So yea, I get into DC, probably around 3pm. It took me a little over an hour and a half to get there due to crappy traffic. Normally, I don’t drive into downtown DC, but I wanted to park in a garage this time for a couple of reasons – (I normally park in a residential area further out and I didn’t feel comfortable leaving my car out there unattended not knowing whether it would be towed or not because I’m not really supposed to park there and two I didn’t know when the concert was going to end and I didn’t want to miss the last metro train). In retrospect, I should’ve just parked where I normally do and I would’ve been fine. At least I know for next time, right?

I did some wandering around since I was there way before the concert started, but I did that on purpose. I always like to have a cushion of time before events/dates/appointments/etc. I am afraid of being late to anything.

I took this while waiting on the train to come. It took forever, it seemed like. I always feel kinda seasick/claustrophobic when I am down on the subway platform. I don’t know why.

I went to Sticky Fingers and got some amazing vegan food. I got a faux tuna melt and a cupcake. I was going to get a carrot cake cupcake, but I noticed the vanilla ones had these cute rainbow sprinkles.

Concert nails. [=

I finally made it back to the concert venue. I got a beer even though I am not supposed to be drinking right now. It didn’t bother my stomach too much, which is good. I just really needed something to help me loosen up so I wouldn’t be all weird and worried about other people. I just wanted to dance and have a good time and not be bothered with anyone else.

The opening act was Sleigh Bells. They came on at 7:30 and put on a half hour set. I was not impressed. I never liked them in the past, and I definitely did not like them live. There was barely anyone in the stands while they were performing. The Peppers came on around ten minutes ’til nine and put on a good show. I danced and had a good time. It wasn’t the best concert I have ever been to, but it was still pretty good.

The show ended at 10:30 and that is when my traumatic experience started. I blame the parking garage that I parked in, which happened to be attached to the Verizon Center. Long story short: a machine ate my money, I panicked, had a hard time finding someone that spoke English so I could find a manager, Nobody wanted to let my car out of my parking spot so I could get out of the garage, The guy in the booth gave me wrong change, my GPS couldn’t get a signal so I was stuck driving in circles downtown DC in the dark, and I had an anxiety attack trying to find my way around due to crappy GPS and it being dark. I was fine once I get on the highway because I knew where I was going then and I was able to calm down a bit.

So at the end of the day, I learned a valuable lesson — never take my car into downtown DC ever again.

Vegan cupcake from Babycakes in NYC. Loveeeeee their cupcakes so much. I always stop by their bakery first thing when I get into the city. Its like a tradition!

What is going to NYC without getting pizza?! I stopped at Motorino’s and got their lunch special and a glass of wine.

It was a rainy day, but luckily for me I brought my umbrella. Yay for not being wet! It didn’t really rain that long, which is good. I think the majority of the time it rained, I was on the subway somewhere.

I visited a Japanese bookstore and Sanrio in Times Square which resulted in spending way too much monies, but how often do I get the chance to visit my favorite city in the world?! That’s what I thought.

All in all, it was a good time and a great stress reliever. It was definitely a mood booster. Just what I needed.

Yesterday, I took a quick trip to New York City via the Megabus. I got up around 4:45am, got ready, drove to the park & ride and was on the bus by 6:30am and on my way to the city. The whole time, as always, I wished I were one of those people who could just fall asleep anywhere. I tried pretty much everything and even made a makeshift pillow out of my rain jacket. The bus finally arrived into the city around 9:45am. I made a quick trip to Starbucks across the street from the bus stop and I was on my way for the day.

My first stop was Babycakes to get a vegan cupcake. I chose pumpkin cinnamon. I ate it later after I made my way to SoHo. It was delicious and definitely worth the wait. While I was in SoHo, I stopped by the Kid Robot store and was in vinyl toy heaven. I couldn’t decide what to get, but I eventually got a ninjatown blind box, hoping I would get a little guy with a mustache (and I did!).

After that, I headed towards the Chelsea Market to get something to eat from One Lucky Duck, which is a vegan/raw takeaway type deal-y place. I enjoyed my meal and then wandered about the Chelsea Market like a kid in a candy store. I was sad when I finally reached the end, but I ventured off to The Highline, which is a park on an old metro/train track that runs over 15 blocks or so. Its elevated and gives awesome views of the city.

