Friend switch-aroo

"I'll trade you my friend for yours"

That actually worked.

The Land on Leonard Street

Ya know, just chatting on the phone with my Mom standing outside my apartment. Next thing I see is the front door open and a Australian accent "Oh Brooks Brothers, Should I take it?!" American Accent "Yeah do it"

Listen, Australian Man,  stealing mail from someones mailbox is a federal crime.  I had a few words for him and he put that magazine back in my mailbox.  (Although it was in my mailbox, it was actually for my super hot downstairs neighbor Henry who recently moved out, too bad)

...............And then there were pigeons mating on my fire escape.

Happy Wednesday.  Have a glass of wine.

The neighborhood gang

The "vintage" store connected to the Auto Shop in my neighborhood just so happened to be opened for the first time ever when I was walking home tonight. I popped in to see if they had that awesome bookshelf I wanted, wondered into the Auto Shop garage.......  Then, I met Gus.

Gus' secretary owns the "vintage" shop and was not in at that moment.  Gus (who was about 45ish) and I bonded, he also had a terrible itch at his crotch-al area that he could not stop touching, then we disgustingly shook hands where I realized he was missing half his pinky. He pal that was in the shop and I fist bumped.  We then shared a beer, my half was in a coffee mug (being that its an auto shop there were few options).

Enter: Tal - the next door neighbor from Israel, but really from Michigan, who has the job I want one day.  She showed me pics of her dog and that she's meeting with a lawyer on Monday about her landlord.

We all chatted, eventually parted ways, and now I have new neighborhood friends. Then I washed my hands.

To: Mom; Love: Alex

As I was debating going to the gym or not one rainy and sleepy Tuesday afternoon I pitstopped to go browsing for some good sales.

While trying on watches I was stopped by an older gentleman, Alex from New Orleans, and, I guess, his son shopping for a birthday gift for Alex's mother.  They asked me for help and thought I was stylish since I was wearing my bright blue jacket.  Okay by me! Alex was rockin a pretty thick french accent, the other gentleman was quite attractive and had one time worked as a Buyer for a hedge fund company.  We all discussed retail therapy.  Alex was intrigued by my life and was verrry trusting of my opinion as we browsed around the store together

So thanks Alex from New Orleans for reassuring my style. I hope your mom enjoys her birthday earrings. 

PS- to my children when you are 45ish -- please don't get me earrings from Nordstrom Rack for my birthday.

Don't go to Mickey Ds on 14th and First

For the two kind and generous guys at McDonald's on 14th and First at 2:30am, thank you so so much for allowing me to get in front of you in line because my subway was going to be arriving soon.

McDonalds, I hate you for running out of ice cream. Why do you always do this?

Inanimate to Animate

I used to blog about inanimate objects like toothbrushes and ketchup packets..... I think it's time I change it up. I will now write a short series on letters to strangers I encounter.

To the man whom I ran next to twice this week on the tredmil,
I gave you sympathy when you smelled bad after running for 45 minutes.
I do NOT give you sympathy for smelling bad before you even started running. I'm glad I was just about finished.

Allen the engraver

I made a new friend today, his name was Allen.  Allen is an engraver.... I visited Allen in his workshop in Harold Square.  Allen was a nice gentleman who told me pieces of his life story.

He informed me he engraved Jimmy Fallon's doorknocker
He shared with me this great full set of silverware from 1947 this "gothic kid with black painted fingernails" left at his workshop 7 years ago. He then tried to sell it to me.
He also told me about this urn someone left in his workshop that he then made into an ashtray. Clever I guess?

He hopes to sell Brooklyn bridge designed cufflinks at wholesale soon.  Good luck Allen!

A haiku for my valentine:

Crockpots Rule

They make your mouth drool

My, I'm full!

Brits and the bar

To the British man who walked into the bar at 3:45am and sat down next to me.

1. When you ordered " I'll have....a whisky............................. with ice" I was confused.
2. When we talked about Titanic, that was great.
3. When you made fun of my nickname, that's when shit got real.

The High, bold and glittery

One time I wore these, and I just want to wear them all day every day.

