ATC in NYC

You’re probably one of the millions of people who roll their eyes whenever you see a new “NOW That’s What I Call Music!” commercial on TV. You think to yourself, “How in the world can they really be up to that many installments?!” That number of installments reaches 31 today, to be exact. (It’s up to well above twice that much over in Europe…) Well, I answer you, I am precisely the reason there are that many installments of the ubiquitous compilation series. With my undying love for trashy pop music, I have made somewhat of a ritual out of going to Best Buy the day a new addition to the lineup drops and padding my own iTunes collection with 20 unabashedly frothy musical confections for the low price of $9.99. You are not obligated to adopt my practice, but you are welcome to be jealous that I have amassed a veritable time capsule of Top 40 music over the past 10 years. In honor of NOW 31’s release today, I have concocted an extra special mix, highlighting my favorite track from each of the previous editions…

1. “Together Again” / Janet Jackson
2. “My Favorite Mistake” / Sheryl Crow
3. “Out of My Head” / Fastball
4. “I Knew I Loved You” / Savage Garden
5. “I Think I’m in Love with You” / Jessica Simpson
6. “Drive” / Incubus
7. “What Would You Do?” / City High
8. “U Got It Bad” / Usher
9. “Family Affair” / Mary J. Blige
10. “Always on Time” / Ja Rule feat. Ashanti
11. “Underneath It All” / No Doubt
12. “Like I Love You” / Justin Timberlake
13. “Big Yellow Taxi” / Counting Crows feat. Vanessa Carlton
14. “Stacy’s Mom” / Fountains of Wayne
15. “Toxic” / Britney Spears
16. “Hey Ya!” / Outkast
17. “Goodies” / Ciara
18. “Collide” / Howie Day
19. “Hollaback Girl” / Gwen Stefani
20. “Fix You” / Coldplay
21. “My Humps” / Black Eyed Peas
22. “Move Along” / The All-American Rejects
23. “Too Little Too Late” / JoJo
24. “Say It Right” / Nelly Furtado
25. “Girlfriend” / Avril Lavigne
26. “The Way I Are” / Timbaland
27. “No One” / Alicia Keys
28. “Bleeding Love” / Leona Lewis
29. “Come on Get Higher” / Matt Nathanson
30. “Sweet Thing” / Keith Urban

I like to pretend I’m not materialistic, but some of the really cool stuff you can nab in this city would seem to prove otherwise. See below for what currently tops my list of favorite things…

1. 2.

3. 4.

1. This argyle stationary from Papyrus is paper-ific genius. It’s manly chic!
2. Moleskin Notebook (NYC edition) and nycSmarts Flash Card Game… Both welcoming presents from my wonderful roomie, these help me learn my way around the city without looking like a tourist.
3. The magic wallet from J. Crew. Just enough room for everything I need… plus you can whip it out at parties and impress your friends with its two-sided intrigue.
4. OK, so I’ve had my passport for a while… but it became a necessity when the DMV confiscated my TN license and told me my new one would come in the mail in two weeks. Lame.

In hindsight, I definitely made excuses for where I lived in Brooklyn back in the good ole Belmont East days. As grateful as I was to have the chance to be anywhere near Manhattan, the Church Ave. stop on the F line cannot in any way compete with the prime positioning of my current digs in Little Italy.

I’m within walking distance of the Lower East Side, SoHo, and bunch of trendy spots on Bowery. The fact that I will never be cool enough to actually go to any of those trendy spots has yet to phase me.

What used to be a 50+ minute trek to work is now about 20 minutes. Instead of having one (count ‘em… one) subway line to usher me to my various destinations, now there are five to choose from… including the 6… which always makes me think of old school Jennifer Lopez. (On the 6? Anyone?)

Granted, if I veer too close to Chinatown, this illusion of perfection can sometimes be shattered. Think overly crowded streets. The smell of rotting fish. People spitting randomly. Book your ticket now!

But once you make it to my neck of the woods, you’re golden. There’s a really cute cafe and bakery that makes a mean peach sangria. A host of family-run Italian spots which I currently have trouble distinguishing from one another.  And more hipster clothing stores than you can shake a stick at. Which makes me eternally thankful that we have a Target up here.

The good thing about living in a 500 sq. ft. apartment is that it takes like 20 minutes to move all of your stuff in. Granted, the five flights of stairs (no elevator) has a tendency to slow things down, but it’s a small price to pay for living in such a spiffy town. And it keeps you accountable on your leg workouts.

Provided above is a thrilling photo documenting the lavish new closet unit I inherited from Blair’s old roomie, Kate. It’s pretty sweet as far as storage space goes. There’s also the desk, the bed, and the living room/kitchen/rest of the place. I can’t take any credit for how cute that last pic looks because they had it looking Urban Outfitters meets Crate and Barrel before I moved in… I just get to pretend like I’m that stylish!

I haven’t permanently relocated in six years and I forgot how completely draining the whole process can be. The last few weeks have been filled with swirling emotions and bittersweet goodbyes.

I’m having trouble deciding what the biggest accomplishment of the moving process has been thus far: getting some final quality time with pretty much every person I consider a cherished friend in Nashville (no small feat of creative scheduling) or fitting all of my crap in the back of my dad’s Tahoe…

Whatever the verdict, all I know is that I’m hitting the road and headed to the big city in exactly one hour and all the sadness that comes with moving is starting to turn into excitement!