My New Look

Even though I wrote an early morning post about Tuesday today, I decided, for whatever reason, that I wouldn't update you on Wednesday's event until Thursday was almost over. Don't ask me why, I think it has to do with being hungry. That's what I blame every other weird decision I make on!

So, Wednesday! Wednesday was a big day for me and Ryan! We got started early to beat the traffic as we headed back to NYC. We also made a pit stop at Dunkin before we hit the road! Once we'd returned, we got ourselves gussied up and went to lunch with Ryan's mom! We didn't really get gussied up for her (although she's obviously worth it), we made ourselves pretty because it was makeover day!

BEFORE

Ok, making ourselves up for a makeover sounds weird, but it wasn't a complete transformation, just the hair, and it is my personal belief that if you're going to get your hair cut, you should dress up so that as you sit staring at your own face for hours, you feel good about it! And I did feel good! I loved my long hair but it was time for a change!!!

The guy who cut our hair was named Marty. We went to his apartment and he did our hair there. He also had a dog named Sassy which may or may not be the best name I've ever heard for a dog. This guy didn't just do hair, his apartment was full of costumes and all sorts of everything because he runs a drag show, does hair/wigs for a few Broadway shows/cruises and had a role written for him on Grace and Frankie which is a Netflix show starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Martin Sheen was texting him while we were there! Basically I was in unfamiliar but amazing hands.

AFTER!!!!!

He started with Ryan because he was doing color and then it was my turn. Like I said, I needed a change! I brought a few pictures but Marty just knew what he wanted to do without even looking at them (conveniently what he wanted was pretty damn close to what I'd been thinking). Ohmygoodness, it was so much fun. I love my new look. I could not be happier with it.

But actually, I could continue to be happy. Cupcakes make me very happy. I'd planned an NYC Cupcake Crawl for December but I never went to NYC in December so it didn't happen. BUT a plan in motion stays in motion, so the Cupcake Crawl was coming six months late! We met up with one of Ryan's roommates, Anna, and took off!

We knew we were going to four bakeries and also that it was crazy hot out, so we decided that the best course of action would to be taking all of our cupcakes to go and comparing them from there. The first bakery we went to was Prohibition Bakery; they make mini-cupcakes with alcohol! Not only do they make cupcakes, but the owners make a cookbook which I bought for Ryan as a belated birthday present!!! (The Cupcake Crawl was originally designed as a birthday celebration). We're going to try to make some cupcakes from the book before I leave. We went to Butter Lane and Sugar Sweet Sunshine bakeries as well and then hit up the big one that I'd been looking forward to the most, Two Little Red Hens. They were literally the big one -- they had the largest cupcakes! I was most looking forward to this one because this bakery consistently makes "best cupcake" lists across the internet, while I found the other ones on a best NYC list (best of NYC still probably means that they're A++ but I also knew that Two Little Red Hens is famous for a chocolate on chocolate on chocolate cupcake known as the Brooklyn Blackout). As one might expect, we ended up with a huge variety of cupcakes, from the aforementioned Brooklyn Blackout to pretzel and beer, salted caramel, Oreo, red velvet, key lime pie and more! I insisted that we try the Brooklyn Blackout first thing when we got back and I might have set the bar too high because it was a work of art that I'm just not sure the other cupcakes will be able to live up to. Chocolate cake, chocolate filling, chocolate frosting and chocolate chips! All of the cupcakes we've tasted have been amazing so far but that one takes the... ya know.

We got some pizza for dinner and then we crashed hardcore. Ryan and I realized that we've been going nonstop since I arrived so a good night's sleep was in order!

Today we were in for another exciting, if not lazier, day! It started off with a trip to the grocery store! Intense stuff, I know! Ryan wanted to make mac and cheese for dinner and I'm his girl for that so we needed supplies! After that, we walked to The Queens Kickshaw which is known across the internet for its fantastic grilled cheese! Now, I really wanted a grilled cheese, but I wanted something else too! My friend, Olivia, also lives in Astoria! She's a former TAD who I trained with and is basically the sweetest person to walk the planet. Sometimes she might be walking on her own planet, but it's a pretty special planet and she's still the sweetest thing! Ugh, I just love her!

So we got sandwiches and caught up. Ryan and I did the thing where we each order a sandwich and then take half. I ordered their egg and cheese while he went with the gouda. The egg and cheese was different than we'd expected. The cheese was on the outside of the sandwich, giving the sandwich a bit of extra crunch but also a slightly burnt feeling. The best part of that one was the maple hot sauce because it had a really nice kick! The gouda sandwich had black bean hummus, guava jam and pickled jalapenos, along with gouda obviously. We really enjoyed both sandwiches but the gouda was our favorite. We probably would have ordered the mac and cheese that they're also known for if we weren't planning on making our own macaroni dish for dinner. After lunch, we said goodbye to Olivia and headed back to Ryan's where we eventually made the previously mentioned macaroni and where I simply hung out all night while he was at work! He is presumably on his way back now and we'll have to head to bed soon to get ready for our final full day of adventures together!