Sweating Everything

Yeesh. I argued with myself about posting today. I've actually been having a really hard time lately with the whole "what the heck am I doing with my life" query hanging over my head. My birthday's coming up and I've been doing so much introspection that I may have given myself a philosophical x-ray. I'll be walking along and then bam - mini panic attacks - like little stress inducing comets in my mind. "Who am I?" "What do I want?" "Is everyone on Facebook either going to grad school, engaged, married, pregnant, gainfully employed or all of the above?" Looking around, it just seems like the whole world has it much more together than I do. But, I am really lucky to have wonderful friends and family who stick around and listen to this crazy woman called me. They remind me to stop looking at walls while mumbling.

Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way- pictures of pancakes and purple pants. We (Mom, Aunt, Sister, Cousin, Friend, me) spent several days in New York. Now, I'm from California, born and bred, so I don't do "weather." Might I ask: what the bloody heaping heck is up with East coast humidity? It's like the entire city of New York turns into a sweat lodge come July. We decided to go on one of those double decker bus tours, which normally are great, but not when it's not 110 degrees in the shade. I have never sweat so much in my life. It felt like I was filming an underwater documentary about thermal vents. I wore these light lavendar shorts that were made in this flimsy-silk-like fabric. Yup. Good choice. At one point, I stood up and it looked like I had been sitting in a vat of grape jelly. I literally thought "Did I just pee on myself? And if so, will that cool me down?" Oh, the joys of sweat.

Battery Park: finally, we felt a breeze. Then, lower east side with some of the best grafitti I've ever seen. I love how Lo looks like an Ralph Lauren model, KGB is bringing it with her rockstar good looks, and I am wearing my purse like a codpiece so that I can cover my giant grape-esque sweat stains. Chic.

Then off to the Clinton Street Baking Co. Witness the strawberry rhubarb lemonade that saved our dehydrated lives. This place is adorable, teensy, and quite frankly perfect. Not only did I get the best pancakes of my life, but I also discovered the wonders of "maple butter." You take maple syrup and you mix it with butter and you get "butter maple syrup." I will never be the same again. Mom got this incredible carrot ginger soup and Aunt Susie got french toast that wouldn't quit. Un-be-lievable food. Just wow. Just...no words...joy.

While walking through Greenwich Village I spotted this sign. Great, now I want jam...and butter syrup...

Ruptured Crepuscular Pandas

Believe it or not, I actually finally at-long-last made it to New York. Some of my favorite people in the world were there to greet me: my mom, sister Hayley, dear friend KGB, little cousin Lo and aunt Susie.


Where to first? The Central Park Zoo. I did not want to go. It was hot and zoos kind of freak me out. They remind me of what I think a strip club would feel like, only without the free waffles and with more pandas. But I went because my sister freakin' loves zoo. She has a zoo fetish. Whatever city we're in, she's looking for zoos, usually in cities that really shouldn't have zoos. I'm talking the two of us paying twenty bucks to watch a pair of penguins sit in a kiddy pool, those kinds of zoos. But, I went to the Central Park Zoo and had a pretty great time.

Highlight of the zoo trip was easily the red panda which is both adorable and lazy: a killer combination.

Turns out that red pandas are also crepuscular...

I now know that I am officially crepuscular. Speaking of crepuscular, time for lunch! We took a quick ramble through the upper east side all the way to the delicious Shake Shack. SOOOOO GOOOOOD!

We were all starving so the wait felt like for-e-ver. But so worth it. When the buzzer went off I felt like I had won the food lottery.

They serve you the grub on a great big metal cookie sheet. No flimsy plastic trays for this buffet. Love. I got the classic shake burger with cheese. Hayley got a Chicago dog and Mom got the shroom burger. Now this might just have been the hunger talking, but this place was A-MAZing. Everything was delicious, especially the black and white shake we ordered for dessert. Nothing says happiness like a chocolate shake with lots of marshmallow fluff.

Let us take a moment to gaze upon these fries. Crunchy and delectable and gone so fast.

As we walked towards the Met, filled with shake shack, we passed this sign. I can safely say I have no idea what it means, but the irony is not lost on me. Hail the ruptured crepuscular panda.