Panduh!

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.

I-85 Northbound

I am back home in Baltimore. I left to go back home Wednesday morning around 6am and got here in Baltimore around two in the afternoon. It was a quick drive and didn’t seem to drag on like it normally does. I was so eager to get home, especially after what happened when I was at my parents’ house.

It honestly seemed like it took forever for Friday to arrive, but it is here. I am ready for the weekend, especially since its St. Patty’s day. I plan on being perpetually drunk for most of the day tomorrow. Not very exciting, but I have a lot of beer in the fridge that I need to make disappear. If I knew some people, I could throw a party, however I do not. Forever alone. James and I are going to one of my favorite restaurants in the city tomorrow night, so that is always good.

I can’t wait to cook next week because when I was back home in South Carolina, I ate like crap and it most certainly made me feel terrible. I look forward to my flatbread pizzas on Monday and whatever else I decide to cook for the rest of the week.

My NYC day trip is on the 28th and I’m very excited to go, even if I did have trouble figuring out what I wanted to do. I’ve seen pretty much everything touristy already.. It took some time, but I’ve got it all planned. I just need to straighten out the details.

Yay. I am happy today. I hope everyone else has a happy friday and enjoys the rest of the weekend. [=

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’ve been kinda preoccupied with a lot of different things over the past month. I guess? Not really. Just lazy.

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.

I spent the “unlucky” day in New York City this go-around. I was supposed to go to Dare Devil tattoo and get a thirteen dollar tattoo for this occasion, however, the line was hella long and I said “eff that!”. So, I traveled about NYC and did the things that I had planned.

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