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June 30, 2016

July Photo-A-Day...

Here is the photo-a-day list Fat Mum Slim made for July 2016...
How To Take Part In June Photo-A-Day:   
  • Using the list as inspiration, take a photo each day.
  • Share it on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #FMSphotoaday. You can also share on your blog or on Facebook by joining her group.
  • Check out other people's photos and like them or comment on them.

June 28, 2016

Life Update | Personal & Library Life...

So I've realized that I've been very much so missing in action since the beginning of the month, if not longer, and because of that I feel like I need to write about what has been going on in my life.

That being said, this post is probably going to feel all over the place and I apologize for that because I want to catch you all up on various things that have been going on in my life but I don't remember what I've told you, plus I got some upsetting news today (I found out today that someone that I used to be friends with died. And I'm not gonna lie, it fucked with my emotions a lot. Especially since we found out that she died over a month ago and we're all just finding out now. She had a small child. No one actually knows how she died. It's all overwhelming and upsetting). So yeah, here's a break down of whats been happening in my life since God knows when...

In terms of my personal life, things have been pretty good. Only a few minor life hiccups... Justin hurt his foot while we were at a friend's house and has been wearing a boot for a few weeks which put a hamper on our social life for a little bit but he is starting to feel better. We went out to dinner and such Friday night with Day, Toni and Amanda. Then we went to the beach on Sunday with Day, Erin, Alana and some other friends, so I'm glad he is feeling up to going out and doing stuff despite his bulky boot.

Last week I thought I ruined my LASIK flap because I rubbed my eye too hard and had to go in for an emergency eye doctors appointment. Thankfully that was not the case and I just irritated the crap out of it.

Aside from those two "bad" things everything else has been pretty good. Justin and I got tickets to see Hamilton again next May, we've been planning things to do while we are in Japan & Hong Kong in August/September, I went to Lisa's husband's 30th birthday party, I had a great Father's Day with my family, I had a best friend dinner date with Phil, I've been planning things to do as soon as Justin is bootless, etc. So things have happened but none of them have been blog worthy, plus I've been crazy busy at work. Which brings me to my library life...

I don't think I've mentioned this but we've been going through crazy changes. I may or may not have told you (I honestly don't remember) that our Director retired and we got a new one. Well the new one quit and we have another Director and things have just been a bit chaotic.

In addition to all new changes not even six months after our last change, I've entered my busy season aka reading club season. So I've been spending the majority of my time at work getting ready for our summer reading club which started today (Thank God!). And the other little bit of my time I've been dealing the teenage son of a friend of the library that donated money towards the library's new 3D printer. The kid is super nice, helpful and enthusiastic but the kid wants to come in ever damn day to do stuff with the 3D printer and teach me things. Which is super cute but I don't have time for it everyday, so I'm going to have to try and figure out how to tell the kid to chill out a bit without pissing him, his dad or our board members off. I'll keep you updated on that...

On top of those things, our new-ish librarian decided to apply for a grant and I some how got sucked into helping with it. So I am literally spending tomorrow re-writing whatever she and my Department Head wrote because they write like shit. So wish me luck with that.

But yeah, those are the main things that I've been dealing with at work. There are other little bullshitty issues; crazy patrons, one of my coworkers causing me to get into arguments with other coworkers. iPad drama, exterminators, so on and so forth...

I hope this post kinda made sense and give you all a glimpse into why I've been kinda-sorta missing in action for a while now.

June 23, 2016

CLOSED | The Purge: Election Year Giveaway...

The Purge: Election Year is hitting theaters on July 1st, 2016 and in honor of that I'm giving away four (4) Purge: Election Year prize packs to four (4) lucky winners.
Expanding the universe introduced in the hit franchise that electrified the culture and earned $200 million at the worldwide box office, Universal Pictures’ THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR reveals the next terrifying chapter that occurs over 12 hours of annual lawlessness sanctioned by the New Founders of America to keep this country great. 

It’s been two years since Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) stopped himself from a regrettable act of revenge on Purge Night.  Now serving as head of security for Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), his mission is to protect her in a run for president and survive the annual ritual that targets the poor and innocent.  But when a betrayal forces them onto the streets of D.C. on the one night when no help is available, they must stay alive until dawn…or both be sacrificed for their sins against the state. 

Once again returning to collaborate with franchise creator James DeMonaco on THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR are the series’ producers: Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum (Insidious and Ouija series, The Visit), Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ouija series, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and writer/director DeMonaco’s longtime production partner, Sébastien K. Lemercier (Assault on Precinct 13, Four Lovers).

