Salad with mixed greens (no steamed kale at the UWS WF ), carrots, cucs, tomatoes, onions, chickpeas, quinoa, multigrain tabouli, 2 mini pitas which I’d already eaten lol, and I added hummus, EVOO & vinegar at home and tossed that baby up.

Dessert was something I’ve been dying for to soothe my throat- coconut ice cream!

I got the chocolate pb variety and it was SO good, but I have to admit I like the Coconut Bliss brand a little better because their ice cream is so dark chocolatey!  I’m not used to eating something that tastes like milk chocolate, and I’m more a fan of the darker stuff after being vegan for so long.  Still, I LOVED the huge chunks of pb in this ice cream!

This totally reminded me of a Dairy Queen chocolate pb cup blizzard, which is the ONE thing that still makes me feel deprived when I’m on a family vacation and they all eat DQ almost every night and I can’t partake in the yumminess.  Problem solved!

I was feeling well enough to go to work last night, and I had to go anyway since my bank account was teetering on the edge of non-existence.  I felt so good after work, I practically skipped home, played with the furkids and munched on veggies with hummus.  People, I have found a hummus I like in NYC!!!  You wouldn’t think it’d be this hard to find decent hummus, but you have to understand I’ve been very spoiled by my old health food store’s hummus.  Healthy Living in South Burlington, VT has the best hummus I’ve ever had, including the hummus I had in Greece.  There, I said it.  It’s crazy good.  And the new hummus I found is nothing in comparison, but it’ll do- Whole Food’s Red Pepper Hummus.  I need to go back and buy 208423 containers tomorrow b/c I go through a container every 1-2 days.

I also got a fun package from Sephora yesterday which contained my new Dior “DiorShow Iconic” Mascara.

I tried it out last night and actually said “holy shit!” when I put it on.  It makes me look like I’m wearing false eyelashes!  I had no idea my lashes were this long, and I’ve tried tons of different mascaras over the years.  Um, I don’t know if you can tell from these pics but have a look for yourself!  Please pardon the wet hair and huge zit from my other Sephora purchase- Bare Escentuals eye make-up remover that is apparently not pure enough for my skin because it made me break out.  Blaaaah.

OK so you really have to see me in person to tell.  I can’t get a camera that close to my eye!

I RAN TODAY!!!!  Aaaah it felt so good.  I coughed a bit but it was fine for my physical health, and totally 100% necessary for my mental health!  Only 5.6 miles but it was so lovely out today.  I almost ran over about 15 small children on the way back because school was letting out as I was running back home.  As my dad would say- Target practice!  Hahah.

And then I went to work for a long-ass time.  Gotta make some money if I’m going to keep up this overpriced fermented mushroom beverage habit!

I also miss running so much.  I crave it and when I don’t get to run I get angry at any other runner I see.  Today I took Cirrus to Central Park and got too tired to keep walking, so we sat down on a bench.  Wouldn’t you know it’s the bench dedicated to Ryan Shay, the elite marathoner who suddenly passed away at the Olympic Marathon Trials in the park  in 2008?  Of course I pick probably the only bench in the entire park that has to do with running.  Watching the happy runners leap by was torture.  I’m pretty sure I would suffer and die if I attempted running right now since I am currently unable to breathe in without having a coughing fit.  But that doesn’t mean this unplanned rest isn’t killing me.  I’m a “do-er” and am usually constantly on the move.  Sigh.

I did run 8 miles yesterday.  I felt crappy, but I’ve been running for 8.5 years and am very good at knowing my limits.  Unfortunately I spent the last 4 miles hacking up a lung, but overall it was a good run.  I just put my legs on auto pilot and kind of slept with my eyes open while somehow maintaining a pace fast enough to pass lots of people.  But today there was no question about it- I could NOT have run if my life depended on it.  I am forcing myself to take tomorrow off since this cold seems to be swiftly developing into bronchitis, and also because I need my energy to work and make some moolah.

