Living it up Latina Style

My dear, dear friend Angela came to visit last week and my goodness...what an amazing night!!!! She flew in on a Monday morning and then was flying out the next day, but while she was here she was attending the 15th anniversary party for Latina Magazine!!!! She had asked me a couple weeks prior, to be her plus one and I most certainly agreed.  A chance to see one of my best friends??? Are you kidding??  I was so excited to see Angela.  The last time I saw her was during the weekend of my race.  She graciously allowed me to spend the weekend at her apartment with she and her sister! Great weekend btw.

Anyways, the Latina Party started while meeting Angela at The Standard and then hoping in a cab uptown to the event.  The guest of honor that night was Pitbull.  I don't think I have ever met a bigger fan of Pitbull than Angela.  The girl lovessssss her some Spanish Rap Radio.    Well....WOW!!! What a performance? Pitbull performed and was AMAZING!!! Each song was filled with so much energy and passion that you could do nothing but fully get into it, even if you didn't know the song.  I love concerts like that.  We also had the luxury of standing front row during the performance as well.

Angela,Wow! What a concert. Thank you again for inviting me to be your plus one.  I couldn't have asked for a better night; followed by INCREDIBLE conversation!!!! A night I will never forget!!!!!! Thank you again!

A friend-date with Pho

So Kelly and I have this lovely tradition (which sometimes fails to occur on the regular) that we take Sunday night to ourselves and eat dinner together.  Sunday dinner.  A couple times we have cooked in the apartment and other nights we chose to go out for dinner.  Tonight was one of those, "let's go out" kind of evenings.  

In my first couple months of arriving in New York, Kelly introduced me to vietnamese food.  Particularly to Pho, a brothy soup with rice noodles and green onions usually served with beef, however vegetables, tofu, seafood, or chicken could also be the main protein.  As previously mentioned in "The Weekend Update" I am starting to fight a little head cold and the beef broth and rice noodles totally hit the spot.  

The best part of the evening was the ability to have a "family" dinner with Kelly.  We talked about anything and everything.  She truly is one of the most amazing friends that I have.  Dinner tonight wasn't about the pho...it was about friendship.  

Happy Sunday,

Blair

The Weekend Update

Well Fall is FINALLY here!  I'm so excited to get outside and venture into the city on this beautiful, sunny, crisp day.  The weather says that it's supposed to rain later today, but hopefully that holds off.  

Yesterday morning I started to welcome in a nice head cold. Choosing my fate for the weekend. A good two days of rest and full of liquids.  

Today Purdue plays Notre Dame and I couldn't be more excited to watch the game.  I think my rest though is going to be interrupted with game-day festivities.  My friend Leigh and I are going to head uptown to our friend's apartment and watch the University of Illinois game and then continue on to the Purdue game.  I couldn't be more excited.  It's the best that I can do to relive college on a homecoming (at Purdue) weekend!!!

Tomorrow is church and bible study.  We are currently studying the book of Colossians.  This study will continue on until Christmas when the Advent Season begins.  It's been extremely interesting to see how God is continuing to work through my life with this study.  

New York has been quite the experience thus far.  I recently celebrated my one-year anniversary in the city and my one-year anniversary with work, as well.  First off, it's crazy to think that I've been here a year and am still going strong.  I mean I have been able to continue to feed myself and not end up on the street...JOKE! 

Anyways, with all joking aside this year has been one of the hardest years of my life, but I guess that's what makes it so exhilarating.  I'm doing well and figuring things out.  Work is going well.  It too is hard to figure out what's next, but I'm realizing how strong I am and how much I could give up and come home, but I wouldn't be happy and that's not how I was raised.  I realize that this is part of life and this is only going to make me a stronger person.  With that being said, I'm off to get ready for game day!!! BOILER UP BABY!!!!!!!!!

xoxo

Blair

F.N.O

A couple years ago the fashion industry started an event called Fashion's Night Out in an effort to get people to spend money.  This was the September following the stock market crash in 2008.  The night turned out to be a HUGE success and the industry decided to continue this tradition in the years to come.  This past year it took place on a Thursday night.  I attended the event with my best friend Leigh.  We headed to the Meatpacking district to a couple of shops.  Popped into Theory, Rebecca Taylor, and Calypso. Each one had amazing merchandise...all of which I did not have the luxury in purchasing.  Nonetheless it was still an exciting night to be out and about.

