If the journal is leaving you hankering for more photos, you can now view many more on my facebook page. I will be adding more - we have many - but right now I am going to sleep. For those of you who don't have facebook, just use a stalker page or a friends page. This was the easiest means to get pictures where you could see them. You can find my page by plugging this email address in to the facebook search: chaelita84@yahoo.com
That's enough social networking for now.
Don't worry - I do not tweet.
Never going to happen.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Big Weekend
The big weekend started on Friday. We went back to NY in the morning to sign papers for our apartment. So we officially have an apartment! We will get the keys tomorrow and camp there until our box arrives with all of our stuff, probably around the 9th. We're very excited.
Colin had also set up a meetings with at Del Posto and Union Square Cafe. Right after we signed the lease headed down to Del Posto. I waited on a bench in the sun on the bank of the Hudson while Colin met with Mark. Twenty minutes later, he walked out with a job! What a great moment! He is going to be the new Chef de Partie, specializing in fish. He will be working dinner shifts full time, starting this Tuesday. He is so excited and I am so happy for him. Seeing his talent and hard work taking him where he wants to be is so gratifying. We stopped into Union Square next and Colin told the chef there, Carmen Quagliata, that he had just taken the job at Del Posto. After this year of talking, he and Carmen have become friends and will keep in touch and go to the markets together sometimes. It all ended so nicely!
So, an apartment and a job! 2 down, 1 to go. (Job for me.)
Saturday morning we drove up to Essex for Brian and Karen's wedding (Colin's older brother.) It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful wedding. The wedding party had taken over an entire old school hotel and we partied into the night. To top it all off, Colin got to go to a Phish show at Fenway tonight and see a bunch of his old friends.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Job Market
May 28th:
We are signing the lease on the place from the previous post tomorrow! It was a bit of work and driving today to get all of the funds together in the proper form (certified checks) but we did it all today and we are now ready to finalize it tomorrow!
Colin has been talking, emailing and meeting with a few chefs in NY for the past 6 months or so, establishing relationships and laying the groundwork for cooking in NYC. In March he met face to face with them again and did a stage at Del Posto with Mark Ladner. (A stage is basically an audition at a restaurant; you come in and work for a day and see how you all like it.) Today he sent out another email letting them know that he is finally established in NY and would like to speak with them again about employment. Almost immediately, he got a response from Ladner at Del Posto, Colin's first choice of restaurant's to work with. Ladner wants to meet with him tomorrow (Friday,) and asked when Colin will be available for hire! Tomorrow after signing our lease, Colin will meet with Mark Ladner and discuss working with him at Del Posto. It's so great to see all of his hard work and skill bring responses. We'll let keep you posted. (I would just like to point out that I exercised GREAT self control in not utilizing a bad pun right here.)
Anyway...
I have also been sending out resume packages to places that are posted on Craigslist. As a small side note, I would like to point out that I really should have had a recent set of headshots taken by Trevor in SF because 90% of prospective employers request them. Agh. I'll figure it out tomorrow. That being said, I have high hopes for something to open up. (And... I am going to try to look really hot in the next few days and have Colin take a photo that could at least pass for a bartending application headshot.) Of course, I will keep you up to date on my job prospects as well - whether depressing or positive. Just for fun, I will leave you with a stellar example of the employment listings I have come across. Skeptics beware, I did not make this up - the posting ID is included:
Reply to:job-hvd3k-1194110822@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-05-28, 8:49PM EDT
holding interviews for bartenders...experienced professional bartedners only..mixolgy skills a must.
flair skills a big extra..male and female wanted..please bring resume w/ attached photo. (wothout photos will forget you in pile of reumes)
we have collected a group of talented mixologists and flair(bottle flipping) crew.. we are in need to fill more shifts.
new bar under renovation
must be 21 and over please.
evolution
68 2nd avenue
corner of 4th street
f train 2nd ave stop
ask for randy or eric
holding interviews mon-fri 3pm-5pm ONLY!!!!!
PostingID: 1194110822
We are signing the lease on the place from the previous post tomorrow! It was a bit of work and driving today to get all of the funds together in the proper form (certified checks) but we did it all today and we are now ready to finalize it tomorrow!
Colin has been talking, emailing and meeting with a few chefs in NY for the past 6 months or so, establishing relationships and laying the groundwork for cooking in NYC. In March he met face to face with them again and did a stage at Del Posto with Mark Ladner. (A stage is basically an audition at a restaurant; you come in and work for a day and see how you all like it.) Today he sent out another email letting them know that he is finally established in NY and would like to speak with them again about employment. Almost immediately, he got a response from Ladner at Del Posto, Colin's first choice of restaurant's to work with. Ladner wants to meet with him tomorrow (Friday,) and asked when Colin will be available for hire! Tomorrow after signing our lease, Colin will meet with Mark Ladner and discuss working with him at Del Posto. It's so great to see all of his hard work and skill bring responses. We'll let keep you posted. (I would just like to point out that I exercised GREAT self control in not utilizing a bad pun right here.)
