Staycation Day 3: Connecticut

This is Henry. He is our windshield wiper fluid we for some reason keep in the car. He rolls around a lot so we have to make sure to buckle him in. 

For breakfast we went to The Granola Bar of Westport. It was v trendy. When we ordered hot chocolates (once again, eating the same food on accident) she asked us if we wanted "the works". We said yes and I'll tell ya, I'm happy with "the works"!

I got avocado toast again because I'm basic. It was v good.

Ok so this is random but I live by the Pez factory? Like, the actual factory that makes Pez. After passing a few sings for it, we decided to drop in. It was actually really fun! They had this photo booth that made me lol. They also had a bingo where you found certain Pez dispensers. If you got a bingo you won a free dispenser! Then they had Pez samples on the way out. So we ended up with a dispenser and 4 packs each. Not bad!

We became Pez. These pics crack me up.

Ok so this bridge is like, right next to my house. Over the summer, I would complain to my mom often about how it was hard to work from home. She always suggested I go on a walk, and I would tell her there wasn't anywhere to walk near my apartment. She always thought I was being dramatic lol. So, after the Pez factory I took her on my "walk". We had to cross this bridge which is really old. Like it's actual wood slices with space between. I mean, an adult couldn't misstep and fall through, but a child probably could. 

So anyway, we start walking on this bridge. First, my mom thought she heard a puppy in the side of it, so we went back to see if she could see anything. Spoiler alert: There was no puppy. Second, about halfway through my mom starts FREAKING out. Like she suddenly realized that the bridge had so many spaces, and at times was just a piece of chainlink metal. So she takes off, being like, "I need to get off this bridge!" and I'm just back there like ??? Needless to say, we did not take the bridge back.

After almost dying, I took her to get ice cream to raise spirits. I think I have talked about this ice cream before. It's called Milkcraft and IT'S SO GOOD. Like there aren't many places I would recommend pit stopping for in Connecticut, but this is one of them! This time I got the fruity pebbles and I am in love. 

My mom got the s'mores. She literally still talks about it. Talked about it on the phone to me yesterday, in fact!

I talk a lot about Primark and you guys are like, "WHY DO WE CARE." So it's hard to relate, for sure. I took my mom there to test if it's really as great as I think it is. Conclusion: IT IS. We got four bags (between the two of us) and only spent maybe $300-$350 (once again, between the two of us). I will miss it so much when we move to the west coast.

If you're wondering: Primark is like a Forever 21 but with way cuter things and better quality (I think). They have really cute stuff, including like home goods, stationary, etc. If you are interested, just YouTube "Primark haul". Also, you can not shop online. Their website doesn't even show everything they have, just the new arrivals. So yeah, it's amazing.

We ate at House of Bones, which is totally delish. I am obsessed with their pulled pork sandwiches. 

I feel like we ate somewhere for dinner with J? But I don't have any more pictures from this day so maybe we didn't. Huh. 

Oh yeah! So after this we got pedicures. This was also the day I got my phone to work! 

Anyway, it was v chill!

XOXO

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E

Stay-Cation Day 2: New York City

On Monday we headed into the city. In all my days taking the train, it has NEVER been late. Of course, this time, it was an actual 30 MINUTES late! Grrrr. At least it wasn't too chilly.

My mom had never been to Grand Central before! We took this selfie and decided both of our faces look so weirdly shaped lol.

Ok, so then we went to Jacob's Pickles. I was pretty sure I remembered where it was, but put it into Google Maps anyway. It took us to this restaurant below. My mom was like, "Em... this really doesn't look right?" And I was all, "You've been here once! How would you know!" Well, turns out it WAS a different place lol. The old Jacob's Pickles had a fire, so they were serving their menu at Maison Pickles. 

I got the French toast (did you expect anything else from me?) and it was good, but also slightly tasted like disinfectant? Idk. Also they didn't have their rootbeers, so I was sad. J and I have already decided that on our last day on the east coast we are going to go to New York and eating at Jacob's Pickles lol.

I still think New York is the prettiest place! I hear Toronto is like a mini NYC? Can anyone confirm? If so I need to add it to my list ASAP.

My mom tried to get a Trader Joe's bag that said "Connecticut" on it. They told her they didn't have any and laughed at how Boston and New York have bags, but Connecticut doesn't. That led her to wanting a bag from Trader Joe's in New York. So, we stopped by and the LINE WAS SO LONG!! They had 30 cashiers, so it went really fast (like less than 5 minutes, I timed it). 

She loves when I take pictures of her. Obviously.

My mom and grandma are obsessed with Levain haha. So naturally we had to go get a cookie! The line wasn't too bad, which was amazing. Guys, I think I may like the chocolate peanut butter better than the walnut chocolate chip? I know, I know, ultimate betrayal. But TRY IT next time.

Our next stop was Flying Tiger on the Upper East Side (still in my top 3 favorite stores) so we walked through Central Park to get there.

This was one of my favorite places to come when we lived in the city.

