Happy Hanukkah

After a great week at home, I flew back to the city just in time for hanukkah. Having not a single jewish friend in the city, it was my job to teach my friends what we do, besides seeing a movie and eating chinese food on christmas. So I decided to have a little hanukkah party thursday night instead of going out for dinner. I made latkes and we drank some Manischewitz, because I had to bring a little tradition to my new home. Entertaining and dinner parties are in my blood, I love having a bunch of people in my apartment, nothing makes me happier.

Most Famous Thursday Night Dinner

Happy Thanksgiving! One of my favorite holidays of the year. My mom always does dinner for our huge family, but this year we had to do it a little differently. We went to my uncles and had a small, peaceful, beautiful thanksgiving, which was great, but just not the same. Either way it was so great to be home and see my friends and family after over three months. It's great to be home in a full house and catch up with friends over a huge dinner where, for some reason we still after all these years have difficulty splitting the bill. No matter how nuts everything get at home sometimes, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

ISTJ: Introverted Sensing with Extroverted Thinking

I am currently enrolled in a course called "Careers and Majors" which basically is for all those students who can't figure out what the hell they want to do with their lives. I thought it would just be something boring and an easy A, but I quickly realized it was so much more. The teacher helped us focus in on our interests through lots of personality tests and different exercises. She really makes me question myself and taught us how our personal values effect our job choices, which was an interesting point I would never think of. I think that a big "aha moment" for me was when we took the Myers Briggs personality test. After answer a series of questions in different ways at the end you come up with four letters that describe your personality. I ended up being an "ISTJ" which was very interesting, I met with my teacher and discussed my results. It was great because it really helped me understand how my personality will benefit me in the work force. I learned that I am a logical thinker, who values tradition, security, and structure and respect facts and concrete information. Although none of this was new information to me, it was very reassuring to me, because it helped confirmed a lot of things I thought about myself and hoped were true. The longer I take this class the more confident I am feeling about what I want to do when I graduate, which is good, because I need there to be something to look forward to. Besides the educational aspect of this class, I have learned what else I value and want later in life, I know I need a job that is structured and creates financial stability for myself. But something interesting I learned about myself that was shocking that I didn't think was a top priority to me, is I need to have a career that will be flexible enough to allow me to spend more time with my family and eventually allow me to have a family. This comes as a shocker to me because I never thought of myself as the married with kids type, but my personality craves stability and family-minded. Learning whats important in life, one class at a time...

The Best Part of Brooklyn: The River Cafe

When my family is in town, there's three places we always go; The River Cafe, Balthazar, and Trattoria del Arte, there the best of the best as far as I'm concerned. For my mom's birthday we decided to go to The River Cafe, and as usual it was absolutely amazing. Of course my mother made friends with the maitre d' who then opened a bottle of champagne for her birthday. They prepare the most amazing foie gras, that we end up ordering as an appetizer every time. And then last but not least, their amazing Brooklyn Bridge dessert! After that amazing restaurant we went and tried out, Colicchio and Sons, Tom Colicchio's newest restaurant that used to be Craft Steak House. The best part of the meal, Tom was actually there that night and came out and we got to meet him. I am not one to get star struck, but I am absolutely obsessed with Top Chef! He was so nice and talked with us and even posed for some pictures. What an amazing week of food and family time!

There's Always Room for Dessert

Since my friends were in town this week, I thought I would take them somewhere really fun. I decided to take them to Max Brenner in Union Square, which is famous for being a chocolate restaurant, yes it's a chocolate restaurant. They do serve lunch and dinner, but their dessert menu is longer than their regular menu. Such a fun, loud, crazy scene, with a wait list starting at an hour and a half! A very fun week with some good friends, who love to mock this blog, but end up reading it anyways.

Always A Great Time

SInce the weather is beautiful, I had to go back to a favorite, Stone Street. Its so great to sit outside at these huge family style tables and enjoy the great weather. We went to Adrienne's Pizza Bar for the first time and made our own pizzas, it was so much fun and our creation came out amazing! Stone Street is one of my favorite things about living downtown, you really can't go wrong with any of the restaurants.

New Slate

Its the beginning of the year again! So many things have changed in a short summer. I got to see a little bit of the world and met some really interesting people. I moved into my new fabulous apartment, with my lovely new roomie, Priya. I really want to begin to make New York my home, and my apartment somewhere I can come home to and relax away from the hectic city. Alright so things that are still the same; still in college, still working in SoHo, still flying back and forth to the west coast to see the family all the time. A few things different; some new friends in the mix and some that aren't anymore, a great new apartment, and last but not least I am single again. So with all this change, again, I feel like the next few years are going to be a transitional time in my life. Instead of being afraid of not being able to control the future, I want to learn how to enjoy the journey a little more, which is easier said than done.