watch out for low flying pigs..

..because I cooked a meal. My friends will tell you, I have not always been very handy around the kitchen. Usually I'll just leave them to it and clean up after. But I think its about time I learned how to cook for myself, so I cooked some chicken breasts.

twas the day before the day before thanksgiving

I'm leaving Boston tomorrow, and, even though its only for five days, I thought I should take a moment to talk about what I'm thankful for in Boston.

Soulfire

Of course the first place I have to mention is the chicken joint. But Soulfire really is that good. The best fried chicken I've had so far in Boston. Its got a great Mo' Town feel inside and a massive TV if you're wanting to watch a game and eat delicious fried chicken, ribs, wings - the list goes on. There's tons of good side dishes and beer to go with the chicken as well; their mac and cheese tastes like how we do it back home! If I'm ever in the mood for some fried chicken tenders these cold Boston days this is the spot that comes to mind. And I always leave satisfied, and the good mood generally lasts for at least day or two. If you haven't been, I highly recommend. If you know of anywhere similar,  tell me.



Autumn at BU

There really is nothing better than fall in New England. And that includes BU - Bright, yellow leaves in front of the GSU, fall colors down Baystate and all throughout South Campus, the Farmers Market on thursdays, and all the trees in front of CAS changing color. Spring is always beautiful too, when all the trees flower, but theres something about walking out of the GSU to bright yellow, or walking down Comm Ave surrounded by oranges and reds that can't be beat. And the sweater-watching is on point.






Insomnia Cookies

This is the first location in Boston and literally around the corner from my house on Commonwealth Ave right by Boston University and our Sundays have never been the same. The very first weekend it opened, my roommate and I ordered Cookie-witches for delivery and they came in under 10 minutes - still hot. When you get a cookie-witch, you choose an ice cream flavor and two types of cookies for either side, but they give you the cookies and the ice cream separate so they done ruin each other. And the cookie is fresh out of the oven. So delicious.










Allston Sunsets

Yes that specific. There's something about the sun setting over the Harvard Ave T stop that gets me every time.

















...Boston Sunsets in General Really

I don't think I've ever been to a city with better sunsets than Boston. It never fails to impress me.














Guessing what color the Pru will be

I always get a kick out of guessing what color the'll light up the top of the Prudential at night. My favorite is the blue - or red, white and blue - and I love coming out of work to a brightly lit Prudential Tower. I can pretty much always see the Pru, and I've started really enjoying that lately. Hancock tower gets all the credit, but I'm team Pru.












My Neighborhood

Most of all, I love living in Brookline. I love all the restaurants, I love Tatte, the corner coffee shop, with all my heart, and I love the way it looked this fall. Not only is my apartment perfectly in between the C and B lines, making my life extremely easy, its also close to everything I could need - grocery, atm, cab stands, crepes, 711, my job and school just to start - making my life easier still! And really, what I love most, is that it actually feels like a neighborhood. I can walk 100 feet off of Comm Ave and feel miles away from the craziness that is Boston University campus. There are gardens, beautiful houses, people walking their dogs, parks - all set not two blocks back from one of the busiest streets in Boston. But somehow it manages to have a completely different atmosphere than its neighbor. Brookline is quiet, peaceful, and pleasant. I could wander those streets for days, especially in autumn.




Hope everyone has safe travels this holiday!

...but if you have a car...

...there are a couple more places I highly recommend going that are closer to Boston. (Distances are mapped from "Boston, MA"). Because sometimes we don't feel like waking up super early or driving super far but still want to get out into nature a bit.

Walden Pond / 32 minutes / I-90 W, I-95 N

I did an extensive post on Walden as my very first post on this blog, so for more detail on this lovely getaway check that out. But for now, Walden is a great place to go for a stroll through the woods and some fresh, fresh air. Walden is a great place to go in the fall especially, but any time is a good time to explore Thoreau's old haunt. There is an easy loop around the pond, and there are often people swimming in the water! It was a bit chilly when I went, but once the weather warms up I would love to try that out myself. Maybe in the spring!

