First Blates, the Guggenheim, and Vicarious Exercise

+ On Saturday morning, I treated myself to a tall glass plastic of an iced Spanish latte from Think Coffee (my new obsession) and meandered over to The Strand, New York's famous bookstore. Call me crazy in love, you guys. Expecting a visit no longer than five minutes, I spent over two hours in there going through the shelves and shelves of $1 and $2 books and falling head over heels for the smell of old, worn pages. Nothing like it in the world.
+ I keep myself away from Nordstrom Rack as much as possible because when I'm in there ... let's just say I don't really recognize myself anymore. But because I was nice and scholarly for two whole hours, I decided to let my materialistic side run free, straight into the Rack's arms. Where I happened to find a pair of J. Brand jeans for $30. You bet my none dollar left that I gleefully handed it over to the cashier and basked in her praise and envy. At this rate, I won't have enough luggage space to drag all these trophies home.

+ Then, Sunday morning (rain is falling) (not exactly), I was heading over to brunch but made a necessary detour to Levain Bakery where I picked up a double chocolate chocolate chip cookie the size of my face, a cup of skim milk because that makes all the difference, and sat myself down on a bench in the middle of Central Park. The first bout of silence I've reveled in, in about a month and a half. I sat there, stuffing my face, while watching people jog and bike and hike on by. Exercising vicariously through others is my jam, people.
What was that? You'd like a closer look?

I gotchyo back.
+ Immediately afterwards, I made my way through the Central Park maze to the East side ... except that forty minutes later, I discovered that I was at the very West side entrance I had entered forty minutes earlier.
+ A cab was hailed.
+ I met up with the loveliest Kelly from Sparkles and Shoes (my first blate!) for a scrumptious brunch at 83 1/2. Needless to say, we both inhaled our salmon eggs benedict, it was so good. After meticulously photographing away, of course, because when else do you get such an eating partner so understanding of DSLRs and angles and lighting? 

+ We strolled on over to the Guggenheim for some culturing. Except, I don't know about Kelly, but I secretly pressed the kids' version of the audio tour and decided that's that. And afterwards, I begged her to let us treat ourselves to some gelato because there's only so much worldliness a brain can handle, y'know?

Go and read Kelly's much more thorough recap. It shows that she listened and I didn't. Thanks for being such an awesome first blate, Kelly!

12

A Give For Every Take

It's been said that New York can be a lonely place, and I don't disagree in the slightest.
I've had my fair share of holing up in my rattiest of pajamas, turning on a movie, and wanting to give anything in the world to have a close friend snuggled up next to me.
But I've always believed there to be a give for every take.
And the 'take,' in New York's case, is that it's the stopping point for so many people passing through. She gives to you the chance to slurp up noodles on the corner of 34th and 6th with a friend from middle school who's seen you at your very very VERY most awkward stage in life. She brings in the kindest, wisest friend-of-a-friend-who's-slowly-become-simply-a-friend to delight in Five Guys with, months after you guys shared hamburgers in London too. She gives to you a benchside coffee date with your godsister, a girl with whom you spent your entire childhood, who you haven't seen in six or seven years at the very least. She will bring your sister to you, a sister who comes bearing Asian makeup goodies and whisks you off to manicures and Korean BBQ. NYC allows you to spend time with friends who you usually don't get to spend time with at school. And for this weekend, she's promised me a catch up with a friend I made during the most transformative summer of my life - the one after junior year of high school. Bonus? NYC winked at me and said, I'll throw in someone from the blog world too. (Stay tuned!)
Of course –and this is my very favorite– she always gives to you the opportunity to spend some good old-fashioned QT with your best friend / seasoned travel buddy and her moooooost wooooonderful mother, in the form of a good catch-up sesh over gin & tonics (we have bonded time and time again over the fact that we consider ourselves G&T girls), brunch at Sarabeth's, and a carriage ride around Central Park.
The coolest realization about all of this? By the end of the summer, I will have spent some time with at least one person from every major period of my life. Birth, childhood, adolescence, high school, summers, college. Oh, how strange it is to see that I'm both still the girl they knew back then, and yet also a whole other person now too.
(Cassandra, you're up next.)

