Research. Yeah.

This morning Melissa & I were going to go to the New York Public Library early so we could be there when it opened at 10am. However, she called me at 8:28am and said that she and Brandon had decided to sleep in so they would go later when they were ready. So, needless to say I kept sleeping in since my alarm was set to go off in 2 minutes and I no longer HAD to be anywhere. So, I slept in and got ready. There wasn't anything good for breakfast so I had pizza, which was fine since by the time I got down there anyway it was about 11:30am.

I went to the library and it was actually very productive this time. I knew I needed to go to the map room and the periodicals on microfiche so it was far more productive. I also went back to the architecture place and found some more information there. All and all I found everything I needed. I was there for about 3 hours and then headed down towards Park Row (near City Hall & the Brooklyn Bridge) to take a picture of the buildings I was covering in my paper and how they look now. Unfortunately on one of the buildings I took a picture of the wrong one, but the building that was the primary part of my research was still there. Turns out it was adjacent to the World Trade Center. I never even realized that.

After that I headed to Little Italy where I met up with Kassi & Rach and there mother's for just a quick hello. I was supposed to meet them for dinner but a long story short, I couldn't find the subway, an ATM or a cab driver who knew where he was going. Anyway, I found them long enough to take this picture and then headed back to midtown to write my paper in Bryant Park next to the now closed library. Bryant Park has free wireless access so I figured I'd just sit there to do my paper.

While I was working on a place to sit and work on it though, I decided to call Lyndsey & see what she ended up doing. It turned out that she was right next to the park getting ready to eat at Chipotle. So, I met up with her and a girl name Stasha for dinner before heading off to find a 24-hour Kinkos where I could finish my paper and print it up. It was due in printed form, at 11pm. I found online that there was one at 72nd street, so I got off the train there. At the corner of Broadway & 72nd, I found the part on You've Got Mail where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan cross each other's paths each morning at the beginning of the movie before they even know each other. I also found the Grey's Papaya that they meet each other at for lunch...although it was dark and there was no hotdog standing outside like in the movie. :o) I walked down the street a little ways to try and find the FedExKinkos but with little luck. Instead I found a Cold Stone so I stopped for a little treat. Their freshly baking browns lured me in. Afterwards, I kept looking for the Kinkos only to find it was closed! Online had lied and it was anything but 24-hours. It too had closed at 9pm. Now let me explain. All this drama of finding a Kinkos wouldn't have been a problem if my paper wasn't due at 11pm and it had to be in printed form. I decided the printing option was no longer an option, so I would just have to take an deduction it caused me.

I went home and finished the paper and found out that it wasn't even that big of a deal to have a printed version. It got turned in electronically and that was sufficient.

Anyway, that's about it. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be great, so I'm going to go to Central Park after church. FINALLY! Usually its cold, rainy or just wet from the rain on Sundays. It'll be nice though.

-mk

P.S. Happy Birthday, Taylor (Simmons)! She's 24 today.



World Trade Center Station


The Evening Post Building I've been researching. It's adjacent to the World Trade Center but its a steel frame with limestone walls, which is what saved it from the September 11th attacks I'm sure. Even the statues on the top exterior of the building are still in good condition.


Bryant Park as the sun was setting behind some buildings on 6th Avenue.


Where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan cross paths at the beginning of You've Got Mail. Watch the movie and you'll see what I mean.


Gray's Papaya at 72nd Street

Nothin thrillin

This morning I was running a little late again. Boy am I glad things have been slow. I had a few more placements, so that was good. We had another temp receptionist today. Her name was Elizabeth and she was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than the last one. She was really nice, too. I think they'll have her back next week if she's available. At Alan Taylor during the summer they have what they call "Summer Fridays" and you can choose three to take off during the summer, complimentary. Obviously that doesn't apply to us, not that it matters since we have only a week from today left anyway.

I played phone tag back and forth with Becky today, the former Conference Coordinator. There was a Conference Committee update presentation made over the phone this afternoon to the PRSSA National Committee and there were some things I still didn't know about that I needed to talk to her about. Finally, we got a hold of each other and talked for half an hour. There were some things exchanged there that I really needed to hear and I'm glad that things are good between the two of us. It helps me to be able to move on with this new position.

