home sweet home.

nyc most definitely was an experience of a lifetime and i am so happy that i got to experience it.  who else gets to say that they've been homeless, survived an earthquake AND a hurricane all within a 3 month time period?? yep, pretty lucky :) all kidding aside i had a whole lotta fun but i am beyond happy to be home :) :) :)

boston.

i love boston!!  i love the accents, i love how nice people are and i especially appreciate how clean the city and T (subway) are.  it's so unlike new york, it's ridiculous.  we arrived late and we had rented a condo about 10 miles outside of boston in a place called arlington.  well the taxi driver got lost and both my mom and i were thinking "great, this place doesn't even exist... we've been scammed" finally after my trusty phone getting us directions and a mere $75 cab ride later, we got there.  it was the nicest place i had ever stayed.  it was immaculate and had everything you could ever want, the pictures don't even do it justice.  if ever you go, you must stay at this place!

the bedroom

bedroom #2

kitchen

bath

living room

our first day there we took a tour of fenway pahk, ate a delicious lobstah roll and went to the boston vs. yankees game.  while we were on the pahk tour, the guide was telling us about the history of the stadium and bob costas just walked right on by.  we took the last tour of the day and had some time to waste before the game so we decided to go to this restaurant that was close by and get a drink.  well when we walked in, these 2 old guys waved us over and we got to talking to them and they asked which section we were sitting in and told us if some seats by them didn't fill up, they would come find us and we could sit by them.  well sure enough, half way through the game, dear ol john came and found us and they had awesome seats... about 15 rows from home plate.  john kept asking us "how are you liking boston?" "are you having fun at the game?" he wanted to make sure that we were having fun, he even bought us some raffle tickets to win $10,000.  sadly, the people finally came and we had to go back to our not so good seats.  the game was a lot of fun still, we went early and watched the players warm up.  we were reallllly close to jeter but a.rod was hurt so he wasn't playing :(  the yankees won, 4-2

the original brick from 1912

mom on the green monstah

me on the green monstah (i got a green monstah shirt because it's my favorite thing to say)

both of us on the green monstah

jeter

lobstah roll

day 2 in boston we decided to go to mahtha's vinyahd.  well, we had no idea how long it would take us to get there but neither of us thought that it would take 4 hours!! we took the bus to the T and then another bus to the ferry, so we didn't get to spend as much time as we would've liked there but we still had fun.  we laid on the beach for a bit and then walked around and got some fish and chips.  best fish and chips ever! they were perfectly breaded and not too greezy and then of course we had to have dessert, so we got some ice cream.  mother got strawberry cheesecake, i got cake battah.  you wouldn't believe how much ice cream they have on mahtha's vinyahd!  i was in ice cream heaven :)  the hard part was trying to decide which place had the best but i think we done good.

right as we were pulling into mahtha's

the pieh

day 3, we did the freedom trail and saw a little bit of boston history.  we ate at the oldest restaurant in america, the oyster house and had some of their famous clam chowdah.  it was creamy delicousness.  we walked around a whole lot and worked up a huge appetite for our 3 course dinner at the parker house restaurant, the place responsible for the first boston cream pie.  it was also where, if i'm not mistaken, emeril lagasse was a sous chef.  they also have amazing homemade rolls like my grandma makes with buttah buttah and mo buttah... but my gram makes them better:) we had french onion soup, steak with mini veggies (they were were mini replicas of the regular version... so cute!) and boston cream pie.  it was all fantastic! the perfect meal to end our vacay. 

old state house and site of the boston massacre

paul revere's house

north church where they hung the lanterns to let them know if the brits were arriving by land or sea

bunker hill

uss constitution

  

fun in nyc with the mumzie.

because irene stole 2 whole days from us, we had to cram all that was planned into 2 days instead of 4... we were busy bees.  the one thing my mom really wanted to do was go to the david letterman show, she records it every night and just loves him.  so bright and early monday morning we went down to try to get tickets.  when we got there, the line was pretty long and we didn't think we would get tickets.  normally, they give away most tickets online and then when you go the morning of, it's like a lottery.  well the one good thing that came from irene was, most people had canceled their tickets to the show so pretty much everyone in line got guaranteed tickets to the show.  we could not believe it!  apparently we got really lucky because most people were telling us that it's usually really hard to get tickets.  we didn't have to be back for the taping until 130 so we walked down to times square to see if we could get lion king tickets for the next night because we were supposed to go on saturday but of course, they canceled those too :(  that line, was also very long but luckily it was mostly people trying to return their tickets from the canceled shows so we were able to get tickets to the lion king too :)  after that, we went down to tea and sympathy and got tea and scones... delish as usual.  we walked over to the chelsea market where they have little cafes and shops and it's also where they film some shows from the food network.  i took my mom to yelo to meet my little yelo fam and got to say my goodbyes.  i'm going to miss that place SO much!  then it was time for DAVE!  we had to be there an hour and a half before filming to get into our seats and everything.  we didn't have the best seats and we didn't really care for the guests but mother enjoyed it and that's all that matters.  we also got to meet rupert at the hello deli.  they were filming 2 shows that day so after the show taped, we walked outside where the stars enter and leave the show.  we saw the first guest, jason sudiekis leave and waited for a while for the stars of the next show to arrive but decided they had arrived while we were inside.  then, we went down to canal street to buy some souvenirs and had a gorgonzola pizza (gorgonzola/caramelized onions/spinach/fresh mozz) from graziellas for din

mother had to get a dave sweatshirt :) good thing too, it was freezing in there!