5

Why Live In NYC If You Can't Shop? (Confessions of a Shopaholic)

ooooooooopsies.
I behaved badly this past weekend.
I started out on a quest to purchase some more work clothes, because I'm pretty sure my colleagues are sick and tired of seeing my same pair of patterned pants or blue blouse day after day after day. 
Well, let's just say I ended up justifying my actual (non-work) purchases with "as long as it isn't half of my paycheck, I can still afford to eat this week!" and "but pumpkin spice latte season is quickly approaching and what am I going to do without the perfect utility jacket I can happily sweat under the full late August sun in??"
Problems.
It's not my fault, I swear.
I blame the magical land called C. Wonder's fitting rooms. Touch-screen panels that allow you to adjust the lighting (my bank account hates the dim option now) and the mood music (playful! flirty! nostalgic!) AND fun mod carpets and fabric dividers that I snapped pictures of as future home decor inspiration?! And the sweet salespeople who walk your purchase around the counter to you. What the what.

devils on my shoulder.
And then there was that white dress from Banana Republic with the white leather sleeves. It's one of those dresses. You put it on and feel like a million bucks (well. you know you'll feel like a million bucks once five pounds disappear with a 'poof!', but $950,000 doesn't suck either). I'd tried it on the day before and knew it'd be the perfect rooftop bar dress, but it was a weensy bit over my price limit. What do ya know, I tried it on again the next day and the pricetag was suspiciously twenty bucks cheaper. Now I have to get it; it's a matter of principle.
Oh, and today.
Hmm. I went into Kate Spade because. Because. Just because. But there I am perusing casually, touching a satin-y dress here and picking up a soft leather bag there. I came upon the shoe section (thumping heart) and lovingly petted a pair of black suede booties with the prettiest mini bow on the black and a metallic plate on the heel, knowing that I can't afford them. 
Adorable salesgirls in chic hot pink minidresses approach me, generous with compliments and trouble sparkling from their eyes.
"Oh, those are for sure marked wrong." They go on this spiel about how a comparable pair of shoes would be at the very least twice the price and how they're just SO CLASSIC and look, how about you just try them on. And wow, they go perfectly with your dress! By the way, they're made in Italy. And yeah, they'll for sure realize their mistake today and mark up the price, that's why we're all getting a pair during our break. Oooh, and what a coincidence - there's only one left in your size!
I was putty in their hands, guys, I couldn't help it. I got the shoes. 
How does tap bottled tepid ice water sound as sustenance for the rest of the week?

11

Facts From Corporate America

As of yesterday, I've officially reached the halfway point of my internship. I could tell you all about what I've learned in data analysis, brand positioning, and consumer insights (actually, I couldn't. I'm contractually obligated to keep some secrets), but let's talk about some of the more ... practical ... things I've learned about Corporate America.

I should say, though, that the disclaimer is - if you have a job that you love in an industry that you're passionate about, even spreadsheets of numbers on numbers on numbers and color-coordinated deck presentations can be exciting to the core. (Which I do have.)

With that said ...

// Office bathrooms = the most awkward non-scenarios. Do you wait for the other person to leave, or should you make a break for it, flush, wash hands, and book it out of there fast? Uh oh. I know those shoes. I don't want to be peeing next to the person wearing those shoes.

// Building a work wardrobe is the only time shopping has ever been boring.

// Every cubicle is inconveniently placed. Every cubicle. The big bosses get the breathtaking Central Park views, and they also get to glance at their employees' computer screens from a distance.

// Therefore, Pinterest browsing must be cursory and yet purposeful. Of course this is research for a project. Don't you see how intently I'm looking at this one Pin? And how I'm looking back and forth between it and my open spreadsheet?

// Gchat with your best friends is as much as a life saver as a life boat in the open sea. Pretty sure I'm saving these chats to read when I'm eighty eight and bored in my rocking chair. Remember when I had the audacity to write in all caps.

