Some quality time at JFK...

The monotonous beeping of the security gate is easing my nerves as I type this. The beeping and the line of blank-faced future passengers with boarding passes and passports in hand are the only constants that I can focus on right now. Everything else is sort of a blur around me in this pseudo-reality that I have made for myself at this very moment. It seems like minutes ago (though it was 3 hours) I was in Matt’s apartment looking at the piles of clothes on the couch and thinking, “Whoa. I really hope all of my stuff fits into this large suitcase. Do I really need that many shirts?” It seems like just hours ago (though it was April) I was buying my plane ticket online from Aer Lingus and feeling my heartbeat race just a little quicker as I placed my cursor over the “accept” and clicked the mouse to make my purchase of a roundtrip ticket to Barcelona. It seems like just days ago (though it was in January) I was telling my parents and closest friends I would be going to Spain for a two and a half month trip of exploration. Well, all those days, hours and minutes have seemed to go by in a blink of an eye because here I am at gate A2 in JFK airport waiting for 5pm to roll around so I can board the green and white monstrosity of a plane that is sitting just outside of this glass window.

My most recent goodbyes were over the phone to Caitlin and my Dad. They both were great reminders to myself about what this trip is all about – exploration, fun, learning, and me. The longer I sit here in this lightly padded airport chair, the more the chairs around me are filling up with others who will share this flight with me to Dublin (the one layover on my way to Spain) and the more the reality of this is setting in. Even the kind woman with the Irish accent at the check-in downstairs marveled at my destination. Of course, at the time I didn’t notice her excitement for me. At the time my eyes were stinging from a combination of tears and mascara and my cheeks were still slightly wet from having just said goodbye to Matt – knowing I wouldn’t be seeing him again for five weeks.

I just looked at the clock on my laptop here and realize that there is still another hour and a quarter before boarding will begin. My breathing has steadied, my cheeks are fully dry and I have only chewed off one fingernail (I am not a nail-biter). I know that how I feel now is going to be different than the next time I am back at this airport. When I come back I will have had 10 weeks of Spain as part of my life. Just trying to imagine how that will feel sort of overwhelms me so instead I am going to put my computer away and do one of my favorite New York City things to do – this week’s New York Magazine crossword puzzle.

*For some reason Blogger is not letting me post pictures right now, but once I can I will put some up!
**Update, I got a photo up!!

A party that's not in the Plan.

Scenes from a Fiesta a year or so again (found online here)

La Fiesta de Gracia is the biggest annual party in Barcelona. Not only is this supposed to be the most raucous celebration of the year in Barcelona (a city known for its parties in a country that defines celebration) but it happens to be in the neighborhood that I have been planning on living while in Spain. I learned about this fiesta earlier in the year during preliminary research and had some reason found a website that told me it ended on the 15th of August so I decided it would be responsible to land in Barcelona about 5 days later to give prospective roommates time to post their available apartments online. Well, well, well, didn’t I look up the Fiesta de Gracia this afternoon and find out that the biggest party of the city is going to be ending only my SECOND day in Barcelona?! No one is going to want to show their apartment for renting at this time; they are going to be busy drinking sangria and nursing the hangover they have had for the past week and shaking the confetti out of their hair!

Spain Challenge #1*: finding a place to live.

*This just got a little more challenging. Who knew a party could thwart my plans?!

August? Huh?!

As I woke up this morning, I looked at the small digital letters and number below the time:

FRI AUG 1

August?! Really? How did that happen? I didn’t think this month would be here for a long time. In fact, August sort of seemed like an urban legend in my mind as of January when I decided I was going to ship myself off to Spain in the eighth month of the year. Winter seemed long (like it always does in the northeast) and spring was short (as it always is now that global warming denies New Yorkers of pleasantly warm afternoons without humidity) and then summer arrived in the form of Memorial Day. Summer weekends ticked away doing all sorts of wonderful Brooklyn (oh how I love my new burrough) things; spending each Saturday and Sunday in the outdoors as much as possible. Now I can look at my calendar and see that I have a mere three weekends left on this side of the Atlantic.

Post-it notes are being filled up; as is my “history” on Google. Searches daily on all sorts of trip-related places (What is there to do in the Costa de la Luz in southwestern Spain?) and transportation (is it better to fly to Seville or take the train?) and items (What kind of shampoo do they have in Barcelona and where can I buy it?) take up any free time I have between design projects. If only my company were Spanish and not French (as it is) so when I am working on changing copy on moisturizing conditioner bottles I could be learning something too.