Looking at this picture reminds me to tell you guys, I'M CUTTING MY BANGS BACK. I just feel like I am my truest self when I have bangs. I'm just waiting until summer because straight across bangs + humidity + heat = not cute.

How cute is this business man playing with his dog?!

I switched these photos but whatever. So on the right is where our studio was when we lived in New York. I look back on that time and am like, ?!?!?! It seems so strange that we actually did that. Like we literally saved up thousands and thousands of dollars over the course of a year and moved to New York?? Idk. I wouldn't move there long term, but would be open to going back for a few months if J got an internship or something. I am really proud of us for living there, even if it was a short amount of time. It took a lot to get there and I would have always wondered what it would be like if I didn't do it.

Ok, on the left! We mistakenly went to Washington Square Park on graduation lol. But hey, still got my pic.

OK SO THIS IS THE ACTUAL BEST SALAD. Go to By Chloe and get the quinoa taco salad. I SWEAR TO YOU YOU WILL THANK ME LATER. I am craving one now... might have to snag one tomorrow for lunch! (Ok and yes it's vegan, but just stop judging and try it. I didn't eating the brown "meat like" part because it was too spicy. So if you are nervous about vegan food just don't eat that part, because the rest is a normal salad.)

We went to the bakery next door afterward and got black and white cookies. They are good. I would still rate Pick A Bagel as #1 in the city, but they aren't downtown.

Then we headed home! My mom was like, such a non-conformer to train culture. I told her no one talks, and she was like, "I'm going to talk if I want to!" So, I just didn't respond lolololol. Say what you will but I do not want 10+ business men hearing my conversation!

I love living close to New York and being able to pop in the for the day, without having to stay the night, etc. Definitely something I will miss after our next move!

XOXO

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E

A Happy List: 160

School is really busy. Like, really busy! It's an accelerated program and I am also taking all the summer classes required in the first half of summer. So I have been v absent on here! I have also decided to make this more of a diary like I had it before. So I often write posts and set the date, but just keep them in my drafts folder because I don't want them to be public. One day when I print out my blog I'll set it to private and publish all the posts! (Now that I say that out loud, I suppose I could print out all my posts from high school and then delete them? Idk. I like when people have archives on their blog that go back soooo far haha. It's fun to see what they were like years ago.)

On to the happy list!

1/ As if I don't have enough searches set up on Pet Finder... look at this Corgi Golden Retriever mix! IN LOVE!

2/ I was reading this article about nipples being the perfect nude lipstick color shade while watching T.V. with J. Naturally, I pulled my shirt down and started looking at my nipple's color. J turned around and was like, "What are you doing?!?!" It was perfect hahaha.

3/ So far this semester I have stayed on top of my reading! (Assuming I finish the rest for tomorrow on the train... lol.)

4/ Strawberry lemonade vitaminWater. SO. GOOD. 

5/ Eating a Reese's Cookie Crunch right now and O.M.G.

6/ Seeing Amelie on Broadway! I didn't realize it was only temporary, so I am so glad we fit it in while my mom was here! Next on our list is 1984.

7/ Finding (and booking!!!!) tickets to Ireland for $200. SO EXCITED.

8/ Deciding on our Halloween costumes for this year. I am doing a series over the next few years, and this year's was hard to think of, but I got it! I always have good costume ideas, but when it comes to doing them never follow through lol. 

9/ J's hair is *almost* all able to fit in a man bun without any bobby pins!

10/ Discovering a list of the 20 best sci-fi movies of the 21st century. If you need me I'll be watching all of them for the next week. (Not really cuz school, but you get the point.) 

XOXO

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E

P.S. Here's a lil' playlist for your week!

When My Life Was Actual Gilmore Girls

Most of my days spent in Connecticut are just days spent in Connecticut. Today, though, my day in Connecticut was actually 100% straight from an episode of Gilmore Girls, I SWEAR TO YOU.

So a friend at our church invited us to come this "traditional New England parade". A drum group played drums and then we all followed them and marched to a cemetery where they read off a list of names of veterans who had been buried there. It was really cool and interactive! 

It was a really fun and respectful thing to on Memorial Day. History is a really big thing over here! It's the only part about Gilmore Girls that I think is accurate haha. I kept thinking of all the town celebrations they have in Gilmore Girls. The town we live in doesn't ever have any, so it was neat to go somewhere that did. If you want a very traditional New England/Connecticut/Gilmore Girls experience, go to Stony Creek!

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day!

XOXO

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E

Stay-Cation Day 1: Connecticut

So I had a one week break from school... two weeks ago?? I am back in it now and it's SUPER busy, so I never have time to post here lol. So, these pictures are maybe like 3 weeks old. It's ok though, because I'm doing really good at school and that matters more to me than blogging haha.

So! My mom flew in to visit during this break and we did alllllllll the things. She got in on a Saturday and the next day was Mother's Day. We were originally going to go into New York, but it looked rainy so we decided to stay in Connecticut and instead go to New Haven/Yale.