mother with rupert

i also found dash (the kardashians store)

day 2, we stopped at rockefeller plaza and saw where they film the today show (it was already over) saw where they ice skate in the winter and went to the top of the empire state.  for lunch, we went to centro vinoteca and had italian food.  mother got fish and broccoli rabe and i got a steak salad.  we went to stand and mumzie got her toasted marshmallow shake and i tried the blueberry pie shake.  it was good, but the toasted mallow is definitely best.  then, we stopped at grand central station before we went to the lion king.  i'm so glad that it worked out for us to go.  it was SO good :)  after the show, we walked around times square.

rock plaza

empire state was completed on my birthday :) only a few years before my birth..

on the last day, we went down to union square and gave a lady with tons of kittens some cat food and walked around the farmers market.  we went to lunch at a sandwich place called the grey dog.  then we sat at union square for a while waiting for the big gay ice cream truck to come but he decided to go somewhere else for the day.  no salty pimp for mother :( maybe next time..



hurricane irene.

i can now check "surviving a hurricane" off my bucket list.  not that it was ever there in the first place...  there hasn't been a hurricane in nyc for about 40 years and it just so happened that the weekend my mom was supposed to come and my last weekend there, irene decided to make her way all the way along the eastern coast, including, nyc.  friday my roommates and i were trying to get as much "food storage" as we could.  we got some water and some non perishables and we looked freaking everywhere for a flashlight but they were all sold out.  note to self: the next hurricane i'm in, don't wait til the last minute to prepare :)  mother got in at about 10 on friday and then we had until noon on saturday, before the entire city shut down.  no subways, no buses, no businesses open.... NOTHING.  so we woke up saturday morning and decided to walk through central park.  there seemed to be a few people wandering around but for the most part nyc was pretty desolate.  we grabbed a calzone from about the only little restaurant open and by noon, we were home and hunkered down for this storm to pass.  wellllll... our cable happened to not be working and we didn't have a dvd player so all we could do was track the storm online and listen to press releases.  after about half a day of that we all were realllllly bored.  the storm hit at about 9 sunday morning.  it wasn't as bad as they were expecting and we were too high up to get hit too hard but the lower end did have some flooding so still, no subways.  by monday morning, HALLELUJAH! the subways were up and running.  thank you to the nyc workers for all their hard work at getting everything cleaned up as soon as possible :)

miss BRITNEY SPEARS!!

i went down to north carolina to see lindZAY and britney spears!!  i woke up at 430 am, left nyc at 720 and arrived in NC around 11.  lindz picked me up and we went to a farmers market, downtown.  they had a bunch of different restaurants sampling their food for restaurant week, so basically we got free lunch :)  the weather was absolutely BEAUtiful so when we got back to her apt, we decided to go lay by the pool and rest up for the concert.  then we made chicken and veggie kabobs and were ready to GO. this was one of the best nights of my life (minus the fact that you absolutely, under no circumstance, could bring a camera into the venue. the venues rule, not britneys...  which is why i only have the one picture of us before we left. the rest i have to steal off the internet)  but that fact that she was freaking PHENOMENAL made up for it.  pauly d was the opening act.  he was fun, started getting my dance on and of course, fist pumpin :)  then it was time for the FEMME FATALE!!  we danced and sang non-stop for about 2 hours!  it was so much fun, i wish i could see her every night!  imma keep on dancin til the world ends :)

this was "i wanna go" it was so much fun! she brought fans up on stage to dance with her

another fave :) "til the world ends"

pauly d

the next day, we went and walked around a pretty lake by lindz.  it was so so so nice to be able to get out of the city and see some nature.  for lunch, we went to a place called bojangles.  lindzay has been talking about how good this place is since the day i met her.  they're famous for their fried chicken and biscuits and of course, their sweeeeet tea.  the chicken was good but i'm still a chick-fil-a kinda girl :)  their sweet tea on the other had, was to die for!  good thing there aren't any in ut because i'd be hooked on that stuff.  after lunch, i took a lil nap and then we went to a little boutique and shopped for a bit.  for din, lindz said i had to try some real carolina bbq so we went to a place called cookout... that was also pretty good.  now i can say that i've had real southern food :)  i'm sad my time there was so short but we had a really good time and i had to get back to nyc just in time for my mommy to get there and for hurricane irene to arrive...

last hoorah.

at the mermaid inn! (seems appropriate, right?) my girlies took me out one last time. we got some fish tacos and then went to the flatiron lounge.  i'm going to miss these girls like CrAzY!!  i had so much fun living with them and miraculously we all got along pretty well :)

tea time.

krash and i went and had afternoon tea at a place called tea and sympathy.  it was such a cute little place that is owned by a feisty little brit.  there is a list of rules on the front door and they are not to be broken!  we got the tea for 2 which came with 2 teas, finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream (best thing ever!) and jam, and 3 different desserts, victoria sandwich cake, sticky toffee pudding and a lemon/almond tarte.  it was so much fun!  now i'm dying for a tea set :)

after we were STUFFED to the brim we decided to go down to the farmers market on the pier.  i got me some beautiful peaches and just walked around the pier for a bit.  the view was great and the smell of the ocean... i just love it :)

having KRash here was so much fun!  i was sure sad to see her go and wanted so badly to be in her suitcase :)