Yoga, chocolate, and wine anyone?

Yoga + Wine = AMAZING

My friend Kristy had a work event at a yoga studio - they were going to do yoga and sample wine and chocolate. Her bosses both couldn't make it so she invited me to come along. OBVI I wasn't going to say no to that.

It honestly just shows you how crazy your days can be when you enter the real world. I mean, THANK GOODNESS I wore a comfortable dress with leggings to work today or I wouldn't be dressed and ready to do some yoga!

We got there and the yoga was great - I had only done hot yoga before so this was much more enjoyable. And then after we sampled a bunch of chocolate by the company that the yoga instructor's friend had founded. A glass of wine went with each specific chocolate. It was an amazing night. Most relaxing yoga session I had ever been to if I do say so myself!

So yea, that's what I'm home from now. A little tipsy not going to lie. But today was a very, very good day. :)

PS - I may have a new boyyyy!! Updates possibly to come, haven't decided if he's worth writing about yet...

<3, Charlotte

The problem with the work day is...

One thing they don't warn you about when you enter the real world is how work makes you put all of your personal life needs on hold. Now, not such a big issue except for the fact that by the time you get out of work, the places you need to go are all closed.

That is what I'm going through right now.

I wanted to meet with a broker tonight to see apartments, but I was told that even 7pm is too late for us to get inside any buildings. Ugh, and it's not like I can just take an hour off of work on the fly or in advance because I have NO IDEA what will come up! (This is why I love being in advertising, but right now it is KILLING ME that this is the case)

So, I have scheduled meetings with brokers to look at apartments on Saturday AND Sunday. Meaning my planned Saturday afternoon at the Smorgasbord in Brooklyn that was supposed to happen with me and my friends no longer can be. :( At least not with me going along.

Real life's so hard!

<3, Charlotte

Okay, it's time to find an apartment!

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to meet with a broker to look at some apartments. Looking for a new place has been more challenging than looking for my summer place for a few reasons:

1. My roommate isn't living in NYC right now. She's off in Chicago at training for her job. So it's basically all on me to find us a place. Ugh.


2. We have started to contact brokers too early. We've been talking to them for 2 weeks now and places are JUST opening up. I know how that's how it happens in NYC but AHHH I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHERE I'M LIVING IN A MONTH!!


3. When I was looking for a summer place, I had the mentality of "I can deal with this for 3 months". Now, I'm freaking out at every place I see because I know that we want to ideally live there for 2 years. Finding a more permanent place is much more stressful than finding a temporary one!

This may be us if we can't get our act together...

Hopefully I will have some success tomorrow so we can get everything settled within the next week! Then all the madness will be over.

Wish me luck!

<3, Charlotte

Bloglovin'

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/9996957/?claim=k6zf8gd8map">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Okay, as of this post, you should now be able to find me on this site - Bloglovin'. Not entirely sure what it is, but in order to claim it on there I need to post this URL at the top of a post, so that's what I'm doing!

Definitely add this to your to-do list to help get your blogs discovered!

Happy blogging, everyone :)

<3, Charlotte

Weird things seen around NYC: street signs

A street sign giving the shocker. Wow

My first official NYC celeb sighting!!

Actually, it was 3 celeb sightings. All at the same place. Which is why Boat Basin Cafe is my new favorite place in NYC.

It was my friends birthday party and I had heard this place was fun. The only caveat was the fact that Boat Basin is in the Upper West Side. Like on 79th street upper. So it was a BITCH to get to. Literally was on the subway for 30 minutes and then got lost walking there, so I had to take a cab at the end (luckily the driver couldn't figure out how to work the meter for credit cards so it ended up being a free ride). An hour of traveling and getting completely lost and confused did not leave me in high hopes for this place when I arrived.

McLovin lovin.

I found the party and sat down to talk. A few minutes later, I notice a few people getting super excited about something - McLovin from SuperBad had just entered the restaurant! Ohmygosh my first NYC celeb sighting! This was so exciting! He looked exactly like how you think he would: kind puny, pale, hair was the same. Oh, except he had this interesting facial hair thing going on, and he wasn't wearing glasses. It was interesting. My friend ordered a bucket of Coronas to his table to be nice before asking him for a picture. He was super nice about the whole thing so that was awesome! (Sidenote: it's funny that no one knew his real name. We just kept referring to him as McLovin for the entire night. His real name is Christopher MIntz btw.)

