Report Card: Adventures in NYC!

DAY FOUR: Write about someone you love.  

So I'm incredibly behind on this 28 Day Challenge...my apologies. There are many people I love in my life, but I think I'll take this time to write about my older brother. My brother is by and large the funniest person I know. Few people besides comedians like Martin Lawrence and Kevin Hart can actually make me laugh until I cry; my brother is one of those people. I also admire him for finding something he's incredibly passionate about and making a career out of it--a career that allows him to travel the world, something I'm incredibly envious of him for. I love how he's not afraid to vocalize his thoughts and theories when it comes to everything from politics to women, no matter how cringeworthy and honest they are. I love how his taste in movies and television is similar to mine and that he shares the same desire to be cast on The Amazing Race. Oh, and I love his storytelling abilities (remember the MeowMeow story?). Basically, I love my brother : ) 

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Clearly this blogging everyday deal has been quite the struggle, which is a damn shame considering I really haven't been doing much! So I'll admit...it's a tad bit hard to write when you don't have much inspiration besides a big plasma TV, a couch, and an Italian greyhound.

However, I HAVE had a few highlights in the past couple days and I HAVE tried to venture off the couch, in an effort to remind myself that I NEED to go out and enjoy this summer before it's time to buckle down and get real with my life. I thought I'd detail my latest adventures in NYC, as I pretend to be a hip young professional out on the town (instead of a Bridge and Tunneler). 

- AMC Dine-In Theatre: Okay, so this isn't in NYC, it's in West Orange, NJ, but whatever...I thought I'd review it anyways. So our favorite movie theatre conglomerate AMC has decided to fold the "dinner and a movie" concept into one with their new chain of dine-in theatres. Basically, you sit in a big comfy leather seat with a table in front of you and get seat-side service and order yummy food and cocktails as you watch a movie! It's awesome! This is the future of movie-going people! While I'll give the movie I saw, The Hangover 2, a B, my mozzerella sticks, chicken fingers, and frozen strawberry margarita were delish, so the AMC Dine-In Theatre gets an A+! This is how the theatre works...

- Happy Ending: So a friend and I read about this old health spa turned club/lounge in the Lower East Side called "Happy Ending." Now, the name alone probably should have deterred us from going, but we're young and dumb and decided to risk our lives. Not to mention the outside of the club, still looks like a store-front massage parlor. However, the cover charge was $0, a Long Island was only $10, and the old saunas of the former health spa were turned into semi-VIP areas...très clever! The DJ was bumpin old school hip-hop and R&B all night, the crowd was young, diverse, and hipsterish, making for an overall pretty fun experience. Not to mention my friend walked away with the phone number of a guy who turned out to be the little brother of a pretty famous actor on Primetime television! I give Happy Ending an A. No A+ because I'm still salty I didn't snag any famous actors' brothers for myself : (

 
- Greenhouse: So I read online that "Greenhouse" was supposedly one of the most exclusive clubs in NYC. And the pictures online made the place look amazing, so naturally I HAD to check it out! If you're a guy and want to get in, you better be "somebody" or prepare to drop some serious cash for a table. If you're a girl, have a healthy BMI and a nice face (sounds harsh, but these doormen are no joke). I called ahead to find out the cover charge and the girl on the phone said, "it's at the doorman's discretion." Yikes! My friend and I weren't too excited about possibly having our self-esteems crushed by night's end, but we decided to brave it anyways. Well, because we're like total babes (duh!), the doorman didn't turn us away, but instead gave us the option of a $30 cover or a $75/each bar tab. Um $30 cover please!! As we rushed behind the velvet rope, before homeboy finally realized we weren't Ford Models, and ushered ourselves into the club, our excitement went from a 10 to about a 2.5, give or take a digit. 

"Wait, are we in the right place?

Is this Greenhouse or somebody's 2-bedroom apartment?" 

