Oscar & Dorian

I named him Oscar! (Magellan was too long I think)

Alex named his cat Dorian.

Here is Oscar sitting on my laptop and staring at the desk lamp.

The brothers playing together on their first night with us (Alex is sitting with them).

I have KITTENS!

This is my new kitten! We adopted him and his brother today! (The story of the adoption is quite long and involved so I will have to write about that later.) He squeaks a lot and makes tons of noise when he wants attention (which is all the time). He also follows me around where ever I go.

Alex's cat has curled ears which is rare I guess. He doesn't have a name yet. Any ideas?

Here's my cat sleeping on my lap after a very busy day of exploring our apartment. He even followed me into the kitchen while I unloaded the dishwasher and climbed inside when I wasn't looking. He is very adventurous and bold so we are thinking of naming him Magellan. Do you like it? Do you have any other good ideas?

Here they are sleeping together in their cage before we adopted them.

Pictures!!

The door of my room with my great new bookcase.

My dresser (isn't the lamp beautiful?!)

My desk and bed.

The living room. It's very messy right now while we are trying to organize and settle in. We still need to hang things on the walls and decorate a little.

And finally, the kitchen! I took this picture right after making dinner tonight so it's a little messy, but I love this kitchen. (See my herbs in the windowsill?)

I love this life.

Life in New York continues to be wonderful and exciting. I am, perhaps, still floating along in the honeymoon phase of life here where everything is fresh, adventurous, and note-worthy. I hope this feeling lasts for quite a while...

So what's new? EVERYTHING. I finally have the new couch in the living room...it's wonderful. We are gradually getting settled in together as roommates and I am enjoying the casual and friendly atmosphere Alex and Neal provide.

Earlier this week I took a little trip down to Norfolk, Virginia to visit my friend Cory. He just moved there and is getting ready to start teaching middle-school Latin (God bless him). We had absolutely beautiful weather and spent time exploring Norfolk by going to the beach, walking around downtown, visiting the National Naval Museum, touring the USS Wisconsin, and visiting the Chrysler Art Museum. It was great! We also went out to eat and had our first experience learning how to crack open and eat fresh crabs with bibs and all and spent an evening cooking fresh fajitas in his new apartment.

Now that I am back in New York, Alex and I are getting serious about adopting kittens. Today I found a great little pet shop called Petopia where I bought all the necessary cat supplies I need. The great thing about Petopia is that they have free delivery. It would have been impossible for me to get a litter box, litter, scratching post, pet carrier, and toys back the 11 blocks back to my apartment and they delivered it within an hour of my purchasing it in the store!

Last night was really exciting because I got to meet some of my classmates! Our department has a student organization that hosts social and special events and last night was our first get-together! We met at the Bryant Park Cafe which is right behind the New York Public Library. It was one of those terribly awkward experiences (similar to St. Olaf playfair except at a bar) where no one knows anyone else and the introductions take forever. From what I can tell, almost all of the students are female which could create an interesting dynamic--hopefully it won't be catty.

Anyway, my big goal for this weekend is to adopt the kittens. Then I'll worry about working on my quilting and getting ready for school.

I miss you all a great deal and appreciated hearing from so many of you. Take care.

Love,
~Maren

It's HOT!

I wasn't lying about how hot it is here. According to weather.com it's 90 degrees but feels like 99 degrees. Lovely.

Week One Overview

Well, it's been almost one week since I arrived in New York with my luggage cramped with clothes and shoes and so far everything is great! All of the furniture for my room is assembled (and looking beautiful) and the kitchen is almost completely stocked with the essentials. Dad left early yesterday morning but I got to see my aunt Kathi last night for dinner because she was in town for business. Today is the first day that I won't see a family member and I have to say that feels strange.

I know that many of you have asked if I have any pictures of my new apartment. I will upload pictures soon once I get my new computer that will be able to handle picture files much better than my laptop now. My laptop I used while at St. Olaf is dying a slow death and is very sluggish right now. I'm hoping to get my new Macbook Pro by Friday!

