NYC pt 1

A few weeks ago I went to New York City for the first time ever and it was the most fun thing. If you haven't been, you have to go! It seems like I've been back for a million years and I can't believe I'm just now writing about my magical trip, but here we go. This is part one (the part where I was there alone) and there will probably be like 10 more parts because I did SO MANY THINGS in my short amount of time there, and also I never want to forget any of it.

I flew non-stop from Seattle to Newark on a Thursday morning and arrived in NYC around 4pm. I took the New Jersey Transit (on a tip from Alli, thanks Alli) to Penn Station in NYC and walked (through a crazy loud/bright thunder and lightening storm) the few blocks from Penn Station to The Ace Hotel where we were staying. I checked in and then immediately grabbed a mini bottle of pink champagne from the mini-bar to celebrate my arrival!

 ^^Classy, fresh off the plane, drinking room service champs selfie, because NYC!^^

 ^^Cute AF room at the Ace Hotel^^

^^The view from our room wasn't particularly exciting but it definitely wasn't NOT exciting to this small town girl. I spent a lot of time looking out this window because the AC was right next to the window and it was hot as balls there, but I'll complain a lot about that later^^

Moments after I booked my flight to NYC I also booked a haircut with Raegan who I've been internet friends with for a million years but had never met in real life. It was my first internet friend meeting (you're next, Emma) and it was so, so magical. Also, Raegan is like, really good at doing hair. My hair has never looked so good. For real. I can't say enough good things about her. But! Back to the story, after my minibar champagne, a quick shower and change (because it was SO hot and humid out and I was disgusting after flying and then commuting into the city), I headed downstairs to the Ace Hotel Lobby Bar to kill a few minutes before I had to head to the West Village. I grabbed a drink and took some solo-photo-booth-pics, as one does when you're at an Ace and when you're in NYC (duh!)!

^^Omg I'm in NYC! And I'm a huge dork!^^

The bellhop at the hotel gave me directions on how to take the subway to the West Village and then walk the rest of the way to my hair appointment. So I took the subway for the first time and the platform was like a fucking sauna but the train was so ACd out ANDDD there were SO MANY HANDSOME MEN on the subway. I couldn't deal, or stop staring. You can't take me anywhere! Yikes haha.

Raegan works at Whittemore House Salon which is the cutest, and also everyone who works there is so, super nice. I profusely apologized to the cute girl who had to wash my dirty, sweaty hair and then she ended up giving me a ton of great recommendations for places to eat in the city, so I think she wasn't too disgusted by me. Ha! Also the men who checked me in and took our photo were so sweet. I want to be friends with all of them, like a creep!

But seriously, Reagan did the most amazing job with my hair. Did I mention it's never looked so good? I'm not joking, at all. And then my blowout was basically ruined within hours because of the intense humidity but there are pictures to prove that once upon a time I had magical princess hair so I'll cling to those forever!

^^Reagan and I! Also, please note her beautiful nails!!^^ 

 ^^Zero selfie shame, because c'mon!^^

^^Okay last one!^^

After my haircut I walked a few blocks to Fish (thanks for the recommendation, Matt!) to meet my friend Mark who was in town from Hood River. He does a house swap with a family who lives in Chelsea every year and was in NYC for two weeks, which was excellent news for me!! We got the Red, White + Blue at Fish which is 6 raw oysters and either a PBR (for me) or a white wine (for Mark) for $9.99! We also split an order of fries while we soaked up their ice cold air conditioning!

^^Mark and I^^

After dinner Mark and I walked around the Meatpacking District and eventually settled on a bar with a patio (despite the fact that it was still a million degrees at 10:30pm) for a martini. While we were sitting out there we saw a mouse running around on the patio! WHAT!? When we finished our drink we went for one more at this fancy resataurant/bar and when we walked outside to catch an uber home afterward, it was POURING down rain. Mark stole us two umbrellas that were left in the umbrella basket by the door, rationalizing it because we were the last two people to leave the bar (also apparently this is a v normal thing to do in NYC) and we split an uber back to our respective spots. When I got back to the hotel I was STARVING because I hadn't eaten anything in hours except 6 oysters and some fries, so I went down to the lobby bar where there was a DJ spinning music and tried to order a grilled cheese sandwich. While I was sitting at the bar, drunkenly minding my own business while waiting for my sandwich, this man next to me, who is way drunker than me, starts telling me (unprompted) that I look good, and I'm bringing it, but only 50% at best. WHAT? I ignore him and start texting about him and he turns to his friend and says "she should be trying harder, I wouldn't bang her" AND HIS FRIEND IS AGREEING! LOL. I was literally laughing out loud. It was the weirdest, rudest thing ever. Little did they know, my hair has literally never looked that good and I was looking better than usual that night? Lolollll. They would hate to see me on a normal day ;)

