We’ve been having some really bizarre weather in New York this week. Last week it was in the 60s or 70s and I wanted to rejoice because summer was going to be here any day, but the last few days have been bitterly cold. I had brunch with my dear friend Katie this morning (natch, I have a picture of the food, not of either of us – whatever) and I almost swore I saw snowflakes. Okay, not really, but it was definitely in the 40s and spitting rain all day. I know, I know, April showers and all that, but for a brief second I thought we were just going to transition right into summer heat and I was thrilled to death. I haven’t lost all hope yet, though!

This morning, I had the waffle brunch at Kellogg’s Diner off the Lorimer L stop, and Katie had a delicious-looking frittata. We were going to go down to Bedford and just find a random place, but it’s cold and rainy and we know we love this place. Plus we were both kind of bad-tempered zombies before we got some coffee in us, so we figured since this was closer we should just do this. And no regrets! It was delicious, as always.

Sometimes it seems like at least half of my pictures are of food, but, you know, I can’t bring myself to feel any regret about that.

After brunch and some light shopping, I ran back home and have been doing some Etsy work and writing the rest of the day. I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite pastimes is sitting inside near a window while it’s rainy and/or cold outside. I love rain – I just don’t love being in the rain. It was definitely the perfect day to sit inside and catch up on some Mad Men on Netflix (I’m still only in late season three – I know!) and watch the L train go back and forth in the city. It’s supposed to be somewhat warmer tomorrow, so hopefully the weather channel wasn’t lying to me today.

Things are moving right along here, with the apartment and all, but they aren’t quite there yet. The next few weeks should bring some more furniture and stuff, so as soon as I’m able to stuff my suitcases under my bed and not be using them as a quasi-dresser, I’ll take some real pictures for you. Katie saw my apartment today and gave it the official stamp of not-the-worst-apartment-ever, so I’m still feeling pretty good about it.

I hope your weekend is nicer than ours! Have a great April Fool’s – if you’re like me, you’ll avoid people as much as possible because you’re incredibly gullible, but hopefully you aren’t like me and you can enjoy this day like a normal person!

I have to keep reminding myself that I’ve only been in this apartment for four days! This week isn’t very busy for me so I’ve been home a lot, and sometimes I feel like I’m going a little stir-crazy just because my apartment isn’t all put together yet. Fortunately, though, today was a big day for me – I got a few boxes that my mom had mailed to me AND my new bed was delivered!

First, remember that bookshelf I was talking about in my last post? Well, here it is! It’s a little cluttered at the moment just because I don’t have as much room as I’d like while I’m still building my furniture collection, but I’m already just absolutely obsessed with it.

And then we have my bed! There’s part of my bedroom wall that is the perfect size to put my bed up against, and I have my closet on one side and room for a nightstand on the other next to one of my windows. That’s right – I have two windows in my bedroom, both facing Manhattan. I can see the Empire State Building from my bed right at this moment, all lit up in the spring sky. I love being able to see that from the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep. It just reminds me of my purpose, you know? Sometimes life is hard here, and I forget why I moved because I’m feeling down. But now I can look out my window and see the greatest city in the world and know that I live here and that everything is perfect.

You guys, I really love my life. I didn’t want to say this when I was in the process of moving because I didn’t want to scare you, but I was a little worried. I mean, the last time I was in New York was in 2009, and I was in a very different place in my life. I didn’t think I was wrong when I felt in my core that I was meant to be here, but all the same, that’s a really huge leap of faith, you know?

But I wasn’t wrong. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever been more right in my life. I’m so happy here and every day is just a delight. I’m so glad to be able to call the Empire State my home.

I know, I know – I’m that person. I keep saying that I have things to talk about but no time to write – and right now that’s true! For the quick rundown, I just moved into my new apartment this past weekend and I got offered a job and things are pretty much the best right now. I feel like I’m kind of on top of the world.

But I haven’t had time to throw together a picture post, mostly because my new apartment still looks like a bomb went off in it, since we’ve only been here two days and, uh, don’t really have any furniture. But after Wednesday I should have a lot more stuff and then I’ll work on showing you the new place so you can all get green with your NYC envy. I know, I’m awful.

The reason I’m posting tonight, though, is that my roommate Layne and I went on a Craigslist furniture pick-up spree tonight. It’s shocking what people are trying to give away for free at the end of the month because they’re moving. I love New York for that (and other things, but tonight, that).

On our last stop, we went to pick up a mid-century style bookcase that I’d happened to see on Craigslist the night before. I’d sent Layne a picture of it, and she mentioned that she’d seen it on Apartment Therapy. I assumed she just meant the style, and was mildly impressed with myself for being so hip, as I so often am not.

HOWEVER, when we picked it up, we quickly realized that this was, indeed, the actual bookcase from Apartment Therapy. The site does daily Craigslist finds for major cities, and this was one of the ads they picked to showcase. Look, I even took a screencap to prove it!

There it is! So mod. So perfect.

Anyway, we told the girl we picked it up from, and she had no idea, either – she said she thought that was why she had gotten so many emails about it! I guess I was super lucky to have seen it right when it went up (as you do when you’re trawling the Craigslist Free ads all night for furniture), and to have been the first person to ask.

