This Year in Review: 2013

Whelp, 2013, we'll call you a learning year. I can't blame you, really, 2012 was such an amazing year, that it was going to be next to impossible for you to top it. There were a lot of growing pains in these past twelve months as I learned a lot about myself and about the people around me, but I'm proud of who I am at the end of the day. I certainly have a lot in which I'd like to improve, and here's to knowing 2014 is going to be a pretty interesting year. After all, I'm graduating and entering the real world; whether I like it or not there's going to be some major change!

Despite the roller coaster year, there were some pretty great moments in these 365 days. I closed some necessary doors (swimming, toxic friendships, an absurd amount of self doubt...), I opened a lot of new windows and strengthened some relationships. So, cheers 2013. Here's a little review of the highs:

You know how they say you have an urge to brag about your little?
I could brag about this girl for days! Love her to death, and I'm so happy
her name was on the phone call I got (coincidentally from my big, who was
president at the time!).

After three years of living over the bridge from Annapolis, I finally took
the time to explore this little city, courtesy of Shannon, who lives here.

Yes that's a cameo hat. Yes that's a $6 leopard dress with the strap down.
What you're missing is the great rubber flip flops with bows on my feet.
White trash bash was the theme, and I went all out.

I know! I can't believe I've never been before. It's way better than OCNJ, sorry!

T.Swizzle will for ever be my home girl, sorry to the haters. I love her despite
the growing pains she herself is going through. This was my second time
seeing her in concert. Who knows? Third time's a charm? Maybe next time I'll meet her!

I know I've done MD wrong these past few years!

It was so much fun! This was my first wedding ever, so it was exciting. And,
of course, I love my new cousin-in-law. They just spent Christmas night with us!

Contrary to regular practices, I did not get shitfaced. I did get to spend it
with some pretty awesome people, though, and I got a lot of things done
by saying it was my birthday (like making this one guy sing for us!).

Blaming my little for this one! However, I'm trying to kick it! It's a little too
expensive to be stopping at Dunkin or Starbucks every day!

And I love my new cousin-in-law too! She's above, I couldn't get a good
one of my cousin. This wedding was where I stuffed myself full of the most
delicious food ever...and then danced it off!

They also say you always think your big is the coolest person ever, and I have
to agree. We've only gotten closer over the past two years, and I'm so grateful
she's the chick I call big. She keeps it real, is impossibly sun-shiney, and she's
lately developed the best sass ever. 

Pink, bows, hair curled, spirit jersey--you're just missing the balloons I had in
my hand! Kidding aside though, I think I'm finally getting why being a part of
this sisterhood is so special. Like family, they're always there whether you
appreciate it or not. Whether I push or pull, they're there for me regardless.

2013 was a lot of dealing with toxic friendships and learning to let them go. That
said, it was also the beginning of a lot of great, new friendships! 

Still working for the coolest company out there, and who knows? It might
just turn into a career this year if life leads me down one path... (*knocks on wood*)

I can totally take care of my future kitten named Byron. Kittan (cat above) is
a piece of cake, and I love having her to come home to. I'm catsitting for my big,
and I love Kittan as if she were my own. Yes, I recognize crazy cat lady is a
real issue...

Gosh this is going to sound cliche, but I do realize just how rarely we're all
together when we're all in college. We used to be all down the hall from
each other, and now we're all off doin' our own things. Love my meemers and
didi forever, though :)

See you soon, 2014!

#CityFamTakesNYC

If you've been following my Instagram the last few days, you'll notice I've crossed my first thing off on my Graduation List: Go to New York City! My big, our friend, Sean, and I took my little to the Big Apple (her favorite place and mine) to celebrate her twentieth birthday. It was a huge surprise we managed to keep from her right up until we were leaving for Sean's house in northern Jersey when her grandmother accidentally spilled over the phone. Anyhow, I'll split these pictures up into different posts (including the first half of her birthday surprise!), but for now I'll share some of my favorite pictures from the city. Credits go to my big who was the only one to bring a non-phone camera haha.

Where "Cake Boss" is from, according to Corinne and Fran (I had no idea)

Waiting for the PATH train! Birthday girl is in the middle!

Being the college kids we are, we stopped in to visit the Museum of Sex...

Then to Little Italy for some dinner!


My big and I at Sofia's for dinner. It was absolutely delicious! 

Then to Ferrara's down the street for some gelato. I got Cappuccino and Nutella.

 

Of course, we stopped to see this street performer, and Fran got picked to be in the show (again!)!

Mandatory family pic in front of the tree.  City Family takes NYC!