Mother Nature's sidekick

Paxutony Phil.  A name that will be forever embedded into my brain on February 2nd.  I don't know whether it was the fact that I have lived in Pennsylvania my entire life and Phil also lives in PA (for all those not good with geography, Paxutony is a town in PA), or the fact that I really like spring and look forward to the shadow -- Phil means something to me. One thing though, I will never ever remember if it is a good sign that Phil sees his shadow or a bad sign.  Do you think Mother Nature is Phil's mom? (kidding).  People love groundhog day, I know many people who travel far just to see Phil pop up outta the hole.  I would bet people also camp out or even tailgate this event. 

My big question is - how old is Phil??? And is it really the same groundhog every year? Where does it go every other day of the year? How do they find him? Do you think they give him a bath the day before his big show? Do you think they feed him? What do groundhogs even eat? Who can answer these questions for me?

One time I was flying from Philly to Pittsburgh on February 2nd, and the airline was extremely generous that day and gave all the guests special groundhog beanie babies for our trip.  It was so nice.  Maybe it was because we were flying from one PA city to another, or maybe they just love groundhog day. Either way, we got a beanie baby and it was the bomb-digity. 

Happy groundhog day!!! Here's to hoping for an early Spring! .... which if you live on the east coast, you know that Spring already came in January. 

The ketchup packet.

So today while I was eating my lunch I had some time to think about my next blogpost.  It's time to bring back blogging about inanimate objects (referencing previous blogs about a toothbrush and straws). 

Ketchup packets are .32 ounces.  That's not enough ounces.  Think about the consumers who use ketchup packets, those who are probably eating a burger and fries. Keyword there -- AND. 1 ketchup packet is certainty not enough to even spread around a burger AND dip your fries into.  Typically the burger meal comes with fries thus those who are eating this meal will need a lot of ketchup. Due to the obnoxiously small size of this packet, consumers are forced to use at least 3 or 4 packets of ketchup in one sitting, wasting a whole lot of packets. Don't get me started with how terrible the tear of the packet is, because I am pretty sure there's more ketchup left in the packet than on the plate after you open it up. It is just impossible to get that ketchup out in a neat and organized manner.  You can simply never get all the ketchup that's in the packet.  Also,  think about all the plastic that is being wasted from manufacturing all these packets when really, they could be going more green in investing in larger packets, isn't everyone trying to be more green these days anyways? (don't worry, I love to recycle).

I understand Heintz created new ketchup packets this past year, but I have yet to see them anywhere. My suggestion, make bigger ketchup packets so we don't have to use 48 in one sitting.  Mayonnaise gets one, and no one even likes mayonnaise.

Adding some fancy to a blissful day

So I don't normally blog about my days cause I think people could care less what I do Monday through Sunday, you probably want to read about what I think about and my opinions, which honestly I would rather read opinions than what someone did on a Sunday afternoon. But this post is a little different.  I just had the most blissful day in the entire world.

I think that I am going to contribute the success of my Saturday to my Friday evening yoga. My weekend started off a bit, well, non eventful as I went to a yoga class with my darling sister on a Friday night which sounds kinda boring.  I think yoga was the reason everything on Saturday went like this:

1. Woke up, laughed about the evening before with some friends. Lounged and watched an episode of Portlandia -- and if you have not seen that show, I recommend watching it ASAP.
2. Had a dance party to Beyonce, before noon.
3. The weather.
4. Pies and Thighs. aka Saturday brunch (see below posting about my love for brunch) If you live in BK, get there now. South 4th and Driggs. Hippie Banjo sandwich was everything I could ever imagine.
5. Double-brunched, YES, DOUBLE BRUNCHED. I did the impossible.  with sister since she was a bit late too 1st lunch. Finally got to have the best biscuits ever at Keg and Lattern (It's great the know the chef)
6. Went to the local polish meat market, and sampled maybe 4-5 different meats in a span of 5 minutes.
7. Ventured into Manhattan, didn't let the not-running E train ruin my day though. Met up with some Italy friends
8 . Ate gelato
9. Drank champagne in central park (probably illegal)
10. Had drinks at The Plaza Hotel  (not illegal)
11. Back to BK (always feels refreshing) and had a nice date by myself to visit a friend at his bar. Sitting at restaurants alone is actually really wonderful, sound's sad and lonely but it's a great way to unwind from a day. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
12. Finally, Took the B62 bus from Williamsburg to Greenpoint (If you don't know Brooklyn, quickly pull out a map) and was going walk a few minutes home, but waiiit for it.... got off the 62 only to see the B48 was feet away. Now the B48 drops me off on my corner, so I saved a 10 minute walk. Basically, I could have walked 25 minutes. Instead I walked 30 seconds and took a 5 minute bus ride. Props to MTA bus system tonight 

Once again, I'm not one to share my daily life adventures, but today was just so spectacular it has to be shared with all. I also should have taken more pictures to make this post even more visual.