I did not walk the whole 15 blocks of the highline, even though I wanted to, but I just didn’t have the time. So, I headed off towards the Sanrio store in Times Square. I told myself that I wasn’t going back to Times Square for a very long time. I was traumatized after my last trip there, and just don’t want to think about it anymore, but after finding out there was a Sanrio in Times Square that I never knew about (???) until now, I had to go.

It took me forever to decide on what I wanted to get from Sanrio, as my money was very limited at this point, so it had to be small and I had to make it count. I didn’t want to make the wrong decision, ya know? I eventually settled on a small panda plush because what kind of person would I be if I walked away without a panda?! I was happy, but disappointed I couldn’t take the whole store back home with me.

By this point, I was really tired and it was only 2:30, but what was I going to do for another two hours until I had to go back to the bus stop? I decided to go by there since its not really far from Times Square and see if I could catch an earlier bus back home to Baltimore. It was my lucky day, as I could get on an earlier bus and the next bus was going to arrive/leave at 3:30. That is what I did and I got home in time to eat dinner and spend a little time with James before I passed out for twelve hours.

It was a good day, I say!

I can’t believe its been two years since I left for Michigan and then in November it will mark the two year anniversary of when I left Michigan for Baltimore. I’ve been there ever since, and I am happy with my decision. Sometimes its been super rough with lots of ups and downs, but its worth it in the end.

I’m at the beach right now with my mom. My dad will be joining us later tonight. I love being here in South Carolina, but as always I painfully miss James and Baltimore. I get so homesick when I am away and all I can think about is the day I go back home and get to see James again. Sigh. Just a few more days and I will be home.

Despite being homesick and crazy-in-love, I’ve had a good visit here in South Carolina. I got to hang out with my good friend, Billy, and spend some quality time with my family.

I wish my anxiety allowed me to post more often, there is so much I want to document and share. Even now, I am contemplating hitting the delete button. WTF is wrong with me?!

I celebrated my 27th birthday last weekend with my parents & James. My parents drove up from SC to hang out with me and to go to NYC that following Saturday. My actual birthday was fine. We went to Annapolis to go to one of my favorite restaurants, which was fine and dandy. However, on Saturday, I personally got up at 3:30am and we left the house at 4:30am to get to the park & ride for the bus stop. We had one long, hot, & sweaty day in NYC.

I don’t regret my NYC experience with my parents, but whatever. I didn’t really want to go in the first place. I was doing it for them. It eventually turned out to be an alright day in the end, but I left NYC in lots of pain. We didn’t get back to the house and into bed until 3am on Sunday. So that means, we were awake for 24 hours.

On Sunday, I didn’t feel like doing anything except for lounging about. That’s pretty much all I did, other than run errands with James after my parents left to go back to SC. It took me a few days to recover from being so sore, but I think this next coming week, I should be back on track with everything.

I had a hard week, though. I’ve had a cold with a combination of being depressed all week. I haven’t felt like doing anything at all, other than laying in bed or zoning out at the computer. That’s pretty much what happened. I only cooked once and the dishes are still in the sink. Oh well. Hopefully this coming week will be a lot better, but I won’t hold my breath. Gotta get through the weekend first.

This is me and my dad (I get my silliness from him, obviously.) sifting for shark teeth on the second day. We chose to stay under the pier just about the whole entire time because I just could not bare being out in the sun for more than a few seconds. Good times.

My time in South Carolina was filled with my favorite food and favorite people. Now that I live far away from my hometown, I appreciate things and the time I get with my family a lot more. Sometimes I actually do miss them. Next time, my parents will be visiting me – which is around the time of my birthday (Which is in 20 days!).

I came home to Baltimore two days later and my flights were rather uneventful, but at least neither of them were canceled. It was such a relief to get home to James & Oscar. I missed them terribly and was very homesick. I’m home now and back into the swing of things. Hooray for routine!

I didn't take this picture, but its the only one I could find on flickr from that night.

On Saturday, I got to go see Owl City in concert at Pier Six in Baltimore. It was pretty much amazing and I really enjoyed myself. Adam Young is just as awesome in concert as he is on his recordings. Plus, his cute lyrics and personality make me smile. He kept stopping to say, “Baltimore, youre so cuuuuuuuute.” I’m pretty sure he says that everywhere he goes, but I’m going to pretend he doesn’t.

Here's the only picture I took with my cellphone.. Its blurry and crappy.