At one point during the night, everyone is FREAKING OUT about the main guy from Man vs. Food sitting at a table near us. I look up to see what the deal is, and I think that I see this one guy, Rudy Mancuso, that I follow on vine. I double check what he looks like and am 99% positive it is him. I then look at everyone in his party and I. CANNOT. BELIEVE. MY. EYES. My vine idol, Nicholas Megalis, was sitting there too! I for sure knew that this was both of them because from their vines you could tell that they're friends. So, while everyone was freaking out about Man vs. Food guy, I was freaking out about Nicholas. I just HAD to go up and say hi and tell him how big of a fan I was!!

Nicholas Megalis everybody! (and a blurry me, obvi)

With a little liquid courage, I worked up the nerve to go up to the table they were all sitting at. Luckily, everyone wanted to get pictures with Man vs. Food guy, so I got to talk to Nicholas just me - and he was so honored and really appreciated me coming over and saying hi! Also, I had texted my friend, Marcus, that I saw him and he told me to tell him that we like the TMZ vines and the rap about the silverware. Obviously in my celeb-crazed state of mind, I forgot what Marcus wanted me to say so I pulled out my phone to see. Nicholas then proceeded to take my phone and TEXT MARCUS HELLO. Not only that, the two of them went back and forth texting lines from Nicholas' vines! Literally the coolest moment of my New York life. I was so happy that he was such an awesome celeb and am an even bigger fan now!

So yea, Boat Basin Cafe. If you do any single thing when you go to NYC, this HAS to be it!! Best. Celebrity. Sighting. Place. Ever. (AND, now I can cross that off my Summer Bucket List)

<3, Charlotte

It was a beautiful day for a ballgame

View from our seats...in the last row of the entire stadium.

Yesterday my college had an alumni event at the Yankees game. Tickets were kinda pricey (I think they were around $60), but the chance to see some of my fellow alumni AND get an unlimited lunch buffet was something that I could not pass up.

Coming from Chicago, I will always be a Cubs fan, but it is really nice to go to a game and have the home team win for a change (sorry, Cubs, but when will ya be good again?!). Also, it's surprising how nice Yankee fans are considering their team is always on top - everyone is in a great mood and is super friendly. Pretty cool and it makes for a very fun baseball experience.

The game itself was pretty rough because I was stupidly out on Friday night until 3am (I had planned to be out only until 1 but the night got away from me!). We ended up leaving at the end of the 7th inning to beat the rush and go home and take afternoon naps. I think it was a very good decision and allowed us to beat some of the crazy mob that rushes the subway after the game is over.

It was reallyyy great to see everyone, and I think the Yankees won so that's also good! New York sports are really fun to be a part of!

<3, Charlotte

Drinking in College vs. Drinking in Adulthood

Literally what happens to me. Not okay!

It's time to address something that every person entering the real world needs to know: alcohol tolerance depletion.

I'm definitely not the first person to experience my alcohol tolerance decreasing after graduating from college, but  my tolerance has gotten so low to the point that it is absolutely ABSURD. Now, in school by no means was my tolerance high - I maxed out at about 6-8 drinks a night. Pretty low considering I would go out 4+ nights a week, but I made it work. (And saved a little money while I was at it!)

Post-college, however, is an entirely different story. I get INSANELY DRUNK after 1 beer. ONE, BEER. And I can't have more than 4 drinks in a night. I mean, my finances appreciate it, but it's sometimes a major struggle trying to milk one drink for a long time - it gets warm, there's spillage...basically it can be a disaster!

OH, and the hangovers. (I've actually had a recent talk about this with my 26-year-old cousin.) In school, you drink a lot and get obliterated one night, but then you wake up the next day and make it to class or to practice or to the library to study your brains out. It is an inconvenience during your day, but you get through it.

Now, hangovers are COMPLETELY DEBILITATING. That is partially why I have been stuck having movie marathons with myself on Sundays. I LITERALLY cannot get out of bed or do anything productive. And when that happens after having only 4 drinks MAX the night before, I have to question my existence as a human being.

How is this possible?!

<3, Charlotte

Weird Things Seen Around NYC: Tourist fails

It's called a BACKpack for a reason, bro. Also nice shoes.

The best swim practice there ever was

I'm being a total badass and posting at work, but I wanted to write an update on the swim practice.

Basically, IT. WAS. AWESOME.

It just felt so good to be swimming for me and no one else. When I got tired (which was inevitable considering it was my second time swimming in MONTHS) I just slowed down. I didn't get upset or frustrated like how I used to. Instead, I just took it easy and enjoyed being in the water for the sake of working out.

