So, as you can see, I’m really awful at updating. I will try harder to update more frequently during the last month (?!) that I’m in this wonderful city.
Anywho, I thought you all might like to know that I am currently living in an inferno. It has been so hot that I can barely breathe when I get into the subway. Thankfully the cars have air conditioning or I would not be a functioning human being right now.

So, what have I been up to since my last post?

Well, I’ve seen a few celebrities. At work, I’ve seen Jill Zarin from the Real Housewives of NYC (I use the term celebrity loosely here) and Charice (Youtube sensation) who gave us all an impromptu performance. I also got to go to the premiere of Grown Ups with an invite from my friend from Iowa State (and UsMagazine.com coworker) Zach Johnson. We were at the end of the line and almost didn’t get to go, but we stuck around a few extra minutes and a couple of staff members gave us tickets. The movie wasn’t great (obviously), but I did get to see a lot of people in the lobby afterwards. I saw most of the cast of the Jersey Shore, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Rock and Niecy Nash.

Another day after work, Gail and I decided to stop by the red carpet for the premiere of The Last Airbender. We got there kind of late, but we still got to catch a glimpse of Dev Patel and Jackson Rathbone. Margarita went with me on another day to see White Collar (it’s on USA, watch it!) filming on location. It was kind of far away in West Chelsea, but I did get to see the two main characters which includes the love of my life, Matt Bomer.

Now that I’ve convinced you all that I am a celebrity stalker, I’ll tell you a bit about the other stuff I’ve been doing.

I haven’t done as much touristy stuff as I’d like to do, but when you get off work at 6, there aren’t a whole lot of options as far as museums and other attractions go. So, mostly I’ve just been walking around with my roommate Margarita, Gail and some girls from another intern building. 

I did finally get to go to the beach though. On the 4th, we made our way to Rockaway Beach in Queens. It wasn’t too far away and the beach and water were surprisingly clean. We spent much of the day playing in the water and digging in the sand for crabs. We later found out that the beach had become popular for its gay pick-up scenes which explained why we couldn’t find any straight boys. Later that night we went to the roof of the Vogue and watched the Macy’s fireworks. The next day (my birthday), we decided to go to a beach that was closer: Brighton Beach. This beach is right next to Coney Island, and it was a letdown. There was broken glass all over the sand and the water was filled with bits of toilet paper (I have no idea, don’t ask). We didn’t stay long, and later I went out to dinner with Gail. All in all, it was a pretty uneventful birthday.

On the 4th, my roommate and NYC BFF Margarita got a call and found out that her fiancee had severely burned himself while lighting his homemade fireworks (sometimes I wonder what goes on inside the male mind). The next morning, she left really early and flew home to Florida. He recently had surgery and seems to be doing well, which is good, but he won’t be able to leave the hospital for 2 weeks. So, Margarita informed me that she wouldn’t be coming back except to get the rest of her clothes. Up until that point, I had been almost dreading going back home to Iowa because I was having so much fun here, but it kind of sucks when the person you do everything with isn’t living 5 feet away from you anymore. But, my life will go on and I will find other people to spend my time with!

Here’s to enjoying the last month left in the city! Hopefully I can find a job within that next month and start making grown up money…I really need it after this two month vacation. I’m really having mixed feelings about leaving at the beginning of August. I’ve really come to enjoy spending time here and I feel like I could actually like living and working here. But, I’m almost out of cash and even if my internship offered to keep me, it’s unpaid and I wouldn’t be able to afford living in the city. Hopefully I can save up some money when I get home and then decide what I want to do for the rest of my life.

But I will say that I can’t wait to see my friends, my family and my cat!

When I found out I got an internship at UsMagazine.com a little over 2 months ago, my first reaction was excitement. This was closely followed by nausea. I was going to be graduating soon and wasn’t sure where my life was headed. I was going to be living in New York City for three months and working for a magazine I loved. The reality of the situation didn’t hit me until about one week before I would leave.

I had never been out of the Midwest (unless you count a drive to Boston when I was 4 years old). I had never been on a plane (and still haven’t…more on the excruciating trip later). I had never lived more than 2 hours away from home. Although I would say I’m pretty aware of what’s going on in the world, I’ve lived a sheltered life, so I was pretty nervous to live on my own for the summer. I left home on June 1 and survived the 18 hour drive to Manhattan. We only got lost once, right before the city, but we got lost in a really awful area of New Jersey which caused Dad to panic and probably have a mild heart attack.

Since we got into the city around midnight, there wasn’t much to do but go to sleep at the hotel. The hotel my dad booked was right around the corner from where I would be living, so I called my friend Gail (who had already been in NYC for a week) to ask her to go sightseeing with us. (Gail and I met at Iowa State when we were a part of the Meredith Apprentice Program.) Since I had signed up for housing through the same place as Gail, I saw where I would be living for the first time. My building is in Herald Square (the original Macy’s is right next to us) which is near Koreatown and the Garment District. Two things to know about my building: 1. It is on the same block as the Empire State Building and they are connected (aka tourist infestation). 2. I basically live in a mall. My lobby leads out to a Gap and Forever 21, and on the same block Victoria’s Secret, H&M, Steve Madden, Bebe, American Eagle, Who.A.U (Google it), LOFT and more. My apartment is actually pretty big compared to some of the other interns’. There are 4 of us living together, but we got lucky with two bathrooms!

