I AM NO LONGER HOMELESS!

This week has definitely taken a turn for the awesome! After my rather melancholy post about finding the silver lining in not so happy situations I actually have happy news. I have found somewhere to live that isn't a hotel or my car! YEAH BUDDY!

If you want to send me a card or well wishes or post cards (because I collect them and I would love you if you sent one) just ask me for the address. Because I finally have one!!! I put down the deposit today and get the keys on Friday just before my momma gets into town :) We are spending my last night in a hotel Friday and then we'll need to get an air mattress or something for Saturday and beyond until I can get a real mattress. This means I'll have an air mattress for all my visitors....meaning you should come visit me. Are you ready for the picture barrage? Because I am so excited and now you get to be excited with me!!!!

I'm the upstairs unit. On a corner (aka with minimal neighbors)also  meaning lots of light. Those top two windows are mine, and yeah that's a patio

Bedroom! Not pictured: the walk in closet!!!

Standing in the dining area looking towards the door and living room/patio

The kitchen! Everything is brand new: appliances, cabinets, floors. All new and all for me :)

The bathroom. Its so clean and shiny and new, just like the kitchen :)

Moral of the story: everything is new and I am the first person to live in this unit since the renovations. And the best part? It cost the same as a non-renovated unit HOLLA HOLLA SAVIN' DOLLAS!!

Another thing to make today even more awesome? My super cool bro and his awesome wife sent me wine and chocolate! But the really super cool thing about it? IT'S A CHOCOLATE COVERED BOTTLE OF WINE. Like the bottle of wine is covered in chocolate. Like I need to eat chocolate before I can even get to the wine. It's a rough life but someone's got to do it. 

It's packaged so pretty...and from here you can't see where the chocolate is.
I was very confused for longer than I care to admit. 

But then you take off the outer wrapping and the wonder is revealed!
A wine bottle covered in chocolate!!

I think it's safe to say I've had an awesome day. Hopefully yours was just as wonderful and if it wasn't then think how down in the dumps I was a few days ago and know that it's just bad day (or week/month) but not a bad life. A huge thanks goes out to all of those who listened to me complain about being a nomad or homeless and even bigger thanks to the few who just listened to me cry and be unreasonable and didn't laugh at me. I really couldn't do all this and be so "brave and courageous" if I didn't have the amazing support from my friends and family back home. This weekend is going to be so exciting!!

Que Sera Sera

Not much has gone my way this week. This song is my new motto. I'm trying to be zen about all of it.

But since I'm all about making the internet happy and finding silver linings in not too happy situations I have a few of those to share. Today I finally got to lay in the sun by a pool. My previous hotel in Hoboken did not have a hotel so I was forced to tan in odd places like a hobo. But today I had a proper chair, a good book, and the California sunshine to cheer me up a bit.

Another happy thing? My sister and her husband sent me flowers to celebrate one week of being in my real job! They're beautiful! And there are a bunch of lilys that have yet to bloom so they'll just keep getting prettier and prettier as the days go on.

they make my room so much happier :)

Also I finally got new black dress pants that actually fit me. I've been using the ones that weren't too horrible from Portillos because I was lazy and poor before I left to actually get new ones. And since New York and Company is having their semi annual pant event I got two pairs for the price of one! Score!

Hopefully this week will be a better week. I already have plans to get dinner with my aunt who is in the area on business (YAY FRIENDLY FACES!!!) and then on Friday my momma gets here!!! This week I will definitely be workin for the weekend.

And Aunt Dawn, this one is for you. I did as I was told and danced right along with her. The song doesn't directly apply to my situation, my heart isn't broken or anything, but the chorus is good. (caution, awesome roller disco moves ahead)

I've Finally Arrived

Hello there California....

So far I've seen the airport, my hotel, a car dealership, and a bunch of random stores and the insides of a Target, Lucky (a grocery store), and Walgreens. Yeah, I'm practically a local now (she says super sarcastically)

So my biggest bit of news for the weekend, other than moving cross country, is that I bought a car! It's a 2013 Jetta and I prearranged most of everything before I got here. If you're in the market for a new car I suggest checking out TrueCar.com because I got a pretty sweet deal on my new set of wheels. I am in love with her! She has a luxurious feeling interior, auto up/down on all windows, bluetooth phone stuff, leather seats, butt warmers, the interior lights that turn on/off slowly so they don't startle you, the cool flippy key, and best of all....working air conditioning and working brakes!! Those of you who know the old Saturn I drove throughout high school and college know what I'm talking about....especially if you had ridden in the old lady recently.

