Same Girl, New Borough

Hello from the other side...of an unintentional hiatus. Were you wondering if I slipped into a brunch-coma, or whether Phil pushed me into the Central Park lake, perhaps?  The short answer to where I've been for the past two months is titled "moving in New York," and let me tell you, packing up, finding an apartment, and actually moving is quite the hellish experience in this city. Apartments flying on and off the market at lightening speed is the norm, and to say it's anxiety inducing is putting it lightly. Somehow, I made it through, and I'm finally settled in a charming apartment, along with my lovely new roomie and fellow Birchboxer Fan Chen. 

If you didn't already pick up on it from the title of this post, I not only swapped apartments recently, but also boroughs. I moved from Astoria, Queens to East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's a big change, but to quote my sixth grade teacher, "variety is the spice of life."

Ok so real talk, I am obsessed with this new apartment. Fan is low key a saint and let me take the driver's seat when it came to decorating our shared space. Obviously, I was in heaven since this is the first time ever I've been able to furnish more than just the bedroom of an apartment. I've spent the last few weeks trying to make our space as beautiful as possible, and I can honestly say I already feel so at home here. 

So in a grand return to Whale & Wishbone after a longer than planned break, I'd like to share a few of my favorite photos of our home from the past four weeks. 

We begin with my dream couch -- the "be still my heart" one from West Elm I picked out before we even found our apartment. I snapped this when there was barely any other living room furniture. Oh, how that tufting makes me so happy. 

This rug is a cherished gift from my Aunt. It used to reside in her living room, and this past Thanksgiving she asked if I could use it in my apartment. I died, obviously. The colors are absolutely beautiful, and I'm still in awe of how perfect it looks with Lola.  

I filled the second shelf of our three tiered coffee table with some restaurant memorabilia, I've collected over the years. Matches, post cards, and business cards of some favorite new york city places always make me smile, and are a fun conversation starter when guests visit. 

Don't Rock the Boat, Baby

Three day weekends give me life, and last Monday was Columbus Day. 

No work + beautiful weather + a visit from my favorite = one amazing day off. 

Phil is one of my closest friends, and last weekend he was visiting the city before heading to Navy supply school in Rhode Island. We had a whole day together, and it started how any good day off should: brunch. 

Later, as we walked by Central Park, Phil commented that he had never seen the iconic Bethesda Fountain, despite having lived in New York City his entire life. This sparked a spontaneous Central Park adventure. 

Renting a row boat on the Central Park lake was never the plan (evidenced by our forced trip to a fancy upper east side bank -- #cashonly), but spontaneity is the spice of life. Plus, boating on the lake has always been a dream of mine and I live my life in pursuit of the insta, so it was really a win on both counts. 

Also, look at those cute little turtles. 

Real talk, rowing is not as easy as Noah Calhoun would have you believe. I made fun of Phil's skills for 10 minutes before taking the oars myself and becoming the most uncoordinated person alive. To be fair though, Noah didn't have to navigate around 100 other boats... just some ducks. 

If you can't tell, we stopped for pics about as much as we rowed. I serendipitously dressed in nautical stripes, wearing one of my new favorite shirts from the Madewell x Sézane collection. 

Side Note: That whole collab is so beautiful and french and I'm in love.

Summer Days Drifting Away

While summer is literally a distant memory at this point, Stephen and I aren't ones to break our promises.  Today, we're bringing you the final installment of our summer series, and sharing a day where we accomplished a whooping 3 bucket list items!  Why are we just posting this now, when this day happened in August? The truth is, Stephen and I are wildly uncoordinated -- *cough*, Stephen *cough cough*. So, Summer in October will have to do. 