Brunch.

There's honestly not enough words that I can express for my love for brunch. I don't know if it's the fact that I grew up loving brunch, it was such a treat when it came time for Easter Brunch, Mother's Day Brunch or Father's Day Brunch.  Maybe it's the atmosphere of brunch that I love. Maybe it's the food during brunch that I love.  Maybe it's because I love coffee so much. Maybe it's just the word itself. Whatever it may be, I love brunch.

Growing up I went to the most epic brunch buffet there was in the suburbs of Philadelphia.  My family rated the success of the holiday on the greatness of the brunch.  Each Easter we went to The Eagle Lodge - I found this very fascinating that we went to the Eagle lodge, cause for some reason I associate the "ea" in eagle with the "ea" in easter and found it funny. I dunno why. And Eagles are animals and the Easter bunny is an animal, but once again, I really don't know why my brain made those comparisons and found so much entertainment out of the extremely small coincidences. So this brunch buffet included every and any type of food you could imagine from an omelet to a hunk of ham to an array of pasta dishes to the frozen yogurt machine (and the assortment of toppings!) - it had everything.  One Easter we changed up our brunch location, let me tell you, that terrible Easter meal was the topic of every Easter/Mothers Day/Fathers Day meal conversation for years after.

When I was in 3rd grade we had some type of poster project assigned to create a new machine .... my machine was called "The Bruncher". This machine popped out the best meal you could ever have, Breakfast lunch and dinner all on one plate!

Nowadays, I think my reasoning behind my love for brunch has mainly to do with the unlimited coffee, joy of sitting and enjoying each others company, the relaxation of a weekend and the delicious mimosas included in every meal.  Brunch may be the most blissful time of the weekend.  My current go-to brunch meal is the poached egg over a biscuit and piece of salmon with a little hollindaise sauce drizzled over.  This past summer was the first time I had ever had a poached egg, and I was extremely pleased and have only had pleasant experiences since.  Although I must admit, the potatoes are final say in the rating of the brunch restaurant.


Final thoughts on brunch,  Sunday brunch > Saturday brunch.

A memory of 2011

The first time I heard and actually thought about the "new years song" was probably when I became obsessed with the movie When Harry Met Sally, and Harry says to Sally "What does this song mean? My whole life, I don't know what this song means. I mean, 'Should old acquaintance be forgot'? Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot?"

I agree with Harry, what in the world does this song mean.  It never made any sense to me and why is it associated with New Years? New Years is the time to start something new , not go back to what you have forgotten. And why with acquaintances? Don't you want to be with legit friends???  Anyways, that is completely unrelated, so here is my memory and tribute of 2011 in a few bullet points:

- Beginning this blog. Pretty sure it was my New Years resolution of 2011 to start a blog. I was kind of successful, I started the blog ..... just failed at keeping up with it. Attempt #2 for 2012.
- I started driving regularly again, and realized how terrible of a driver I actually am.  (insert 'women are bad drivers' joke here)
-Attempting to wake up at 5am to watch the Royal Wedding, but failing miserably and missing 3/4 of the wedding. At least I had my mimosas and a crown ready
- 2011 seemed to be the year of Bar tours. From Senior week bar tours, to Cape May bar tours, to Philly happy hour bar tours, to NYC Bar tours. The bar tour fun never stopped
- Received an expensive piece of paper (For all those folks out there who are unfamiliar with my life, I graduated college).

Moment of silence for Amy Winehouse 

- Feeling completely satisfied with the fact I was able to use my graduation robe just one more time as a part of my Harry Potter 7, part II midnight release costume.  Slightly sad that the movies are finished. Thanks Warner Bros of 10 years of anxiety waiting for the next movie, and taking an extra 10 bucks from every Harry Potter fan out there by making an 8th film. Movies are really waaaaaay too expensive these days
- Hurricane Irene was a great way to boost Home Depot's finances. There wasn't a single battery or back-up generator left on the East Coast. Titanic was on TV that night
- Snow storms are completely acceptable in October
- Other things happened

And lastly, well I don't have a lastly cause the year isn't over yet! Two more days!

