Jan22-Jan26 - Going home!

Sunday night my roomies and I had off from work so we ordered food to our place and ate and hung out. I was happy we could be together because I was going back home in a couple of days.

The next day was my last day at work before visiting home and that evening while working I got to meet Rachel Ray and her husband, as well as the Executive Producer of Project Runway Desiree Gruber! They each dined with us and both were beautiful and nice!

                              
On Tuesday I was flying home! My flight was not until later at night so Sarah and I went to Ristorante Asellina at the Gansevoort Park Hotel to eat. They were participating in Restaurant Week where there is a three-course prix-fixe deal during lunch service. We really enjoyed our meals and had fun trying the interesting desserts. There was a dragon fruit cheesecake with vanilla sorbet that was tasty and a basil-flavored flan with tomato sorbet which was very interesting!

Afterwards I got ready to go home! I took the subway to JFK airport and landed home at 10:30 at night. I had not been home for three weeks so it was nice to be able to visit. Mike picked me up from the airport and I made him play for me one of his new songs he produced! I had been waiting to hear it and it is going to be a #1 hit guaranteed!

The next day Mike had planned events for our Monthversary and it was such a nice day! For breakfast we went to IHop because we love their pancakes. Then we walked around the mall and looked at the cute puppies for sale just for fun. Mike told me we had something to go to at 1:00 and he drove me to an ice skating rink! I had not been ice skating in a while and at first I was shaky. Mike had not been in a while either but was really good at it and eventually I got pretty comfortable too. We got hot chocolate there and then went to Mike's house to see his family and get ready for our dinner reservation.

It was a surprise where we were going to dinner and it wound up being a really cute place called Osteria Rocco! We both started with delicious cauliflower soup and arancinis. All of the food was amazing and the dessert was unbelievable! We ate a frozen chocolate and hazelnut moose that I wish I could eat every day!

During dinner Mike told me that he got movie tickets for that night and when we got there I found out we were going to see We Bought A Zoo! I had been wanting to see that movie and while we were watching it we were saying how bad it was because it was sad at parts and I felt like I was always crying either because of something sad or happy, but really the movie was good! I love animals so much and I always have and after seeing this movie I told everyone that I want a zoo! haha

The next day while everyone was at work I met up with my Dad at Aladdin's restaurant that we love. My parents and I have eaten there since I can remember and the food is inexpensive but so good and healthy for you too! 

Later that night Mike and I met up with our friends Dave and Julie for a double date! We tried to go to Olive Garden but they were closed so we all went to TGI Friday's and had a really good time. Afterwards we wanted to see the opening night of the movie Man On A Ledge so we all went and it was really good! I like action movies with a good storyline and a little bit of humor too. Staying awake for the midnight showings of movies is usually hard for me and although I made it through the movie, afterwards I was ready for some sleep!

Jan15-Jan21 - Miss New York USA Pageant!

On Sunday morning I woke up and felt sick which was not good because I had been looking forward to this day for a while! I have not been sick in a while but then the day I was going to attend the Miss New York pageant I got a cold! The Miss New York pageant is under the new management of K2 Productions and I was very excited to see their new show. I am going to be competing in the pageant next year and I have attended the pageant every year since 2005! I couldn't let this year be the exception so I rested, bought medicine, and then Sarah and I got ready to go!

The process of getting to the pageant was not easy because Sarah and I do not have our cars in the city. Dennise has her car at her sister's house in the Bronx and offered to let us use it! That was so nice of her and that wound up making our trip so much easier. We took the subway for 80 mins and then got in her car and drove to The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College!

I was so happy that we got there okay and when we went inside there were many excited families, friends, and fans! The production was great and the contestants were beautiful!

It was difficult to determine who the winner would be because there were many who stood out! After being judged in the categories of evening gown, swimsuit and interview, Johanna Sambucini was crowned the new Miss New York USA for 2012!

After the production it was so good to see my friend Rosalie who I have known since participating in the Miss New York Teen USA pageant! She is so sweet and beautiful and I really had hoped that she would do well in the pageant. She told me that next year should be my year and that meant so much to me <3

The next day was Martin Luther King Jr. Day which I usually attend the annual celebration at St. John Fisher College where there are speeches and performances, but this year I was not in Rochester. The theme of the event was "Unconditional Love For All" which is perfect for his remembrance because he has said the beautiful quote:

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. Martin Luther King Jr.

