Tryin' to relax...

Taking a walk through Central Park is really relaxing, especially after you've managed to finish most of your homework for the weekend. I don't want to be that person that complains all the time, but man, grad school is a lot of work. Lots of busy work unfortunately =/

Anyways, besides grad school, everything else is pretty alright. My rabbit is chillin and happy as ever, I got a $20 coupon from DSW (shoe heaven) which was great, I bought some much needed Shake Shack yesterday, and I finally took my camera out for a spin after 3 months, shame shame shame on me.

Hope you all are doing ok, I'm going to attempt to do some exciting things this month so I don't fall into that slump of being a graduate student hermit, only emerging when I need food and water, so stay tuned! But don't expect anything too exciting, I'm a relatively boring person haha.

I'm so sorry....

It's been exactly two months since I've posted something on here, and I really have to apologize. I hate the fact that I sort of abandoned this blog, but it was always at the back of my mind. 

Anyway, since I got back from Haiti, my scheduled kind of went into full throttle. I started working a lot more, and in September I started graduate school at New York University! A few other exciting things happened during my long blog hiatus:

1. My close friend got married in August, and I played for the ceremony. He got married at a vineyard, which was awesome, the wine was pretty great too *wink wink*

2. My other close friend got engaged, and will get married in December. I'm gonna be a bridesmaid y'all. 

3. I went to the ice cream museum with my brother, it was kind of disappointing but very instagram friendly haha hence the two photos (the deer head and the pink ice cream).
4. Celebrated my 24th birthday about a week ago. I like the number 24, so I hope that means that I'll have a good year.

There are probably other things that I'm forgetting but anyway, I am very very sorry for not posting; I was really really banking on having a constant posting schedule, but life always has other plans. 

Thanks you all for sticking around, and I'll find a way to post more regularly. 

P.S.  These photos are from my instagram, follow me @farrahadnyc

Midtown

Wow, I haven't updated in almost 2 weeks, not acceptable! I've been so busy, with the same old same old, nothing exciting so I didn't think to publish anything, BUT I'll be flying to Los Angeles this Saturday! I'll be there for a week exploring, visiting, and hanging out with my mom, aunt, cousin, and his fiance haha. Anyway, in case you're wondering these photos are of some buildings in Midtown Manhattan, the photo in the middle is of Carnegie Hall. 

Gonna keep this short, but hope you all are doing ok, check ya later. 

St. John's Cathedral

St. John's Cathedral is one of the biggest and oldest cathedrals in New York City. It's super huge, and the architecture is incredible. I've never been inside, and unfortunately I was unable to go inside while I was there, but I took some pictures around the premises. It also has an attached park, and a couple of walkways, which are also very beautiful. It's on top of a big big hill that overlooks Morningside Park, and part of Central Park (wish I took pics of that but I had no time). I'm not sure if it's bigger than St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is in Midtown but they're both crazy beautiful. NYC has a lot of really nice churches, and I've been meaning to explore some of them.

I spent my morning playing for a Lutheran Church Service, and now I'm home, relaxing for the rest of the day. I'm not much of an early riser, so getting to the church early with the 2 hour commute isn't easy, but I'm definitely super grateful. Many musicians unfortunately do not get the opportunity to play as regularly as they would like to. They start falling out of the routine, and then after a while, it becomes super difficult to pick it up and start playing again. When I had my terrible job for 6 months, I did not have the time, nor the motivation to play music, because I was so stressed out. Every time I sat at the piano or organ, I felt stiff all over, like I had a cement block in my brain. It's been about 6 months since I quit, and I finally feel like I'm back to normal, thankfully.

Anyway, so are there any cool churches around where you live?

Brooklyn Heights

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I'm here now, and that's what counts right?

So yesterday I went over to Brooklyn with my friends for an engagement shoot. It's been a bit long overdue but I must say that I'm satisfied with the photos. I wish I brought one of my other lenses with me but ehh, what I can I do? I just hope that they don't find my photos atrocious hahaha.

