Things to Remember

The Wednesday of my trip to New York was one of the better Wednesdays of my life.

Keren had to work at Tulu's that day, a cute little gluten-free bakery in the Village, so I went to the library where I wandered for a couple of hours, just looking through the exhibits and marveling at the beautiful building.

I needed to be Uptown by six for the Tour de Nerdfighting with the lovely Anastasia, but when I left the library I didn't feel like getting on the subway. It was a wonderful, chilly day and I had time, so I just started walking. I turned a corner and found myself in Times Square for the fifth time since I had arrived on Friday and began walking down Broadway.

Times Square is beautiful in an unconventional way. The lights from buildings and giant advertisements and Broadway promotions glare down on the street as people from all over the world bustle around you. It should be completely overwhelming, but it's not.* You just have to keep your head up as you make your way through the crowd, and take it all in.

So that's what I did. I tugged my hat down around my ears, breathed the cold air, and hummed quietly to myself as I made my way up Broadway. I listened to snippets of passing conversations, thrilled at the sight of the Gershwin Theatre, and grinned widely the entire time. My heart felt full. It was one of the few times in my life that I have felt truly content. (But who wouldn't feel content walking the streets of Manhattan?)

At this point in time, I hadn't met any bloggers face-to-face yet, so I was so excited to meet Anastasia. I walked into the theater right before the show started, so we could only say a quick hello and give hugs before they came on. The show was very fun, which was not surprising as John and Hank Green are very fun people. I'm sure I've said this before, but it is great to be surrounded by people who love something just as much, if not more, than you do.

Afterwards, we grabbed pizza at a place called Two Boots, named so for it's Cajun-Italian cuisine, and talked for a couple of hours. We walked to the subway, got hit on by two men, ignored them, and said our goodbyes on the train. It was a dreadfully short visit, but I'm so happy to have met Anastasia. She was so sweet and funny (and also told me which stop to get off at to get back to Tulu's, which was good because otherwise I would have been lost).

The Village was probably my favorite part of New York and during my week there I explored much of it. The walk back to Tulu's was familiar by then, and I had to resist the urge to skip down the empty sidewalks. As I crossed the street to the bakery, I could see Keren cleaning behind the counter and Kim, her best friend, sitting at the bar talking animatedly. I walked inside, bought a few red velvet cupcakes, and the three of us talked until closing time.

-Maggie

* Except for on Saturdays. Never go to Times Square on a Saturday night.

Things to Remember

Being the bloggers we are, while in Seattle we took hundreds of pictures. Each of us had some kind of picture-taking device, and most of us had more than one–iPhones, digital cameras, Polaroids, iPods, disposable cameras, etc. I'm sure we were quite entertaining to watch, using three different cameras to take a one picture of a hamburger. Anyway, a few days ago (wait–was it only yesterday? I need to sleep more), the lovely Nicola uploaded the pictures she took with her disposable camera. Aside from turning out a million times better than my disposable camera pictures (everyone's were better than mine. I lack this talent, apparently), they promptly sent me into a fit of nostalgia.

The picture above was taken on our last full day together. We decided to ignore this fact for as long as we could.

We started the day with brunch and ended it with a cookout at Dillon's pool. In between, we spent time wandering through little boutiques and dessert shops, bonding with dogs on the street, and taking naps in parks.

Basically everywhere in Seattle, you could get fresh, gorgeous bouquets, and they were cheap–we're talking five bucks a pop here. We all wished there was a way to take the flowers home with us, or that we at least had some reason to buy them. Dillon was looking for a bouquet for his mother (Oh, Dillon), and someone said something like, "What would your mom do if we all bought her flowers?"

"She would probably cry," Dillon said.

And so we all bought her flowers.

-Maggie

April 17: Things to Remember

I took this on my first night in New York. In fact, this may have been the first picture I took–if anything, it is the first one I saved.

After Keren picked me up from the airport and we dropped my extremely heavy bags off at her apartment, we made our way to Red Egg, a restaurant in Chinatown. We ordered dim sum and talked to Kim, Keren's best friend who bartends there. Then Keren took me to Grand Central Station, which is beautiful and full of bustling people, and we split a slice of cheesecake. We walked through Bryant Park and Times Square, where we gaped at a giant billboard of Darren Criss's face for at least five minutes. As we walked, I remember thinking that for New York being so large, everything seemed to be very close together.

That night, my first night in New York, I was filled with awe. Everything was new and unknown, and I was so excited to experience everything. It's weird to think back to how I felt on that first night–like New York was this foreign land to be explored. By the time I boarded the plane back to Texas, I felt like I had been there for years.

It felt the same way it does when I leave Austin. It felt like I was leaving home.

-Maggie

April 3: Things to Remember

The first time we went to the nail salon that would become the only one we would go to, we were all wearing white. We hadn't planned it, but I'm sure it looked like it as Colt, Melany, KaCee, and I walked in to the small room together.

We asked for the prices, and then spent the next minute turning to each other excitedly saying, "It's thirty dollars for a manicure and a pedicure? It's thirty dollars for both? It's thirty dollars for both!"

We looked through all the shelves of nail polish, trying to find a color we liked. KaCee, Melany, and I picked different shades of pink. Colt didn't pick a color, but only because he said he'd feel obligated to match all of his outfits to what color his nails were and that wasn't something he wanted to deal with.

The next two hours were spent chatting and laughing with the ladies working while they painted our nails. The four of us decided quickly that we liked that place very much and would come back often. We told them so, and tipped and thanked them profusely as we left.

After, we went to Olive Garden. It was one of those times that everything said was funny and every laugh was obnoxious and loud. Colt embarrassed us in front of our waiter, but I don't remember how–just that we laughed especially hard about it. 

That was a good day.

-Maggie