Noanet Woodlands / 33 minutes / I-90 W, I-95 S

The hike to Noanet Peak is a great one. It's not too steep, not too rocky, and ends at a really spectacular view - you can just barely make out Boston from the Summit. This is another great place for a casual day hike - make your way up to the summit (not a strenuous hike at all), bring sandwiches - or, dare I say it, a beer! - and supplies to the top and have a picnic! The fun thing about Noanet, too, is that there is an Old Mill that has been preserved. The trail maps clearly mark how to find it, and its definitely worth the walk over. Noanet is also another one of those places I think could be perfect for any season; when we went it was beautiful, and the trees were still bare with a blanket of leaves on the ground.  Once the flowers come up and everything is green I bet it looks spectacular. But I also think that the woods would look just as good covered in a blanket of snow of awash with fall colors. And, like I said,  the hike to Noanet Peak isn't too tough. It wouldn't be impossible to tackle if there was still a little snow on the ground. Suffice it to say Noanet is more than worth the short drive.

Middlesex Fells Reservation / 16 minutes / I-93 N

The coolest part about Middlesex Fells is how big it is. Not all of it is necessarily what you'd call a "hike", its more of a series of trails through woods surrounding several enormous reservoirs. The trails range from small roads to tiny, winding dirt pathways. There were steep areas, but it really depends on what you are looking for. It's hard to capture Middelsex Fells in one picture - at one point we were on a rocky trail up a pretty steep hill and another we were strolling across a levy next to one of the reservoirs. So basically, it has something for everyone. At one point, we took a side trail towards one of the bigger reservoirs. We ended up finding some rocks by the water, and stopped for a while to enjoy the view and, of course, some snacks we brought along. (Sidenote, A chow chow came up to us out of nowhere, and that was my childhood dog! Quite a coincidence...). But the absolute best part of this place is that the first thing you come upon after parking - at least where we did - is a massive dog park. There were probably 50 dogs running around in a giant field when we got there. (Continuing sidenote, everyone else saw their childhood dogs as well.) My best advice is to go to Middlesex Fells on a clear, sunny day and take a stroll through the woods. Explore the side trails, and get close to the water. And meet a bunch of cute dogs.

things that make me happy: TLC

This performance made me SO HAPPY. If there are any other 90's kids out there, you'll feel me. So happy to see these women together again. Love to Lefteye forever, but Lil Mama is no disappointment. Everyone should watch this.

easy peasy

I realize not everyone has access to a car in Boston, at least not often enough to go on a bunch of hikes and excursions around New England. But everyone can use a little time "out of the city" every once in a while. So these are my favorite places in Boston to get the feel of being away from the city, even just for a bit.

Stop what youre doing and watch this.

This is so hilarious, I love these two. They literally remade the entire Kanye video shot-for-shot. I mean talk about expert newsjacking. Screenshots of my my favorite moments (juxtaposed with the originals, I'm just sayin') are after the break  >>

happy monday

We all remember the quote from office space, but say no to the Mondays! For the more logically-minded of you, heres a step by step for shaking the Monday blues.









FIRST: THERE IS NO SUCH THING. IT IS ALL IN OUR HEADS. Check out this article from NBC News that says our idea of Monday always being the worst day of the week is inconsistent - looking back we assume it was terrible but really (spoiler alert)....its not!  Here's the link to the article.


SECOND: ITS THE BEST DAY TO MAKE A CHANGE. Refinery 29 says that Monday is the best day to start something new. So start a new routine! I'm planning on doing something active (running, working out) every day this week. (This is kind of a cop out, though. We have a rowing machine at home where I'm going in two days, which I will tell you aaaalll about briefly). So instead of wallowing in monday mopiness, make a plan to switch it up for the week! Try to eat healthy for a week, or read a book. So many things to try and explore, why let Monday stop you!


