26

I'm the worst and haven't been posting - I sit down and try to write a post every night, but nothing comes to me.  And I'm a firm believer in not pushing things that aren't coming together organically... anyway, I've been doing a whole bunch of stuff, like working, and eating, and writing about it, and oh, I turned 26.  Good stuff.  Life is really, really good, and I guess I've been too busy enjoying it to be sitting here and writing.  I promise I'll write more soon when inspiration hits or when I start to do more exciting, writable activities.

spur of the moment

Is every weekend the best weekend ever?  Things didn't go exactly as planned but of course the spontaneous plans are usually the best ones.  On Saturday we went to Red Hook for the first time to check out the first weekend for the food vendors and we shared a feast of pupusas, tamales, watermelon juice and horchata... then we meandered through the neighborhood and took the water taxi home, which I loved!  We even watched Red Hook Summer at night (after we got frozen yogurt and walked around the city).

On Sunday we wanted to go to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden but the line was wrapped around the block so we walked around Park Slope instead, ate crepes and checked out a flea market, then made our way up to Queens and spent time at 5 Pointz (my favorite!) to look at the new murals.  We saw From Up on Poppy Hill at the IFC Center, realized we were watching the Japanese version, didn't care, then walked to the East Village to get some spur-of-the-moment fries.  Everything was spur-of-the-moment and none of those plans were the plans we were planning on, and my belief that the best plans are the ones made on the spot proved yet again to be correct!

a year of yum

Can you believe it?  I've been officially a food writer for a whole year!  I've been looking back at a couple of my old articles lately and it's crazy that everything's come this far.  Back then it was just me, writing one measly post a week - now I've got an amazing team of writers from all over the country, most of whom I've never even met, and we get at least one post up every day.  Doing this has also led me to make amazing connections, push me to experience and eat a ridiculous amount of new food (obviously) and land a new writing gig (more about that later).  For now, take a look at my first article on Village Yokocho + Angel's Share, and here's a list of my favorite articles: Baohaus, S'Mac, Northeast Kingdom, my interview with Jean Grae, and the 2012 Vendy Awards.

bucket list

I've been thinking a lot of about my bucket list recently, probably because my 26th birthday is coming up.  I've been extremely blessed to have already achieved so much but at the same time, there's such an urgency for me to do more.  Running down the list, I'm noticing that the majority of items begin with the word "visit" and I'm 0% surprised.  After that whirlwind tour of Europe and a couple countries in between now and then, I'm ready to keep going.  I've always wanted to learn how to surf, that's been on the list for a long time.  I want to sell my jewelry at Brooklyn Flea, I'm only 4 sales away from the goal I set for myself!  Even really stupid little things that I don't even want to list on here.  Apparently the Northern Lights are coming to the East Coast at 8ish and I'm hoping the clouds go away so I can get to see something I never thought I would expect to see in New Jersey - or maybe ever?  I'm trying to knock off at least two things off the list within the month and that would be one of them.  

I'm trying hard to get away from making the list and drive more towards achieving the list - but it's just too fun to map out all the possibilities!  

gimme the loot

I don't know what I'm doing online on a day like today, but I just wanted to say one thing.  Our new thing is movie night at IFC, and I can't believe I never discovered it before... even though it's only, like, ten blocks away from my apartment.  I'm so not a movie person, I could never justify paying good money to sit and watch something (especially with free movie Tuesdays at home), but I think I'm changing my mind.  We caught "Gimme the Loot" this weekend and the movie's focus is on graffiti, but I got hooked on the atmosphere - hot summer city days and a hint of the gritty early 90s, but still in the present, kind of like how today feels.  It's finally spring (but it feels like we fast forwarded to summer) and I'm trying to spend as little time as possible online (never gonna happen) but I just needed to put in my two cents about this movie!

brick by brick

Apparently there are a lot of things I can't get enough of, aside from brunch, and one of them is street art, and if you're reading this, just know you're in for a lot of it.  On a failed attempt to get ice cream in Dumbo from an ice cream shop that may or may not exist, I stumbled across these two artsy things - the top is by Aakash Nihalani (I'm so proud when I know!) and the other, I have no idea.  These pieces might seem super simple, just stencil and some clean lines, but I'm really interested in the integration of the work into public space - you could easily walk past these and never notice them.  I've found that my favorite art spans from the huge, in-your-face, can't-ignore-it, colorful explosion kind and the type that's like this, almost unnoticeable and such a surprise when you find it.  Every day I try to find a way to create something from one end, the other, and hopefully, eventually, something that combines both.

all day i dream about brunch

In an attempt to avoid being pigeonholed as the girl who writes about food, I was trying to stray away from linking back to my articles... but why fight it?  I recently wrote this article and the food was just too good to not mention twice.  It's also Wednesday morning and all I have to eat is a measly gluten-free English muffin, and honestly, it sucks.  I'm channeling myself back to Easter morning when I housed these huevos rancheros, literally just staring at this photo and trying to eat with my eyes.

I don't know Greenpoint as well as I would like to - but let's be real, I don't know anywhere as well as I'd like to.  The only spot that's really familiar to me is the Matchless/Enid's intersection and I vaguely remember my first time there, the first time I hung out with John while living in New York and I had no idea where we were, when my eyes were first opened to the concept of bars that give out free pizza (back in The Gluten Days).  If anyone's got any other Greenpoint recommendations, let's hear them (or better yet, take me!).