Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Birthdaybirthdaybirthday

This weekend was my birthday, and now I'm the ripe old age of 22.  TWENTY-TWO!  So old.  Not.

My friends were really lovely and put up with all of my birthday whims, and I do believe it was the best birthday ever.  It started off on Friday.


The ladies at Cornerstone threw me an elephant-themed birthday party, which included pink champagne, the prettiest birthday cake, and tootsie pops.  Lindsay was freelancing for us that day, so she even got to join in on the festivities!  And I got to take home the extra cake.

On Saturday Heather placated me by running around town looking for a birthday outfit, and then we went out to 12th Street because it was its fourth birthday.  And then at midnight it was my birthday!  Yay!


This is the only picture I have from that night because my camera was dead.  It's the inside of a car that I rode in from 12th Street to One and One.  The 12 block car ride took approximately a thousand hours.

The next morning, we made our way down to Bondi Road, where we were going to have delicious brunch.  However, there was a bit of a wait, so we looked around for some coffee and stumbled upon Sugar Sweet Sunshine, which incidentally had both coffee and cupcakes.


Brendan got me a cupcake.  I picked out a blue one.  It was delicious and vanilla flavored and I still have half in my refrigerator.

However, even after we got coffee and loitered in different places along Rivington Street, the group at the table that we were supposed to take hadn't left.  About forty-five minutes in, Jean began staring them down, as pictured below.


That didn't work because the group was completely oblivious to our frustration.  So Heather, taking one for the team, went up to the group and asked them when they were leaving.  And because a birthday miracle happened, they left!

We then became our Australian waiter's favorite table ever, and I began Tweeting with the hastag #inappropriatebrunchconversation.


Then I ate some super delicious eggs benedict, which had regular bacon, instead of Canadian bacon, which I preferred greatly.  Birthday miracle #2!


To further confirm my notion that we were the waiter's favorite table, he brought out a dessert with a candle in it, and everyone sang happy birthday to me for the fourteenth time.   The cake had fruit in it.

We spent the rest of the day watching football at 12th Street, and various other persons stopped by to say hey and grab a drink.  When I got home in the very last hours of my birthday, I had another present waiting.


Reece my roomie got us a tea kettle!  It whistles when it heats up.  I know this because I used it today to make peppermint tea.


There was one last present from mi familia at work the next day, so now I have these pretty flowers on my desk at work.  And Chris Bennett called me up and took me to the benefit concert reading of She Loves Me for the Roundabout, with Kelli O'Hara, Jane Krakowski, Gavin Creel, and Josh Radnor.  And I was all like, Josh Radnor, I usually watch you in my computer on Netflix every night because I'm in the process of watching seasons 1 through 6 of How I Met Your Mother, but now, I just get to see you play the same character onstage.  Singing Ted!

I'm fairly certain that this birthday was the best birthday ever, followed closely by my 19th birthday, which lasted approximately 5 days long.  And I've confirmed that I'm really bad at not making a big deal out of my birthday.  But I'm so lucky to have friends who will put up with me :).

Love,
22-year-old-Courtney

Friday, December 2, 2011

Courtney and Chris are normal human beings

Kristen O'Hara won a free happy hour at Turtle Bay tonight, so we're all going.  Since Chris Bennett won our last happy hour at Turtle Bay (causing Kristen to win this one) I am posting these pictures that I just found on my phone.

To set the scene: Courtney and Chris go to see Spiderman: The Musical, which is wholly underwhelming.  They go to Blockheads to fully discuss the extent of underwhelmingness.  It begins raining.  The waitress says, "Do you just want to drink until it stops raining?"  We say, YES!  Then, Courtney takes out her phone.


Chris: WOAH!
Courtney: I KNOW, RIGHT??  HEEHEEHEEHEE


Chris: It fills me with awe and childish wonder.
Courtney: Uhm, sure.


Chris: (drinks some margarita)
Courtney: CanIhavesomeodat? 


Chris: Now SHE'S drinking summa dat drink, son!
Courtney: (through straw) Yee I am!