The place was super small yal! And the decor was not as breathtaking as it looks online! I'm telling you, this place is proof that pictures online can be deceiving! Did I seriously just pay $30 to dance in a 10 ft X 10 ft area? I'll give it to Greenhouse...the music was pretty good, we did see Carmelo Anthony, Swiss Beatz, Chrissy (Jim Jones' girl from the critically-acclaimed VHI show "Love and Hip Hop"), and some sailors in the city for Fleet Week. But seriously, the anticipation and politics of the door were not worth it. Greenhouse gets a big fat B-. 

- Kool Bloo: So immediately after Greenhouse, the drunk munchies set in. As my friend and I took off our heels and slid on our flipflops, we randomly met these two characters from Jamaica, who took us to this 24-hour food stand called Kool Bloo. If you're in the South Village late at night and need a place to eat, GO HERE! This place puts White Castle (Jersey people's late night food option aside from diners) to shame! The menu was extensive...a little overwhelming actually...but I ate the biggest and best bacon cheeseburger ever! To add to our Kool Bloo experience, our new friends were hilarious. One of them turned out to be an up-and-coming reggae artist named Spoon AKA (Google him) who apparently has a song with Nicki Minaj! Our friend Spoon here had a rather thick Jamaican accent, which allowed him to be one of the most entertaining storytellers I've ever come across in my entire life! My friend and I ended up sitting there chatting with our new BFFs until 5 in the morning! Don't you love random nights like that?! Big fat A (no A+ because we then had to take the Path train home and I didn't get home until 7am....stress). 

- Luke's Lobsters: Before dropping my brother off at JFK airport, we had to stop at one of our favorite food spots in all of NYC...Luke's Lobsters. If you're a seafood lover and particularly enjoy lobster rolls, I'm telling you...this place is Jesus's VIP section in heaven. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. A+++


 

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Other NYC spots on my list for the summer...

- Katz Delicatessan & 2nd Avenue Deli: So I can eat their pastrami sandwiches and compare, à la "Food Wars" on The Food Network

- Peking Duck House: Hands down the best Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.

- Picnic in Central Park: So I can cross this off my bucket list.

- 1Oak: Greenhouse's evil stepsister that I got turned away from back in December. I must persevere!

- Big Gay Ice Cream Truck: Because its name is so fun!

- Pacha: To get my fist pump on, duh!

My Latest Obsession......Thailand!

DAY THREE: What you think about love.

Well, I've never been IN love so I can't speak to that. However, I can say that love apparently makes people cray cray, as evident by the murders people commit or other ridonulous things people do in "the name of love." Can't wait to see how I act when I'm in love....shall be interesting. However, I do LOVE my family more than anything in this world. I do LOVE my dog Haze unconditionally. And I do LOVE myself.

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Sometimes before bed, I put on a movie on Netflix to help me fall asleep. A couple weeks ago, I put on THE BEACH, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, in all his beautiful, post-Titanic glory, as a young American backpacker in Thailand who acquires a mysterious map supposedly leading to an island paradise and sets out to find it. I don't want to give away the movie, so you can just watch the trailer below...

Watching the movie only strengthened my already sick obsession with backpackers. The movie also made me realize just how insanely beautiful Thailand is! There was one scene in the movie where the music + the beautiful imagery was so unbearable, I found myself shedding a tear. Yes, I'm weird like that. Yes, it doesn't take that much for me to cry. But anyways, Thailand is DEFINITELY on my bucket list of places to visit ASAP. Whenever I go back to Australia, I most certainly will be making a pit stop in Southeast Asia. I mean, check out some of these pictures....insane....

So I want to be a flight attendant...

DAY TWO: How you introduce yourself to new people.

"Hey, I'm Natasha" "Where am I from? Jersey. North Jersey. Union County...little town called Springfield."

