Friday, August 16, 2013

Manhattan

The Big Apple.
The Concrete Jungle.
The City that Never Sleeps.

Whatever you decide to call New York City, all I can think about is a tiny 1-bedroom apartment (paying $2100 a month in rent), sweltering heat, and seeing Spencer a minimal amount of time.
100 Morningside drive
We had a fun summer in New York. Saw a lot of the touristy sites, and lived like locals stuffing our kids in closets and sleeping on futons. We grocery shopped in little stores that didn't fit the stroller. we ate pancakes and sandwiches and cold cereal for the majority of our at home meals. We went to plenty of public parks. We walked, we walked and we walked.

I kept a tally of the amount of miles I walked with the kids in the stroller. Before we went to the City I wasn't sure if our double stroller was worth the investment. Since then, having walked around most of the Upper West Side and beyond, I have deemed it one of our best purchases.

117 miles. (Mostly walked in flip flops) (and mostly planned around eating food)

Speaking of tallies we also had a little record of how many traffic violations we incurred.

2 parking tickets.
car was towed once.
pulled over twice.

-$145 in parking tickets, one for parking too close to a fire hydrant, and the other for not moving the car on a street cleaning day.
- The car was towed once in the night while they repaved the street. Kind of freaky to walk outside and not see your car. (No fines)
-Pulled over twice, one for speeding (a warning) and the other time for turning right on a red (a warning ) I never knew until that moment that you couldn't turn right on a red in NYC.

Glad to be back on the suburban roads again without a yellow cab in sight.


We truly had a great summer. Spencer spent most of his time at the office or doing events with the firm and built friendships with other interns. He spent 3 LONG weeks in Germany working in the Frankfurt office. He ate delicious gourmet food while I stuffed my face with Goldfish crackers. We went to broadway musicals, the Metropolitan Opera in the park and nearly all of the major museums. We walked the Brooklyn bridge, visited all 5 boroughs a couple times, drove out to New York's suburbs, ate a lot of pizza and hot dogs, and got pretty decent at using the 1-train.

And anything that we missed out on this summer we'll have the opportunity to do again next year.
My hard working little Spencey Baby got an offer from Clifford Chance.

I'm sad that we only have one more year at Cornell to enjoy the beauty of Ithaca, but we are excited that all of Spencer's hard work has paid off and there will be a job waiting for him after graduation. (Even if that job is located on the most populated and expensive island in America)

8 comments:

Casey said...

What an ADVENTURE!

likeschocolate said...

Despite living in the closet! It sounds like you had a blast!

Berioska said...

What a great adventure!!! Congratulations on the new job offer!! I can't believe how time has flown by and that Spencer is already finishing school next year! That's a relief :) say hi to your family from us. You guys are awesome!

Lana Dawn said...

Wow! Congratulations! That is so exciting, and with Luke actually having a real job, hopefully that means I can come visit you, either in Ithaca or NYC!

Love you!

Lindsay said...

You probably don't know me, but I'm Riley Nay's sister, and I totally stalk your blog. (Hi there!) We live in Brooklyn and enjoy it -- most of the time. ;) NYC is a total adventure, and I loved how you summed up your summer here. If, when you come back, you want to live somewhere with *slightly* more square footage than a closet for half the price of the UWS, consider Brooklyn. We're in Bay Ridge, which is pretty accessible to the city, very family friendly, and with as much of an urban feel as Manhattan (though, with, admittedly, fewer skyscrapers). Plus, our ward is totally awesome and is always looking for fun people to join us in our awesomeness. ;)

Ben, Paige & William said...

You guys are awesome. Enjoy Ithaca for us! :)

Lindy Salmon said...

Wow, congrats! We'll talk more later this week, in person!

Lindsey Hicks said...

Sara - I haven't checked blogs in a while - so fun to read this update. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to fend for yourself those 3 weeks while Spencer was in Germany! But then again it probably wasn't that different than your day to day. It sounds like you made the most of your time there. I hope having a little more money next year makes it easier.