Race Day!

Yesterday was my first race in NY and until after the race I thought it would be the only race I'd do in NY. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was re-inspired at the Brrrrooklyn Hot Chocolate 10k at Prospect Park and went home and signed up for the Central Park Half Marathon in 4 weeks. Obviously, racing makes me a little crazy! :)

The weather yesterday definitely lived up to the name of the race. It has been pretty warm here as of late (until last week), but the fresh snow fall on Friday made for a fun winter race on Saturday morning. It was about 18 degrees at 8:00 a.m. when the race began. I wasn't planning to PR, but with a mile left, there was a slight possibility that I could. So, I got on my horse and tried to pump out a record-breaking 1.2 miles. I missed the PR by a couple minutes, but recorded my second best 10k time. Here are some photos from race day:

On the subway to the race.

Before the start of the race.

The biggest difference between Midwest races and NY races is the post-race fuel. No salted nut rolls or donut holes here! This race came complete with whole bagels, whole apples, strawberries, and the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted!

After the completion of this race, I have done races in 5 different states!

Last Thursday I attended my first professional workshop. It was put on by the DOE and the topic was integrating therapy into the classroom. I found it to be very helpful for someone like me who is new to OT in the school system.

Next week I will have two more students on my caseload, bringing the total to 5. I feel like I am beginning to really get a handle of my position and that I am starting to ask the right questions to find the answers I need to deliver good care. (But, it is very possible that in a couple of weeks I will say, "I had no idea what I was thinking two weeks ago!)

MLK Day

I had off today due to the holiday, so I decided to spend it by fulfilling a long-time goal: seeing Good Morning America!! (Random, I know). After only about 2.5 hours of sleep (L and I celebrated MLK Day in the East Village. Note to self and others: Bars entitled "The Library" are officially off limits) I made my way to 44th and Broadway at Times Square. The weather was probably the coldest it has been since I have been here, so there were not many people outside. I arrived shortly after 7:00 a.m. and one definitely does not need to get there any sooner. Most of the news was about the inauguration happening later this morning, so there were quite a few D.C. segments and fewer NYC segments than I think is usual.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/447782#i1,p0,d1

This is one of the segments from today's episode, and I even made the cut!

Here are some photos from the day:

I was also able to do some shopping and exploring on my day off, hitting Times Square in the day, the Chelsea Market, the Meatpacking District, and the High Line:

View from the High Line in the Meatpacking District.

DVF Store!

On the High Line.

On the High Line.

I have learned quickly to stop into any shop, restaurant, deli, attraction, etc. the first time I go past, otherwise I'm never going to find it again. I think it is truly impossible to take the same route twice in this city!

Week One

My first week at FW has come to an end. Only 11 more to go! :)

The first few days were mainly orientation and observation. Two classes do yoga each morning to help with establishing routines and focus and prepare them to learn. It's a really cool concept and I have been told that since the beginning of the year, there has been marked improvement. My supervisors have so much experience and I have already learned so much. At times it's a bit intimidating because I want to do things right and step up, but I also don't want to delete any progress that has already been made so far this year.

On Friday I had my first client! I developed and conducted the entire treatment session. It was quite the experience! I wasn't too concerned about it until Friday morning when my supervisor said she thought this particular student was a bit tough for my first one, but we'd see what would happen! Afterwards, she told me the session went well, as well as it could. There were improvements that we talked about, but in general the feedback was positive. I didn't feel it went as well as what I envisioned in my head (and maybe it never does!), but we all survived.

Another highlight: one of the boys we work said the following after I had met him about 60 seconds prior: "You're pretty...but you'd look even NICER without your glasses" and he proceeded to push my glasses to the top of my head. After doing so, he gave a nod of approval and continued with the game he was playing. Luckily, the girl he was playing with (who wore glasses as well) stood up for me. She told him, "She needs those to see!" It's going to be a fun 3 months! :)

I've gotten to explore my neighborhood a bit more, as I have been walking to FW. The weather has been uncharacteristically warm, and I am just under 3 miles away, so it works out well. There are so many little shops, markets, and bakeries! I'm going to spend so much money on all of this great food!! On Thursday one of L's friends stopped by for dinner, so I picked up some tiramisu from the Italian bakery down the street. What an excellent choice! This place is certainly legit.

L and I also went to a great restaurant, Verde on Smith, for a fabulous late night happy hour on Friday. How can you deny $3 beers?!

I also started running with the Prospect Park Track Club and I run with them on Saturday mornings. What a great group of people! I'm starting to focus on this year's race season, which will start on the 24th with a 10k at Prospect Park. Hopefully the hill workouts on the Brooklyn Bridge will be beneficial!

2013!

