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Um poco de Portgual

I was pumped to go to Portugal. Ever since I laid my eyes on Cristiano Ronaldo at the tender age of 12 I’ve been obsessed. But looks aside, I think Portuguese  it the prettiest language and have been trying to learn for years. Unfortunately  the only things I can say are “where is the hotel”, “I have a multi colored sofa” and “I don’t speak Portuguese”. All of that being said I loved Portugal, the cathedrals, the people and especially the food. Thank goodness they have lots of bacalao aka codfish because I was starting to sick of all the jamon y queso here in Espana. I was surprised at the pobreza of the city, it’s a little bit rundown but I still loved it and want to definitely come back in the summer months to one of the beach towns.  Anyways, this is Portgual.

Insiders tip: When going to Porto – do NOT chug the wine, despite how good it is. But DO go to Cafe Majestic and the Harry Potter Library.

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Another must is a day trip to the Duoro Valley about 1.5 hours outside of Porto.

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Here is Lisbon ( I prefer Porto) but when in Lisbon – go to Torre de Belem, The monastery, and this super creepy monument dedicated to all the conquistadors.

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Why you don’t text while blacked out

The reason this post isn’t a review of blacking out is because I myself have never personally blacked out. While I’ve forgotten a few details of nights, maybe a conversation here or there or hallucinated a bit I’ve never completely lost a night.

My roommate however is a different story.

This Thursday we decided to go out and celebrate the 4th of July – or not having to go to work Friday. Our night started out pretty good with some reasonable pregaming.

FullSizeRender  <– That’s not a good sign and not at all reasonable

When you pregame like there’s only one way your night is going to end, and that is by sending texts like this.

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This snapshot is giving me ‘Hey I’m really blacked out and am trying my best to hold a conversation but I’m struggling to find the right words any words to say’

Hey does not answer ‘Are you in town’, ‘What’s up’ or ‘Where are you?’, and while it is a nice opening line, it also is not a response to ‘Happy 4th’. It is clearly a sign that someone (my roommate) needs a glass of water, a pillow, or a friend to help her write her text messages.

This my friends is what happens when you black out.

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Review: My attitude p2

Jk. So last night I was laying in bed unable to sleep, wondering why I wasn’t feeling any better and realized that someone people might mistake me for having a bad attitude. But then I realized that wasn’t the case. Yesterday in acting class someone gave me the biggest compliment I could ever ask for. Our teacher was talking about substitution and how if there was a word in the script that we didn’t relate to or that we would never say that we could substitute it for something else. In my scene I had to be angry so I told the guy, I guess you can call me basic? and that will make me mad. This guy who I’m friends with came up to me afterwards and said “I’m surprised someone calling you that would make you mad, you seem like you kinda do whatever you want and don’t care what people think or say about you”

This my friends, might just be my future husband.

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The Secret to Life Part 3

I try really hard to take good care of my nails, I do them every week and try to get a gel manicure at least once a month to give them a chance to grow. When I break a nail or the polish chip I hate it, I hid my hands or peel all the polish off until I can do them again.

This is one of the things I hate the most, I also hate when people don’t realize how short and fleeting life is. In order to keep this post from being sentimental I’ll just dive right in.

I don’t know who told everyone that in order to be a functional person you had to have your first boyfriend in High School, break up with him in college for a few years of partying, finally meet someone your junior year, fall madly in love only to break up again after graduation, have a few more year of craziness, find a 9-5, go to happy on Thursdays, get shitty on Saturdays and spend your Sunday’s recovering, hate your job, struggle continuously until your late 20’s when you finally stable out, advance in your job to make a stable salary. Finally you’ll meet the man of your dreams, fall in love, have kids and at last find your happiness in your husband, your family and your stability.

What a load of shit.

Some of us are on the express train in life, with limited stops while other are on the local train with delays. Either way, we all get to the same place, some of us just have a little more time to enjoy the view than others.

 

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Temping in the city week 2.5

Another day another $10/hour.

I have now moved on to working as a receptionist at a real estate company. Said real estate company provides employees who request free housing. We all know where I’ll be trying to wiggle my way into.

But seriously, these people have some big bucks. The office is located in a very nice, very exclusive and trendy part of Manhattan [and a convenient 10 minute commute from my apartment] and unfortunately for me they are not looking for new hires, but anyways — moving on.

While on the job I’ve compiled a list of things I do and don’t enjoy .