Our first stop of the day was the Met rooftop to take in the skyline and see the Cornelia Parker exhibit. Truthfully, it took us two visits to the Met to accomplish this bucket list item. A week earlier, the rooftop was closed because of the heat, to which Stephen suggested the Met should just use a "go to the roof at your own risk" sign. Failing to convince the security guard with this compelling argument, we settled for lunch in the cafe. Fast forward to the next weekend and we asked about the rooftop exhibit before buying tickets. #foolmeonce

The view alone makes the rooftop worth a visit. I loved pointing out landmarks to Stephen, who, despite living just outside the city for his entire life, didn't know we were looking out at the west side of Manhattan. 

Totally jazzed about the accidental color coordination that occurred on this day. 

Cornelia Parker's incredible sculpture is both a fun and sinister addition to the Manhattan skyline. It's just under 30 feet tall and was modeled after the iconic Psycho mansion. 

My Friends: Stephen and Nathan

It may be the first day of Fall, but thanks to Stephen perpetually pushing back these posts, we'll still be talking Summer on Whale & Wishbone at least three more times in the near future. 

Next up, Coney Island, and honestly, it's not a true New York City summer until you go. Stomachs full from our Smorgasburg adventure, Stephen and I were ready to do some serious roller coaster riding -- in hindsight it seems so dumb to go from eating our weight at a food fair to riding upside down at an amusement park, but we were blinded by excitement and delirious form the heat.

This day was a dream for my inner photographer: unbelievably bright with clouds that looked photoshopped. Coney Island feels a little like stepping back in time to old New York. Icons like Nathan's and the Wonder Wheel all feel like they've been there forever. 

I mean look at these clouds. LOOK AT THEM. 

Coney Art Walls are currently on display outside Luna Park. It's an outdoor museum for street art, featuring immense art walls from 24 different artists. Stephen and I had a blast admiring and taking pics.  Above is a wall by Stephen Powers, and below is by The London Police.

Boldly Going On 50 Years

Today marks 50 years since Star Trek first aired on television in 1966. It's been my favorite show for 12 years. 

I remember watching it for the first time with my dad, and although I can't tell you the specific episode we watched, I can tell you that I was completely hooked. I was in middle school at the time, and now watching Star Trek every time it came on. To this day, I love talking about the show with my dad, who remembers watching reruns in college. The fact that, at 11, a show had me as captivated as my dad had been at age 20 speaks volumes about Star Trek's ability to transcend time. 

Though you won't find me dressed as Spock at a convention, I can rattle off an intense list of reasons why I love the original series of Star Trek. It's engaging, thought provoking, relatable, funny, and smart. The show features a racially diverse crew comprised of both men and women, as well as the first ever televised interracial kiss. And although, it never fully escaped the lens of the 60s, it was still wildly ahead of it's time, firmly rooted in complex characters and compelling stories. 50 years later, those stories hold up, even if the original special effects don't. 

There's always been a connotation that comes with loving Star Trek, but in 2016 nerd culture is mainstream.  The world, and New York City especially, have gone all out to mark this iconic anniversary of the beloved franchise. A new blockbuster film, a 3 day convention, a cosmetic collaboration, and an Intrepid exhibit were all on the summer agenda in New York, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't living for it. I participated in all of the above (minus the convention) and I thought I'd share a few snaps from my visit to the Intrepid Starfleet Academy Experience in honor of today's anniversary.  

Believe it or not, I convinced my Star Trek loving Birchbox boss, Allison, to bring our whole team to this exhibit as a bonding experience. We trekked (get it?) to the museum on a Wednesday afternoon with the rest of our small CRM marketing team for what I anticipated would be the best work day ever. -- It was. 

Eat Your Heart Out

Neither Stephen or I had ever been to Brooklyn's famed collection of trendy and delicious food stalls, and this total lack of knowledge led us to kick off this bucket list day with a mistake. We first travelled to the Williamsburg Smorgasburg location because we're idiots.... well I am, but Stephen is for listening to me. Anyway, in case you don't know Smorgasburg has two locations. On Saturdays, the food fair can be found in Williamsburg, and on Sundays, it's in Prospect Park. For my non-New-York readers, those places, while both in Brooklyn, are roughly an hour from each other on public transport. Well, you live and learn, I guess... we laughed and got over it (eventually).

