Halloween / Sandy

I LOVE HALLOWEEN. I really do. I attribute it to the fact that I have always had amazing costumes. My mimi is a top-knotch seamstress, and she always made me elaborate, crazy-awesome costumes. Everything from the Statue of Liberty to Glenda the Good Witch (complete with gigantic beautiful crown) to Harry Potter. And she was sweet enough to make my (surprisingly complicated) costume this year! I went with a Game of Thrones Daenerys Targaryen costume (KHALEESI)!

Amazing, right?

So anyway, Eliana and I had a Halloween party!

So if you know anything about Game of Thrones, you know that Daenerys Targaryen is the mother of dragons. Therefore, Eliana dressed up as a dragon.

My dragon trying to eat me?

Trying really hard to pose for a serious picture

...our best attempt at an in-character picture. This is who we are, people.

Hanna dressed as a Freudian Slip. GET IT? I love this costume.

Sam and Patrick. not sure what's happening here...

David (who is maybe dressed as Ira Glass?) and Sarah, dressed as Flo from the Progressive commercials!

Chioma (dressed as a witch, even though you can't see the top of her hat) and me!

Captain Dragon

Rachel and Mikey aka Wendy and Peter Pan!

That was Friday night. And then came...Sandy. All day Saturday, all my family members were calling, texting, and e-mailing to make sure I was prepared. Eliana (my roommate), who is a born-and-raised New Yorker, p'shawed. "It'll just rain a little bit." I agreed with her, but I was also a little anxious. So I stocked up on bottled water, SPAM, and triple-A's, just in case. Sunday is when the rain started and when NYU canceled class. Of course, I was psyched. By the end of Monday (having been INCREDIBLY unproductive due to canceled school), I was getting a little bored. Well, Sandy took care of that! I live in lower Manhattan, so around 8:30 Monday night, we lost power. Naturally, our immediate reaction was to build a blanket fort.

BLANKET FORT!!!

Sign on the door to the emergency exit in my dorm.

Our rations during the blackout.

Only I would make a salad in the middle of a blackout. (Gotta eat those veggies/cheeses before they spoil!)

Ensuring everyone that I was okay and safe in my blanket fort.

"I'm ready for the lights to come back."

The next day, after it stopped raining, we ventured out to see what we could see. Here are some Hurricane Sandy pictures.

Stoplights were out.

Only a few intersections had traffic cops. New Yorkers seemed to be driving civilly, though (for the first time ever).

Working on the subway 

The entire facade was ripped off

Below the facade-less building 

The small yellow taped-up sign says "Cell Phone Charging" 

Lots of downed limbs everywhere

Tuesday night, when told to evacuate, instead of squatting in the student center, we high-tailed it out to Queens to Eliana's home! (Although, Alec Baldwin did visit the refugees staying in the student center. But showers and sleeping in a bed beats Alec Baldwin, I must say.) We ate a lot of junk food, watched a lot of Friends, and I saw Star Wars (Episode IV) for the first time (I KNOW, HOW HAD I NOT SEEN IT BEFORE). We had a nice, long Sandycation, but I must say, I was glad to get back to normal life. 

I am proud to say I survived my first hurricane! I was very fortunate to not be all that affected by the storm, unlike a lot of other New Yorkers, who have lost their homes. I highly encourage all of you to help in any way you can! Feminspire.com posted a fantastic list of ways you can lend a hand here: http://feminspire.com/how-you-can-help-victims-of-superstorm-sandy/. 

Stay warm, everyone! A "nor'easter" (I still don't understand what this means, even after having it explained to me several times and comprehensively scanning the Wikipedia page. IT JUST SEEMS LIKE A BLIZZARD TO ME.) has hit us, and it is fierce. This Little Bitty is not accustomed to all this extreme East Coast weather. Throw a tornado my way, I am a champ. But hurricanes and nor'easters? I haven't got a clue.

Sorry I'm So Flaky / Recent NY Happenings

Okay, okay. I know it's been a while. And for that, I apologize. As my mom informed me via Facebook, all of you adoring fans are awaiting this post.

Blogspot says I last posted on July 7th. Since then, I have slept a lot, read a lot, went to the beach, and moved back to New York. Yes, Little Bitty is back in the city! I've done quite a lot since being back, which I will commence to recap here.

I've seen lots of plays!

First was Clybourne Park. I went with one of my BFFs, Kirk, who just moved to NYC! He had already seen the play (he's quite the theater buff), and knowing that I would love it, insisted that I see it, too.

It was fantastic! Thought-provoking, fresh, hilarious, and heartbreaking. All at the same time.