On a happy note, two things are going very well lately.  One is my shopping hobby.  As evidenced by my ever-diminishing bank account, my debit card has been getting more exercise than my running shoes this week.  My baby sis alerted me to a friends and family sale at the Juicy near Union Square yesterday, so I schlepped out to meet her there and get two things I’ve been trying to hunt down for weeks to no avail- DENIM FREAKING LEGGINGS and black leggings with adorable Juicy buttons on the bottom of the legs that have little gold crowns on them.  Funny story- a couple weekends ago my sis and I were at the Juicy on 5th trying to find denim leggings.  For some reason I mistook the “petite” size for the “small” and attempted to try them on.  There we were in the dressing room, me breaking into a sweat as I jumped and squeezed to no avail, my sister laughing hysterically telling me to “stretch them out.”  Needless to say, the damned “petite” leggings would not go over my child-bearing hips, as my mother likes to call them.  I tried what I thought was the next size up, the mediums.  Those were like clown pants on me.  After ranting for 10 minutes about the insane sizing, my sister grabbed the leggings.  “Danielle,” she screamed, “These are a freaking EXTRA SMALL!!!”  Wow.  I totally out-blonded myself.  Long story short, they didn’t have the smalls, and neither did Bloomingdales or the Juicy on the UES.  So um yeah, I was happy to find the right size yesterday.  The sales girl brought the small and petite out just incase, and I immediately sent those petites right back with her while my sister tried to stifle her giggles.

OK! Photo shoot time!  Please disregard how tired I look, these were taken today after the long walk in the park and before the even longer nap in my bed.  This is my new Juicy coat and a headband I bought at Anthropologie a few weeks ago.  I was also wearing the new black Juicy leggings but my mirror cuts them off, je suis tres desolee but if you’ve seen one pair of black leggings you’ve pretty much seem ‘em all.

This is the complete look, accessorized with my cream Coach bag and Chanel sunglasses.  Very UES.  People around here tend to dress heavily in black, as if they’re expecting to be called off to a funeral at a moment’s notice.  As I was sort of anticipating a funeral today- my own- the drab color fit.

The second good thing: I’ve been eating really high raw lately without having to even think about it.  When I’m sick I always try to eat mainly raw to help my body heal.  I woke up from a nap today dying for veggies, which is normal for me but weird for sick-me.  Usually I just want bread and crappy foods when I’m sick.  Maybe my body is trying to heal itself, haha.  So I’ve been eating lots of fruits, salads, Lara Bars, raw almond butter on bananas…some non raw stuff too, but not much.  I’ll be making my own raw hummus with sprouted chickpeas later this week too!

There is a third good thing, which is that I have completely lost my sense of smell.  When you live with six animals, five of whom poop in your living room, this is pretty much the best thing that could ever happen to you, short of a plane full of million dollar bills crashing in your backyard.

I’m going to the Central Park Zoo tomorrow before work!!!  Cue Simon & Garfunkels “At the Zoo”…

I got a lot of rest but not much sleep last night…throat was bothering me too much.  And I had to skip my run this morning   That makes for a super grumpy me.  Thankfully I only have one hour-long dog walk scheduled for the day – my last day!!  Then off to Whole Foods to load up on fruits because my secret cure for anything is to eat craploads of fruit.  I don’t think I’ll be going into job #2 today.

On the running front, I got in a great 11 miler on Saturday morning.  It started to feel a bit hard towards the end, which is so strange after marathon training and getting to the point where running 18 miles felt too short.  Ah well.  I wasn’t properly fueled and that may have had something to do with it.

On the shopping front, I finally got my gorgeous Juicy winter peacoat on pre-sale at Bloomie’s!  20% off baby!  I need to snap pics but am too sick to make the effort.  Also got some cute NYC-themed dishtowels and a big mug for the tea that I can’t make since my gas was shut off for no reason the week after I moved in.  But hey it looks cute and that’s all I really care about.

On the food front, I am really making an effort to eat high raw again.  I’ll admit I have some weight that’s crept up on me over the last year while I was trying not to freeze to death in VT.  Eating raw is really the best way to get to my optimal weight.  I’m not overweight or anything, just not super happy with how my clothes are fitting.  I would also LOVE to be running higher mileage fueled by mainly raw foods, I really think my times would skyrocket and I’d feel awesome.  So, I’ll be taking that day-by-day and hopefully eating lots more fruits & veggies!

Sorry this post is so boring.  I will take some pictures of something, sometime, I promise.