Pictures of Gaudi’s architecture (from my Barcelona guidebook; not from memory as I have never seen it in person) swirled in my head as I tried to fall asleep last night; as well as a reminder to myself to add “Call the gym and suspend membership next week” to my To Do List. While squeezing my tube of Crest onto my toothbrush this morning, I looked around my medicine cabinet to see what needed to be added to The Packing List (I had forgotten band-aids).

Today is the first day that I can see my departure date on my monthly calendar without flipping the pages ahead. In fact, I just switched the calendar above the printer at work and my jaw dropped as I realized that I leave in two and a half weeks (in my head, it was just over three).

The Scots who are teaching me Spanish.

Even though a coworker of mine insists that when I get to Spain I am going to sound like the Spanish version of Sean Connery, I have been more than happy with the Spanish lessons (run by two Scots, Mark and Kara) I have been taking via my CoffeeBreak Spanish podcast. Yes, their accents cracked me up a little bit when I first started listening to them, but after a few lessons I didn't even notice them anymore. These lessons were better back when I was still walking to work and speaking Spanish out loud on Park Avenue amidst a sea of people who could care less what you are saying because to be honest, I don't sound nearly as crazy as the man who sits on the corner of 51st and Park. Now that I take the subway (and when I say "subway" I really mean "subways" as my commute gives me the opportunity to take not one but TWO different trains to work) it's a little more difficult to hear Mark and Kara over the screeching of the subway cars on the tracks. It is also slightly rude to awaken my fellow passengers who are moments from slumber in their plastic yellow-orange seats on either side of me who haven't had their coffee yet. I am sure the last thing they want to hear is "Vuelvo a casa a las seis" and "Me levanto a las siete" (that is the last lesson I had, learning how to say things like "I return to the house at six" and "I get up at seven").

I know I need to start being more active in my Podcasts daily. I go through weekly phases where I listen to it every morning but I started a new book on Monday and now that's the only thing I want to concentrate on during my commute. Anyhow, despite the fact that I am taking a 4-week semi-intensive Spanish class when I get to Barcelona, I would like to have some idea/grasp on the vocabulary of Spain so I can get myself around for the first couple of weeks I am there. Things like finding the grocery store ("Donde esta el supermercado?") and nearest bus stop ("Parada esta cerca de aqui?") are phrases and ideas that my knowledgeable Scottish teachers are helping me out with before my journey to Spain.

I hope that packing tape holds for 6 months...

Contents of a box that won't be opened for another 6+ months

Yes, that is Monopoly, a frying pan, candlesticks, picture frames, and a red mirror in that cardboard box. This, my friends, is what you must do when you decide you are moving out of New York City; pack up almost all of the random items you own and get it into boxes for your parents to pick up and take away for the summer while you move into a furnished sublet. You will have to think long and hard about those items that you really DON'T need to live with (ie. your entire design magazine collection, your boardgames, your mugs & glassware, etc.) and start to think minimalistic. Start thinking that you should really only take the necessities from your midtown apartment that you are moving out of and parting ways from your roommates of the past 5 years. It was strange packing this box and others, knowing that they won't be reopened with their items to be taken out and put away in their new rightful places for another 6 months or so.

That's another thing you need to think about when deciding to move out of NYC for a little while, the fact that you will be living in 4 different places within one year. I have come to terms with and am okay with this. Sure, finding an apartment to rent can be stressful and is right now the one thing that keeps me up at night; finding a room to rent in Barcelona! A challenge that will be for sure. However, I look forward to the time when I will come "home" to my apartment in Spain and rest my head on "my" bed and think to myself that I did it, I found a place. Reading the online ads for rooms has been helpful to my Spanish vocabulary (learning words like furnished, refrigerator, closet, elevator, etc), even if I am looking at rooms online that won't be available by the time I get to Spain. I am so curious as to what apartments will be like. All I can help but picture now is the apartment in the movie "L'Auburge Espagnole", a great French movie about 6 international twenty-somethings that live in Barcelona together. Though I would prefer not to have 5 other roommates, I would like to have at least one native Spanish speaking roommate who possibly I could learn some Spanish from just by being around. I have started to think that I should take my favorite sticky little papers (Post-it Notes) and placing them on everything in my apartment to label each item in Spanish. For some reason though, I feel that my two summer roommates in Brooklyn may not enjoy this so much.

Checking off that New Year's Resolution.

