Day 71!

Summer is so close I can taste it!




















Literally...

Five signs summer is on its way.

1. It's nearing 9pm and it's still light out.
2. The grill is uncovered and Sunday dinner is no longer pasta night, but now consists of hamburgers, hotdogs or in my case this evening, veggie burgers! (not as if I am opposed to meat)
3. Every store you walk into features bubbles, hula hoops and sidewalk chalk as soon as you walk in and/or on every end-cap.
4. The ice cream man is driving around and his music is still welcoming at the moment, not yet irritating.
5. As my after dinner snack I opted for fresh cherries instead of the chocolate. Mainly for the fact that the chocolate has melted to the point you would need a straw to consume it.

"I need the smell of summer, I need its noises in my ears"

Day 70!

"This place is not quite what it seems...


Taking advantage of the last days of having my monthly train pass until August, I decided that Friday I was going into the city, taking pictures of almost everything I never got the chance to. I didn't really get to go everywhere I wanted but it was fine, especially since Dan came and joined me.

So I was a tourist for the day. Ughh. In Time Square there is a gigantic tv screen (whoa a tv in T/S?! jk). Somewhere there is a camera, capturing the city street on the screen. And of course I took a picture of myself on the screen. It's like Where's Waldo, can you fine me?

On the list of places to go was Toys "R" Us, I'll talk more about that place in a later post.  This is Dan with King Kandy of Candyland. Maybe it's just me, but aren't you not supposed to touch royalty? Jeez Dan.

You can't go to the city without going to Central Park. Also, you can't go to Central park without being bombarded by several different men, most of which, and not all , that are creepy, asking if you'd like a ride around the park. Basically you sit in a basket, while they pull you around by a bike and talk to you about the many things of Central Park. Even though it was ridiculously hot, humid and a bit hazy, and I did walk us in a circle in the park, getting us slightly lost, I preferred just to walk.
"So we can take long walks through Central Park"

























At one point we were going to visit the zoo, however with the sounds of screams we decided against it. Dan claimed that the animals had escaped the zoo. Which animals you ask? The snakes, lions, possibly penguins? No the 1,000 screaming children! There must have been 30 different day camps that came to visit the park that day. I don't mind kids at all, so I didn't care they were everywhere. The only thing that got to me was the screaming and having them run around/almost knock you down. That can get a bit frustrating.

If you are ever to visit NYC you need three days alone just for Central Park. There's so much there, you don't even realize it.

Like the Belvedere Castle. For free you can go inside to the very top, for an awesome view. These are the ridiculously narrow stairs inside that only allows one person to go either up or down at a time.

Here is the view. I didn't really get a good look of the castle itself and I wish I did because when I looked it up online it's stunning. And not what you would expect in New York City. You should definitely look it up to see what I mean. BTW Belvedere means beautiful view in italian, very fitting. Belvedere Castle

An albino pigeon! Okay, probably not.

Dan looks like Indiana Jones.

Bryant Park. What a hot spot. Imagine what this place will look like mid-June when the sod finally sets in and you can sit on the grass.

It's a must, when I'm in the city with Dan, that we go to our favorite Thai restaurant Bangkok House. However, still on my strict diet from the virus I had, I wasn't allowed dairy or spicy food. Perfect when I always order a thai iced tea and vegetables in basil sauce. So instead we ordered two vegan smoothies at Jamba Juice.

Small note: I have "mad respect" for anyone that is vegan or has been on a diet before. You are left with very view options in what you can eat. It's terrible!

....Or anything that I was told it'd be. New York, you know you make my heart skip."

Day 69!

I collapsed! Okay, not really. I just got a really really bad stomach bug. It was so bad that I had to go to the hospital. First week of summer break has been amazing! lol. Apparently the virus has been going around and there've been many cases of the bug, which probably caused the worst pain I have ever experienced. The excruciating pain was caused by my stomach muscles twisting, or so says Dr. Cheng at the ER. Sounds fun, right?

So while I was put on a strict diet, no food for four hours once I got home, then only clear liquids, then the BRAT diet after 24 hours (bananas, rice, applesauce and toast), then a low fat diet after 48 hours, (ugh low fat), I laid in bed all day dizzy. Mostly because of the lack of food I'm sure. As I laid in bed, my poor Scoutie knew I wasn't feeling well and made sure to stay by my side.

I'm not sure who's more spoiled here. Me for having Nurse Scoutie by my side, or Scoutie for being allowed to lay in my bed all day.

