Third Times a Charm

So for my THIRD birthday party, the local girls and I planned to celebrate in style in Richmond, Va. But good ole random Virginia weather put a damper on those plans. The weatherman predicted that there would be snow and lots of it at that. Now, I'm not sure how exactly he pulls the weather forecast out of his magical ball but he's usually wrong. However it seems like this time his magic 8 ball was on pointe. Richmond was snowed in with a couple inches of snow so we decided to nix those plans and stay local. If any of you really know me, you know I really hate going out around here. Same 5 people at the same 5 bars. It was a soul crushing experience to move from london with thousands of bars and places to go to back here where there are only but so many options.

I decided that in true British fashion we should go to the Pub for my birthday. However since it was a mini snowstorm outside there weren't many people that braved the action to go to a bar. Thankfully I was out with girls who were from Pittsburg and were used to driving and dealing with the snow. I know how to drive in the snow, its just all the crazies out there that you have to worry about. So we ate at The Pub and had a few beers. The grub was GREAT - way different than the typical British food. Everyone knows when you go to London you don't actually eat the British food (except for Fish and Chips) because London is a mecca for great international food.

 

Jessica with her chocolate beer

 

Jessica, Myself, Emily, and Melissa

After the pub we decided to go to the girl's usual hangout in downtown Hampton, the Taphouse. Of if these walls could only talk...thank god they don't. There are plenty of skeletons in those closets. Crystal and Steve also joined in on the birthday festivities.

And no the scarves were not planned

Baby its Cold Outside

Baby its cold outside! Man, I'm going to have to start celebrating my half birthday in June instead of my regularly scheduled program in December. For my second birthday celebration I made the journey up to DC to celebrate with some of my amazing sisters. Big shout out to Hannah, Ashleigh, Bree, Megan, and Kelly for making my birthday great :)

So I headed up to DC friday night for a pj/movie night with the lovely Hannah and Ashleigh and I brought my FAVOURITE movie of all time (yes, the British spelling!). Its called Wild Child and it was only released to DVD in America but Hannah and I fell in love with it in the cinema in London. Now, watching movies in a cinema was kind of expensive in London, so obvi this was a big deal. Its all about an American girl who is shipped off to a British boarding school. Its quirky bristh humour coupled with a hot Brit, what else is there in life? I mean, how can you NOT love a movie where the characters dress up like this:

Then on Saturday after a lazy morning, we headed to the capital to see the Christmas tree. Once again, I wasn't blown away by this tree either, much like the tree in NYC. Oh well, it was still fun. Even more fun was trying to find a parking spot in DC...HAHAHAHAHA...I don't do parallel parking very well. In my defense its hard to see out of the back of my car, I can parallel park I swear!

Ashleigh and I in front of the tree

The other half of my heart

We then made it over to Megan's apartment in Crystal City to pregame and get ready to bring the party!

It might have been December but that wasn't going to prevent me from dressing scantily. DUH. Hello I am Queen of getting free drinks.

So thats about all the pictures I have from the night which is appropraite because thats about all I remember. Hey, you only celebrate 27 once!

These Streets Will Make You Feel Brand New

Man, lots to catch up on!

So to kick off my birthday celebrations (yes, with an S...3 scheduled birthday parties so far...) I made a trip to NJ/NYC to visit my friend Teresa. Teresa and I studied abroad together to our trip to Bristol and then again in London. She was actually my housemate the first time and then roommate the second time. Ahhh memories....cider, evil house mothers, sneaking in boys, the 24 hour grocery store, wine nights, McDonald runs....I could go on forever and forever.

After my flight is severly delayed (it hadn't left NY yet by the time we were supposed to take off) I arrived in Hoboken, NJ after somehow managing to catch all the correct trains to get to the city. Our first stop was Carlos Bake Shop. Have any of you see Cake Boss on TLC? Well, that's where this show is taped. Let me tell you, the cakes are AMAZINGLY done. We even got to see one of the characters, Mauro!

Mauro, or Buddy's right hand man

I was very overwhelmed at all of the cake/cupcake options but I had to choose just 1! Of course I had to also check out these famous canoli's as well.

