So work has definitely turned around for me. I confess I had a mini-breakdown a week and a half ago, simply because I’d been taking on a lot more than I was used to, but then I adjusted. I’ve been training people every day for the last two weeks, but my results are good because I now have a little team! (Go Ninjas!) This probably doesn’t make much sense to anyone, but basically for me to get promoted again I have to build a team and train them and teach them how to train other people.

And like I mentioned in my last post, my sister is here! It’s been awesome to have her here – she was really helpful in helping me put furniture together and unpack and all that, and we’re still getting my apartment together even though the housewarming was last week (so fun!). Today we went to the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market, and I picked up two things to hang on my bedroom wall and a small silver-plated tray. Pretty! I love flea markets! I’ll have to keep going back until I find enough to hang everything together, but I’m working on it.

I realized yesterday that having a nice apartment makes such a huge difference. I’m just as tired after a day of work as I was when I was living in my last apartment, but my mood is considerably more relaxed when I come home now than when I went back to my old apartment. I think it’s partly because the apartment is so much roomier (my bedroom now is bigger than the kitchen/living room I had at the old apartment), and also because I’m not as stressed about cleaning as I used to be.

Still, all the flea market stuff this weekend plus browsing books on amazon and spending time with my sister and my friends has made me realize I need to work out a balance more than I had been doing. Work is so time consuming (I love it, but it takes up a TON of time – I’m in the office at 730 and leave around 7pm every day) and I get so tired at the end of the day that I’ve barely had time to read anymore (when books used to be my life!), or even to draw or do other things that I used to enjoy.

So, I’m going to work on balancing my life for the next month, so that I have time and energy to work as well as use my spare time to read or draw or write, and I hope that it works…any tips??

The last month had been really stressful for me, and that explains my last post a little bit. I was stressed about a friendship, some drama, work, and being homeless. I was actually breaking out (well, breaking out for me, anyway – my boss said there wasn’t anything wrong with my skin) from all the stress, but now the friendship is right back on track, I no longer have drama, I got over the obstacle at work, and I just signed a lease today! Problems solved! At least for the time being, anyway! (And Friday morning I instantly noticed that my skin was starting to clear up!)

Work was a major one – for some reason my confidence was slipping, and it was affecting my performance which was in turn affecting my paycheck. This week I finally got it back, remembered how to have fun at work, and immediately my results showed!  Last night I had a one-on-one meeting with my boss, and I’m excited to get back on track to my next promotion. I know what I have to work on now, and am no longer worried about the sales portion of my job. I’m back to being a rockstar, like I used to be! It was actually probably the toughest struggle I’ve had so far at work, and although I know that there will be many more struggles as I keep going through the program, I’m feeling quite triumphant at the moment and am just going to savor it. My boss also said that this is major milestone for me I’m still determined to stick with it, I’m still determined to succeed, and I’m still very grateful for the opportunity. I love my boss, too, and it helps so much to have such a positive role model – especially one that’s your boss! So I’m also very grateful that he’s my boss. I just had to say that.

As far as being homeless, I am officially moving into my new place tomorrow! I love the apartment. It’s a great deal, and I’m excited to have my own bed and room again! And a closet! My clothes are so wrinkled from just being piled into a suitcase the whole time. haha I still need to get a desk & chair for my room, a dresser/drawers and possibly a nightstand, but I’ll do that after I’ve moved.

AND my sister is coming to visit next week! I am so excited. I still haven’t really figured out how I’m going to leave a key for her…but I’ll figure that out too. I can’t wait to see her, I’ve missed her!!! So much. Yay sister!

So, although it’s been a tough month, things are looking up again and I’m excited again, and everything seems to be turning around again and I am better.

No one told me life
was going to look like this.
Where was my warning?

Today is the one year anniversary of my move to NYC – how weird is that? This year has been a little nuts, to say the least! Let’s see: I’ve had 3 jobs (including my current one) and two internships, and up until I started this job I hadn’t ever had time to really enjoy the city. 4 friends have visited from HK (which I love! One of them is here right now, and we’re going to Peter Luger for dinner tonight – so excited!), and my sister is coming next month, and Watson is coming again in November!