The little bit of random...

Spring Cleaning: Part Two!

I love the names of these two mouth washes! Wicked Fresh, reminds me of this kid I knew when I was 15, he said wicked...a lot.

And the name of this brand just makes me laugh.

Hey Dan, that hat looks amazing! Zebra is definitely your thing. Remind me when I see you next to give you my matching zebra shoes, leggings, and arm warmers. And maybe to break up the crazy amounts of black and white zebra, I have a red and black zebra hoodie that you would love!

Dan might be the only dude that can pull off a zebra hat, I swear.

I'm really glad they finally are making garlic shampoo and conditioner. This will really help keep those vampires away from my hair.
Oh this totally reminds me of that new Sonic commercial with the vampire, has anyone seen it? It makes me so sad :( 




















I absolutely, positively love this display! This is The Limited's new window display in the mall, and I just love it. The concept is pretty great and the display is so cool. It's so simple if you think about it and the cost seems quite minimal, not to say that presses on it's quality, because that's not true at all. It's just all around really cool.

Day 68!

LittleMissMatched and Billy Elliot photo shoot! So exciting!

The little girls from the Broadway show Billy Elliot came to the LittleMissMatched flagship store on 5th Ave in NYC. They were the cutest kids. The event was about jumping for the stars, so in the back of the store we had a mini photo shoot set up, where anyone could come in and jump for the stars alone or with the Billy Elliot dancers. It was a lot of fun and what was even better, I was the photographer! I had sooo much fun doing that. If you want to see all of the photos you can find them on LittleMissMatched's Facebook page, some of them are just too funny. Here is my shot, lol.

Yup, I'm wearing a tutu! You were supposed to dress up in some awesome LMM gear or a tutu, I opted for the tutu, seeing how it matched my cupcake pin.

During the photo shoot I met a lot of interesting people, one being this lady from Rio de Janeiro. She gave me her business card, too bad I haven't a clue what it says : (

BTW I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned this before but I've been interning with the marketing department of LittleMissMatched since February. It's been an awesome experience so far. If you've never heard of LMM, it's one of the coolest brands. Their whole concept is all about mismatching. They sell much more than this now, but they started with socks. Selling them by the threes they mismatch, but still have a theme so you know they go together. It's actually really cool, and you might want to check them out. LittleMissMatched.com.


















Here's what the 5th Ave store looks like.

Also if you know any girls between the ages of 8 and 14 that have nothing to do this summer, LMM is offering this really cool virtual apprenticeship program. They have three different programs, one for blogging, photography and product design and they are totally free, which is even better! For more details go to MissMatchedFun.com

Day 67!

"It takes trying to rip your skin to really know how thick it is"

If you care to know what one of the visual labs look like at LIM this is it. This is where I had been spending my finals week. Oh in the corner there, that's Amelia.


















And this is me desperately trying to finish my floor plan to my carnival theme shoe store.

And this is part of my second project. A lingerie store I had to make in the program Visual Retailing. My theme was 1920's, basing it off of speakeasy's, jazz clubs, prohibition, Some Like It Hot and of course Chicago.

These are only a few stills of the store, there was so much more to it.

This seriously was the craziest/best week. School=done, my projects received decent grades, I saw Maniac anddd I played photographer at a mini photoshoot (post about that coming soon!). I think though, between living off of clif bars, monster energy drinks, peanut butter sandwiches, having three hours of sleep a night and spending most of my time desperately getting all of my work done in a four day time span, as well as dealing with the stress of thoughts of not getting my work done, I give myself another three days before I collapse from the after math.

Day 66!

For every spontaneous action there is an intended reaction...

Finals week, probably the most stressful week next to midterms. Most projects have been completed, but not all and that is why the visual lab has become my new home. Tuesday I got to school as soon as the automatic doors permitted, at 7am. The plan was get there early, leave early...yeah right!

While working on my projects, through out the day I was getting updates on Twitter from the band Maniac, which consists of Shawn, formally from The Matches and Jake, from Something With Numbers, saying they were on their way to New York City. This being a very big deal for that fact that they traveled from Los Angeles to New York, with minimal bags, money and plan, not to mention they were hitch hiking all the way over. Crazy! They were doing this for a documentary, their friend Emily, who went as well, documented the entire thing.