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Every summer, all major TV networks give a Fall Preview of the new shows they have lined up for fall. Being the TV geek that I am, the other day I was going through NBC, ABC, CBS, etc. websites and watching all the trailers for the shows and keeping record of which ones to watch on my Shows List (yes, I have a Shows List). While on the ABC website, I came across an upcoming show called Pan Am, a dramedy which chronicles the glamorous lives of the Pan Am stewardesses of the 1960s. (Watch the trailer below...)

Watching the trailer immediately got me thinking back to this old CW reality show called Fly Girls that followed 5 young, hot, Virgin America flight attendants as they jet setted around the world, attended Virgin-sponsored parties, and canoodled with rich businessmen in first class. I’m sure no one knows what show I’m talking about right now because I was probably the only person on Earth watching it (or the only person to admit to watching it). But I remember watching the show and feeling the same pangs of jealousy and intrigue that I felt when I watched The Hills (or any show featuring young hotties living the high life) and I remember thinking, “I could do that! I should be a flight attendant!”

Watching the trailer for Pan Am has reignited that dream! Being a flight attendant might actually be kinda cool. Now, the ONLY airline I would work for would be the hip and trendy Virgin Airlines. They’ve seemed to set a standard when it comes to their flight attendants…long story short: you have to be young and attractive. I remember boarding my V Australia (Virgin’s newest airline) flight to Sydney and being immediately greeted by two leggy modelesque Aussies with huge smiles on their faces. It was certainly a big change from the rather aged stewardesses you see on Delta and, to be honest, their spunky attitudes, cool accents, and pretty faces made me anxious and excited to board the plane. I mean, check out this Virgin Airlines commercial. Can it get any cooler than this...

So I’ve done some research and it seems like Virgin America is the only Virgin Airline I would be eligible for (apparently you need a European passport to apply for Virgin Atlantic and at least an Aussie accent to work for V Australia). They’re not hiring for “in-flight team members” at the moment, but I’ll be keeping an eye on their job page : ) And think how happy I’ll make my parents! UPenn grad + $50,000/year tuition = Virgin America stewardess!

Now I know what you all are thinking. You just graduated from an Ivy League university and now you want to make a career as a stewardess??! So much for shooting for the stars! My answer is…of course I don’t want to be 50 and a flight attendant! But it would be a cool job to have for like a year or so, right? Think about all the pros…the hot pilots, the celebrity run-ins, the chance to travel the world and for free, the chance to shmooze with rich businessmen in first class and possibly meet my future husband, the chance to make a gay BFF with a male stewardess. And the only cons…the lame uniforms and the actual responsibilities of being a flight attendant (i.e.: assisting people with ridiculously oversized carry-on luggage, dealing with rude passengers, going over boring safety and emergency stuff). Call me crazy, but I think the pros DEFINITELY outweigh the cons on this one!

24 Hours in the Life of a College Grad!

DAY ONE: Your views on death, how you cope, etc.

Geez, way to start this 28 Day Challenge on a happy note! My views on death...well, I've thankfully never had someone close to me die unexpectedly. My grandparents have passed away, but they both died well into their 90s so I could only be but so sad about their deaths. How I cope? Well, I cry just like any normal human being, I think of good memories, I look at pictures, and remember the good times : )

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Being an unemployed University of Pennsylvania grad on summer vaca is tough work! This past Thursday was super productive! Let's take a look at 24 hours in my my shoes...

12am - After spending all day slaving in the kitchen, testing out recipes I found online, including Red Lobster biscuits (click here!) and fried ice cream (and here!), I settled into the TV room with my brother (also home for a lil R & R) and turned on Real World: Las Vegas, which we DVRed. We share our mutual admiration for Leroy, debate our disgust for Nany, and laugh about Dustin's black man mannerisms when he gets mad.

1am - Flip through the 200 movie channels and struggle to find something to watch.

"WTF, they made a new Predator?" "Wait, is that Adrien
Brody??! Damn Adrien, what happened?"

