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Friday, October 9, 2015

"Welcome to New York!" Oh, Thanks, TSwift.

**Author's Note: I am listening to Taylor Swift's "Welcome to New York" while writing this post. It may or may not be on repeat. It seemed appropriate.

Four weeks ago today, I moved to New York City. Um, what.

Just the casual view from my apartment. NBD.

I'm sitting here trying to process the idea of summing up four weeks into one blog post and unfortunately I've come to this realization: you simply won't know everything that happened to me in the weird, fun, bizarre, frustrating, eye-opening, heartbreaking, amazing weeks I have had thus far.

But I'll give it my best shot.

Four weeks can sound like a short or long amount of time, depending on how you look at it. And let me be frank... a lot has happened in these four weeks.

Four weeks seems like a long time in terms of my job. It has given me the time to grow as a Social Media Intern for The Knot wedding magazine and exponentially increase engagements and followers (no big deal or anything). It has given me time to learn what works and what doesn't. So basically I'm a Kung Fu master when it comes to social media. Just kidding. I'm literally a 22 year-old post grad living in a brand new city. The most I've mastered is how to make a bowl of cereal.

Actually, now that I think about it I'm pretty sure my milk is expired, so I guess we should renege my cereal expertise award. I'll settle for a bronze star.

But I have learned what "adulting" is like in the professional working world, and (I must admit) I am pretty much loving it every single minute. It's like I'm a real person now. Kind of. Sometimes. Only on Tuesdays.

Here is me pretending to adult at work:

The woman made my ID, looked down at it and said "Sorry 'bout it." I legitimately look like a bandit.

Adults take selfies too, right?

And on Thursdays, we drink. Thirsty Thursday @ the office, ladies and gents. Literally everyone gets drunk and goes home early.

(Featuring Social Media Intern #2 Abby) We actually put this on The Knot's Snapchat account that I run. I'm really not sorry about it. 3 strangers saved it to their phones. I'm somewhat concerned.


Four weeks can also go by in a blink of an eye. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was with my best friend from home watching our daily dose of The Bachelorette? We would end every night saying, "See you tomorrow," because we would, in fact, be seeing each other the next day. And the next day. And the one after that. It's weird to be without her. I also recently lost a friend and I can't seem to find where he went. Wasn't it just last week when we were talking and everything was fine? I don't know just how we screwed it up. If you end up finding him, be sure to let me know. I miss him.

Despite the trying events I've put up with during these four weeks, they have challenged me to "find myself" (as cheesy as that sounds). I literally went to a movie BY MYSELF. It was the most freeing experience. I managed to dart in and out of the theater without people realizing that I was a complete loner (I'm in my third month of CIA spy training). I wandered around the city and even found a bookstore that I fell in love with. If you know me, you'll know this is a very bad thing because I read more than a normal person should. "It's okay," I told myself. "Just browse and don't buy anything today. You have to budget!"

I left the bookstore with three books that day.

I like to call this masterpiece: "Money Pit"

In the heroic quest to find myself, I also decided to buy myself Sprinkles cupcakes one day, because why not? I wanted four. At the same time, I knew the workers would judge me if I straight up ordered four cupcakes for myself, so I pretended like I was buying them for my work. 

"What flavors would you like?" the guy asked me as he brought out one of the boxes. I was literally about to spend $15 on cupcakes for myself. 

"Hm, let me see what flavors my CO-WORKERS want because I'm getting them for WORK," I emphasized as I pretended to look at a "text" from my "co-workers." I was actually just flipping back and forth through the apps on my home screen. Then I proceeded to order four cupcakes for myself. No ragrets. Not even one letter. 

Ignore my special, deformed friend in the top right. He had a rough night.

Things are continuing to look up for me. Something cool I was able to do yesterday was attend a product event at LadurĂ©e. You know, the events that only the best-of-the-best's get to go to in order to publish articles and promote them. Serious stuff. My boss had me go and pretend to be a full-time employee in order to learn more about the new bridal collection for which they were releasing new cakes and venue options. I networked like nobody's business. I became friends with the coolest lady who runs the wedding blog Fab You Bliss. She was originally a wedding photographer until she found she was making more money with her blog. I truly envied her. Overall, people thought I was really cool (at least I'm 85% sure). It was kind of a big deal for me. ALSO: I learned that Americans spell macaron wrong. It's not macaroon people. Stop with the double o's. 

Check it out: 

The new wedding cakes from Ladurée's bridal collection.

A really cool box. It's new. It holds one macaron. 

A closeup of one of the cakes made entirely of macarons.

Cake topper from one of the three-tiered wedding cakes.

Cool boxes. They hold macarons. Also stackable. 

A traditional French macaron cake (According to the French marketing woman. She seemed legit).

Pretty mini cakes! It's pink, what's not to like?

My favorite cake from the event. Gorgeous.

On September 8th I thought I was moving to Los Angeles. I had a roommate, she found an apartment and we were going to move in October. The next day I got a job with The Knot. I moved up two days later and found an apartment the same day. It has been a whirlwind of an adventure ever since. 

Still a view from my apartment. I will never cease to be amazed by what is surrounding me.

But, hey, it's only been four weeks. There's still many more to go. I can't wait to fill you in on the shenanigans I get myself into. After all, it's me we're talking about. And that's an adventure in itself.

Until next time,
Leah