And now it’s sitting in my bedroom, with a couple of things on it, looking oh so hip between my windows. I want to wait until my room is a little more presentable to show it to you, but I wanted everyone to know that I can’t believe I got lucky enough to beat Apartment Therapy readers to this fabulous bookcase.

My first real piece of furniture in New York Life is turning out alright, you know? How can it not be when this is the view out my window and I can see the Empire State Building from my bedroom? Brooklyn, I love you.

Yesterday was one of the nicest days in NYC since I’ve been here (almost 70 outside!), and spending the afternoon out in the sun really gave me the oomph necessary to get productive and get some things done. Namely, I finished a book, played with kitties at the pet store for a good half hour, then came home and made a few new pieces for my Etsy.

I have to finish reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell for my book club meeting in a few days, so I’m putting off A Storm of Swords until then. I know – it’s killing me! But I’m enjoying the former, too, so it’s not so bad. Choosing between good books – the bane of a literature lover’s existence, right?

On my walk back from the coffee shop, though, I noticed that the pet store had its doors open and its kitties out for visiting! So, naturally I had to stop and meet them all. I want a cat so badly, but I know I can’t afford it right now. When I can, though, it’s going to be a glorious day. Until then, I’m going to be that person who’s always at the pet store. I’m going to look into volunteering as soon as I get my job situation nailed down, although I know that’ll be less glamorous than playing with pets all day. But it’ll still be worth it to be around animals. I never thought I’d miss my pets so much! These are the two kitties I photographed today.

And now, here are a few things I put together for my Etsy shop last night. These took more work than a lot of my previous pieces, hence the slight jump in price. I’m very proud of them, and I’d love to ship them off to you! I made most of them with spring and summer in mind, clearly.

These are only a few of the items I posted, though, so be sure to click through to see the rest!

I know, I’m jumping on that bandwagon, but I have taken a lot of really fun pictures lately and I want to show them off! Besides, New York is so fun – I’m sure you’d rather see pictures than hear me just talk about it.

First, we have a meal from one of my favorite restaurants in Manhattan, Nanoosh. How can you not love a place whose primary dish is hummus? This is a mushroom bowl (okay, a salad, basically), with roasted red pepper hummus on the left and a quinoa side salad on the right. Served with a half-pita for sandwiching (or dipping in hummus), you can’t go wrong.

Next, two pictures of my favorite building in New York City: Grand Central Terminal. I used to spend quite a lot of time here for commuting, since it’s still first a commuter hub train station and only second a tourist destination. It’s so beautiful on the inside, and I love stopping in just to admire the architecture.

Speaking of the commute, one thing that is everywhere in the subway right now is the Mad Men ad campaign, for which I think Don Draper would be proud. However, one thing he might not be proud of is that leaving so much white space surrounding a falling man has led to, uh, some improvisation by street artists. This was the first one I saw, and it was gone hours later when I walked by, scrubbed clean.

More food? I know. You love it. This is from brunch last weekend at 9 Restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen with some ladyfriends, a few from out of town. We had an incredibly fun time, followed by a mid-afternoon snack at the Doughnut Plant in Chelsea.

There are so many adorable dogs in New York. I kind of can’t get over it. This little guy was leashed outside the Doughnut Plant (that same day) while his owner was inside, presumably getting a doughnut, and I had to take a picture. So sweet!

Shortly after this, we went back to my friend Jen’s new studio apartment and I got to meet her new kitty Malta for the first time. She was too adorable. As you can tell from this picture, she was not too pleased at having her photo taken. I couldn’t resist. She made me want to run out and get a cat, although I know I still have time before I’ll be able to afford it.

And, yep, a big part of my day is taking the subway. I took this in Astoria after an Oscars watch I went to last weekend. I absolutely love taking the subway – it’s so much fun and always interesting.

And don’t worry – I’m keeping up with my reading! I just finished A Game of Thrones, the first book in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series (made into the HBO show Game of Thrones), so I had to get the next one, A Clash of Kings. Changeless is the second book in the Parasol Protectorate series, a set of Victorian steampunk novels centered around herione Alexia Tarabotti. I highly recommend both of these series – they’re very different, but both very engrossing and fun.

It’s great to be in the heart of the Occupy movement, too. If you’ve been a reader here, you know I like to raise awareness for important issues, and while I haven’t had time to be as active as I would have liked, I still managed to get to this concert the other day in Union Square. It was followed by a march that I wasn’t able to be a part of, since I already had evening plans, but this was definitely a spontaneous and fun late afternoon.

And yes, lastly, these are Pioneer Woman’s BBQ Comfort Meatballs. I had kind of a rough day, so I knew that there was nothing that could make the day better like these. It’s been a while since I’ve made them, and I’d completely forgotten how delicious they are. I think I maybe overstuffed myself on dinner last night, but, you know, it was worth it. Nothing tastes better than these, especially if you’re addicted to baby portobello mushrooms like I am and sliced up a bunch of those to throw in, too. Yum!

I hope you enjoyed my picture post! All in all, things are going really well, and New York is just fabulous, as expected. I hope you’re all doing well, wherever you are. If you’re in Oklahoma, hopefully I’ll see you this summer, and if not, then you need to come see me!