Keep flipping through the channels...land on DAHMER, a biopic on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Watch 20 minutes, then realize the only reason we're watching this movie is to see a killing scene. Laugh about what disgusting individuals American Society has turned us into and then continue watching the movie. Share our disappointment over the rather anticlimactic killing scene and the overall lameness of the movie. Dahmer killed 17 people and the movie shows only one murder?! Come on!

2am - Nothing appealing is on TV. We see some movie called CHLOE coming on, starring Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson. Seems promising.....thennnnn, there's a lesbian sex scene between Moore and Amanda Seyfried and I'm over it.

4am - Walk past my parents' bedroom and laugh over the snoring symphony echoing from their room. Hop in my bed and stay up another hour schizophrenically hopping around the internet:

- Facebook stalk
- Look up flights to Vegas for my friend's birthday weekend
- Randomly Wikipedia the French Quarters in New Orleans
- Thought back to when I was making fried ice cream and my dad mentioned another dessert called the "Baked Alaskan" that I should try making. Look at various recipes.
- Decide I want to go clubbing this weekend and research Greenhouse nightclub in NYC. DJ Flowfly is DJing Saturday. I check out his Myspace page and Twitter stalk him.
- Look at the new items on UrbanOutfitters.com and Lulus.com. Eyes start to burn. Close laptop and go to sleep.

12pm - Wake up naturally, as in I didn't set an alarm before going to sleep because my phone died and I didn't feel like looking for my charger at 5 in the morning. Brush my teeth, wash my face, oil my hair, plop down on my parents' bed with my laptop and let the Internet surfing begin...

1:30pm - Check my daily blogs: Bossip, Media Takeout, Just Jared, People.com, The Sartorialist, Karla's Closet, Under the Button. Look up travel options for our mother-daughter trip to Mexico, as well as flights to Vegas. IMDB that movie CHLOE and try to figure out WTF was going on in that movie last night.

2pm - Skype with friends. Talk about summer plans and a possible trip to Greece in August. Continue researching nightclubs for the weekend and Facebook stalking.

4pm - Start working on a blog post. My brother comes home from the gym and we eat and watch all the judge shows, from Judy to Joe Mathis. We watch some 80s music countdown on VH1 and sing along to the Swedish band Europe's "The Final Countdown." We discuss May 21 doomsday.

7pm - Two of my friends come over and we watch Real World: Las Vegas (yes, again for me) and Grey's Anatomy. I hop on the treadmill for 30 minutes...the first time since March (damn shame).

10:30pm - We hop in the car and embark on an impromptu trip to Sonic. After watching years of Sonic commercials and drooling over their burgers and slushies, one has finally opened near my house, and by near I mean a 35 minute drive away. I order a bacon cheeseburger toaster and mozzarella sticks and eat myself into a food coma.

12am- Come home, watch some episodes of Martin and part ways with my friends.

2am - Come upstairs and watch TV with my brother. He tells me a story about his friend's cat who was "in heat" and the day his friend came home to find his precious Meow Meow whoring herself out to what seemed like every Newark street cat in his neighborhood.

2:30am - My mom randomly appears at the doorway, rubbing eye boogers out of her eyes. Our family friend's daughter is having her college graduation tomorrow and she forgot to tell me. It's at 10am. We're leaving the house at 9am. FML! Say goodnight to my brother and peace out to bed early (2:30am is Grandma-status for me).

SOOOOOOOO, evidently, if TV, my brother, and my laptop didn't exist, I'd be one bored, sad, little child.

28 Day Challenge!

Blogging is fun. MY blog is fun (if I do say so myself). But in order to make this blog successful, I've GOT to blog more often! So, I'm subjecting myself to the 28 DAY CHALLENGE! At the beginning of every post for 28 days (hopefully 28 days straight), I'll challenge myself to write about a random tidbit about myself. Here's what you can look forward to...

Day One: Your views on death, how you cope, etc.

Day Two: How you introduce yourself to new people.

Day Three: What you think about love.

Day Four: Write about someone you love.

Day Five: A list of things you fancy doing.

Day Six: Recommend some books to read.

