It's that time again...

...Fall Primetime line-ups began!

I watched Cane on Tuesday. Pretty good, but we'll see what happens with it. Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money were on Wednesday. Dirty Sexy Money was good...I think. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at the end of the episode. A little confused but maybe that will clear up as the season continues. I'll give it a couple more weeks. I was actually very surprised with Private Practice considering when they started building the show up last season in a couple episodes I wasn't completely interested in it. Could be decent! I think part of the reason that it's good is that it's back to focusing on the patients and their ailments and not the love/personal lives of the doctors (there is a little bit of that entwined, but not as much as Grey's).

Speaking of Grey's, I'm not sure I like all this change (ironically, that's what the whole show focused on). Last season wasn't my favorite season (focus shifted to personal lives), but now that Kate Walsh and Isaiah Washington are gone and there is a new batch of interns, it's too much. I heard that it's supposed to return focus to the patients, and I hope so. I think Grey's to me is like ER was to my parents. It was amazing at first and then it got too personal and they stopped watching it as much. Ugly Betty returned for Season 2 (the season 1 finale was really good) and it was funny and I liked it. I think I'm really just having a hard time getting back into my shows because of the break. Last year I started watching the shows on DVD so right after I finished a season the new one would start and I was overly excited because I could remember all the stuff that happened in the finale. Now, The Office...I DVR-ed it and only watched the first 10 minutes (roughly), but I was soooo disappointed that Jim and Pam went on a couple dates and are just "good friends again". I'm really hoping that later in the episode they date again...or at least the season. I was looking forward to seeing them together so much!

OK, that's my update on how I watch too much TV. Have a great Friday!

My Top Ten(s)

I was thinking about all these, figured I would share.

Top Ten:

Things I miss about Florida:
1. Family
2. Friends
3. UF
4. Being able to drive places
5. Publix
6. The weather (I would assume, once it gets to freezing temperatures here)
7. Central A/C (or any at all!)
8. Places like Moes, McAlister's, Chick-Fil-A, to name a few, don't exist up here
9. Apartment hunting is a breeze
10. Tampa


Things I Don't Miss About Florida:
1. The weather (when it gets to be that 100% humidity and extremely hot temperature)
2. Rain everyday in the summer at 2 or 3 PM (at least you can prepare!).
3. Not always a lot to do there (or it seemed that way)
4. Impending sprawl that is slowly but surely creeping into Lutz
5. I guess that's it...
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Things I Would Miss About New York:
1. The diversity and availability of everything (and diversity of people to meet)
2. Paying only $76 per month for my transportation
3. The view (Central Park, Bryant Park, Westside Park, Battery Park, Times Square)
4. Having to walk so much (good exercise!)
5. Broadway is steps away from my office
6. Things get released here earlier (magazines, movies)
7. The shopping (that I haven't had a chance to partake in)
8. Everyone can go out and no one needs to worry about driving and/or how we're getting home later
9. My job
10. Being able to do my own thing walking down the street and no one cares because they're doing their own thing

Things I Wouldn't Miss About New York:
1. Times Square
2. Having to commute so far to work (actually not so bad anymore since I've moved)
3. The traffic (both foot and automobile)
4. Having to walk so much (trying to go from one store to another can be a daunting task)
5. It's expensive
6. It's crowded (read: on the train)
7. The trash that seems to be everywhere
8. Not being able to call people on my commute to and/or from work
9. The train not always having a direct route somewhere
10. Being far from Florida/family/friends

Reasons I Know I'm An Adult Now:
1. I have a job
2. I have benefits
3. I have a 401K
4. I am awake by 7 AM during the week
5. Around 10 PM I get tired and consider going to bed
6. I look forward to every other Friday
7. On the weekends, "sleeping in" means 9 or 10 AM
8. I have to file my taxes as head of household
9. I have to worry about my taxes
10. I have to worry about rush hour traffic

Actually, doesn't that just make me sound like an attractive candidate for dating?

Office Jokes

I had my first office joke played on me yesterday. A certain employee who shall remain nameless came out of a meeting and very stoically and hurriedly told me to get the phone number for Scores West and put it on another employee's desk. I had no idea what Scores West is so I rushed over to the computer and jotted down the name, address, and phone number. The other employee wasn't at their desk (thank goodness!) and it's actually called Scores West Side, so I confirmed if it was the same place and they began to laugh and tell me it was a joke. I still had no idea what I had looked up and assumed it was a sketchy bar, but it turns out it's a pretty popular strip club, haha!

The title of the entry is the hardest part to write...