That was my trial swim, and it went so well that I think I'm going to stick with it! :)

WOO!

<3, Charlotte

Back to practice...

No explanation necessary for this photo.

I feel like it's the first day of school. In about an hour, I'm going to leave to go to my first practice with this masters swim team I found! My friend Melissa and I are joining and I couldn't be more excited (I actually swam with her my freshman year of college when she was a senior - we're both getting back into it)! Got my suit, goggles, cap, and I'm ready to go. It actually is kinda freaking me out how into this I may become...I looked at some of the national top 10 times for my age group online and they are SOOO slow. I may actually have a chance of being good in this league!

First I need to actually get into shape though.

Oy, I hope I don't drown!!

<3, Charlotte

New post idea: Weird Things Seen Around NYC

Living in NYC, the biggest city in the world, we are fortunate to be able to see sooo many people each and every day. This also means that we see a ton of WEIRDOS every day, too.

SO, I have decided I am going to try to add a new post category to this blog - "Weird Things Seen Around NYC". In my 3 mile round-trip walk to and from work every day, I'm bound to see AT LEAST one weird thing a day! I'll take a picture of it and upload it here so everyone can see :)

This is an example of a weird thing I would post. I actually hope I see this guy again!

This is going to be fun!

<3, Charlotte

Errands

You failed me and I can NEVER forgive you!

As I eat my $3 slice of pizza I just picked up and sit down to write this post, I must address one thing that I think everyone should know about when entering the real world: ERRANDS.

Errands - something that makes me feel like I am becoming my mother and realize that I, in fact, am an actual adult. When you're little and your mom says that she has spent the day running errands, you roll your eyes and honestly can't believe it took that long. Well, now I can wholeheartedly admit that that was a very wrong thing to do.

Friday night, I got home to my apartment after what felt like an INSANELY long day. I went into my room only to find that my stand-alone hanging rod had completely broken and all my clothes were on the floor. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! And the entire weekend I didn't have time to run and get a new one. I had to deal with picking my clothes up OFF MY FLOOR when looking for a new outfit. Never in my life have I felt poorer than I did at that time.

Last night I was obviously busy swimming and developing my new extracurricular life plan, so I didn't have time to go get 2 new hanging rods then (yes, I got 2 this time since obviously one FAILED MISERABLY at the job it was supposed to do!). Tonight, my entire evening was dedicated to walking to Bed, Bath & Beyond and getting them. Yes, my entire night was dedicated to only running ONE errand!! How sad. Real life is hard all the time!

And let me tell you, if you think that carrying 2 packs of standing hanging rod kits for 15 blocks is easy, you thought WRONG!

So now that my new super-cool double hanging rod has been assembled and my room's order has been restored, I am off to get some much needed sleep! PHEW.

<3, Charlotte

Keep the pictures. They don't change, but the people in them do.

Very suitable to this situation.

Last Friday night, I was SUPER excited. I was going out with some of my college friends that I hadn't seen since graduation. It was going to be so much fun!

I've basically patched things up with Chloe. It's just in her personality to act the way she was acting, but I think she has come to terms with everything and we are totally fine now. I am so happy because we are at a very good place in our friendship!

I was going to go out with Chloe and our other friend Lisa. How it basically works is Chloe and Lisa are like best friends, and then I just hang out with them a lot. I'm more of a floater, so the idea of having a best friend scares me - and I've had best friends before and it ALWAYS ends up blowing up in my face. I am just a more hang-out-with-everyone kind of girl. So our little situation is perfect.

We also had friends coming in from out of town. One was staying with Chloe, the other with Lisa. Lisa had mentioned to me earlier in the night that she was irritated that our friend was staying with her because that meant she couldn't bring anyone home or go home with anyone. (Seriously, girl needs to get a GRIP. Not going home with someone for ONE NIGHT won't kill you!)

Anyways, what ended up happening is that Lisa and the friend she was staying with stayed out later than the rest of us, but then Lisa ended up ditching the friend, leaving him stranded in NYC all alone! (He is not from here either, so imagine how scary that would be). He called Chloe and apparently they tried calling Lisa over 15 times and she didn't respond. Everyone had to sleep in Chloe's poorly air-conditioned apartment and didn't find each other and end up getting home until 5am. HOW AWFUL.

