Fun in Sun.

Monday, May 26, 2014

(I know how to rhyme?) 
Consistency on this blog would be great, wouldn't? It's Monday night, and I've been away from school for 9 days and it feels like forever! Last week was vacation and today was Memorial Day. I would like to say I'm caught up in the "sleep" department, but I'm not sure if that's the case considering I woke up from a two hour nap at 9 pm today. Sheesh. I went to Florida with my campus ministry, so I guess I'll share pictures from that. Pictures are fun. 








we're a fun group


Also, I would suggest you follow me on Instagram or just check my profile to see what I've been up to if you're the type who enjoys pictures. 

Well, I guess I'll keep peeling away at my sunburn and get some sleep, because real life kicks back in tomorrow. 

Grapefruits and Gold

Thursday, May 15, 2014


I'm trekking along on my little sugar fast. It's not going as well as I would like, but I haven't given up. I've decided that if I can avoid chocolate, ice cream, cake, and DONUTS until June 22nd rolls around, I'll be happy. I've cheated in too many little ways: a little lemonade here, some frosted mini-wheats there, a pb&j, and recently, a caramelized grapefruit and gold-leaf fruit tart. 

I love grapefruits. After a long day at work, there's nothing more satisfying than coming home and slicing up a grapefruit. I went to a restaurant with my friend and saw boiled grapefruit on the appetizer menu. We waited an hour to get seated at this restaurant and I was craving some grapefruit.  I ordered it right away, no need to read the description. The grapefruit did not disappoint! The only downside- it was boiled in sugar. I paid 6 dollars it and like I said, grapefruits are the B E S T. I went for it. Wouldn't you?


Incident number two
The time is 9:30 pm. I'm sitting at a fundraising table for our City Year Gala in Columbus Circle. I ate a wonderful and fancy meal at the gala, but the portion was lean-cuisine sized. I had to do a bunch of greeting, socializing, chanting, and setting up for this event, so I needed a little more than arugula salad and fancy cheese to keep me alive and well. The program was running late and then the emcee announced that dessert was coming out. 
uh-oh.
Out comes this beautiful thing:



I couldn't let it sit there in front of me. It was so beautiful. It had gold on it! And I needed a boost of sugar to keep me going after my looong day of work. Once again, I went for it. 

Restaurant: Jacob's Pickles (highly recommend)
What is City Year? Check here

Photo Hunt: Fire Escapes {CC 8/23}

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

As mentioned in this post about NYC, I have an attraction towards fire escapes. Fire escapes are all over NYC, and they come in many different shapes and designs. 99% of the time they seem completely unnecessary, but we all know they are vital to fire safety. Second bonus, if you get locked out, you may have a chance getting back inside via the fire escape. I know friends who have done it. Even though I don't have a balcony, I have a fire escape to chill on and that's enough for me.





Pictures were taken in SoHo and the Bronx.
On a related note, this plant-shelf from UO is awesome!!!


Check out other photo hunts in the blog world:

The Creative Collective

30 Things: New York City

Monday, May 5, 2014

A list of things that make me happy in New York City, in no particular order and all unique to me.

1. The Endless skyline.  
2. Winter is 10x less cold and snowy than it is in Minnesota (where I'm from).
3. The small spaces. It requires you to be creative with your space and purge your stuff. Hoarders are not welcome here.
4. There are lots of places to by plants. Most of the time you can find plants for sale on the streets, and sometimes you'll discover plant shops like this one:
5. I can afford living here. I didn't think that was possible before.
6. I don't feel lonely in the city 99% of the time and I have made some great friends here.
7. Pictures of James Franco are all over subway stations. I melt every time. He's on Broadway too! 
8. Redeemer Presbyterian Church and the Table Church.
9. All the parks that have the word "square" in them. Madison Square, Bryant Square, Washington Square, and Union Square! 
10. The millions of coffee shops and bakeries. Not including Starbucks. That's a whole 'nother monopoly. It's the city that never sleeps.
11. People I love in Minnesota are only a facetime or phone call away.
12. Art comes in many forms. A pool of grass? A Belly crawl? You'll find it all. 
13. There are some amazing companies, specifically start-ups, that are located in NYC. Some of my favorites are Etsy, kickstarter, Warby Parker, Harry's, Dormify, and Pencils of Promise. There are so many more. 
14. I can get cheap fruit everywhere. Like on every street.
15. I live right by the east river. In fact, I live on an island! How magical.
16. The subway system. I can go wherever I want, whenever I want, and not have to worry about gas or parking. When I'm feeling productive I can even read or write on the subway.
17. All the fashion. And I'm not even that into fashion! New York is an incubator for fashion design.
18. All the art! I think every famous artist that has ever lived has a piece of work somewhere in New York. The MoMa alone will overwhelm any art buff.
19. The fire escapes on apartments. I think they are the coolest thing. They're always the first thing I notice about NYC buildings and apartments. 
20. Elf was filmed here, and that's one of the best movies. 
21. People want to visit me... Even though I know their real motive is visiting the city ;)
22. Holiday festivities. There's currently a Big Egg hunt going on all over New York City and the eggs are beautiful! Let's not forget what goes down on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years!
23. The amount of NYC tourist buses I see go by. It reinforces that I live somewhere special.
24. The majority of really good slices of pizza cost .99 cents per slice. 
25. I've said this before, but the ONLY Target in Manhattan is two blocks away from me. Life is complete. It also makes NY feel a little more like my home in Minnesota.  
26. The smell of the Nuts 4 Nuts carts. I don't even like nuts that much, but the aroma of these carts get me every time.
27. Parks like this one exist. Those are two of my 6th grade students at Washington Park. Aren't they adorable?
28. A bunch of movies and shows are filmed here. It's pretty normal to find streets and parks closed down because of filming. 
29. All the bridges. Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg bridge. They are all beautiful. 
30. The culture and diversity here is like none other. You'll meet every type of person on this planet in this one city.

That was fun to write. Stay tuned for my next post which will be 30 things I hate about New York City.

Just kidding! What's there to hate about it?! 
And I certainly wasn't kidding about James Franco. 





10 Days?!

Sunday, May 4, 2014

I guess I started the sugar fast 10 days ago. I thought it's only been 5 days. Weird how that happens. I've been pleased with my ability to say no to so many foods. This week at work the desserts and treats kept rolling in. There were two birthdays, multiple potlucks, donuts for breakfast... my coworkers love their sugar! I still said no to it all.
What have I done instead?
Fruit! I bought 6 cartons of blackberries (sadly, I finished those 6 cartons in 2 days. I was desperate), tons of grapefruit, strawberries, mangoes, bananas, all that good stuff. I've made some yummy smoothies too. This morning I had an avocado-blueberry-banana-smoothie. It was creamy and sweet. 

I've been inspired by recipes from inmybowl.com. I definitely want to try making the green grapefruit smoothie and Peanutbutter Banana Smoothie.

The hard stuff:
I'm pretty sure I cheated when I started drinking lemonade and realized it wasn't sugar-free. 
I had dried clementines that tasted way too sweet. I looked on the ingredients and saw they had sugar in them. I guess dried fruit isn't always natural.
I had a little bit of sugar free dark chocolate. Is that cheating??? 

The other hard part about doing a sugar fast is filling the void. Filling the void looks like eating extra carbs or dairy. grrr.

Stay strong, Abby. 


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