Ooooops

This week has been a bit stressful, and in order to do the things I needed to get done, I had to neglect my blog. I've missed the last couple prompts of "on my mind," "something beginning with 'i,'" and "chair." Today's prompt is "fly" and surprisingly, it seems like waiting to write these all at once makes a lot more sense.

This past week has been spent stressing over a cover letter for a job application. This isn't just any job to me, it's a start in a new direction, a way into a world that I have finally realized is the right one for me, and a chance to live a little out of the ordinary. I already have an insane hatred of cover letters, and in some cases I don't really understand the point. In others, like this one, I get it, but I instantly become the most insecure, incapable person while trying to sell myself in a half page letter that is supposed to convince a stranger to take a chance, interview and possibly hire me. No pressure, right?

So that's what has been on my mind the last week, from last Thursday til now. Why now? Because I just sent it in. I sent in my application, and the only thing that I can do is hope that this amazing website takes a chance on me. Hell, I probably should just send them this blog entry and be like, "see? I right good."

Back to the point, cover letters have been "on my mind" because I was stressing over this application, my "i" words are insecure and incapable because no matter how good at something I know I am, that fear creeps when I have to explain why I think I'm going to be the person they want in said cover letters.

That leaves "chair" from yesterday, and "fly" for today's post. Here's my set up at a local Starbucks:

My laptop, water, a drink, crumpled napkins, snack bags, my phone, chargers, and most importantly, the chair that has been my home for the past couple hours while I tried to hammer this out. This chair has been my inspiration to get this done because it's terrible for my back and incredibly uncomfortable. The sooner I got my stuff done, the sooner I don't have to sit in it. Makes sense, right?

I'll write my post for today a bit later, I need to take a break. I need to let my brain calm down and do some yoga to help recover from all this sitting. I'm also not going to post where I applied or anything about the job, because in case something comes of it, I know I'll be incredibly superstitious about it. If the reviewing parties read this post, thanks for looking into what I'm all about. I hope you like me!

Wedding Day!

Saturday, was a day of crazy rushing around and getting ready, I did my best impression of Coolio while getting my hair to dry, ordered room service - a tortilla espanola sandwich and pizza while getting ready and danced around while playing music like any normal twenty something girl.

I got my stuff together, wore flats to walk to the other hotel where people were staying and rushed over with heels in hand. I met up with a couple of the girls from the bachelorette night and Elissa's family that was staying there. We boarded a charter bus that took us to the beautiful, stunning estate that Elissa and Si were getting married at. Most everyone was overwhelmed at the beauty of this house and the grounds.

The wedding was in English and Spanish, and we joked with the couple that they've already been married twice because of that. The weather could not have cooperated more. The day was beautiful and went off without a hitch!

After the ceremony, we headed to the cocktail hour while the bridal party took pictures. There were drinks and tapas served and mingling, pictures taken and laughs shared by everyone, friends and family alike. When the couple arrived to the cocktail area, there were toasts and more pictures, and we eventually migrated toward the dining area. The toasts from David, Pete (Simon's brother), Simon, and Sarah (Elissa's maid of honor) were all great and incredibly touching. Simon had the majority of us tearing up when he recognized Tavi, Elissa's father who passed away a few years ago and it was easy to see how much Si loves her, the family and how excited they both are to be officially married.

I was seated at a table with three of Simon's cousins, Becki and her boyfriend Tom who I had met the night before included, a couple of the girls from the bachelorette night and two of Elissa's cousins who I'd met maybe once or twice when we were all a lot younger. After introductions, we all started different conversations, the wine flowed and before the night was over we were all laughing, joking and having a great time. More than once our table was given the 'eye' from another table because we were rather loud and boisterous while laughing and joking around. The menu for dinner was extravagant in all the right ways. Course after course was served and it was all fantastic. I ate goat! It was absolutely delicious and wish it was easier to find here. The quality of food in both Italy and Spain was spectacular and I miss it. Everything tastes as though it was grown just down the street and in some cases, it probably was.

After dinner involved more drinks, dancing and socializing, all of which was a grand time. I took a taxi back to the hotel around 2am.. maybe 3? all I know was that it was late and my feet hurt. I got back to the hotel and rightly passed out as soon as I got in my room.