So for once the eyes are not on New York, but rather Gainesville. Last night at UF Senator John Kerry came to speak and, well, this is what happened...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaiWCS10C5s&mode=related&search=

I'm not going to get into what I think, but it was interesting to see UF make the news for something other than winning championships! I actually find it a bit sad that I don't read the news enough to have seen that. I found out about it on Facebook via the mini feed and then looked into myself.

Work is going well. This is my fifth week with the company already (today marks the complete 4 weeks)... I can't believe it. Where does time go?? Pretty soon I'll be on Social Security! Okay, I might be getting a little ahead of myself. I got a potted plant and a new fax machine. The fax machine alone made me much happier. It'll be such a time saver now. The plant is just nice decor.

When I started it was really nice outside and hot somedays. It's 69 degrees today and has been "cold" since Saturday! It really doesn't feel that bad, it's just mind blowing that if I were still in school I would be sweating to death in the 80+ degree weather. In a way I kind of like not sweating all the time and feeling like I need to take a shower after walking a quarter of a mile. My winter clothes (read: jackets) need to get here quickly, though. I should probably tell my mom to make those the next priority.

I watched K-Ville last night or at least half of it. However, thanks to my DVR I can finish the rest this evening (or watch the re-run they are showing). It seemed pretty good from what I saw, hopefully it won't get cancelled.

Gotta take care of some things!

"Why Does It Say Paper Jam When There Is No Paper Jam?!?!"

You know, Office Space has always been a classic movie that I've enjoyed thoroughly, but now that I have a job, some of that stuff is even more hilarious. I can't really relate to all of it except the IT problems they have, specifically with the printer. We have a new fax and printer on the way (woo hoo!), but I can feel their pain when they want to take the thing out back and beat it with a hammer/baseball bat/anything that will cause damage. Maybe that will show it!

Today was a nice busy day, which was a good contrast to yesterday. Most of today was really just figuring out small IT problems. Fix them now and they won't be bigger issues later. I seriously think there should be a show just about me trying to fax things. Sadly, the stuff that viewers would find funny are things that actually happen to me while faxing. 24,905,804,958 error messages, the cancel button ignoring me pressing it repeatedly like a sewing machine needle and continuing to redial despite the fact that it's obviously not going through. But, in all seriousness, it has actually been a great learning experience for me. In my opinion, one of the best ways to learn something is to be thrown into the fire. Before I came I was moderately computer savvy, or so I thought, but now if something technical goes down if I don't know how to do it I need to find someone who does or find some way to fix it. I feel like I have learned a lot of helpful things that I can use at home for troubleshooting or when the same problem happens here I can do it within minutes.

I love living so close to work now! If I am waiting for the train 25 minutes before work starts, I don't freak out because I know I'll make it. Astoria is like its own little New York City and it has so much stuff you almost don't need to come into the city.

I'm really excited for the new season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to start Thursday (the first of my many shows). I happened upon that show fall of 2005. I'm not sure if another show I was watching was used as a lead-in, but it started and I watched and loved it! I'm extremely excited for the fall line-up so that I can start watching all my shows again. Has it already been 4 or 5 months? It honestly seems like a few weeks ago I was watching the season finales. I think we're getting a DVR which will be the first time I can record shows during the season (at school I used good ol VHS and could, obviously, only do one at a time) so I can watch The Office AND Grey's Anatomy. My parents have one and I became reliant on it when I moved back home after graduation so I think it's a great investment. Plus, I want to give some of the new shows a try. OK, I better finish things up here.