Next was Into the Woods in Central Park! Getting tickets to Shakespeare (or in this case, Sondheim) in the Park is pretty difficult. Nevertheless, Kirk (see, told you he was a theater buff) called me one day at 12:58 pm, just two minutes before the daily drawing for tickets to the show, and told me to enter. I secured my entry with 30 seconds to spare. And I won! On my first try, too. (I might add that Kirk had been entering every day for the past week and I won on my first time, so I'm just a little bit luckier than him...)

Don't you miss seeing Penelope on SNL this season? At least you have me to pretend to be better than everyone else & twirl my hair. It's almost the same thing.

The lucky winning tickets!

The beautiful set

The show was fantastic! Amy Adams was great! As was Sarah Stiles as Little Red Riding Hood.

and finally...Bring It On: The Musical.
Yup. It's a thing. AND I SAW IT. My BFF Josh was coming to visit New York (FOR THE FIRST TIME!) and I knew that he of all people would be the only one that would understand my want need to see this show.

It was nothing like everyone's favorite early-aughts quotable pre-Serious Actress Kirsten Dunst cheerleading movie. BUT IT WAS AWESOME. How do they do those stunts?! How do they change costumes so quickly?! I'll never know.

Some other pictures from Josh's trip:

One of my favorite fall activities in NYC is Fashion's Night Out! FNO is a worldwide event where stores stay open late and have raffles and parties and things. To me, Fashion's Night Out is an excuse to look fancy and get free things. My bestie/roommate Eliana, her sister Sara, and I decided spur-of-the-moment to head out into SoHo to see what we could see. Plus, Eliana heard there were free cupcakes.

Sara & Eliana waiting for free cupcakes. 

Eliana & yours truly.

MODELS, OBVIOUSLY

the site of free cupcakes!

OMG CUPCAKES

my cupcake! red velvet <3

the cupcakes of The Sisters B.

my ~fashionable~ outfit 

Aside from the suffocating crowds, FNO was a resounding success. Any night that involves free cupcakes is a resounding success, though, isn't it?

AND I almost forgot one important update!! I FINALLY OWN COWBOY BOOTS. One of my besties, Kacie (owner of Rowdy Maui!), is getting married in December and she's gonna have the most adorable country chic wedding! And I'm lucky enough to get to be a bridesmaid! Us bridesmaids are wearing cowboy boots with our dresses. I have been wanting some cowboy boots forever, and this was the perfect excuse to get me a pair. Can I just say that I have been ROCKING them around NYC? They're my new favorite way to represent my homeland out here in the concrete jungle. Mix one signature Texan look with infamous New York attitude (really, though, I treat every sidewalk as my own personal runway when I'm wearing these), and you've got yourself one Little Bitty in the City.

(P.S. Thanks to Kirk and Josh. I stole some of their pictures from Instagram.)

Don't worry, I haven't betrayed you!

But I did blog on another blog. My amazing boss, Jess, asked me to write a post about my experience at Badgerdog. And I had a fantastic time interning with them and really enjoyed writing the post, so I thought I'd share the Badgerblog (my favorite portmanteau ever) with you! Here it is:

http://www.badgerdog.org/badgerblog/2012/07/06/oh-badgerdog-how-i-love-thee/

Leaving Austin tomorrow to go back home and do schoolwork and get tan for the rest of the summer. I'm much more confident in my driving skills this time around! Have a good rest of the weekend, everyone!

Little Bitty in ANOTHER City / This I Used to Believe (Or, The Time I Almost Transferred Schools)

Well, I'm in Texas for the summer... but I'm still Little Bitty in a city! Just not the city. I'm in Austin, y'all! The capitol of this glorious state! I'm here for about a month doing an internship with an amazing nonprofit called Badgerdog. They build literary communities in Austin, from writing workshops with senior citizens to writing summer camps for kids, which is what I'm helping out with. I love Austin so far, and I love Badgerdog even more. But, I have to say, I really miss New York!

So at Badgerdog summer camp, they have the coolest teachers who give them really creative and fun prompts, and often, I write along with them. I wanted to share something that I wrote at camp a couple of days ago. I was in the upper elementary class (5th/6th grade), and the teacher, Claire, played a segment of This American Life called This I Used to Believe (I would explain it here, but it's kinda sorta lengthy, so just click the link if you're intrigued). Essentially, the prompt was to write about what we believe or what we used to believe (I picked the latter). Here's what I wrote. It's about how I got to NYU and my subsequent first year living in New York (which is why I thought it was appropriate to share on this here blog!).

