Hey, it's ok...(Halloween edition)

..to put on a football jersey and leggings and call yourself a 'football player' for Halloween. 
Even though its the 5th year in a row you've been Aaron Rodgers.

..to consider a bag of candy corn and peanut butter pumpkins your Halloween lunch. 
A candy corn-induced sugar coma is as vital to this holiday as turkey is to Thanksgiving.

..to eat dinner at the neighborhood Thai restaurant just to watch the Halloween costume contest parade. 
Nothing like having a mini-drag show as a side to your pad thai.

..to long for the days when Halloween meant trick-or-treating, instead of slutty costumes. 
Nothing reads more like suffering to me than spending a night dressed as a 'sexy (fill in the bank)' in 40 degree weather and hooker heels. And there's no benefit of free candy. 

What's not ok?

Hurricane Preparation 101

I don't know if you've heard, but this chick Sandy is raising hell here in NYC.

Sandy ruined my Sunday night dinner plans...

Chipotle closed? Where is a girl gonna get her guac fix?!

Sandy ruined my Sunday dessert plans...

Coldstone closed? How can I survive the storm apocalypse without ice cream?!

Sandy decimated the shelves of all 3 Duane Reades within a 2 block radius of my apartment..

Duane Reade shelves empty? Shit is obviously going down.

Seriously, Sandy is being such a beezy.
So how am I dealing with the shit-storm (literally and figuratively) she is throwing our way?


Alcohol. And lots of it.

Hurricane survival at its finest

Home-cooked meals.

Me, being all domestic and shit

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills marathon (well played Bravo, well played). 
And some reading material if my brain gets too rotten from Bravo reality tv.

True story-these will probably stay closed

Ohhh and taped-up windows. Just in case.

Our apartment is officially hurricane ready

Bring it on Sandy. Bring it on.

On Repeat (Da'Quan)

I have an addictive personality.

In fact, I'm addicted to addiction.

When I like something, I go all in on it.

I repeat it over and over again.

But not in the form of all those addictions that land the likes of Lindsay Lohan in rehab. Instead my addictions zero in on pop culture. Movies, books, blogs, songs, television shows. All of these feel the wrath of my addiction to addiction.

I was the girl in grade school who tore through Little House on the Prairie series in a week. And proceeded to re-read them. 

I'm still the girl that reads Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' once a month. Just for inspiration.

I was the girl in junior high who made a CD with LFO's 'Summertime Girls' as every track. 

I'm still the girl that makes iPod playlists with a single song. 'Rack City' by Tyga is one; don't judge.

I was the girl in high school who watched 'Europtrip' every night.

I'm still the girl that watches 'Europtrip' at least once a week. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I was the girl in college who watched 2 seasons of Friday Night Lights in 48 hours. The weekend before finals. 

I'm still the girl that watches 2 seasons of Suits in a weekend. Harvey Specter is just too damn sexy to wait.

You get the picture, right?

I'm a repeater.

No shame in that.

If I like something, I might as well get some miles out of it.

So what am i currently repeating?

Da'Quan, keeping the block hot at University of Michigan.

Watch. Laugh. Repeat.

Tell me this ain't hot?!

happiness in 5 words or less..

Life is pretty damn simple when it comes down to it.

Spend time with people who make you happy.

Go places that make you happy.

Do things that make you happy.

Be a person that makes you happy.

Be happy.

Being a stupid human though, I tend to lose sight of this simplicity. 

I over-complicate life.

I make things harder than they need to be.

I fantasize about happiness and some long road that it takes to get it.

I know that it should be simple, 

but the gap between knowing and living what you know is large.

I'm closing my gap through small steps..

noticing the happy that comes from the small things,

the little moments in a normal day that make you smile,

and make you happy

I've found most of these moments can be summed up damn simply. 

In fact, I think the best moments are those that need little explanation.

And come with few words:

"I love you"

"I'm proud of you"

"We are now boarding"

All of these are short and sweet saying that just bring so much damn happiness to me.

Happiness comes in 5 words or less.

So what 5 words or less are bring me happiness today?

"I brought you Wisconsin beer"

A good friend. 

Bringing me a piece of my Wisconsin roots in the form of my favorite beer...

which can only be bought in Wisconsin.

Don't know how the hell she got this nectar of the gods to nyc,

but it sure as hell made my day.

What's bring you happiness today (in 5 words or less, of course)?

Hey Fall, Heeeeeyyy

The signs are everywhere:
The air feels a bit cripser;
The tree leaves are a-changin' colors;
Pumpkin spice lattes are in the hands of every person;
Fall has arrived.

Hey fall, heeeeeyy.
You lookin' fiiine this year.

In an effort to welcome fall back with a bang,
my friend C and I spent a glorious Saturday doing all things fall in the far-east of Long Island.
An early morning train ride out of the city to C's town...

and pumpkin spice lattes for the long car ride....