// The Harry Potter soundtrack in full is 8 hours long. A whole work day's worth of being the hero and saving the world from evil bad entertainment, in my case. (Thanks, Lo)

// Office fridge politics. So, this isn't all that relevant to me because I'm too lazy to even need a fridge for my food, but I know it happens and you know it happens.

// Whatever your job description really is, it's actually glorified Googling.

// Linkedin. 

// Breakfast on the go, lunches at the desk, dinners a la Chez Lean Cuisine or Chez Chipotle, whichever is less work on said day.

// Outlook's to me what Anne Hathaway was to Miranda Priestley, except I still have to fetch my own coffee.

// You better like your cubicle buddies (cubi-leagues?) (cubbie buddies?) because you literally are with them your whole life now. It's like elementary school, but without recess, Disney movies, or adult supervision to scare you into getting along with each other.

// Half your shoe closet is under your work desk. The nice part of your shoe closet, anyway.

// Any happy hour or nighttime carousing is put to an end obediently by your common sense telling you that you know sitting under fluorescent lights for eight hours staring at Outlook will suck if you keep going. 7am Marimba wake up alarms don't take any excuses.

// Research (is Google), Powerpoint presentations (basically, scrapbooking), and Excel (OCD organization) = the premise of everything and anything.

// You hit a wall at approximately 3:00pm. Coffee break, it is.

// You finally understand the true meaning of 'TGIF.' I mean, yes, you say it in school and whatnot, but that's simply child's play.

TGIT, guys and gals!

9

Virtual Coffee, 0.6

Truth be told, I'm actually enjoying a mug of dark chocolate soy milk right now, eleven minutes before I have to dash out to start my work day.
Truth be told, the coffee picture above is from a couple of months ago, on a slow Sunday morning when my roommate and I spontaneously decided to go to a new-to-us brunch restaurant and discovered that it was James Franco's favorite restaurant in Menlo Park, and also that they have reallllllyyyy good coffee. 
She's coming to visit exactly a month from now. If you and I were having coffee right now, that'd probably be the first thing I tell you. My best friend is coming to visit and oh boy, do we have plans up our sleeves and we don't see ourselves resting for a single minute in the four days she's here. My other best friend, Lauren, is coming to visit this upcoming weekend and excited can't even begin to describe my state of being right now. Hope this week goes quickly.
Speaking of 'week goes quickly,' today marks the start of WEEK FIVE. As in, tomorrow, I'll have been here exactly one month. Still blows my mind how time flies, and I really want to run a statistical analysis on how many times that phrase has been said on this blog because that has been my greatest takeaway in the past couple of years, I think.
If we were having coffee, I'd be telling you all about how outraged I am that a movie ticket here cost me $19. NINETEEN. DOLLARS. Granted, it was at a movie theater in the middle of Times Square, and granted it was X-Men in 3D and you know I'd pay any price to have some quality time with my pal Jennifer Lawrence, but still. Highway robbery.
If we were having coffee, I'd tell you about Manhattanhenge, the sunset phenomenon that happens a couple of times a year that makes for a really great picture - the sun sets directly upon the NYC gridline. And I went, expecting a solid Instagram, but it was cloudy and I was sad. But I was even sadder for the crowd of professional photographers who had been waiting for a couple of hours probably, with tripods bigger than me. Oh well. Next time.
Lastly, I'd chat with you about the weather, because honestly - so. hot. so. humid. And I have no air conditioning, and it's hell, but I'm strange in that I've always dreamed of getting to live in a crappy apartment in my early twenties, just to get to reminisce about it in twenty years. The apartment's not crappy at all - in fact, it's quite nice. But the no air conditioning factor is terrible. And also, I was caught out in the rain a couple of weeks ago and all I did was start laughing out loud because I had been hubristic and stopped into J.Crew for a browse and into a juice place to get an acai bowl even as the sky darkened and rumbled ominously. But I knew I could make it home in time, I reasoned, before the downpour.
I didn't.
Happy Monday!
P.S. I live right above a German bar. So needless to say ... I'm exhausted.

