Home Sweet Home

Apartment hunting in NYC is hard as hell. Alex, and two of our good friends from our floor Sofia and Kelsey are getting an apartment together. I think it'll be perfect since we are all mature about certain things, but also immature can have fun with the things that we should be immature about. Basically, we're going to party all of the time, but pay the rent on time and still get all of our work done for school. Who's excited?
All the apartments in the area I wanted to live in are either way too expensive (the place steps away from tompkins square w/ no living space for $5700) or way too disgusting (the "frat house" on ave A). We finally found a place! It's perfect w/ lots of space and natural light and its right in hell's kitchen. We were the first ones to look at the place, so put on a safety deposit on it. Unfortunately...someone went in and took it right out from under us. We were so upset. It was the perfect place & we were going to be perfect in it.
We found another basically perfect place. In Midtown (yuk), but literally a block away grand central (aka the green line aka 1 stop on the express to union square), lots of light, a balcony, kitchen, washer & dryer, all utilities (except electricity) included. Its fantastic. I will unfortunately have the smallest room (wha?!), but I'm sure it makes my parents happy since its $1000 a month. Our realtor Bianka - fantastic and we've stressed her out a lot - told us that a lot of young people live in the same building. Our official move in date is the 15th of May, but hopefully we'll get in there a little earlier. The 4 of us are ecstatic. We've planned a trip to ikea to get the mirror for our hall, our L-shaped couch, what photos we're going to put up on the walls, Margarita Mondays. We're planning our house warming party (we're inviting Bianka and telling her to invite some of the people that she's moved in). We're a little bit too excited, but too much excitement is never a bad thing.
So if everything goes right, we'll sign the lease and I'll have my own apartment in New York. Ah! How crazy is that?

My parents came on Wednesday. My mom called me after one of my classes and told me that they were close to my dorm & at "Bar G." Bar G? Oh, mom! Bar 6! She's so cute; I love her. When I saw them it was sort of uneventful :) I felt like I just saw them since I was home a little less than a month ago. Nevertheless, I'm still happy to see them. We caught up over coffee & a bit of lunch, and then I had to go to my voice lesson. I met up with them at their hotel & it was so chic. The bar/lounge was decorated like an old library & it just seemed so classy. Their room had a huge window - which is nice b/c I forget that the view of Manhattan is actually awesome. Everything was really dimly lit (hilarious in the elevator). I took them around Bleeker & pointed out the cute buildings and bakeries. My mom saw a little restaurant from across the street so we decided to go there. It was perfect and really small. My favorite part was the 10 piece jazz band and the 6 people dining. The majority of their tunes were in my repertoire so I think my parents think that I learned every jazz song ever.
On thursday my parents woke up late and then went to the met. What?! waking up late? That does not sound like Greg's idea of a good day, but apparently my parents decided to go with the flow this trip. I met up with them for dinner w/ Alex & Rel. Of course ALex & I were late, but I was happy to hear that it wasn't awk at all for Rel to meet my parents without me. We went to this little place called "Arte" (I think). We ate dinner a bit late, but we were the only people in there. oh god, the food was so good. The waiter insisted in being overdramatic in reading the menu & every "r" was rolled & lasted a good 3 seconds - which doesn't sound like a lot BUT IT IS. I was so please by the way that dinner went. I felt like my parents were meeting my boyfriend. At times, Rel would be talking to my mom and Alex to my dad and I was so content. The conversation kept rolling, and everyone really liked each other :) SUCCESS!
Yesterday, I met my parents at Live Cafe right in Tompkins and told them over and over again how I love the east village. We had some cups of coffee and then my mom and I took off to Soho to do some shopping. Bought some things from H&M and a new coat which is the perfect cut. I love it. For dinner, we went to Sammys, which was the chinese place that Alex and I ordered from weekly. It was my first time having it this semester & I remembered why we were obsessed. My parents wanted to see some jazz music and my dad called around to see who was playing where. My dad told me that "Raul Coltrane" was playing at bluenote. Ravi?! YES! God, my luck was amazing. So we went to Blue Note (my first time) and saw Ravi Coltrane. His group was just incredible. I've seen the drummer before - he graduated from new school - what up. In their last tune, they quoted a lot of giant steps, which was really awesome to hear Coletrane's best known song via his son.
Tonight We are going out for Alex's birthday (we as in my and my friends :) not me and my parents), but I'm going to get together with them sometime.

I have like a month & 1/2 of school left, which is just crazy. This whole year has flown by so fast. This kid added me on facebook who's coming to school here next year. How bazaar is that; I'm not going to be a college freshman anymore. During the summer I'm really hoping that maybe I could gig around Cincinnati. I feel like ohio is an untapped resource. Compared to here in ny, Cincinnati has like no jazziness at all. So if I really get in there, maybe I could meet/play w/ some of the good people. Okay, so that might not happen this summer, but hopefully I could break in a little bit.
It was a beautiful day last Friday (not now b/c its raining; god damn april showers that bring may flowers) so Rel & I went to tompkins square park in the east village and had a picnic. We always walk by it at night and talk about how we have to go again during the day. & we actually did. Rel refused to hop a fence - how lame, but we had ate on some nice benches and talked for a few hours. When we were walking home, we saw the CUTEST place: Sympathy For The Kettle so we had to go in. Its this place with over 150 kinds of teas & its just so cute I can't get over it. The cups and saucers don't match and kind of antique-y. I hate to say it again, but this place is god damn cute. I want to have like...my baby shower there b/c...get this...they throw tea parties. I was going to repeat myself, but I don't think I need to.
Next week my parents are coming and staying for 5 days & I'm really excited for that. They're staying at The Bowery Hotel. Apparently, its new and the NYT just did a story on it last weekend, so my mother is an expert on it. Its in a great location in the east village, and besides the fact that it is right next door to "a homeless shelter and a meth clinic, it should be extremely nice and a little adventurous." I really want to show my parents my area so they can understand why I love it so much. I feel like I have a million stories for every street, and I want to be like "this is where I get my muffin, and this is where we play scrabble, and this is that little tea place I told you about." Before, I was glad that they were coming, but now I'm actually very very excited. I don't care, I love my mommy. It should be a lot of fun, and hopefully my mom & I will spend some money in soho together :)
Last weekend, Alex & I hung out with some people from our dorm. It was so much fun because we usually just kinda keep to ourselves and stubbornly just have fun with each other, but it turns out, other people in the dorm actually pretty cool. I must say, I'm kind of relieved that we found some other people that meet our standards, (I kid about that part) because Alex & I have gone almost the whole year and have only found each other. Not like there's anything wrong with that...oh well I can't really explain well...I suppose you get the picture.
I find this hilarious: The latest search at Google had nothing to do with the Internet or lucrative ads. It had to do with a three-foot python that was loose in its New York offices.