MoMA PS1

Today Danielle and I went to Queens and explored one of the oldest and largest nonprofit contemporary art institutions in the United States.. The MoMA PS1 actively pursues emerging artists, new genres, and adventurous new work by recognized artists in an effort to support innovation in contemporary art. 

But first we ate lunch.

We were kind of lost at first because we happened to go on a day where most of the art was removed to make room for their annual New York Art Book Fair... Today was the first day of it too!

After a lot of searching aimlessly throughout the building, we finally found a floor that still had art available for visitors. 

Unfortunately.. they do not allow any sort of photography.
So I couldn't take pictures of the actual art..
However, I found some pictures online to show you some of what we saw. 

But before I knew this rule- I took a little video of the first piece of art we viewed.

This is part of a video that was put together in 2000 that has a bunch of clips from  the 1991 ticker-tape parade in New York to celebrate the successful conclusion of the Gulf War. Operation Welcome Home involved more than six thousand tons of ticker tape and confetti, which were dumped down from buildings lining the route. Its called "Little Flags." This is towards the end of the film.

This is a scuplture that overlooks a scatter piece made from an atomized jet engine in the "September 11" exhibition.

This art exhibition room was filled with tons of news paper clippings like the following- all having to do with riots, protests, agony, and violence around the world. There were a couple booklets in the middle of the room that explained the story of each one.

This art exhibition was "Untitled." In the middle is a huge stack of paper that is supposed to represent the epitaph of the anonymously dead.  In other words- its giving some sort of recognition to those that otherwise might not have any. Visitors are allowed to take one if they wish.

Danielle and I then went into the city (by the way- I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but "going into the city" means going into Manhattan). Anyways, we went into the city and it was pouring!

Dinner time..

When we got home, we came back to an awesome present from my mom! Personalized stamps! Thanks mom! 

And I got a Halloween card from my grandma O'brien! Thanks grandma!! 

And now it's time for bed! Danielle and I are getting up early and getting a ride to New Jersey tomorrow morning! We are going to work at this big concert tomorrow and Saturday to make a few extra bucks- and get free food too!

Productivity

Well Yesterday started off right! To our surprise- Kyle made us breakfast in bed!

Scrambled eggs with sweet Italian sausage and jalapeno. sliced apples sprinkled with cinnamon. And a couple slices of cinnamon toast. yummmm

 

Joey Lauren Adams came into her work again!! To buy some products.. Danielle says she has an envelope that says "Joey" on it thats filled with money.. not bad Joey. Not bad at all.. 

Yesterday was a planning and research day for me. I have some exciting things coming up.. so stay tuned! And I went on some errands :] Productive day!

I also cooked dinner for everyone last night- I made pasta. Or I should say I tried to make pasta.. thats why there is no picture. 

And then it was time to celebrate with Kyle! He finally finished his screenplay last night!

Lombardi's

Today I went to my orientation to become a volunteer for the New York Cares organization...

So I went into the city to for my meeting that was held at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

This cool globe thing was right outside my subway stop. awesome.  

By mobilizing myself through volunteer work, I will be able to meet pressing community needs and therefore make New York City a better place! I am able to start signing up for projects at around noon tomorrow. sweeeeeet.

Since I was already in the city- I thought it would be fun to venture out something new and different.

Welcome to Lombardi's Pizzeria. Only the first ever pizzeria in AMERICA. No big deal..

This place was founded in 1905 in Little Italy, Manhattan.

Lombardi's Pizza is still claimed to be one of the best pizzerias in the United States.

 

I got a small Margherita Pizza with Sweet Italian Sausage.

It was bomb. Actually that's an understatement..
I made sure to bring some home for the roomies. :]

  

Weekend

Saturday. 

Danielle was called into work again- and then met up with a friend for drinks.

Kyle worked on his computer the whole day, then went out to a club.

I mopped.

  

Sunday.
Danielle and I wanted to get out of the house today.. so we thought we would go visit bar kitty at the Brooklyn Brewery.

 To our surprise.. there was another furry animal there that we recognized. Barcade puppy was there!

Alright everyone, try not to make fun of me for what I a about to write-

Okay.So... On Friday I was about to cross the street when I came across this printed advertisement-looking sign on a traffic light pole. It said "Stoop Sale."  I almost took a picture of it because I thought "hahaha what? a stoop sale? how do you sell stoops? maybe they design stoops??"

Anyways... it started to all come together once I saw this on the way to the Brewery-

Turns out, they don't have garage sales or yard sales here.. they have stoop sales! hahahahaha

Anyways, after visiting our favorite bar kitty, we met up with Kyle at the Bean Post Pub (where he was watching the football game) and then went home together.

Monday.
Well... today was a lazy-roommate-day.

After vegging out and pretty much eating snacks all day- Kyle decided to make us a home-made pizza for dinner. It was sooooo gooooooooood. He is a really great cook. Thanks Kyle!

  

Then Evan  set up his laptop so that Danielle and I could watch the Dodger game through skype! :] and we won! Thanks Evan!

Oh and Alex brought a tonnnn of stuff from home for all of us to use. Like a couch, and a chair, and a table, and a little tv, and a coffee maker.. the list goes on. Thanks Alex!!

Cats and HotDogs.

 Yesterday was a perfect example of things happening for a reason.

