My Booooooooof

This weekend I went to NYC with a few friends. As we are huge fans of Cornwall's here in Boston, we decided to find a bar that offered patrons the possibility of playing board games. Through the powers that be, aka Yelp!, we found ourselves at the 675 Bar between 13th ad 14th street in the Meatpacking District.

The bar is underground and used to be home to a sex club. As soon as you descend into the venue, it becomes obvious that there were many dirty secrets kept down there. The walls are rough stone, and there are small rooms that branch off the entry way. Currently, these spaces have small tables for private game playing. Sadly, we did not arrive early enough to score a private room. Our patience won out and eventually were able to score a portion of a couch, a chair, a stool, the end of a coffee table, and most importantly - Jenga.


If you have never played Jenga in the dark - in a club - while drinking, well then, you have not yet played Jenga. Our games were intense and to the point where the structure was just one block on top another over and over again.

We continued to play on as the bar got more and more crowded, and eventually gave into the pop music and got our dance on. This place was just so much fun, and even though there are more bars that I can think of out there, I want to return to this one the next time I am there!

Owls are so in

I visited Brooklyn Flea this weekend with my friends. During the winter, the flea market held indoors. The space is an old bank, which become apparent as soon as you begin your walk.


All four of us came away with a few treasures. I personally purchased a graffiti painting that featured Audrey Hepburn and an owl necklace. Owls are my favorite right now and I have been on the hunt for a piece that features them. This flea market provided me ample opportunity to fulfill my need on the cheap. After wandering through the first floor, I found my owl!


He moves around and came with a nice long chain. While normally I keep my distance from gold colored jewelry, this guy spoke to me. I opted to wear him immediately, and am currently sporting him at work.

Bustiers are Classy

You. Are. Welcome.

Mission Accomplished!

I got the THE SHOES!!! Yes, while walking from Port Authority to Penn Station, I opted to poke my head into a small shoe store. I could see some high heeled pumps out of the corner of my eye. Not only did a find a pair of kelly green shoes, but next to them were some hot pink. The hot pink did not come in a size smaller than the 8.5 and 1.5 sizes too big is just not something one can work with. Fortunately, the green ones were in stock.

AND I GOT THEM.

(these photos don't do the color justice)

They aren't exactly like the rest of the pack. But maybe it is good for a little variety. They are still the right height and a pointy shoe, but they are a little less severe. The heel is really what sells these shoes.

I am somewhat embarrassed to have to admit that these are Jessica Simpson shoes. But then again, I have a J-Lo bathing suit (it was the only one I could find that could cover my butt). At least I can feel comfortable knowing that there is no way in hell that she had anything to do with the design. They just merely put her signature inside my shoe.

So this hunt is over. I am still on the prowl for hot heels. I could really go for a pair of hot pink ones...

Jamming out in NYC

Part of my weekend involved listening to live bands. Thursday night The New Surreal was playing at Uncle Mike's. I sadly just missed them. They are awesome. I have seen them play in Providence, my friend dates the guitarist... But really check out their myspace! I can't really review them right now as it's been awhile, but I'm sure if my bus had been 2o minutes faster and the stupid metro machine didn't give me a hard time it would have been awesome.

After they packed up I saw this kid named Clayton Senne play. He is now located in Florida but originally from Kansas. I enjoyed him a lot. At the time I was convinced he sounded like Ben, but now that I am not drinking I realize he does not at all. But I am pretty sure his speaking voice sounded similar. He plays keyboard and it is just him up on the stage. It was a great set to listen to while we all unwound from a day at the office. The waitresses at Uncle Mike's have to dress in costumes! They were really great girls and we totally chatted about different dress-up ideas. One was a slutty ghostbuster recently and was reprimanded for it, which seems ridiculous based on the idea that what they were wearing that night was acceptable. I am not one for "slutty [insert occupation]" costumes, but I would have liked to see/steal that one.

Saturday night we went to the National Underground to see a friend of friend play in Comic Tales of Tragic Heartbreak. The girl who was on before them was a folkish hippish singer. Her voice was pretty sweet and she was later pulled in to do an impromptu duet with the lead singer of Comic Tales. She skat for a while in the duet, I have never seen someone do that before, and I am pretty sure what I heard was skill. She totally was able to feel the beat and rhythm of the music. The singer of Comic Tales was a total ham and would go around dancing with girls in the bar and play his trumpet where ever. At one point he came over to us and had me push the keys while he played. While you can go ahead and listen to the music that they put up on their sites, I have to say that they are way better live. The lyrics are hysterical but the main reason we all liked it was because he was really about getting us involved and dancing.

The EYES have it

On Friday, my friend and I did some shopping in NYC. Sephoras are all over the place and so we hopped in, as I was still in major need of a new eyeliner and one of y'all said it was a good place to find some. Needless to say, the women there are amazing. I was wandering around with no idea of what to look for and eventually was able to catch the eye of one of the employees. She immediately took me around the store showing me her favorite products for not only stay put waterproof eyeliner but also a number of other products that my make-up shoe box desperately needed. Here is the run down of what was purchased this weekend:

Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil - ZERO. This was by far the best of the eye liners I tested. Before consulting the expert, I had drawn a number of lines on my hand testing out other brands. She showed me this one as I asked for a really dark shade and again I drew on myself. It looked amazing. When I went to clean off my hand with the make-up remover they have out for customers all the other lines wiped off easily. The Urban Decay line stayed put for a while longer. I did already use this pencil Saturday night, and it really was so much better than what I have been using.



