Oh, The Places You'll Go

I have had some awesome adventures over the last month. Here is a brief overview of the things you missed. 

Belmont Stakes 

Brooklyn, New York

Taping of the Late Show with David Letterman

Chelsea Meat Market

Roosevelt Island Tram

Mets Game and REO Speed Wagon Concert

Baking

I finally caved and bought a few pans this week so that I could get back to baking. I spent all morning in the kitchen making bran muffins and bread. It was so nice to be cooking again - only problem it made the apartment super hot.

Smell

The sense of smell is one of our stronger senses, the average human can recognize nearly 10,000 different smells and odors. Yet it lacks key adjectives to describe what we perceive as smell. I have been taking a Professional Food Writing Class and I'm learning all about food and the senses we use to describe it. Smell is harder to describe than you would think, sit down and try to describe the smell of something. Surprisingly quite difficult right?

I bring up smell because we remember and recognize so many different smells and New York is definitely a city of smell (India also comes to mind). It is crazy how you can walk out the door and be overcome by a familiar odor, good or bad. I would try to describe the smells of New York but given the lack of adjectives I wouldn't give it justice. Maybe I can pull from the memory of 10,000 smells that we all recognize; think roasting nuts, fresh breads and bakery's, dog poo, rain, and asian food. Depending on the day and what part of New York you are in the smells are different, yet somehow familiar.

In Case You Haven't Heard

I got a JOB! A paying job. Now I have a little structure to my life. It is even better than that because I am working in a bakery which has always been a dream of mine. I am working at Levain Bakery in New York City. For those of you who know my work history it is just like J-Dawgs but we sell cookies instead of hot dogs. Check out their website www.levainbakery.com . They have so many good treats and I've had basically all of them in the last two days. My working situation this summer is ironically contradictory, healthy by day - bakery by night.

Central Park

If I don't fall in love with the city of New York after this summer I will always love Central Park. Over the last 6 weeks I have been keeping a list of fun things I have seen in Central Park: Skateboarders, boxing class, opera singer, art classes, raccoons, huge bubbles, horses, brides, pretty dogs, a bike crash, epic playgrounds, hidden trails, rollerbladers, quidditch game, skate boarding dog, and a long boarding crew.

New York Botanical Gardens

Last Friday I got on the subway and headed north to the Bronx to visit the New York Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful garden that covers 250 acres filled with all kinds of plants from all over the world. It was so nice to get out of the city for a few hours.

                     

I've gotten pretty good at taking pictures of myself!!

Thank You for Visiting

Wow it has been a crazy few weeks since I last blogged. I've settled into my new apartment for the summer, air mattress and all, we didn't have an internet connection for a few weeks which made blogging difficult. I've had a few fun visitors from back home this last month which made it seem like a very long vacation. 

Kaitlin is a friend from BYU interning in Advertising

 Abby and I worked at J-Dawgs together

Jorie and I lived together last week - when she fell asleep on the subway it totally made my night

My favorite little cousin Emily is nannying in the city for a few weeks

Shout out to Erika Nash who also came to visit but she has all the pictures of our adventure

Bryant Park

Bryant Park has got to be the coolest park ever they literally have everything; ping pong, carousel, cafe's, fountains, books, chess games, bocce, and a historical library. Not only is the park awesome any ordinary day but add warm summer weather and it gets a whole lot better. Think free yoga, fencing classes, poetry readings (author of Born to Run is doing a reading next week), outdoor movies, juggling, and tai chi - this park is seriously epic. 

Evening Yoga Classes

 Fencing Anyone??

Lunch in the Shade

Phonographic Concert - Antique Phonographs from 1902 and 1906

 New York Public Library: One of my favorite buildings in the city

Bryant Park really is the greatest park I loved being able to spend the whole day there. We also met at Bryant Park later in the evening to watch the famous "Manhattanhenge." Twice a year the sun sets directly between the city blocks of New York, today was one of those days. Unluckily, the rain clouds rolled in and it was so cloudy there was no sunset - maybe in 6 months.