaaally need some Tombstone frozen pizzas in my life.

a tour of prospect park & more

Today - March seventh - it reached 71 degrees here in Brooklyn. I couldn't stay inside, so I went on a walk through beautiful Prospect Park (which is luckily only a block from my house) and the surrounding area.

I SAW: Winding trails, rolling hills. Families strolling, little girls skipping, boys with scooters. Children running, flying kites and digging for worms. A man doing yoga. Couples walking hand-in-hand. Friends with footballs, baseballs, frisbees and picnic baskets. Runners, bikers, dog-walkers. Melting snow uncovering leftover fall leaves. Puddles, mud, branches.

Spring has definitely come to Prospect Park.

I sat under this tree, in the most ideal crook imaginable, and watched a group of people playing football while talking to my mother on the phone. A slight breeze blew through the park, and it was almost perfect.

The ice on the park's ponds is melting - finally!

There are so many great places to sit with a book under a tree, on a rock or a bench. I'll be spending plenty of time out here in nice weather.
This photo shows the Grand Army Plaza, the traditional main entrance to Prospect Park and the busiest traffic circle in Brooklyn (thank you, Wikipedia). The archway is the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, Brooklyn's version of Paris' Arc du Triomphe.

The main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is right near the arch above. According to BPL's website, the building was designed to look like an open book, and "the bronze gateway features fifteen different literary characters and luminaries, including Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, and Brooklyn’s own Walt Whitman."

There's something about Brooklyn's brownstone houses that I absolutely love. Even though all of the homes are similar in appearance, they have so much more character than identical houses of the suburbs. I'd be perfectly content living in a brownstone.

This is part of Prospect Park West, the main hub of activity in my neighborhood. The street essentially serves as the border between the hip neighborhood of Park Slope and the more traditionally Italian neighborhood I live in, Windsor Terrace. It's nothing compared to 7th or 5th Avenue in the Slope, but it has lots of little delis and bodegas, a couple places to get coffee, a book shop with a cat (!!) and a few restaurants I'm excited to try.

I'm in love with this place.

on solitude

In Madison, I have six roommates, one cat and a giant network of wonderful co-workers and friends. My brother, parents and grandparents live a relatively short, three hour drive away. I didn't spend much time alone last semester, and that suited me just fine.

I moved to New York knowing one person in a city of millions, renting a room from people I'd never met and planning to work at a place I interviewed for over the phone. I was truly worried that I'd be painfully lonely here in Brooklyn.

Luckily, that hasn't been the case at all. The people I live with are friendly and accommodating - I just have to go down to the kitchen to socialize. I work with interesting and amusing writer-producers. I've spent some time with new friends, visiting bars and museums.

But more important to me than social interactions is the comfort I'm feeling just being alone. Whether it's grabbing a hot chocolate and banana chocolate chip muffin in the morning, riding the subway uptown or watching 30 Rock in my room, I am becoming better acquainted with myself.

I'm so appreciative that I have this opportunity to unwind and get away from everything; it's like a mini-retreat, of sorts. I'm slowly coercing my creativity to return. I'm peaceful and relaxed. I'm learning more about myself - and I've found that I'm truly happy with who I am (but always looking to improve). And spending this time apart from everyone I love is teaching me to better appreciate them.

That being said, nothing makes me happier than hearing from loved ones outside my New York bubble. I get a giant smile on my face when I come home to a bundle of mail or receive a text message out of the blue. I've even received homemade cookies TWICE now!

I have an awesomely solid schedule of visitors (my boyfriend, best friend and maybe my brother!) lined up for the next few weeks and in May. Despite my pleasant solitude, I'm more than ready to see some familiar, much-loved faces.

subway spying

As I intimated in a previous post, I'm an unabashed people-watching creeper. Growing up, Harriet the Spy was my idol. I desperately wanted to be Harriet's friend and sidekick, helping her spy on people in dumbwaiters, at grocery stores and from windows atop their cat-filled apartments. I even started my own version of Harriet's notebooks, copying down observations about my grade school classmates at recess.

I only recently became aware that being exceedingly curious about others isn't necessarily a common trait. I really don't see why not: people are absolutely fascinating. Details like a person's body language, choice of reading material, shopping bags, clothing and conversations with others can say a lot - it's like a little anthropological study into their life. Sometimes I find myself imagining backgrounds for strangers - what kind of family they have, how they make a living, if they're generous or stingy tippers. It's entertaining, it passes the time and it's harmless - I'm not following them home or anything!

Anyway, riding the subway is never a chore for me because I can easily spend the entire time looking around at all the interesting people I'm sharing the car with. (Especially babies. If there are babies near me on the train, I will make funny faces at them, hoping their parents don't notice. I only fantasize about stealing them and raising them as my own...)