Genre: Thriller          
Cast: Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Edwin Hodge, Betty Gabriel, JJ Soria, Mykelti Williamson  
Written and Directed by: James DeMonaco  
Produced by: Jason Blum, Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, Sébastien Kurt Lemercier  
Executive Producers: Jeanette Volturno-Brill, Luc Etienne

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This is a standard Rafflecopter giveaway. In order to be one of the four (4) lucky winners you must follow this blog using Bloglovin and leave a comment below telling me what you would do if there was a purge. Would you take part? Would you hide? You can gain additional entries by doing a number of other tasks listed in the widget below. Good luck!

This post and giveaway were sponsored but I did not receive monetary compensation. I'll be receiving my own The Purge: Election Year prize pack.

June 14, 2016

The Story Of Wednesday Night | Hamilton On Broadway...

Last Wednesday night Justin and I went into New York City to see Hamilton on Broadway. Yes, yours truly got to see the pop culture phenomenon that is Hamilton before creator, composer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda left the show and we are so happy we did.

So, how did this Hamilton journey begin? Let me start from the beginning... After listening to numerous Still Untitled podcasts where Adam Savage gushed about Hamilton, Justin (Not me) decided to listen to it and instantly became obsessed with it. He became so obsessed that one night in bed, after an evening out drinking he lamented over how impossible tickets were to get and how much he wanted to see the show -- It was so funny that I found the need to tweet about his first World problem (Which you can read here).

Fast forward to Friday, June 3rd... Lin-Manuel Miranda announced he would be leaving and his final performance would be July 9th. The news just sent Justin into Hamilton madness (Like he called me while I was at Toni's house going "I think I'm going to do it... I'm going to do it..." and me I'm like "Do what? Kill yourself? What are you mumbling about?" and he finally said "I'm going to do it! I'm going to buy us tickets to see Hamilton for this coming Wednesday" and that was that) and he "spent more than he is willing to admit" on a pair of rear mezzanine tickets for us to see Hamilton before Lin left the show (And I'm not going to lie, I'm so happy he did).

Prior to Justin purchasing the tickets I refused to listen to the cast soundtrack because I saw Justin's twitchy obsessed behavior. But once he bought the tickets I decided that I should become familiar with the music before seeing the show and that is when I realized what all the fuss was about. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing -- I've honestly been listening to it everyday since he purchased the tickets.

Fast forward to Wednesday... Justin and I went into the city early to meet up with Day to have dinner and drinks at BEA in the theater district.
After an awesome dinner and another round of drinks at Señor Frog's (Because we are classy like that) we parted ways with Day and we headed over to the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Where once inside we spent a glorious three hours enjoying the awesomeness that is Hamilton.
Since seeing the show I've had a bunch of people come ask me if it's worth the hype or what-have-you and I can honestly say yes, yes it is totally worth it. I am absolutely in love with Hamilton, I cannot wait to see the show again (Which we will be doing again on May 10th next year) and I will be listening to the soundtrack for a long long time.

If you you've seen it, I'd love to talk about it with you. Or if you haven't and have any questions about the show, feel free to ask because I've been getting tons of questions from people I know and people who have overheard that I've gone. 

FUN FACT: We have friends who are bragging to people that they know someone whose seen Hamilton. Which is just the funnest thing ever.

June 10, 2016

This Just Pinned: Week One Hundred & Fifty-Seven

Here the highlights of my last few weeks pinning...
 
 (via: Glam Radar)
(via: Anne Makeup)

(via: Nouba)

 As always if you want to see what else I have up on Pinterest you can check out my account here.

June 9, 2016

Mexican Food & A Concert | Beyoncé At Citi Field...

After years of waiting, my sister and I finally got to see Beyoncé in concert at Citi Field for her Formation World Tour on Tuesday night. Since we had waited so long to see her perform (In the past we tried to get tickets to her and Jay-Z's On The Run Tour, etc. and failed) we decided to make a half day out of it.

So I met up with her at her apartment in the early afternoon and we headed into Queens to go have Mexican food at Tortilleria Nixtamal before the show.
After our late lunch/early dinner, we drove over to Citi Field and parked near an exit in their extra parking lot with the idea that we'd be able to escape quickly after the concert (The traffic after anything at Citi Field sucks, so I wanted to make leaving as quick and painless as possible).

While in the parking lot we killed time by sipped on spiked strawberry lemonade that I made, ate some snacks and waited out a passing thunderstorm before heading towards the stadium to get in.

