A Quick Trip to NYC

I really don't love New York City. I used to be a bit fascinated by it before I moved to Connecticut. The first few years I lived here, AJ and I would take trips into the city to see a ballet or go to the Met for a class assignment and that was fun. But the last few times I've gone into the city, I haven't enjoyed it. In fact, it often makes me stressed and annoyed. This is probably because I don't like feeling crowded and rushed and the city is filled with fast paced people and that's ok!

There are some really great things about the city, though. The interesting food trucks and restaurants are beyond compare. There is tons to do and see. There are bookstores I could happily live in and I love the lions at the public library. Also, my sister has a cute little apartment near Grand Central so going to visit her is easy and fun.

Today, my mom and I hopped on a train in the morning, grabbed a cab outside Grand Central, and went to the Upper East Side to visit my mother's cousin, Gloria. She's lived in the same apartment in Park Ave for years and years and has a spectacular view. She's a phenomenal artist—she made our save the dates and today we worked on our wedding invitations with her! She already had quite a few made up by the time we got there so all we had to do was iron out details, play with the wording and fonts, and decide on envelopes and table cards. I'm so glad that we've been able to do this part of wedding planning with a family member. It's made it much easier and so stress free!

We ordered a slice of pizza and a salad each from a nearby Italian place and ate at Gloria's table staring out at Park Ave—all the photos are taken from her balcony. We talked about family members we haven't seen in a while and reminisced about family members that are no longer with us. I didn't meet Gloria until 2011 because our family is so huge, but I feel like I've known her forever. I'm so thankful that she has been doing all of our paper goods for the wedding because not only is it easier on us, but it has allowed me to get to know her even better!

We spent a few hours with Gloria, most of them spent chatting because we got the invitations done so quickly. We made promises to visit again soon and Mom and I were back in a taxi (getting carsick fast) to Grand Central. We luckily got an express train so the ride was faster than usual! I picked up an iced latte from Zaro's Bakery for a little treat—it made my mom nostalgic for the years when she worked in the city long ago because she got breakfast from Zaro's at Grand Central most days.

I started reading a new book, Trains and Lovers, yesterday and I read the entire ride both ways so I'm close to finishing again. Expect a post on it soon as well as a review of The Bell Jar. Tomorrow, I'm going back to New York, but to Yonkers this time, to meet with a videographer. We haven't booked one yet and time is running out!

I'm so glad it's Friday and I hope everyone's weekend is off to a great start! Any fun plans for the next few days? Do you have any opinions on New York City?

Weekend Recap

This weekend was busier than most and that has left me with no scheduled posts for this week! But no worries. This way I'll be certain to write a bit each day. Plus, the weekend was well worth it!

On Thursday evening, AJ and I headed to the facility where our reception will be held to do a tasting for the menu. We tried a huge variety of hors d'oeuvres, a pasta dish, some appetizers, three entrees, a few wines, and we ended the meal with some desserts and espressos. The food was so delicious and we went a little crazy—our waiter and the general manager kept saying, "You guys are good eaters." You put good Italian food in front of us, it will be eaten. Sorry! Anyway, we both feel confident that if everything else at our wedding goes wrong, at least the food will leave everyone full and happy.

Friday I spent the holiday with AJ and our cousins having a cook out. It was fun, a little messy and rainy, but it was the exact way I like to spend the holidays, with family.

Saturday morning, AJ and I drove to New Canaan and picked up lunch and iced coffees for ourselves and my grandmother, a thank you for watching my little dog over night. We had lunch at my grandmother's house, stole some of her fresh figs, and brought my dog, Tessi, back home. We watched a little soccer before heading to 4 o' clock mass and then came back home where AJ studied a bit and then we watched Dateline, our typical weekend night!