After I was done with their photos, I made sure to snap a few photos for myself. The coast of Brooklyn has the best view of Manhattan, no wonder the rent here is so flippin' expensive. I remember when I was growing up, nobody wanted to live in Brooklyn. When people said that they lived in Brooklyn, they always got a  response like "ohh...." which is translation for "You poor thing...". It's a complete turn-around now, it's funny how things change in such a short amount of time.

Anyway, hope you guys are doing well.
I really should be in bed right now....

Central Park ventures

On Wednesday I took a walk through Central Park, around golden hour, which is the best hour. All of the trees looked so beautiful, there were barely any people, it was glorious. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, but today, I took a trek again, and snapped some photos of the ridiculous beautifulness. It rained for most of the day, so the golden hour today wasn't as dramatic as it was yesterday's, but Lawd have mercy, Central Park is just too pretty. There are so many parts of the park that I have yet to discover, and I've been living in nyc for 23 years. Shameful. 

Good news, I got my scholarship information, I am officially a Masters student (well in September I will be). Am I scared, hell yeah, but regret is always worse than fear, so I might as well suck it up, be thankful that I have this opportunity, and keep on keepin' on.
Talk to y'all later, next week is gonna be busyyy

Snowstorm Jonas

Last Friday night it started snowing in NYC, and it did not stop snowing until Saturday night/Sunday morning. We ended up with 26.9 inches of snow. We were literally .1 inches away from setting the all time record for the most snow in NYC EVER. We were beat by 2006, when we had a blizzard that produced 27.0 inches. Crazy how things work out.

Anyway, on Sunday I left my house at around 1pm, and trekked through Central Park with my dad. To be honest, I prefer taking photos of snow when the sky is gray, but bright blue skies are beautiful as well! There were wayyyy too many people in the park though. Growing up, there were never that many people.... Maybe I'm just a bitter New Yorker, but sheash it was borderline too crowded at times. 

When I was a kid I used to go sledding in the park with my brother. There was one particular hill that we always went to that was always really awesome. And every single time, after about an hour of sledding, a bunch of little kids and their parents would come over and ask to join us, and that used to make me so mad hahaha. "I did all of this hard work to make the track and find this hill, and you all just march over and dare ask to join my brother and I? Rude...." haha. Now I just take photos of the snow, which is definitely not as satisfying.

The snow is pretty to look at but stepping into those nasty slushy puddles that are of varying depths is NOT fun, especially when you're a cheap-ass and you buy snow boots that are not waterproof like advertised. I had to walk around all day today running errands, and man did my feet get wet. *gross*

In other news, I just submitted my application for Grad School!! Hopin', prayin', beggin' that I get in!!!!I also had my general physical today, and everything is all clear (I'm TERRIFIED of doctors/hospitals so this is kind of a big deal for me haha).

What's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

I Love Food...

I love food, do you love food? I did not do much socializing this week, and there is currently a huge snow storm hitting nyc, so I can't really go out, so here are some photos of awesome food that my friends and I ate recently. Just in case you're wondering, yes the first photo is of a Shake Shack burger & fries. And yes, it was delicious....

When the snow storm dies down by tomorrow I'll head over to Central Park to take some photos. I do this every time it snows because it's soooo therapeutic. It gets so quiet and peaceful when it snows, it's so awesome.

In the mean time I'm just chillin' in my house, listening to some music, reading some blogs, making travel plans for my moms birthday (she wants to go to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco). I might go to San Francisco as well with my friend in May, but I'm not entirely sure yet. 

Anyway, hope you guys are doing ok!

Changes

On Sundays I usually head over to Hillsong church, but this time around, I decided to check out Times Square Church, which is about 10 blocks north of Hillsong. I took a couple of photos of the church after the service because my goodness the interior was OUT OF THIS WORLD. The foyer was beautiful, the sanctuary was beautiful, the colors, the textures, oh my gawwwsh.