For the rest of the week I worked at Maialino and one night I met Jimmy Fallon! It was funny because my Aunt Susan was just saying that she was going to get tickets for us to go to his show this summer. Jimmy came in and was very outgoing and sat at our bar and talked with all of the guests around him. He was very funny and very nice! 

That weekend I was done with training for my hostess/reservationist job and I was working shifts on my own! Everything went pretty well even though it is a challenge to be alone in the office answering the phones and taking care of the guests' needs. I am really enjoying working there but I was also looking forward to visiting home the next week! 

Jan9-Jan14 - Interviewing With Agencies!

January 9th I had the day off so I got prepared for my interviews the next day. On Tuesday I had two interviews with modeling agencies! My first interview was with NY Model Management where they had a booker meet with me in their conference room and I showed her my portfolio. We talked and she was very nice! They said that they would have a meeting and let my mother agent know their decision.

Afterwards I went back to the apartment and ate lunch and then headed to my second interview which was with Muse Model Management. When I walked in the booker who came to greet me looked familiar and he asked me if we had met before. It turns out that when I went to Canada for Chantale Nadeau's model presentation show he was there! We sat down and briefly talked and then he took some digital pictures. When I had met him in Canada he said that they would be interested in signing me to their Germany office but I knew that I would be moving to NYC soon so that would not work.

I enjoyed going to both agencies and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to interview with them!

The next day I started my first day of training at Maialino restaurant at Gramercy Park Hotel!

The first night I trained as a hostess and it was pretty busy but it went well! Danny Meyer who owns Maialino as well as other Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants happened to stop in and we met and he was very nice. The next morning I trained as a reservationist in the office and I was surprised by how much the phone rings! Up to nine guests can call at a time and they do! I enjoyed learning about Maialino and starting work there.

On January 14th the Miss America pageant was airing live on television and I was excited to watch because I know Kaitlin Monte who is Miss New York America. I usually only watch the Miss America pageant every other year but I made sure to be home to see Kaitlin compete! Kaitlin is from my hometown and we were part of the same modeling agency, Mary Therese Friel, LLC. She did so well placing 2nd runner-up and really could have won, but I am proud of her for making it so far!

Jan1-Jan8 - Back To The City!

The first day of 2012 I got ready to go to Connecticut to visit my Grandma before going back to the city. I said bye to Mike and his family and then my Dad and I drove all day and arrived at night. Right when we got there we picked her up and went to Christy's where we always go to eat because it is so good. I had my huge eggplant parmesan dish that I always eat the whole thing. Later when we got back we gave my Grandma some Christmas presents and she was so thankful. I wrote her a poem called Grandma's House about how much I love going to visit her and she loved it! 

The next morning we headed to the city and I brought a whole trunk full of more stuff to move in since I still had extra room. My Dad and I went out to lunch which was nice and then he went back to CT to help my Grandma with some things before going back home. 

Later that night I went to go see the movie The Iron Lady with Sarah and her friend Steph because her friend was visiting in town and heard that the movie was only playing in NYC and LA so she wanted to see it. Meryl Streep did very well and it was interesting to learn about Britain's female Prime Minister. She was a women who stood up for herself and her beliefs and truly cared about the people. I looked it up afterwards and they did such a good job making Meryl look like her ->

 

The next day Miranda, one of my roomies from Singapore, was in the city and came to see me! I showed her our apartment and we talked and caught up for a couple of hours. It was so good to see her!

After hanging out with Miranda I headed to Maialino at Gramercy Park Hotel for an interview. It went well and Sarah interviewed for the same job. They were only hiring two more people for the position and later the next day we each found out that we both got the job!!

That weekend some of Sarah's friends, Lindsay and Mishi, were in town for interviews with ELLE and L'Oreal. The night before they left we went out to eat and the day that they were leaving we met up for a sweet lunch at Max Brenner!

Although we had an unhealthy lunch we did have plans the next day to go to yoga with Dennise so it was okay!...(slight humor ;p) The following night the three of us headed to candle-lit yoga at Yoga to the People which is a donations based group.