I left work at 4:30pm to make it back to the I-House for the call since Brent & Jeneen were both in Scottsdale, Arizona for the National Committee training where the call was originating from. Professor Wakefield had asked Susan Walton, a new faculty member, to participate on the call, but I didn't know. I wish I had too so I could have called her ahead of time and let her know what we would be talking about. Oh well, now I know for next time.

After the call I just kinda hung out. I had some Cinnamon Toast Crunch for dinner and then talked on the phone to my mom, my brother, my sister and my dad. It was great! I also made it up to the roof to take a few pictures from the Riverside side of the building (the side with the Hudson River). These pictures don't do the view much justice since you can't see it all, but its a sight to behold. Laurel came home from dance and we had our traditional Friday night chips and salsa. It was fun.

That's about it.

G'night.

-mk


Grant's tomb, the Hudson River and New Jersey. Direction: Southwest.


The Hudson, some bridge that connects Jersey & Manhattan, and Jersey. Direction: Northwest.

Take an Anvil with the Cup and call me in the morning...

So I had written this entire entry and then when I went to highlight it to change the font size, it all disappeared. Seeing as how it was 1am it has taken me a few days to recover and get up the courage to start again. So... this was my Thursday...

I woke up late today, which was a problem because I knew I needed to look nice for the Silver Anvil Awards Ceremony tonight. So, I hurried as fast as I could, but the "express" train was anything but that. For those of you who are familiar with the New York transportation system, you'll sympathize with me when I say that TWO LOCAL trains passed us, the express was that slow. I imagine there were just too many on the line at the time, but it was ridiculous. So, I was of course late for work. Then during our lunch break, Melissa and I decided to go to the New York Historical Society to get some information that we needed for our Media History paper. The only problem...we caught the wrong train, ended up in Queens and then by the time we got to the Historical Society, we had to turn around and go back to work. So, we were gone a little more than an hour. By this time you can just imagine how irresponsible I was feeling. Thankfully work had started to be slow that morning so I wasn't pushed for time and projects, but still.

It was a fairly short day at work considering all of that and the fact that I had to leave at 4:30pm to get to the Equitable Tower to help get things ready for the evening. It turns out that they really only needed us to help with some stuff at the end of the night and also to pass out programs and serve as "ushers". So, we enjoyed the same meal, evening and event that all the professionals did.

Sissy Biggers (former host of Extreme Makeover) and Steven Schirripa who plays Bobby Bacala on HBO's Sopranos were the hosts for the event. They were great together. At the beginning of the ceremony, before they started handing out the Silver Anvils, they had three different awards they gave out, one of which was the Gold Anvil, which went to Al Golin, CEO and owner of Golin Harris, and a PR revolutionary. He will be participating in the PRSSA National Conference I'm on the committee to plan in November, and also is the author of the internship book that we read for Public Relations. After the presentations and event, I met him and had my picture taken with him. As you'll see below, he didn't look quite ready...or something.

Another one of the awards they gave was to the PR lady for the NHL, who brought back the game after a year of strikes and helped the NHL enjoy record high numbers of fans. The commissioner of the NHL was also there and in the end presented the lady with an award for the evening...the Stanley Cup. Yes, THE Stanley Cup. There it was for all to see. But wait, it gets better...after the presentations, they put it in the lobby for everyone to see, touch and take pictures with. So now I can say that yes, I have touched THE Stanley Cup. The real one with the engravings and everything. Woo hooo!!!

After it all ended we helped pass out Sopranos dinky little notebooks at the door before heading out. Then I got home and called Kate in preparation for our National Committee update tomorrow. I didn't get to bed until 3am, but I feel a lot more prepared for the update. It was much needed.

Anyway, I'm out!

-mk


The NY Historical Society is located right next to the Museum of Natural History. So, the subway at the stop was full of fun designs in the tile, including this fosil of some rather large dinosaur about ready to eat something.


This cool tile underwater tile design was at the bottom of the staircase at the subway. How fun! I don't know if you can really see the look on my face in this picture, but I'm not really sure what it was either...not a smile, I look scared. Whatever.


Melissa with the adjacent wall.


Me with the Silver Anvils in the back with the Awards of Excellence. This picture didn't turn out so fabulous, but we had to hurry because we were supposed to be ushering and people started coming in to be seated. We had to appear like mature interns, ya know... :o)


Me & Taylor. We sat at the back of the room by ourselves the entire show and it started to get really boring. So, while people were clapping and moving around to pick up awards, we decided to take a pic. So much for being those "mature" interns. :o)


Me & the cup. And yes, I ACTUALLY touched it. I could have hugged it if I wanted but I'm not that obsessed. I should have hugged it for Tyson, though. Sorry bro.