Here's Stephen when we for real made it to Prospect Park. The sheer number of stalls is immense, so we first took a literal lap to scope it out and make a game plan.

Cheesecake pops, ramen burgers, french fries, ice cream, lobster rolls, coffee... it's all so overwhelming, especially in the sweltering heat. As we were contemplating what to try, we discussed what it would be like to open a food stall together. I assumed Stephen would suggest making and selling something cute like ice cream sandwiches, but that was not the case. Stephen suggested we sell gourmet butter. I guess Stephen wants to open a stall at Smorgasburg in Colonial America, and seemed unperturbed when I mentioned no one eats raw butter.    

Looking back at this picture, I realized that those little holes are for our arms. I did not pick up on that at the time. 

This is Stephen attempting to find shade anywhere possible. I want to say it was upwards of 90 degrees, but maybe I'm exaggerating. 

Stephen made fun of me for getting this salad wrap, but jokes on him because it was delicious. 

I also stole a few of his fries. Clearly the heat was making us delusional. 

Satur(daze)

The notes app of my phone is full of 1000 lists. Places to go, things to do, stuff to buy... when Apple added the check box feature, I got ridiculously excited. Last weekend, I had a free Saturday for what felt like the first time in forever, and while normally I like to jam pack my weekends with activities, sometimes you just need a day to recoup. To plan for this day, I made a to-do list of course!

I understand that for some,  "a day off to-do list" seems like an oxymoron, but I find that without planning, a day off quickly amounts to zero productivity and leaves me feeling more anxious than well rested.  For me, planning creates a more perfect day, one where I can relax while focusing my energy on things I love and projects I wish I had more time for. 

Below is my last Saturday to-do list:

1. Drink Iced Coffee

I live above a coffee shop in Astoria and I also have an espresso maker in my bedroom. Lacking the foresight to make and refrigerate coffee the night before, I relied on the former for my Saturday caffeine fix. 

2. Eat Breakfast in Bed

I sipped my coffee while making an omelet and then climbed right back into bed for a little breakfast with Netflix. 

3. Blog

Working on Whale & Wishbone is something that doesn't happen nearly as often I would like. I sometimes think people believe blogging is easy: take some photos, write some words, done. Honestly, though, it's an incredibly time intensive process. It takes me hours to put together a single blog post, from planning, shooting and photo editing to writing and revising. Often weekdays leave me too exhausted, so I loved being able to dedicate a few hours to it on weekends.  

P.S. I'm always in awe of bloggers who make it look easy: Courtney, Sarah and Tiffany, and Izy are a few of my favorites.  

Shakin' up the Summer

Recently, Stephen, Alex and I went on a quest to try the famous Black Tap milkshakes -- You know, the ones that look crazy and giant and impossible to finish. 

When you stand in line over an hour for a milkshake, you might find yourself in a "look at your life, look at your choices" type situation. In my mind though, we were really waiting for a crazy insta opportunity plus a milkshake, so... worth it right?  

After waiting about an hour and a half to get inside, we found ourselves in a basement of half empty tables. This had us seriously wondering whether they purposely keep a line outside just maintain the hype. #sneaky #everythingisalie

After eating a standard burger joint dinner, we were ready for the main event. That brings me to...

5 things to know about Black Tap milkshakes:

1. There are four flavors: sweet n' salty (above), the cookie, cotton candy and sour power

Do yourself a favor and get the sweet n' salty or the cookie. They're both crazy good. I haven't tried all four flavors, but honestly something about a cotton candy milkshake makes me hesitant. Plus ugh sour. I mean you do you, but if you order anything else you're wrong. 

Below is Stephen and I taking in the glory that is the sweet n' salty milkshake.