Tag Archives: dallas to nyc

#40for40NYC Saturday Night’s Alright

28 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in Personal and Fun, Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, we walked around down in NoHo because I had to turn in a paper. If you go down to NoHo there are a crap ton of brunch places and boutiques for shopping. I suggest this area for a chill Sunday afternoon. After I turned in my paper we took the train down to Coney Island. The train down there from NoHo took over 1.5 hours, so just keep that in mind. It is a pain in the butt, but you get there for $2.75 so who can complain?

Coney Island was fun! We rode the Wonder Wheel, a 95 year old ferris wheel. A ticket is $7 and you get great views of the boardwalk and surrounding area and you are RIDING A 95 YEAR OLD FERRIS WHEEL! Haha, I had never ridden a ferris wheel so it was a little freaky, but definitely fun. After the ride we walked all the way down the boardwalk and then down the big pier.


          That was fun because there was a Puerto Rican/Venezuelan band playing, people fishing and tanning, and all kinds of stuff going on. We walked back down the boardwalk and I wanted to eat at Nathan’s! I got a hotdog, pretzel, and a beer for like $14. You aren’t allowed to take the beer outside the Nathan’s tables area, but there was nowhere to sit, so I hid it in my purse and we sat on a bench by the beach. There was a DRUNK ass man that we watched while we ate. He fell down and ate his food out of the sand and it was a train wreck. The wind picked up about halfway through lunch and it was already 5 and we had a long ride back to my place, so we left. I got some saltwater taffy for $7, so I spent $34 for the entire day. If you brought your own snacks, I would highly suggest this as a full day activity! From what I understand, they also have free fireworks on Friday evenings (hello, additional date idea)!

After getting back from Coney Island we freshened up and went back downtown to Times Square. Eh…so there are some good things and bad things about Times Square on Saturday night: It is VERY crowded. Like, I can’t even imagine how NYE would be if Saturday nights are so crowded. If you want to do this, I suggest going around 10.

We walked down 45th street around 11 and all of the play casts were letting out and I got to see HELEN MIRREN, CAREY MULLIGAN, and BILL NIGHLY! So amazing. That would be fun if there were a certain actor you knew or were a fan of and you could get an autograph or picture with them, even if you can’t afford to go to the show!


   After we walked around and saw some stars, we did a little bar hopping. We went to Junior’s Bakery and got a piece of cheesecake and espresso. Then we went to Lillie’s Victorian Establishment for a drink and then went to Social for another drink. Junior’s has been voted the best cheesecake in the city and it was delicious (it’s around $7.50 a slice), but I might check out the location in Grand Central instead if you haven’t been before.

As far as Lillie’s…it’s a typical NYC concept bar with a typical NYC price. If you don’t drink beer, you are going to break the bank. With tip, I spent about $35 on two drinks (one for myself and one for a friend), which is pretty nuts. The ambiance is really great though and it’s a fun bar.

We left Lillie’s and walked to Social, which is much more reasonable! For half the price of 2 drinks at Lille’s, we got three at Social (around $17). This place is loud and definitely more of a party spot. The music caters to twenty somethings, so it was right up our alley. Times Square is definitely best at night because the lights are so pretty and there are so many characters to see.


   So, if you go to Times Square at night, I suggest getting there around 10, hanging out around the theaters to spot some stars and then heading to Social for a couple of drinks. That will keep you under $20, so that’s $20 for another activity (maybe Lille’s for one drink or an appetizer at a restaurant nearby)!

Sunday was the last day my friend was in town, so we kept it chill. We took the train to 59th street Columbus Circle, bought some food at Whole Foods and then went across the street and had a picnic in central park. This was my favorite thing we did, closely followed by Stone Street. Whole Foods has an amazing salad, soup, hot food, and dessert bar that is priced per pound. I got a drink, a huge salad and some chicken wings for $18! I brought a blanket so we had a picnic, took many pictures, and relaxed.


 It was pretty crowded since it was Sunday evening and the weather was nice, but it was so peaceful and relaxing. This would be another great date idea if you had a picnic basket and could bring a bottle of wine, cheese, and crackers or something. I highly recommend the Whole Foods idea, but bringing food from home works just as well! With the $5.50 subway fare+$20 at Whole Foods, and $5 for an ice cream from the ice cream truck, we had a full day for $35.50.

As you can see, I packed a lot of activities into a few days, so I am going to have to budget for a while. I hope that I get to do some free things this weekend and I will be sure to write about it. I don’t have an iPad right now, so it’s a little less convenient to publish blogs and pictures, but hopefully I will figure something out soon. Thanks for reading the first three installments and I will talk to y’all soon!

