3 Months in New York

It's been almost a year since I lived in New York and I've had a lot of time to think back and remember all the great things about my trip.

I've written somethings down, a few things that didn't make it into the blog, but that I believe were some of the most important parts of my journey. I named them

Things I want to remember about NY:

-Being home sick for weeks
-Missing Blake every day of my three months there
-The hundreds of phone calls to and from my mom to get me through it all
-Watching all 4 seasons of Lost on my lonely nights in bed
-Riding the subway
-Listening to music
-Friends that came to visit:
Jess E
Dan D'Angelo
Foxxy
Blake
The Parsons Family
-Dragging equipment up and down Chris Bucks apartment building
-Dragging equipment up and down subway stations to do my own photo shoot
-Checking in to the front desk on my first day with Chris
-My first job he gave me, buying paper towels
-Dunkin Donuts
-Visits with Josh
-Watching airplanes fly over our apartment building ever few seconds
-The flight to New York, sleeping the whole time so I didn't have to feel sad
-My first sight of the city from the plane, it was like nothing I've ever seen
-My flight back home, and seeing Blake again

I also wanted to compile a series of Chris Bucks photos that I helped with. These are not all of the photo shoots that I was on, but all that I could find.

Enjoy.

My first photo shoot with Chris:

The CEO of a yoga company Lululemon.

A studio shoot with Julie Hagerty

Weird Al shoot in Penn. for Wired

Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard for Food & Wine

Olympic Runners for Runners World

John Hodgeman for GQ

Tuna Lady (this was one of my favorite photo shoots-such good lighting)

(All photos by Chris Buck)

Thanks again for reading! This is the last entry of my New York internship. I had a great time!

This was the last day I got to spend with the ladies, because I had to go back to work for one last day with Chris before my time came to an end in New York.

I would be flying back home in only 2 days!

Today the ladies and I went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. And it was awesome!

I've never been to a wax museum and was pretty excited to meet all the wax celebrities.

Brittany got to meet Robin Williams

And Oprah was there too!

She was lookin a little too waxy to be real. Sorry Oprah.

Jess and Karen stood with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. Who was in Snakes on a Plane, a great movie!

I guess Tyra Banks is working her way up because she had her own little room all to herself.

Look mom! I met Woody Allen just like you!

We all had joined a great family photo op with the Osborne Family.

Jess was so lucky that night, she got to meet Whoopi and Miley Cyrus.

Nice job Jess.

And that's where my camera died. We ended up going to a really crazy 4D experience movie thing. Which was really fun, and made us all scream and jump.

The next day the girls ventured off by themselves to shop and do more site-seeing. I told them they HAD to go into Chinatown and try and find some nice Chinese ladies to buy fake purses from. They were SO excited about that and actually came back with bags full of 2 to 3 purses each. Crazy girls.

My last day with Chris was sad, but nice. Nothing out of the ordinary. We had our last desserts together from 'How sweet it is' his favorite sweet shop in New York and now mine.

Chris has a tradition to give all interns a original Chris Buck print, of our own choosing, so that was nice. I got a great photo of his, with Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan. I love that photo. It's now hanging in my hallway.

It was a great 3 month experience and I'm so glad I did it. And I'm so glad to be going home!

On our second day together in New York we made it back to the M&M World, where Jess met her match.

And we continued to walk around and visit the popular sites of the city.

Including Radio City Music Hall

And the most important site of all when you visit New York, "NUTS for NUTS"

That's us eating the nuts, MAN those nuts are so good. If you ever go to New York, the one thing you must do is eat Nuts for Nuts. They are too good to miss.

We did a little shopping in Midtown and ate lunch at a cute cafe.

The girls had taken their first subway ride the night before, and they weren't very impressed with it, so today I took them on another ride, and we had to run to get on our train in time and it was pretty packed in there because it was mid day in NY. They all turned to me and said, "that's more like it!" They wanted an exciting subway ride. I guess that's as exciting as they get. Although I have to say, my favorite subway rides have always been the ones where I'm on the train with some weird crazy people. The preachers or singers, or just really loud drunk people. Those are the best rides. But the girls had a good old fashion subway experience and they were happy.

The transportation tally is now, bus, walking, cab and subway.

Another great NY experience all girls must have is finding a HOT New York firefighter. We did find a cool fire station.

But we kinda failed at finding the hot fireman, and we found a very average fireman instead. The fireman taking the picture is actually much cuter and we all thought that was pretty ironic and very funny.

That night (i think it was that night) I don't have any photos to support this fact, but we made our way to a Broadway show. It was my first and only show in New York and we were all pretty excited. We all got dressed up and went to Chicago!