Sunday was a relaxing day. I had a nice, long workout on the treadmill while watching trashy TV because that's the only way to do cardio. In the evening, my mom, my godmother, AJ, and myself picked up salads and drove to the beach and ate dinner and drank wine while sitting in the sand. The waves were pretty big for the Long Island Sound because of the weekend storms and the beach was packed with people who were still enjoying the end of the holiday weekend. Having dinner at the beach is such a treat! It really makes it feel like summer and I'm going to try to keep doing it as often as possible before this beautiful season starts to fade.

Like I said, this week I'm a bit on the thin side for posts but make sure to check back! I have some posts about author interviews planned!

Happy Monday, all!

Every Fourth

July 4, 2010 was an important day for AJ and me. It was the second time that we spent time together, it was the day we first kissed, and the day we both kind of knew we wanted to be together. And as fate would have it, we've spent every July 4th together since.

The photograph on the left was taken July 4, 2010 and it is the first photo we ever took together. On the right is a photo from this past 4th, our last one together before we are married.

I've never been a huge fan of the fourth of July because I don't like crowds and I don't like the traffic that the fireworks at the beach brings. I feel like there's a lot of pressure to have the best time drinking, eating, and setting off fireworks. But this year was good. We spent the day with my cousins' house, having a cook out and avoiding the rain. We finished the night in the wine cellar, sharing a bottle of red and good stories.

Like I said, it's not my favorite holiday but I like the 4th for another reason now. It's a reminder of when AJ and I started our relationship and with each passing year I feel luckier and luckier that we did.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July! (Fireworks are hard to photograph)

I hope that your fourth is filled with fun, family, and fireworks! Once the weather shapes up around here, I'll be heading to my cousins' house with AJ for a cookout with more of our cousins! On days like this one, I feel so blessed to have such an amazing family and I feel incredible fortunate to be part of an amazing country that should be celebrated today!

Everyone, enjoy your day and make the most of it eat! Enjoy good company, eat good food, and spend time outside! 

Keep an eye out for more photos from my fourth!

Friday: A Life Update

Sometimes I feel like publishing two posts in one day, and since my earlier post was just about clothes, I thought I'd post another one that's mostly words. Here are a few snippets of life around here lately.

• I bought one of those small cacti from Trader Joe's this week. I like having some form of plant life in my room but I don't have enough space for a big vase with an arrangement, so this tiny little cactus is the perfect fit! The edges are almost hot pink and the green jar matches my bedspread. 

• I'm still reading The Group by Mary McCarthy. I feel like this is important to mention because it's the reason why I haven't posted more Currently Reading posts or Book Reviews. I'm nearing the end and it is a great book. The structure is far more different than I had anticipated and it deals with some subjects that are germane to the time period and since I'm not too familiar with it I find I get lost occasionally but I'm enjoying it and I'll get more into the specifics with a review!

• I have been spending many hours a day writing this past week which is great because I feel like I'm forming a habit and being productive. I set my alarm for 6 am every morning. Sometimes I'll pull my laptop into bed to get started early on a blog post or research for an article. Other days, I'll get up right away and start plotting my writing plans in a notebook. I've also been reading more websites about writing and publishing and I'm also looking for more ways to expand my blog and readership—slowly.

• I've been writing more for Collective Lifestyle, you can find all my articles here. I really enjoy it but sometimes I have difficulty coming up with good ideas! 

• For the first time, one of my blog posts was posted on Facebook. AJ liked my post about The World Cup and Us so he asked if he could share it. Nervously, I said yes. I know that posting to Facebook is a sure fire way to get more readers and share, but it still makes me nervous!

• AJ and I have some fun plans set up for the weekend. I'll be spending time this afternoon with my sister because she leaves to visit her boyfriend in the Middle East—for a month!—tomorrow night. Saturday my sister and I will go to the Farmer's Market and at night AJ and I have dinner plans with our newly married friends. There will also be a fun Shakespeare Saturday post (finally!) coming up tomorrow morning so be sure to read it! And Sunday, we are going to a party two celebrate two of my cousins' graduations!