Well, I wasn't going to do it, but L talked me into NYE in Times Square and I'm so glad I did it! Once in a lifetime experience because one should probably not spend an entire work day standing in Times Square :)

Luckily, we found out that if you get to the Square in the early to mid afternoon, you should be good. So, we headed to Times Square around 1:00 via the D train. Upon arrival, we were quickly greeted by a mob of cops ready to take their posts. It was quite the scene. We grabbed a bite (pretzel) from a vendor, made a last bathroom stop of 2012, and proceeded to find our way into the Square.

Revelers, as we/they are called, are directed to gather in 7th Ave. But, you need to go through two security check points before entering 7th Ave. This took longer and was more complicated than expected. There were tons of people trying to figure out where to go, but no one knew anything about where to go. It was surprisingly not chaotic, but completely disorganized. In the 100+ years this thing has been going on, one would think there would be some kind of process or plan. Not the case. When we'd approach one barricade, we would need to wait to get to the front of the line, only to be informed that we were not the right people for that barricade (i.e. not wounded veterans, not staying at the Marriott, etc.) [Side bar: You would think, in a city of a ga-billion people, someone would know something, but in the short time that I've been here, that too is not the case. I'm beginning to think that because there are so many people and the space is so expansive, there's just too much to know. End side bar.]

Due to our affiliation with a local music venue, we were able to pass the 8th Ave. barricade. We were quickly rejected at one entrance point (I think due to a full quadrant. The Square is filled in quadrants. Once one quadrant is filled, it is barricaded off and no one can enter that section of the Square after that). After navigating through the Marriott and taking in some Broadway theatres, we took a stop at a near-by Starbucks. We then saw a line forming on 45th St. and it was filling in fast, so out of Starbucks we went and staked our claim in that line:

People were slowly being allowed to enter the Square, so we passed the time by chatting with our neighbors and fellow revelers. One intelligent man brought small folding chairs. (Jealsy). One family had waited 3 hours at another Square entrance only to get to the front of the line and be turned away. I hoped that they were able to enter after all of that!

I was surprised to see how many families there were, especially ones with small children and strollers. I was also surprised to hear more non-English than English conversations. This is truly a global event! I was thirdly surprised to learn that this was everyone's who we talked to first Times Square NYE experience. I have a feeling that many people don't go back for round two!

We made it onto the Square and were wanded and patted down before taking our place among the other million+ folks around us:

We got great spots, as we were between 400 and 800 meters from 1 Times Square, the building from which the ball drops. We arrived at those spots around 4:30 and settled in. We were so lucky that the weather was great. It stayed right around 38 degrees the whole night. It helped that I was wearing 1 thin spandex long sleeve, 1 fleece-lined long sleeve, 1 fleece-lined hoodie, 1 U of MN sweatshirt (from Laura!), 2 pairs of Smart wool socks, 1 pair of fleece-lined spandex pants, jeans, Ledger muffler, scarf, my favorite MN hat, and mittens. I'd definitely suggest all of that at the minimum. I don't know how some girls did it with leggings and skirts, but my fuzzy winter hat goes off to them!

The in-person experience is pretty different than what I imagined from what I had gathered on TV in previous years. I had assumed this was going to be one big party, and it was, but it was a pretty quiet party! L and I were able to have a normal conversation sitting in 7th Ave. listening and feeling the rumble of the subway underneath. It also wasn't as packed as I thought it might be. I was able to stand, sit, lie, eat, etc. quite comfortably. Some even found this a prime opportunity to catch up on the news:

Things started to pick up at 6:00 p.m. when the ball was raised and lit:

With each passing hour, we counted down to 2013 in various countries:

That was cool. It was so fun to hear the crowd get louder and louder as the hours got closer to midnight. I think that was my favorite part.

Performers included: Cassadee Pope, Neon Trees, Carly Rae Jepsen, Train, and Taylor Swift:

The last hour flew by. Soon, there were only 5 minutes to go:

And then the count down was on:

And then....2013 was here!!

We had such a great time ringing in the new year! It was so fun to get texts throughout the night and hearing so many interesting stories was amazing. For example, we met one woman whose birthday is January 1 and she had lived in NY for many years but had never attended a NYE in Times Square. She is currently living in Texas and was in NY visiting. She wasn't going to come to Times Square, but decided that because of her birthday, she should. She arrived at 11:30 p.m., showed her ID to the cops to prove it was her birthday and they allowed her in to celebrate and watch the ball drop. She was so ecstatic to be there.

It was a great beginning to what is sure to be a fabulous year! Here's to a happy and healthy New Year!

Arrival

Made it safely to the new place after a few phone calls to L and MANY helpful folks.