Chris: It is possible that I am the old man from Up in another life.
Courtney: If I get really close, do you think I can understand its soul? 


Chris: HAAAAYYYYY!!!  Let's go make friends with the people on 'The Ride'!!!
Courtney:  Haaaaaallllp!  ...but okay, that totally sounds like a great plan!

Happy Friday, loves.  I hope you have a splendid Friday.  If you so choose, come see me at Turtle Bay.  I'll be the girl making funny faces at the camera.

Love,
Courtney

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Decemburr!

Hi fraanz!  Happy December!  I'm so excited that the best month of the year is here.  Don't argue with me if you think otherwise.  You'll lose.

It has been a very busy work week, but that's okay because that just made it go faster.  Also, I started listening to Christmas music this week, so that just made everything better.  The "'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' by Bruce Springsteen" Pandora station is the best Christmas station ever.  Just LISTEN to it.

Yesterday was Wednesday, which meant that it was 12th Street Wednesday, as per usual.  But NOT as per usual, Andrea surprised me with a birthday cake - red velvet, my favorite.  You do learn a couple of things after rooming with someone for three years.


Heather helped light the candles, Brendan helped fuel Andrea with wine while she baked, and Sara helped rally the bar in singing "happy birthday."  I don't know if I would call that last one helping, but I love her anyways.


I blew out all the candles because I am the big bad wolf.  That last sentence was a little weird.  Then we all ate cake, even Mikethebartender.  I ate three pieces.  And took home six more.

Then Obama came to my mini-birthday party in his motorcade and made large crowds and police cars appear outside the bar.  For my birthday, of course.  We gave the people who were waiting to cross the street cake when they came in for drinks.


This morning, I snoozed my alarm for 45 minutes and then went to go get my license renewed and changed to New York State.  I took a picture of my old license because I knew they would take it away from me.  They stapled through it.  THROUGH it.  And now all I have is a crappy little temporary license.  It was rather anticlimactic.


I hung up some pictures in my room because I haven't lived in my apartment for five months now, or anything.  I thought it might be time to get around to it.  However, I clearly can't be trusted with anything.


I'm not really sure how I did this, but I somehow jabbed myself in the head with a mechanical pencil.  Jabbed?  Jammed?  All of these words are awkward.  I can't even.

Anyways, there's a baby hole there now.  If you can't see it, just trust me.


It's okay, though.  I got everything done.  And my hammer is pink.

My mom bought it for me.  Don't judge.


Tomorrow is Friday, everybody!  Rebecca Black taught me that that is the day that comes after Thursday.  Also, I get to wear blue jeans.  And isn't that always a reason to celebrate?

Love,
Courtney

PS: I think this is the worst writing I've ever used in a blog post.  So that means the pitch I am about to start drafting will be great, right?  Yeah, I totally thought so.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The month of November

Once upon a time, it was Halloween, and then I blinked, and it was Thanksgiving.  And I was all, magic exists, right?  Because there's no way that the entire month of November went by unless I entered a space-time continuum.  And THAT, my friends, is what we call sound logic.

So I was sitting here, trying to think about what to blog about, seeing as I have EVERYTHING and NOTHING to talk about at the same time, when I was like, maybe I should just show you a bunch of pictures from my phone from recent days.  And that will probably take care of it.


This is a cool structure thing that lights up that I took with my pixlr app.  I can't remember if I posted it here already.  But it's cool, and it was by the Creator's Project, and I didn't actually take it in November.


That same day in a month that was not November, I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge just for the heck of it.  I couldn't take any pictures at the first archway because of the gajillions of tourists, but I did take this one at the second archway.

I also saw this...


I have no idea what was going on with these people in their weird masks walking in slow motion towards each other.  Probably a movie for a school project or radical movement that will never come to fruition.  It was weird enough that I took a picture, but not weird enough that I tried to figure it out.  This is New York, after all.  Some things just aren't meant to be over-analyzed.


One day, Travis took us all to an orchard so we could pick apples, which was more difficult than I originally thought it would be.  We ate apple cider donuts and all was right with the world.