Not even remotely done with my projects I get a tweet saying they'll be in Union Square playing by the L train, which is about 2 miles away from my school. Ahh! What to do, what to do? Not done with my work, but not wanting to miss Maniac, I contemplated for about 45 minutes, realizing I was about to hit the 11th hour of sitting in the visual lab, I left ALL of my stuff in the room and bolted to Union Square. No joke, I don't think I ever walked so fast, there and back was probably done in record timing for me!

I couldn't stay the entire time they played, though I would have loved to. But I seriously left everything in the lab, including my MacBook, not too smart, plus I had major work to still get done. It was well worth leaving for the hour and a half though, I had to get out of the lab, get some vitamin D. Also I couldn't miss out on seeing Maniac/Shawn Harris, I not-so-secretly have had a crush on him since I was either 15 or 16. Also I may be in the documentary, which will be just lovely because you know being up since 3:30 am and then running nearly 2 miles in the humidity leaves you looking the best you ever will and all. Psh lol.




















Oh so my spontaneous action for the day was definitely going to see Maniac. The intended reaction... Ego boost! Eh it's hard to explain...lol

As I always do when I talk about bands, I demand you to go check out Maniac...please.
http://maniacmania.com/splashpage.html

You should also check out Emily, the photographer/videographer, she was the sweetest person!
http://www.ediphotoeye.com/

"If you ever give your best, we'll give it better."

The little bit of random...

Spring Cleaning: Part One!

I'm going through the ridiculous amounts of random photos I have taken on my phone, none of which I've had the chance to post about. So I'm going to do two mass photo posts of a few. Here we go!

Walking to NYIT, to the ceremony for my Sigma Beta Delta nomination, (Yeah don't know how I got on the International Honor Society, but I did.) I saw the cutest scene. An old man sitting on a bench next to a bronze statue. It was so cute! They looked as if they were two friends just hanging out on a nice April afternoon. I wasn't brave enough to take a photo of it from the front so I took one of behind.

However my friend Amelia is much braver than I and got a shot of them. This photo doesn't capture the true cuteness of how it really was. Maybe if stupid me wasn't standing there it would have been a better shot.

I'm not really sure why a movie theatre needs to have this sign. I mean would it not be obvious? I guess not to those damn weapon carrying toddlers, being that this sign was about two feet off the ground, as you can see the reflection of shoes in the glass, it was obviously targeted towards them.



I don't really have words for this. Other than good luck!
(Photo, compliments of Joe)

I was sick on a Sunday which of course meant I couldn't go see my regular doctor because she was closed. So instead I went to a place in Shrewsbury that you can just walk into, after sitting there for half an hour I was told they don't take my health insurance and it would cost $180, as opposed to the $20 copay I would normally pay. No thank you, I rather suffer! I'm convinced that they were discriminating against me. Yup, as you can see they have parking specifically for emo kids,  and since I'm not emo I wasn't helped!
















Obviously only kidding here ; )

Day 65!

North-bound train on a Saturday. Here I come New York City.


Saturday...one of the only two days I'm not riding into the city, and yet I still am. But it was cool, I had my internship and I actually like that place. Plus with a less crowded train I didn't feel silly taking a picture out the window.

I can't figure out if this building here is abandoned or not. Over grown with weeds and trees, broken windows and the lack of smoke coming from those smokestacks, would make one assume it is. However it's a factory, and that whole abandoned look may mean nothing. Plus every so often I spot trucks around. Well either way, I want to go explore this place/use it as a backdrop for a photo shoot. Not just this one specific place, but the nearby area too. Being the factory is on the water, across from it are docks/rocks, everything is covered in graffiti, as well as the buildings nearby are all broken down/for the most part knocked down. It's a complete mess, but on either side of the water, if you're into that whole urban look, both scenes would make some great edgy looking photos. I know a photo shoot will be unlikely, so really I'd just like to go check it out if nothing else, it's kinda awesome and creepy at the same time.

"When you're in need and desperate to fall asleep. Well ain't it wild, though aren't you tired? Oh, isn't it making you lose your mind?"

Day 64!

 When I walk to school I always pass the New York City Library, sadly I've yet to visit it, but obviously would like to. So while passing it today I happened to see something I found amusing.

Is it just me or is this not the funniest thing? Or maybe it's only funny when you're running on three hours sleep and it's not quite 7 am...nah it's just funny lol

I'm not sure why the lion statue is sporting an orange cone as a hat, but I think he looks pretty fancy.

The little bit of random...

If at first you don't succeed...

try,

try...

Google!