Day Seven: Write about the arts (music, art, dancing, etc).

Day Eight: Write a poem.

Day Nine: Photo of your favorite pillow.

Day Ten: How you wake up in the morning.

Day Eleven: Write about your sibling(s) or what it’s like to be an only child.

Day Twelve: Your relationship with you parents.

Day Thirteen: Write about what you believe in, be it God, yourself, etc.

Day Fourteen: What you do for Valentines Day.

Day Fifteen: Write about the best gift you ever received.

Day Sixteen: Write another poem, about the weather.

Day Seventeen: Post your favorite gift.

Day Eighteen: Your plans for tomorrow.

Day Nineteen: Write about something you fear.

Day Twenty: What do you eat for dinner last night?

Day Twenty-One: Your favorite thing to drink.

Day Twenty-Two: How you take your coffee or tea.

Day Twenty-Three: Your favorite thing to wear.

Day Twenty-Four: Another poem, about the shoes you wear most often.

Day Twenty-Five: Write about where you live.

Day Twenty-Six: Your favorite smell.

Day Twenty-Seven: Your thoughts on the internet.

Day Twenty-Eight: Write about how you feel today.

10 Things I WON'T Miss About College

I am officially a University of Pennsylvania graduate! Thank you, thank you! I’m accepting any and all monetary gifts to my home address, as I’m now home, unemployed, bumming around the house, not doing a damn thing, and actually loving it! A life of zero responsibilities is what I call living!

They always say that once you hit the real world, you’ll start to miss college desperately. Well, I haven’t exactly started paying bills or getting up early in the morning for a job I hate…I’m still living the life O’Riley over here, so the pangs of college nostalgia haven’t exactly kicked in yet. But I do know that being home in my pajamas all day, watching TV and reading random entries on Wikipedia is going to start getting old probably…hmm…tomorrow! HOWEVER, to make myself feel a little better about being wholly unproductive and dreading the real world, I do know there are a few things I definitely WON’T miss about college! Here goes…

1. The residents of West Philadelphia: Most Penn students sadly do not exit the Penn bubble or even know that there is a world beyond 40^th street. But no worries! Because the people of 40^th Street and beyond, our beloved West Philadelphian neighbors, found their way to us! From the bubble jacket wearing/Philly bearded men to the hoards of seemingly parentless 12-year-olds who populate 40^th and Walnut on Friday nights to the ratchet and wreckless regulars at Drinkers, you will not be missed.

2. Seeing lovey-dovey couples everywhere: When you’re single,

you notice just how many people are happy and in love and you're not. On a confined college campus, your patheticness is only heightened! You WILL run into the guy you have a crush on who is in love with someone else. You WILL have to walk past couples going on Valentines dates as you pick up your Campusfood.com order from the delivery guy. Currently in the real world, I can thankfully avoid all the lovers and go back to watching them on TV in romantic comedies where they belong.

3. Frat parties: I haven’t missed frat parties since I stopped going to them in sophomore year. The sticky floors, the smell of beer, the people spilling drinks all over me had its season. But for now, I’ve moved on to bigger and “better” things (i.e. rude bouncers, $18+ mixed drinks, and creepy old men hitting on me).

4. Class participation: There’s nothing worse than hearing your alarm go off in the morning, knowing you barely got any sleep, and now having to shelp across campus to class and contribute to the class discussion on readings you didn’t do on a topic you can care less about, for the sake of getting class participation points because its worth 30% of your grade!

5. Locust Walk: While this is a Penn-specific aspect of college I most certainly will not miss, I’m sure most people can relate to a part of their campus that by senior year, you’d mapped out ways to avoid in order to protect yourself from running into basically anyone you just don’t feel like seeing or talking to. Whether it’s the person from your class who sees you and you see them, but you both wonder whether your relationship status as “classmates” requires either of you to actually say hello. Or the guy who you had a drunken encounter with who you’d prefer never to see again, but of course the very second you step foot on Locust Walk, there he is walking right towards you. God loves to play sick jokes on people and Locust Walk was his playground. Locust Walk, you most certainly will not be missed.