Italy!!

wow. what a week. i'll try to break italy into a couple posts, but whow knows.. i might just go on forever.

needless to say, all the people that told me that i wouldn't want to come home were right, the ones that said that venice was going to be my favorite were wrong and the idea that i would love the food was completely spot on. the only bad thing about the entire week were my allergies. The part of Italy I was in is incredibly agricultural and therefore sneezy and crazy for me. oh... and the rain. so much rain, thunderstorms, lightening, everything. I was lucky that it didn't flood. When I was flying in from Madrid, we passed over a storm, and I saw the lightening but didn't think it would end up affecting much of my trip. Luckily it didnt. It ended up pouring friday and part of saturday but overall, rain is just water and it dries eventually

I landed on Wednesday night after an insane day and a half of traveling and flight connections. luckily all my luggage made it and we ended up landing 10 minutes early in venice..Thursday was spent getting registered on the army post, running errands and making sure that i had everything that i needed and getting food for the week. Part of my payment to Jen and Scott was that i had to make mexican food at some point, which happened. We went to dinner at a place called La Vecchia Fattoria that night. I had oricchette pasta with cherry tomatoes and broccoli. it was a great first meal and the food of Vicenza spoiled me, almost for the whole week! We also went to the fresh wine store and got three liters of wine from the tap. I had heard of this, but I'm still pretty sure it's magic. It was delicious wine and fairly cheap too. It was just over 5 euro for all the wine. Bring your own bottles, they fill and seal it for you, amazing.

Friday was spent resting and sleeping and then sleeping some more. My allergies had me incredibly congested and subsequently exhausted because of the inability to breath and sleep or just be comfortable in general. The different pollen was attacking my eyes and for 4 of the 7 days in Italy, i wanted to rip out my eyes. I fought through it though, no way i was going to miss out on such an amazing place. Friday night we went to dinner at a place a little further out of town. i don't remember the name, but I remember the food. I had the Bigoli pasta with duck ragu and had to take a moment while i had the first bite. It was heavenly. So good. Scott had penne with a pistachio sauce, and sliced chicken with mushrooms as his second course which was delicous and Jen had truffled fettuchini. All of us thoroughly enjoyed our food and I could have eaten that same meal the entire week and been happy. I am so grateful we didn't have a strict agenda and were able to move around plans so that i was able to get acclimated. The wine there was great too, I'll miss good house wines and the quality of the fresh wine available all over.

I never thought I would be so excited to not be in a plane for a week. Once I landed in Venice, this whole trip finally became real. All the work, the internet scouring for ticket prices, the stress and budgeting, everything was finally real and more than worth it. Seeing my friends was even better and knowing that they would get to show me the cool places they had found over the past couple years was ever exciting. After friday, I was almost back to normal, the swelling in my feet from the hours of traveling was about gone, the blisters were getting better and my allergies were calming down. I had scheduled a skype date with my family for Sunday afternoon (early morning back home) and was looking forward to the rest of my time in the Veneto area.

tuesdayyyyyy

well, tuesday morning was fun. I walked around SoHo a little more, and into the Bowery area. Got a new pair of Warby Parker sunglasses and a new pair of toms because my other shoes were eating my feet and giving me blisters everywhere.. from there, I went to eat at The Meatball Shop on Stanton. best decision of my day. After having their sandwich at Googa Mooga, I wanted to go and eat their stuff fresh. BEST. EVERRRRRR. 

The special of the day was a Chile Verde meatballs with salsa verde, the risotto was chives and scallions and everything looked and smelled delicious coming out of the kitchen. I sat at the bar, and the bartender was super nice and talkative. He gave me a copy of the Meatball Shop cookbook to browse through while I waited for my food and asked about where I was from and going and whatnot. I talked to the guy next to me a bit, who told me that he came in because he was craving their meatballs. To me, that says something. 

I ordered a slider of the chile verde goodness, the risotto and then a meatball sandwich with the spicy pork meatballs, tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. I said I was going to take it with me to the airport, but that ended up being a total lie because I didn't realize how hungry I was. Apparently that happens when you don't eat the whole day. 

Here's how it looked:

From there, I went and picked up my luggage that I had stored, and headed to the airport. It was a beautiful day and i was sad to leave the house that morning, and sad to leave the city, but Italy and my friends were waiting. 

Check in and everything went well, and the flight on AirBerlin was great. BUT, I barely slept. the people behind me kept getting up and using my chair as their push off point, waking me up every 20 minutes or so. I was real mad. real real real mad. the food was good, there were free movies, tv, games and magazines on the little tv screens and it would have been even better if i had gotten sleep on an overnight trip. 