Then, like, a day later, it snowed.  Andrea was still in her Halloween costume, due to the fact that she had stayed at my place the night before, but I was nice enough to loan her some sweatpants and a shirt.  They didn't match, though, which she greatly appreciated when we ended up hanging out in public until like 10pm.


Adorable baby cupcake costume.  I shall dress my child in this one day.


Dude in dog suit.  Just search on Twitter for #dudeindogsuit.  You won't regret it.


Heather was very sleepy one day when we went to Macy's to eat lunch for 5 hours.  #OccupyMacys.  It's happened more than once.


I went to Lani Kai with my boss to check out the venue for an upcoming event.  The tune poke was delish, and we had these swizzle drinks.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember what was in mine because it was now several weeks ago, but I do remember that it was delicious.


Heather, Kristine and I went shopping multiple times.  Kristine tried on this hat and I made her stay like that until I took a picture.  Then I bought the hat in gray.

I don't wear it like that.


I also went with Heather and Krissy to pick out their new kitten, Burglar.  When we were at the ASPCA, they joked that they should name her Burglar, and I thought they were kidding.  But, uhm, they weren't.

Her nickname is Burgie.  BURGALICIOUS, DEFINITION.


We watched the NYC Marathon in Brooklyn, which was super fun.  I felt like I had put forth so much effort that day because I was in close proximity to people running a heckuvalot.  That's how it works, right?  So it didn't matter that I promptly ate wings and fries?  That's what I thought.


Brendan had a party in Bushwick, which I sadly do not have any photos of, and the commute home was very long.  Jack and Jenny fell asleep waiting for the L train to head to my apartment, so I took a picture of them.  I mean, I fell asleep too.  But I woke up first, so I won that game.


Heather and I watched Brittany compete (and win!) in an American Bar Association mock trial competition.  I would expect nothing less from the Fordham law team.  Then we went to the Gap and got a free appetizer for checking into a restaurant.

The above photo is the view from the courthouse (goin' to the courthouse!) in case you were wondering about relevance and stuff.

Other things that remain undocumented: I think I may be partially living in a world where I believe the Hunger Games is real, Reece and I are planning on getting a Christmas tree, I had a fabulouso Thanksgiving (which I will blog about, if I remember), I have to renew my license and abandon my Connecticut stateship, and I sometimes go to the gym in the morning (what??).

Oh, and my headphones like to call random people throughout the day when they are plugged into my phone.  So, like, sorry if I do that.

Peace out, cub scouts, and I hope your November has been lovely thus far.

Love,
Courtney

Monday, October 31, 2011

French Onion Soup, or the soup I made when I didn't really plan ahead

Today on the way home from work, I was like, hmm, I have a hankerin' for some french onion soup, and I probably have most of the stuff to make it.  So I stopped at the corner store, got a bunch of onions and some avocados because I love avocados, and made some soup instead of getting my butt to the gym.

I'll go tomorrow morning.  I will.  I will!  Sigh.

Well, I didn't really decide to blog about this until like an hour into the process (warning: I may have blogged about this before.  If I did, sorry), so here's what I did when I wasn't taking pictures: Get a bunch of onions.  Cut them up into strips.  Saute them with a bunch of butter for 20 minutes.  Pop them into a baking pan and into the oven because you don't have any pans that can go in the oven.  Wait an hour while you do all your dishes because you have no silverware.  Watch Grey's Anatomy on Netflix.  None of this is optional.

OKAY!  Now we're up to speed.  Take out your pan.  If it looks like this...


...you're on the right track.


Put all of that delicious stuff back into the pot on the stove, scraping all the good stuff on the bottom.  If you have a dutch oven like Andrea, you can skip all that pan-swapping nonsense.  Cry a little bit because you don't have a dutch oven in your apartment anymore.

Realize that you don't have any white wine because you drank it last week while making pie with Heather.  Google "can I substitute red wine for white wine in french onion soup."  Get no answers.


Say to yourself, aw heck, I'ma do it anyways because it'll probably be fine.  We're not perfect here, people!


