Day 28 (9/1/2016)

Searching through the whole apartment trying to find $2.25 in quarters. Walking a few blocks with 15 pounds on my shoulder, a phone on my hip, and a laptop in my hand. Oh the joys of Sunday laundry.

Today I’ve pretty much only eaten sugar so excuse my piss-poor-sugar-crash-lack-of-sleep attitude.

This weekend has been a busy one. On Friday I went to another party at NYU. I got there around 9:30 and it was dead, but a few people from last weekend were there. All of a sudden, twenty minutes later, the music was blasting and the party was poppin’ – apparently too poppin’ – the cops showed up at 10:30 (which is very early). The host’s spoke to them and were told to send everyone home. I personally wasn’t upset, I wanted to go home anyway. However, I talked to a girl, Justine, who I met last Friday. She is also form Oregon and even knows my best friend Emma; I never expected that.

We both are anti-getting in trouble, so we were

relieved to leave the party unbothered.

So it’s the weekend, right? Most people sleep in at least an hour more than normal. Not me apparently. I not only didn’t sleep in; I woke up 30 minutes earlier than I do for work – but not by choice. It’s been hot again the last few days and from 7am-10am the sun light in my room is terrible. I wake up sweating and feeling like death. So the last few nights I’ve only gotten about seven hours of sleep, but I’ll sleep good tonight – I can feel it.

Saturday morning, I woke up and was very lazy. I spent a good two or three hours watching TV on my computer. However, I had a plan for the day. Cookies! Not just any cookies. Amazing cookies. There is a bakery called Levain Bakery. They make cookies, brioche, bread, pound cake, all the good stuff. I got a dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookie and it was amazing. The cookie was slightly crunchy on the outside and doughy on the inside. It was very rich and almost had a fudge consistency. It racked in at 606 calories, but was oh so worth it. I found a shady place along the curb to pop a squat and devour this baked gold. There are two or three different locations for Levain Bakery – I went to the one near 117^th street – which is very uptown. I had to take the L train all the way to 8^th avenue (across Manhattan) then take the C to 116^th street (up Manhattan). It was about an hour ride each way, and it was roughly 90 degrees which felt like 100 degrees, but it was so worth the effort. I brought one home for Emily who had to work all weekend, then returned to being lazy the rest of the day.

Today though, was a different story. Justine, Daniel, and I (all from Salem), decided to go to a place called Black Tap in Soho which is known for its milkshakes and burgers. Knowing me, I wanted to go for the shakes. I’ve heard a lot about Black Tap and normally there is a crazy line, but being that it was a Sunday, we only had to wait for about 20 minutes. We ordered a “Cookies Shake” and a “Sweet and Salty Shake” with an order of Idaho fries and sweet potatoes fries. We knew that the milkshakes were large so we split two orders of fries and two milkshakes between the three of us. We devoured the fries and immediately regretted it once the shakes came. The Cookie Shake had a heaping pile of whipped cream with two ice cream sandwiches and vanilla frosting on the side. The Sweet and Salty Shake had heaping pile of whipped cream with large pretzels, chocolate, peanut butter, and M&Ms on the side. We pounded down the whipped cream and toppings until we realized that there was still actual milkshake left. We all had a few sips of each shake and had to give up. Although we didn’t get any, the burgers looked amazing and are definitely worth going back for.

We decided to give ourselves some time to come out of our food comas so we went to Justine’s dorm to see how she lives. Her bedroom view is killer (at right). I long for the day to wake up to a view like that… but I also want a view of the beach or mountains or a forest… but that’s a different story.

Daniel and I say “cya” to Justine and headed for the subway; I was very thankful for the walk. Fortunately, I had a small breakfast and plan on only having chicken for dinner so it wasn’t too bad.

When I got back home I Skyped my dad for about two hours and had a good conversation about work – oh yes, work. For work I have to leave around 8:15am, get on the L towards Queens, get off at East New York, get on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) at 8:47am, and get to work by 9:30am. I have a lot of computer/sitting work to do, which I’m not used to but at least I’m good with excel and like programs. I get off work at 5:30pm, get on the LIRR at 5:42pm, get to East New York, get on the subway towards Manhattan, and finally get home. It’s about an hour commute each way, but I like having that time to just look out the window and listen to music. It’s relaxing. I get home around 6:45pm, eat some dinner, work on scholarships, drink tea, and head to bed.
I’m excited for school to start on the 26^th. Even though it’s only online I’m excited to start learning again and adding more value to myself. I like having books to read and things to do and lessons to finish. I like having tasks to complete.

Monday-Friday are the typical 40 hours a week work week, but the weekends are for new adventures. I just wish some of the adventures included nature or the water or a hike – maybe in the fall.