#40for40NYC Friday in the City

28 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in Personal and Fun, Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, we went to Grand Central Station, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, and Battery Park.

Grand Central Station is one of those places that is great to dip into and take pictures. There are stores, a huge market, a bunch of restaurants (there is a Shake Shack) and many cool pictures to take. It’s another historic spot in the city, surrounded by tons of things to see and do. I suggest this for a rainy afternoon activity if you are visiting.  You can go inside and see cool stuff and relax. The ceiling of the main lobby is painted with constellations and the chandeliers in the station are amazing too.

 You can also take trains anywhere, so if you ever wanted to go for a scenic ride, I suggest taking Metro North from Grand Central and sitting by a window! If you don’t eat or anything, a stroll around Grand Central is free! I got a coffee and a cupcake from Junior’s Bakery, so that was about $10. Even with a snack you would have $30 left for another activity! They do offer official tours, which would also be interesting, I’m sure!

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum was a great place to be at the start of Memorial Day weekend and during Fleet Week (got to check that off my list because there were sailors everywhere this weekend!). The memorial and museum were really great and fitting. I didn’t cry until I got into one of the exhibits that had a timeline of events. One of the points in time was a message from a man on one of the hijacked planes to his significant other when he realized he was going to die and it was so, so touching and really affected me. Seeing the map of all of the locations of body parts around Lower Manhattan was especially haunting as well.


      I believe the tickets are $24 per person and you pick a time slot. If you are a college student, you pay $18. Here is a list of additional discounts for specific age groups and professions. My friend and I were half an hour late for our 4 o’clock appointment and they just let us go in. So, I don’t know how strict the reservations are, but on a Friday afternoon before Memorial Day they didn’t give us a problem. The security is strict, obviously, so make sure you take everything out of your bag and leave it home or at the hotel. I’ve lost two knives in my travels because I always forget and have to dump them. Thankfully, I didn’t have a knife this time around. The museum is designed as a descending cylinder. You start at the top and descend around a central atrium until you reach the bottom where all of the exhibits are located. I’m glad my friend came to town, because I probably wouldn’t have gone alone, but I’m glad I went. However, I will not be going to the observation deck that is opening in a few days. The memorial fountain outside is really beautiful and touching as well.

If you have to pay full price+$5.50 for subway, you’ll only have $10.50 to get a drink or snack somewhere to keep it under the $40 budget! I paid the college rate, so I have $16.50 left over for this activity.

After the 9/11 Museum and Memorial we walked to Battery Park, near the tip of the island, so we could see the Statue of Liberty. We didn’t take the Staten Island Ferry, but this park is a great place to view the statue and there are tons of areas to sit and watch the sunset.


  After Battery Park we walked to Stone Street. Stone Street is my second favorite place we went. It’s a small street down below the 9/11 memorial in the Financial District and each side of the street has restaurants and bars then between them there are big tables and pretty lights strung between the buildings so it is kind of like a beer garden. You can get your food/drinks at the restaurants and then sit at their outdoor sections with everyone else eating at the different places. We went to Adrienne’s Pizzabar and I highly recommended it! We got a huge pizza with two toppings for $23 (there was over half left to take home) and a glass of wine each. They also sell smaller pizzas and buckets of beer for those of you going out with groups. It is the best pizza I’ve ever had outside of Italy. The ingredients were fresh and the crust was great too.


Obviously, I did both activities in a day, which was over $40, but if you broke it up you could easily have a phenomenal meal and drinks in a beautiful environment for under $40. You could also order a pizza at Adrienne’s and walk to Battery Park to have a picnic, which would be so fun! Dudes and ladies this is my number one evening date pick, so far. It gets packed so the volume level may be a bit inhospitable for a first or second date, but if you already know someone and are looking for something new to do, go here!

#40for40NYC Episode 1: Some Drinks and History

28 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in Personal and Fun, Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So, what’s up you crazy kids? I am going to kick off the summer series today. Before we get to my touristy touring tour of NYC last weekend, I am going to explain why I didn’t write about anything in the past week. I had a minor catastrophe, which lead to a major meltdown last weekend. I wrote a 20+ page seminar paper for a class and after turning it in a few weeks ago, the professor returned it to me to complete final edits. The edited paper was due on the 23rd at three. Of course, I procrastinated, but I left enough time at the end to complete everything-if everything went according to plan. My mom was coming into town on the 20th and my friend was coming into town the afternoon of the 21st, so I planned to finish the edits between the 17th and the 20th and tweak it, before turning it in on Friday when I went downtown. Does anything ever go according to plan at the end of the semester? That would be no. Last semester I got the flu for the first time in like 5 years (even after being vaccinated), days before 3 final papers were due. SN: I use an iPad because my Sony laptop is too big/heavy/slow to carry around everywhere. This semester, coffee spilled on my iPad and completely fried on Wednesday…so that meant I had less than 72 hours to get this paper reedited. At first, I was in denial and tried to revive it, but by Thursday night I realized it wasn’t coming back. I pulled an all-nighter on Friday and completed all the edits, but all the additional research I’d done was gone.

