Wow! I cannot believe that it is already Thursday night - I am completely exhausted from these past few days. The picture above was taken at the front entrance of the Upper East Side store.  I helped make all of those paper poppies [my favorite flower]! Yesterday I worked at the Upper East Side store with Julia and Marjorie and today I stayed at Rock Center to help out with the trial and error phase of the next windows. After work on Wednesday I decided to go shopping in Chelsea and ended up seeing Teresa from the Real Housewives of New Jersey!  It was my first celebrity sighting but hopefully not the last. 

Tomorrow I will be back at the Upper East Side store for a half day!  Jordan will be arriving in New York City a little after lunch.  I absolutely cannot wait to show him around the city and take him to all of my favorite places!  Unfortunately until then I will be catching up on some homework assignments...

Well Monday turned out to be a pretty great day considering Marjorie, Julia and I had to be at work an hour early.  We volunteered to help out with the long list of morning tasks that needed to be completed and it paid off.  We were allowed a two hour break for lunch!  The three of us shared a wonderful lunch in Soho before ending the day at our internship orientation.

Today I only worked a half day and spent almost all of my time helping out the merchandise team. I set up sale signage and helped with placement of merchandise in the home section of the store.  I also spent a lot of time retrieving merchandise from the various storage rooms [I am pretty sure I have seen every single one of them after today!]  Now I plan to try out my membership at the 92Y May Center for Health and Fitness! :)

Friday

I had an early early morning on Friday.  I woke up at 4:15 AM to get ready and head down to the Today Show. My parents were already on their way to New York City and were planning to meet me at Rockefeller Center as soon as they could get checked into the hotel.  Luckily, I was able to get a spot right beside the stage - it was unbelievable how close I was to The Band Perry! I got to watch them perform three songs for the Toyota Summer Concert Series.  My parents were not lucky enough to make it in time to hear the band play but that was alright since we had many other fun activities scheduled for the afternoon!  We started our morning by walking along the promenade from Tribeca down to Battery Park.  We stopped to get lunch at a restaurant along the Hudson River before getting on the Staten Island Ferry for a chance to see the Statue of Liberty close up.  Eventually we made our way back up to Rock Center where we shared a pitcher of "skinny" margaritas at a bar located where the ice skating rink is in the winter.  Mom and I did some shopping and then the three of us went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  It had been a long day so we didn't stay out too late.  We all needed a good night of sleep before the rest of our weekend could begin.

Saturday

The American Museum of Natural History was the first stop on our Saturday To-Do List.  It wasn't quite was we were expecting and so we only went into the exhibits that we were most interested in.  We walked on the Upper West Side for a little bit until we decided on a place to eat  lunch before we went to Soho for more shopping! On our way back to the hotel we made a stop at Bryant Park and the New York Public Library.  It was the first time any of us had been inside the library and I must say it was gorgeous!  The architecture in New York City never ceases to amaze me.  To end our night we got dinner at Rare Rooftop Bar and Grill -  The food and views of the city were perfect.

 

Sunday

Sunday was all about spending time on the Upper East Side [my neighborhood].  Once we checked out of the hotel and dropped off our stuff at my room, we walked along the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It can take days to see everything "The Met" has to offer so yet again we visited the areas we were most interested in so we could save time.  One of those areas was the Roof Garden [picture above].  There is no doubt about it that this was our favorite part of the entire museum.  We relaxed on the roof with a drink before heading down to Chelsea for the rest of the afternoon. Soon it was 5:00 PM and time for my parents to head back to good ole High Point...

Well I certainly had a great weekend in the city with my parents and I hated they had to leave but I've still got three more weeks in this beautiful city until it is my turn to go back home!

Thank the Lord for three day work weeks!  I had to spend Wednesday and today all by myself at the Upper East Side store.  I missed hanging out with the other interns but I was happy I could be of some help to the other store.  Their new windows are supposed to be completed by next Friday! [And they've still got a long way to go...] After all this hard work I have put into making paper flowers,  I cannot wait to see how the windows turn out.  On Monday I will be attending an intern orientation at the Soho store with Julia and Marjorie.  We will be meeting all of the new interns including the three that will be coming to help out at Rock Center...but until then I will we hanging out with my parents! :)

Fortunately, this morning at work was pretty laid back because the visual design team was finishing up their presentations for this afternoon's meeting.  To keep ourselves busy, all three of us interns did a walk around the store to make a list of anything that needed fixing.  For the most part we spent a lot of time in the display windows. [Something I will never get used to!] The display windows are very tiny and it is hard to maneuver in between the different set-ups.  People outside on the street stop and watch us  like we're a circus act, just waiting for something to go wrong.  To get away from the store and the Rockefeller Center crowd, Julia and I enjoyed our lunch at Bryant Park.  We needed time to relax before the important afternoon ahead of us!
I never really understood how a meeting could take longer than an hour - but today that all changed.  The meeting for the new summer windows took three hours!! And I am positive that if more time was available it would have taken longer.  There wasn't even time left to debrief so I assume that is what we will start with tomorrow morning...

Sunday morning was spent down at The Frick Collection.  For those of you who may not know, "The Frick" is the former residence of Henry Clay Frick, an industrialist in the mid to late 1800s. Henry Clay Frick had a passion for collecting great works of art; and in his will stated that his home should be converted to a museum following his death.  Although The Frick Collection includes painting by some of the greatest European artists, I enjoy going to The Frick  because I find the reformer residence truly breath-taking...

North Park - Tribeca 

Obviously I was missing Cherry Grove Beach this weekend! I spent my entire Saturday and Sunday afternoons by the East River and the Hudson River.  Both parks were the closest I could get to the ocean and although they were lovely, nothing comes close to being at Cherry Grove Beach with friends and family.  I even spent Memorial Day by the Jackie Onassis Reservoir by beginning my afternoon with a short walk and ending my day by reading a magazine just below the South Gate House on the reservoir.  Now all I have is a three-day week at work until my parents arrive Friday morning!

I got a late start to my day of site seeing because I spent the entire morning catching up on some much needed sleep!  I had planned on taking a nap after work yesterday but the sun decided to come out so I wondered around the city until it was time for dinner in Tribeca with Cody and Julia.  Julia and I had been waiting all week to go eat in Tribeca and I have to say it was exactly what we needed after our last two days of work at the Upper East Side store.  Thursday and Friday were spent making hundreds of paper flowers for one of their new summer displays.  Julia, Marjorie, and I made the best of it though.  We listened to music and started making plans for a girls night out! :)

View from Brooklyn Bridge Park

 Although today was cloudy and muggy, I was determined to spend my Saturday outdoors!  I took the subway to City Hall where I started my walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  The views you get from the bridge are amazing and I loved seeing the boats on the East River.  After the 30 minutes it took to get across I sat down to rest and take in the scenery from the Brooklyn Bridge Park.  After that, I walked back across the bridge and took the subway to the south west corner of Central Park.  I enjoyed a late lunch from Whole Foods at Columbus Circle then strolled up the west side until I reached the crosstown bus.  Once back on the east side I spent some time in the park until it started to pour down rain!  Luckily, I wasn't too far from the Plaza Hotel where I decided to take cover from the thunderstorm.  The storm passed shortly and I headed back to the 92Y where I will enjoy the rest of my night relaxing in my room...[possibly with a Crumbs Bake Shop red velvet cupcake!]