Update from a new Astoria resident

Wooo! What a crazy weekend. I had to move my stuff out of my (now) old apartment to my current apartment. On Saturday I took my first load over, which consisted of a suitcase, a bag of dirty clothes, and my shoulder bag with lots of papers and books in it. Once I got there, we had to wait for the cable to come between 12 and 4 and we also had a handyman there fixing up all the holes in the wall from the previous tenants (nail holes, not big holes). The plan was to go to Gin Mill to watch the Gators game and we had to be there to get our reserved table by 5. Well, the cable guy didn't come until 3:30 and we needed to leave by 4:30, so we didn't make it. When we realized there was nowhere to watch the game, I just headed back to the other apartment to prepare everything for the final haul. It became obvious very quickly that I could not do it in one trip, try as I may. On Sunday I woke-up and didn't shower to save a little time then carried four large bags with me to the train. For those of you who don't know my living situation(s), I live about 7 minutes from the train at both places which really isn't bad except for when you are carrying a lot of stuff and that stuff is also really heavy. Even though I am only travelling from the south side of Queens to the North, there isn't anything that runs between the two so it can take anywhere from an hour to two hours to get from Ozone Park to Astoria (I go through Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, then back to Queens) and I tranfer two times. Once I am on the train I can sit and rest for a little bit until I transfer, which is nice. Upon arriving in Astoria, I ordered my bed, went to do laundry (my sheets and some clothes), and waited around for my bed which was supposed to come between 4 and 7 and came at 6:45. I was hoping it would come closer to 4 because I still had to go back for the last of my stuff and I needed to go into the city to get pillows and a fan for my room, among other items. Once it came, I went into the city, got 4 pillows, a matress pad, a big fan, some kitchen stuff and had to carry it all back on the train. I think the theme for the weekend was see how much stuff Allison can carry on the train at one time. I got to Astoria, literally dropped it all off, and left around 9:45 for Ozone Park. I got to Ozone Park around 11 and was out of there by 11:30 with the heavier bag which was a joy to tote around at that time of night up and down stairs. I got to Astoria around 12:45 and never felt the need to take a shower more than I did right then. I didn't care if it was almost 2 AM by the time I had to get in, I needed that shower. And, I actually took a cold shower and it felt amazing! I got into bed by 2:30 and was up for work today by 7. The train ride is so much shorter! I will admit, though, that Ozone Park was growing on me. I was used to everything by the end of three weeks (including an hour commute into work) so it was a little sad to say bye.

Today, I have very sore arms and a sore back, but I feel accomplished, or at the very least like I went to the gym which I haven't been to in a month. At least all I do up here is walk. I feel like I am getting some form of exercise.

We're supposed to do a shoot today, but the weather is calling for rain. It was raining this morning, just a little cloudy. However, within a five minute period it got dark and looked like the sky would rip open with rain any minute, then it rained for a little bit and got sunny again. I thought I left Florida?! Hopefully the shoot will still be going on since I will get to help out with it! Better get back to work!

Yay for free sandwiches!

I just went to Subway and was absolutely delighted to find out the Sub Club program is still going on up here! I remember when I saw it was being discontinued in Florida and I wanted to, well, not cry, but I was calculating how many free sandwiches I would be missing out on.

One of the great things about living in New York is the exposure to so much advertising (I'm specifically targeting TV here), almost to the point of oversaturation. Everyday I see at least one Pushing Daisies advertisement and I remember being in a train car twice with Justin Timberlake's HBO special plastering every board in the car. Even though I had absolutely no idea what Pushing Daisies was about, the fact that I saw it over and over made me want to know why I should watch this show. So, hat's off to you advertisers and your elusive billboards that make me want to research your shows.

In other news, the apartment is clean and ready to be moved into, except for the painting. At this point, Ali and I might as well move in and take the painting one weekend at a time or else we'll be paying rent on a vacant apartment for who knows how long. Her dad was up for the weekend and he really liked it. We went to Target and cleaned the place out; more than it already was!

Apparently I am not very bright either. For the past week in Bryant Park (one block from my office) there have been big cables lying on the sidewalk and it looked like a shoot was going on there. Oh, no. It's New York Fashion Week and I never put two and two together. I knew it was Fashion Week yet I never thought, "Oh! All these cables are for the runway shows." Silly, Allison. There are probably 539,482,048,203,948 celebrities one block away from me and I have yet to see one (knowingly).

So this is what it feels like to be 22...

Happy birthday a moi! Well, it was yesterday. Ali and I were supposed to watch the Gators game at the Gin Mill at 6. Unfortunately, we were unaware that the game was moved up to 12:30 to be put on TV so we didn't quite make it. One of the downsides of no longer being a student or a season ticket holder I suppose. Oh well, there is always next week. Ali and I have some serious work to do (read: spackle and paint) before our apartment is ready, but once it's finished it's going to look like a million bucks! We found out the building is one hundred years old. It's beautiful! Hopefully we'll have put a pretty big dent in the work by this time next week!

Work is going very well! I love it! I got to help on a shoot last week by holding the cue cards. Needless to say my arm felt like it might fall off by the end. We went to Riverside Park which I had never been to before. The weather was gorgeous, as was the view. I still have so many places to explore here. I should probably just "get lost" one day and wonder around. Laura gave me a great piece of advice which is to ride the bus because underground you don't see the relationship of the stop to the surrounding roads but on the bus you see what connects and how close everything is. I'm really starting to dislike Times Square. Everyone walks so slow and they stop right in the middle of the sidewalk to take pictures!

This week I am really going to concentrate on putting the final touches on the office (furniture, etc.) so that I can help as much as possible with any production work they might have.

I'm going to go to the new apartment now and start cleaning!