-It was raining Cats and HotDogs from the moment we woke up.
-Danielle got called into work because her boss was sick.
-Since it was pouring rain- I decided to go with her and hang out in Starbucks on their big red comfy chair
-The big red comfy chair was taken. So I sat in the only other seat available.
-The girl across from me was on the phone, and noticeably going through a not so easy time
-She said something I agreed with- so I nodded at her (trying not to eavesdrop though)
-20 Minutes later after her phone call- we got to talking...
-I got the chance to help this girl with what she was going through.
-A little later- I got on the phone for a little while with Evan
-I mentioned "free pizza with every beer purchase." - she nodded at me (trying not to eavesdrop also)
-After my call, I invited her to come to the bar for dinner with us.
-A new friendship began :]

Meet Jacqueline

So once Danielle got off work, we all met up at Lulu's- which is like the Alligator Lounge I had mentioned in a previous post.. Except this place was WAY better.

We were lucky to come across possibly the best seats in the house- at the edge of the balcony overlooking the bar.

We had beers, a LOT of free pizza, and great conversation.

And to our surprise- there was live music as well! This band is called "The Maybes"

-Kyle also came and met up with us about an hour after being there- which just added to the great night :]
-Things started to go bad when we decided to go home.
-The train we needed  to get on was shut down- and we had to find alternate transportation.

-Besides being super fun to hang out with- all three of us girls were SO lucky to have Kyle with us.. He figured out what we had to do to get home, and even sent Jacqueline in the right direction.

This is us getting on the jam-packed shuttle

This is us actually on the jam-packed shuttle.

Anyways- after two shuttles and three trains later- we finally arrived back at home. 

So what happened for a reason exactly? Welllll.. if it wouldn't have been raining Cats and HotDogs, then I wouldn't have gone to work with Danielle. I wouldn't have met our new friend and had the chance to help  her out. Kyle wouldn't have come to hang out with us. And Danielle and Jacqueline would have been all alone (separately) trying to find alternate transportation..

Last Few Days

After a crazy long and eventful weekend- I have been spending most of my time recouping and putting together the blogs for the 5 days with Evan.

However, a couple interesting things happened in the past couple days- mainly having to do with our roommate Kyle-

He prepared his famous Casino Clams.(and forced me to try one while Danielle just watched!)

At night he cooked us dinner- Ahi Tuna and pasta with a glass of champagne.

And then after dinner he pulled these three mugs out of the fridge- I like to call them Kyles Teddy Gram Surprise. hahahhaa :] Its because its layered- and once we got to the bottom we found a bunch of little teddy grams trapped. it was sooo cute.

The layers went like this- (from top to bottom)
One little teddy. Melted Dark Dove Chocolate. Baked Cinnamon Apple Chunks. Whipped Cream. Trapped Teddys.... Kyle definitely takes care of us girls.

BDW- Day Five

Day Five- The last day of my birthday weekend with Evan. :[

Since its an annual festival- I took him back to the Feast of San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy so that we could try new and interesting things.

Since the nature of the festival is to FEAST- thats exactly what we did.

We first had some fried calamari.. then went straight for the fried snickers.

It doesn't look that good- but it was fantastic.

Next up- Cornbread with Mozzarella... 

Soooooo good. 

We finally stopped snacking and got some real food- Italian sausages with peppers. 

For dessert we got chocolate covered strawberries on a stick.

Nothing needs to be said here...

Oh and we also picked up three mini cannolis.

Cappuccino. Pistachio. Nutella.

We then went home, Evan packed up his things, and we headed for the airport.
We tried to cannolis while waiting for the AirTrain to the terminal..

   

Oh, and before leaving each other- He handed me back my house keys- which had a surprise present on them.. Somehow he managed to be super sneaky and buy this when I wasn't looking.. :]

After our goodbyes, I took the wrong train and it took me about two hours to get home..

But once I did- I prepared dinner for Danielle and I to make once she got home from work. (We wanted to do a special dinner for Kyle since he just got back in town from Florida.. and we missed him)

This is my salad- Romaine. Gala Apples. Feta Cheese. Cranberries. and Sliced Grapes. Yummm

   

And these were our turkey burgers.

BDW- Day Four

Discovering Coney Island. 

And The Atlantic Ocean.

First things first- you don't go to Coney Island without stopping to get a hot dog from Nathan's Famous. This place started out as a small little hot dog stand in 1916 in your very own Coney Island, New York. And has now expanded to sell their famous dogs in all 50 states, with over 40,000 locations.

Needless to say- our expectations were met. super bomb. 

.. we also got chili fries. 

We walked the pier.

  

Took more fun pictures.

Then we got a funnel cake!

  

And it got all over me from the wind..

To sum it up- We got to chill at the beach, have great conversation, enjoy really good food, take fun pictures, and soak in as much beauty as we were able to. 

We then headed home, and got ready to go out with Danielle and her friend Paul in ParkSlope.

I don't have many pictures from this- but we went to three bars.

The first one was called Union Hall- it had two bocce ball courts, a fire place, and a little private library.. super cute and cozy. I definitely want to come back here.

Then we went to a couple other bars that I forget the name of- but at one of them we got this steak salad! and it was delicioussssss.

   

After a few more beers and great conversation- we headed home... and had fun while doing it.

as you can see. :]

 Oh and we got to practice our high five! Check it out.. 

(keep in mind that we aren't as sharp due to all the beers...)