Me & Al Golin. Maybe he just wasn't quite ready for the picture yet, or something...


All us BYU intern volunteers. From left to right: Jamie Coon, me, Anthony Strike, Laurel Matsuda, Kevin Brimhall, Lyndsey Payzant & Taylor Simmons. Anthony & Kevin were the stair ushers or whatever you call it that offered a hand as people walked up and down the stage, so PRSA paid for them to be fitted for a tux. Sharp!

What a day...

Work was pretty good today. I found out that I had two more hits on a story in El Paso and things keep progressing with the feedback from the people on my Staples account. I love PR!!!!

After work, Melissa and I headed over to the New York Public Library, possibly one of the least user friendly and practical libraries I've ever seen in my life. Don't get me wrong...the building is INCREDIBLE and totally lives up to any expectations of it being large and beautiful. But it reminds me more of a museum. When you walk in the door, you go through security, showing all the contents of your bag, and then twice again when you leave. You can't check out books, you can't photo copy most of the material, and if you do want to try and photocopy something, you must first submit a request after which the worker will check the book to see if its able to be copied, and then you can only look at it sitting at a specific table under supervision. Yet, with all of that, you can somehow manage to take digital pictures of the information...with or without flash. Doesn't matter. Anyway, it was pretty much a pain, but I found a lot of good information. It's difficult for us to get to the library though because they are open 10am-6pm (except Wednesdays, when they are open until 7:30pm), yet we work 9-6pm, like most of the New York workforce. I guess they figure we don't do much research. It was an interesting experience that I would be ok not reliving. To check out books, you have to go to the Manhattan branch and hope they have it. Ahh the joys of research.

After that, Brandon met up with us and he and Melissa headed back to the I-House and I went in search of dinner. I was scheduled to clean the temple at 8:30pm so I needed to stay in the city. I went to Chipotle and had a very thought provoking dinner and time to myself. After I left the library I had a call from Professor Wakefield at school. He informed me that Becky had officially stepped down as the Conference Coordinator and that the faculty wanted me to fill the position. I knew about this a few days ago, but obviously nothing was official until tonight. So many thoughts and emotions play out in my mind in regards to this scenario, but they aren't ones that I want to paste all over this blog. But I do want to say that the faculty's decision was hard for me to accept but I feel like this will be a good learning experience for me. I love conference and I love PRSSA so I think this will be a good match. Wish me luck!

Cleaning the temple was great tonight and once again, it is so beautiful! I had the chance to see the entire building, including the sealing rooms and baptistry, which I had not yet seen before tonight. WOW. That's about all I can say in those regards. Just elegantly beautiful. There were 4 of us there: 2 men, 2 women. I worked with a woman named Phoebe Hall from the first ward, whose daughter it turns out, is a PR student that just finished up at BYU. Phoebe was great and everyone who saw her just loves her. She's an amazing woman with great faith and a strong testimony. One of those people with a bright glow. :o) Anyway, just being in the temple and seeing what care and dedication goes into it was a good example for me. I also saw Olene Walker, former governor of Utah and now Public Affair missionary in the church office in New York. Oh! which reminds me! Today at work, Ozzie Smith ("Wizard of Oz") came in. He was doing an SMT and some other appearances for Gillette (one of our clients). Anyway, moral of the story is I talked to him. Not a lot...it was along the lines of him saying "Hey," and me saying "Bye" as he walked out the door. BUT STILL!!! That's 2 famous Hall Of Famers for me in 2 months! GEEZ I'm like almost pro. Haha...not quite.

Anyway, it's almost 1am and I'm exhausted and tomorrow is going to be a REALLY late night from the Anvil's so I've gotta get to bed. G'night!

-mk

Up on the roof...

Hi bloggers,

Today was pretty unadventurous at work. I've had a lot of things on my mind this week so concentrating has been a difficult task for me, but at least I keep busy. During lunch today Melissa and I went to Macy's (the largest store in the world, to be exact) to try and find a nice dress for the Anvil Awards on Thursday. The ones I found and liked were all still a little too revealing and might be slightly difficult to improve. But, we'll see what happens.