LAST: Look at this. Just look at it.


Don't let yourself be a victim to the Mondays!

i see the ocean!

Today, we meant to get up early and hike either Mt. Greylock or Mt. Washington. But, as it turned out, we didn't wake up until around 10. So, with sunrise being so early (4:15 today!), we didn't really have enough sunlight for a three hour drive and a day-long hike. But we still wanted to get out of the city, and last night Julie brought up the idea of going out to the Cape instead. So, on a whim, that's what we did.

its friday nightt

...and I had so much fun writing my other "things that make me happy" post, I think I want to do another one! This time: BEER. Specifically, IPA's. Here's my personal favs in case you were wondering what to order tonight ;)

things that make me happy: denim

So the point of this blog, which may have gotten lost in the flood of posts about getting out of the city, is being positive and making the most of living in New England. Up to this point I've written a ton about making the most of New England, which lends itself to positivity in my opinion, but I haven't focused much yet on the "happiness" aspect. So I want to start a series of posts called "things that make me happy". Just to share with you and remind myself of everything that, sorry for the redundancy but, makes me happy.

Everyone has that one pair of jeans that is the pair of jeans. The one that makes your butt look awesome and is so comfortable you could sleep in it. I've worked in two different denim retailers, and I absolutely love helping people find that pair. Buying jeans can be such an undertaking - you can go an entire day of shopping and not find that one pair you had your heart set on. There are so many options these days, it can be almost impossible to even know where to start. Every brand is different, every and not every skinny jean is created equal. So I'm going to post up a few of my favorites - just for fun :)

THIS ONE'S A DOOZY.

THIS HIKE WAS THE BEST. WOW.  Monadnock is an awesome climb.

Keeping in the spirit of #tbt....For the first hike of the season this year we went on probably the best hike I've done in New England and one of the best I can remember doing. Living in Boston, or really anywhere in New England, is great because we're within a reasonable driving distance of a zillion mountains. (That's basically what got me thinking I could write about this for a decent amount of time in the first place - between the hikes we've already done and the innumerable amount of hikes we have left to do, there's stories aplenty and plenty to come.) Monadnock was Julie's idea (check out her awesome blog!), but she thought of it in the spring before we all scattered for summer break. So coming back, we decided to take it on! The view from the top looked incredible, so we did some research, got a crew together, and headed out.

Monadnock summit from the road

First off I'd like to point out that Monadnock is WAY taller than it looks from the base. Its 2149' feet to the summit, and it took us a few hours get to the top - though we did stop to take in the views every few minutes. There's a couple main trails  - the White Cross and the White Dot - but we decided to take a combination of the smaller trails to challenge ourselves and to avoid running into a bunch of people. (Just for the record, we took the Lost Farm trail to the Cliff walk and bald rock to the amphitheater trail to the Smith summit trail, and it was intense and beautiful). Monadnock is pretty popular, and there were a good number of families and other groups hiking the two main trails. Even on the smaller footpaths we ended up running into

a lot of people on our way up. The trails are steep and rocky at times, but there are plenty of places to stop and "look at the view" to give yourself a breather. Though the park people may not thank me for saying this, I really recommend getting off the trail a bit to get the full effect of just how awesome the views are all the way up the mountain. We did, and it definitely added to the perfection of the whole experience. We even sang some Pocahontas tunes off the side of the mountain at one point, and got some love from other hikers on their way down.

                 
As we got higher, hikers coming down started telling us to watch out for the "gale" at the top. When we started, it was literally the perfect day to hike. The sun was shining and it was around 60-70 degrees, so it wasn't too hot and wasn't too cold. The later it got, the cloudier it started to get. We made it to Bald Rock, which was probably about an hour from the summit, and the sky was completely grey. The closer we got to the top, the more we started catching on to just how intense this gale everyone was warning us about actually was ...

is it ski season yet?