On the running front, yesterday was a rest day, but I walked literally all. day. long.  Got home around 11 PM and my feet were killing me and I had, and still have, a huge blister on the bottom of my right pinkie toe   No idea how that happened, but walking today was not fun!  I did not let the blister deter me from running this morning though!  I was super tired when I got up and didn’t feel like running, but I knew I’d feel great after the run.  I headed out and my legs felt a little tired and I was still half asleep.  Maybe I’m a weirdo, but I like to turn sucky running days into speedwork days.  Going faster wakes up my legs and usually makes them feel better.  Plus, if I simply don’t want to be out there running, which does happen on rare occasions, speedwork makes the run go by in the blink of an eye.  I ran 5.6 miles today with the middle 3.2 or so being fartleks.  I was rockin’ it.  By the end of the run I felt great and was sad to have to stop.  Running always gives me more energy.  That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t falling asleep on the subway this afternoon though…

Yesterday after job # 1, I went to my new favorite vegan cafe ever.  It’s simply called “Organic Cafe,” and it’s on York Ave. between 75th and 76th Streets.  It’s a tiny hole-in-the-wall place that doesn’t even have a website or ample room to form a line to place orders, but don’t let that fool you, this place is HEAVEN.  They have great sandwiches, hearty meals, baked goods, even raw food choices and a tiny soup/salad bar.  I think it’s about 99% vegan (they advertise frozen yogurt, but I’ve actually never seen it…) and all organic.  Decent prices, too.  I’ve tried their chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies (TO. DIE. FOR), their salad bar with hummus/tabouli/marinated veggies (hummus = life so of course this was good) and yesterday I got their portabella burger sandwich.  It had protabella mushrooms (obvi), roasted red peppers, PICKLES which I’d been craving, romaine, vegan soy free mozz cheese, sundried tomato “mayo” which was really more like pesto, and tempeh “bacon” on seven grain bread.  I practically ran home, threw it on a plate and devoured it with ketchup in approximately 2 1/2 minutes.  It was seriously one of the most amazing things I’ve ever had in my mouth…TWSS

I think someone’s ready for a close up…try not to get any drool on your keyboard:

Sorry for the dark pictures.  I had already moved past the point of I-need-to-eat-ASAP and entered the realm of I’m-going-to-eat-my-cat-if-I-don’t-get-food-now, so for the sake of my furchildren I wasn’t giving much thought to snapping pics.

This was so good that I went back today and picked up some food for lunch.  I chose the “avocado sandwich” which was pretty much a vegan BLT with avocado slices- tempeh bacon, romaine, tomato, vegan mayo and avo on seven grain bread.  This was good, but I really could have done without the mayo.  I mean come on, avocado is nature’s mayo!!  I scraped most of it off but it was still there, tasting slimy and conspicuous.  Without it the sandwich would have been perfect!  I also got a chocolate chip cookie because I always end up dying of hunger for the last hour of dog walking.  This meal lasted me from 1 PM til 5:30 PM which is a miracle for me lately!  I haven’t eaten this much soy in a while though and my stomach wasn’t too happy after lunch.  Gotta lay off the tempeh for a while.

Lest you think I’m the world’s worst kindasortaalmost high raw vegan, my other meals today and yesterday were mainly raw   Today was bananas with raw almond butter/raw cacao powder for breakfast #1, half a raw “brownie” and a mango for breakfast #2, a huuuuuuge salad with veggies and hummus AND chickpeas for dinner (thus proving that too much of a good thing is wonderful), a third of a Lara Bar for “dessert,” a honeycrisp apple is calling my name right now.  So you see, I do eat lots of raw stuff, it’s just not as exciting as giant vegan sandwiches and baked goods.

Well, this is my one night to relax, so I’m going to hunker down with a book of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories and a crapload of fuzzy animals

Anyway, I hopefully only have four more days of dog walking.  I do enjoy it but I just don’t have enough time for the other job that actually brings home the (veggie) bacon.  I didn’t go in tonight because I was lazy.  Blah.  Now I have to go tomorrow.  I should have just gone and gotten it out of the way.  I don’t like being gone from 10 AM til 12 Midnight though.  Argh.  And no, I would not like any cheese with this whiiiine.