On Monday (Martin Luther King Day, I love MLK), I went to a cool cafe in Washington Heights to catch up with a friend. It was a really good time because, I've been needing to sort of empty my brain of all its contents lately. I admit, I don't talk to people enough, the weather is not helping things either haha. I'm introverted, but I love to talk about interesting things, have deep conversations about anything; I need some sort of outlet to get my thoughts and feelings out, and I think that's primarily why I like blogging....I'm rambling sorry. 

We talked for about 3 hours, about different things, and it was nice to catch up with her. We also talked a lot about our friends, and how everything is changing so quickly. So many of our friends are getting engaged, getting married, settling down into serious relationships, and both of us are still single. It's not that we're bitter or depressed about our single status, but it's kind of weird, and slightly scary watching everyone grow up and see their lives change. I've lived in NYC my whole life and I've known some of the same people for years, and so many of them are picking up and leaving, moving on to different things. Some of the people that I graduated high school with already have children, and I'm like whoah whoah whoah, where did the time go? Am I behind the curve *not to have kids because I definitely do not want kids now, but you guys know what I mean* ? What's going on?!?!?! *Ok calm down Farrah* 

Question: Are you guys going through something similar in your lives? Do you kind of feel like you're behind the curve; are there a lot of changes going on around you? Let me know your thoughts!

Pizza Pizza

Feel like I did not take enough photos this week, but today I took a trip to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to hang out with my friend, and check out Vinnie's Pizza. They sell cool mini pizzas on pizza slices, and even though they don't taste any different from regular pizza, it was still pretty cool.

After that we went over to Buffalo Exchange in Williamsburg, a popular consignment store (it's the coolest place ever) to do a little bit of shopping. I did not buy anything because I'm trying to save, but to be honest, I'm not really itching to shop or buy any new clothes. I don't know why, but for the first time in a LONGG time, I'm actually satisfied with everything that's in my closet. I have a good amount of button-downs, a good amount of t-shirts, a good amount of dressy outfits, a few jackets for different seasons, a few good pairs of jeans, and a good amount of shoes. I can cycle a lot of my clothing, and incorporate them into different outfits, and I guess that's what I've always wanted. I hope to God that this is not just a phase, but a more permanent state of mind.

The only thing that I'm super keen on buying right now, is a new camera, the Olympus Pen E-PL6.  I'm still debating on whether I should get it, or wait until the PL7 goes down in price but ehh idk. Don't feel like spending $549 on a camera that is not super different from a camera that costs $299. But we'll see.

Anyway, question: Are you satisfied with everything in your closet, or do you feel like you need a few more items to make it complete? 

Lincoln Center 1-11-15

I had an interview at Lincoln Center yesterday, and I think it went pretty well (it's the only job interview that I've been able to land so I'm prayin' prayin'). The sky was super blue, the sun was perfect, it was pretty damn cold, but I took out my phone (wish I had my camera with me), and took some photos before I went in for my interview.

I've had my camera for about 4 years and I want a change. My Nikon D3100 is a nice entry-level camera but it can be limiting in some ways, I might sell it to a friend, who knows. I've been looking into getting an Olympus Pen E-PL6, which runs for about $299. I'm not super interested in getting the PL7, because not only it costs about double ($549), the specs don't seem to be that different from the PL6. Does anyone have any advice?

 Oh and I'm selling my Nikkor 70-300mm lens w/lens hood on ebay for $100 here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221989893375

Merry Belated Christmas!

I've been kinda lazy, and I did get sick with a weird mix of a sore throat and ear infection thing, so I haven't been out much. I also kinda-sorta checked out of Christmas Festivities this year. It's probably because of the weather, but man this Christmas just felt so off. Christmas this year felt like an almost deflated helium balloon that is on its last limbs, that's sort of trying to get back up in the air, but can't.

Anyway here are some photos of views that I took at the Highline in Manhattan.  I think these are from back in March or April, but anyway, hope you enjoy, and Merry Belated Christmas!