Grease has always been one of my all-time favorite movies. When I was little, I remember it used to be on TV every new year’s even and I would stay up to watch the whole thing with my Nana. I would sing and dance along with the Pink Ladies and T-Birds, even though the majority of the lyrics and stunts went right over my young and innocent head. I still really want a Pink Ladies jacket, too.

Anyway, I love Sandy’s super sexy outfit at the end of the movie. So, my outfit here is inspired by it. It’s not exact, but I wasn’t really going for exact, especially since I don’t have luscious blond locks or red pumps. This Halloween, though, I think I will try for exact. I’d better start trying to convince Stan now to go as my Danny Zuko.

I’m smitten with Collinsville, this historic little town in CT.  Cobblestone sidewalks, little antique stores and jewelry shops nestled right next to the Farmington River…it’s really quite beautiful.

Mmm… Battleship and the Ming Chicken at LaSalles Market and Deli with Pawel. We also had iced coffee and split a slice of pizza too. Best pizza I’ve ever had. <3  If you’ve never been here, I suggest you take a little trip and spend some time wondering around the center of town on a beautiful day.

Hi readers! Today, I’m promoting a group project that I’m working on for my Persuasion class at UConn. Our initial instructions were to somehow positively impact alcohol consumption on campus. Instead of a research project where we do loads of reading and writing to ultimately turn into a presentation, this one is a bit more fun and requires us to go outside of the classroom and into the UConn community. Well, stopping at the UConn campus wasn’t good enough for my group, so we’re pushing it further, onto the Internet!

Our approach was simple: use a phrase that everyone is familiar with and apply it to drinking. “Don’t be ‘that guy.’” You know, the guy/girl at a party or bar that just drinks waaaay too much and falls all over the place and is completely inappropriate. You’ve seen them, or maybe you’ve even been them! I certainly have been “that girl” a time or two. We created a video that captures “that guy” at his finest {or maybe not his finest…} to show how ridiculous this person can be, so that viewers will think “yep, I definitely do not want to be that guy.” The second part of our project is showing it to people. We began by showing it to UConn students, but as I mentioned before, we’re branching it out even further. We started showing it to friends that are in other colleges in CT, then friends who are in other colleges across the US, then we put it on YouTube and Facebook and are showing it to anyone who will watch it, college-aged or not. Then, we asked for their responses and stories from parties they’ve been to. We’re using these {keeping each storyteller anonymous} in our final presentation.

So, what can you do? Watch the video {below} and tell me what you think — is it funny? Is it just plain sad? Does it remind you of any parties you’ve been to where you’ve either witnessed that guy/girl or been that guy/girl? Feel free to share your thoughts by commenting on this post, joining the Facebook group and commenting there, OR you can e-mail me if you’d like to keep your response private. Help spread the word! Tell your friends and ask them to comment or e-mail me too! Thanks in advance for your help! <3

That’s right, 4! My awesome Dad paid for Stan and I to spend another night in New York. Explanation to follow!

Day 2, Monday, we slept in a bit and hunted for more vintage clothing and cupcakes. I didn’t really find any great pieces of clothing that really stood out to me, but that was probably because I was lamenting my lack of money. I had hoped I would have my tax return money before the trip, but, because I gave the IRS the wrong routing number, that didn’t happen. :( Of course, when I stumbled upon a tokidoki store, I didn’t think twice before buying a $100 messenger bag. I justify this with the fact that I didn’t buy anything else {other than food and Metro Cards} and my dad gave me $100 for the trip. {He isn’t usually this generous, but he just got his bonus! Yay for everyone!} Haha, thanks for sponsoring our trip, Dad. We also found more cupcakes to munch on. I bought this scrumptious and enormous raspberry swirl cupcake from Crumbs Bake Shop on Broadway. It was so huge I had to split it with Stan {and I’m not usually so generous, either}. We also had a late lunch/early dinner at Goodburger, home of the Goodburger! {If you don’t get the reference, I’m old}.

