After working at Safeway all through high school and college grocery stores have become somewhat of a second home to me. Helping customers pick out ripe produce, showing off my stacking skills, and helping check people out was the name of the game for the last five years for me. I have found that I need to hold myself back from comparing produce departments of other stores to ours and helping out the checker remember the produce codes. Tomatoes on the Vine.. 4664.. Broccoli… 3082… Bananas… 4011… Limes… 4040… and I could go on for an hour or so of just codes. Yikes, did I really just admit to that? Even after all of the Safeways I’ve worked at and the countless amount of times I complained about working there I do miss it sometimes. I worked with some of the coolest people at my Enumclaw, Springfield, and Portland stores and a lot of which are still some of my best friends. It is probably the social aspect of the job and the people that I miss the most, but regardless grocery stores tend to give me warm fuzzy feelings of comfort. Not sure I want to admit that either, but I’m going to roll with it.

Since I moved to the city I’ve had to completely learn a set of different chain grocery stores in the city. None of which I had heard prior to moving here- D’agostinos, Gristedes, and Food Emporium are the ones that I see on a regular basis. Yesterday we ended up stopping at an out of the ordinary store that I thought was pretty cool and worth a blog post. The location? Food Emporium which as I said is pretty typical, but not this location! It was built underneath the Queensboro Bridge and when I say built under the bridge I mean the bottom of the bridge is the store’s roof. It was so cool and all of the bridges columns went throughout the store. I mean I have seen a lot of grocery stores, but this one definitely takes the gold for the coolness award. The Grand Central of grocery stores might I dare propose? I have to say too that their produce department was pretty impressive too, which is something I don’t throw around lightly. They even had me stumped on a product I haven’t seen before, and when it comes to produce I know the ropes pretty darn well. Never in my life have I seen Brussel sprouts growing on a kind of vine or branch though.

Needless to say, I was pretty impressed with the store and the new produce discovery. Check out my photos above and check out this store for yourself!

Until next time, good night!

Weekend Wrap-Up: All Hallow’s Eve weekend in the New York promised to be a pretty eventful weekend and that it was. My first holiday celebration in the city! I’ve been anticipating the holiday for awhile because of all the fun decorated store fronts and apartment entrances. People seemed to really get into the spirit here, which is so refreshing! In about the last 5 years of my life I feel as though decorations for holidays have dwindled more and more each year. As our lives become busier it seems as though the holidays sneak up on us and less people take the time to get in the spirit of everything. That wasn’t the case this year though and I can only await for what is going to come for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We ended up deciding on going out to Mars2112 for their Halloween party, which is located down in Time’s Square. The warm weather we have been having has finally turned into Fall, which wasn’t exactly ideal for waiting outside for half an hour before making it into the club! We survived though. Mars2112 is kind of a touristy restaurant during the day. I’ve heard you take a “ride” (maybe in a simulator?) before you make it to your table on Mars. They skipped the ride for the Halloween party, but the venue was pretty cool. The hallways kind of resemble caves with red rock walls that resemble Mars. I’m not sure what it is like there on a normal weekend, but I definitely think it was a good choice for Halloween. The only downfall? $40 cover.. Welcome to New York! That was actually one of the cheaper options too if you can believe that. Note to self, if you’re going to go out on a holiday in New York plan ahead. There are some websites that let you buy tickets in advanced for clubs at discounted prices.

It wouldn’t have been such a bad deal if we had gotten there earlier because almost every bar had an hour open bar included in cover. Because it took so long to get into the door though we missed out on that option. Instead? $12 well drinks.. with $50 minimums on a debit card. None of which I ended up doing, but just to let you know of the craziness. Something else that is new to me is bottle service. I guess you can buy tables at clubs where you can buy bottles of alcohol that usually start off at $150. All of it seems pretty crazy to me.. but I’m surprised by the amount of people that do it. Personally, I have bills to pay rather than $150 on a bottle of alcohol, but that is the madness that is New York. Anyways, the club was not hurting for money on Saturday night I can tell you that much. My roommate had a friend in town from Florida and then we ended up meeting up with a couple more friends there so it was a fun night. They had a huge dance floor too so we danced the night away! Above, you can see a close up of my vampire teeth and blood, a couple of us girls, and a very blurry photo of the dance floor.