The venue was right on the water, on pier six, which I thought was pretty cool. The first band was Unwed Sailor, which was an instrumental rock band? I thought they were pretty good, but I wasn’t really in the mood to listen to it, so I sent James to fetch me a beer to keep me occupied. The second band was Mat Kearny, which was like a generic Jack Johnson or John Mayer to me. I wasn’t really digging it and drank another beer and just kinda tuned him out.

Finally Owl City came on, and it was the best ever. It was all colorful with the lights and then sometimes there were projected snowflakes and other shapes on the ceiling above. He was really cute and I enjoyed the concert. My only complaint, is that I wish I had more time to learn the lyrics to the songs on his new album so I could sing along. I also wish he played a couple more of his older songs like Hot Air Balloon because that would’ve made my day.  Overall, I was happy. ^_^

Now, I am home in South Carolina. It took me awhile to get here on Tuesday as one of my connecting flights was canceled, so I had to go through hoops and bounds to get home. Thanks Delta for ruining my day! /This is me waving the middle finger at you! I’ll write more about that later.

I’m enjoying my time at home and I’m looking forward to the beach this weekend. I didn’t bring my camera cable, so I won’t be able to upload any new pictures until I get home, unless I take some with my crappy blackberry.

Rawr!

I have a few busy days ahead. Going to the Owl City concert tonight at the Pier Six Pavilion down by the harbor. I convinced James to come along with me so I didn’t have to go alone, so I’m hoping it’ll be fun and worth it. I just hope it doesn’t rain or anything.

I need to pack for my trip to South Carolina and get everything ready and not wait until the last minute. I was sitting outside yesterday and wrote up a little list with crappy doodles. Then my hand cramped up and I ran out of beer, so I didn’t finish my list. Either way, I have lots to do before Tuesday, but I’m looking forward to my trip.

See, I told you my doodles were crappy. I don’t really know how to draw unless I’m looking at something for reference. I fail. I’d rather take somewhat artsy pictures of the new shoes I can’t wear yet because of the gashes they put into the back of my heels when I first wore them.

I look forward to wearing them.. pain free. I guess that’s what I get for wearing nothing but flip flops or clogs for the past eight years. Oops. WHO KNEW?!

Peace out girl scouts! I’ll update later this week on how the concert went. ^_^

Speaking of Travels, Oh Happy Day blog is giving away a trip to Paris for two, check it out!

I walked down to Babycakes bakery and had a vegan cupcake. I thought it was cute that they put them in chinese take-out boxes.

I devoured my cupcake and took the subway over towards the Brooklyn Bridge so I could walk across it. It was a long, but enjoyable walk. I was even stopped and asked to take an Aussie’s picture with the Manhattan skyline in the background. I was amused.

After I made it across the Brooklyn Bridge, I walked through downtown Brooklyn to go to the Brooklyn Bridge park. There I had amazing views of both the Brooklyn & Manhattan bridges. It was pretty sweet.

After that, I headed towards Coney Island to get myself a dog.. a hot dog! At Nathan’s. It was pretty good and I regretted the decision of getting the medium rootbeer a couple of hours later. I walked around the boardwalk and whatnot for a bit before I was ready to head towards my next stop in Brooklyn.

I was told about this bar, Alligator Lounge, in upper Brooklyn. You buy a beer, and they give you FREE pizza. What could be better than that? I drank a couple of Brooklyn Lagers (because I was in Brooklyn, duh!), but I passed on my free pizza because I was too hot and not hungry enough to eat anything. I just wanted ice cold beer, and that’s what I got. I was happy.

Two beers down, I hopped on the train back to Manhattan where I was going to spend the rest of my trip. By this time, I was absolutely tired. I hit up starbucks and their bathroom as well as the use of an outlet to charge my phone. I visited the LOVE sculpture and then hung around right before dark people watching.

Once it was near dark, I headed towards the Rockefeller center so I could go to the Top of the Rock and check out the amazing view of the New York Skyline. It was so amazing that I almost cried. My pictures don’t do it justice.

After that, I made my way towards my bus stop. I walked through Times Square and stopped and got some cheesecake from Junior’s to take home with me. Eventually had enough of walking and hailed a taxi cab to take me to my bus stop.

Waited for my bus for like an hour, boarded my bus, arrived in Baltimore, drove home, passed out. Fun times. I can’t wait to go back again in July. <3