The last couple of weeks have included a plethora of ups and downs. A real roller coaster ride, if you will. Which I most often won’t. Like everyone else on the planet, I do not enjoy when my world gets completely turned around. Coming out of my birthday weekend, I felt unusually low. Many factors played into this feeling I possessed, however being a big girl now {26}, I felt the only way to get past the feeling was to simply live through it.
But what a shitty way to kick off another year of life, eh?
As fate would have it, my fifth visitor {in the last six weeks} arrived at my doorstep and brought with her an unforgettable, absolutely necessary weekend. Sabrina and I worked together in my last job, of which I miss terribly. We have been through some of life’s most difficult and most rewarding moments, both professionally and even more so in our personal lives.
I was able to find a light once again after spending time exploring the streets of Manhattan, laughing until my stomach cramped, and re-focusing my energy on positivity.
As my soul mate and #dayone Ash would say, when life gives you lemons, make dumplings.
Take a peek into the notable normalcies over the past couple of weeks:
Birthday
Regardless of the sour taste left in my mouth after celebrating turning 26 {an age I have been anticipating for years} this year my birthday was a notable one. Morgan, an old friend from high school dazeee visited me from her new home in Boston. I shared a brunch with my rag-tag team of misfits aka my friends here in New York {just kidding they are literally all lovely and I am blessed to know each and every one of them}. And met an entire recreational dodge ball team in matching sweat suits that sang a Pretty Ricky song {the only one we all care about} on the table while at brunch. I immediately knew I would befriend these outgoing human beings and wouldn’t you know it, spent the entirety of my birthday afternoon with these new strangers walking around Manhattan. Ironically enough one of them had once been roommates with someone I went to high school with {small effing world}. Moral of the story, never judge a stranger by their sweatsuit.
Bites
Continuing on with the theme of ‘birthday’, my birthday brunch was spent drinking bottomless mimosas at a new favorite of mine. Union Bar and Kitchen is a brightly lit Greenwich Village brunch scene with tall ceilings and white subway tile {the best}. The energy was incredible and the playlist couldn’t be beat all morning. For an entree and bottomless mimosas you pay $33 and allotted two hours of drinking. Mind you, it begins at the time of your reservation and not when you actually arrive {says the birthday girl who rolled up to her own brunch 20 minutes late…}. This being said, our party was allowed to continue our bottomless mimosas at the bar once our reservation was up, not that we really needed it at that point to be honest. We put in werk. It can be hit or miss with food at these advertised ‘bottomless brunch’ restaurants, but I was extremely impressed with the quality of food at Union Bar and Kitchen and will most definitely be back.
image by Gabs, because she has an incredible eye
New York
I saw so much of my city this past weekend. From the 9/11 Museum, to the Statue of Liberty, and the ins and outs of Brooklyn. Sabrina and I truly immersed ourself into the concrete jungle. As mentioned previously on the blog, seeing a comedy show has been the highlight of my time spent with visitors. Since it went so swimmingly last time Ashley and I attended a show, I decided to take Sabrina to the Comedy Cellar on a Sunday evening. We arrived real early and were seated in the front row {goals} and by the end of the gig, I was up on stage performing alongside Phil Hanley {no joke… real life goals}. It was absolutely incredible and I felt completely natural on stage even in front of a sold out comedy club {though I had been brunching all afternoon, as you do, which might have had something to do with it}. New York, you’re too good to me. Again, I can highly recommend attending {and possibly participating} at one of the most famous comedy clubs in the city.
Tunes
There were plenty of bangers on the list this week. With Stagecoach on the horizon {so depressed when I had to sell my ticket last weekend, but not sad that money is going towards a GoPro!}, there were a few new country favorites that made the list this week. Some examples include ‘Cold Spot‘ by Kane Brown and ‘Different for Girls‘ by Deirks Bently. My hands down, can’t stop listening to, play on repeat while I wash the dishes song, however, is not a country song. ‘No Promises‘ by Cheat Codes is the shit. It just is. Listen to it and I’ll tell you, ‘I told you so’. ‘The One‘ by The Chainsmokers made the list because, it’s The Chainsmokers and they’ve taken over all of our lives. And last but not least, ‘Wild Child‘ by Lupe Fiasco has brightened up even my darkest moments this past week, of which there were several.
Travel
I am in the process of planning the rest of my trips abroad in 2017. It would be quite impossible to accomplish as much traveling overseas as I achieved last year, however I am still planning on dipping my toes onto a few continents. The first, of course, is Oh, Canada! come May. Aside from this, I have plans of making it to South America, Cuba, and finally back ‘home’ to London. I do also intend to explore much of the USA as possible while residing on the east coast. Maine, South Carolina, and Louisiana are all on the list of states deserving of a visit given my new found proximity to them all.