  • I do enjoy the fact that I don’t need to follow traditional office dress rules
  • If I screw up it doesn’t matter…I don’t work there
  • I don’t enjoy that the person who hired me to temp, doesn’t even know who I am
  • The lunch possibilities are endless – Pinkberry delivers
  • I get to participate in all the office gossip with none of the guilt or nervousness associated with consequences of adding my two cents
  • I enjoy getting a pacycheck
  • I don’t enjoy how small it is
  • I like structure
  • But then again I don’t. I haven’t gotten a chance to marathon Breaking Bad in soooo long

All in all I would say things are going pretty good. I’m not tied down, I still have time to work on my site, It’s a pretty good life.

However; I still don’t have benefits.

 

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The 7 things I hate about you aka things I’ve learned since moving to New York

1) The city is expensive: Whenever people ask me I always say “I just moved back to the city two weeks ago” as if I was here already. Let’s be clear I lived in the Bronx, not Manhattan. The difference is about $2-$5 which might not seem like a lot, but let me break this down.

  • Pasta in the Bronx- 29 cents
  • Manhattan- $3.99
  • Ramen in the Bronx- 99 cents
  • Manhattan- $2.39
  • Cheese in the Bronx- $1.99
  • Manhattan- $5.00

So on and so forth. Now I remember why I used to never go to the city in the first place. I could go literally weeks in the Bronx living off of $15. Screw Manhattan and their $11 drinks, I miss the Bronx.

2) There are some real weirdos here: Everyone always says that New York is an eclectic city, people come here to make their dreams come true, it’s a mixing bowl, and that it is. The pickup lines I heard in the Bronx were ridiculous but the ones here are truly absurd, they take it to a new level. Not just that but the things I’ve seen people wear? Like who told you a suit and hiking boots match? Please if you know you’re going to be on the subway during peak hours take a shower and for everyone’s sake paint your toenails before you throw on a pair of flip-flops.

3) Tourists are annoying: I’m from D.C. so I’m used to tourists but these people are just fucking annoying.

4) Food is everywhere:  Within 5 minutes of my apartment there is a Cucina Liberta, Subway, PJ Clarkes, Adrienne’s Pizza Bar, Uno’s, Rise, several liquor stores, a Domino’s, grills and various deli’s and yes all of them deliver. Good thing too because I am literally always hungry. You never realize how much walking you do in this city and just how much energy it takes just to pick up a simple roll of toilet paper. Also I literally can’t walk 3 feet without being engulfed by the smell of roasted nuts- nuts 4 nuts…I hate you.

5) I miss my car: Yes I hate driving, I hate traffic but I miss my car. I couldn’t move my first 4 days here because I was so sore. All this walking is not for me. My back hurt, the legs hurt, my butt hurt, my eyes hurt (the air is not the cleanest), I was a mess. At this rate I’ll be purchasing a new pair of shoes every 5 months.I don’t hate it.

 

Yes this is only 5 things but I can’t think of anymore. I’m happy to be living here but in all seriousness I do need a job.

 

 

 

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Review: Watching TV

So I’ll be moving in a few weeks and I’m trying to explain to my parents the importance of having a TV in my room.

Watching TV for me is like therapy. For two hours a day, six when I was unemployed, I was transported to another land. A land of Kardashians, Mob Wives and Duck Dynasty. I forgot my troubles of being a 22 year old unemployed college graduate who was in $30,000 worth of debt and no way to pay it back (thanks so mom and dad it’s now down to $27,000, yay!). When you’re watching TV time stands still and it moves forward, your mind is still but it’s also running at 1,000 miles an hour. There’s nothing like snuggling up in bed, fixing yourself a delicious snack, settling into a neck pillow and having a four hour Law and Order: SVU marathon for an entire afternoon.

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Review: Jobs

So you’ve put out 20 or 85 resumes and you’ve finally heard back from someone! yay! It’s probably been so long that you’ve forgotten what companies you’ve applied to. You’re excited! Gone are the days of lounging around the house all day, watching all your favorite TV shows, eating endless amounts of Frosted Cheerios at 2:30 pm, and having casual lunches with friends at 4. Finally you’ve entered the real world, you have a bedtime, you have a desk, a computer, a phone, and if you’re lucky a time sheet. Then, after a week, you realize it sucks.
Working is terrible.
I hate waking up early, I hate answering the phone, I hate driving to work, I hate punching in on a time card, I hate having to smile at co-workers at 8:30 in the morning and I especially hate having to put on pants, every.single.day.
You think work life is filled with happy hours, flirting with co-workers, and cute work clothes. You’ll finally be able to save up enough money to buy that fabulous blazer from Zara or those casual nude pumps from Steve Madden, until you see your paycheck and realize that $10 an hour is actually $7 an hour….thank you, taxes.