It's been nice 2011, totally over you though, no offense.   

Well, cya college?

Okay, so it's the Sunday before my last ever finals week, I sit here contemplating just about everything that has happened in the past 4 years. Right right, it's probably really annoying to constantly read and hear everyone talking about "whoah, graduating" or "where did these last 4 years go." But those last 4 years were spent galloping around Penn State, making new friends, sitting in class, and just.. life.

I came here to get an education, and well.. I got a damn good one. I was just discussing with my roommate the other day about how it seems that college students don't care about learning anymore, but more about getting that A and memorizing a book the night before the exam so you can pass the exam. Or that you can get that GPA to be accepted into your major.  Did you really learn from that though? Sure, there are those pointless courses that I learned absolutely nothing from and learned how to multitask in class or how to plan out classes so you don't have to walk to the complete opposite side of campus. Or how any class before 11am you just wont make it to, or won't be awake enough to pay attention. I did learn,  sometimes it's not going to be about the specific details of a novel that you remember, rather what you took out of that course.

And yes, for a lot of classes I did cram the night before and lost all knowledge of the subject two days later. But I have learned an incredible amount over the past years. As a psych major, can I spit out every disorder from the DSM(basically encyclopedia for mental disorders)? No. But I do know a thing or twelve-hundred more than I did in high school about psychology.  Sure, now I can write research papers, or know a bit about conducting research.  I still can't make good power point presentations, but thanks to course requirements, I am a better public speaker.  But overall, I grew as a person.  As in anyone's life, there were high points and low points but I battled through. No one said life was easy.

I really wish I wrote myself a letter before freshman year, and could look back and see how I was, what I wanted and if I've accomplished my goals.  The reality of graduating has been hitting me very slowly. I suppose it will fully sink in?

Now, I'm getting ready to move out those dorm-room accessories that I brought 4 years ago and have kept since, job hunt, and soaking up those last moments in happy valley.  As I was walking in the pouring rain today, I decided I didn't care that it has been raining for the past month - I was literally soaking up happy valley. (ha)

It's been quite a ride, Penn State. From toon-town, to an empty summer in happy valley with only my cousin, to a variety of great roommates, to loving psychology, to an adventurous summer in Europe, to all those activities... specifically CCSG and THON, to late nights and all-nighters, to the HUB, to some shitty semesters, to some of the best, to keeping in touch with friends and annoying them by calling them all the time and getting mad when they didn't answer the phone,  to some of the most unique friends I have ever made, to the friendships that got stronger, to the happiest of all valleys.  There are not enough words to describe the past 4 years.

Here's to you college and what you have given me. Thanks.

How I deliver the news

Alright here it goes ... the CDN. The what? Yes, the Chach Daily News. About a year and a half ago my one friend came to me with a concern - he didn't have time to read the news ever and he knew I always read the news each morning while drinking my morning cup of coffee.  He simply asked me to send him, via text, some of the headlines of the day. So I did. And then he mentioned this to another one of our friends who then caught onto the news. Next thing I know, I have over 100 subscribers. So, this is my own little personal business - free of charge that is. My grandma keeps wanting me to start charging people but I would feel bad taking money from people.  Yes, my grandparents are subscribed to the CDN and love getting a text every day.  Okay so what's a subscriber? Simply someone who receives a text message from me every day of a 160characters of the top news stories of the day.  Props to my mom who gave the name of the Chach Daily News -- yes, even my mom is subscribed! Before someone subscribes I always be sure to tell them, "are you sure you want to subscribe? you cannot unsubscribe (well you could, it would probs just hurt my feelings) and this text comes every day."