The next day I woke up, grabbed an iced Americano from the Stumptown Coffee located inside the hotel (insert praise hand emoji here) and took myself to The Butcher's Daughter for breakfast. I got an order of their avocado toast (which was huge), a fresh juice called The Hangover Killer (coconut, yuzu, pineapple, chili and cilantro) and a mimosa with some bee polen and other fancy, delicious things in it #vacation #breakfastdrank.

^^The Butcher's Daughter, isn't it cute?^^

^^Yeah I took a pic of my avocado toast, so sue me!^^

After breakfast I walked through Chinatown and Little Italy and tried not to melt, which was hard, I melted a little. I eventually made my way to the Subway and made a quick stop in the West Village for Big Gay Ice Cream to cool me down on my way back to the hotel. I got a salty pimp which was a sugar cone filled with vanilla soft serve and spotted with a bunch of dulce de leche, and also sea salt. It was then dipped in a hard chocolate shell. Holy yum sauce!

 ^^Little Italy and the Empire State Building^^

^^My Salty Pimp at Big Gay Ice Cream^^

I took my ice cream to go and headed back to the hotel because Faith was getting off work (at Calvin Klein because she is fancy as fuck)!! and was going to meet me, and Gaby had finally landed and was on her way to the hotel too! Shit was about to get crazy... :)

Birthday Bangs

I woke up on Friday morning after our GRand Adventure and decided that I wanted big, blunt bangs again. I mean, is there really any better way to ring in my 27th year of life than with blunt bangs? I don't think so. So, what did I do? I booked an appointment with my favorite Kalyn in Hood River and drove down to Oregon that day with Gaby right behind me in her pink nugget. That 4 hour drive felt like nothing after driving all the way across the country a few days before. I swooped up Beth's sister, Emily on my way through Portland, landed in Hood River and chopped my hair.

 ^^Emily and I in Hood River after I chopped my bangs^^

 

After my hair appointment I went and got a manicure (hair did, nails did, everything did), patiently waited for Beth to get into town from Boise and discovered that I had separation anxiety after being with Gaby for so many days in a row (I was having issues functioning alone). When Beth got into town we met at Henni's to share small plates and have drinks. We were joined by Gaby and Marissa part way through dinner before calling it an early night.

^^Only at my parents' house do people wake up to such a sight^^

Saturday was the most wonderful day. I had breakfast with Beth, shopped for baby gifts, relaxed and spent time with a lot of good people, sat at Ground and drank a cider, and then had an early birthday celebration.

^^The best breakfast sandwich on a homemade English muffin at River Daze Café^^ 

^^Dylan and Beth at Ground^^

 

^^Ryan and Beth at Ground^^

 

^^Dylan is a brat^^

 

Some of my favorite people joined me at Double Mountain for dinner, showered me with love and presents, and ate pizza and drank beer with me in celebration of my 27th year of life. After dinner we went to Cebu to watch our friends play some music and then made our way to the Trillium after discovering that both the Red Carpet and Jack's (my favorite dive bars) were both closed (BOO!).

 

^^Birthday present at dinner^^

^^Dylan and Mo^^

^^Dylan, Gaby and Mo - I love these three #ground4lyfe!^^

 

Mo gifted me a pint of fireball for my birthday so we definitely all shared that outside the bars like we were teenagers and it was so fun and definitely led to a nasty hangover Sunday (side note: fireball pulls, beers and jello shots DO NOT mix), but it was so much fun and it was all in the name of my birthday, so YAY! #birthdayprincess

 ^^Mo and I outside Cebu with our fireball, sneaky sneaky^^

Sunday Beth, Emily, her boyfriend, Gaby and I had breakfast at Bette's before saying goodbye and heading our separate ways (slash leaving Gaby safely in White Salmon - GRand Adventure END). Have I mentioned lately that I love it there? Guys, I love it there.

Native American Food & Fancy Hair

Recently something wonderful happened: a Native American food truck called “off the rez” opened in Seattle!! It changes locations depending on the day and time, but yesterday it was parked in Wallingford near my house. Obviously I text Dustin to ask if that’s what he wanted to have for “date night” dinner (I had also rented “the Rum Diaries” from the RedBox – we had been trying to rent it for a few weeks but every time we checked it was gone so when I saw it yesterday before class I picked it up) – I figured take out and a movie sounded like the perfect date night after a stressful week. He agreed, so I picked us up some food and headed over to his place.

