Slow things Down, Or Speed Them Up

Alright, so I'll admit that I've been a bit of a slacker these past few weeks with my blog. Any really the only person that is affected by it all is myself because when I'll look back and wonder where all my time went...I won't have a resource to jog my memory. In a nut shell, my life these past few weeks since it first snowed have been pretty amazing. A lot has gone on...naturally.

I turned 23 and celebrated my first birthday in New York City with some of my closests friends from every corner of my life. We went out to eat at Village Yokocho where my college friends RN and TT came up from Florida to visit, my high school friends KM, MS, & DB put their lives on pause, my London friends JL, AT, PD & CD help me celebrate and my New York friends DP, ML & JH where all there too. Of course those initials may mean nothing to some of you, but having everyone around that giant table eating dinner, conversing and having a good time meant so much to me. It was really fantastic to know have that many people out just for my birthday. I was worried that I'd end up celebrating alone, but how could you not feel so special and loved when that many people from all over show up just for you? As DB said "It says something about you." Well-- I certainly felt it and I was very grateful for every one of them! It was also very cool to have everyone meet considering they've all known me from very different phases in my life. I mean we change a lot from high school, to college, to the real world-- but more interestingly was that they all got along when the common denominator was me.

Along with RN & TT's visit to NYC, I showed them my favorite spots, so it was a weekend full of amazing food and good entertainment. Of course I took them to PDT where our fun was cut short by a police raid on the place. Nothing serious, but it felt like a scene from Law & Order the way the cops were picking up each individual bottle, holidng a flash light to it, whirling it around, checking out the menu, you'd think they were looking for traces of X or something in the bottles or some underground drug haven. We also caught the final show with all the original cast members of Spring Awakening. That was pretty exciting. It's funny because little did we realize that it was one of the main character's last performances and the audience would erupt into applause or tears at various instances, but we had no idea why! Then of course at the end as he said goodbye...we put the pieces together. It's probably one of the better plays I've seen with excellent music and a surprisingly modern storyline despite the fact that its set back in the 40s.

Not long after RB & TT's departure my family arrived. A week from today actually for the holidays. Every one I told they were staying with me in my apartment always asked me how the hell we were all going to live together for 2 weeks? Well, as luck would have it, my roommate would be gone for the entire duration of my family's stay, so we could use her room as well and the apartment is actually rather large. It hasn't been much of a hassle at all, I still work during the week, so it's not like we're forced to sit in the apartment together all the time and I've been enjoying their company. They've added a new air to my apartment that wasn't there before. It feels homey and comfortable. I'm definitely going to miss them when they go back to Florida. It's nice to have the home cooked meals and taking them around the city I've come to know and appreciate. On Christmas night we went ice skating in Central Park. Wow! Was that an experience. It felt so great to just be out there together, taking my little 2 year old cousin out on his first ice skating trip, laughing and just enjoying eachother's company. I think you don't really get that when you spend every minute together on a day-to-day basis. You start taking things like that for granted.

My job has also begun to pick up a lot, which is ironic considering it's probably one of the slowest times of the year. I've gotten more and more responsibility and the managing directors are really beginning to value my input and work. Keep in mind that for a person at the bottom of the totem pole and with me just starting my career...that's huge. I've gotten the opportunity to participate in a new business pitch for an account we ended up landing-- something I was told no other Assistant Account Executive has ever gotten to participate in before. I've also managed to get a spike in my salary... a really generous spike....which coincided with a christmas bonus-- so this really is a "wonderful time of the year." Of course, I'd spent most of the bonus before I even received it, but the temptation is just to high when its Christmas time in New York. I also managed to win a $500 gift card for Jet Blue at my company's raffle during the Christmas party... I really can't complain!

Now things are slowly winding down as the year comes to an end. I've really just been spending a lot of time just enjoying what's going on around me and soaking it all up. It seems like there just hasn't been enough time or rather that time is flying by, but for some reason I don't see that as a negative. I can't really explain it, but it's a really great feeling. I haven't been fighting to hold onto something out of fear of forgetting, but just enjoying things as the happen out of pleasure that they are actually occurring right there and then. I think that's where the loss of time happens...when the your worrying subsides and the living kicks in.