The Berlin terminal, where i had my 6 hour layover however, was crap. I'm just mad that I even had to be there. The chairs were awful, there were no plugs to charge anything and the food choices were yuck. The terminal itself was small, smaller than Long Beach Airport, but luckily the majority of people were really nice. The ride to Barcelona was okay, a little turbulent, but not too bad. My luggage made it everywhere safely, and the Barcelona airport was really nice. The flight to Madrid from BCN was sure to be the death of me, it was crazy turbulent and it felt like the pilot was doing things crazy on purpose, but really just ended up being a lot like the up and down of the flight to Oakland from LA. Madrid to Venice was really nice, I got to sleep on the last three flights, which was really nice, and seeing Jen and  Scott and knowing that I wasn't going to be on a plane for 7 whole days. 

More on Italy over the next few days, so far, the food is beyond words and i love everything other than the rain and the amount of nature that is causing my allergies to go insane. Oh well, dont care, its freaking great.

No Sleep Til Brooklynnnnnn

yesterday was amazing. in all ways! 

Kristin got here around 1145 and we got ready, hung out at the house and got to meet the ther owner of the house. Jay and Maria are so amazing and nice and put so much work and love into their properties. We found out they live in each of their properties before they start renting them out and make sure that all the little nuances are there and that it feels like a home. They just bought another building about 5 blocks from the place i'm staying and they're going to spend the next year or so fixing it up and getting it ready to rent.. after they do that, they're most likely going to move back into the house that i'm staying in, since this was their first home after moving out of their apartment in Harlem. it has been so nice getting to know them, and it makes staying here even better. i will for sure be staying at their different properties whenever i come to the New York area and i will be sure to recommend them to anyone who wants to stay in the area. 

 (that's the view coming down the stairs of the house, no big deal)

we left the house and headed over to brooklyn and to googa mooga. it was drizzly and kinda windy, but we toughed it out. it was COMPLETELY WORTH IT. we got there, and got Crack Pie and a sweet and salty brownie from Baked to start off our day. from there, kristin went and got a cheeseburger from The Burger Joint and I got The Meatball Shop's Meatball BLT. absolutely fantastic. From there I went and got a half loaf of Gwynett St Whiskey bread with fresh cultured butter and their fresh strawberry rhubarb jam. i don't even like strawberry jam and i could have eaten a gallon of that stuff. Warm fresh baked bread with fresh butter and jam?! duh. perfect. after a while, i went and ordered a slice of pizza from South Brooklyn Pizza and the guy gave me an extra slice for free. yay! haha pizza was good, but i need more before i head out of the city. we milled around for a bit, kristin got a sweet and savory pizza with a chewy crust, ricotta, honey and salt and pepper. we ended up having a few beers and some wine, and then i got a chocolate filled syringe. WONDERFUL. just standing around, shooting chocolate into my mouth hanging out. hahaha it was awesome. The only thing that could have made googa mooga better was if things were sold in smaller portions. the sandwiches and stuff were full sized, and i think that put a limit on what you could eat. there were tons of things that i wanted to try, but my stomach and my pocket book are only so big. so yeah, next year, smaller portions of each thing, and i will buy them all. :) 

After we left GM around 730, Roy, my teammate and friend from college met up with us after a crazy long train ride, thanks to construction and weekend scheduling, and then a ridiculous cab ride where the cabby got pulled over for speeding and then a half a mile walk because he was fed up with transportation. Seeing him was one of the best things. I haven't seen him since 2006, but we've kept in touch via facebook and instagram. he's one of my most favorite people and when he walked up to meet us, i got the best 2 minute hug that i've ever received. Roy and Kristin got along great and we had a blast. Roy treated us for drinks at this corner bar that had the Knicks game on. First whiskey of the trip! haha after hanging out at the bar for a while, laughing at everything, we decided to head home. We left the bar and came upon a place called Dub Pie Shop and they had little savory hand pies and they were wonderful!! I got a New York Shepard's Pie. oh my god. so so so good!!! Roy lives in Jersey, we spent the majority of the trip home, and the crazy long subway waits together which was super fun. I love Brooklyn, and I can't wait to come back and see more of this part of New York. It's great, and artsy and reminds me a lot of Silver Lake. Prospect Park is gorgeous and woodsy, there were horses all over and so far, most people i've met have been great. 

We're heading to Hoboken soon for lunch and to take a picture or two of the Cake Boss bakery, and explore a little, even though it's raining. The rain is supposed to stop tonight, so hopefully i'll be able to adventure around the city tomorrow. I want to see a little of Central Park, hit of ?uestlove's new food stand in Chelsea Market, maybe check out a few more places on my list :) and eat more delicious food. I love being able to walk around and see such different parts of the same area. so much walking! i wish more things were this at home. 

Good news! Kristin brought some stain remover and yay! said tomato gravy splattering on my yellow scarf is gone!!! fannnntastic!