Dior's Diorshow Black Out Waterproof Mascara They have a whole display that compares mascara lines. There are even little graphics which help you understand which will lengthen, curl, volumize or something else that I can't remember. The cut-out was still a bit much for me to comprehend so I asked my expert her opinion. I explained that since I wear contacts I needed something that didn't flake. She said that any good waterproof mascara should never flake. I also said I wanted the product to volumize my lashes as the stuff I currently had just lengthened and that wasn't helping with the overall look I was aiming for. She pointed me to Dior. I was a little gun-shy about going for this one as it is DIOR, but thought I should just go for it. Again, used it Saturday night. AMAZING. I am in love with this product.


eye BRIGHT by benefit This product is an eye brightener. It helps combat dark circles under your eyes. I have never really attempted to deal with the fact that my poor sleeping habits do affect my appearance. There are times that I attempt to use concealer, but that really doesn't do much. This pink stick will neutralize the color! (I also learned that if you suffer from a more red tone, green will neutralize that. Make up is really fascinating at times). I haven't used the product in real life yet, beyond when the expert attacked my face with it. But it did appear to work its magic.

I did come away with a few other boring things. Concealer stick, brush cleaner and pencil sharpener but those items don't seem to warrent their own little paragraphs. I will note that the casher that I had was super nice. At the swag thing I went to a month or so ago, I had signed up for Sephora's rewards card. Apparently, my information was entered correctly because she couldn't look me. I had to refill out the form. When the woman and I finished chatting and what not, she threw in a free lip gloss. I made sure to compliment her on her rings - they were fabulous.

Myth busted!

Everyone always says how mean New Yorkers are, and by New Yorkers, they mean New York City folk as no one actually makes reference to the rest of the state's residents. Well, that is a bunch of bull. I spent an amazing long weekend down in the city and had nothing but sweet and polite interactions with strangers.

Example one: I got off the bus and immediately on the subway to meet up with my friends at a bar. I was sitting in the car and a man kept looking over at me who was sitting near by. After a few minutes he cleared his throat and said, "excuse me, I wanted to let you know you look lovely tonight. I didn't want you to think I was staring at you inappropriately, I am just going home from work and thought you looked beautiful". What an amazing complement! Especially since I just got off the bus.

Example two: Walking downtown on Friday, we saw the tail end of an old woman completely wiping out as she stepped off the curb to get onto a bus. Three different individuals helped her to her feet. As she went to hoist herself on the stairs, the youngest male happened to look over at her again and saw that she was about to fall off backwards and reached out to steady her back up.

Example three: Also while shopping, my friend and I were constantly complimented on our clothing and general appearance. Never happens to me when shopping around here. People especially loved the bright blue sunglasses :)

Example four: When I showed up at the bar, the people in front of me were trying to get in without paying cover. They were insisting that there was a "list" that they were on because they were friends with one of the bands. The bouncer said that there was no such thing and that they needed to pay $10. Obviously, they did. I went to show him my ID and give him money when I heard my friend's band on stage say their name. So I said "YES, I made it! That is my band. I was hoping to make it in time as I just got off the bus from Boston". He then told me that I actually just missed them and that they had just finished. He then said that he would let me in for free because of my long travels! We chatted for a bit. He used to date a girl from Boston while living in NYC, so he knew it was a pain trying to time trips.

But yeah, those are my first four examples. The weekend was awesome. I had so many random interactions with complete strangers. The city is definitely way friendlier than people give it credit for.

Definately worth the $15

Apparently there is a bus terminal at South Station. I was completely unaware of this until yesterday. I had kind of just thought I would get on the bus to New York on the street. Nope. There is a whole area for buses to come in. Its like the airport with arrival and departure signs. It is a pretty nice facility. Just so you know.

I was there because I took the Bolt bus into NYC last night. The bus I was riding was brand new, had that new bus smell to it. Seats were made of leather and we pretty comfortable. We hit a little traffic, but overall the ride was really smooth and basically arrived on time. Based on this experience, I would recommend this as a cheap way to get from Boston to NYC.

The guy that sat next to me was an interesting guy. Not too creepy. He was clearly older than me, and lived with his parents out in the burbs. He tried to justify this by saying he was going to be moving to Spain shortly to get an international MBA. Doesn't really matter that you are eventually leaving the country, you are old and have been living your parents for far too long...

I did try to keep to myself after our initial conversation ended by putting on my headphones and reading my book. Unfortunately, I feel asleep for a short while and when I woke up he took this as an opportunity to start a conversation again. Sigh.

As soon as the bus stopped I hopped out and ran to the subway to meet up with my friends at a bar, so whatever, the bus did its job.

Oh, if any of you are thinking of taking Bolt and taking it often, you should apply for their loyalty plan. For every ten rides, you get one ride free and you always get an A boarding pass. It costs nothing to join and there are no restrictions to when you have to use the rides. This is all information I got for the nice man that works for the company and stood at the gate with us.