Not working 14 hours did allow me time to clean up a bit and snap some pics of my swingin’ bachelorette pad.  So please come on in, don’t step on any cat tails, and let me give you the tour…

This is the view of the main/living room when you first walk in:

A close up of the futon and Reese relaxing (which she does quite often):

I’m kind of going for a French, Moulin Rouge type feel with the colors and paintings…here’s another view of the TV and Marley the Beta’s tank, with the kitchen counter at the bottom:

Here’s the kitchen, which was the first thing I totally loved about the apartment even though I have not cooked since 2003:

That iron should not be there...but doesn't Rosemary the cat look cute?

And this is a closer view of the counter with my fruit bowl, Kit Kat clock and the cats’ treat jars:

We now move down the hallway (the bathroom is the door on the left):

And into my bedroom.  I repainted all my old furniture because it was that maple wood color and it didn’t match the floors.  Plus I’ve had it since I was 10 and was super bored of it.  So I painted it gold and then spray painted white over the gold.  My dresser, night stand and desk in the other room were all repainted.  Kind of French boudoir, oui?

The mirror is reflecting a board that holds cards on the opposite wall.  And here we have the bed with Cirrus giving her “I didn’t do it” face and Shima at the window:

It's a midget bed! No I'm not THAT short, we just couldn't fit the bed frame so I took the trundle bed that pulled out from underneath my real bed.

And that’s pretty much it!  This is my first “grown up” apartment with real furniture.  I slept on the floor in LA for over a year on one of those mini fold out foam couches that 7 year-olds bring to sleepovers, and had a folding table and chairs as my only furniture.  So I am kind of psyched to have my real stuff and a place that I’m not totally embarrassed to let people see.  I am in love with my apartment and I’m never leaving!  Plus it took WAAAAY too much effort to get all this stuff up here.  So even if I secretly hated it, I would stay because I’m way too lazy to go through that again

Well my stomach is officially eating itself.  Time to go make a salad!

Reese and Noelle: "I don't know where I end and you begin!"

My apartment looks so adorable now!  I just got done rearranging and putting everything away- pictures to come tomorrow!  The animals are so happy to have yet another cozy piece of furniture to sleep on- do they do anything but sleep all day?  I’m happy to have my TV for Netflix movies!  And I’m sure my neighbors are happy that we are no longer tromping through the hallways making declarations such as, “This goddamn son of a b*%ch futon is going to f*&@ing kill me!” and banging into the walls with our furniture.

Unfortunately by the time the move parte deux was complete, it was 4:10 and my parents had to schlep it back to their hotel in Jersey soon to take their dogs out.  Why they stayed in Jersey is beyond me.  They say it saves money.  To that, I say pssshhhaaaaw.  A penny saved is a really cute Juicy dress unbought and unloved on its cold hanger in the store.  Anyway, we were all starving so we went to The Barking Dog for linner (yeah we hadn’t eaten lunch, and I ran 11.2 miles this morning…more on that later).  Everyone seemed to like their food- my mom actually kept gushing about how it was “the best food [she's] ever had,” but if I had a nickel for every time she’s said that I could purchase one of the smaller Hawaiian islands by now.  I got the portabella salad and a side of a plain baked sweet potato, all of which was just eh.  The mushrooms and sundried tomatoes seemed pretty plain, not roasted in olive oil like they should have been.  The balsamic dressing was too creamy and didn’t seem fresh.  If I hadn’t been running on a 1000 calorie deficit I probably would not have licked the salad plate clean and then proceeded to devour my weird-tasting sweet potato with ketchup in 3 minutes flat.  But I was running on a huge deficit, and I ate nearly every bite.

Ok, now I get to gush about how in love I am with CP.  CP is gorgeous, earthy, riveting, exhilarating…and a park, not a person.  Central Park of course!  I finally ran the 6ish mile loop around the whole park today, and it was so much fun!  I am so happy that there are some semi-decent hills.  I get so bored of flat!  I also ran 2 loops of the Bridle Path (and found out that it is indeed Bridle like the horse headgear and not Bridal like Here Comes the Bride).  That combined with the 1 mile to the park and then 1 mile back to my place made for 11.2 miles.  I felt pretty freaking awesome the whole time, and could have kept going if I had some fuel and didn’t need to come home and get ready.  It was just a beautiful, chilly fall morning, perfect for running, and I love being in a crowd of runners.  I feel this strange, unspoken camaraderie with all the other morning runners dashing through the park.  Some are faster than me, some are slower, some pass me like a bolt of lightening and others get left behind in my trail…but we are all out there chugging along for our own reasons, working to better ourselves and start our days off right.  I am not friends with any runners in real life, and I really think people believe I’m crazy when I talk about running and how much I love it.  So it’s nice to be just one in a crowd of crazy running addicts every morning in the park!