Not the best picture but this is my new baby!

I am still thinking of names for her. We just met so I need to see her personality before any decisions are made. Also I need to see what license plate number I have. The old Saturn was famously dubbed  fa-num after the pronunciation of the letters on the license plate, FNM. Original, I know.

Jumping back to yesterday and my flight across the country, I now realize that if I had tried super hard yesterday I could have seen the sun rise over one ocean and set over another. How cool would that have been! I think I may make that happen next time I travel back from Hoboken.  Also another fun fact: if you're ever on a United flight and find yourself wanting to purchase one of their "snack boxes" I highly suggest the Tapas option. Worth all $9! It had fancy cheese spread and crackers, olives in a garlic and herby sauce thing, a bruschetta spread and fancier crackers, chocolate covered acai berries, almonds, and hummus with pita chips. It was the perfect amount of filling snacks to spread out over my almost 6hr flight. So a shorter flight you can either pig out or share with a friend. I am actually getting hungry just remembering it and writing about it.

Back to today: after buying my shiny new baby I promptly went in search of random toilitries and groceries. What better place to find both those things than Target! And now I also know where the closest Target it! It's super close...probably too close...and in this strip mall meets out door mall thing that could be very dangerous for my bank account. Self control will be my best friend, I do have a car payment to make now! I got some stuffs and remembered in California they don't do plastic bags and you need to buy the paper ones. Womp Womp. For this trip I got the paper ones but when I went to Lucky for some fruit I got a good reusable bag. Now I am practically a hippie, saving the environment and such.

Another adventure for the day was making a dry run of how to get to work. Without traffic it took me about 15min. I am interested to see how that changes with the infamous California traffic tomorrow morning. I have now seen the outside of my office twice but tomorrow will be the first time I ever go inside. I've been told its eerily similar to the Hoboken office so I am curious to see it for myself. And I can't wait to see where my desk is! And meet the other members of my team! And see the other RAs who I haven't seen for 3 weeks! And find out just what I'll be doing for the next two weeks before my rotations* begin!

*Rotations: all RAs in the CSS (Client Support Services) team rotate to a variety of different departments to expand their team's knowledge base and to get a feel for the other aspects of the company. These will be in 6 week time frames and I'll be rotating from after labor day to end of January/beginning of February. So I probably won't know too well what I'll be doing day to day until sometime in February. Sometimes I think this is a cruel joke.

Something I'll need to get used to in California is topography. Right where I am it is relatively flat but I can see hills (or are they short mountains?) in the distance wherever I drive. It's cool but weird at the same time.

Looks fake to me

That's all the excitement for me now. Still working on the living situation, keep your fingers crossed for me! My momma comes to visit in just less than 2 weeks for Labor Day weekend and I can't wait for a hug. Seriously, try going weeks without anyone to really give you a good hug. It's difficult. Yes, I did hug Erin but it's not the same as a momma hug. 

Happy Sunday!

On The Move

Yep, another booze cruise with work. I could definitely get used to this. BUT I can't because I am finally moving to California and they don't do boats like the Hoboken people do. Bummer.

I'M MOVING TO CALIFORNIA TOMORROW!!!!! It still doesn't feel real. I am currently waiting for a car dealership to call me back with the VIN of the car I'll be buying on Sunday so I can set up my insurance before the office closes tonight. How/when did I get so stinkin grown up? I like it though, most days. I just can't wait to be able to drive somewhere on my own schedule. Public transit is cool but the freedom of a car is practically the definition of America.

And one more picture of the Statue of Liberty because we got really close today and it was awesome.

Conquering NYC

This is my last week in New Jersey!! We have one last big final training project then we return to our respective teams and start getting down to business. Did I mention that I move to California and buy a car before that all happens? Haha woof, this is going to be a big week. But before that all happens I get to tell you all about THE BEST WEEKEND EVER!

So for my birthday I had a gift of a person, my sista cousin Erin to be precise, come and visit for the weekend and we frolicked and conquered the island of Manhattan. She arrived Friday night and our reunion at the airport was the stuff movies are made of. I am so lucky to have a cousin that is also one of my best friends and also like a sister. Love you Scooter!

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to make our way to Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken. That's the bakery from TLC's Cake Boss show. The bakery opened at 7am and since we aren't that insane we got there at about 8:30am....and waited....and waited...and waited...for just under two hours we waited to get into this bakery. You'd think they were giving the food away! There weren't even that many people in front of us in line, maybe 30? That's a ridiculous wait. Thankfully the goods we had were delicious!

It's hard to read but the sign said no loitering. We loitered. 

