american 75

One thing I will miss about the city: daily post-work shopping. We are so spoiled to shop our way home on 5th avenue every day, which is exactly what we did on Thursday. Actually, we headed to Soho after work and spent a few hours sorting through the cheap stores for the great finds that don't look cheap.. which can be quite exhausting. After coming home and eating a giant bowl of Ramen, we put in a movie and were asleep by 10:30-it was fantastic.

Friday morning we headed to Diana's place in Long Island City for a much needed day of laying out by the water and cooking out on the rooftop.. it was a fabulous way to kick off the 4th of July weekend. Friday night, Kathryn and I headed to Candela, which is an outdoor Cuban Italian restaurant and Mohito bar that has wonderful Margherita pizza. We were pretty drained from our CRAZY sunburns and decided to call it a night pretty early.

We spent most of Saturday in our pajamas, but decided around 3 that we couldn't waste the beautiful sunshine by sitting inside. We braved the patio in our swimsuits for about an hour before deciding to head to Urban Outfitters and Pinkberry. As the 4th of July is my most favorite holiday, I felt the need to buy a dress for the occasion-and Kathryn bought a skirt. Saturday night Diana treated us to dinner at Abe & Arthurs, if you are visiting New York-this is somewhere you need to go! We saw Jamie O'Neal, which was cool, I used to LOVE that song "why does the color of my coffee match your eyes..." Next, we took Diana to one of our favorite places in the East Village, and spent the night soaking up our last Saturday in the city.

HAPPY FOUTH OF JULY! We headed to the Shake Shack around 4 for a very late lunch of some much needed greasy hamburgers and milkshakes. We looked quite festive in our red, white, and blue and shocked to find out that New Yorkers don't care too much about the holiday... which was a little depressing. Later tonight we headed to the Hudson to watch the fireworks that were shot off of 6 barges. While trying to decide our destination, a cab pulls up and ZACH BRAFF gets out (he's the main character on Scrubs). I mean he's literally just like 4 feet away from us and we are just staring at him and he's kind of looking at us and then I pulled a quick one and got a picture! The fireworks didn't compare to Fox Den, and I will admit that tonight I was really missing Knoxville.

welcomed visitors

Much like the rest of my stay here in NYC, this past week has been packed full of laughter, unforgettable moments, and good company. Matt arrived on Friday night and we stayed pretty low key, just walking around the East Village and showing him some of my favorite places to go. We started off Saturday by having lunch at Chocolate by the Bald Man. Matt has had to listen to me talk about this place for 4 weeks now, so I was happy that he got to experience it for himself! We then headed to Battery Park, Ground Zero, and Times Square. We figured we would stop in for a drink at ESPN Zone, but were surprised to find locked doors and a notice explaining that ESPN Zone has closed down. As Matt turned around, there was immediately a camera in his face and a reporter asking him questions trying to get a reaction on the matter. I took pictures and laughed. We spent the rest of the day walking through the city, shopping vendors, and enjoying each other's company. Saturday night, I put on my new dress and we went out to The Benjamin for an AMAZING dinner. A few weeks ago, Matt wasn't sure if he was going to be able to come-I AM SO GLAD HE DID! I was so happy that he could see where I live, where I go, where I eat, where I work, and meet all the girls. He left way too soon, but at least he got a taste of what my life has been like here for the past 4 weeks.

Whitney arrived on Sunday morning and we all went to brunch at the Grey Dog's Coffee. I immediately loved it when we walked in the door and they were blasting oldies, oldies are such a good mood. Now add some french toast to those oldies and life just doesn't get much better.

From Monday to Thursday there was some serious girl time going on. It's hard to NOT have girl time when you live with 5 girls, but add an old girlfriend into the mix and it's unstoppable. I would have to say that the best night was Tuesday night, when we headed to McFadden's. We got lucky and found 3 seats at the bar, which we didn't know would soon be right in the middle of all the action. I would go to this place every night just so that I could sing to Spice Girls, Justin Timberlake, LFO, and TLC with the rest of the girls in NYC. It was just one big singalong, until the lights dim and it becomes this Coyote Ugly style place except there are 3 guys up on the bar instead of girls. They proceed to do a choreographed performance and lip-sync to "I'm on a Boat." I realize that any way I try to explain this it's going to sound totally lame-but let me just tell you that it was anything BUT lame, and you should be jealous that you were not there.

NYC Playlist:
Cecelia
December, 1963
I'm on a Boat
Can't Be Tamed
repeat.