Once in the stadium we found our seats and spent a good amount of time laughing at the girls next to us because they bought their tickets online from Justin for more than face value (He got eight tickets during one of the presales and he sold six of them not even twenty minutes after putting them up online for like $100 extra a pop and I almost told them that if they weren't desperate and would have waited for the general public sale or even for them to announce the second concert they wouldn't have paid a premium for their tickets, which where pretty damn good seats) and were complaining about it. Because the tickets say the name of the person who purchased them on them, they were like "This Justin guy is a dick..." Which I obviously texted Justin and he just thought it was the funniest thing ever.
Fast forward for what seemed like forever...

DJ Khaled came on with a bunch of special guests including; French Montana, TI, Fabolous, Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe, Remy Ma, Movado, etc.
Fast forward for what seemed like forever and ever and ever...
Beyoncé came out and just brought it.
Setlist
  • Formation
  • Sorry
  • Bow Down
  • Run the World (Girls)
  • Mine
  • Baby Boy
  • Hold Up
  • Countdown
  • Me, Myself and I
  • Runnin' (Lose It All) (Naughty Boy cover)
  • All Night
  • Don't Hurt Yourself
  • Ring the Alarm
  • Diva
  • ***Flawless
  • Feeling Myself (Nicki Minaj cover)
  • Yoncé
  • Drunk in Love
  • Rocket
  • Partition 
  • Hip Hop Star / Freakum Dress (Interlude)
  • Daddy Lessons
  • Love on Top 
  • 1+1 Play
  • Purple Rain (Prince song) (Interlude) 
  • Crazy in Love / Bootylicious
  • Naughty Girl
  • Party
  • Blow
  • Freedom
  • Survivor (Destiny’s Child song)
  • End of Time
  • Halo
Unfortunately we didn't see the last three songs of the set because it was almost midnight and we didn't wanna get stuck in the after concert traffic. But we still had a great time despite not staying till the end.

Overall it was an awesome concert, the only thing that sucked was the amount of time we spent waiting. But aside from that we had the best time. Neither of us had ever been to a concert before where everyone was just dancing the whole time (We typically go to rock/alternative concerts), so it was so much fun. I can't wait to go to another concert like this.

CLOSED | 10 Cloverfield Lane DVD Giveaway...

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) is coming out on DVD on June 14th and in honor of that I'm giving away three (3) copies of the DVD to three (3) lucky winner.
Acclaimed producer J.J. Abrams and up-and-coming director Dan Trachtenberg deliver a new masterpiece that critics are calling “riveting, gripping and loaded with tension” (Scott Mantz, “Access Hollywood”) when 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE debuts on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand June 14, 2016 from Paramount Home Media Distribution.  The film arrives two weeks early on Digital HD May 31.                  
Certified Fresh by critics with a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes, 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE delivers “heart-pounding fun” (Patrick Stinson, “Made in Hollywood”) that will “shock you senseless” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone).  After a catastrophic car crash, a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) wakes up in a survivalist’s (John Goodman, Argo) underground bunker. He claims to have saved her from an apocalyptic attack that has left the outside world uninhabitable. His theories are supported by a mysterious stranger who is in the bunker with them (John Gallagher, Jr., “The Newsroom”),  but as his increasingly suspicious actions lead her to question his motives, she'll have to escape in order to discover the truth.                 
With a shocking finale that “will completely blow you away” (Eric Eisenberg, Cinemablend), 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE looks phenomenal on Blu-ray.  The Combo Pack includes Digital HD, commentary with director Dan Trachtenberg and producer J.J. Abrams, and over 30 minutes of special features. Take an extensive look behind-the-scenes with Abrams and the cast as they revisit the legacy of 2008’s CLOVERFIELD, and discuss how 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE went from script to production. Continue with a tour of the ominous bunker, see how the costume designer was challenged to create a homemade Hazmat suit, follow the production team and sound designers as they work on the movie's epic finale, and hear the unique scores composed for each character.  Plus, for a limited time only, get a bonus Digital HD copy of the original CLOVERFIELD with the Blu-ray Combo Pack.  

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Produced by:  J.J. Abrams
Writers: Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken
Cast: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr.,  Douglas M. Griffin, Suzanne Cryer, Bradley Cooper, Sumalee Montano, Frank Mottek
Rated: PG-13

This is a standard Rafflecopter giveaway. In order to be one of the three (3) lucky winners you must follow this blog using Bloglovin and leave a comment below telling me what you would do if you woke up in an unknown underground bunker. You can gain additional entries by doing a number of other tasks listed in the widget below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This post and giveaway were sponsored but I did not receive monetary compensation. I'll be receiving my own 10 Cloverfield Lane DVD.

June 5, 2016

Sunday Steal...