The class was amazing; it was easy to get used to yoga again and the class was enough of a challenge for me as well. I felt so stretched and relaxed afterward, I definitely want to continue to take yoga classes.

Later that night was the Miss California USA 2012 pageant that I watched live online. I was excited to watch the show because I love the Miss Universe Organization who owns the pageant and also the directors of the Miss California USA pageant, K2 Productions, are the new directors for Miss New York USA which I will be competing for next year! The winner was Natalie Pack who is a beautiful model who has been on America's Next Top Model in the past! 

(picture from MissCaliforniaUSA.com)

The show ended after 12am on the East Coast and I went right to bed when it was finished so that I could be ready for the week to come!

Dec19-Dec31 - Home for the Holidays!

The very next day after being home I did a quick shoot of video and stills with a local photographer working on a project. In one scene I wore my "DKB: Dancers Kick Butt" shirt and in the other scene I was a volleyball player.

That night I celebrated Christmas with my bestie Sarah since she was heading to Nashville to see her parents for the holidays. We had a festive night of playing Christmas movies, eating Christmas cookies and exchanging gifts!

December 20th at night Hanukkah began and I was at Mike's house to celebrate with his family. I have never celebrated Hanukkah before so I was excited to light the first candle for the first night.

On the 21st I got hired to do a catalogue shoot for Team Cheer magazine. The crew was really nice and the other models and I had fun. Fun fact: the studio that was shooting this catalogue was the same studio I got hired for my first modeling job ever which was for Hasbro Video Now portable DVD/game player. 

The next night my agency in Rochester, NY, Mary Therese Friel, LLC invited some of the models to ring the bell for Salvation Army at the mall. I participate every year so I was glad I was home to be a part of it. Some of my friends were there too and we all had fun singing carols and wishing everyone a happy holiday. The majority of people said that they just couldn't refuse and we got a lot of donations!

On the 23rd I celebrated Christmas with my best friend Liz by watching Jingle All The Way and drinking hot chocolate :-) Afterwards we got set up to have a big Hanukkah dinner with Mike's family which was really nice.

Christmas Eve and Christmas were amazing with my family! It is tradition every year for my cousin Amanda and I to get together on Christmas Eve so we hung out and got to catch up :-)

I told my parents I didn't want anything for Christmas but they got me an iPad so that I can use it for my modeling portfolio! Everything they gave me was so nice and Santa brought me a yoga mat and candy! I love just being home, relaxing and enjoying the holiday season.

All week Mike's family had dinners with friends and family and it was delicious. Mike's Uncle was in town and he gave a lecture on Edgar Cayce and how to heal certain things so my Dad came with us and it was a nice workshop. I recommend anyone who has physical ailments to look into it!

The next thing I new it was the last day of 2011! I spent the day with my parents and for lunch we ate at Aladdin's which we have eaten there since I was really young. Later for dinner we went to Bocaccinis Italian Bistro where I always get butternut squash raviolis. They had caramel creme brulee on the New Year's menu so I couldn't pass that up! Afterwards I went to Mike's Aunt's house to see him and we watched the performers on tv and rang in the new year! 

Dec11-Dec18 - Moving to NYC!

We got approved for the apartment that we really wanted! We read through the hundreds of pages of the lease (that they only give you 1 day to do) and signed for an apartment in Gramercy/East Village area!

On December 11th my parents, Mike, Brad, Sarah (my roomie) and I had a cargo van, a truck and a car loaded and ready to go to NYC!

We drove down and got to the apartment right before it was getting dark. Everyone started grabbing bags and boxes and brought everything into the apartment and made piles of luggage on the floor. It took a lot of effort but we finally got our sofa inside and we were all set to unpack!

We took a break and walked to get dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant. After we finished setting up the dining room table and unwrapping the sofa some of our friends from NYU came over to hang out for a little bit.

The next morning my parents left to go back home and Sarah and I walked around the apartment complex to see the ice skating rink, lounge, movie theatre, gym, and other buildings around the courtyard.

The rest of the week Sarah, Mike and I went out to places to eat, shopped, and hung out. We also got our apartment set up and a wall built to make another bedroom for our roommate Dennise who was moving in after Christmas. 

Since Sarah and I wanted to have consistent money coming in for rent we went out and applied for hostessing jobs. It was a little difficult because we were going to go home soon for the holidays but Maialino at Gramercy Park Hotel agreed to interview us after we got back. 