For about a week I had been trying to get a decent photo of Foot Locker's window display, and failed at all attempts. So googling an image was the next best option. The reason for the photo is because it's resemblance to Johnny Cupcakes. Johnny Cupcakes is a Boston based brand that sells cool items like shirts and accessories with their cupcake and crossbones logo. That was probably the worst description of a company, ever. So you are probably better off just going to JohnnyCupcakes.com. Their stuff is extremely cute.

So Foot Locker's theme is all about being "fresh" and "hot", which is a great concept but I don't understand how it goes with their display. The fridge displaying the shoes is an obvious, but the "hot" part, not as much. There should be something more possibly. I also feel as if they severely copied Johnny Cupcakes' long on going theme.

Similar much? A bit. Adorable and awesome? A lot! Johnny Cupcakes interior designing might be one of my favorites in store design, it's so much fun and creative. I've yet to visit one of the Johnny Cupcakes stores, but I really hope to soon.

Anyways, I'm not saying that Foot Locker's display isn't cool, I really do like the concept. But Johnny Cupcakes does it much better.

Oh and that "something more" to be added for Foot Locker's window...an oven displaying shoes possibly? It would go with the "hot" concept, portraying freshly baked shoes.

Day 63!

'Cuz if we're going out, we're goin' out with style

Such an awesome line up, Patent Pending and Bowling For Soup went on tour together. And of course I made sure I went to see them.
Isn't it amazing how well my camera phone works! (sarcasm)

I saw Joe before the show and gave him the Juicebox pillow I made. I'm almost certain he liked! Which was awesome, especially because he mentions it on one of his blog posts. Something else that was awesome, and at the same time probably made me look ridiculous... Right before playing their cover of Cascada's "Everytime We Touch" Joe told me to come up on stage and gave me directions. They basically went like this...when I say go jump into the crowd....What, what?? Yeah he told me to stage dive, something I had never done. Yeah no stage diving/crowd surfer in my 11 years of going to shows. Well standing on stage, I wasn't about to say no, so when he said to, I jumped. I have to admit, I may be the most incompetent stage diver in the history of stage divers. But that is not the worst of it. Two days later, my mother was at work telling her boss about the Bowling For Soup shirt I got her for Mother's Day. (My mom loves BFS, but thought she was too old to go to the show, which is ridiculous and not true.) While talking about the show she found out her boss and his friends went to the same show as me, and one of the friends happened to be at the stage when I dived, and he caught me. Awkward some? lol

You can always tell which photos are done with my phone, my basic digital camera and my fancier camera.

I can't remember if this is my third of fourth time seeing BFS, but it really doesn't matter, they are as good as I remember. Like really good. They are some of the funniest dudes, and their music is really great also. I think it seriously made my evening, as well as Dan's, (You can't deny it either Dan!) when they played the Phineas and Ferb theme song.  If you did not know, BFS sings the theme song for the best cartoon ever, Phineas and Ferb.

This was probably one of the best shows I have been to in a really long time. Can't wait to see Patent Pending, Catch 22 and the many other bands playing the Rec Center June 4th.

So we all jump around, and we fall to the ground
Like it's the last rock show of our lives.
-BFS

The little bit of random...

My sister works at this club called the Loop Lounge and to mark the half way point to Halloween, the club had a costume party. If you couldn't tell Heather went as a Sugar Skull... an awesome Sugar Skull may I say. I wasn't home when she left, so of course my mom made sure to take pictures so I could see how awesome she looked.

How amazing is her makeup? And this was done with just cheap drugstore brand makeup. Can you imagine if she had some super expensive make up instead? I'm thinking someone should change their career path, maybe do cosmetology? Just saying : )


























Happy Halfway to Halloween!

"At least, that's what they call it these days."

Day 62!

A couple of months ago I posted about a Patent Pending show I went to, where Joe (the singer/owner of Juicebox) gave me a hoodie to replace the one that was ruined. He gave it to me for free and wouldn't take the money for it, even though I insisted. He's seriously the nicest dude ever. I felt horrible about it and promised at the next show I would return the original hoodie to him.

























But really, what is he going to do with the hoodie? The inside was ruined making it unsellable. Sooooo instead I decided to cut it up and make it something a little more useful for him...

Like a Juicebox pillow!
I don't measure a thing and I'm not the greatest at sewing, but it didn't come out too bad.

If you still haven't yet, though I'm sure I've said it before, go check out Joe's clothing company Juicebox.
And you most definitely should check out  Patent Pending!