Anyway...
I have also been sending out resume packages to places that are posted on Craigslist. As a small side note, I would like to point out that I really should have had a recent set of headshots taken by Trevor in SF because 90% of prospective employers request them. Agh. I'll figure it out tomorrow. That being said, I have high hopes for something to open up. (And... I am going to try to look really hot in the next few days and have Colin take a photo that could at least pass for a bartending application headshot.) Of course, I will keep you up to date on my job prospects as well - whether depressing or positive. Just for fun, I will leave you with a stellar example of the employment listings I have come across. Skeptics beware, I did not make this up - the posting ID is included:
bartenders/barmaids wanted (East Village)
Reply to:job-hvd3k-1194110822@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-05-28, 8:49PM EDT
holding interviews for bartenders...experienced professional bartedners only..mixolgy skills a must.
flair skills a big extra..male and female wanted..please bring resume w/ attached photo. (wothout photos will forget you in pile of reumes)
we have collected a group of talented mixologists and flair(bottle flipping) crew.. we are in need to fill more shifts.
new bar under renovation
must be 21 and over please.
evolution
68 2nd avenue
corner of 4th street
f train 2nd ave stop
ask for randy or eric
holding interviews mon-fri 3pm-5pm ONLY!!!!!
- Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
- Please, no phone calls about this job!
- Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
An Update
Just a quick update on the newest:
We looked at this apartment on Tuesday. (The two lower left two windows belong to it.) It is a really cute place on E. 59th St., between 2nd and 3rd Aves. The price is unbelievable and it has everything we were looking for. (I'll go into details after we get some pictures of the inside - we were too busy looking to take pictures.) We will be signing papers this Friday! Really exciting.
Now that we have a legit address, the next step is to secure jobs...
Sunday, May 24, 2009
We made it!
May 25th:
Every time I write the date at the top of a post I actually have to check which day it is. We left Chicago the afternoon of the 23rd and blazed through Ohio and Pennsylvania. During this drive the car began to show its first signs of stress: the tire developed a slow leak. Dang it! Luckily, it was such a gradual leak that we were able to stop every few hours to top it off with air. It held all the way to CT. (Tomorrow will take it to get fixed.)
The “Welcome to New York” sign greeted us at 5:30am on the 24th. We were on our way to Connecticut, but 84 runs through NY first. Dusk was introducing the sunrise by 5:00am, gilding the mountainside trees along our drive with gray-gold light. It was an exquisite drive. We had been on the road since Chicago at 12pm and being welcomed by misty green forests rolling out in front of us gave us the energy we needed to complete the last 30 minutes of the drive.
Since we arrived in CT we have been resting and spending time with Colin's family. Hopefully we will go into NY on Wednesday and sign papers on our prospective apartment. I'll let you know how it goes. On that note, for continuity's sake, I will keep this journal alive through our search for apartments and jobs, at least up until we get settled.
Route: Hwy 94 - I 80 - I-81 - I-84
Major Stops: Clarion OH; Woodbury, CT
P.S. I update the St. Louis & Chicago posts to include routes.
Every time I write the date at the top of a post I actually have to check which day it is. We left Chicago the afternoon of the 23rd and blazed through Ohio and Pennsylvania. During this drive the car began to show its first signs of stress: the tire developed a slow leak. Dang it! Luckily, it was such a gradual leak that we were able to stop every few hours to top it off with air. It held all the way to CT. (Tomorrow will take it to get fixed.)
The “Welcome to New York” sign greeted us at 5:30am on the 24th. We were on our way to Connecticut, but 84 runs through NY first. Dusk was introducing the sunrise by 5:00am, gilding the mountainside trees along our drive with gray-gold light. It was an exquisite drive. We had been on the road since Chicago at 12pm and being welcomed by misty green forests rolling out in front of us gave us the energy we needed to complete the last 30 minutes of the drive.
Since we arrived in CT we have been resting and spending time with Colin's family. Hopefully we will go into NY on Wednesday and sign papers on our prospective apartment. I'll let you know how it goes. On that note, for continuity's sake, I will keep this journal alive through our search for apartments and jobs, at least up until we get settled.
Route: Hwy 94 - I 80 - I-81 - I-84
Major Stops: Clarion OH; Woodbury, CT
P.S. I update the St. Louis & Chicago posts to include routes.
