sunday brunch.

i went to a place called artisanal fromagerie and bistro for brunch.  this place has been featured on the best thing i ever ate... cheesy for their cheese fondue but it's WAY too expensive so i went there for regular food.  turns out, restaurant week has been extended.. yay!  so i got a 3 course meal for $24.  i had: beignets, chicken paillard and creme brulee.  all 3 were delish!  the salad had a bit too much dressing but it was still yum.

arugula/mushrooms/shaved parm/chicken.  at first, i was diggin through the salad part wondering where my chicken was because i thought the bottom was some sort of flat bread but then i realized that was the chicken... hehe! me silly

the creme.  SO good! mmm mmm mmm!

i really want to try to go back to the place and get a croque monsieur and some real french fries, i was that impressed.  annnd if you think that all i do is eat, it's cause i do.  but the way i look at it, ny is like my own personal epcot.. seems how we weren't able to eat ANYWHERE there, i'm making up for it while i'm here.  besides, my girls are working and so we don't do a whole lot together and all that's left on the list to do is eat at these different places until mumzie comes to visit.  i'm waiting for her to do empire state and statue and thangs like that...

ocean waves.

the beaches here in new york are a lot like the city... loud and busy.  nonetheless, i find peace and relaxation every time i go.  i seem to block out everything else and just listen to the waves... it's the best sound in the world :)  i'm sure going to miss being so close to the ocean, guess that means i better get planning the next vacation!  i most definitely won't miss the sunburn that i seem to get EVERY time! :(  i don't understand! i put sunscreen on twice and still burn!  i've come to the conclusion that i need a different sunscreen... give it a whirl anyways.  after that, i came home, had a nice cold shower and went to a movie with the girls.  we tried going to crazy, stupid love but it was sold out so we went to snow flower and the secret fan.  it was one of those indie type films.. it was about 2 chinese girls and that's about all i can tell you about it.  that's how interested i was in it :) haha!

mermaid ice cream and pizza.

well i had ice cream twice in one day... i didn't mean to, i swear!  and technically i only had ice cream once, the other was gelato and those are two VERY different things :)  i woke up, went to cycling, stopped at a little italian donut/gelato shop on my way to get groceries and got a pesca/fragola (peach/strawberry) gelato cone, came home, took a nap and checked twitter.  well the big gay ice cream truck had tweeted that he had mermaids!  mind you, they only have them on special occasion and who knows if he would have it again before i left... hmm... sure wish i had seen that before i got my gelato but what the heck, i gotta try the mermaid ice cream!  i somehow knew that if i painted my nails "mermaid tears" and wore my starfish necklace, the mermaid goddesses would sense me and call out to the ice cream truck and tell them that i needed some ice cream. (key lime custard/ graham cracker/whipped cream/vanilla ice cream)  it was fantastic!  well worth the almost 30 min. line i stood in to get it.  i sat in union square and enjoyed my mermaid and watched some guys draw a beautiful picture with chalk on the sidewalk.  then, for dinner i had wanted to go to this place called, artichoke.  i got down into the subway and saw that the train was about to leave so i just hurried and hopped on, only to find out that it was the wrong way.  no big deal, it only went 2 blocks or so.. i'll just walk back to where i first got on and get on the right train this time.  wrong!  when you have an unlimited pass, it won't let you swipe for 18 mins.  so i waited for a minute, got impatient and decided to walk to the next stop. ps i somehow missed the actual next stop. here's a map so you can all understand how far i walked

ok, so i started at 14st. union square (middle of yellow, green, gray), i then got on the L (gray) the wrong way to 3rd. ave. so basically i walked the L line from 3rd to 8th ave. and for some reason thought that artichoke was somewhere near that stop but ended up walking the A (blue) line from 14th/8 ave. down to w4 (blue, orange) long walk short, i walked a looong ways for this pizza.  which turned out to be this big!:

man! was i glad that i walked a 100 miles to get a slice that couldn't even fit on ONE plate!  i got the artichoke slice (artichoke/spinach/cream sauce/mozzarella/pecorino romano cheese) it definitely wasn't the best pizza i've ever had but after exhausting myself, anything would've tasted good :)

MERMAID!

pretty sidewalk picture

no idea what this is.. to me it's a giant wand! :) i stared at it while waiting for my 18 mins to expire...