1. Do You Skip Meals Sometimes?  
All the time.

2. Last Time You Overate?  
Friday night. I had all you can eat sushi with Day and Toni.

3. Do You Like Mexican Food?  
I do! I had Mexican for lunch yesterday.

4. Do You Like Chinese Food?  
Not really.

5. Do You Like Italian Food?  
Love Italian food.
 
6. Do You Like American Food?  
Some, not all of it.

7. Have You Ever Been On A Diet? 
Of course.

8. Do You Like Vegetables?  
Yes I do.

9. On A Scale From 1-5 How Much Do You Eat A Day (1= Not Eating, 5= Eating 3 Meals)?  
Four.

10. Do You Think You Eat Healthily?  
Sometimes but not really. I love cheese.

11. Do You Think You Are Ugly?  
Nope.

12. Do You Like Your Hair?  
I do but I'm bummed I had to cut so much of it off after the last time I dyed it.

13. Do You Like The Way You Look?  
Yes.

14. Would You Want To Change Anything?  
I like myself.

15. Do You Ever Wear A Lucky Color?  
Nope.

16. Do yYou Care How Other People See You?  
90% of the time I have no fucks to give.

17. Do You Or Have You Ever Worn Braces?  
Yup.

18. Do You Wear Glasses And/Or Contacts?  
Not currently because I've had LASIK twice.

19. Do You Want To Gain Weight, Lose Weight, Or Stay About The Same?  
I could lose weight or stay the same and be fine.

20. What Do You Do If You Have The Flu?  
I've never had the flu.

21. How Many Tries To Get Your Drivers License?  
Two times.

22. Are You Saving Up For Anything In The Future?  
No. I spend all my money on vacations and makeup.

23. Do You Have A Lot Of Spare Time?  
Depends... Some months I do and others I don't.

24. Do You Consider Yourself A Responsible Person?  
Yes and no...

25. Do You Consider Yourself A Lazy Person?
Hell yeah I am.

June 2, 2016

Twenty-Nine On The 29th | My Sister's Birthday Weekend...

So aside from being Memorial Day weekend this past weekend, it was also my sister's birthday weekend and as you can probably guess, we did a whole bunch of celebrating.

My sister's birthday weekend celebration started on Saturday evening with twenty people (Yup, you read that right... We were rolling twenty people deep) bar hopping locally here on Long Island. We hit up a few bars until we found one that had a DJ playing good music and we just danced for hours.
Eventually we got tired of dancing and decided to move along to another bar, where the crowd that was left had a few drinks before someone asked me to convince my sister that it would be a good idea to go to the local diner for a very late night snack. As you can probably guess it wasn't a very hard thing to do, all I did was say bacon a few times and she was totally in the mood for diner food.

We made our way to the diner where we had the nastiest waitress ever (I was dead sober so I can honestly tell you, she was a miserable old lady) who was totally mean to us, but the majority of the group was drunk so they didn't notice.

After eating our over priced diner food ($9.75 for six mozzarella sticks?!?!!) I drove my sister, her boyfriend, Toni and Amanda all home and didn't get into my own be until about 4:30AM.

Sunday was her actual birthday. So after spending the morning recovering from the evening before at our respective apartments, we met up at our parents' house with our significant others and went out for an early dinner at a local seafood place.
After filling up on our early dinner, we headed back to our parents' house to relax and digest before diving into her cake (Which thankfully wasn't a chocolate chocolate chocolate cake because that's what she normally gets and I hate super chocolatey cakes).

Over all it was an extremely successful birthday weekend with no drama (Well I hide the one bit of drama from my sister so she wouldn't freak out -- Her ex-boyfriend left a message on my Facebook status about being at the first bar that I had to delete so my sister and her current boyfriend wouldn't see it) and she really enjoyed herself, which is all that I care about.

June 1, 2016

Month In Review: May 2016...

♥ Having an awesome little Mother's Day lunch with my family.
♥ Celebrating my sister's 29th birthday with a whole weekend full of events.
♥ Getting tickets to the Studio Ghibli Museum for when Justin & I are in Japan.
♥ Booking all of our Airbnbs and hotels for Japan & Hong Kong.
♥ Having an amazing day in NYC with my sister, Day, Toni, Liz & Rob.
♥ Making vegan dinner for my friends.
♥ Hanging out with Day in Brooklyn and attending the Homegrown Heroes Music Festival.
♥ Celebrating my friend's son's 5th birthday.
 
LASIK Enhancement
Fat Kid | Not So Grand Fiesta
Slowly Booking Japan & Hong Kong
Bottles Of Champs & Hotel Parties | Brunch
Night Out In Brooklyn | Homegrown Heroes Music Festival

 
♥ The F Word/What If (2013) ♥
♥ Deadly Possessions (2016 - Present) ♥