I am also excited because I bought a couch last night! I found it on Craigslist and saw it in person last night. It is from Room & Board (less than a year old!) but the woman who owns it is moving to Washington D.C. to get married to her fiance who already has a fully furnished home. It was a great deal and I'm hoping to have it moved on Friday. Right now we only have a few plastic Ikea chairs to sit on in the living room so this couch is much needed!

I've also had lots of fun exploring the NY subway and bus system. I really enjoy the freedom of being able to get almost anywhere on public transit and the people-watching is great! New Yorkers are such interesting people with amazingly diverse looks and interests. New York has got to be one of the greatest people-watching cities ever.

Since NYU orientation and classes don't start until September, I am hoping to travel to Virginia next week to visit my St. Olaf friend Cory who just moved there last week. He will be a Latin teacher in Norfolk and is one of my best friends. Plane tickets to Richmond are so cheap right now so it's a great time to visit him!

I'm also getting very anxious and excited about adopting a cat or kitten! I'll keep you posted...

(I also got my first piece of mail yesterday from Marianne Larsen which was awfully exciting!)

Lazy Summer Saturday

So you know how in movies sweaty hot women are supposed to be sexy? They're LYING

Needless to say, it's a hot and muggy day in New York, though that hasn't stopped me from enjoying myself. This morning I showed Dad the NYU neighborhood/Washington Square Park. We went to the bookstore and he bought an "NYU Dad" window sticker for his car! We were both so excited.

Afterwords I went up to Union Square to the Greenmarket. It's a huge farmer's market and little arts festival they hold every Saturday. It was terribly crowded with people buying flowers, fresh produce, and all kinds of fresh baked & canned goods. I bought some little plants and herbs that I am going to try and grow in the windowsills in our apartment. Now all I need is some cute little pots to put them in!

I have arrived!

Hello my dear family and friends,

Welcome to my brand new blog all about my life in New York! I've never written a blog before so if this is your first time reading a blog it's new for both of us. I really enjoyed writing emails to all of you in my first years at St. Olaf and I'd like to continue to write about my experiences here so that I can share them with you.

First of order of business: Where do I live? Many of you have asked for my mailing address so here it is...(This is a small P.O box in the lobby of my building)

Maren Lankford
511 East 20th Street 7F
New York, NY 10010

If you have anything to send that is larger than a card or letter, perhaps a fresh batch of cookies, send it to this address where I can receive packages:

Maren Lankford
c/o Oval Concierge
276 First Avenue
New York, NY 10009

My email address at marenlankford@gmail.com is still what I will be using while I am here. I don't know how long I will be using my St. Olaf address (lankford@stolaf.edu) so take that one out of your address books! I also have a new NYU email address!!!! It is mdl377@nyu.edu. You can reach me there too!

That takes care of business I suppose.

So far, life here is great. I couldn't ask for more. My apartment is wonderful and BIG and my roommates are very very nice. Alex will be a graduate student in September too. He will be studying photography. He is an artsy Russian guy who moved to the U.S. 15 years ago with his family and has lived in NYC ever since. On my first night here he volunteered to help me assemble my dresser which I appreciated SO much. It took us over 2 hours and Neal, my other roommate came to help too! Neal is a Jewish guy from Tennessee who went to NYU for his undergrad. He is currently some kind of political campaign organizer for the Democratic Party in NY. I don't quite understand everything about his job yet, but his interests are very similar to Carmen's (my St. Olaf friend and roommate) so I like him already!

I spent all of yesterday assembling furniture in my room. It's hard work, but now I have almost everything put together. Dad is busy going to museums during the day (surprise, surprise) and so we had dinner together at a little Italian place by his hotel last night and will have dinner together again tonight.

Anyway, that's all the news I have for now. I don't exactly know what I'm going to do today because I am waiting for more boxes to arrive so I can unpack more of my things. Maybe I'll organize the kitchen in the mean time.

Please tell other family and friends about my blog so that they can keep up with me too. I really appreciate all the support and thoughtful messages I've already received from some of you. I miss you all a great deal and hope that this blog can help keep us connected!

Much love from the Big Apple,
~Maren