On Sunday it was officially Halloween and I wasn’t going to rock my Vampire costume again, but decided it was a perfectly great day to deck myself out in all of my duck gear after an amazing take down of USC the night before (Back to number 1 baby!!). So that is what I did! I wasn’t the only one dressing up though.. Chris dropped by to drop off Scooter’s Halloween costume of Batman! See the picture in my previous posting. He was too cute! He didn’t completely love the actual body part, but wore the cape and hat all day long. Everyone at the dog park thought he was adorable too so mission accomplished! After putting my dog through misery I left him to be his lazy self for the day and headed to Shake Shack for pre-game burgers with Donna. I mentioned Shake Shack in a previous post, but it is worth mentioning again because it makes your taste buds very happy. Sunday’s poison? Shack Stack burger, fries and lemonade. Let me just tell you about the Shack Stack because it is like no other burger I have ever had. Let’s be honest now too, I’ve eaten a lot of burgers. They are my first love in life. Anyways, think burger with a portobello mushroom burger on top stuffed with muenster and cheddar cheese. Pure amazing. That is the only word to describe it. If you’re in New York, put it on your bucket list. 

After our food was finished and we felt like we were going to combust (side effect of trying to eat too much deliciousness) we headed back to watch my first Jets Football game. After trying to be swayed to different teams by some of my new friends I’ve decided for now I’m going to side with the Jets over the Giants. Partly I must admit because their colors are green and white which is half of the duck’s colors.. Great reasoning? I think so. The game ended up being a pretty big bust 9-0 with not a single touchdown scored, but it was still a good time. 

To wrap-up the weekend I headed down to the Halloween Parade in the West Village with a couple of friends. The parade was pretty hyped up in the press, but my friends and I weren’t completely impressed. Boy, do a lot of people go though! That was probably most of the reason we weren’t too impressed considering you can’t see much when you are in a huddle about 10 rows back behind other people. I got one semi-blurry photo for you guys to check out. I’m glad we went, but if I wanted to check it out again I will probably watch it with front row seats on my couch. My friends that didn’t actually go to the parade ended up actually seeing more of it than I did. People are definitely into it though! Not only are there millions of people, but most of them are all in costume and join into the parade as it’s going too. If Halloween would have fallen on a Saturday the parade might have been a little bit more fun, but since my friends and I celebrated Saturday night and didn’t dress up to the parade it ended up not being too impressive. Trying to get home was tough though! I want to go to the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving parade, but I can only imagine the mess that is that parade!

All and all, the weekend was fabulous, we made some new friends, had a great time celebrating the holiday and tried new things!

Over the last few weeks I have spent some time reflecting on some of my life’s blessings and wanted to take a chance to give a shout out to all of my amazing friends and family! I truly owe you all a huge thank you. To everyone who has supported me thus far in my newest journey, and my last. From the words of encouragement, Skype sessions, letters, and the amazing care packages (Thank you Mom, Sara and Kim!) I really owe you all!

So here is a little round of shout-outs to a few of you. Thank you to the following and everyone else who I have been blessed to have in my life! :)

Mama Duck- You are always there for me whenever I need you. Even if it’s 3 in the morning I know if I need you, you’ll be there for me. You’ve listened to my craziest of plans or lack there of sometimes. You are the one person who can comfort me through whatever emotion I’m feeling at the time no matter where I’m living. You’re truly the best and I can’t tell you this enough.