Pour in a cup, or whatever's left in the bottle if you don't have a cup.  Let this cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes.


Look at you, being all reduced and stuff!  Good job.  This smells heavenly.


Chop up some garlic.


Why is it green?  Ponder this.  Shrug and chop it up anyways.  Put it in the pot.


Pour in a bunch of beef broth and a bunch of chicken broth.  Do a face-palm when you see this picture.


Add some of this stuff in.  Don't bother to flip the picture because you're lazy.  Hint: it's Worcestershire sauce if you couldn't read it.


Bring to a boil, then bring heat down to low.  Put the cover on halfway because you're not sure whether to cover it or not so you figure that's the best option.

Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.  Forget to take a picture because you're in a rush to get to bed.


Look at this spoonful of delicious soup in glory and wonder.  Eat some.  It's hot.  Blow on it first.

You can also find the recipe on ThePioneerWoman.com.  But you won't get my colored commentary.  You might be able to make a proper soup though.  And for the record... the red wine worked just fine and was quite delicious.

Now I shall go to bed because I have to get my butt up for the gym in the morning.  It's going to be a long winter ahead.

Happy Halloween, otherwise known as, I cannot freaking believe that it's November.
Courtney

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Hump Day

Happy Hump Day, people!  It's Wednesday, which is my favorite day of the week, because it's 12th Street Wednesday Day.  Ever since I found out about my new job, we've gathered at 12th Street Ale House down on 12th and 2nd on Wednesday to chill out, watch Jeopardy, and take advantage of the best happy hour in town.  But I mean, it's mostly for the Jeopardy, even though I'm really terrible.  And also for the fact that I'm trying to finagle my way behind the bar tonight.  Because that sounds like a really excellent idea for everyone.

Wednesday also means that it's magazine day at work!  Which basically means that we get seventeen thousand magazines delivered to my desk and I scan all of them for relevant articles (and delicious food pictures because I'm pretty much a fiend).  And magazines come in the mail.  Which reminds me of mail.  Which brings me to the following blog topic.

I have to introduce you to someone.  He's someone very special to me and we spend quality time together every day.


Who is that hiding in my drawer?  Why it's...


A happy little whale!


That opens letters!  It's a letter opener.  Hence why is opens letters.  And it's a happy whale.  Who is my buddy.

Hello, whale.  Welcome to the interwebs.

Today is a busy day, so that's all for now, but I'm debating video-blogging ("vlogging," as the kids say these days) my Halloween costume this weekend if it's funny enough.  So like, look forward to that.  Or something.

Have a happy day, kiddos!

Love,
Courtney

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Saturday Night

Sooo it's Saturday night at 12:30am (which I guess would make it Sunday morning).  And I'm sitting at home in bed.


But I'm cool with it since I'm pretty sleepy.  I got these...


...sweatpants on because it's brr cold in this basement.  Which I love because I love to bundle.


I went to go see this bunch of misfits known as the Mimes and Mummers in The Drowsy Chaperone tonight.  They were all fantastic and I wasn't even sad that I wasn't part of the show because they did so well.  It was a bit of a weird show in and of itself, but they were funny and entertaining and I hope I cheered loud enough.


I even put on makeup.  But mostly for my love Chris Ingrao who basically could sing the phone book and sound amazing.  No, really.  And he tap dances too!

A bunch of alumni went out beforehand to Emilia's for dinner, which I wish I had taken pictures of, but I didn't.  In lieu of those, why don't we look at some pictures from last week?


Hi friends!  Isn't it great being old now?


Look at that birthday boy dance.


Uh yeah so it started raining and guess which smart kids didn't have umbrellas...

But moving back to now... I wanted a snack.


It's in this bowl!


Peas!


Oops, one fell out onto the keyboard.  I ate it anyways.


I love peas!


Yummmm.


A weird midnight snack?  Yes.  Doing it anyways?  Yes.


But now they're all gone...


...and I'm sleepy.


So it's Saturday night and I'm sitting at home in bed.  And now I'm going to sleep.  And I'm 100% okay with that.

Good night!
Courtney