Celebrity Sighting!

After living in NYC for over two months, all without spotting a single celebrity, Melon was starting to feel discouraged. Where is Sarah Jessica Parker? Julia Roberts? Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise? Michelle Williams lives in Brooklyn for Pete's sake! Where IS she?! Everyday Melon tunes into "Star Tracks" on people.com and there they are . . . celebs just walking around NYC, shopping, smiling, drinking coffee! Why don't they swing by Gregory's Coffee, where Melon sits and studies the music of the Burgundian lands in the fifteenth century?

But things are looking up for Melon. Last night at Carnegie Hall she experienced her first celebrity encounter. For better or for worse . . .


it involved George Crumb! Okay . . . so he's a not a movie star. But he IS "big time" in Melon's book!

We're Back!

Hi, friends! We know it's been awhile since our last post. Sorry. We traveled back to Cincinnati last week to see our dear friends, Kevin and Emily, get married. The wedding was a blast, but the weekend was short.

On Friday night we hung out with old chums at Habits Cafe in Oakley. Man we miss being able to get a burger AND beer for under $10!
On Saturday we spent the morning sleeping in at La Casa de Breighan. (Five Stars!) We couldn't leave Cincy without a taste of our favorite Indian cuisine, so we headed to Ambar for lunch. For those of you who know where Ambar is located in Cincinnati, then you know Brian and Jess shed a tear as they looked up at their old apartment down the street :(

At 6:30 pm it was time for the wedding! Emily and Kevin looked so happy!

and then the gang hit the dance floor . . .at first it was clean fun . . .but it got ugly fast . . .
Oh, Melon . . . you just can't take her anywhere.

Melon Hosts the Debates

We hope you all tune into the final presidential debate tonight! For those of you who don't know, the debate will be held at Melon's new place of employment: Hofstra University. While Melon competed for the chance to moderate the debate, she ultimately lost to that squirrely little man, Bob Schieffer.

This is an exciting time for our country . . . and for Melon . . . she gets the day off from classes!

For those of you interested in Hofstra's locale, here is another one of Brian's fancy (yet imformative!) maps for you to enjoy ...

We did what?

We are ashamed to tell you what we did last night, but it seems that a confession is the only way to purge us of our sin . . .

We ordered pizza from Papa John's last night. (Nooooooo!!!!)

We know! Can you believe it? What fools we are! It's like Michael Scott going to Sbarro to get a "New York slice." We live in the one NYC borough that is actually renowned for its pizza, and we chose PAPA JOHN'S!?!?!

And if you think it couldn't get any worse . . . Papa John's now has Indiana Jones on their boxes . . .

Farewell to Starbucks

We've been looking for a new coffeehouse to call our own for some time now. Nothing can replace The Coffee Emporium or Baba Budan's in Cincinnati . . . by the way . . . we'd love to hear if our out-of-town guests enjoyed their Coffee Emporium favors from the wedding.

In June, when we first came to Brooklyn apartment hunting, we stumbled upon Heights Coffee in Prospect Heights. And although we love the place and have been back on several occasions, sometimes you just want a reason to go into Manhattan. Tonight we rode into town on the 6 train with one goal in mind: study anywhere but Starbucks!

The task was arduous; in Manhattan there are as many Starbucks as taxi cabs. As we emerged from the underground at 23rd and Park Avenue, we both looked southwest and then looked at one another . . . STARBUCKS! Dammit! Brian grabbed Melon's hand and we ran in the opposite direction, away from the dreaded smell of burning of beans! We found shelter only one block away in the form of Gregory's Coffee. (Sadly they don't have a website, but they do have free wifi!)

The iced tea . . . the padded chairs . . . the window view . . .

It's no Cincinnati coffeehouse (we're not even sure they spoke English at Gregory's), but when we can get away from Starbucks, it starts to feel . . . if only a little bit . . . like this city is our home.

Our Favorite Wedding Picture

Although there have been many contenders, this picture from moments before the ceremony is currently our favorite pic!

Married Life

So it turns out that getting married is a pretty big deal. (Our mother's are freaking out right now!) In all seriousness, we LOVE being married! But it is a big deal: your loved one's Starbuck's addiction is now draining YOUR bank account. It is a big deal: your loved one's need for 6 meals a day means that you're doing dishes 6 TIMES a day. It is a big deal: your loved one's standing in Fantasy Football means that you may not get a hug on Sunday.

Melon would say that her only frustration has been the process of changing her last name. I guess because we live in NYC every government office thinks that there's a chance she might be an immigrant or something. I mean, why would they think something like that? Long story short, whereas most women just mail in the forms to have their name changed, Melon has had to show up in person and stand in NYC-length lines at every government agency.

Brian, on the other hand, has not a single complaint about married life. He still walks around singing that Ann Murray song, "Even though we ain't got money . . . " You know how it goes . . . yeah, he's pretty cute.

Our Piece of the Pie

Our apartment is small. Our rent is more than our parents' mortgages . . . combined . . . well maybe not quite. In any case, we have made a real home for ourselves in Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. If you look us up on the subway map, we're the Winthrop stop off the 2 line.



As promised, we finally got around to making a video of our apartment. Click below to enjoy Our Piece of the Pie!

The Big Dutch Apple Pie

Well . . . we've been in NYC for almost 2 months, which means we've been MARRIED for almost 2 months! We miss our friends and families soooo much that we decided to start a blog. The name, "Tales from the Fruit Patch," comes from Brian's nickname for Jess . . . Melon. (Don't ask.) And so it begins . . . the Big Apple (which we lovingly refer to as the Big Dutch Apple Pie) is our new Fruit Patch! We hope you enjoy!