Our destination?

Hank's Pumpkintown, just outside of East Hampton, NY. Hank's is a big open field complete with pumpkin patches, apple orchards, fall-themed games and activites for the kiddies (and the kids at heart), and platforms full of all things fall for purchase.

We pumpkin-picked...

We apple-picked..

We generally just soaked up all the glorious fall-ness around us...

We returned to C's house to create homemade pumpkin puree from our pickings.

Ya know, pumpkin puree...

the stuff that good ole Libby has perfected and canned.

that stuff that all sane people just buy in said Libby's can for just a few bucks.
Well, we thought it would be just soooo fall and festivey to make our own. F Libby.

It might have been fall and very festivey, but it was also a bit of a waste of time.

Next time, we'll just trust Libby's work..

C happens to be an expert cooker/baker, so she spent the rest of the night slaving away baking delicious treats. Me, being the undomesticated city-girl I am, returned to the streets of NYC. But I am an expert of sampling, and trust me, C does work. Check out the results of her pumpkin-themed baking spree here (search for Pumpkin Week!)

All in all, a glorious fall day.
Now won't you please stay a while dear fall?
Me and winter aren't on quite as good of terms..

One-A-Day (10/25/12)

It's Thursday. Officially over half done with the 'official work week.'
People generally seem to love Thursdays.
There's a noticeable gleeful-ness around my workplace and the streets of Manhattan in general...

Almost there.
Almost Friday at 5.
Almost that two-day break from the mundane life of work that we spend all week looking forward to.
Almost time to spend some time with people we love.
Almost time to be freed up to do the things we truly enjoy for a bit.

But why all the almosts? Why all the waiting in life?

There's 7 days in a week. 52 weeks in a year. And god only knows how many precious years we'll get.
So why are 5 days a week spent looking forward to 2 days a week?

I'm no math expert...
but that don't make no sense.
Seems like a lot of wasted days.
In a too-short-life.

Are you nodding your head in agreement?
Cool..
that means we could probably be friends.
and it mean that you might enjoy the mantra I'm inspired by today.

So here's a little dose of today's one-a-day inspiration for you to chew on...

10 Steps: Yankees playoff game

Come October, New York is all about one thing:
Playoff baseball. Yankees playoff baseball.

I've been a Yankees fan since long before I moved to nyc. I understand what it takes to be a Yankees fan in nyc during this important time. So here's a little 10 step guide for a Yankees playoff game based on my experience with Friday's ALCS game 5.

Now....for all you non-baseball loving readers who have no idea what ALCS Game 5 means or what the difference between a double and a double play is...
Well, we can't be friends. 
Kidding, kidding (sort of...)
But just for background...ALCS Game 5 was the deciding game of the first round of the playoffs.
You win, you move on. You lose, you go home.
Important, ya understand?

10 Step Guide:Yankees Playoffs  

1. Buy a ticket to the goddamn game.
It doesn't matter if first pitch is 5:05 on a work day and it'll take you 45 mins to get to the stadium on the subway. Just.buy.the.ticket.
Work can wait for another day; Game 5 can't and won't wait.


 

2. Get a tall boy can of Coors Light for the train ride. It's the best $3.29 you can spend.
The 4 will be body all up on body all the way to the Bronx and nothing makes it more bareable than a cold beer.
Proceed to chug the rest of the beer like a champ outside the stadium while old men cheer you on. You know, 'cause you can't waste good beer.

3. Sit in the bleachers.
The tickets are cheaper, the view is perfect, and the crowd is the real New Yaaawkers. There will be drunken outbursts, possible fights, and the language will not be family-friendly-everything critical to a good baseball game experience, I swear.
Join in the antics. You can't sit in the beachers and not lend your voice to the 'asshole' chant everytime a fan of the other team sits down.

Typical bleacher shenanigans

4. Get a beer and a pretzel.
It's baseball in New York. You have no choice.
I mean, $9.50 for a bottle of Miller Lite is just an expense of the experience...

5. Stand throughout the whole game.
It's game five goddamnit. Win or go home.
Sitting is for the elderly and small children and in this case even they are probably standing.

6. Be in the moment and pay attention to the game.
No texting, no facebooking, no gossiping about boys. Just yankees.
Soak up every second of the fact that you're living out a childhood dream.

7. Go hard.
But maybe not as hard as this guy.

8. Celebrate like crazy when the game is final: NYY 3, BAL 1.
Let yourself get chills.

9. Stay to hear Frank Sinatra's 'New York, New York' blasted through the stadium after the game.

Drunkenly sing along with randoms as you stumble out of standium onto the Bronx streets.

10. Take the 4 downtown back to Manhattan with all the other fans.

Yell, high-five, and chant 'let's go yankees' at every chance.

And prepare to do it all again for the ALCS...