IT'S MY ONE MONTH ANNIVERSARY

Hello, my beautiful, beautiful people. Guess what today is? Yeah, it's the one month anniversary of my real-live-residency relationship with New York City.

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. I feel so overwhelmingly happy every time one of you contacts me and says something like, "Please blog!" You guys are really way too kind to me. Sometimes everything is so exciting and I try to write blogs and they turn out... Well, basically like this one is going to turn out. They're like, "WE SAW FIRST DATE AND MET KRYSTA RODRIGUEZ," or "I WENT TO A REALLY COOL PARTY IN A REALLY PRETTY EAST VILLAGE APARTMENT." It's sort of overwhelming because sometimes I don't know how to put into words everything that is happening. So, I mean, here are a bunch of phone pictures and let me try and update all of you on the wild and wonderful that is life here.

WE SAW FIRST DATE AND MET KRYSTA RODRIGUEZ.

Quite honestly, it's not exactly the best show ever. Like, 3 stars (if that). Zachary Levi is gorgeous and it's a cute show and all, but the music is forgettable HOWEVER, it sealed my friendship with the cutie in the middle who is called Alex and he lives down the hall from me and we're soul mates and I'm probably making him crazy at this point, but I don't know how to live without him anymore.

I GOT TO COVER A FASHION SHOW FOR WSN.

This was really exciting. I've never been to a fashion show before, and I got to sit front row with a press pass and my dear friend Jake took gorgeous pictures and it was so exciting. The review is here, and I'm quite proud.

I... face planted and shoulder planted and elbow planted into the ground mid-run.

This doesn't deserve caps. Honestly, at this point, it's starting to get hilarious. This picture is fairly embarrassing, but now I'm starting to giggle about the whole story. My whole shoulder bruised up and I had to get a new phone case (because it cracked when I fell) and headphones (because they broke in half catching my fall) and like, 15 people saw me fall, and I just lay on the ground in shock for a little bit while everyone was like, "Oh my gosh are you okay do you need help did you hit your head can I help you up" and I just wanted to be like, "Everyone please leave me alone so I can cry out of embarrassment and horror and my shoulder and cheek and elbow and side and knees are bleeding and bruising," and the guy whose foot I actually tripped over was this homeless man who had Neosporin in his bag and started rubbing it on my shoulder and the whole deal was just ridiculous. I had been here for TWO WEEKS and I was lying on the ground because I am a total klutz and ah. Just last night Alex pointed at my shoulder and goes, "Did you cut yourself?" NO, ALEX, I AM STILL HEALING FROM WHEN I FACE PLANTED WHILE RUNNING. I know. It's really actually hilarious. I'm finally finding it funny. You're all allowed to laugh.

Being in New York during 9/11 was a really odd experience. The whole city was quiet and somber and there was a sort of remembrance that you could just feel in the whole city. This picture is right at the end of my street with the lights from the memorial. It's one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen.

On the night of 9/11 my best friend and roommate, Alys, went and saw Pippin the musical, and she came home and cried and told Alex and I about just how beautiful it was and the way it made her think about how lucky we are to have the freedom to create good art, how resilient we are as a country... So. Obviously, Alex and I woke up at 4 am Friday morning to get rush tickets.

We're very cute friends. Even before sunrise.

SO WE GOT RUSH TICKETS ARE THEY WERE IN BOX SEATS.

And it was the best show I have ever seen. I can say that with complete and total surety. I've never seen something so electric. I've never seen a show so perfectly produced and gorgeously put together. I've never seen a new concept work so well. I've never seen an entire show stop in the first act for a standing ovation. I've never cried so much about little beautiful things. I've never seen anything like it. 5 stars.

After the show, Alex and I stood by the stage door for an hour to meet our idols, and Patina Miller was so kind and warm and welcoming and gracious and we took pictures with her and she signed them for us and I was just overwhelmed by how beautiful the whole show and the whole day was.

So this is my desk and me and my wall, and it's covered with wonderful little mementos that my really cute family and friends mail me. I'm actually really obsessed with my dorm room, because it's really pretty and I feel inspired to do great things by it.

I saw this on the side of a falafel truck on my way to class earlier this week, and it thought it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. "Sari, will you marry me?" As always, I love New York.

SO a so cool thing that has happened is called I Have Terrible Shin Splints. My mom, who is feeling terrible for me, told me to take some Advil and go buy myself some new running shoes and some new boots. I took all afternoon to go uptown to go shopping, and I looked like a little ball of joy when I came home laden with shopping bags. Also, my shin splints are cured.

So Alex's favorite band is Ohio's own Walk the Moon, and because he is the best human, he got me a ticket and took me to the concert. It was as amazing as it looks.

Seriously. It was super fun, and they were all so cute and so gracious and so wonderful live and the whole thing was gorgeous and it was just feel-good music and I loved it all so much.

After the concert, we -- WAIT OH, ALSO. We got STUCK IN THE SUBWAY. Because someone pulled the emergency brake and it was absolutely terrifying and we thought for sure we were going to die and we were stuck in the tunnel for a while and we were half scared/half bored as can be, so it turned into just a lot of jokes and a nice bonding experience for everyone on the train. Misery loves company or something.

The point is, after the concert and the terror of the subway holding, Alex and I went to a party of a friend of ours who lives in the East Village. The apartment was gorgeous and everyone was so nice and it was all so glamorous and we went on the roof and everyone was the best ever.

On our way to the party, we ran into a few of our friends, so we brought them with us. This is my cute friend Adam. He has great glasses. After the party me and Adam and Alex got cheap late-night pizza and I walked around the city holding hands with both of them and I loved everything very much because my friends are absolutely the cutest.

Saturday is laundry day. I end up wearing really odd outfits on laundry day (oh, but notice my pretty new comfy boots) because all my clothes are dirty. I had to help Alex do allllllll of his laundry because he's allergic to his laundry detergent, so we spent the entire day in the laundry room. Thrilling. But actually enjoyable in a weird way. It good to get everything clean.

MY NEIGHBORS FROM HOME WERE AT MY CHURCH IN FRONT OF ME TODAY.

This was a thousand coincidences -- no, a thousand miracles, actually, and it made my whole week. I started crying and we hugged a lot. It was good to have a little taste of home again.

My library is really, really pretty. I spend a lot of study time here because it just makes me feel ultra-studious. Today, though, I got to do an especially exciting assignment, because I wrote my first piece for my brand new, weekly column about women in the arts, Matrons of Art, that comes out either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week on the NYU arts blog called The Highlighter. I'll get you the link soon, but til then, look at the pretty column header I made!

So that's a really rough rundown of my first month. I know it's not exactly beautiful and poetic like you've come to expect from me, but for some reason when my life itself is beautiful and poetic it's hard to put it into beautiful and poetic words for some reason. Does that make any sense?

Guys, I need you to know another thing, though, too. This has been one of the hardest months of my entire life, and I know you don't see that in my pretty photos and happy writing, but I want you to know that there are still struggles and moments of doubt and I cry all the time. But I have the most amazing people who take care of me. My roommates are amazing. Alys. I need to specifically say that I  love her very desperately. Alex is amazing. Avery is amazing via telephone, like, every day. My family is amazing from 2,000 miles away.

But I need you to know another more important thing: I have never been more grateful for my anything in my whole life. I just can't get over the fact that my life is here now, and I have beautiful friends and my own weekly column and it's all just overwhelming and perfect and exciting and I eat a lot of sushi and read and write a lot and I love it here. I really, really love it here.

"And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes." -Kurt Vonnegut

Yours,

Addy Sue