The first week of January is a big time of the year for a lot of people across the world. Many make resolutions for themselves that range from losing weight to getting a new job to breaking a bad habit to exercising more. The first week of January for me was no exception as I am a big believer in new year’s resolutions and physically writing them down. So I did what I do every year – I made my list. I checked it twice. And then I decided to go about following through with number 1 on said list:

“Travel to a new country”

This may sound easy for some and difficult for others depending on what their traveling experience and history has been. For me, I have always loved going to new places and trying new things but haven’t really left the confines of the United States to do so. Road trips down both the east and west coasts, a summer in Hawaii, and drooling over travel magazines and reading the travel section in the New York Times has been the closest I have been to actually experiencing Europe, South America, Australia, Africa, or Asia. Then, at age 26, I left the country for the first time and traveled to Israel. This trip opened my eyes in many ways to the land of this gorgeous middle eastern country but more significantly, awakened the travel bug inside of me. It thought of all of the places in the world that I hadn’t been to but read about and wanted to go to; “Everything is really only a plane ride away!” it told me. This bug then fell back to sleep and lay dormant inside me for a year and a half until January 2nd when I began reading a book that woke it up.

This bug insisted that I follow my dream/thought of the past 8 years and go to Spain and live (not permanently, but for a bit longer than a work-sanctioned vacation). But where in Spain? Yes, I asked myself the same question as I knew NOTHING about the geography or specifics of this country. After a couple of days of web searching and talking to a former client who has spent a considerable amount of time there, I decided on Barcelona. The idea of living on the Mediterranean with the mountains nearby, sunshine, paella and sangria plentiful, and amazing art and architecture all around sounded like as good a place as any.

Researching all of the specifics of my travel to Spain came next as well as answering my own whos, whats, whens, wheres, and whys. The who would I stay with? The what did I want out of this? The when would I go? The where would I go when I got there? The how would I get there and get around? The why would I do this? The how could I do it monetarily? All of my answers came in the following week (as well as another long list of questions) and by Thursday I decided that this was officially going to happen, told my roommates of the past 6 or so years, and on Saturday I made the “big call” to my parents to inform them that their daughter would be leaving the city she has called home for the past 5 years and moving to a new country (which didn’t have English as it’s first language). I braced for the worst and hoped for the mediocre. What I got was the best: “We totally support your decision.” For a moment I thought that the phone number I had called had not actually gone to my parents’ home in New England but to another Mom-and-Dad-sounding couple.

Armed with the moral support of my family and closest friends and the information about Barcelona I had gleaned from friends, friends-of-friends, and hundreds of various websites I realized that this dream was going to become a reality. I was moving to Barcelona for three months later in the summer...which is NOW less than 50 days away. Amazing how a decision made when hot chocolate is brewing and winter coats are donned, can finally come to life when fresh-brewed iced tea and beach days are around.

A subway story.

Although I don't love the NYC Subway system all of the time (or most of the time as it is recently I have had a string of bad luck waiting for trains for many moons while they fix "signals" or whatever it is that makes me wait in the steamy underground of Manhattan) I do love funny stories written about the subway; especially when it involves simple illustrations. The NY Times has an adorable story about a father (the writer and illustrator, Christoph Niemann) and his two young sons who actually lead their Dad around the city subway system as if they have been riding for years and years. Now if only the MTA handed out entertaining stories like this one while I was waiting in the humid depths of the city for my train...

A photographic treasure hunt!

Two of my favorite things come together – taking pictures of random things and exploring; Snap-Shot-City! All part of the "Come out and Play Festival 2008" in NYC!

Grill anywhere (but Central Park)!

I don't know about you, but when the weather turns nice I refuse to eat indoors anymore (unless I have to). I just feel that everything tastes better outside and when you live in a region where you have true winter, you appreciate the spring and summer that much more. Here (via Grace from Design Sponge for Domino Magazine) there is a way you can grill wherever you like (just not Central Park if you are in NYC...no open flames allowed)!

Zohar Lazar for New York Magazine

All illustrations by Zohar Lazar for New York Magazine's June 2, 2008 issue

If it were possible, I think I love New York Magazine even more now. They have introduced me to a new illustrator that has the feel of Dr. Suess for adults. Last week's issue had a main feature about Brooklyn (the new lovely borrough I am calling home!) and more specifically about a blog called Brownstoner. Check out the full article (with accompanying illustrations of course) here.

My walker card.

I never walked to school as a child but was always jealous of my friend Carolyn being termed “walker” by our elementary school since she lived a mere 2 blocks away. I longed to walk to and from school, however, I dealt with the fact that the yellow school bus was my mode of transport from kindergarten through freshman year of high school. This deep-rooted yearning to walk to school is what I think really made my last two years that much more fulfilling as I was able to walk to work while living in midtown Manhattan.