The Bake Shop

Wedding cake in the shop's front window

Um, yes please...I'll take one of those

It was LOVE at first bite! (Insert Kylie Minogue's song right here)

One of the famous canolis

Teresa's santa clause cupcake. I annialated my cupcake before I thought to capture the beauty on film :(

It was soooo cold on Saturday that we ddin't end up doing what we planned for which was going to see the Statue of Liberty. I mean, it was too cold to snow. Instead, we opted to warm up our credit cards by shopping! Saturday night we went to this really good Mexican place and the portion size was GINORMOUS! Later we met up with my friend Maura who was also in my London programme.
Sunday we went to see a show called Rock of Ages, a hilarious love story based on the true 80s hariband music. We frolicked around the Times Square area. I really love all the lights, reminds me of Picadilly Circus in London. Sigh.

And then we made our way to the Christmas Tree in Bryant Park where we watched all the iceskaters fall and make fools of themselves. For some reason, I expected to be more in awe of the tree so I was a little dissapointed.

Teresa and I in front of the tree

It was just too cold to be out on that ice!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...

Holy shit man, its pink!

How very fitting to write a post about Christmas yule tide on Dcember 1st! Well these next few weeks are going to be very festive for me. I went to Christmas town at Busch Gardens last week with the girls, going to NYC this weekend with my roomate Teresa from London, DC the next weekend, and Richmond the next one! Hopefully I can hit up the Christmas decorations in each place. I've haven't really been excited about Christmas in a really long time. I was always dating someone and he seemed to never be home around Christmas/my birthday so this year I said screw it, I'm going to make my own Christmas Cheer!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas town at Busch Gardens. It really was a rip off that we paid $20 to get in at 3pm and $12 for parking...OUCH! And um, hello...the hours are ridic...you can't see christmas decorations at 3pm...its still light out!

The girls and I in front of Frosty.

Um, I really want that Christmas tree in my house!!!!

This is how I always envisioned my North Pole...with a disco ball on top!

Emily in front of the green tree.

Of course I fought teeth and nails to get the pink horse! There might have been a some scarred children after I pushed them out of the way...oops.

Probably THE best icecream...Mint soft serve icecream drizzled with hot chocolate and a waffle cone with holiday sprinkles. I die a little inside everytime I think about it.

It finally started to get dark outside so we could see the lights!!!

Can't wait to see what these next few weeks hold for me!!! Next stop, NYC!!!!

This Day in History v.2

So everyday on my way to work I dread my drive; its complete with idiots and stop lights that are only green long enough to tease you. Thank god it has shortened to a 15 minute drive instead of an hour drive! There once was a day when I LOVED going to work simply for the sights, sounds, and experiences I'd encounter on the way there. Not only where there at least 5 starbucks on my way to work - which was a 15 minute walk mind you - but just the hustle and bustle of the city was enough to envigorate me...even if I was hungover and hating life. Its amazing what some fresh air can do for you!

Therefore in this post, I thought I'd let you in on a few sights whilst on my way to work. These were only the ones I could scrounge through from facebook while steathily avoiding doing any work...

Still to this day don't know what this castle was used for but it was always fun pondering what it could be.

You mean you don't walk through a 16th century cemetary on the way to work??? It was errily scary at night but lots of people had lunch there during the day. Hey you, what are you looking at???

Who doesn't love random statues...and posing with them??? I guess this was an artist's interpretation of what exhausted traders looked like.

Courtyard in front of UBS at night. I loved seeing this lit up at night and it was easy since it got dark at 3:30 pm during the winters!

The colors changed about every 10 seconds.

My street when I lived in Southerland..aka the suburbs.

I could see the egg shaped buidling (the Gherkin) from my office window.

I loooooove the tube! And that is not sarcasm, I really do!

Every month or so there were events outside of my building at work (Broadgate circle). In the winter it was ice skating, spring: wine tasting, summer: live tennis matches playing at Wembly and free icecream!

My personal favorite spraypainted outside of my McDonalds...sure makes you think twice before eating a Big Mac with a supersized large fry...oh but with a Diet Coke please!

Ok, that is all...cheerio mate!