The food was amazing. We had fry bread tacos (pork and chicken), which were like really good regular Mexican tacos, but on fry bread instead of tortillas. Along with that Dustin had a plain fry bread and I had one with Nutella (OMG just thinking about it…) on it. SO good. And I’m not even just saying that because it’s the food of my Native American PEOPLE! I promise. Dustin liked it too and he’s super white ;)

I can’t wait to eat at the truck again soon. If you’re a Seattle resident I highly recommend you check it out.

After inhaling my food (no pictures, too busy eating and YUMMMing), we watched the Rum Diaries which wasn’t what I was expecting. Which led to me being mildly bored during parts – I think because I was expecting more of a comedy and I kept waiting for the comedy, but it never came – but reflecting back, it was pretty entertaining. Have you guys seen it? What did you think?

Overall though, last night = another date night success!

This morning I decided to get all fancy for work. Not really fancy. More like I saw some easy looking braided hair style on pinterest (yeah that’s right, I was so bored in class yesterday I was actually looking at the pinterest website – even though I usually just use pinterest as a pretty bookmark page for all my recipes and things) and I wanted to try it, so I braided and twisted and this is what happened in about 5 minutes:

 
To do this I just parted my hair into thirds in the back and made three low braids. I then rolled the middle braid into a bun and secured it with bobby pins before making the other two into buns, securing them with more pins and tucking their ends under the first one (on the bottom). Then I pinned my bangs (can I even call them that anymore? They’re pretty grown out) back and called it good. Fancy pants, right? And totally simple.

Anyway that has been the last 24 hours for me. Now I’m home from work and planning on doing some homework for the rest of the afternoon then hopefully relaxing a little later (a glass of wine or a beer sounds really delicious). I think it will be another low key night because I have class all morning tomorrow – but on the bright side, it’s my last Saturday class and if I can manage to show up (on time) tomorrow, I’ll have successfully completed 1 credit this semester. Yay!

I hope you are all having a lovely Friday and I hope that you have a few fun plans for the weekend. Cheers!

super bowl sunday

Today is the day of the super bowl. The day I actually look forward to watching commercials and sitting through the 1st half of a football game, while paying attention to my snacks of course, waiting patiently for the half time show. I like the super bowl. And although I didn’t 100% know who was playing until like yesterday, I do enjoy the super bowl. I watch every year. And it’s good. Mostly for reasons other than the football part, but whatever.

This year Dustin and I are going to his co-worker’s party. I’m sort of nervous. I’ve only met one of his co-workers ever (we are actually pretty good friends with this particular co-worker and his wife, and I was so relieved when I found out that they would be attending as well), so I want to make a good impression. And you know, not totally embarrass the BF and myself.

So clearly I’m getting this whole thing started off on a good note by showing up to this poor co-worker’s home with third day hair. Like actually, haven’t done anything to my hair since I washed it the day before yesterday hair. I’m gross. Don’t judge. Messy is cute?

But to offset my dirty-ness, I made A BUNCH of brownies. Don’t worry, I showered and washed my hands first. They’re totally safe. But I figured I can make a good impression by bringing brownies, because everyone likes brownies, right?

Seriously, I’m determined to make a good impression.

I made brownies with eggless cookie dough on top. And brownies with hot fudge and ice cream in the batter, and oreo cookies baked into the center. #killingit

I’ll find my way to EVERYONE’S hearts even if it is through food. I promise. Mostly. Ok not everyone’s hearts, but whatever.

I hope you all have an awesome super bowl day. Or commercial day. Or Sunday. Or whatever.

I’m off. Wish me luck!

I haz virgin hairs

Also, this week Kalyn cut my hair. She did a wonderful job (as always). You should totally check her out on facebook (by clicking HERE) if you're anywhere near Hood River, Oregon and you need your hair cut!

Here is a before picture (too long with grown-out bangs, yuk):

And then after (with like 3 inches off, and lots of layers, and bangsss! yay):

(also, I'm wearing an old tank and I don't remember where I got it, my cardigan and my belt are from Forever 21, & my skirt is from Banana Republic)

Also, if you didn't already have it figured out, I'm a huge dork and I feel awkward taking pictures of myself. K that's it for now - it's actually SUNNY, in Seattle, in March... So I'm going to go outside in my skirt! Yeah, you heard me right, a SKIRT (plus boots and tights, but still).