New York City!

Whenever you say "New York City" you have to say it like those old Pace Picante commercials, when the cowboys are sitting around the campfire, and some rookie cowboy whips out a bottle of salsa that's not from Texas, but is instead from New York City! Then they run him out of the campsite. Every time I go back to visit New York City, that's what runs through my mind the entire first day or two.. "New York City!" Then I get run out of town by some cowboys.

Ok, not really. But in my mind, it's all "New York City!" nonetheless. So anyway, here I am, in New York City! And it is so fabulous! Scott and I are here for a month to pretend what it would be like to actually live here in the City (yes, I said a month! In New York City!) Ok, it's out of my system... for now :-)

Anyway, for those of you who want to know what we're up to day to day, I vow to be diligent on my blog posts, so you can see what pretend living in New York City! would be like (ok, NOW it is out of my system...until tomorrow)

Scott and I arrived in our 400 sq ft apartment today. We had been nervous to see what 400 sq ft actually felt like when we were in it, but when we arrived we were surprisingly excited! It seems much bigger! Of course, it is decorated in a contemporary style, which always seems larger because the style is more streamlined, with clean lines and no clutter. If you were to add a fake ficus tree, for example, I can imagine that it would definitely make the space seem much smaller. So basically, it's a good thing that I don't permanently live here, because I don't know that I could adapt a "less is more" decorating style. But, with our month long residency, I can learn what it's like to live in a contemporary, modern space.

Here are some pictures of our "spacious" 400 sq ft pad in Greenwich Village:

As you can see, it's plenty big enough for the two of us! I think we will be just fine in this space for the next 30 days :-)

So, after settling in and unpacking, the next thing we did was to go get an early dinner, since we had skipped lunch. We went to this neighborhood place called "Extra Virgin". It was about 1 block from our apartment, so it was very convenient as we were tired from the travel all day.

Here's the great thing about New York... you can go to your average, neighborhood restaurant, and get a meal that is as good or better than all the fancy schmancy places in Lousiville. Scott and I decided to split a dinner of wild mushroom with trufflle oil, goat cheese, and spinach whole wheat ravioli, topped with shaved parmasean. And a side of fries with a gorgonzola cheese fondue. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? How amazing does that sound?!?! That is only something that would be on the menu at Porchini's or Corbett's in Louisville (which are high dollar), and aren't even as good! This meal was unbelievably decadent.... see for yourself:

Look at that french fry. How good does that look? Let me tell you- IT WAS! All that delicious salty goodness coated all over it, perfectly fried and slightly crunchy (not soggy at all!), and that bowl of delicious Gorgonzola cheese fondue.... Oh, my goodness. I've died and gone to Heaven!

We split this meal (thank goodness, because it was plenty!), and then on our 1 block walk home, we walked past another fabulous restaurant called Cafe Cluny. They just so happened to have a cart parked out front of the restaurant on the sidewalek... with homemade ice cream! So, of course we had to get a cone to split. Homemade strawberry icecream, with a homemade waffle cone! The cone was literally still warm from coming off the waffle pan. Here is the ice cream:

Look at those chunks of strawberries! This ice cream tasted like real cream. It was SO good! Scott and I fought each other over it, which says a lot since Scott barely even likes dessert! It was dang good. And, only 2 doors down from our apartment, which is extremely dangerous! As a cone is $4.00, we already set a limit of no more than 3 cones a week. Hopefully we can stick to that budget!

After our phenomenal dinner, we decided to walk to the local grocery store for some basic necessities. That pretty much consisted of 4 cases of water, as we were so stuffed from dinner we couldn't even think of what else to get to stock our apartment. Luckily, the grocery is a half a block from our apartment, so we can just walk on over any time! So convenient!

After our water excursion, we decided to walk 17 blocks to a free comedy show. It was an Improv Show, which was very entertaining! After the show, we decided we could still go for a little snack, so stopped in a carry out pizza place called "Brickyard Pizza Oven". We got a piece of beef, ricotta, and basil pie:

We brought the delicious pie back to our new apartment, and proceeded to devour it. Scott is now fully passed out in a pizza coma, but I wanted to get our first blog entry out! I will do my best to keep up a daily log, for anyone who is interested. Until tomorrow! Goodnight!