In other news, I quit the dog walking job this morning in favor of taking on many more hours at my other job.  I’m just spreading myself too thin lately, and my pets are suffering (hello chewed up shoes and pooping outside the litterbox…).  I love dog walking and I really enjoy taking care of other peoples’ pets.  But my own furballs are my #1 priority…yes, in a fire I would whisk them away to safety before coming back for my beloved Coach bags.  So I did what I had to do.  I will be making more money and I’ll have much more time this way.  One more week of craziness and then I’ll just have one job like a “normal” person!

I’ve been having a lot of fun getting into the New York groove.  Last weekend I got to watch the marathon as they ran by my ‘hood, and it got me so pumped to sign up for another marathon!  I’m in the lottery for NYC 2010, and am thinking about doing a spring marathon in Vermont since my schedule allows for plenty of early morning training time.

I’ve also been doing a bit too much shopping including this adorable Bebe dress:

This very warm Bebe winter peacoat:

This very fitting Lululemon Sigg water bottle (it says “I <3 Running”):

This gorgeous top that my sister and I BOTH bought in Williamsburg in Brooklyn- the pics don’t do it justice and I’d take a pic of me wearing it but my mirror has yet to arrive:

close up on the intricate neck line

This fun “first date” type top that I got in another store in Williamsburg (my sis is a bad influence on me!):

These supa fly Coach rainboots:

Thank god I have 2 jobs, huh?!?!  My next purchases shall include a black Chanel handbag (have to find the PERFECT one) and a puffy Juicy winter jacket for dog walkin’ in style.  Oh and Juicy denim leggings, do I really need to justify those?

So last night I met up with an ooooold friend of mine who I hadn’t seen since I was eleven!  We were best friends in elementary school, and then kept in touch for a little while when I moved to ATL but it kind of petered out.  She contacted me via Facebook and I couldn’t have been happier to see her again!  It was really like no time had passed.  She showed up sporting a gorgeous Louis Vuitton handbag and was all about hitting up a sake bar, and I knew we would still be very compatible friends

We went to Haru Sake Bar on the UES (3rd Ave. at 76th St.).  It was very cute and more upscale than a lot of sushi places I’ve passed while out and about around here- perfect because I’d dressed up a bit, and also she’s an omnivore and who wants to eat raw fish from a dump??  I also thought it was cool that the bar had a full dinner menu.  They also have a restaurant, Haru Sushi, across the street, but why go there when you could get the same food AND booze yourself into oblivion a mere twenty feet away? I immediately ordered the Ulitmate Saketini and was not disappointed.  It was very good and VERY strong.  OK so I may have run 7.3 miles and walked for 4 hours, but I was very buzzed after just half the drink!  She also loved her cocktail and I’d definitely go back for a date or girls’ night.  We ordered sushi, and I was slightly terrified b/c I have never had sushi before.  I am always SO skeeved out about eating stuff that may have been in questionably close proximity to raw fish.  Yuck.  But like I said, this was a nice place, I was hungry, and the sake buzz helped ease my anxiety   So I chose the avocado cucumber roll with brown rice.  I found the salty nori to be an acquired taste.  My first roll was eh, the second I was starting to warm up to it, and then I really enjoyed the other four rolls dipped in just a bit of soy sauce.  By the end I knew I’d be eating sushi again!  But I was definitely chugging the water after all that salt.  My glass was refilled four times!

We gabbed for over 3 hours, she met my traveling circus pets and then we parted ways.  I went to bed around 11:30 and sprung out of bed at 7:00 this morning for a lovely 5.66 mile run to Central Park, twice around the Bridle (Bridal?) Path which is gorgey btw, and then back.  My legs felt so good today, I wanted to keep going!  I even jogged up the 4 flights to my apartment!