Day 3, Tuesday, began horribly. We checked out of our hotel, went to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), then realized they were closed. Nice one, Sami. They’re closed every Tuesday. I felt like this entire montage of Arrested Development Charlie Brown-esque sad moments. Seeing the Tim Burton exhibit was my sole purpose for going to the Big Apple! :( :( I called my dad, who was staying in New Jersey, to ask if we could camp out with him for a night, but we realized it would have cost more money in taxi fees just to get there and back than it would have cost to go home and come back another day. We hung up, grabbed our luggage from the hotel, and began our walk back to the train station. My dad called me a few minutes later and offered to pay for us to stay another night. Yesss! We had to check into another hotel, but we were very, very happy.

We acquired more cupcakes, this time from Magnolia Bakery, which has been in Sex & the City. I bought two: caramel, which was very sweet, and red velvet, which made my teeth look vampiric, munching on my latest victim. We shopped around a bit more and ate at Five Guys because Stan is addicted to their burgers. On our way back to the hotel, I spotted Radiance Tea House & Books. I’d never been to a tea house before, so we went in and ordered a pot of Spring in Kyoto, a flavorful mix of Japanese green tea, sunflower, and peony blossoms. I couldn’t resist ordering edamame, which I have become addicted to. Radiance describes themselves as “an oasis in the city,” and wow are they right. I didn’t ever want to leave that place, I was so relaxed. But, we did. Stan and I went back to our hotel, watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on my MacBook, then went to sleep.

Day 4, Wednesday, we woke up, checked out of our hotel, and went straight to the Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA. It was wonderful. If you’re a big Tim Burton fan, or even a little one, it would be a shame to miss it. The exhibit runs until April 26th, and you can check out a lot of it online here. There is so much of Burton’s work that went undeveloped and unpublished, and that alone is worth seeing, but it was amazing to see his preliminary drawings of characters that would appear in his movies, or costumes that were worn by Johnny Depp or Christopher Walken. It was very crowded, but still totally worth it. After the exhibit, we hopped on the train and headed home, exhausted.

…It was wonderful :)

Stan and I got into New York just before 1pm, and we were able to check in early to our hotel and walk around the city. We had plans to meet up with my city-dwelling French companion, Tibo, at 4 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to check out the Tim Burton exhibit, but it’s nearly impossible to get into on a weekend. You have to go really early and get timed tickets specifically for the Tim Burton exhibit, and by the time we got there, they were all sold out. So, we’ve decided to save Tim Burton until Tuesday when we see Tibo again.

So instead we shopped around a bit, ate some ludicrously expensive food (but this is New York), and like any good Apple nerds, we visited the 5th Ave Apple store. It was gorgeous. A little bit smaller than I expected, but I think that’s because there were so many people there. I got some shots of the front of the store and a shot from underneath the Apple while we were in the glass elevator:

We met up with Tibo around 5 and he took us to Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. We had to do a double-take when we saw the line — who would ever wait in a 30 minute line to get milkshakes? Tibo promised us that they were “the best shakes in New York,” and he was right. They were super creamy, sweet but not too sweet. Next time you’re in New York, I highly suggest stopping by. They have food, too, like your typical burger stand. If you go to the Shake Shack website, they also have a camera so you can check out the line before heading there. Very convenient, but I’d say it was worth the 30 minute wait anyway. We may go back for dinner tonight…

As we were walking around, killing time before we met up with Mish, we happened upon a little cupcake shop, Baked By Melissa, and of course I bought cupcakes. Now, Melissa knows what she’s doing. Her cupcakes are bite-sized which is great because you get to sample more for your money without getting stuffed. I tried three — cookie dough, red velvet, and tie dye. All were equally delicious, but I have to say the cookie dough was my favorite because I’ve never had a cookie dough cupcake before. I was glad we found Baked By Melissa because it wasn’t on my list of cupcake shops, though Tibo had heard about it. They’ve actually gotten a nice bit of press. Melissa has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, People and Daily Candy.

After swinging by Carmine’s near Times Square and finishing off Mish and her co-workers’ leftovers, we went out in search for a place to spend the rest of the evening. Tibo brought us to a tiny hole-in-the-wall type wine bar that features live jazz every night. Fat Cat was the perfect place to end the evening, kicking back, playing pool, and listening to some killer jazz.

More adventures, shopping, and cupcakes to come!