Alas, I got a B+ on the paper and a B+ in the class. It was my first B since an undergrad Geology class in 2010, so I had an ugly crying wine fest. I am paying so much money and living in less than ideal conditions so that I can get this degree, so the fact that my efforts were obviously subpar and I screwed up a large number of chances I’m going to have for getting into a PhD program sent me into melt down mode.  I’ve constantly been told that a B is a D in grad school and considering I’ve never gotten anything below a B, I’m reallyyy embarrassed and upset about it. Oh well though, nothing I can do about it now. I was planning on using this paper as my Master’s essay since it was the first time I’ve done primary source research, but I had to receive an A- or better, which I did not do, so now I have to figure out what other paper I am going to use. It looks as though I need to spend some serious time this summer trying to find plan Bs and getting job application stuff ready for the winter.

SO, ANYWAY! Enough of my melodramatic BS. My friend arrived Thursday afternoon and I kicked off #40for40NYC This first entry will be broken up into a few posts because it includes: the Waldorf Astoria, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, Central Park, Stone Street+Battery Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station, and Coney Island.

Thursday night, we took the train downtown and met my mom at the Waldorf Astoria. 

  
My mom was staying there for business, so we met to have a drink and then go to dinner! We stopped at the Peacock Alley Bar in the lobby of the WA and each had a drink.

  
 My mom got red wine, but my friend and I got a cocktail. I got the Globetrotter, which was heavy on the rum, but definitely got the job done. 

  
My friend got a champagne strawberry cocktail, which was really good. So, here’s the deal: I do suggest checking out the WA because it is a historical location in NYC. Everyone that was everyone back in the day stayed there. A Chinese company recently purchased it, so I don’t know how it will change in the future and you should definitely check it out if you can. Keep in mind it’s a luxury hotel, so staying there is out of my reach. I have stayed there one night in 2012 when I rented a room for an ex’s birthday weekend and it’s definitely nice to be able to say you’ve stayed.  That being said, the bar in the hotel charges around $20 for cocktails, so to keep this under the $40 budget, I suggest heading there to have a look around the lobby (there are many exhibits showing artifacts and notable guests), having a drink, and watching people. They also provide individual, complementary bar snacks! You’ll spend $5.50 on roundtrip subway fare and then get a cocktail for around $20. 

  
It’d be a fun Friday or Saturday night date, watching rich people and ladys of the night in the lobby. My friend and I saw what we thoughttt was a working girl out front when we were going in. An hour and a half later when we were leaving it was confirmed that she was definitely a lady of the night when we heard her soliciting a John and saw her grab a vile of coke from another lady of the night. So, yeah, people watching in a historic location for around $25+free snacks…pretty sweet deal!

Happy 2015!

04 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in Personal and Fun

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/f34/53590152/files/2015/01/img_9344.jpg

What’d I tell ya? I absolutely suck at maintaining a blogging schedule. Needless to say, I was completely overwhelmed at the end of last semester so I didn’t blog at all.

I had a major leak in my kitchen, my air-mattress developed a leak, I found mice in my kitchen, had to write 50 pages, had to pack for my trip home for Christmas, and then I got the flu (despite getting the vaccine back in October)-all within 3 weeks. This was my first time living on my own and being a full-time student and it was really challenging. I realize that’s pretty shitty and privileged, considering I’m now 26 years old, but either way, being a student, working, and living by myself took a little getting used to and there were some major growing pains around finals time. I’ve figured it all out and still managed to get good grades, but I definitely have a new found appreciation for people that work/parent, live alone, and go to school!

I didn’t have issues going to work, paying my bills, or doing my school work, but never having a moment when something didn’t have to be done was a new thing for me. At least for me, now that I’m living on my own, I never have any time when I’m not worried about something or something has to be taken care of. I have no real “free” time. Even if I am not immediately occupied with a task, I have to think about what tasks need to be completed and how I’m going to pay for them-24/7. If it’s not work and a bus running late, it’s laundry and cleaning, or school work and preparing for class or final papers. There’s always something coming, there’s never a moment to relax.