The worst thing is that the next day, Lisa didn't even acknowledge that anything had happened or was wrong! She even texted me asking if I was going out that night and didn't address the other situation with anyone. I mean, CLEARLY she saw the 15 missed calls and knew that she had ditched our friend. But not acknowledging it and even doing that in the first place DEEPLY CONCERNS ME. And Lisa and Chloe even had plans to have coffee last night and apparently Lisa canceled it at the last minute. She OBVIOUSLY knows she did something wrong and doesn't want to talk about it. I am still in disbelief that that happened and don't even know what to think! I feel like since we've graduated, Lisa has changed for the worse - self-involved people are never fun to be around.

SO. MUCH. DRAMA.

This is why I prefer to be friends with guys.

<3, Charlotte

I've officially decided to come out of swimming retirement!

Me and Ryan Lochte at Nationals my senior year of high school (I look completelyyy different now which is why I haven't blurred this photo). Yes, I swam at this meet. Yes, this was before he was famous and there was a show making fun of him.

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I was recruited to college for swimming. High school would not have been the same if I wasn't a swimmer. My days revolved around waking up at 4:45am to be in the water at 5:45, and ending my school day with practice from 3:30-6pm. Tack on 6 AP classes to that equation and you have quite a busy schedule! My teammates were my family. It was awesome.

There was a whole other side of swimming though. Never feeling like I was good enough was a continuous problem that I battled (I started swimming when I was in 6th grade, considerably later than the average swimmer who starts when they are in 1st, so I was playing catch-up from day 1). My coaches also made the situation worse. They told me to my face that I would never swim D1 (WHICH I did, seriously messed up right?!) and they always pitted the girls on my team against each other. I was never good enough and never appreciated any of my successes because I was always focused on what I wanted to achieve next. Getting second at club state championships didn't matter to me - I wanted to go to nationals. It was a sick mentality, but that was all I knew. I always wanted to be one of the best.

Why did I stay with that program? All my coaches did was put me down and I always felt like I wasn't good enough. Because the girls on the team were my favorite people in the entire world. We all spent so much time together and knew each other to the extent that it was scary. We were basically sisters. And on top of that, my coaches were actually good at their jobs. We didn't swim THAT many yards a day but were one of the best teams in the state. We weren't burnouts like a lot of swimmers at our level. My coaches did know what they were doing, I will give them credit. They were one of the reasons I was able to catch up and be one of the better girls my age.

And then when I got to college, my coach was AWFUL. I got so slow. It was a disaster. I hated every stroke I took, and being a distance swimmer, that was a lot of strokes to hate over the course of a practice. I did not get a single best time at my championship meet at the collegiate level. Which was terrible considering I was at a D1 program and you are supposed to get a lot faster. I was completely miserable.

So sophomore year, I
quitretired. I just couldn't do it anymore. I never wanted to get into a pool again, and college was amazing without swimming all the time. I have no regrets about retiring AT ALL. If I would have swam, I would have missed out on A LOT. I never missed swimming a day in my college life.

But now that I am a real person, I have been wanting to get my life together. Working out has obviously been a complete fail (if you've been reading my posts, need I say more about this?!). And I've been feeling like I want to do something other than work and going out. It's just so unfulfilling to have my days be so monotonous, and hangovers are THE WORST now that I am apparently an old lady! And I am bad at all sports. Except for swimming.

So, I am officially coming out of retirement! I just emailed a team here in NYC that is reasonably priced. I want to race again. I want to succeed at something again. And I want to appreciate it this time around and know that I am doing this for me, not my terrible high school coaches. I am doing this because I want to, not because I have to.

This is the most excited I've been about something in awhile :)

<3, Charlotte

Central Park Zoo

Seal show! (No I did not take this picture.
I actually forgot to take any pictures when we were in the zoo. Fail!)

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I needed to stop being a lazy bum when I'm in NYC on Sundays. And today, that actually happened!

I went to Central Park Zoo!

Kristy's mom was in for the weekend, so she took us there and also out to eat today. My oh my, these free opportunities were EXACTLY what I needed to close out my weekend.

We started out the day by going to brunch at the best place - Lexington Brass. It was decently priced and SO YUMMY. I got pancakes and it was probably the best decision I made all week. (Sidenote: idk why but for some reason I love having pancakes with only butter, no syrup. I personally think that's kinda weird, but it tastes AMAZING I could eat over 100 pancakes like that! Probably not but you know what I mean)

After brunch, we headed over to the Central Park Zoo. It was smaller than I thought it was going to be (I had a work event in a section of it a few weeks ago, so I was really excited to see the rest of it!). But the size was actually PERFECT since I had done so much walking that day to meet up with them. Not taking the subway to a lot of places does have a decent amount of health benefits! Probably the most eventful part of our zoo excursion was the bird room. For some reason, the zoo thinks it is a good idea to let the birds fly ALL OVER THE PLACE and have no enclosings to keep them in. HOW TERRIFYING but we made it through it! Not gonna lie, I was pretty proud of myself for walking through the entire room.