On Blogging: Four Months In

About a year ago I wanted to start a blog but I didn't. I struggled to. I read multiple blogs on a daily basis. I would check the same blog a few times a day to make sure I wasn't missing a new post because I enjoyed reading blogs that much. It made me want my own.

But I didn't know how to make one. I didn't, and probably still don't really, know how to format a website and play with the HTML. I didn't know how I would get readers or what kind of content I'd even post! And because I didn't know any of this stuff, I was scared. I was scared that I would fail and disappoint myself so I just avoided it. But I still never got it out of my mind!

Four months ago, I finally just did it and wrote my first blog post! It made me happy and I kept writing posts. At first, they weren't really posts about anything in particular—they still aren't really, but who cares? I love putting together a simple post and hitting publish. It makes me feel great to have created a little something that's just out there in the online world now. I went on a writing binge last night and the feeling of completing so many posts made me really happy.

I like getting my writing out there, on Collective Lifestyle or other websites that feature articles, but I know that I don't have a lot of readers on my blog. That's ok, because I'm having a lot of fun without readers! If people enjoy reading what I write, great! I'd love for people to enjoy this blog and read it for their entertainment and happiness. But I hope that I would continue to write even if I never gain a following.

June has clearly been my most successful month as far as posting goes. I track my success and progress by the amount of posts I publish and I always try to beat the previous month. February, my first month, was easy to beat. In April, I slipped a bit and had one less post than March and in May, I only had a handful of posts more than the last two months. June is different, because I've really been getting into the swing of writing. I have over 20 posts and the month has not ended quite yet, although it did go fast!

As badly as I wanted to start a blog last year, I'm enjoying it far more than I imagined and I am so happy that I took the plunge to just write and publish! If I want to keep improving upon my number of posts each month, I have a lot of work to do for July! I may have to start posting multiple articles a day.

I'm excited to see where this blog goes and I know that, no matter what, I'll continue to have fun doing exactly what I'm doing right now!

Vacation Roundup

It's always annoying when fun and relaxing family vacations have to end. There is something about Cape Cod that, the minute I drive over the bridge, I know I'm on vacation and that it will be a wonderful time. Every year is great in it's own way and after 22 years of visiting Chatham, I know I will never tire of the small, sweet beach town. 

 Our last few days in Chatham were spent playing no less than 20 rounds of competitive Scrabble, soaking up the sun on the deck, taking long walks around the neighborhood and to the beach, and walking through town and shopping occasionally.

 I love getting to share this family tradition with AJ now. I can't wait until we have our own family to make even more memories with in Chatham.

 Our last dinner was eaten at home and shared with my mom and godmother. It consisted of Trader Joe's crackers, a variety of cheese, carrots, hummus, and delicious fruit salad. This was eaten between rounds of Scrabble and was followed up with rich chocolate from Chatham Candy Manor.

 AJ drove the whole trip home today. It took us just about 4 hours and I only nodded off for 10 minutes. We left around 10 am after sharing bagels and coffee while sitting on a towel at Hardings Beach, another one of our bagel traditions.

 Tessi rode home with us, too. She slept the entire way in her bed on my lap. It's always a funky feeling, getting back into the groove of regular life after being on a vacation for a while so I'm trying to throw myself back into life rather than ease into it. I already did some unpacking, I have my second load of laundry going, and I'm heading off to Zumba in an hour.

Tomorrow I have to restock the kitchen and get some writing done!

Chatham Favorites

In just over a week, AJ and I will be packing up the Jeep and driving four and half hours to the South east most corner of Cape Cod. Once in Chatham, we'll be spending about 5 days there with my family. Since I was a baby, my family has rented a house in the same neighborhood in Chatham for one week every summer. Last summer was the first time AJ joined us and I was nervous, not because it would be his first time spending an extended period of time with my extended family, but because I just really, really, really wanted him to love Chatham as much as I do! It's my favorite place and it's been a big part of my life forever. If he didn't like it, what would I do???