funzies.

yesterday was a terrible day, it just felt like nothing could go right, so today i woke up and thought to myself "wow, yesterday sure sucked but today is going to be great, no matter what" :) and it was.  i woke up, did some laundry so now i have a clean place to sleep and clean clothes to wear, i worked out and took myself to magnolia bakery, a movie and barbuto for dinner.  everyone is always recommending magnolia bakery for their cupcakes but i am OVER the cupcake phenomenon so i decided to try their cheesecake.  it seemed like the perfect cheesecake, perfect size anyways but i hate to say it failed... miserably.  the cheesecake wasn't very tasty and there was too much crust.  the bakery itself is really cute tho :)   apparently it's famous for being on sex and the city but i didn't ever watch that show.. for dinner, yes i had dessert first (and after) dinner ;) i went to a place called barbuto.  it's an italian restaurant by jonathan waxman (apparently he's a famous chef?? he mentored bobby flay..) that prides itself on preparing local/seasonal/fresh food and i've wanted to go there ever since bobby flay AND my fave, tyler florence, said they loved their pollo al forno, which is, slow roasted chicken with salsa verde.  it was also on the best thing i ever ate... better than mine and if tyler thinks it's better than his roasted chicken, then it must be good!  pass!  it was so super good, so moist and cooked perfectly, the salsa verde was AMAZING, although i couldn't tell you what it was... some mixture of herbs...  i also got a side of patate, which are crispy potatoes, pecorino and rosemary, they were also delish.  it's the weirdest thing here in nyc, most entrees don't come with side dishes, they're separate and cost extra, of course.  i definitely didn't need a side because the chicken was more than enough but i'd never been before and didn't know that i was being served at least half of a chicken!  for dessert i had an affogato.  i sure love them but perhaps i shouldn't have one for dessert after din because that shot of espresso is sure keeping me up late right now :)  after din, i decided to venture around the west village.. i wandered around for a while and all of a sudden it started getting really windy.  it was blowing dirt and trash everywhere and i felt like i had walked into some sort of tornado so i decided i better get back to the subway.  welllll... the only bad thing about that part of town, the streets are names, not numbers so i was lost!  i finally started seeing familiar buildings and figured i must be close when it started POURING!! whoever made up the saying "when it rains, it pours" must've been from nyc.  the rain is insane here!  i was absolutely soaking wet in 3 or so blocks.  it was actually kind of nice (minus the fact that i actually took time to straighten my hair today) seems how it's been so miserably HOT so i didn't really mind much.. i'm just sad that i wasn't prepared with my cute rain boots :(

mini vanilla bean cheesecake-so cute! but not good :(

pollo con deliciousness

patate

check out the awsome curly sue i got! now if only the rest of my hair would cooperate like that...

my super cute boots that i never seem to have handy when i need them most

one year.

and a whole lifetime more :)

H.O.T.

woooeeee!  it's been freaking HOT!  high of 104 but felt like 115. oh and add what feels like 100% humidity.  i can literally see the humidity and could probably cut right through it with a butta knife.  let me try and explain how hot it is... you sweat 24/7, you can't do your hair or makeup, you make one move and sweat starts beading up on your face and running down your back, my milk is warm in my cereal by the time i finish eating the cereal, i sweat in a cold shower.. i think you get the point, right?  it's pretty much too hot to do anything besides sit in front of a fan and eat ice cream :)  so i apologize for being m.i.a. but until it cools down, i'm not gonna leave my extremely hot apt.

my new best friends, you've probably heard of them?? ben and jerry and not to leave fanny out... haha

phantom.

i was waiting for the train back home when the thought occurred to me to go to the phantom of the operrrrrraaaa, so i went down to times square to see if they had any deals for the show that night.  well, they did and that was that.  it was really good.  i just love all of the songs and boy can they sing!  sheesh they've got some pipes on em, that's for sure! 

restaurant week.