The plane ride went smoothly and was very quick. The landing portion was a bit rough, and by a bit, I mean the roughest. The nine-ish year-old girl sitting next to me likened it to Coney Island...as she was thoroughly enjoying the turbulence. I, on the other hand, had to use every last bit I had to keep down the lightly salted peanuts I ate earlier on the ride. After getting tossed around a bit in the air, we touched down. The 9-ish year-old's mother proclaimed that we were out of harm's way, just in time for us to skid on the runway at about a 30 degree angle. That was new. BUT all of us passengers, including the cat sitting behind me, made it to LaGuardia safely.
Coming into NYC was a sight to behold. You know you're in the city when you swoop in over the Statue of Liberty (which pretty much takes up the entire island it stands on). We flew over Brooklyn (I knew because I've studied NYC on Google maps extensively...so much so that I was able to pick out the park across the street from "home") and then Manhattan came into view. Incredible.


Took the M60 bus to Astoria (note: no dollars or pennies when paying for your ride and transfers don't work on the subways, as the "nice" bus driver informed me after I asked for one) and pondered for a couple minutes about how I was going to haul 2 rather large suitcases up many flight of stairs to the subway (ummmm, I thought subways were underground? Not always, apparently).

I was about half-way through my ascent when someone asked if he could help. I clearly must have considered myself to be in a pretty rough place because I agreed to take him up on his offer. He not only took my heaviest bag, but paid my fare (only a Metro card is accepted on the subways, and obviously I did not have one), and directed me to exactly where I needed to go. I found out he was from Bloomington, so he passed it off as Minnesota Nice and wouldn't accept my return payment. Truly a blessing, so I named him Cam (Christmas Angel Man) :) and silently gave him a "G-bless" before parting ways.

After a stint with Cam on the Q to Times Square, I took the R into Brooklyn and arrived at my 3-month home around 3:30 p.m. After scoping out the gym, unpacking to Zac Brown Band Pandora radio, and meeting some neighbors, L and I made our way to find some burritos. We happened upon a great place a few blocks away. 5th Ave. is the place to be in the neighborhood.

As a reflect on the day, all I can say is that "moving" to NYC is like running a marathon: I can't believe that just happened.

Wonder

As I finish my packing, look over my itinerary (good thing, cuz I thought I was flying into JFK. Not the case.), and ponder what life outside of the Midwest is like I find myself with some wonders. Some more important than others:

-Does the Manolo Blahnik store have student discounts, like the Limited in Roseville? (Better slip the St. Kate's ID in the wallet just in case).
-How do I get from LaGuardia to living space? (Better download at least 5 apps for that).
-How can I wear my black boots and brown boots on the plane? (Because I'll already be wearing two pairs of pants, at least a couple shirts, and maybe two jackets).
-If I'm already going to be spending 30 minutes on the subway to get to FW, why not take about 20 more minutes and walk? (I think I will).
-Is it OK if I pack two dresses instead of my computer?? (Better find a way to make both work).
-It seems as though there are more winter races in Minnesota than in all of the NE states combined. (Minnesotans are tough).
-(Shoot! I better upload my entire music collection to itunes before I leave. I just don't know what kind of music I will need on the ipod that really is only used when flying).
-Where's a good place to watch the Rose Bowl? (Preferably with a plethora of WI fans).
-Is it OK to run with two different running groups? (If I tell both about the other, it's not cheating...right?)

By this time tomorrow I should be frantically searching for my second suitcase at the baggage claim :)

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive. My co-workers were amazing during my last week and really helped me to keep it together. I love that place. I can't believe it's been over a week since I've been there. I will have to bother them soon to make sure everything is on the up and up and stalk my patients. Well, "my" patients :)

It was so great to see everyone that stopped by Sterb's last week, too. I never expected such a send-off. Thank you!!

See you in NYC!

Closer

http://tofromnyc.blogspot.com/

I couldn't articulate the moving process better than the above blog. I am told that living quarters abound in NYC, and that may be true, but actually getting into them is an entirely different story. Many of you know about my lack of patience. Now I have even less :)

I am hopeful that I found the perfect living situation, however! A sublease for the duration I will be in NY, awesome neighborhood, and wonderful inclusions (such as furnishing, washer and dryer in the unit, and a gym in the building).

The more I think about this stint away from the Midwest (and the faster it approaches), the higher I raise my eyebrow at myself: "Seriously, Meghan. You are SERIOUSLY going to get on a plane and live halfway across the country? WHAT?!" Nearly every person I encounter gets a funny smirk on his or her face and claims, "Meghan, you're going to LOVE it out there! You're going to love it so much that you are going to STAY!" To which my response is this: I have no doubt this is going to be an awesome experience. And that I will enjoy NY. But my people are in MN/WI. Every person in the Midwest is "my people". And while there might be SOME of my people in NY, not every person out there is "my people". I feel.