Kind of related to running- I have been absolutely ravenous lately.  I eat all the time, tons of food, and nevertheless am always hungry.  I also do not stop moving for a second all day so that could explain it.  I have been running a ton, eating things like bagels with peanut butter at midnight from the bagel place at the 77th & Lex subway station (whose employees give me free cookies with my bagels b/c I always run in there like a stoner craving some munchies and proceed to devour my bagel within seconds and once even ate a second bagel an hour later).  This morning my hunger was out of control.  After my run I dug into this deliciousness:

Nature’s Path Peanut Butter Granola!  The food gods have combined two of the finest flavors in the universe, and the results are phenomenal.  There are even little peanut pieces in the granola.

Try it with unsweetened vanilla hemp milk (or sweetened if you don’t mind the sugar- I bet it’d taste awesome with the chocolate flavored milk).  You will not be sorry you did.  Or maybe you will if you do what I do and eat the whole box in 3 days.

Ok, now it’s 9:20 PM and thanks to posting this, I’m craving more granola.

Well I am enjoying a rare free night in with the furballs!  Reese the cat is currently lounging in her “hot tub”:

The ‘rents are in town tomorrow so expect some attraction reviews, new clothes purchases (with my money, not theirs- sigh) and a restaurant review as well- hopefully Italian, because HELLO carb cravings   I also get the rest of my furniture, so expect an apartment tour soon!

I went into work to say goodbye to everyone, and just talking about my new place made me sooo excited!  I’m not nervous or anxious at all, which is kind of weird since I’m moving to NYC, but LA cured me of any doubt I had about the kind of situations I can handle!  I’m just excited to get moved in and start making the new apartment into a home for me and the furballs!  And I can’t wait to explore.  I don’t know the city that well and have never gotten a knack for the subway system at all, so I’m looking forward to walking/running/ambling around aimlessly, getting lost and figuring it all out.  Oh, and you know, getting a job and stuff

This whole unemployment thing is horrible and I feel useless, but on the bright side I’ve been able to run as much as my legs will let me.  I got in 37 miles so far this week- yesterday was a lovely 9 miler on my favorite VT route up to the mountains and back, and today I did the “illegal” 7 mile trail loop around Lake Iroquois here in the ‘burg.  It’s illegal because the entrance to the trail is gated and laced with barbed wire, and every 5 feet or so there are big orange signs saying, “No trespassing- this is NOT a trail!”  But since I scoff at anyone trying to keep me out of one of the best running places in town, I go every so often anyway.  I try to go at a time when people shouldn’t be home to see me, and on a day when I’m feeling particularly fast so I can make a speedy getaway.  Of course today I encountered about a million people fishing and gardening.  But it’s my last day in VT, so I just smiled, waved, stop to pet a cute Golden Retriever, and continued on my oh-so-merry way through the leaves.  I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!  Running is the best.  I love the colors of the leaves, the nip in the air, the smell of fireplaces, the way the chilly air somehow pushes your legs foreward…I could run forever in weather like this.  I actually did miss fall when I was in The Land of Perpetual Summer.  Winter running sucks but fall running is pretty much the best thing ever.

Well, break time is over.  Time to go brush the cat hair out of the carpets.

el cucina (umm..the kitchen) w/ my mom and sis

The apartment was sunny and bright, a bit larger than the first one, and the floors and appliances were brand new.  The walls had also been freshly painted.  I was tempted to go back to the agency and apply for the apartment right then and there, but thankfully I chose to continue the search.  The next apartment was on East 81st. between York Ave and East End Ave.  Now, let me preface these pics by saying that I’ve always had a sort of disillusioned view of NYC apartments.  Remember how ginourmous Monica and Rachel’s apartment on Friends was, with their big eat-in kitchen, their spacious  living area and two decent-sized bedrooms?  Well, I just figured that’s how NYC apartments were.  But speaking with Molly the broker had more or less dashed my hopes of having a place bigger than a horse stall.  Until we walked into this:

Dream kitchen and living room, where have you been all my life?

Just LOOK at how much bigger this apartment’s kitchen and main room is compared to theequally-priced second apartment!  This is the other side of the living room:

living room and window

As you can see, there’s actually a hallway that leads to the bedroom (perfect for playing fetch with Cirrus, lol).  The bedroom is also much bigger and has not one but two closets!

bedroom and second air conditioner...Does it really get THAT hot??

This apartment is sheer perfection in 1-bed 1-bath form.  I could barely contain my excitement as I jumped and screamed and threatened to hunt down and kill anyone who may have already filled out an application.  I rushed us through the rest of the apartments, all of which paled in comparison, and we headed back to the agency to fill out the application!!