me and the girls went to aj maxwells for restaurant week, we got a 3 course meal for $35 bucks.  we had read reviews for the place and all of them said to expect to pay at least $100 per person so to get that much food for $35 was a screamin good deal.  appetizer: heirloom tomato salad, main course: dry-aged sirloin with herb truffle butter, side of augratin potatoes and creamed spinach (compliments of the chef), dessert: peach tart with vanilla ice cream.  everything was so good!  we were really impressed with the place because we had heard that when they find out that you're there for restaurant week they don't give you good customer service but the service was EXCELLENT, which is a huge plus in nyc.
i also went to an italian place called centro vinoteca.  it was such a cute place, such cute atmosphere and i had really good service here too.  i got insalata caprese, which was fantastic! parmesan-sage chicken with eggplant caponata and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  the caprese was seriously uh-mazing and the rest of it was so so.  my mom still makes the best shortcake in the world :)

it doesn't look very appetizing but it was really good :)

best thing in my life! i want to be in italy, now :)

i'm comin home.

new york has treated me well but it has indeed proved to be a bit too expensive.  it shall come to an end the end of august...  before i officially come home, i'll be taking a short vacay with my mum to boston :)  so, with that said, i've got a lot to do!  i'll be posting quite frequently, seems how i still have a lot on my little list of things to do :) PS i'm so very excited to come home to the people i love the most!  yay!  can't wait to see you all!!!

i scream.

you scream, we ALL scream for the big gay ice cream truck??  haha!  yes, you heard that right the big gay ice cream truck.  it's a classic ice cream truck that has your typical ice cream cones with sprinkles, nuts, whatever but they also have weird, random toppings like wasabi peas, coconut flakes with curry, chocolate and cayenne, berries and saba etc...  i first saw them on unique eats and the cone featured was the salty pimp.  caramel lined cone/vanilla soft serve/caramel piped into the ice cream/salt/dipped in chocolate.  since it's been ohhh almost 100 degrees the last few days, i decided that it was time for a cool treat :)  ummm... YUM!  sweet/salty, my fave!  i devoured that thing! 1. because it was delish 2. because it was so hot and melting so fast, i had no other choice :)  they also have a mermaid cone that i will definitely be back for...http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/videos/big-gay-ice-cream-truck-video/73184.html

harry potter!!

i just HAD to go to the LAST harry potter premiere!!  i had walked past on sunday, the day before and there were already people in line!  i knew it was gonna be crazy.  so i wandered down there a couple hours before it was supposed to start and saw this:

literally THOUSANDS of fans!  it was insane!  i walked around for a little bit and tried to blend in with the crowd that actually got to line up along the red carpet but unfortunately, i got caught every time :(  it was beyond hot that day.  i'm really surprised i didn't actually melt...  finally, the stars started arriving!  i couldn't see much because i was in a sea of people but i did see everyone arrive.  ron arrived first and he signed autographs for over an hour.  then draco, neville, snape, hermione and harry arrived last.  each of them gave a little speech before they walked the red carpet and just thanked the fans for supporting them.  some other celebrities also came.. sarah jessica parker, joey fatone, seth green.. it was pretty awesome.  july 15 will definitely be a bittersweet day for me.  i'm so excited to see the movie, yet so sad that it's the last one! :( HARRY POTTER FOR LIFE!!! haha

the red carpet before the stars arrived. they vacuumed it all day. literally.

he is teeeny teeeeny tiny!

 

obviously i didn't actually take these pictures... but i definitely saw them with my own little eyes :)  after i came home, i watched the live red carpet premiere online and watched all of their interviews and stuff.  they showed each of them a picture from their first premiere and they were so dang cute!  harry said "well i haven't changed a whole lot, little taller but not much." and it's true!  he is very small. 



weekend fun.

i worked at equinox on saturday without a single appointment so when i got home,  i said to christi and heather "let's do something fun!"  so we went to this place called the frying pan.  it's an actual old ship that they've turned into a little grille/bar.  when we got there, the line was FOREVER long!! we waited in line for about an hour but it wasn't too bad because we were right on the pier and got to watch the sun set.  the food was mediocre... mostly just a fun atmosphere.  then we were on a mission to make it to the shake shack for their daily special custard, chocolate chip cookie!  i had been craving it ALL DAY LONG and was going to go on my way home from work but decided to go home and shower and get it later.  well the subways already run on a different schedule on the weekends but now they've started doing construction so they're all sorts of messed up.  our local train suddenly turned into an express so we had to get on another and back track back to the stop where the shake shack was... blah, blah, confusing, confusing... anyways, christi and i literally ran from the subway stop to shake shack and got there right at 11:00, which is when they close.  there was a guy guarding the door and he would NOT let us in.  i was so super bummed!  so we decided to go to a place called 5 napkin burger.  they're more of a gourmet burger type joint.  christi and i split a burger and then we split a brownie sundae and a cookies'n'cream shake.  it was pretty good, just not what i had been craving all day :(

i just love the sunsets here...