Luckily—even though he is not a beach guy—he loved it, too. And he's really excited to go back. We had fun taking long walks and exploring hidden parts of Hardings Beach. We would walk through town together and on our last day there, we put Greek yogurt and cereal into Solo cups, got iced coffee from Dunkin's and walked to private beach at the house to have a little breakfast in the sand. That's one of my favorite memories from that trip. My other favorite memory took place on our last full day there, it was drizzling outside so we were taking a little drive through town when we noticed that my favorite ice cream place, Buffy's, was open! It hadn't been open at all when we there because we went so early in the season but I kept telling AJ how badly I wanted mint Oreo ice cream from there. So, even though it was raining, we pulled a quick U-turn, picked up some ice cream, and drove to Lighthouse Beach where we parked the car, walked down on the sand towards the water, and ate our ice cream in the freezing cold rain. What a good sport he is!

So I am happily anticipating our impending trip and I am brainstorming everything I want to fit into this next trip to make the most of our time! Here are a few of the things that we will definitely do.

Watch a Chatham A's Game
We might be there too early in the season, again, so we might not be able to catch a game this time. However, if you ever are on the Cape during the summer, try to catch a baseball game! It's a fun way to spend an afternoon or evening when you want a change from going to the beach or out to dinner. It's a fun atmosphere and they sell T-shirts and ice cream and hot dogs at all the games.

Have Dinner at Chatham Bars
We did this twice last year because the first time the spot where we really wanted to eat at the Inn was closed for a private party so we ate on the Veranda, which I don't really recommend. The portions and options are slim but really pricey, still, it was a great view of the ocean for dinner. We went back the next day for a late lunch and ate at their patio grill which is actually on the beach. The food is a bit cheaper and there are plenty more options. Plus, the view is even better!

Get Coffee at Chatham Cookie
Last year was the first time I even noticed Chatham Cookie! And since I am known as a cookie monster, I had to check it out. It's right at the beginning of Main Street in town and it is the perfect place to take a break from walking around or to pass a cloudy morning. As the name suggests, they have dozens of cookie flavors (why aren't there more cafes like this? Enough with scones and muffins and cupcakes—we want cookies!) along with different coffees, teas, pastries, and even small buckets of food that are specially made to order for your day at the beach! It is such a cute idea and is well decorated. It has a beachy, mermaid theme with lots of cute signs with funny or inspiring quotes.

Watch the Fishermen Come In
Just passed the Chatham Bars Inn, you can park your car and walk over this little deck that overlooks the docks where the fishermen boats come in. You stand above them and watch all the fish pour off the boats and into buckets to be cleaned up and sent out to restaurants and stores. It smells, yes but it's interesting and you will always spot some seals that come in to try to get fish scraps. The seals are the real scene stealer, they flip over and pop their heads out of the water to stare at you like they're putting on a show!

Drive to the National Seashore 
I am always content to spend the whole trip parked in Chatham, but we usually drive to other beaches that are smack dab on the ocean, rather than the Nantucket sound like Chatham. The waves are taller, the beach is bigger, and the drive up the coast is beautiful. There are also bike trails that go through all the towns on the Cape that can shoot you out at the beach. I haven't tried that yet, but my sister and cousin did a few years ago and enjoyed it! Last year when we drove up the coast, it was raining and dreary so we didn't lay out on the beach, but we still walked in the sand, watched the waves crashed, and enjoyed the long drive.

Take Photos on Hardings Beach
Since we were babies, my mom has been taking photos of my sisters and me on Hardings Beach because it's where we stay every year. You can watch us grow up in those photos on the beach. Last year, neither of my sisters came to the Cape and AJ gladly stepped in to take photos with me. These are some of my favorite photos of us that we've ever taken and they were so fun! The weather was perfect and the sun was in the perfect spot. I definitely want to make this a new tradition for AJ and I to have photos on Hardings every year. And when we have children, we'll take photos of them in the same spot, too!