8

Letters, NYC Edition

dear new yorkers, why do you always always always have headphones in? walking the streets, riding the subway, a white cord leading into your pocket or purse. i tried it for the first time today, and i think i get it a little bit. a) blocks out the frantic honking, the homeless' harassing,  b) turn the music lower & there's great eavesdrop material, and  c) personal movie montage music. boom.
dear women of new york, i'm super into the whole walking speedily around town in rubber flip flops, and then doing the quick change into glam heels somewhere between the subway and the office chair.
dear men of new york, swoooooooon. you are so impeccably dressed.
dear channing tatum, i thought i sat across from you on the subway the other day. i'm still not sure if i was staring you or some poor, magic mike-esque stranger down. either way, i don't regret it.
dear expensive, teeny tiny apartment with no a/c, strangely, i'm a bit smitten with you. very strangely.
dear turkey confit sandwich at little collins, intern friend said you made her top 10 list of best sandwiches ever. i think she's speaking the truth.
dear rain, don't listen to all the naysayers. i quite like you and the breeze you bring. but take a chill pill on the lightning, that's the psycho side of your personality.
dear subway, you host the most interesting people!  but, really, 5pm and 6pm on the dot = BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.
dear magnolia bakery banana pudding, it takes some patience standing in line to get to you, but you, my dear, are worth it times a million.
dear air, you reek of garbage. let's consider some city-wide febreze.
dear best friends, hurry here, hurry here, hurry here.
dear pretty little liars 100th episode, i've been waiting 99 episodes to see you. you were so good. wait how did this one get in here?

6

'cuz baby you're a firework*

*ALL I want is for some mechanism to tell me that this is the most overused Independence Day post title. Both because, you know, the actual fireworks that traditionally take place across the country. But also because, America - you little firework of a personality country who dared to dare.

And none of it can happen without any pictures to prove that red, white, and blue literally exploded in the sky for a full twenty minutes, amirite?

I had a pretty lowkey Fourth of July. Lowkey, as in, my roommates and I trying to finagle our ways up the rickety iron staircase to the rooftop with beers in hand. Lowkey, as in feeling giddy that jackets were required. Light jackets, but jackets nevertheless. A welcome reprieve after a stint in ... hell. Lowkey, as in a loud and proud Empire State Building sparkling its patriotic best, and a pretty Chrysler Building shining in the distance. (Both actually are a lot closer than these pictures make them seem. It was a breathtaking view.) Lowkey, as in watching crowd after crowd of people traipsing towards the Brooklyn Bridge Macy's fireworks on foot while we could enjoy them simply by craning our necks a little. Lowkey, as in getting severe fireworks ADD because people were shooting them off left, right, and center. Lowkey, just the way I like it.

How was your Fourth of July?!

6

This Too Shall Pass

probably couldn't have found a worse picture if I tried, but I kinda sorta don't hate it at all.
My friend, Erin, shared something with me a couple of months ago that still resonates heavily even to this day. I can't stop thinking about it. Obviously, what with this post and all.
This too shall pass. 
Seems like a simple phrase, used in times of grief or struggle or stress of some sort. But she explained to me a different perspective, one that her grandmother passed down to her, and one that I think might be one of the loveliest and best things I've ever heard. So I'd like to share it with you too, in the hopes that you find as much meaning out of it as I have.
This too shall pass.
Meaning, whatever hardships you are currently experiencing, whatever heartbreak and disappointment and feelings of inadequacy or guilt or shame or anger you have - it will pass. It's temporary. It will be okay.
But it's also a reminder that the good moments will pass us by as well. Quickly. That we whiz through the stages of life like cheese in a can. That we should allow ourselves to fully live and love and remember those really, really blessed moments.
This too shall pass. 
And finally, this saying can gently nudge us into taking note of and appreciating the mundane and the ordinary, as well. Because quite simply, these are the makings of our everyday. The routines, the rituals, the know-it-like-the-back-of-my-hands ... funny enough, even the sameness doesn't seem to stick around for long. A month later, a year later, you realize you're living a new normal. 
Embrace the best, savor the ordinary, and brave the worst. Because in time, this too shall pass.

3