on sunday, i decided to go to bastille day before work.  it was a french street festival with little boothes... mostly of food :)  i got myself 2 different pastries, a raspberry tarte and a blueberry/peach crumb tarte.  yum!  and then i most definitely had to try the french fry, considering that's where they originated, right??

raspberry tarte

blueberry/peach crumble

after work i went and met heather and christi at the shake shake and finally got my chocolate chip cookie custard...  worth the wait :)  christi got sunday's flavor, sweet corn and it mostly just tasted like butter custard... not a fan...

got. THE. job!!

this is the email that i found this morning...

Dear Abby,

I am happy to announce I would like to offer you the position of Receptionist here at YeloSpa.

i am dying with excitement!! this is the spa that i've wanted to work at since before i left utah, the spa that i knew in my heart was where i was supposed to be.  it's just a part time receptionist position for now but hopefully within 2-3 months i can take an esthetics position.  they are a beautiful, beautiful spa and the best part?  they carry eminence!! whoopity whoop!  oh, i guess the fact that they believe in taking a power nap on the job isn't a bad perk either... i start tomorrow :)  check em out! www.yelonyc.com

so with the stress of getting the job out of the way i decided to take it easy and give myself a little spa day (in my own home but great nontheless) full body scrub, facial, mini mani/pedi and now i am ready for bed :)
buh byyyye!

my first visitor.

my girl, lindzay came to visit!!  she's one of my really good friends that i went to cameo with.  i just love her.  she recently moved back to north carolina so i haven't seen her for almost 6 months.  we had a really good time.  we went to canal street (cheap designer jewelry, purses etc.) and i got myself a hat that i die for! it is so freakin cute i want to wear it everyday, some earrings and a ring that i also die for!  i only allotted myself $20 because i just knew that i could go wild spending money down there... i'll be back soon tho :)  for dinner we went to lombardi's pizza, it's america's first pizzeria and has been featured both on the cooking channel and food network.  we just got the original margherita pizza with a side of meatballs.  it was SO good! perfect thinness, perfect crust, perfect sauce.. pretty much just pure perfection.  the meatballs were really super good too.  they were bite sized which made them much mo betta.  we then met christi and heather at graziellas and got some affogato's aka coffee float aka heaven in a glass.  it's just vanilla ice cream with espresso poured over the top... simple yet delightful.  because grazi's is in brooklyn we decided to walk back over the brooklyn bridge at night time.  the views were incredible!  i definitely recommend going across the bridge at night, much cooler.  since lindz was in town, we wanted her to experience some more "touristy" things.  we stopped at grand central station (which was absolutely beautiful) then walked to times square.  we went to sephora and played with makeup, the hershey's store where they have the worlds largest chocolate bar, weighing in at 5, yes, 5 lbs!  they also have a giant reese's peanut butter cup that i think are a pound each, which look so good but i just can't bring myself to eat or buy one for that matter.. the disney store that had an ariel doll that i WILL have soon, and the famous roxy's delicatessen for some cheesecake.  their cheesecake was HUGE!  we split a strawberry topped plain cheesecake and a raspberry hazlenut chocolate chunk.  they were ok but i'm still on the lookout for better :)  as far as i'm concerned, the cheesecake factory has got the cheesecake makin down pretty darned good.  as we were walking around times square there were some guys that had snakes and as soon as i saw this yellow one i thought of britney spears and i just HAD to hold this snake!! you know me and my britney... i LOVE her!!

i heart britney!



now all i need is the costume :)

she's so excited!

i am too!

on the bridge with the city behind me

grand central

the next day we really wanted to go to the beach but the weather was getting cloudy so we decided to take the free ferry from manhattan to staten island that goes past the statue of liberty.  then we went and chilled in madison square park for a little bit.  it was so much fun to have lindzay here... now, who's my next visitor!? :)

lady liberty

on the ferry.  ps this is my amazing hat :)