I am happy with my life though, even though I’m currently apartment-less. I’ll most likely move to Jersey for the next year and save some money, and this time next year I can always move back to the city.

Goals for the next year (god, my job is so goal-oriented that I feel like I have a million of them in my work and my personal life!):

1. Have my own office up and running by this time, and have an assistant manager.
2. Be living with my sister while she attends law school in the city (come on, Lauren!!), and be in a position where I am looking to buy an apartment.
3. Take a vacation. It feels like forever since I’ve had one. I don’t know where I’d want to go – maybe back to Spain? Or even around the US – Napa Valley?
4. Take the family on holiday over next Christmas – wherever they want to go! And first-class everything all the way. That’d be nice, too.

Guess that’s it for now. Happy anniversary to me!! Cheers

So I have to move this weekend. I’ve already arranged to stay at friends’ places for the whole of September (2 weeks with one friend, and 2 weeks with another), while I continue the apartment search. I bought boxes tonight from UPS, and having already packed one, I’ve been far too hot (and lazy) to do any more packing. I have a feeling Saturday is going to be a hectic day…

I have roped my boss in to helping me move on Sunday, and I wonder if that means he’ll also go all the way to the Bronx with me at 9am on Sunday to pick up the UHaul, since I don’t drive…LoL Will ask him tomorrow!! Haha My hope is to get all the packing done Saturday, or before I pick up the U-Haul, anyway, so that once I have it all I have to do is shove everything in the pack and then put it in storage, not too far away from my current apartment.

In the meantime, I am procrastinating. I’ve figured out the cost of what it would be to cancel my current cell phone plan and switch carriers. Sadly, it’s still $94 more than what I’d be paying even if I upped my current plan. But when my contract’s over, I really think I’m gonna switch to Sprint. It’s so much cheaper! And I use my phone so much that it would be worth it. Besides, by then I’ll have my own company and I can pay for all of that with my corporate account, which saves in taxes too. Sounds good to me!

Anyway, back to the point. Packing sucks. I feel like I also may have underestimated how much I have to pack. Although I really don’t have THAT many clothes left to pack (only all my summer clothes and work clothes…), and I don’t have very many books. Though I do have shoes.

Um, guess I should get back to packing. Sigh. (I feel like my sister. She gets like this when she has to pack/unpack. At least she’ll be visiting when I’ll be unpacking! haha Actually…like I could ever get her to pack/unpack anything.)

It was my birthday this week, and I am now 25! It’s so weird. It feels like a milestone of some sort, but at the same time it’s still so young. (I’ve been making people guess my age all week – I got everything from 18 to 29, though they were mostly around 23! Score! haha)

I never would have guessed that at 25 I’d be living in New York, starting an actual career, or even that I’d be in the business world as opposed to something more literary/academic. Never! But I am so excited about my life! It’s still kinda scary, but scary is good because it means I’m still being challenged every day, which means I’m also still learning every day. And there is so much to learn, so much to improve upon, but at the same time I’ve also come a long way from college.

And yeah, I’m single right now and whatever, and yeah my mom at this point in her life was already married to my dad, but I know all that will come along at the time it’s meant to, and it isn’t something I worry about at all. I have my family (albeit half a world away), awesome friends all over the world, and am constantly meeting new people and constantly laughing.

The main point is, I guess, that I am really happy about my life right now (even with the stress of finding a roommate AND an apartment in 10 days…long story), and so excited for the years ahead, that there isn’t really anything else I can ask for. And THAT is truly a blessing!

So I started looking at apartments Wednesday after work, and have had to leave work early every day since! (Well, just yesterday and today as well, I guess.) I was exhausted on Wednesday – booked 3 appointments all within 15 minutes of each other, so I was running around midtown for about 45 minutes, which was really fun. haha Yesterday I saw another apartment after work, and one more today. Today’s was a 6th floor walk up – cute apartment, but my thighs were definitely burning by the time I reached the top, and the frickin’ realtor didn’t even tell me how many flights we were going, even when I asked about halfway! haha

Tomorrow finally my future roommate and I will be able to look for places together. I set up 3 appointments around the city – Financial District, then Midtown East, then Midtown West. I don’t know if he’s set up anything yet but he was talking about setting up some other appointments.