Once we picked up Gail, we ventured down to the subway station which is literally 20 feet from the front door of the building. I bought my first MetroCard and we were off for my first day in NYC. First, we took the ferry to Staten Island and just walked around for a bit. It was the first time I got to really see the city’s landscape. From the boat, we could also see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge and Jersey City.

Once we made it to land, Dad told me that someone had recommended a great pizza place to him in Brooklyn called Grimauldi’s. I hadn’t heard of it at the time, but now that I’ve been here for awhile, it seems like it’s all I hear about. So we made our way to the Manhattan Bridge, and surprise!, I actually walked across the whole thing. For some reason, my fear of heights hasn’t been so bad here.

When we got to the other side of the bridge, we were in an area called DUMBO (this stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). Grimauldi’s wasn’t too far, but once we got there, the wait was really long. It was a really hot day and we had been walking for awhile, so we decided to go to another pizza place right around the corner. The heat in New York is unbelievable. Now, in Iowa it gets very humid and warm during the summer, but I drive everywhere with the air conditioning blasting. Here, I walk EVERYWHERE or take the subway which is it’s own little sweltering oven.

After that, we dropped Gail off and went to Times Square for a bit. I also saw where my office would be on 6th Ave. and found that it was right next to Radio City Music Hall and NBC. The next day, we did a little more sightseeing and then Dad left for the long trip back to Iowa. I wasn’t really scared to be left alone, but I just didn’t know what to do with myself. There is so much to do everyday that it’s hard to pick what exactly I want to accomplish.

Now, I have been in New York for four weeks and I’ve seen and done lots of things. Since this post is already so long, I’ll give the Reader’s Digest version of what I’ve been up to:

• I’ve been shopping. A LOT. Soho, the West Village and Chelsea are only a few train stops away and I haven’t been able to control myself. I’ve been trying to limit myself, but all of my efforts have been in vain. I may need some serious psychotherapy sessions when I get home to cleanse myself of my impulsive shopping tendencies.
• Sample sale: oh, I might as well talk about this real fast after I just confessed to being a shopping lunatic. I went to a Tory Burch sample sale when I got out of work early one day. I waited in line to get into the building for about an hour. I waited to see the shoes for about an hour. Then, I waited to pay for about an hour. Waste of my life, but I got cute sandals.
• Without fail, each of my weekends have involved going to Union Square. I don’t know what it is about the area, but I love it. Of course, there are lots of great stores, but there are great places to eat and the bookstore Strand resides there. The first time I walked into Strand, I felt a bit dizzy. There were so many books that I didn’t know where to start. My mom would seriously pee her pants if she was even allowed in the store for 5 minutes.
• Chinatown: when my roommate Margarita’s family came to visit, I accompanied them to Chinatown since the two of us spend most of our time together anyway. It was difficult to find a place to eat since we obviously don’t read Chinese and couldn’t tell what was served at each restaurant. After we ate, we walked towards the subway and encountered so many people trying to sell us fake bags, watches and jewelry that I finally yelled at the last woman to speak to us. You cannot walk down the street without being walked up to (in a creepy manner) and being asked in a whisper if you want “Coach bags, Tiffany, Rolex.” If you take the time to go with them and look at the merchandise, the fakes are actually pretty good, but I don’t like being bothered every 5 steps.
• Yankees game: Gail and I met up with a few other interns and went to the Bronx for the Yankees vs. Astros game.

We had only been at the game for about 45 minutes when we noticed one of the video camera operators looking around and taking seat a few rows down from us. About 20 minutes later, he made his way up to our row and asked who was sitting in one of our seats. Gail happened to have the ticket for the seat he was asking about. He asked her to sit there and told her that she had just won a prize and would be on the stadium screen.

Gail won ticket upgrades, but she could only take one other person. One of the other girls had purchased the tickets for us, so they went on down to their great seating. The other girls and I stayed and watched the game for awhile, but the Yankees were hitting homer after homer and it got boring after a short time, so we left.

• I have only gone out a couple of times since I’ve been here, mostly because of the cost, but also because I don’t enjoy drinking that much (based on my family’s appetite for alcohol among other things, I believe I may have been switched at birth). But, I decided to go out with some of the interns who live in another building one night. We went to the Upper West Side and walked along Amsterdam until we found places we thought looked fun. I actually had a lot of fun. The bars were filled with people around our age, had good music and were really laid back.
• Sightseeing: I am ashamed to say that I still haven’t seen a lot of places in the city. I have a list of places I want to go including museums and the Bronx Zoo and I hope I can get through them all before I leave and/or go completely broke. I still haven’t set foot inside Central Park which is pretty embarrassing. Goal for the week: DO SOMETHING!
• Celebrity sightings: more on that later.
• Oh yeah, I did come here to work, right? Work as an online edit intern for Us Weekly has been really great. I’ve been getting a lot of experience working with our content management system to get content on our Web site, but I’ve also gotten to write a lot. I’ve written quite a few celeb bios and short stories that need to be put up fast. I also do a lot of research collecting photos for slideshows and creating captions. I really hope I get to do a lot of the same things I’m doing now later one and hope that my experience will lead to a job either with Wenner Media or somewhere else.

So far, my experience in a new city has been great. And since I’ve officially graduated (diploma came in the mail a week ago, YES!), my options are really open right now. It’s really exciting and scary at the same time to think that I could end up living in New York City in the not-so-far-away future. Well, my job hunt will begin soon and I’ll update about what else life in the city brings!