AJ Graduated!

Sorry for the not so great photo quality, but that's usually what happens at graduations. Dodging other people's arms and cameras to get your shot in before the graduate leaves the from, hence the photo on the bottom right. But the photos are only a very small part of the big day that was had yesterday. On May 22, 2014 AJ graduated from NCC with a degree as a Physical Therapy Assistant after many years of extremely hard work! It was such an exciting day because he worked so hard to get here. I can't stress that enough and it seemed like the celebration and acknowledgment of that was long over due.

First, there was his pinning ceremony with the other students in his program. The families were able to attend and we sat in the PT room at their lab tables and had a little lunch before the professors spoke and then AJ even delivered his own speech that had many in tears! Everyone came up to him after to tell him how great it was and I was, of course, very proud.

After they were all pinned and many photos were taken, AJ's parents, siblings, and I headed outside to the tent where the entire school's graduation was held. It was long and crowded but I would have sat there for days just to see AJ's happy face when he walked across the stage and his full name was read correctly! I stood up and shouted as he got his diploma and he saw me and waved.

Just as everyone was leaving the tent, it started to thunder and downpour so we hurried to his family's house, changed into sweats. His mom started making us soup to warm up and AJ poured us glass of Hoegaarden beer (it was my graduation gift to him—he got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers that included my favorites, ranunculus!). His mom and I split one, and he and his dad each had their own.

Tonight is his real graduation party and it is only fitting that this celebration last more than just one day! I am so proud of his hard work and I am extremely proud to be his fiancee!

I Graduated!

Ok, so I really graduated in January but on May 18th, 2014 I walked across the terrace of Bellarmine Hall at Fairfield University whilst my name was read into a microphone and I shook the hand of our school's president, Father Von Arx.



I wasn't sure if I was going to walk because I had already graduated and I've been away from school for so long anyway, but it was important to my mom and grandmother and it was actually important to me, as well. It's a big life moment and it really is an experience. It is something to be savored and recognized. College was hard work and it is nice to have it be celebrated.



I LOVED my time at Fairfield. I transferred there at the beginning of the second semester of freshman year and I was a commuter student. Because of these factors, I don't feel like I was a huge part of the Fairfield community. I was only on campus for my classes and occasional lectures throughout the semester. I didn't go to parties or live in the dorm but I still loved my college experience, it was the perfect fit for me. I can not even describe all that I learned while at Fairfield. I read Dante, Shakespeare, Joyce, Woolf, Dickens, and the Bible. I was introduced to ideas and thoughts and practices that I was never privy to before. I owe a lot to my education at Fairfield. I had wonderful professors who really love their area of expertise and who you could tell love teaching. I had so many experiences that are priceless and will aid me in my future as a student, as a writer, and as an academic.

A Little Life Update

We are back in Connecticut for the summer! Our time in Boston was swell and it went by so fast! AJ worked hard and he worked a lot. I played housewife, worked part time at two stores on Newbury Street, and was able to flex my writing muscles much more than I usually do. It was a great time and it has left me excited to head back in August for graduate school.

We're still getting our feet on the ground as far as summer plans although AJ has gotten as tickets for 3 concerts, we have one wedding to attend, and we are anticipating a trip to Cape Cod in a few weeks. And, of course, we'll have lots of details to get done for our upcoming wedding! Also, AJ just accepted a fun summer job offer at a sports camp and, while I'm hoping to keep writing this summer, I am still searching for my own, money-making summer job.

Lastly, I hope to keep my fun blog running strong during our last few months living in Connecticut and our last few months as an engaged couple. Happy Summer Everyone!

