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