Not Pictured: two chocolate covered cannolis. They didn't make it far...

After waiting forever and before having our 2nd breakfast of cheesecake, cupcake, and cannoli I gave Erin a small tour of my office. We may have been yelled at by the security guard at my building. Apparently guests on the weekend aren't cool. Whatever. After being gluttons and eating all our baked goods we headed down to lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center. We walked to the entrance of the memorial and saw the huge line. We decided that we did not want to wait in another impossible line and reasoned that at the end of the last one we had been in there was food and happiness while at the end of this one there was sadness, so we didn't go in. But Erin did get to see the new Freedom Tower and we saw the area. 

From there we walked down to Battery Park and thought we would hop on a ferry to get to Liberty Island and see the Lady Liberty herself, up close and personal. However, there was yet another crazy long line to wait in. And that was just for the tickets, there was another line for the ferry itself after that. We decided that seeing her from afar was good enough and if we couldn't actually get up close and touch her then it wasn't worth waiting to go to the island. 

Next we hopped on the subway and headed uptown to Grand Central Station. I've been waiting and waiting for Erin to come visit so we could see this together and let me tell ya, it did not disappoint! So beautiful! I have a weakness for train stations, all the hustle and bustle and all the people going on adventures. It's so romantic. We just stood in it for awhile and stared around, taking in the glory. We also wandered into the apple store which happens to be in the station. And we both got new phone cases. 

died and gone to train station heaven

After Grand Central we walked our way towards Times Square and walked through a street market on the way. It had your expected street vendor knock off stuff, tribal looking beaded trinkets, plethora of pocket watches, Gyro stands, and my favorite...the roasted corn. 

I'd been craving corn on the cob

We got to Times Square and that was pretty cool. But I've been there before and you've seen my pictures of that. Next we headed to the Empire State Building to head to the top to see the view! The Empire State people are tricky people. They section off the line so you don't know how long it is and although it seems like it is moving pretty well, you have no idea how much circling around is coming your way and how many smelly Europeans you'll be stuck standing next to. And you don't pay until you're about a quarter of the way in and have gone though security. It's all very misleading but worth it for the view at the top.

Completely worth the almost 2hr wait

By this time it was well past lunch but not quite dinner and we were quite tuckered out from our day of adventures. I was also getting a headache at this point because we hadn't eaten anything since the cheesecakes of 2nd breakfast so we got a couple big, floppy slices of New York style pizza! From there we meandered our way back to New Jersey for dinner in Hoboken. We ate at this mexican place I had been told about from people at my work. I couldn't remember what they had said but I knew it was good so we went. Then once we sat down I remembered it was a BYOB place but they provided the mixers so if you wanted a pitcher of margaritas all you need to do is supply the tequila or likewise for sangria you bring the wine. I sprung into action and headed to the nearest liquor store (which in Hoboken is anywhere you look) and bought us a bottle of wine for sangria. The food was delish then we headed back to my hotel, popped in a chick flick and called it a night!

Our plans for Sunday were still eventful but not as jam packed as Saturday had been. We had reservations for brunch and before that we headed to walk around Central Park for a bit and take in the nature. On our trek through the subway we went through this one station that had mosaic eyes every 3-4 feet just above eye level. It was crazy creepy. 

of course I had to take a picture with one

Our walk through the park was lovely and we got slightly lost, but only for a bit and not too far out of the way.

Then we went to brunch. Apparently brunch is like a religion here and I've been waiting for Erin to visit to go so I didn't look like a loser eating alone in a crowded restaurant. I had seen an article on BuzzFeed (link) with the top places for an affordable boozy brunch and decided to look them up to see what would work for our budget and plan for the day. Number one, Calle Ocho, was our winner and holy cow was it awesome. We both had great food and three glasses of sangria each all for $20 per person including tip. They had a whole sangria menu! And by some fate of the gods we managed to get a reservation with only a day's notice. After our opening, the next available reservation was for noon on Sept. 22nd. That's over a month from now.....woah. 

Right after our brunch, and definitely feeling the booze, we headed toward the Neverlander Theater to see Newsies! IT WAS SO GOOD! I suspect I had a huge grin on my face the entire time. Now there were a few changes as often happens when movies get adapted for plays and vice versa but my favorite scene/song in the movie was still my favorite scene/song in the play. What may that be, you ask? Well King of New York of course! They had a big ole tap number on the stage and it was seriously awesome. The dancing in the play as a whole was great but the tap dancing really took the cake for me. 