Chicago
May 21st:
We arrived in the early evening and went straight to Giordano's for deep dish pizza. So delicious... We wandered around the Rush St. area for a while until we heard some great music coming from a bar and went in for a drink. It was called The Joynt and we found out it has a lot of Chicago history in it. And as it turned out, the band was Shirley King's band (BB King's daughter.) They were so good we ended up dancing there the rest of the night.
Route: I-55
May 22nd:
We pretty much celebrated my birthday the whole day. (A little spoiled, I know.) We had lunch at The Palms and then I went and got a pedicure. We relaxed in the afternoon and headed to Vinci for dinner. Vinci was a treat; a casual Italian restaurant with great food, good prices and very unique interior design - an improbable blend of classy Italian renaissance and checkered Italian diner. Our after-dinner entertainment was a show at Second City, the comedy company that has seen the early careers of so many legendary comics. Needless to say, it was hilarious and a really great way to end the day of celebration.
May 23rd:
We left Chicago this morning and are going straight on through to Connecticut. It’s a long haul but we decided it’d be better than having to set up a tent somewhere in the dark.
We arrived in the early evening and went straight to Giordano's for deep dish pizza. So delicious... We wandered around the Rush St. area for a while until we heard some great music coming from a bar and went in for a drink. It was called The Joynt and we found out it has a lot of Chicago history in it. And as it turned out, the band was Shirley King's band (BB King's daughter.) They were so good we ended up dancing there the rest of the night.
Route: I-55
May 22nd:
We pretty much celebrated my birthday the whole day. (A little spoiled, I know.) We had lunch at The Palms and then I went and got a pedicure. We relaxed in the afternoon and headed to Vinci for dinner. Vinci was a treat; a casual Italian restaurant with great food, good prices and very unique interior design - an improbable blend of classy Italian renaissance and checkered Italian diner. Our after-dinner entertainment was a show at Second City, the comedy company that has seen the early careers of so many legendary comics. Needless to say, it was hilarious and a really great way to end the day of celebration.
May 23rd:
We left Chicago this morning and are going straight on through to Connecticut. It’s a long haul but we decided it’d be better than having to set up a tent somewhere in the dark.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
St. Louis
May 20th:
Yesterday we started the northward stretch. We left New Orleans a bit later than planned. I blame it on the Insectarium - they run entrance at that place like Fort Knox. We also missed the world famous chicken at Willie Mae's Scotch House by 30 minutes. Bummer. We were finally on the road by about 3:30pm with a really long stretch ahead of us. The campground at Trail of Tears National Park was originally our destination but we found out en route that the grounds close at 9pm and there was no way we were making it in time. All of the other campgrounds on our route, aside from some KOA's along the interstate, had a similar closing time. Something about setting up camp at a KOA right on the road at 2am just didn't sit well with us. (Probably had something to do with the Guadalupe experience...)
So we went for it. Even though we've had quite a few big driving days - anywhere from 8 to 15 hours - we had not done an all night drive yet so it was due. We made it to just outside of St. Louis by about 3:30am and figured we could find a super cheap motel but all of them were upwards of $65. (!) We ended up parking behind a Motel 8 next to a huge truck stop and sleeping in the car. Check off the obligatory sleep in the car.
A few hours slept, we headed into downtown St. Louis and convinced the hotel we were staying with that night to check us in at 7:30am instead of 3pm. Sweet! Showered, dealt with NY apartment stuff, and finally had a nice lunch at Morgan's, a local microbrewery.
Route: I-10 - I-55
The weather in St. Louis was so beautiful; a mellow mid-70’s with a calm breeze, brilliant blue sky, verdant trees, the intense gleam of the stainless steel of the Gateway Arch and the muddy brown thick ribbon of the Ole Miss. I’m not mocking the river. It is a magnificent and tranquil presence as it strongly and gently drives mud and debris down through the country.
The Arch is pretty neat to look at. It seemed a little incongruous to me at first but it is massive and graceful and it becomes familiar rather quickly. We decided to take the tram to the top of its 635 feet. We climbed into a tiny metal pod with 2 women and their little kids. The pod bore a strong resemblance to one of those emergency jettison pods that equip Stars Wars ships. Tiny.
We exited the pod at the top and were we pressed up against the crowd and the tiny little windows looking out over St. Louis on one side and Illinois on the other. It was worth going up there.
That night we got tickets to the Cardinals/Cubs game. (Colin is a Cards fan.) We had a great time and the Cards won! Mmmm, nachos and Bud.
May 21:
Onward to Chicago! It is only about a 5 hour drive...
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