In the span of those two years (as crazy as this may sound) I was able to walk to not one, not two, but six different jobs. I walked north to the Upper East Side to a small boutique design studio, I walked south to an advertising agency, I walked a bit west to an in-house design department at a national publication, a little closer west to a chic beauty business, just one block north and one block west (by far the closest commute I have and will ever have in my life...until my dreams of having a small studio in my own home come to fruition) to a public relations firm, and then most recently a small walk south and then over west a little to a large beauty corporation.

For two years I was able to know exactly the time my commute would take. I did not have to think about the trains being slow because of rain or snow or other inclement weather. I could watch the businesses in my neighborhood open up for the day – the sound of the metal chains being raised and the locks unclicking in their doorways by the morning manager. I watched couples kissing goodbye on street corners before they parted ways for their workday. I watched a single father walk his 4 year-old triplet sons to school. I watched a mother ride on the back of her son’s razor scooter as his small feet stayed on the board and hers did the pushing off. I learned which street fruit vendors sell the best strawberries. I observed buildings’ construction from start to finish (and some which are still not finished). I ran into old friends from high school, college, jobs, and even old apartments.

Sure, it was tough in the rain, as anyone who walks anywhere in the rain in New York City knows that it is aggressive out there on the streets where people walk with umbrellas large enough to shelter a family of five. Sure, it was tough in the snow when slippery sidewalks and corner puddles beg to be stepped in and slipped on, but I still loved every minute of knowing that I was in charge of my commute. Knowing that I could practice my Spanish podcast lessons aloud on the street. Knowing that I could talk with my best friend who, while I had a half hour walk to my office, had a half hour commute in her car in Boston. Knowing that I had this time that was all my own. I was finally a “walker”.

And now, just a few days ago, after two years, I passed in my “walker” card. I moved off the island and moved to Brooklyn to begin the next phase of my life.

I don't drive now, but if I did...

I know, I know. Another posting indirectly about cars but I thought this was too graphic-design-cool to not talk about. Imagine you just bought a new car and instead of having the typical metallic logo at the front of your car (whether you are fancy shmancy and have an animal like a Jaguar leaping off your hood or maybe you sport the monogram of VW) Toyota Scion owners are going to be able to pick from one of a hundred logos that a professional graffiti artist has custom-designed for the Scion OR they can design their own with elements that the artist has done! Scionspeak.com is the website to go to to check it out, and the idea was brought to Scion by their marketing and advertising agency StrawberryFrog. How much fun would THIS account be to work on?! The possibilities are endless when you are designing your own crest and I know would take me longer than the five minutes I just spent making this one that you see above. I mean it's your CAR! How could you EVER decide?! What would define you? Either way, I think it's strange they would let you use a cocktail glass for a car emblem....

Music to park your car by...

I don't drive anymore (except for the few times a year I am home and borrow my parents car) but I have many memories of pulling into the gas station only to realize I have pulled in on the wrong side, looking like an idiot in front of the cute guy in the car next to mine, and having to put the car in reverse and try it yet again. This new commercial for Kia really brings that feeling back and I am slightly obsessed with the song, "Can't Get it Right Today" by Joe Purdy, which I of course had to purchase on iTunes. If you haven't seen/heard it, check it out here.

The Cheese Monkeys.

Have you ever picked up a book in Barnes & Noble and read the prologue only to find yourself laughing literally out loud and forgetting that you are in a crowded public bookstore in Union Square? Well folks, that happened to me when I picked up Chip Kidd's book The Cheese Monkeys. Not only was I laughing, but upon further inspection of just the first few pages that are normally laden with copy straight from the publisher very officially and of course traditional, one can tell that Mr. Kidd had a hand in the design of this one as he has somehow convinced Penguin Publishers to let him put the copyright information over two pages; but cut vertically in half! Love. It. There are more fun yet subtle design pieces in this book which make it better than your average layout but the real reason you should read it is for the art school humor (and to find out the real reason behind the zany title). Anyone who has had a crazy professor and/or a graphic design class should read this. And laugh heartily out loud from the time you pick it up in Barnes & Noble to the time you finish in the comfort of your living room.

I am coming back!

To the twelve people that read my blog daily (including a thanks to my Mom and brother!) I want to let you know that my Blog Slacking* will be ending this weekend and I will begin capturing again! I swear. New posts with interesting things and witty and well-written commentary will be coming your way via Capturing the Seven! In the meantime, please know I am reading all MY favorite blogs still (and you know who you are) and thank you for continuing to inspire and entertain. Til next week...

*Blog Slacking is derived from working at a freelance design assignment that does not allow sign-in to mail sites such as Gmail; which in effect you need to do to sign into Blogger. It is probably better this way that I am actually DOING design at work rather than my previous assignment which consisted mostly of writing and blogging at work with a side of design.