I gave her her Mother's Day present before we left. She likes these sweatshirts that have colleges her kids go to/like on them haha. So I got on to match. I am kinda bummed because I got her a size too small and when we went to exchange it they didn't have any more! (Probably because it was the best one there, no doubt.) So now it's on of those things you have to remember not to dry, which is an actual challenge! Before I graduate I am going to load up on NYU ish, so I'll have to grab another. 

We started with breakfast at Atticus. It's such a cute place. My mom got this hot chocolate and of course "couldn't drink it all" and "needed help" lol. It was really good! I love when they do latte art.

My mom and I always laugh at eating the same food. Like I will order something and she'll be like, "I'll have the same thing, actually." Or she'll order and I'll be like, "Oh, can I have that too?" So, naturally we both got the avocado toast. It was really good! They put honey and cream cheese and now that I am writing this I think I know what I am eating today for breakfast! (Blogging at 7:30 in the a.m. because it's Sunday and I never sleep in lol.)

J got a breakfast sandwich which I want to try next time! Anything on a croissant, ya know?

Then we hopped over the street to the Yale Art Museum! It's such a neat-o place and FREE! Go go go if you are in the area. They have originals from famous artists like Picasso and Rothko. 

The only pictures we have of us together are when people come to visit hahahaha. This is the stairwell you can take after the first floor. It's so haunting and pretty.

Basquiat in the flesh!! He is my favorite artist! I remember when I first discovered him I was being a weirdo introvert at a party and flipping through a book about Sheperd Fairey. They had a picture of Basquiat's painting "Riding With Death" and it was so intricate and crazy I just stared at it for like 5 minutes. That was the moment I fell in love!

He recently broke a world record for having a painting sell for a record $10.5 million at auction. Way to go little bb! 

Why does J's new phone take such good photos? We will never know.

Slidin' into first... and installation art piece ;)

Like I swear his phone does something to the color and contrast that is just A+? Also this is Yale. Go there. It's very pretty. 

Here's a photo from my phone? Considerable less good?

After the museum we went to the beach! Tried to take a cute picture while it was windy and got this.

My mom was like, obsessing over how many seashells there were. The beach actually opens up to the Long Island Sound, so maybe that's what it is? But do you see all that stuff in the bottom right corner? That's all seashells.

As much as I love the mountains, it's so nice to live by water! In Utah, my favorite mountain places were the lakes. I hope we can always have some sort of body of water near where we live. It's so calming!

Cute right.

My camera always takes three photos when I put it on self-item and I always run out of things to do hahahaha.

Ok so my mom is actually a product model?? Like this shirt company could use this for sure on their page?

OK. So we went to Frank Pepe's Pizzeria. J and I have been there before and had the cheese pizza and it is GOOD. When we were looking it up online, everyone said to get the clam pizza. We were like, "DO WE DO IT OR NOT?!?!" So finally we decided to just do it, since it was supposedly the top 10 pizza in America. 

Well, sadly, we are not clam people. And this clam pizza was not for us. Also, they were super busy so we decided not to stay longer to order another pizza. I'm sad my mom's only experience with them is the clam pizza, because the cheese was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Ah well. 

We got Frappuchino's to hold ourselves over and went to the Apple store to see if they could fix my phone. Long story short: Earlier, it had stopped charging. We took it in (Sunday) and they couldn't get it to charge. They encouraged me to get a new phone, but I am really stubborn. I still own my phone outright because they were still doing the $200 2 year contract thing when I got it. I REALLY don't want to do the payment plan, because I think it's the dumbest thing in the world and ends up costing A LOT more than if you can just buy it for $200 in the beginning. PLUS if you don't have insurance on it, you have to pay like so much if you break it. So, basically phone payment plans = not for me.

So, I let it be dead for a few days. We took it in again on Wednesday hoping they could replace the battery. The guy put it on a charger and it started to charge? I was like, "We are not crazy!! It really wasn't charging a few days ago!" Another employee took it to the back and came back to say, "It charged sometimes and sometimes it didn't. I can't replace the battery since I can't tell if that's what it is."

So I took it home and experimented. I figured out that if I turned it off, plugged it in, and then turned it on it would read the charge. I did that for two days and then it started working just as normal! To think they wanted me to pay $300 for a new phone. Pshhhhh.

Anyway, back to Sunday. We had dinner at this place called Prime 16 (which you may remember from this post). They accidentally brought my mom the wrong burger and were so so nice about it when she told them! I love that.

I wanted to try the veggie burger this time and YOU GUYS. Best. Veggie. Burger. I've. Ever. Had. At. A. Restaurant. The patty is quinoa, which I prefer x 1,000 to black bean. Also it had chips on it which is something I used to do all the time on my burgers as a wee babe.

J's burg! He likes everything he eats, I swear. The other day, he made some cinnamon rolls and then left them out without Saran Wrap for 3 days. On the third day, my mom was sitting on the couch and he plopped down next to her, eating a 3 day old cinnamon roll that had been sitting out without any Saran Wrap, and was like, "Whatcha watching??" She lol-ed so hard haha. I am v thankful to have a husband who will eat literally anything.

All in all, it was a good day! I feel like living in Connecticut is so random sometimes, so it was fun to show someone around our lil' place!

XOXO

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E