Taking the F home from work tonight, I discovered a veritable jackpot for the imagination. I found myself playing a little game I like to call:

"Grandma, or Hip 20-Something?"

Basically, I found myself sitting squeezed next to a woman of uncertain age. Since I only looked at her out of the corner of my eye (the type of surreptitious spying where you stretch your eyeballs so far to one direction that they hurt rather than turn your head) I couldn't tell for the life of me whether she was a stereotypical Brooklyn hipster or an old granny. I began collecting and weighing the available evidence.

1] The woman wore chipped, bright yellow nail polish. As a rule, old women don't wear neon nail polish. +1 for hipster
2] She donned a long housecoat and bulky red sweater. No points awarded; "vintage" housecoats and sweaters from Beacon's Closet are worn by hipsters and octogenarians alike.
3] My neighbor propped one cracking leather maroon boot up on a pole in the car. The leather boot was a neutral style, indicating neither youth nor old age. +1 for hipster, older women aren't normally that limber or immodest.
4] She was wearing what could have been a rubber band (jewelry of choice for old women) OR a jelly bracelet (more often seen on young women) on one wrist. Inconclusive evidence; no points awarded.
5] The woman pulled out a succession of coupons from her totebags and scribbled numbers onto a yellow piece of paper. +1 for old woman. They LOVE coupons and scribbling on scrap paper.
6] A musky aroma was smelled in the area. This could be due to the effects of either "natural deodorant" or "many cats"... I felt it was probably the cats. +1 for old woman
7] On her ring finger, my seatmate wore an antiquated-appearing diamond ring. +1 for old woman; diamonds are soooo passé these days...
8] She wore glasses; I couldn't tell if they were black and heavy rimmed or bifocals. Inconclusive evidence.
9] Her hands weren't notably spotted or wrinkled. +1 for hipster
10] She wasn't listening to an iPod. +1 for old woman
11] The woman did not get off the train at 7th Avenue/Park Slope, where I reckoned she'd depart if she was a hipster. It is a very happening neighborhood, full of many well-dressed young folks. +1 for old woman

After all evidence was collected, I was relatively certain my seatmate was an old woman. Before I got off the train at my stop, I tried to catch a glimpse of her face. Sadly, the object of my concentration was neither an old nor a young woman: SHE WAS MIDDLE AGED! I was wrong on all fronts. She was also mouthing something to herself, so she may have been crazy.

Apparently I'm a shoddy detective. Guess I just need more practice. :)

snow and the city

Before moving to Brooklyn, I had heard rumors about East Coast snowstorms and their ability to paralyze cities. Since arriving in January though, I've had incredible luck with the weather. There haven't been any storms of substance, there was no snow on the ground and the weather seemed to be trending toward spring. I pitied the friends and family I left behind, who have been stoically dealing with the ice storms, negative windchill and stinging, whipping snow characteristic of the upper Midwest. My down-filled winter coat and badass trapper hat lined with rabbit fur have sat sadly, neglected and unworn, in a cardboard box. To me, New York winter has been almost as pleasant as a tropical vacation - all that's missing are the mai tais.

Things changed. In the last 24 hours or so, New York received its biggest snowstorm of the winter. Some parts of the state saw 14 inches of snow since last night, the New York City public schools granted thousands of schoolchildren their first snow day in five years and some businesses with commuting employees stayed closed. People were all but hunkering down in their bomb shelters with cans of rationed peas. And I'll admit - I, too, was hesitant to venture outside. Until I saw the snow.

These were the treacherous conditions that warranted a city-wide snow day? The offending snow was light, fluffy and could be swept, rather than shoveled, off Brooklyn's brownstone stoops. I mean seriously: it was not even packing snow. What's the point of a snow day if you can't make a snow fort?

I had no choice but take on the demeanor of a world-weary, 80-year-old Wisconsinite. This is the cause of the city's mass shutdowns? Schools in my state essentially never cancel classes due to winter weather conditions, because bad weather is so common that nothing would ever get done. UW frequently doesn't even bother to shovel off its buildings' sidewalks and stairs! I've experienced my eyelids becoming literally frozen shut in negative temperatures. I walked to school barefoot, uphill both ways, in a raging blizzard, dammit!

But I digress. To be fair, I guess it makes sense that people in a city that rarely receives much snowfall would be unused to driving - or even walking - in snow. Snow days (especially Monday snow days) are unquestionably good for morale. And life as we knew it didn't completely pause: I was able to take a functioning train, with only one 20-minute delay, up to SoHo, where I went shopping in delightfully uncrowded shops. Score one for the girl willing to hit the stores in a midday snowstorm!

And finally, a confession: despite my 21 years' experience confidently trekking through the snow and ice of the Wisconsin tundra, I slipped while standing in the subway - in an extraordinarily embarrassing fashion, I might add - not once, but twice. Apparently no one, no matter their hardy background, is immune to the combined forces of water and gravity.