blog

a happy birthday to a special lady:






















MY MOM!!!

 I won't tell you how old she is, but I do know she's older than 26. This is a picture of her on her birthday in 2010, celebrating New York-New Jersey style (that's why she looks so excited)! I wish we could do it again, but there's always next year. Happy birthday, Mom!

feeling sheepish































I'm feeling a little sheepish around these parts these days. I only posted on this blog 3 times during the month of September, and if the truth comes out, I barely posted anything all summer, really. Now it's been so long I hardly even know what to write about anymore. I have so many pictures and stories from the summer that I still want to share, not to mention the 500 new things that come to mind each day to post, but it's hard to jump back in again after taking an unplanned summer-long hiatus. (Where do I start? Does anyone even read this anymore?) But with the new season and a new month to ring in, I'm turning over a new leaf and feeling good about that. But no need to hold your breath; I'll be keeping my word on more blog posts coming soon, & I'm glad to have you here!

[photo from pinterest]

hello, october

It's October again. And New York City sure is beautiful this time of year. Somehow I seem to forget that every year, but I've quickly remembered.  Oh my, it's wonderful. Fall is here at last!































[photo taken at the Bodega on 73rd and Columbus.]

scenes from the weekend

This past weekend was meant to be a restful and relaxing weekend. And for the most part, it was. Even though I didn't get to sleep in either day, it was nice not to be on the go for Saturday-Sunday.





























L to R clockwise: [1] eyelet & goodbye summer. fall days are here. [2] I saw this sign on the street and was so, so very tempted to pick one up. [3] We had tornado warnings in NYC on Saturday night. This seemed appropriate for a rainy night in. [4] beautiful Sunday night view of the Upper West Side, close to sunset. Ah.

scenes from the weekend
































It was so nice to have a long weekend before the fall gets crazy. I was in New Hampshire for the weekend to celebrate Labor Day and I got to try out a new restaurant I haven't been to before: Parker's Maple Barn. I had a peach-raspberry cream cheese stuffed french toast that was better than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams. Really, it was so good. And, it was served with home fries, which I was very skeptical about that combination, but it turned out to be a brilliant combo. The only bad news is that this was their "Flavor of the Month" so if I go again, I'll be out of luck on recreating this heavenly meal.  Either way, if you find yourself in NH, I would recommend it!

Ironically, I didn't take any pictures of the meal, on the premises of the restaurant. You can see, it's a pretty fun place all around.

welcome back to america ✌
































Oh, and I forgot to mention: our lunch at Big Blue Bagel was also a celebration of Anna's homecoming to America! She had been in Korea since last August, and just moved to Birmingham a few days before I visited. You can read more about her time there on her blog: Curl in Korea. 

(During my first year in New York when Anna was still in school at Auburn, I used to randomly get care packages in the mail from her with a bag of bagel chips from Big Blue! I, sadly, couldn't return that favor while she was in Korea, but it only made sense that we would choose a Big Blue lunch for our glorious stateside reunion.)

big blue bagel. in birmingham.

Anna and Rose Lynn
































I had an after-church Sunday lunch (just like the old days!) with these two gals 2 weekends ago in Birmingham. One of the nicest treats I've had lately. Both lunch and the company! Not to mention, we happened to run into three other dear friends from Auburn during our meal. That made for one happy heart in this girl.

we entered the madness.































How could we not? I'll do just about anything for Hot Now donuts - and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. That includes waking up at 4:50 am to be at Krispy Kreme by 5:30 to beat the crowd. It sounds crazy, but surprisingly, we weren't even the crazy ones.

Last year during a horrible tornado that destroyed much of my hometown, Krispy Kreme was one of the businesses that was completely obliterated. Now - just over 1 year later - Ttowners have apparently missed their donuts something fierce.

On opening day, my mom and I tried at 3 different times to stop for a donut (once at almost 9pm at night) only to have at least an hour wait ahead of us - in both the drive thru and inside. There was a police directing traffic, with traffic backed up half a mile. And according to the local news, 125,000 donuts were sold that day. Needless to say, we finally succeeded at getting in the door on Day 2. And it was worth every Hot Now donut I ate. Especially at 5:30 am.

I know one thing: I unintentionally picked the right week to visit Alabama!

scenes from (last) weekend

I know it's already, er, Thursday but I had such a fun weekend in Alabama last weekend that I wanted to share. I spent a short weekend in Birmingham that might as well have been a weekend during my college days in Auburn. I stayed with the new Mrs. Eads, and practically everywhere we went, we ran into old friends. It was so refreshing to see familiar faces out and about and catch up with friends I haven't seen in years (yes, years?!). That's a much less frequent occurrence in my days in the Big Apple. Birmingham is no small town, but it sure did feel that way. I miss that.





























L to R clockwise: [1] Shindigs, the hip new Birmingham food truck [2] Frank, AKC's pet fish [3] Harrison, aka: Harry-dog, Rose's little sidekick [4] Evidence that there's a Big Blue Bagel in Birmingham now

it's the sparkle

...that gets me every time. How can you see these lights shine and not be dazzled!? Earlier this week my roommates and I ventured to Times Square to see a movie, and I took this photo as I was walking into the movie theater. However, as much as I'm in awe of these flashing, sparkling lights, I'm reminded that everything that glitters isn't always gold. Or, at least not pure gold...