After work I came home and stopped by the little market on 116 to pick up salsa and chips for a two person salsa & chip party I invited Laurel to tonight. Ya know, just for fun. She wants to do it in her room because she calls my room the community center because people are always over...haha. Whatever. I'll just kick them out for Laurel time. :o)

Dinner at the I-House didn't look too appealing so Laurel, Meridth (yes, I found out yesterday that there's actually no "i" between the d & the t...this is really how you spell it) and I walked down to Mc-i-D's for some dinner instead. It was fun to spend time together outside of the I-House for dinner instead. About 8pm we raced back to the I-House to go up on the 9th floor roof area for the much awaited sunset pictures I told you about last night. Although the side by the Hudson wasn't open (although the sign said it should have been) we took pictures on the east side of the building and missed the water view. I'll have to try for that another night. I took some pictures there through the grates of the window so you can see some of them below, as well.

That's about all the news I have to report tonight. Enjoy the pics! The sun was INCREDIBLE and was a BRIGHT pink! It was awesome, I just don't know if these pictures do it justice, so use your imagination. :o)

-mk





The cathedral by our house...not sure who's yet, but I'll see what I can find for ya.



The setting sets over New Jersey (view from the South building, east tower of I-House)


The park in the immediate front is Sakura Park, located right next to I-House. The building across the street is Grant's Tomb, a beautiful building where the caskets of Ulysses S. Grant & his wife are on display inside a larger case. The tomb is in Riverside Park and the Hudson River (also pictured here) run along the backside of it, dividing New York and New Jersey (where the very distant buildings are).


Meridth & Lyndsey smile in front of the BEAUTIFUL sunset!


Laurel and I. It startetd to get a little windy. Can you tell?



Laurel & I catch the very last of the setting sun. She always says she loves taking pictures with me. Why? Because I make her look tan. Geez! I've got no hope...


The view from the window of the door that was closed. Just imagine how beautiful it is when you get the full effect. You'll see it...one of these days. :o)


I meant to post pictures of where I live a LONG time ago. Here's our hallway. There are about 12 of us BYU interns in this hall. We're one of the few floors with all girls and we love it! :o)


My room (from the hallway looking in). Just picture me sitting in that chair each night typing these entries to you. :o)


From the window looking out. Hopefully this will help you get an idea of where I've been living for the last 6 weeks. Those of us in the east wing of the south building are luckier...we actually have a sink!

You've Got Mail!

Tonight's entry will hopefully be fairly quick because I'm so tired my eyes burn. Work was good. We got a new intern named Brandon who just finished his master's at Syracuse and is interning at Alan Taylor Communications to finish up his degree credit. He sits RIGHT next to me (they had no where else to put him, so they turned the rest of my desk into a make shift one for him). They were supposed to come and drill a hole in the desk for his cords and wires, but didn't make it. Currently all the cords to connect his computer run under my feet and chair until the hole is drilled. He was pretty much bored out of his mind today, but Melissa and I assured him things would get better.

Today I was asked to be a volunteer at the Silver Anvil Award Ceremony for PRSA on Thursday night. I'm SOOOOO excited! What an honor! Taylor Simmons and Laurel Matsuda intern there and they needed more volunteers. I was the first one that came to mind because of my high involvement with PRSSA. I'm so excited! Taylor was talking to me about it at dinner and said they still needed two more volunteers. Lyndsey Payzant and Jamie Coon were quick to hop onboard. We're really excited about the event. We could be cleaning crumbs off the ground for all we know, but its a very fancy, honorable event and a once in a lifetime opportunity for us as college students. It'll be awesome. And to think, the event only costs a mere $295 per person and I get in free!! :o) That's on Thursday.

Tonight at dinner a group of us girls were also talking about New York movies and You've Got Mail was a common favorite. So, at 8:30pm, Taylor, Jamie, Laurel, myself and Sherilyn went on the 9th floor outdoor roof area to watch the movie in the sights and sounds of New York. I had never been on the roof but the view was AMAZING!!! The sun was just setting over the Hudson River and had I had my camera, tonight's entry would have been flooded with pictures. It was incredible! I'll try and catch some for you another night. Anyway, after the movie we went to the special features on the DVD, where you can actually see a map of where they filmed each place! We decided on Saturday that we were going to take a You've Got Mail tour of New York City. And even better, almost all the filming locations are here on the upper west side. At the end of the movie they meet at Riverside park, which ironically begins right across the street from the I-House. We're excited!

