Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July, friends! I hope your long weekend was filled with delicious BBQ, cold beer, outside movies, and sparklers. I'm off to go comfort my dog who is freaking out over the loud firecrackers. 

Glamour Magazine x Frye - Meeting Amber from The Barefoot Blonde

I was scrolling through my Instagram on the train the other morning when I saw a post from Amber Fillerup, the blogger behind Barefoot Blonde. She was doing a meet and greet in the soho location of Frye. It was hosted by Glamour Magazine and promised a braid bar, free booze, and snack bites so I thought, why the hell not go. After work on Thursday, I made the quick walk over and stood in line. We were finally allowed in and my initial thought of "I may be all by myself but I'll just talk to some people and make new best friends forever!" quickly turned into "oh gosh, I don't know anyone and I just want a glass of wine and a braid and my train home." It turns out than a former coworker from my old job was attending the event since she now works at Glamour, so I was able to catch up with her and a few other former coworkers. 

At the braid bar, we could choose between three different styles, and I picked a fishtail braid that would wrap around my hair. While it was nice feeling VIP and getting my hair braided, it fell flat pretty quickly and didn't stay pinned in my hair, so that was kind of disappointing. While the line to meet Amber was long, I was able to catch the tail end and quickly say hi to both her and her husband. Both were incredibly nice, though she seemed tired from talking to so many people in a short amount of time. Since they just came back from a few vacations, I asked where she planned to travel next but she wasn't sure, as they plan their vacations fairly last minute. 

We left about an hour into the event and went to grab dinner at Angelo's in Little Italy, where we sat at the table next to Kelly Osbourne and Kelly Kutrone!

Bagel Boss

Last night one of my best friends and I went out to meet up with one of her friends near Union Square for a work event. After going to a few bars in the area, we wound up in Murray Hill, where she lives, and finished the night in some local bars. I crashed at her place and then the next morning we went to Bagel Boss and ordered an iced coffee and bacon, egg, and cheese on an everything bagel. I was dreaming about my high caloried and oh so delicious bacon, egg, and cheese that entire morning and was delighted to break the bagel in half and see the melted cheese fall apart. It was heaven. And then I noticed that there was no bacon on my bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich and wanted to die. It quickly became hell. The sandwich was still good but it wasn't great because of said missing bacon, so if you ever go to Bagel Boss and decide to order a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, do yourself a solid and check for the bacon.

Bella Fortuna and Carissima by Rosanna Chiofalo

Reading: Bella Fortuna and Carissima by Rosanna Chiofalo

Burning: Venice Peach Bellini from Bath and Body Works

I was in my local library the other day and wanted to find some books to read with plots based in European cities that my family and I will be traveling to next month. These two titles caught my eye and while we won't be heading to Venice or Rome, we are going to spend a significant amount of time in Northern Italy and it seemed like an easy enough read. Guys. I could barely get through the first five chapters of the first book before I returned it to the library. Not only was it so poorly written, but it blatantly reinforced Italian American stereotypes among others cultures. How in the world did it get 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon? Hard pass for me. 

Food Truck: Gary's Steaks

On the street outside my building sits a line of different types of food trucks. On days when I don't bring in my lunch and have to grab something fast, I love walking down the line and seeing what catches my interest. Earlier this month I grabbed a philly cheese steak sandwich from Gary's Steaks. While it was good, I wish they toasted the bread, as it was weird eating a hot shaved steak and peppers with cold bread. The fries and the dipping sauce it came in was really good! All of that plus a soda was $10, which is a steal compared to the lunch prices in the West Village.

We're Going To Europe!

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I'm so excited because we just booked tickets to Europe at the end of May! After a lot of back and forth and different information floating around, we finally sat down, figured out timing and pricing and purchased a roundtrip ticket for all four of us plus my aunt. We're flying out to meet my sister who is currently studying abroad and then flying home all together. We'll be gone the last two weeks of May and I have a pretty ambitious itinerary set for us. The nice part is that nothing is set in stone, so we can change things up as much as we want while still having some sense of structure. If all goes to plan, we'll start in Milan, pass through Liechtenstein on our way to Austria and hit Innsbruck and Salzburg. Then we'll drive to Munich, Germany and see some of the country side on the way to Belgium. Since Brussels and Antwerp is too far away, we'll stop quickly in Luxembourg and then go to a tiny town within the Belgium border. We'll then drive across to Paris, where we'll spend a few days exploring and finish in Italy for the final few days with my mother's family. Again, pretty ambitious trying to hit 7 countries in 2 weeks, but I'm sure we'll find the right balance between seeing a lot of countries and seeing a lot within those countries.

#LTxMPGSPORT Meet and Great with Julianne Hough

On Wednesday, I ventured over to the Lord and Taylor's on Fifth Ave to stand in line and meet Julianne Hough. Ballroom is a pretty big part of my life: I've been watching Dancing with the Stars since high school (from the second season on), joined the ballroom dance team for all four years in college, took a dance lesson package from Dance With Me, and create impossible routines in my head when I listen to music. Safe to say that even though I haven't actively danced in almost four years, it's still very much a part of my every day. So when I saw on Julianne's Instagram account that she was doing a meet and great to promote her athleisure line with MPG, I eagerly went over and stood in line for about an hour. Thankfully, they were giving out flavored water to everyone in line, so I was able to hydrate.

Julianne came out a half and hour after the event started and the line moved fairly quickly. Right before it was my turn to go up, they paused to fix the photbooth camera and to give her a break (because posing with people for straight twenty minutes can be downright exhausting). We made eye contact at one point and she smiled and waved a me (!!) and then it was my turn to go up. I was able to give her a big hug and tell her how I was looking forward to this all day. She said thanks so much for coming and then before I knew it, I was waiting in another line to give my email address to have my picture with her sent to me. We weren't allowed to use our phones or take pictures of her up close. She was very nice but it happened so fast and before you know it, you're done. I wound up returning the tank top I bought at the event because I have so many gym clothes and honestly don't go to the gym enough to justify buying clothing at full retail price. But I'm so glad I went and still can't believe I was able to hug and speak briefly to a teenage inspiration of mine!