Thankfully, no one had to die since no one had applied for MY apartment yet.  That’s good because I think murderers are typically denied housing.  After a loooooong application process, in which I had to show my tax forms for the past 2 years, my bank account statements, recent pay stubs, pics of the three pets that I’m telling the LL about, my license, and all of the same documents for my dad, who has to be a guarantor because I am not yet employed in the city, we finally sent the application out to the LL.

My mom, sis and I spent the rest of the evening frolicking down 5th Avenue, buying Cirrus a Juicy doggie coat and toy and finally hitting up the Whole Foods salad bar at 9:30 PM for a delish dinner (oh Whole Foods, how I have missed your overpriced yumminess!).  I was a good girl and woke up early the next morning to ellipticize at the gym.  Then my mom and I got the car and headed back up to the UES to scope out my potential new neighborhood.  We hadn’t yet heard from Molly about whether I got the apartment, so we were definitely on edge.  As we walked around we found tons of reasons why the apartment would be PERFECT for me: It’s on the east end of the island so it’s quiet and there’s a walking/running path one block east that runs along the East River.  There’s tons of little produce carts selling insanely cheap fruits and veggies, which is what I live off of.  And most of all there’s a park two blocks north of me that has A SMALL-DOG PARK so tiny dogs can run around together without getting trampled!!!  Cirrus tips the scales at 6.5 pounds so this is absolutely perfect for her!  There’s also plenty of grass and trees to pee on (for pup, not me) which is tough to find in the city.

We left Manhattan without knowing the outcome of my application.  It took us AN HOUR to get out of the damn city because our GPS was being a bitch.  Then we were sort of lost in New Jersey for a while.  After multiple brushes with death, I managed to get us into New York state and on our way.  Later that afternoon I found out that I got the apartment!!!!  I sent in all my checks and the signed lease on Thursday and the LL has it now.  The next step is for him/her to call me on Tuesday to set up a meeting place to pick up the keys!

My move-in date is October 15th but I’ll have to go on the 16th or 17th…not sure yet.   n the meantime I’m packing and applying for jobs (hi ASPCA, please hire me!) and trying not to freak out too much.

So this blog, in a nutshell, will document my life as I take the plunge into the big city!  I have never lived somewhere as crazy as NYC.  Boston is about as tiny and tame as cities come, and LA is the most un-city like “city” ever.  I do worry that I’ll feel a tad claustrophobic being surrounded by so much madness 24/7.  To combat this, I’m looking for a place that’s as close as my budget will allow to Central Park.  I have a (very small un-dog like) dog and we’ll go for long walks and/or runs every day, and doing that on city streets just isn’t the same.  Also just seeing some greenery and having a bit of peace each day will be a saving grace for me.

I’m still looking for an apartment- planning a short trip this weekend to look at some places- as well as a job.  Eeek!

Right now I’m super sick.  I don’t think it’s swine flu as I’ve yet to sprout a short curly tail… but yesterday & today I had to stay home from work.  I’m currently watching “Tyra” and waiting for my mom to get back from work and bring me some of this chocolatey wonderfulness to help my sore throat:

Dark Chocolate

Dense and silky, deeply satisfying

Ingredients: Organic Coconut Milk (Organic Coconut, Water, Guar Gum), Organic Agave Syrup, Organic Fair Trade Cocoa, Organic Fair Trade Vanilla Extract

Coconut Bliss “ice cream”!  And it is truly blissfull.  OK so I can’t find a pic of the actual pint of ice cream, but that’s from the website.  Not my typical eats, mostly b/c it’s crazy pricey, but this stuff has just a few simple ingredients and it’s way better than any vegan or non-vegan ice cream I ever had!  I just noticed they make a CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER ice cream!  Why oh why does my local health food store not carry that flavor?

Yesterday I made the mistake of trying to eat my “normal” fruit & veggie-laden fare, and my stomach paid the price.  So far today I had a banana and a whole wheat bagel w/ vegan smart balance, and my stomach is much happier.  Oh, I also had a peach.  It was very much a “Do I dare to eat a peach?” moment, but so far the tum is ok.  I hate being sick, it’s so frustrating!  Hopefully last night’s 13 hours of sleep combined with lying around doing nothing today will miraculously cure me and I’ll be back to normal tomorrow!