I only went skiing for the first time last year. Growing up in Tennessee didn't really offer that many chances to hit the slopes - though I did waterski for a few summers. Even after I moved up to Boston I never went because, lets be real, what college kid has the funds to ski all that often. Between renting all the gear I don't have and the pass itself, its usually over 100 dollars per trip. BUT THEN...we discovered Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire.

winter is coming....

Flurries have started to fall, and I'm sure everyone has their own feelings about the freezing cold and mountains of snow New England gets dealt this time of year. Most of us that aren't used to freezing our asses off for months and never seeing the sun tend to lock ourselves away and hibernate, and this post is for us! The outdoors don't shut their doors when it gets cold! Skiing isn't the only thing to do on snowy mountains! And honestly one of the most fun hikes I've ever done was is Burlington, Vermont in the middle of January. So for my first official winter post (yikes), Mt. Philo.

Look how happy we look! Can't have been too rough...

Burlington is literally the coldest place I've ever been. We didn't spend a ton of time exploring the actual city, mainly just around UVM. But after our first night (which was insane, Burlington kids know how to have fun), the whole crew decided to take on Mt. Philo, a small mountain right next to Burlington. By this time, snow had been on the ground for ages. I had no idea we were going to do this, it ended up as more of a spontaneous thing, so all I brought was Hunter boots which, though great, are less than effective for hiking in snow. But it ended up being all the funnier for it.

The trail didn't start out too intense, there were even some stairs right at the beginning, but the higher up the mountain we got, it got more interesting.

          

   

The higher we got, the icier the trail got. At times we were literally falling over each other and sliding back down the trail. *Reminder* I'm wearing Hunter boots. Hunter boots. On an icy trail winding up the littlest mountain that ended up taking quite a while to climb between sliding back down and laughing about it. Not to mention we were all fairly hungover, which made everything at once more difficult and hilarious. Hiking in the snow may seem like the worst, but get some friends together, don't wear Hunter boots, layer up and get ready for some slapstick mountain climbing - which will warm you up anyway! Pretty sure I ended up unzipping my coat after about half an hour. And once we got to the top, it was so worth it. Definitely freezing, but definitely worth freezing for. 

          

       

               

     


So if, like me, you get a bit stir crazy after a few weeks in the city in wintertime, get your favorite people together and tackle a mountain. I mean come on, who doesn't love watching their friends slide down mountains like cartoon characters? Hilarity and great memories will no doubt ensue so DON'T FEAR THE SNOW - its all in the mindset y'all ~ (and the footwear).

it got too cold

...so in honor of everyone's favorite hashtag to hate, here's a summertime throwback.

One of the best weekends I remember was the weekend me and Miles spent in Maine. Maine is one of the most underrated states in terms of how nice everyone is, how pretty everything is, and how good the food is. (Obviously we all know where to go for a lobster roll, but that's not all they got!)  We went two days in a row, if that tells you anything, and they were completely different experiences. One was a low key sunset stroll; the other a goofy, fun filled day of sunshine and froyo.

I got it into my head I had to go to the beach at around one in the afternoon on a Saturday, which is realistically when we would have wanted to get there. But this was Summer 2012, the last summer ever, and I was NOT going to miss out on my last chance to go to the beach. We gathered together some "beach materials", as if I even knew what that entailed, and started driving towards Maine. We hit a ton of traffic, but eventually made it to Wells Beach, and it was love at first sight. We got there late, but it was perfect. We strolled for a few hours and then got a delicious meal by the beach, and it was great.

Here are some photos from Wells. Wish I had more, it really was such a beautiful place.

 

 

The next day when we woke up, we both packed our bags and headed right back up to Maine. But this time, to Short Sands beach. A completely different experience, but what a fun day. The water was absolutely frigid but ya girl went all the way under. The pictures pretty much tell the story with this one, so enjoy those summer vibes in this cold New England chill ~~