I really hope we find something tomorrow, since I’m away on a business trip from Sunday to Friday and won’t be around to look!

Fingers crossed we find something tomorrow, so there’ll be one less stressful thing on my plate!

…for an apartment. I’ve decided to go with the guy friend, after the Brooklyn option didn’t work out, I checked out a room available on Craigslist but my parents were skeptical, and another random, kinda weird situation was offered up to me. I just hope that we’ll be able to find a place together, because I know we’ll have a LOT of fun living together, or at least it’ll be drama-free, and I kinda like living with boys. haha

Any tips on apartment hunting here in the city? So far I’ve just emailed a bunch of listings on craigslist, since obviously I’d prefer the no-fee route…and this really is my first time apartment hunting here since last time my roommate did all the grunt work!

…that I love my life?

Today I was on my way back to the office and I was just so HAPPY. I kept kinda smiling to myself on the train, and thinking about how I love my job, how I love New York, how I love the people I work with and my friends here, and how right now, everything is just so…awesome.

My work is challenging but very rewarding, I work with great people, I get paid to chat to people all day and meet people, and now I’m getting a chance to grow and take on new challenges. I am starting to interview and train people, and I am loving it as well as the fundamentals of my job. I love knowing that I won’t be someone’s assistant for an extraordinary amount of time (like 12 years, which I’ve heard that someone has been editorial assistant for 12 years), that I may even open my own office and run my own business in about a year’s time.

And the people I work with – everyone is so great. I love the team environment, I love how supportive everyone is of each other, I love the (friendly) competition (although today I was called a rockstar by a couple people, and one person said, “I don’t know if you know it, but you’re kind of a big deal” (I really rocked today!)), and the fun we have hanging out in the office and out.

I love how busy my life is. I’ve realized that I’m the kind of person that likes to work hard and play hard. Obviously, the work hard part has to consist of working hard but at a rewarding job, since working hard at the department store and the bookstore at the same time was not NEARLY as fun and rewarding. And my weekends are filled with spending time with people in between napping/sleeping!

My life is now just feeling so full, and in a good way. I feel like everything’s falling into place. Oh and if you’re curious, I decided to go with the Brooklyn roommate, and am in the process of getting all my paperwork submitted for the application tomorrow!

I love my life, I love New York.

Most of my emotional turmoil is over now! I am settling into the job quite well, and learning a whole bunch of new things. I love the people that I work with, and I like talking to different people all day, which is what this job entails. I also got my first paycheck from this job on Friday, so yay! I’ll have money coming in every week again!

I am now focusing mostly on my job and where I’m gonna move to when my lease is up. I currently have 3 prospective roommates – or contestants, to get into game show mode – one of them has an apt in Brooklyn (her roommate is moving out), and although the rent is lower than mine right now by a couple hundred dollars, I’m just not sure I’m ready to leave the city! I know I’ve talked about it before, but it’s hard to move out of the city once you’ve lived here. Still, I’m gonna go check out the neighborhood and the apartment, and who knows, maybe I’ll love it! Another plus for this one is that I won’t have to apartment hunt!

The other potential roommate is a friend of a friend, and he would definitely want to stay in Manhattan (although he doesn’t really mind where). I feel like I’d like to live with him, since I like living with guys (for some reason, it just feels easier – I’d be more comfortable telling him to clean up if he gets messy, for example), and he has a steady job and can definitely pay the rent, no question (in fact, he’s willing to pay quite a bit more than I am! I don’t mind taking the smaller room though). The only thing here is that I feel like I”d like my rent to go down from what I’m currently paying, and I don’t know if that’s really possible in Manhattan…

The third is a girl I met at the bookstore, but the problem there is that her lease isn’t actually up until December, and she’ll have to find someone to sublet her place in order to be able to move with me somewhere in September. So I just don’t know if I can really count on that happening.

Ack! Which would you pick? Contestant No. 1, with the apartment in Brooklyn all set and cheap(er) rent; Contestant No.2, who is really cool and would be fun to live with and I’d get to stay in Manhattan maybe; or Contestant No. 3, who I like and whose ideal rent budget is similar to mine, but who I’m not sure I can rely on to really move with me in September?