What a fun, productive day! So New York!

<3, Charlotte

New posting plan

Lately, I've been FAILING at keeping up with this blog! It's mainly because I'm just sooo tired all the time and any spare second I get I just want to sleep or mindlessly watch TV. Not that anyone cares, but I think I need a new posting plan if I'm going to consistently make this work.

Enter: THE SOLUTION.

I'm going to try to schedule more posts so I can have a post a day for most days of the week. Once I get writing, I get in a groove and it comes easier, so I think that it will work for me to try to schedule everything on Sunday and Monday nights. Not entirely sure yet but I DEF need to step up my game and write more! I'm losing track of my own life and I'm the one living it!

AHHHHHH

<3, Charlotte

I've developed a SLIGHT work crush...

About a week before I began my job, I was looking on my company's website. There was an extremely informative article written by a guy that I really really liked. It made me SO incredibly excited to start my job, and I noticed that one of the accounts he works on was the account that I was going to be working on too! I thought it was so neat that I was going to be working with someone who was so knowledgeable about the advertising world and I couldn't wait to meet him.

It had been 3 weeks at my job and I still hadn't run into this advertising genius. I had kinda forgotten about him (other than the fact that I found this official copy of his article lying around the office and hung it up on my desk. What can I say - I'm an advertising nerd). On a Friday afternoon, we had a meeting, so I got there a few minutes early (an EXTREME RARITY for my company, where arriving 5 minutes late would be considered on-time). There were 3 people in the room, 2 of which I knew, and one cute guy that I had never seen before. We introduced ourselves - "Hi, I'm Charlotte!" I said, sticking my hand out for the traditional handshake. "Hi, I'm Scott!" he replied.

I couldn't believe it. It was the guy who had written the article!

Mid-handshake I just paused, looked him in the eye and exclaimed "Oh my goodness, you wrote that article!" I was completely awestruck. His picture both online and in the article that was hanging on my desk looked NOTHING like how he looked in person. He was soooo cute! Oh my, I was enamored.

He laughed (yay, he thought I was funny!) and replied "Yes, yes I am!" Looking around the room, clearly not expecting to be recognized for something that I assume he had written because my agency needed an article for its website. "What a good Friday!" he joked. A guy that is incredibly good-looking AND funny, that's something I could get on board with!

People started filtering in and the meeting began. The entire time, Scott was very professional, but he would sneak little jokes into the conversation. OH, and he is Australian, so he has the BEST accent ever! I was completely smitten. I went back to my desk in disbelief - how could this young, cute guy be so knowledgeable? He was perfect.

Since I had seen him in person, I found out where his desk was. I used to sit far from my team, so when I would go over to converse with them, I passed him every time. COULD ANYTHING BE BETTER IN THIS SITUATION?! Answer: no.

A week later, we all switched desks so that our team could be re-structured and everyone would be in the same area. I was happy to be by my team, but noticed that Scott's desk had moved too! I was a little sad until I creepily found his new desk - we sit kind of almost facing each other. These screens block our faces from actually looking, but it is still amazing.

If you don't think that I am totally weird by this post, congrats! Because I slightly weird myself out in this situation. Obviously nothing will ever happen with us, but it sill brightens up my day when we walk by each other and say "what's up?!"

Oh, I am such a smitten kitten (Phoebe Buffay reference, anyone?!).

<3, Charlotte

Back to college for the weekend!

Things didn't get QUITE as crazy as this as the parties I was at.
But how cool would it be if they did?!

Last weekend I went back to college. Except it was a jillion times BETTER. School in DC was very different than a Big 10 school, which is where my work friend Kristy attended college. The school was having an alumni weekend, and I was totally thrilled when she asked me if I wanted to see what a Big 10 school was like. Even though my college friends were FINALLY living in New York for the first time since I've lived here, I couldn't pass up this opportunity.

Was I ever glad that I went! Because we had to work on Friday night, we took an EARLY bus to the school on Saturday morning. And by early, I mean I had to wake up at 4am to start getting ready (hey, a girl's gotta look nice when she's meeting crazy college boys!). Yes, I had to sacrifice my Friday night, but it was WELL WORTH IT.