Over summer 2010 my phone died while I was out of town, so I was forced to go get a new phone.  Oh let me also just note that me and cell phones do not get along very well, we tend to fight a lot and they usually hate me, break, freeze, malfunction allll the time.  Because of this,  I am very familiar with the verizon store and how the operate, so when the day arrived to get a new phone I walked into the store with one major requirement -- to be sure the phone can send group texts - for the news! After about an hour of debating which phone to chose (my friend I was with hated me this day), it was time to leave. As the verizon man was setting up the features on the new dumb phone I told him about my "non-profit business" and the subscribers and how important it was the phone could have group texting. He was thoroughly intrigued by the fact that my career was to send a personal text to people each morning with the news -- or maybe he was just intrigued by the fact my friend had decided to rip his one sleeve off his button-up collar shirt and just wearing 1 sleeve -- either way I almost had him subscribed.  Luckily the next day he creepily called me and asked how the subscribers were! What nice service (not at all). 





 So, that's my business - the Chach Daily News.  I hope all you subscribers are satisfied with your news everyday. 

Wine, for the classy folks

Wine, the new hot commodity. I was recently reading an article about how the younger generation is now embracing the wine culture, making wine into the more fabulous lifestyle.  And yes, I would like to say I contribute to the wine culture.  People join clubs to go wine tasting, and want to be come wine guru. Heck, I'm working towards that (still have a lonnnnggggg ways to go).  I was recently reading an article about is this prestigious wine program to be certified as basically a wine connoisseur and being so wine knowledgeable, though this includes lots of studying and exams.   Growing up in an (american) Italian family, having wine in the house was normal, and it's not normal if there is no wine in the house. This past summer I ventured to Italy - the great wine country - and let me say, wine flows more frequently than water over there, and not to mention in restaurants a glass of wine is cheaper than a bottle of water.  I visited 3 different vineyards for tastings, which by each one the wine got better and better. I learned soooo much about the art of wine tasting, and how to properly taste wine.  What I thought was extremely cool was seeing how wine is made, stored, and served. Huge oak barrels fill basements of wineries which wine will set in for about a year - all depending on the wine.  Prime grape season is September, so I was not able to eat any fresh grapes, or do any grape stomping like that one I Love Lucy episode. 

I simply just love the art of wine. This even including wine glasses.  I'm currently into the larger bowls or the no-stem glasses.

Side note: something I know absolutely nothing about, beer. I recently went beer tasting - which I found that I enjoy the darker more robust beers. Anyways, this is just another topic that I want to learn more about, I barely even know how beer is brewed. Guess I'll start doing some research.


There's nothing classier than a great glass of red wine.

What can a toothbrush offer

You know what's gross, bad breath. You know what's awesome, brushing your teeth. I recently just got a new toothbrush and for some odd reason I have this obsession with my toothbrush now.  (Honestly, I have brushed my teeth numerous times today, a bit too many) I guess it's because I haven't found a toothbrush that I really loved before, and now I have finally found my match. After going home for a few days and completely forgetting my toothbrush I realized I did not have a back-up here at school, sooooo I ventured off to the store for a great new brush. I had my choices between the sweet Spiderman light up toothbrush, or the HelloKitty or the really unproportionate Cinderella. I chose Colgate.  The brush has some sweet features like a tongue cleaner and has a see-through bottom to it, oh and I picked the green one.  I even liked it so much I bragged to my sister about it and she is now going to buy the same one.

Anyways, my Monday may not have been too thrilling (except celebrating Big Bird's birthday today - fun fact) - but that new toothbrush really made my day.  Gonna go brush my teeth right now!

I really gotta stop blogging about objects.

Straws

Who decided that people should start drinking drinks out of long plastic tubes of all sizes? Honestly.. who?  Okay, so I know ... it was Marvin Stone in 1888 (thank you about.com) But why did he just decide one day to put a piece of plastic in a cup to make drinking easier?   Don't get me wrong, I love straws. I've got my favorites.. like the straws in slurpies with the little spoon at the bottom, or the small stirring straws for coffee or cocktails, or just bendy straws.  Or when you're out to eat and half the straw wrapper is still attached and you spit it at the person across the table, and they for some odd reason freak out... but in reality it's only a piece of paper - nothing too deadly.  My next question is - why the bendy straw? Is it so you don't have to tilt your head forward to get to the straw? I was out to eat the other day and got extremely excited because I remembered the restaurant had bendy straws. It's all about the cup and straw proportion. 

Anyways, why do people invent these things and become so successful. It's quite impressive. Why did someone decided it should be the norm that we should wear triangle/pointy hats on birthdays? Just a thought. 

Yeah, I just blogged about straws.