Getting the flu really didn’t help either! >_<

/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/f34/53590152/files/2015/01/img_0825.jpg

Even when I lived at home I obviously cleaned for myself, worked, and went to school, but I didn't have to worry about my rent check getting to the office on time, or making time for an exterminator to come. If I was hungry I could find a good meal for $7 and just drive to a fast-food place or the grocery store at any hour…

The hardest things about living in NYC have been the sheer nastiness and not having a car. I love everything else about the city, but it's really dirty and I don't like not being able to drive to the grocery store or to get something to eat whenever I want to. I have to go to the grocery story several times a week because I can only buy as much as I can carry. I know that is common in many places in the world, but it's weird for me after living .5 miles from a grocery story for 4 years and having my own car for almost 10 years. You have more options in the city, but I feel like you are less free because you are SO dependent on so many people.

Anyway, I had several New Years resolutions last year and while I didn’t accomplish all of them, I feel like I was pretty successful.

I did lose several pounds (before coming home for Christmas and eating my weight in Mexican food)
I did read A LOT (although, no books cover-to-cover)
I did go to Italy
I did take a trip with a friend to San Antonio and New York this summer
I did cut way back on gossiping (since I don’t know anyone in NYC)
I did cook a lot
I did post a few videos on Youtube

BUT

I didn’t ever make time to volunteer, didn’t make any progress on my student debt, and I have yet to go to Mass in NYC, but I am carrying those resolutions over to 2015! I don’t really have any new resolutions this year, but I do hope to make more friends in NYC, be more patient, and get into a PhD program!

What are your resolutions for 2015? Did you succeed with your resolutions for 2014?

I do have a new hobby: Geocaching! I purchased the app two years ago and never used it but decided to try it out while I am back in Texas for the holidays. If you’ve never done it, you should check it out. It’s a global scavenger hunt using GPS coordinates! If you are interested in following me look me up @thatgingeranna! I am addicted and will be writing a post about it soon!

/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/f34/53590152/files/2015/01/img_1090.jpg

/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/f34/53590152/files/2015/01/img_1117.jpg

/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/f34/53590152/files/2015/01/img_1112.jpg

I’m registered for classes next semester and will be taking a Latin American history class, a class comparing Nazism and Fascism, and a required course about 20th century American culture!

I absolutely loved my classes this semester. I learned so much and they really challenged the way I think about things. I think one of the most valuable things I learned is that you can’t judge all things based on the same standard of success. There isn’t one way to succeed, whether you are discussing people, political systems, nations, or anything else. If you compare two different things and judge them based on a singular view of success then one will always come up short, but if you judge each system based on a unique definition of success, then you will see that everything is successful in its own way.

I will be in Texas for a couple more weeks, so my next few blogs will chronicle my Geocaching adventures, food, and a few little adventures. While it will be crazy-cold when I get back to NYC I have a few ideas of places to go and things to see before the Spring. My schedule should be a little less wonky than last semester and now that I have this whole living on my own thing down, I hope to blog a little more!

I have a friend that posts a prompt every week for bloggers and I hope to begin responding to that as well!

What would you guys like to read about? Do you have anything (cheap) in New York that you’d like me to check out and report on? Do you need advice or want my opinion on anything?

I hope you all have a great 2015, and I hope to post some entertaining stuff soon! 🙂

S1.E1: Welcome to the Bronx

26 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by in Personal and Fun

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

 

Happy Fall everybody!

IMG_7885.JPG

IMG_7988.JPG

IMG_8019.JPG

As you can see I haven’t written in a month, but I have a good excuse: I found a job!

If you are looking for quick employment (in New York or otherwise), I highly suggest Care.com! It isn’t just babysitting. You can apply as a turtor, personal assistant, elder care specialist, or for babysitting! I was able to find a permanent position pretty close to where I live. 

I’m also tutoring online, so if you or anyone you know needs help with school work (kindergarten through college), check out my site and schedule a virtual tutoring session!

HIRE ME

Now that all that advertising is out of the way, I can get down to the nitty-gritty.

I have another recipe to share and some recommendations for a few places around NYC if you are planning on moving or visiting! 

First and foremost, I want to tell you guys about Mother’s Bake Shop! The lady I work for took me there right after Yom Kippur to buy some Challah bread, but I went back by myself a week later and am now obsessed. This place has EVERYTHING. 

If you watched the recent Anthony Bourdain: Part’s Unknown episode in the Bronx, he went to a deli in Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx…this bakery is right next door. 

It’s a Jewish bakery, but they also sell all different kinds of European and American desserts. Cannolis, cheesecake, baklava, cupcakes, cookies, etc. and it’s extremely reasonable. I visited with a friend and we got a piece of cheesecake, a coffee, and a box of mixed desserts for $14! 

I personally recommend the Almond Horseshoes!

IMG_7676-1.JPG

IMG_7675-1.JPG

IMG_7651-2.JPG

Continue reading →