Klas...like closet without the "et"

My boyfriend Klas has been visiting me for the past three and a half weeks. He left today to go back to Sweden and everything feels a bit empty now. It was a perfect visit, and even though I had to work during the week, we managed to do A LOT while he was here. He had no problems findings things to do during the days (like hanging out with all the friends he made) and we took full advantage of our time together during the evenings and weekends.

Klas is a jazz musician. Therefore, New York is his mecca. It is the trip every jazz musician must take to the city where it all began, and I was kind of along for the ride. We saw the Peter Asplund Quartet (a Swedish jazz group) perform at Lincoln Center, the Don Byron Quartet and Brad Mehldau Trio at The Village Vanguard as well as several smaller gigs in Brooklyn. Klas saw a few more gigs without me and played in two of his own. I have really enjoyed being exposed to jazz by someone who knows so much about it and appreciates it as much as he does. I'm thankful for him introducing me to the music and of course, the scene here in New York. Now I know that I can go check out some amazing musicians playing here pretty much any night of the week and make him really jealous :) I enjoyed myself and took something from all the performances but I must say that both of Klas' gigs were among my most favorite. I always enjoy his music and seeing him perform, but it was really special for me to see him play here with New York musicians and to know how much it meant to him.

While we weren't busy listening to jazz music we also managed to eat out at all my favorite restaurants (as well as try some new ones), see a couple of movies, do some serious shopping, go to the top of the Empire State Buiding, ice skate in Central Park, and do a lot of hanging out in fabulous Park Slope. I'm pretty sure another highlight for Klas was being a part of all our "girly nights" when my roommate and friends and I cut eachother's hair and watched some romantic comedies. We were tempted to paint his fingernails too but he refused for some reason.

It's always fun when you have someone to share in all the excitement this city has to offer. Especially when it is with someone who means so much. What an amazing three and a half weeks it has been... and he'll be coming back in March so it won't be too long before I get to see him again.
He came to visit me at my office.

The gig in Williamsburg.
Klas and his tenor sax.
Oh, the things you see in Times Square. We couldn't resist.

The Slope

I have pretty much decided that I live in the coolest neighborhood in all of New York City. Forget Greenwich Village, The Lower East Side or anywhere in Manhattan for that matter...Brooklyn, and more specifically, Park Slope is where it's at! Okay, so maybe I wouldn't turn down a super sweet loft apartment in the East Village if it didn't cost five million dollars a month (actually more like $5,ooo/month in reality, but it may as well be $5M since it is way out of my budget)...but I can honestly say that I'm not sure I could be much happier anywhere else than where I live now.

Park Slope is located in the western section of Brooklyn and is just south of Williamsburg. The closest subway stop to my place is only one stop off of Manhattan so it takes anywhere from ten to forty minutes to get anywhere I could ever want to go in the city. My work commute to midtown Manhattan takes almost exactly 25min. Peace of cake. The only downfall in regards to transportation is that some lame-o taxi drivers refuse to go over the bridge to Brooklyn and tell you to get out when they hear that's where you're going. It's against the law for them to turn someone down so I have made a hobby of arguing with the jerks when necessary.

The Slope (as us trendy folk like to call it) is a community with a lot of young artistic/musician types (dare I say hipsters?) as well as young families that live the historic brownstones lining the east to west streets of the neighborhood. It is named after the fact that it is the area located on the west slope of Prospect Park; which I would argue is as nice a place as Central Park in Manhattan. The two main avenues, 5th and 7th are packed full of charming restaurants and cafes as well as the best second-hand shopping any bargain hunter could ask for. These places, along with the plethora of chill bars and concert venues make Park Slope a hard place to ever leave. In fact, most weekends, Anna (my roomie) and I don't.

I continue to find more and more cool places and more and more reasons to love where I live. Here are three of them:

1. The Chocolate Room - Super cool cafe with only chocolate on the menu! Yeah, I won't tell you how many of their famous chocolate sundaes I have consumed in the past few months.

2. Gorilla Coffee- Voted best coffee in all of New York City, and is less than two blocks from my front door. Yummy baked goods too. Hotspot to see celebrity regulars including Maggie Gyllenhaal.

3. Beacon's Closet- My fav second hand shop. I've been getting more and more into wearing vintage these days.

Want to come visit???

Back in action

Finally! The long awaited and anticipated return of my blogging career :) I must say, I feel a bit rusty. So expect some major changes in the layout once I get back into it and have the patience to reformat a few things. For now though, I am just anxious to hit the virtual journal writing trail once again...a perfect metaphor for this, the first post of Wanderlust.

I will admit that one of the reasons I have been lagging on getting this blog up and running is the fact that I have not been able to come up with a name I was content with. I have a whole page in my notebook of possible names that I have scribbled down in the past few months. Some of them are pretty lame, which I guess is only testament to the fact that I was getting kind of desperate. They are kind of fun to look through though, as they reflect some of the greater themes of my life these days. Here are a few that I came up with but decided against: "Deliriously Happy," "In Harmony," "World at my Fingertips" and "Glass Half Full." I know, kind of annoyingly upbeat...but I can't help it.

Defined by Wikipedia as "a strong desire to travel, or, of having a strong desire to explore the world," wanderlust is a word I have always liked as well as a condition that I have always had. It has been over the past few years however, that my condition has become pretty severe and apparently, incurable.

As most of you know, I moved from Stockholm this summer, spent a few months in California and am now living in Brooklyn, NY working in Midtown Manhattan. Don't feel bad if you have been out of the loop during my long blogging hiatus and was under the impression that I was still living in Sweden. I can hardly keep up with myself sometimes. I'm not quite ready to slow down just yet either. It' s a great big world we live in and I am having the time of my life soaking up as much of it as I can. I look forward to sharing some of my experiences and thoughts here about my world and of course, about livin' life in the Big Apple.