This one's a novel.

Listening to: Yellow..Coldplay

Disclaimer: Long-winded attempt at deciphering my own thoughts to follow.



Well I think its safe to say I made up for my extremely sedate and relaxing 24 hours on Friday through out the rest of this weekend.

On Saturday I went with my friend Andrea (from Germany) down to the Staten Island Ferry, which is free by the way, and gives you an incredible view of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan from the water. The weather was perfect and the boat wasn't even too packed. We had a fantastic view from the top deck. It was about an hour trip round trip and so worth it. (I mean it's free-come on!)

That night we enjoyed a few drinks from our roof top deck while listening to Empire State of Mind, on repeat more times than I should admit. Totally cliche, right? I don't even care. Sitting there looking right at the real Empire State building is still an unreal feeling.

Today I went with three other lovely Oklahoma Girls downtown to Century 21. That store is insane. It's floors filled with designer stuff that is seriously marked down. I was a little overwhelmed.

On a side note...and maybe this is a little too philosophical or weird...but Century 21 is right next to the World Trade Center site. Literally, right there. It's kind of a strange feeling to be doing something so completely trivial right in the same spot that such a horrific tragedy happened. Even though it was almost ten years ago, I still can't comprehend what happened there. I feel like with every second I spend in this city I become protective of it, and more proud to be an American. Honestly, I used to be so obsessed with moving to Europe...but spending time here makes me feel good about where I'm from.

To put a positive spin on that whole train of thought though, I guess you could also look at activity around the WTC as a sign that life is still thriving there. There are huge, wonderfully successful businesses next to that site and families walking in and out of stores, people enjoying coffee...just small signs that life continues.

Whew. Not sure where all that came from.

This afternoon I went with a good friend to Union Square which is a really great area. The rain kind of forced us to pick a place to eat pretty quickly, and we happened across a place called the Coffee Shop...but its actually a restaurant/bar. The food was really great...imagine this: a grilled mozzarella, tomato, basil, pesto sandwich...mmm. I read later that place is actually kind of well known, and we didn't know that at the time-so I guess we lucked out.

I love that people really enjoy their Sundays here. I mentioned in a previous post that people are "really in to brunch." And I think it's great. Honestly, it's so nice to have a long lunch/brunch with someone and to not be in a hurry for once.

All of my experiences so far have left me feeling both completely overwhelmed and blessed at the same time. My friend asked me today what my ideal job would be...ya know...in the dreamland sense. And honestly, three years ago I would have said English teacher. One year ago I would have said screen writer, music supervisor, producer, etc. Today, I really don't know. Honestly. I know that no matter what my 9-5 job turns out to be, I will always love writing. That's the only for sure thing I know right now. I am definitely at a re-evaluating point, but this where the "trusting the universe" thing needs to come in to play.

Part of me feels that I need to spend every waking minute trying to put myself in the best possible position to move back here in January after graduation.

The other half of me acknowledges that of course planning ahead is important, but I also know I need to slow down and just enjoy every single moment. I'm spending the entire summer in New York City. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. I think the biggest challenge I will have this summer is just letting go and having faith that it will all work out just as it should.

The funny/cool thing about faith is-you've still gotta have it even when you're happy. I'm so content with where I am right now, yet it's gonna be a struggle to focus on trusting I will end up here if I'm supposed to.

Anywhooo...if we don't stop to slow down occasionally, we could miss something really great, right? And that sure would be a shame.

Alright, time for more "Crackberry" pictures. The first three are from the Staten Island Ferry and the last is a view of a random street in the meat packing district via the High Line.