Funny how around this time last year, my big was visiting me in Madrid, and now we have my little added to the family and we're in NYC. We're the City family, so who knows where in the world we might manage to find ourselves this time in a year? I'm personally thinking London... ;)

In Light of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

So here's the deal. I am, and always have been, a fan of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and the whole concept of the Angels advertising. I enjoy the sparkles, the bedazzled bras, and all that goes into creating the VS image. I don't watch the show for pure fitness reasons (or to bemoan my own lack of a perfectly sculpted backside, frontside, or stomach area), but I watch it for the pure energy and celebratory feeling I get each year the show comes around. This isn't the serious, sometimes moody sometimes judgemental, runway show of fashion week (month). VS Fashion Show is a celebration of a brand that manages to appeal to men and women alike for very similar reasons. It's fun. For me, it celebrates the woman's ability to be sexy and silly and funny. These chicks command the runway because they strut in a body in which they are totally happy. Yes, these bodies happen to be long torsoed, long legged, and perfect, but, hey, any size can strut with this confidence.

I don't know. The way the VS Angels show off how happy and confident they are in their bodies doesn't make me want to turn around and do pilates full time or run a thousand miles. It makes me want to reach that level of confidence in my own body. Instead of frumping it up like I'm wont to do (oversized crewneck sweatshirts, anyone?), I want to put on a fitted dress and a pair of pumps. I want to actually do my hair nicely instead of shoving it back into a ponytail. I think that's why I like watching the show every year, and I get incredibly irritated by all the sarcastic comments about it. These are the chicks that will laugh with you all through the morning, dance with you in the middle of the club, and sing karaoke until your throats are sore. In the meantime, they make you feel as -insert classic adjectives about VS models- as they feel.

So next time you roll your eyes at Karlie's perfectly long legs or Alessandra's insane post-baby bod, remember they're struttin' the same thing you could have if you let yourself-- confidence.

Also, how awesome was T.Swift? Even though I wish she had sung something else besides "I Knew You Were Trouble," since I feel that's her go to song for things like this, I still loved it! Haters can shush, T.Swizzle is here to stay!

XOXO, Gossip Girl

When I watched the final movie of the Harry Potter series, I bawled like a baby the moment they showed the Harry, Ron, and Hermione trio standing at the end of the battle of Hogwarts and segued slowly into them as adults sending their children off to the great school. I cried for the same reason I cry at all endings of epic stories, it was an ending. This story had been my story for the last twelve years of my life. From the time I angrily opened the books in third grade, disappointment in my wordy texts while my sister got a baby doll with freckles that actually peed, to staying up on New Year's Eve 2011 until 3 in the morning to watch Deathly Hallows Part 2, Harry had been there to witness it all. This story had been in my life for all of life's major growing pains, and as I watched Daniel Radcliffe transform into a middle aged man sending his children off to school, I realized I was on my way there too. Sure I've still got plenty of years until I reach marriage and children--I still have yet to meet my second half or even have failed experiments, but still. If Harry was married with kids, it meant my childhood was officially at its end.

Anyhow, before I wax on about Harry Potter too much, let me turn this post to another life mile marker: Gossip Girl. As I type this, I am watching the series finale to the CW show, and I'm realizing that I am watching yet another epic in my life come to an end. While I recognize the show lost its magic somewhere early on, the story itself had seen me through my suburban life and introduced me to the ridiculousness of the rich fantasy life I hope I never actually live. I didn't start with this show in 2007 as a sophomore in high school. I started with it back in sixth or seventh grade when someone slipped me the book, opened to the chapter about how many calories sex actually burns. I read through this series up until the show came out, and I grew with these characters as much as I grew with Hermione. Blair had always been my favorite, in the show and out. I remember Chuck with a snow monkey and seeming to be gay, Jenny as being short, brunette, and busty, and, of course, Vanessa with a shaved head and a tummy paunch. Oh, and if critics initially thought the show was inappropriate and racy, they would be floored by the content of the books. Through them, I experienced sex, drugs, and parties and got answers to questions you don't think to ask in public. I love what they did with some parts of the show, even if the utter extravagance of the plot lines got to be too much (a 19-year-old in charge of a company, huh?). Chuck and Blair never existed in the books, Blair and Nate were the endgame and focus... Actually the triangle of Blair, Serena, and Nate were always endgame.

I'll never forget freaking out with excitement over this ad!

Watching Blair and Chuck marry surrounded by family, only to be followed by Serena and Dan getting married at the very end made me realize another ending was coming. After all, Dan Humphrey is the TV Gossip Girl, and as they say in the show, this generation is over and it was time to become grown-ups. So here's to the show that brought me more of New York City, an insight to fashion, and an enjoyment of the crazy games girls play. It's been a wild ride.