We got to the school at around noon and IMMEDIATELY started drinking. Between the house parties that were overcrowded with people to everyone getting to the bar by NINE-THIRTY that night, I couldn't believe that some people were smart enough to attend such a fun school! I got to meet Kristy's best friend (they have a relationship similar to mine and James'. Guy besties are the shit, OBVI) and two of his friends were TOTALLY macking on me during one of the house parties we were at. Sidenote: one was a COMPLETE WEIRDO but one was actually really cute and funny. 

The bar we went to that night, as I mentioned before, was super packed super early. And it was amazing. Probably one of the best DJ's I've ever heard - every song was the type of song that the entire room was screaming all the words on the top of their lungs to. Fun fun FUN weekend!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the college I went to, plus the education was very good. And I really liked being in the city. But there's just this little part of me that got 4 years of FOMO when I was at the Big 10 school this past weekend. That could have been every weekend of my college career...

Here's to thinking of what could have been,

<3, Charlotte

UPDATE #2: Helping the homeless

So, the homeless lady is officially gone. In fact, someone has taken her spot! At least they did today.

Ugh, I'm so sad my plan didn't work out. I really wonder where she went - she was actually back for one day last week! But then she disappeared and I haven't seen her since.

So weird. I really do hope that she is okay though! I secretly hope that someone gave her a lot of money and she is sitting in a nice apartment right now, living the life. Hey, miracles happen, right?!

Maybe I'll have to pick a new homeless person to give granola bars to...

Maybe I need to stop ending posts with .............

Nah.

.........

<3, Charlotte

Weekend getaway

Sorry I've been MIA for basically a week now. YIKES, it definitely HAS been a week. I was away from NYC from Wednesday until Sunday night, and last night I was just TOO DEAD to write any posts. So now I will make up for it!

For the 4th of July, I left New York and headed to Boston. I had never been, so I was reallyyy excited! My friend from high school went to BU and still had her apartment there, and a lot of her friends were around. It. Was. Awesome. Despite the fact that it was basically 100 degrees and crazy sunny, I had an amazing time! Boston likes to party, and I loved the city. :) Next time I go back to visit my friends who are working there, I am definitely going to stay for longer!

View from my friend's deck. Unreal.

After the Fourth, my friend picked me up and drove me and one of my other friends (both from college) to his lake house in Maine. It was honestly the most beautiful place I have ever been to in my life. Never had I been around that much nature! In the Chicago suburbs, people have lake houses and boats on little man-made things (I canNOT call them lakes now that I have seen the real thing), but they absolutely fail in comparison.

We spent all of Friday night, Saturday, and some of Sunday morning just hanging out on the lake and being outside. It was a MUCH NEEDED break from the real world. I only checked my phone about 3 times a day when I was up there (partially because of the bad service, but mostly because we were just outside enjoying nature and each other's company). I have not been off the grid for that long in a while!

My friend's mom made us SO MUCH FOOD. I really haven't talked that much about it, but I'm so poor, it's starting to affect my eating. Soooo not healthy, but a lot of days I will survive off of getting a bag of chips for lunch ($.75 beats a $10 salad). And my typical dinner isn't that substantial either, so I haven't been eating that much quality food. Well, EVERYTHING in Maine was homemade, down to coleslaw. I ate so much one night that I threw up! (And then kept eating after...) I left his house with a full tummy and a nice tan.

Needless to say, the entire Fourth of July weekend was a smashing success! I can't believe that's my last break until Labor Day now...

<3, Charlotte

Places a baby doesn't belong: at a beer garden

This weekend, I went down to the Financial District (my first time there!) to Beekman Beer Garden. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Sure, the beers were a little pricy ($8 for Blue Moon is pretty steep in my own opinion. I'm not Rockefeller!) but the views were amazing. And I met a bunch of Kristy's friends - it's great to be meeting so many new people that live in NYC!

I was probably 1.5 beers deep (keep in mind, I get drunk VERY easily) when I look up and see the last thing I would ever imagine - a mother with her baby.

Yup, this is the kid. Looking right at me

Now, I'm not trying to tell anyone how to raise their kids. I'm 22 years old - I don't know SQUAT.

But I think I DO know that that is probably one of the worst parenting jobs I have ever seen! However, as a very sheltered child, I can say that that kid will probably grow up to be insanely cool. Kinda jealous.


Still don't know how I feel about it...

<3, Charlotte