After the play we headed to Rockefeller Plaza to see the fountain and peek in the Today show studio windows. We walked around the stores that were there too and for those of you who are facebook friends with me, my new profile picture was taken inside of Anthropologie. 

we thought this was cool/funny. It's only been a day and I don't remember why...

yeah! another iconic NYC landmark under our belts

By this time things were starting to close as it was almost 7pm on a Sunday so we started talking towards the station to take us back to New Jersey while still looking for somewhere to have dinner. We found an irish pub and grabbed some grub there. I had the first real bangers and mash since I've been to England, it was divine, and I washed it down with pear Magner's, also divine. Erin had a meatloaf sandwich and found a new love in blueberry beer.  

Then we headed back to New Jersey and so concludes the adventures of Erin and Hanna! When I dropped Erin off at the train this morning we had a bit of a teary goodbye. Thanksgiving seems like a very long ways away when it really isn't like any other time we spent apart while I was at school, just the distance is changing. It was great to have a friendly face this weekend and not need to worry about being nice or politically correct. Scoots and I let our freak flags fly, dancing on subway platforms and making up songs about Hoboken. 

Now I have a crazy week and then the big move across the entire continental United States, or CONUS if you're a weather weenie like me. It's still not quite real yet, heck it doesn't even feel like it's my birthday in two days. Oh well, wish me luck!

Hotel Life

Since not too much exciting happened this weekend (I bummed around, tanned, slept, watched netflix) I thought I would give you all an insight to what living in a hotel is like. Hint: not as glamorous as it sounds.

I may have mentioned before that it is a fine hotel room. Kinda like a studio apartment. Recently updated and I have the triple sheeted white bedding thing going on so I know it's not gross. Since this is an extended stay type of place they only clean once a week which is usually fine. Except last week they forgot to give me clean towels and toilet paper. It was weird and the front desk people were very confused and apologetic about it. The maintenance people are very prompt, yesterday my smoke alarm started beeping for low batteries and they were at my door within 15 minutes with a fresh set.

In the area are a few restaurants. I had an omelet for dinner today from a bistro a few buildings over, twas delish. But what I really am craving is anything that has been made in an oven. I think it's because I only have a hot plate situation and no actual oven to work with. A good lasagna, some chocolate chip cookies, pizza rolls, all things that are best when made in the slow lovin' of an oven.

But something that drives me crazy is the insane level of humidity trapped in this building. For those of you who have lived in the dorms with me you'll probably recall my humidifier. I have sensitive skin and pretty much always complain about the air being too dry even in the middle of the summer when you can basically get your daily water needs filled by just breathing outside. So naturally I am SHOCKED that I think this place is too humid. But it's not a weird musty humidity like hotels can sometimes be, it's a clothes-never-dry or mirrors-auto-fog-when-water-is-running humidity. Even my "no condensation" water bottle gets condensation as soon as I take it out of the fridge. It's so weird. I can't wait until I can finally control the humidity of my living environment again, it's the little things like this that I miss about having a permanent dwelling.

This topic of living in a hotel is fresh on my mind because I just booked another hotel for when I arrive in California. Just sayin', thank goodness that my job has paid for the 6 weeks of New Jersey hotel. This is not a cheap way to live your life. By the end of this saga I will (most likely, if everything goes according to plan) have lived in a hotel for 2 months. That is so not cool. Although I have known people who have done the hotel life for longer and I give them major props. I feel like when I finally get my boxes of stuff that's just waiting at home to be shipped to wherever I get an apartment it will be like Christmas morning. And sleeping in a bed that has MY comforter and MY blankets on it? I'll have died and gone to heaven. But for now those are only dreams as I am just a month into my tenure here.

I realized I never posted a picture of my room so here is the view as I sit on my bed with my computer in my lap looking out over the kingdom which is mine. There is also a bathroom around the corner but if you think this looks messy...

So glamorous 

But better things are on the horizon! This weekend my sista cousin Erin comes to visit!! We're going to be the ultimate tourists around New York and on Sunday we're seeing Newsies the Musical on BROADWAY!!!!! If you couldn't tell I am a bit excited...for both Scooter and the show. Weekend come faster please!

Another Long Week of Training

So this week wasn't all bad. I met my manager who is visiting from California, the founder/CEO of the company hung out with the new hires and let us ask whatever questions we wanted, and I bought a pretty dress. But this is still how I feel and how I think I'll be feeling for awhile longer....What My Job Is (Link)

oh yeah, and I'm trying to only consume a healthy amount of caffeine. aka not drink coffee like it's water. So I'm pretty tuckered out and gonna hit the hay. woof.