Before going home for the holidays we wanted to make sure to look around the city and see the tree at Rockefeller Center. We went into St. Patrick's Cathedral that I don't think I have seen in a long time and it was beautiful.

Then we went to go see the tree that I don't think I have ever seen in person before! It was very festive and I loved it!

On the 16th Sarah, Mike, our friend Dave, and I went to go see Mission Impossible at an IMAX theatre! Everyone was going crazy for the release of the preview of The Dark Night Rises and it was pretty intense. We all really liked the movie and I thought it had some cute humor too. 

The last night in the city before going home for the holidays Mike and I went to a Christmukkah party that his cousin and wife and Dennise were putting on. We went up to 242nd street for the party and their apartment was really nice! We had h'orderves and hung out then had dinner and did a white elephant gift exchange. It was funny because one couple each opened up Justin Bieber toothbrushes! The night ended with some dancing to LMFAO Party Rock Anthem and we headed back to catch our train in the morning.

In the morning we headed to Penn Station and took a train back to Rochester, NY. The train was really nice and comfortable and we spent some time in the booths eating by the snack counter. 

We finally made it back and I was ready for the holiday celebrations to begin!

Sep 26-Oct 3- Finding An Apartment in NYC!

After getting home from Toronto I had a fitting the next day for Fashion Week of Rochester. I never went to the casting for it but I know one of the designers and she asked me to walk in her segment. Meki Couture makes beautiful bridal dresses and the designer Marleen is so nice so of course I was happy to walk for her!


The next day I went to the park and we spotted a really big turtle that was swimming right under the boardwalk.

Just when I thought that was the biggest wild turtle I have ever seen all of a sudden my Dad spotted a head and tail sticking out of the water and under us swam a gigantic turtle! I could not get a picture of it because of the reflections on the water but it was some snapping turtle with spikes on it's back.


Later for dinner we went to Salena's Mexican Restaurant that my neighbor growing up owns with her husband. We ate with Mike and Johnny Cummings the singer and the food was very good.


The next morning I did a modeling job for Kodak which I always love doing. I wish I could work for Kodak even more than I do but I am fortunate to get any work from them!


The next day Mike and I hung out with a family friend's sons because their Father was ill with ALS. We wanted them to be out of the house for a little while and to try to take their mind off of what was going on so I played hide-and-go-seek with them in the house and we played a bunch of wii games with them. Later at night they stayed for our huge dinner celebration for Rosh Hashanah. There were 16 of us and we had a very nice dinner where I tried Matzo ball soup which I liked!


The weekend of September 30th Sarah, Mike and I went to New York City!

Sarah and I wanted to look for apartments so we planned some appointments for the weekend to look at some that were available. We made most of our appointments in Brooklyn so that we could try to save some money. We went to our first appointment and the landlord was running late. While we were waiting a tenant came out and we asked him about the neighborhood and the building. The man told us that he has lived there for three years and it is not a bad place but then he said "I feel obligated to tell you that a man was murdered in this building last month."Needless to say we were not going to live there and we decided it was not worth going to the other apartments nearby in Brooklyn.


We quickly started looking up postings for apartments in Manhattan and made some appointments to go to. That night Sarah went to meet up with one of her friends and Mike and I went to our friend's place and hung out with people there. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to Webster Hall to listen to a group that got signed to the music company that our friend works for called Pilot Creative. The group performed very well and we had a fun night!

The next morning we went to a place that we really liked and we were considering to go for it but we wanted to look at some places that were in lower Manhattan. We went to some other appointments and then stopped for dinner. We ate Giano and it was a nice atmosphere and good food. 

The next day we went to more apartments and we liked a lot of them. We could not decide if we should apply for any of them so we went to dinner at Yuca Bar to think about it. The food was very good there too and we decided that we would stay one more day in the city and look around and decide which apartment we wanted to apply for. We went back to see our friend Rick who goes to NYU and him and his roommates and us headed out to Fat Cat to play some ping pong. It was really neat inside, they had a bunch of different games to play and we had fun. 

The next morning we went to a couple more appointments and found an apartment that we wanted to apply for! We went to John's Pizza mmmm and then drove Sarah to the Newark airport and drove back home to Rochester!