It was a great show.

On our way there Jess found the Knights from Monty Python, and well...joined them.

After the show, we jetted down to Little Italy (which is becoming littler ever day because Chinatown is surrounding it and eating it alive) and had dinner. It was a very yummy Italian dinner that we all enjoyed.

Walking back out onto the street after dinner we tried to hail a cab and instead a limo showed up. We told the driver sorry, we can't afford a limo we just wanted to catch a cab up to Times Square. He than told us to "Get in! I'll give you the same rate!" So we did. It was crazy. What a stellar night, Broadway shows, Little Italy and a limo home. We were all yelling out the windows all the way home to our hotel.

Transportation tally: bus, walking, cab, subway and limo.

Today part of Blake's family came out to visit me in New York. It was so nice to have them here on my last days in the city. His mom Julie, his sister Jess, her friend Karen, and a friend of the families Brittany, all came to visit. A girls weekend!

We had a pretty great time. We did lots of things I'd been dying to do in New York, and some things that I've done a bunch of times but that never get old.

They all finally arrived after a few plane delays and some touch-downs in other states. But they got here.

The first night we were out, I took them into Times Square, that was my first experience in New York and I think it's great to jump right into the heart of Manhattan!

We decided to take the good ol' blue tour bus, and had a great time.

Julie was the only one who didn't have anyone to share a seat with but she found a friend to sit with

The night tour bus took us from Time Square down to the tip of Manhattan, through Chinatown, and over the bridge to Brooklyn.

In Brooklyn we stopped at my favorite ice cream/pizza area and were able to get out and view the beautiful scene of the Manhattan skyline. (Which you can't see at all in this picture, so just use your imagination. We've all see the skyline before right!?)

We jumped back on the bus, with the tour guide who ended up being a little boring and a bit too emotional, and made our way back to Manhattan. After our tour, we found our way around Times Square.

I was so excited to show them the M&M store. When we got there, it had just closed.

Here's the girls at the door, lookin pretty sad they couldn't get their M&M on.

It was actually a blessing in-disguise because if we hadn't been out on the street right then, we wouldn't have been able to find this AMAZING singing music group walking down the street.

I believe they were just walking from where they had been playing, but we defiantly made them stop and play for us. It was great.

I also got some pretty good photo-ops of Julie and Jess, holding up their favorite restaurant! We were trying to find some place to eat, but everything was closed. We decided that New York is a city that actually does sleep.

It looks heavy girls!

I also got this great photo of Julie walking by some Broadway posters.

She looks good with ears.

We ended up taking a cab back to their hotel and thus began our journey to see how many modes of transportation we could ride while in New York. It was pretty great how many we covered. I'll update you on that tally later. Right now we're at bus, walking, and cab.

They stayed in the very heart of Times Square at the Weston, and I actually got to stay with them instead of going back to my hot and stuffy apartment. Thanks ladies!

My very very good friend Jenny just recently moved to Syracuse New York with her husband Kenny and their brand new baby Kenny the 3rd.

I have yet to meet the baby so I had to take a trip up to Syracuse to see them. I was very excited to see the family.

I rode a bus from Manhattan all the way up to Syracuse. Kenny met me at the bus station and took me back to see Jenny and her sleeping baby.

He is just the cutest thing ever. I'm very glad I was able to see him so young. He is actually only a few weeks old.

This is a very small, relaxing trip. We are not going to do much, just hang out, and look at the baby.

Here is Kenny and Kenny. What a proud dad!

Jenny and I decided to take on the challenge of putting together their dresser that they had just bought and not yet assembled.
It was a pretty fun challenge. While we worked Kenny Sr. took a much needed power nap and the baby slept too...for the most part.

We had a lot of fun. And I was reminded how much Jenny and I laugh when we are together! I had a great time, doing the most simple things with her.

Here is the finished product. Even baby Kenny woke up to see the dresser.

We were pretty proud.

Later that day we ventured off to find Jarrod's moms pizza shop. My friend from Denver Jarrod (who is Jess's boyfriend, remember Jess?) is from Syracuse NY, and his mom owns a pretty famous pizza shop in town. I have never met Jarrod's mom and I really wanted to meet her and try the famous pizza.

It was SOOO good!

We brought the pizza home and just hung out, ate and watched movies. It was nice to be around Jen again.

The next day, we took a nice walk around their cute Syracuse neighborhood.

I love this area of New York, lots of rolling hills and so green!

We also made a fun trip to walmart to get a new baby swing.

It was a great trip to Syracuse. After my weekend with the Matthews family, I bused back to New York for my final days and a visit from Blake's family!