Once upon a time, I believed that New York City was the greatest place on this earth. Of course, I had only been there once, the summer after sixth grade, but after that trip to the concrete jungle, I absolutely knew that New York was the greatest place in the world, and nothing could stop me from getting there and staying there. Then, I saw a movie--I don't remember what it was called, but I think it starred Scarlett Johansson and I remember her character telling her father, "I want to go to NYU. They have a great creative writing program there." That was my lightbulb moment. I didn't even question whether or not NYU actually had a great creative writing program. From that moment on, my whole life was determined: I would go to NYU, study English and creative writing, and leave Texas behind forever. Everything I did in school was geared toward my goal. If I did badly on a chemistry test, it would instigate an emotional breakdown. My logic went as follows: now that I got a bad grade, I will make a "B" in my class, my GPA will be shattered, and I will not get into NYU. There was no consoling me.


Fast forward a few years. The happiest day of my life, the day I found out that NYU wanted me for the class of 2013, had come and gone, and I was smack-dab in the middle of my freshman year. And I was miserable. New York was desperately lonely. It seemed everyone at NYU was too cool for the girl from a tiny town in Texas. The friends I did manage to make, I didn't like all that much. The city was so lonely--everyone always on their own trajectories, without time to involve themselves in someone else's. I missed being asked how I was doing, I missed the word "y'all," I missed queso, I missed driving, I missed being able to see for miles, and I desperately missed my family.


I missed Texas. I wanted to return to the glorious land that I had always taken for granted. I knew I would stick it out until I loved New York, but one day I would return to the place where my heart always stayed. 

Little Bitty: Boston Edition

Hello, little bitties!!!! I apologize for my lack of posts. The end of the semester felt like a tornado of stress and things to do, but I successfully completed my third year at NYU! Now that things have slowed down a bit, I hope I can get back to posting more regularly.

Last time I promised you the deets of my trip to Boston! I went with two of my NYBFF's (New York Best Friends Forever), Megan and Brandon, to visit our other friend, Jaya! The four of us met last summer when we all did NYU's Writers in Paris program. Jaya goes to Wellesley College, so we thought springtime was the perfect time to escape New York for a weekend and go to the lush land of Wellesley!

We're in Boston!!

After picking us up from the bus station, Jaya (center) took us to eat the world's best ice cream (according to the New York Times, anyway)!

...and then I proceeded to get the world's best ice cream all over my face and hair. Here I am after attempting to get all the chocolate off.

Then we took the Peter Pan bus to Wellesley and ate a baguette...we miss Paris!

We also balanced coins on our noses...it's very difficult, you know.

That night, Jaya took us to Block Party. It's a giant dance party on Wellesley's quad thrown by all of Wellesley's societies. All of us NYU students were excited to do something that felt so much like a real college (which NYU most definitely is NOT). Can't you see the glee and bewilderment on Brandon's and my faces?

Bananaphones are the best and coolest form of communication.

My personal favorite banana variation: Banana King Tut.

Megan's sweater got stolen at Block Party, so we went to the Gap (one of the few shops in Wellesley, where there is also an artisan vinegar shop?). We also found some very strange and very entertaining fur... collars? Headbands? Scarves? Who knows.

Then we went back to Wellesley College and walked around the lake there! Lots of lovely scenery to take photos of.

Failed piggyback in the woods.

Jaya practicing planking's predecessor, horsemaning.

We found a great log/limb to sit on and dip our feet in the cold lake.

After a long day of hiking around Wellesley, Brandon gave us head massages that left our hair looking very silly.

The next day, we were going to go into Boston and explore, but it was POURING! Here we are looking very soaked (or, in Jaya's words, soggy), waiting for the commuter train to the bus stop. We were sad to part from our beloved Jaya!

It was a premium weekend! If only it could have been longer. It was great to get away from the concrete jungle from a couple of days and see some TREES!! It reminded me a bit of luscious East Texas. And Jaya was the best hostess we could have asked for! Hopefully I can go back again in the fall!

Special thanks to Brandon because I used some of his pictures.

Some Suggested Reading

So, if you're reading this blog, you're either my mother or you're mildly interested in the experience of a small-town Texan in New York. And my mom informed me the other day that when you hit "next blog" at the top of my page, it takes you to assorted mommy blogs, which are great (I mean really, who can resist a good mommy blog? Pastels and chubby cheeks galore!) but completely unrelated to my own blog. If you want to read some good stuff that might be loosely connected to my blog, I've stumbled upon a few good ones in the last few weeks.

1) "New York, I Miss You." @ Cheeky Cheeky

This post comes from one of my favorite blogs, Cheeky Cheeky. Carmen is hilarious and adorable, which are the two qualities your blog needs to have to make me love it. She moved from New York back to Ohio, much like I will be moving from New York back to Texas in December (whaaat?). Reading her post is like a message from my future. See item #1 on her list of things she misses about New York:

Food At All Times- When you live in New York, you tend to take for granted the fact that you can get thai food delivered to your apartment at 3AM any night of the week. You can also get liquor delivered to your office (I srsly did this ALL the time. Ooops?) Ohio doesn't work like that. We've got delivery pizza... and that's about it. Oh, and they stop delivering at like 10pm. If you've got the munchies late at night, you have to get your ass up and make food in this foreign land called a "kitchen." THAT'S NOT LIVING, MY FRIENDS! Not only that, but all this food that you can get at all times in New York is DELICIOUS. Some of the best food you'll ever eat. UGH- get in my belly!

2) Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess)'s New Book Let's Pretend This Never Happened

The Bloggess is, as millions of people (LITERALLY) have attested, is REALLY funny. And guess what? She's from Texas! Her book, which I had the privilege of sneak-peeking at my internship, is as funny as her blog and it includes lots of stories about growing up in West Texas. If you're cheap and don't want to buy her book, at least visit her blog. Here is one of many beautiful nuggets:

It’s 2am and I’m only half awake because of all the sleeping pills but I just had a million dollar idea and if I put it on the internet no one can steal it, plus I’ll remember it in the morning. 

STRAWBERRY GRAVY. 

That is all.

3) "Texans Thrive in New York City" @ The New York Times

Ha! See? I wasn't just blowing smoke. I thrive. If the New York Times says it, it is invariably true. This is a nice article, although it is a little bit snooty. It speaks the truth, though. It gives some good links for Texan-approved places in NYC. I'll be the judge of that. I also approve of anything that compares Louboutins with cowboy boots:

He guides me over the wooden floors to the shoe department (“The holiest of holies!”), where he pronounces Christian Louboutin’s red-soled architectural marvels to be the most Texan of footwear. “Animal hides! High heels!” he says. “They’re just like cowboy boots! Texas is the only place in the world where men’s footwear costs as much as women’s.”

That's all for now, little bitties. Coming soon: my trip to Boston!

NYU Has Sports?

Once, while wasting time between classes in the massive, echoey lobby of NYU’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, I overheard a tour guide telling a group of prospective students that “people don’t think we have sports, but we’re actually pretty good at them.” He proceeded to rattle off statistics about a bunch of championships that we had won, which were probably made up. I love NYU, but if there’s one thing we’re not known for, it is our athletic prowess (except in fencing—word on the street is that we are AWESOME at fencing). I love my program, I love the “campus,” and I love our weird school history — like our mascot. We were the Violets forever, but then someone had the bright idea to get a more ferocious mascot, so we picked the Bobcats, which not-so-ferociously comes from our library database, BobCat (a portmanteau of Bobst Catalog). Yet our sports teams are still the Violets. I don’t get it either. I don’t think anyone at NYU gets it. (Oh, and we were the Violets originally because Washington Square Park, the centerpiece of our “campus,” used to be filled with violets. Because of the great 1831 NYC Parks and Recreation Department’s great gardening skills? No. Because underneath WSP lies a ton of dead bodies because it used to be a potter’s field, and violets thrive in cemetaries. Yup.)

...anyway. Point is, I love my school but we’re a little bit lacking in the athletics department. (Although our bookstore does sell ironic “NYU Football” t-shirts, even though we haven’t had a football team since 1952. So appropriate.)

Every NYU student is constantly plagued by e-mails, usually from listservs they didn’t realize they were on (is this a phenomenon at other schools too?). Every so often, we’ll get an invitation to something called “Tear It Up.” Sometimes you’ll even encounter people on campus trying to shove a fluorescent flyer in your hand, also advertising this “Tear It Up.” I was vaguely aware that it was sports-related, but I didn’t really pay much attention because…it’s NYU. But, after almost three years of being away from Holliday, I kind of miss the school spirit that I was indoctrinated with for 13 years. I missed the sense of unity that comes from victory (and I don’t want to brag, but…you get that feeling a lot at Holliday). I never thought I would say it, but I missed watching my school play sports.

So, I decided to investigate “Tear It Up.” Turns out, it’s just a normal sporting event, but they give out free food and free t-shirts. I thought I would have to attend Tear It Up alone, because most of my friends are pretty dubious about NYU athletics (I can't say I blame them). Attending a men's volleyball game alone would have likely been the single most pathetic thing I've ever done in my life, but luckily, I somehow wrangled one of my friends, Kiara, into going with me!

Kiara, looking adorable while enjoying the free food.

I can earnestly say that I was shocked at the number of purple-clad NYU students that were at this men’s volleyball game against Stevens Institute of Technology. And we even ended up winning! …Or so I hear. Kiara and I left before the final set because, let’s be real here, it was getting late and I don’t have that much school spirit.

The team that led us to victory

Here's a way more impressive and valiant photo that I found here (where you can even read all the exciting details of the game!)

I feel satisfied that I can say I’ve had an experience most NYU students haven’t—I have witnessed the existence of NYU athletics. And the shirts are pretty legit!

Go Violets!!