Gabo

photo
Last week, we lost an amazing and irreplaceable author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was two years ago that my obsession for his work began—I was a little late to the party, I admit. 100 Years of Solitude is one of my favorite novels and everyone should strive to read it in its entirety...and then learn Spanish so we can all read it in the original.

I wrote an article about Gabo and his passing for Collective Lifestyle, you can find it here!

Boston Rain

I remember when I was beginning the process of applying to colleges over five years ago now. When I went on school tours, one piece of advice a lot of people have me was to make sure that I would still like the campus even in the rain. It seemed like a petty thought, I was looking for a school not scenery. But those Fall and Spring days that are the best for campus visits are deceptive. Rainy, dreary days are abundant and they are made even worse when you're homesick, tired, and stuck in a dorm room piled with assignments. 

I'm not sure if the school I ended up choosing was picturesque in the rain, but I know that where I am now is just as beautiful on these dreary days as it is in the middle of June. The rain drops hitting the flat black roof tops, the shiny slick on the brick sidewalks, and the colorful umbrellas passing below the window are beautiful and are distracting me from my book. I'd rather lean over the chair and stare down onto Charles Street at the children jumping over puddles and the small rivers running into the sewer grates. 

So it certainly seems that liking your location even on the rainiest of days really is important. Maybe it's not essential, but it could change your mood for that day. And when I look out the window at this city drenched in rain, it makes me feel happy and so cozy. And so at home. 

A Perfect Sunday

Yesterday was the first day since we've been in Boston that it really felt like Spring. We took advantage of it and spent most of the day outside. We had a nice, relaxing breakfast before heading down Charles Street to Cambridge Street to go to Mass at a church called St. Joseph's. We had never been there before but they asked us to carry the gifts down to the altar. It's a beautiful church and AJ and I decided that it was one of the best homilies we had heard in a while.

Last week, AJ ordered some clothes but they needed to be returned and the closest place to do that was at a mall in Cambridge. Since it was a gorgeous day out, we decided we'd walk across the Longfellow Bridge, which takes you over the Charles River, and drops you on the other side. The wall was beautiful and it took less than 30 minutes. The bridge is undergoing construction right now but the walking path is still open. The bridge is named after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his famous poem, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, is painted onto the sidewalk.

Once we got back to our apartment, I made a quick stir fry with some of the veggies we picked up at Haymarket on Saturday. After AJ watched a few soccer games, I started to get restless to we put a load of laundry in the wash and went for a walk through the Common and part way up Charles Street until the wash was ready. It was around 7 o' clock but it was still pretty warm and bright outside. Everyone was out with their dogs and kids, throwing a frisbee, playing baseball, or sitting in groups along the hill.  Once we came back inside, we finished watching the second half of American Hustle, because it's taken us this long to actually see the movie.

Tonight, AJ and I will be heading to Fenway to watch the Red Sox! And hopefully they'll win!
Happy Monday, everyone! Have a great week!

A New Adventure

It was well over a year ago that AJ took the above photo of the Boston skyline. We stood on the roof of The Lincolnshire apartment building, nestled at the flat of Beacon Hill between Charles and River Streets. It was a few days after Christmas 2012. It was freezing, the wind was blowing, and the mugs of hot tea that we clutched did little to warm us. But we were warmed, excuse the sappiness that is coming, by our thoughts of our future together.

“Do you want to live here someday?” I asked, tentative of his answer and my own.

“Yeah. That’d be really fun,” he answered, or something along those lines.

I pictured us in a cozy apartment. Me, attending grad school for creative writing and working on the side. Him, working as a PTA and maybe taking classes on the side. I pictured long walks down the cobblestone streets of Beacon Hill in the Fall and walks along the Charles River in the Spring. Going to mass on Saturday nights at St. Leonard’s, followed by dinner in the North End and, once in a while, a Florentine cannoli with a cappuccino at Mike’s. My imaginings, while romantic and idealized, have always remained probable in my mind. Living in Boston with AJ has been a part of my daydreams for years now. I never knew for certain if it would happen, but I always hoped that one day we would do it. Little did I know, AJ had been making actual effort to make sure it happened.