6. Group projects: Along with annotated bibliographies, group projects are just about the worst assignment a professor can assign. The last thing I want to do is see my inbox flooded with emails from four different group members or spend my Friday at 9pm in a seminar room working on a project because for some odd reason this is the ONLY time everyone is free. Unfortunately, I’ve heard group assignments follow you into the real world, but let’s at least hope people have developed some common sense by then.

7. Drunk munchies: I realized I was at rock bottom when Jose and Juan at Allegro’s Pizzeria became my BFFs and were providing me with doggie bags of leftover pizza to eat for breakfast. While Jose and Juan and their musings on Penn students WILL be missed, that reluctant walk into Allegros or Crackdonalds to satisfy my gluttony will not.

8. Doing readings for class: I am a magazine junkie. I still subscribe to Marie Claire, Details (yes, the men’s fashion magazine), Glamour, Vanity Fair, and US Weekly. However, I barely ever found time to read any of my magazines because the readings I had to do for class NEVER ENDED! Like being forced to participate in class or work on a project with 4 other people, doing readings for class had become a painful chore by senior spring. I’m glad reading academic journals and chapters from textbooks are a thing of the past!

9. Being broke: I guess the one good thing about the real world is having a real job and making real money. My microscopic $8/hour paychecks from working at the housing assignments office barely ever made it past a weekend. Forcing myself to eat the poison at the dining hall instead of buying food in order to save money, was never fun. Moreover, in a sick and twisted way, the one thing I can really look forward to about the real world, is paying bills! Once you can afford to start paying bills, that means you’re probably making some real money. And then I can just look forward to being broke again.

10. My neighbor who lived in Harnwell 402: This year, I lived in a pretty dope single apartment with my own living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Although I lived alone, it sometimes felt like I had a roommate. Two roommates actually…them being my neighbor and his girlfriend in the apartment next door. Between the lovers quarrels consisting of his girlfriend screaming and crying pathetically to them watching TV and laughing until the wee hours of the morning, don’t let my pimped out swank single apartment fool you! Times were indeed rough when living next to these two. Let’s hope paper-thin walls are unique to Penn housing!

I Should be on The Real World!

I came up with the perfect plan to avert the real world…I should be cast on The Real World! This precious gem of a reality show has been a staple in my nightly routine since hmm…I was like 7. Yup, I basically grew up watching The Real World and I must say, it has taught me a lot! I learned to:

- Never open somebody else’s mail or suffer being called a “stupid bitch” while being looked at dead in the eye (Thank you Dan from Real World Miami)

- Never call out a closeted gay man for being gay or risk being the brunt of the “slap heard around the world” (Thank you Stephen & Irene from Real World Seattle)

- Never “galavant” with a coworker or risk being fired (Thank you Cyrus from Real World Boston)

- Never leave a guy I like around a black chick with blue eyes or risk losing that man forever (Thank you Jonna from Real World Cancun).

Now finally after seasons of stock characters and boring storylines, MTV has finally stepped up its casting game with the latest Real World: Las Vegas—everyone’s Wednesday night guilty pleasure. And so far, I’ve learned quite a bit…

- Do not have unprotected sex with a man whore as he will get you pregnant and he will give you a STD

- Do not tell a raging alcoholic to stop breaking stuff in your house as it will only make him break more stuff

- Be weary of any guy you come across as there is small chance that he was once a participant in gay porn

So why should I be on The Real World? I didn't come from a broken home with drug addicted parents or grow up in foster care, I don't have anger issues, I don't have boy drama, I get along with other girls, I have an education, I can hold my liquor...but I do have this burning desire to live in a sick house for 4 months with no responsibilities, good looking people, free food, and partying!! If only a "burning desire" was enough to get you on TV these days : ( Hmm, now if only I could figure out a way to develop some sort of mental illness...