The Hawaiian Housewarming Party

I mentioned before that on Friday night we went to Brooklyn for a housewarming party for our good friends Nicola and Zach.  They both previously lived in the apartment that I am currently living in.  I am actually fulfilling out their portion of the lease and they have since moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn! 

They decided to have a Hawaiian themed Housewarming Party to welcome everyone to their new residence.  It was so cute.  Zach had cut grass skirts for the cabinetry and they served BBQ chicken sliders made from Pita Rounds and served everything with a Mint-Gin Pineapple cocktail!  How delicious!!!! In addition to the grass skirts, they also had other luau decorations throughout the apartment.  There were hula girls on the wall in the living room and had Netflix streaming old beach movies from the 60s.  There was also beachy-surfer music playing the whole time!  So cute and festive.  What a great way to say goodbye to summer, Hello to Brooklyn, and welcome in Fall!  

xoxo

Blair

The Weekend Update

The Birthday Girl!!!!

Our Labor Day Brunch!

Trying to get back into it, here is the current Weekend Update for the Holiday Weekend.

So Friday night was spent in Brooklyn with old friends from the past. Our good friends Nicola and Zach just moved to Williamsburg in Brooklyn and were having a Hawaiian themed Housewarming Party.  

Saturday, I woke up and went for a run through Little Italy and Soho.  It was sunny and a little bit windy outside and after the run, had a great talk with my mom while perusing in and out of little stores.  Ann Taylor LOFT has some great finds right now...too bad the funds aren't there.   In the afternoon Kelly and I went to the 2nd birthday party for her goddaughter Zoë!  She is getting so big!

Sunday I finally got back into the gym and then went to church later in the day.  Post the activities of the day I went and saw The Help.  Soooo good.  I HIGHLY recommend this movie to any woman in the world.  

I awoke today, after sleeping in, to Kelly whipping up a big batch of omelets served on rye...soo good.  I made coffee for everyone and then our friend Lauren came over with a nice big, chilled, bottle of champagne!  We sat in Kelly's room and had a little brunch picnic!!!! A couple other friends came over later in the day!!! So great to see everybody!!!  Later today I think I'm going to hit the gym and see what's going on at the Bloomie's Labor Day Sales!!!  

Ok, well that's all for now...

xoxo

Hurricane Irene

This past weekend was spent completely inside the tiny apartment with my roommate Kelly and the guy she's dating.  The three of us quickly prepared for Hurricane Irene to come and make her appearance in NYC.  

Friday night i went out and bough flashlights and extra toilet paper and freezer bags and prepare the apartment to be blown away by a hurricane!  I filled 18 freezer bags with water and then placed them in the freezer so that if our power went out we would have water to drink and a way to keep our food cold.  

Throughout the storm we decided to cook as if it was our last meal.  Saturday morning we got up and whipped up eggs and toast with mimosas and Irish Coffee.  

The rest of the day was just waiting for Irene's arrival.  We decided to get out of the apartment and go to a local bar, near our apartment, and get a couple of drinks to pass the time.  So fun!!! 

Overall Hurricane Irene was a lot of money for the preparations and a little disappointing in her end result.  She hardly came to NY.  All we really got was a lot of rain and some light wind.  Not that big of a deal.  This event just proved my love for NY even more.  At one point Mayor Bloomberg stated, "I mean we're New Yorkers...we can get through anything"

And it's so true! 

Thank you for all of the prayers and blessings from back home!

For now...

blair