A few months ago, maybe in October, AJ called me as I was pulling into work and told me that he had gotten his third internship placement for the year at an out patient facility in Boston. He’d been working with his professor all along to secure this internship, hoping to surprise me. And surprised I was! The timing was perfect;  his internship would start in the end of March and I had just found out that I would graduate in January leaving my Spring semester open and my final day at my internship was forecasted to be March 20^th, days before AJ’s new one would begin.

After a few conflicts, a cancellation, an engagement, a new contract, and a final signature we are moving to Boston tomorrow. My daydreams have come true and our conversation on the roof that night has been fulfilled. AJ’s internship will last 6-7 weeks, after which time we will come back to Connecticut with the intention of returning to Boston in the Fall…pending grad school acceptances or rejections. I am hoping to write, a lot, while we’re there. I am hoping to soak in as much Boston greatness as possible, too! I feel so fortunate that we have been given this opportunity. This is something that we talked about together and thought about independently. The fact that we are able to do this says leaps and bounds about what people can achieve when they really want something and really try hard to make it happen. I am beyond excited to have this little adventure with the man I love and I am very excited to continue to blog from Boston! 

20 Things

Hi friends! I’ve seen this list of 20 questions floating around the blog world for a few days now and I thought it would be a great way to start blogging.

1. what brings you the greatest joy? Spending time with family when everyone is happy and having a good time!

2. what are your vices? Online shopping, snacking, buying food we don’t need, reading blogs until all hours of the night.

3. what's on your nightstand? My journal, 4 or 5 books, a vase of (dying) ranunculus, a jewelry dish.

4. do you have a secret talent? Not that I can think of! Sad.

5. what is your greatest indulgence? Desserts and sweet breakfasts.

6. what should every woman try at least once in her life? Doing something outside of your comfort zone or something you usually need help with by yourself.

7. what makes you laugh? Being tickled, Jimmy Fallon, Will & Grace, people watching.

8. what is one thing people would be surprised to know about you? I’m easily contented. I can spend full days at home in comfy clothes and be happy.

9. what is on your bucket list? I’ve never written one, but the first thing that comes to mind is more travel. I want to go to Spain, see a production at the Globe Theater, and visit AJ’s hometowns in Peru.

10. what is on your feet right now? Two pairs of socks (my room is freezing!)

11. how did you make your first dollar? Working at the dance studio I used to perform at—assisting the teaching of classes and working as a receptionist.

12. what superstition do you believe in? I believe in some old, Italian superstitions like the evil eye put on you and not celebrating your birthday before the actual day.

13. what items in your closet do you wear the most? Express tank tops, I wear them in white and black under just about everything!

14. what is the best gift you've ever received? My engagement ring from AJ. Also, a coaster that my best friend gave me back in high school—it has ‘Romeo and Juliet’ written on it, it’s been sitting on my desk or night side table since I got it. I love it because it’s simple but it’s a great decoration and a way to personalize my space.

15. what is on your liquor shelf? Literally, nothing. Wine is in abundance but the only thing stronger than that is a half empty bottle of Sambuca left over from my 21^st birthday party.

16. what is on your kitchen counter? A blender, pannini maker, bowl of raspberries, aging oranges, and other clutter.

17. what would you never leave home without? My phone, a book in my purse, and the jewelry that I wear everyday.

18. what movie has the greatest ending? The Godfather comes to mind but that’s probably just because it’s my favorite movie. It IS an iconic ending though!

19. who is on the guest list for your ideal dinner party? Does it matter that they’re all dead? The Peabody sisters, Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

20. what is one thing you wish you had known when you were younger? That you can control whether or not you’re in a good mood and that you can control what you let effect you.

Feel free to answer some or all of these questions for yourself on your own blog or in a comment so we can get to know each other!