Dad- You’re the sense of reason to my plans and make sure that I’ve done my research before pushing the spontaneous button. You always make sure I’ve crossed my t’s and dotted my i’s and are there to stand by and help me in all of my decisions. Plus, you are a complete crack-up with your impersonations of New York accents and your texts and our talks make me feel like I’m never too far from home.

Kathy- You’ve always been one of my number one supporters and I can thank you for starting my first love with New York. You’ve watched me grow up in my key years and always send your love and support to my newest endeavors. You are a remarkable woman and inspire me to always push myself toward my ambitions.

Sam and Andre- You’ve taken care of me since the day I met you both and I can’t thank you enough. You made my move to New York possible and have made me feel like I am family. You’ve been more than a boss to me and have always gone above and beyond to make sure I have everything I need. You both have hearts of gold and I am so thankful to have you in my life.

Grandma O- You have backed my decision to move to New York since day one and your support has meant the world to me! You are one of the sweetest women and I am so glad I got to spend some time with you this summer before moving up here. Plus, I love that you have a Facebook now so we can keep in touch better! 

Sara- We’ve been writing newsletters back and forth going on the 3rd year and going strong! Your stories from home and our chats keep me grounded. Need not forget, you send the best care packages with delicious treats! :) You laugh and smile (soon to be even more pretty!) are enough to make any one’s day.

Jacob- You soon became one of my best friends in Portland and will remain for years to come. You never fail to put a smile on my face no matter what mood I’m in. You’re not afraid to challenge my ideas or decisions and I respect that. You’re one of the sweetest guys I know and I miss being able to drag you around the city on my whim adventures. One day our adventures will return though, but until then Skype sessions will have to do for keeping me in the loop. 

Faith- Our weekly Skype sessions make me feel right at home and help me from getting homesick! I’m so proud to call you my little sister. You have the biggest heart and always keep me on my toes for newest trends and Taylor Swift of course! 

Danielle- Roomies forever! Okay, not really but the name will always remain. You really are one of my favorite people. Your outlook and goals in life motivate me to try and make this world a better place. You have taught me so many lessons in friendship, faith and love. Plus, after living with me for two years we still love each other, which could be a remarkable factor in itself! Deciding to move was a big decision, but you supported me and it means the world to me.

Angie- You’ve been one of my best friends since High School and we’ve been there for each other through thick and thin. You know me better than most and no amount of time passing seems to change that. You have such a passion for learning and the beauty of life that I admire. 

Lauren- You were one of my biggest supporters when deciding to move to New York and that was something I really needed in a friend and roommate. You encouraged me to find any way possible to make the option into a reality. You have such an eagerness to succeed and I know we can all expect great things from you to come.  

Jose- We became really great friends the last year and you give some really great advice. We’re both probably the biggest over-analysts in the world sometimes, but then again sometimes that’s why I thought we made a great team. Our Happy hour ventures may have had to take a break because of the added 2,000 mile distance, but I think we’ve done a good job at staying in touch so far!

Lindsey- You pushed for the New York option even when it meant pushing back our potential at being tennis partners in Seattle! Haha, that probably wouldn’t have been that great of an option for you anyways though. You have a desire to try new things and go new places and I admire that trait. If you can find a possible way to turn an idea into a reality you do it. When I talked to you about moving to New York you were already talking about a plan to visit and I needed that extra support.

Kelsey- We’ve been friends forever and you are definitely one of the smartest people I know. We’ve grown up together, but give us the chance and we’ll still reminisce over middle school no matter how old we become. I know that if I pass an idea by you and you approve then I’m not entirely crazy. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll wean you out to the east coast after you graduate. Now that would be a team right there! 

Darcy- You are one of the newest members into my life, but am so glad to have you as a roommate! Finding, and moving into an apartment in the city was an adventure all alone. We’ve started a new chapter in our life together and I am excited for all of our new memories to come!

That concludes tonight’s round of shout outs. Really though, thank you to each and every one of you who have been there for me throughout the last few months. It means the world to me! Thank you!