Anyway, its late and I did laundry back and forth while I was watching the movie, but I didn't have time to put it away so it's all over my bed. I've got some cleaning to do before I sleep. :o)

-mk

Don't worry be happy, now...

Church was really good today...and interesting at the same time. The schedule is 3-2-1 here, so we start with Relief Society. The sister missionaries in the area talked about how to prepare for missionary opportunities and how to share the gospel. They did a great job and I was really inspired to be a better missionary. On June 17th and 18th, Gladys Knight and the One Voice choir are putting on a fireside at 5pm & 8pm each night. Today I got 4 tickets for the Sat. 5pm performance. It's a missionary opportunity and we've been asked to bring non-members and guests. Holly Glazebrook will also be in town then. A guy that she and I grew up with (Mike Martin), happens to live here in New York now, so I'm going to ask him to go with us. There's also a guy who works at the I-House named Ton (like "wonton") who has met all of the BYU interns by now. Everytime we go to the cafeteria he is in there meeting someone new, learning something new from someone. He shows genuine interest in everyone and has a notebook full of things that he has learned from each individual person. He's a really cool guy and has taken the time to learn each person's name. I'm sure by now he knows all of the interns because I have yet to find someone who doesn't know him. So, I'm going to ask him when I see him next.

In Sunday School a guy named Bill gave a great lesson about Samuel and Eli. He taught about preparing ourselves to hear the voice of the Lord when he calls and then acting upon the promptings. It was really good. Testimony meeting was great today, too. Although, there were some interesting comments shared, particularly one girl who stood up and told everyone that she was a "cutter" and that's why she always wore long sleeves, to hide her scars. That was interesting. But apparently she's on her way to loving herself. There was also a Tongan visiting NYC for the first time who came to our ward. He's the father of 6 and now lives in Provo, but was so excited to share his testimony in New York. I didn't even realize the time, but the meeting had gone over by 15 minutes. The Bishop was gone and the counselors had stopped paying attention and were getting restless. The whole situation was handled very, very poorly as one of the counselors began rolling his eyes and laughing because the man kept going on. It was so distracting! This man was pouring out his heart with a sincere testimony and the counselors were becoming impatient with him, when there was no other ward that met after us. As the man was closing his testimony...literally saying "I share these things with you, in the..." one of the counselors stood up, and said he needed to close up. I'm fairly certain the man was offended and in all honesty it made the counselor look stupid. He obviously wasn't listening or else he would have known that he was closing at that very moment. Both of the counselors are young, like their mid 20's so I'll just have to give that as their excuse. I was sure to thank the brother afterwards for his testimony to let him know it was appreciated. I was just sad to see the counselors handle the situation so poorly and then stay afterwards just talking to the members when the meeting was done. The lessons people learn.

The trains have been running really weird all weekend so we waited for quite a while before catching a train home. We got back around 5:30pm and then I began to check some email. I got one from an old roommate that made me really sad...for her. She's struggled allowing people to love her and to be happy and this email was her way of telling me she never wanted to see me, hear from me or know of me again. And while it probably should have hurt me and I'm fairly certain that was its intent, it didn't. It made me sad for her. Sad that she was once again running away from anything that caused her a little discomfort or that required effort. It's a long story and one I don't want to go in to, but I spent 45 minutes writing what I hope was literally the most sincere, prayerful and thoughtful response I've ever sent anyone in my life. I hope that when she reads it, she reads it with as much heart as I intended it to be with. I guess we'll see.

Dinner was great tonight and they served mashed potatoes. I've been wanting mashed potatoes for like 3 weeks, so it was definitely heaven sent! On the way down to dinner tonight, Laurel met a guy named Mike who is studying pre-med at Columbia. He sat down to dinner with us and then we were joined by Sally, an older woman who has seriously traveled the world. Shortly there after, we were joined by another girl, but I can't remember her name. She was from a state near Russia and her voice reminded me of the movie Anastasia. It was a fun accent. Anyway, we had a great time talking to them and ended up spending almost 2 hours at dinner! Mike got Laurel's number and then we parted ways. She and I came back to my room for Oreos and games. Mike called her later tonight to ask her out to a Stomp concert on Wednesday night. She's really excited about it.

Lyndsey, Angela and Taylor got back from D.C. tonight. They had a great time and really enjoyed the city. I visited there in like 1994 and LOOOOOOVED it so I'm glad they had the opportunity to go down.

Well, I'm off to bed.

G'night.

-mk