What's Sexy?

This is from a comment on Garance Dore's question of what is sexy. I just thought it was absolutely poetic.

"If it’s contrived, it’s not sexy. Sexy is when you laugh uncontrollably with a mouthful of coffee. Or when your eyes reveal exactly what you’re feeling when you look at someone you painfully desire. It’s when your hair falls across your mouth as you’re turning over in bed. Or when you’re sitting quietly on the couch absorbed in a good book with your hair in a messy up-do, glasses on your nose, no make-up and wearing thick, wooly socks that were stolen from his drawer. It’s springtime when you’re both pottering around in the vegetable patch and the afternoon sun hits your squinting eyes. It’s your distinguishable giggle from across the table at a noisy dinner party. It’s the tear glistening in the corner of your eye when you’re trying to be strong. It’s coming back from a run with pink cheeks and sweat at your temples. It’s responding to your lover’s passion with equal fervour. That, is damn sexy.” - Amalia

Have You Seen this Video?

It's been spinning around my Facebook for a few days, and I just watched it. Thoughts? When I'm not in the middle of writing my final paper for a class, I'm going to take time to comment on it.

50 Things in 150 Days

Guys, I'm graduating next semester and subsequently freaking out. There's so much I have accomplished and so much I want to accomplish, and I can't believe it's coming so soon! My friend, Hilary, tweeted about this list she was doing, and I got intrigued. Now the official list from Mackenzie Horan is 101 Things in 1,001 days, and her list is a little more bucket and to-do. Obviously I'm not going to put "Go to Rome" on my list since I have a much smaller deadline. I'll prepare that list after this one. I'm cheating a little by putting this list out there fourteen days early, but so goes life. So, without further ado, the 50 Things I want to accomplish in 150 Days!

1. Figure out exactly what I'm doing after graduation.
2. Fit into my clothes again. (Not happening at this point!)
3. Travel to a state I have not been previously. (Not before graduation, but I will be going to Georgia over the summer to finally see Savannah and visit my friend!)
4. Finish my Spanish thesis.
5. Finish my English thesis.
6. Finish all the completed Jane Austen novels. (Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion)
7. Save $500 for Florida Trip! (No more Florida trip)
8. Successfully stay off Facebook for a week.
9. Become a beginner Yogi
10. Write 150 pages (12 TNR, double spaced, 1 inch margins)
11. Go to bed before midnight every night for a week straight.
12. Catch all the way up with "Isabel." 
13. Buy a matching pajama set.
14. Officially adopt my own cat or kitten. Name cat Lord Byron if male. (Sadly no cat since I'll BE IN KOREA!)
15. Go to Korean BBQ. 
16. Read 5 new books off the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die List (only two can be dirty)
17. Work out at 7 every morning for a week
18. Run 300 miles.
19. Memorize 100 new Korean words and phrases.
20. Watch 5 Audrey Hepburn films. (Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Paris When it Sizzles)
21. Drink 1/2 body weight in ounces of water for two weeks.
22. Have something published. (Here!)
23. Run a whole 5K. (4/13/2014)
24. Create a full "real person" wardrobe by looking through my current wardrobe.
25. Read a full contemporary novel in Spanish.
26. Do something absolutely crazy. (2/10/2014 Auditioned for a play)
27. Go a week straight without hitting the snooze button.
28. Get into the habit of flossing every night.
29. Avoid stopping at Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds for a month on way to work.
30. Go two weeks without drinking coffee.
31. Write a poem of which I'm 100% proud.
32. Buy more yoga pants
33. Write myself a letter to open five years after graduation.
34. Learn how to budget
35. Set up an Ebay store to sell older items.
36. Learn to do a full split.
37. Go for a swim again.
38. Donate blood when they come to school in the spring. (Tried twice! And they canceled!)
39. Send out little presents to my friends around the world at least once.
40. Start using my Clarisonic
41. Go to New York City (12/21/2013)
42. Do a photoshoot with friends.
43. Pick up knitting again.
44. Dress like a young adult everyday for a week straight. Not allowed: sweat pants, sneakers, moccasins, sweatshirts, yoga pants, T-shirts, etc.
45. [SECRET]
46. [SECRET]
47. [SECRET]
48. Put $5 into my loan payments for every task not completed.
49. Get ready to start the 101 in 1,001 list.
50. GRADUATE AND CELEBRATE!!

(Must put $80 towards loans!)