Holy Canoli!

According to Jim, the Channel 4 weather man, today

was the coldest day of the year. What did I do? I went

and stood in line for exactly one hour in front of Carlo's

Bake Shop to see if I could catch a glimpse of Buddy

a.k.a The Cake Boss. This is probably the only bakery

that has a bouncer at the door. Unfortunately, Buddy

was "busy making cakes," but all was not lost. First,

they gave us hot chocolate while we waited in line.

Second, I got some goodies. Canolis and eclairs. YUM!

I was going to go to Starbucks and read for school, but

waiting in line in the freezing cold drained my computer battery.

So I went home. Big day.

Here's my day in photos:

The line was REALLY long...

Someone said Buddy stuck his head

out of the upstairs window. I didn't see this.

I don't believe them. Buddy would not stick his

head out into air that cold.

Success!

So Good. There were so many people in there

and when I got to the counter I panicked and just

ordered three of everything. I'm going to have to

give some of these away...or maybe I'll eat them all.

Nice view!

Here's the view from the end of my street, woo hoo!

I'm still trying to figure out how to take pictures with my new camera, but I think this one that I took yesterday turned out ok! I also went to a Farmer's Market on Saturday and checked out the goods. To my delight, the farmer's market also featured a Michael Jackson tribute. Three guys danced around to Thriller and Bad, and one guy was dressed up like Michael. You could tell he'd been practicing all the classic MJ moves. Then he moonwalked his "donation" bucket throughout the crowd.

I'm going to go out this weekend and take some more pictures (I might have about 15 minutes to spare after all of my reading is done). Also on the agenda...Carlo's. There's a Cake Boss marathon on TV tonight, and I'm thinking I'm going to have to go get a treat this weekend. I walk by that place every day, and I think I'm going to brave the crazy crowds and actually go inside! I'll take my camera in case Buddy is there!

In other good news: I like most of my classes, but I'm already anxious to graduate...is that bad?

Done with school (and laundry) for the week!

I've officially finished my first week of school. It's nice only having class Monday through Wednesday! Don't worry, I have plenty of work to keep me busy. I think I'm really going to like grad school...there are no tests (a bunch of projects, but no tests) and everyone is so excited about school which, in turn, makes me excited about it (although I never thought I would be excited about qualitative research methods).

Today I did my laundry. I didn't know how good I had it when I didn't have to haul a basket full of clothes down and up three flights of stairs. That's not the end of the story...

I figured mid-morning would be a good time to do laundry because everyone would be at work...I was wrong. When I got to the basement laundry room, there were hampers of clothes everywhere and all three of the washing machines were in use. So I left and came back later...still in use. So I left and came back an hour later...still busy. Finally, I washed my clothes, but now there was no dryer free. I started to wonder what I was going to do with a bunch of wet clothes when I had to get ready and go to school.

Enter: the neighbor's cleaning lady

According to my new friend, there were about 8 loads of laundry waiting for her when she got to work today, which was the cause of the busy machines.

me: "Well, how much more do you have, I have to go to class in a little bit"

her: "I don't know, these freaking dryers don't dry things...I can't tell you how many quarters I've put in there, and my stuff STILL isn't dry"

me: "Ok, well I'll come back later then"

her: "Wait...I'll put your stuff in the dryer, just leave me enough quarters."

Good deal. So I thanked her, left her 14 quarters and went on my way. As I went up the stairs I immediately asked myself why I just did that, but then kept going up the stairs.

----Fast forward 1 hour-----

Right before I left for class, I went back downstairs to get everything out of the dryer...there on top of the dryer were 7 quarters and my clothes, nicely folded and ready for me to pick up. What a nice lady!

I hope I see her again so I can thank her--it's not every day you meet someone who's willing to fold a stranger's underwear.

Finally...some pictures!

I got a really good deal on a nice camera, so I'm definitely going to be taking a bunch of pictures now! I took some pictures of the apartment, and since today is the first day of class, the rest of my foray into photography will have to wait until the end of the week. I had two hours of reading to do last night, and class hasn't even started yet! Yikes.

The view from my window

The living room and kitchen

The living room!

Kitchen!

My room!

Week 1:

I've been here for a week now. As my family can attest to, the first few days were, to put it delicately, "rough." I wasn't quite sure what I got myself into and also realized that I'm a little more attached to my family than I thought I was. Since they left here on Monday, I've discovered a great place:

1. I have really nice apartment and I have a really great roommate! Craig's List works!

2. Anything goes. I saw Edward Scissorhands walking down the street today.

3. I'm going to get a graduate degree here.

4. The Cake Boss is ten blocks away, ready to take care of all my custom cake needs.

5. Hoboken is really nice. It is also the birthplace of baseball and Mr. Frank Sinatra.

Every day, I've been walking around and checking out the area. I've literally walked until I can't walk anymore. Another first today: purchasing blister band-aids.

Myself and about 1 bazillion other people took advantage of the free admission at the Museum of Modern Art today and I got to check out some neat exhibits and photography. After that, I walked around Rockefeller Center and scoped out the Today Show area. I am now well equiped to guide anyone to the plaza so we can see Matt Lauer. I thought I saw Tonya Harding on the Rockefeller ice rink, but thinking back, I'm fairly certain it wasn't her.

My camera broke during the trip here, so I'm going tomorrow to get a new one. After visiting the museum today, I've decided I definitely need to become a photographer and have a photo displayed in a museum. Or displayed at the fair. Whatever works.