[no] sex and the city.

Does anyone know of a diet where you can eat whatever you want whenever you want without consequences? It's an emergency. Because after spending 6 days literally eating my way through the Big Apple, my body is paying for it. But I don't want to have to stop eating, because I consider it one of my best talents. So just get back to me on that one.

Regardless of the circumstantial weight gain (I'm hoping that because it's vacation weight gain it will just go away now that I'm back to real life), my weekend in New York was excellent. I'm talking, like, one of my favorite trips ever.  Wanna see?

what's the first thing you do when you land in NYC during a snow storm and all public transit is backed up? take a $40 cab. at least, that's what i would do. 

 

hotel empire. no, i definitely didn't stand outside this building for 10+ minutes waiting for chuck bass to walk out. why? was someone spying on me?

the highlineeee! i spent my first morning in the city exploring chelsea market. and i'm obsessed.

anything with lights will be photographed. and used for home inspiration.

ok woops same picture twice in a row, awkward. anyways. like i said, i ate my way through the city (including lots of oyster bars, which are apparently trendy?).

beautiful view of the city! after walking down 5th avenue and stopping in at the plaza for cupcakes, we landed in columbus circle for - surprise! - treats.

shake shack and tiffany's - the essence of nyc, amirite??

i met up with my michael friend in front of lincoln center on friday night, after which we went to a foriegn film and walked around soho aaaaaand...

THIS is the only picture i took. of our hummus and bread at a midnight cafe. i'm so disappointed in myself.

aren't they cute?

THE MET omg i could live there.

just wanna live here, that's all.

after the met, nate and i went to the restaurant where valerie works, and it was ritzyyy. it was on the upper east side (hi blair!) and we were treated to sparkling water and a cheesecake tree. what the what i was in heaven.

every morning, n&v would make coffee but they felt bad, i guess, because i didn't drink coffee. so nate started bringing my DC with lemons.

i just decided that if i was a couple, i would want someone following me around taking pictures of us. but because i am, in fact, single (i know, weird!), i will just be the photographer.

our day in brooklyn started with the smorgasbord flea market! we came for the food and...didn't stay long enough to see what they had to offer. cause we were in a hurry to get to grimaldi's pizza, dangit!

see?? they're just so cute

after our trek across the brooklyn bridge, we were all so frozen we couldn't speak. so we went back to the columbus circle lookout to a lounge and got treats (of course) and played shuffle board.

cue family facetime session. poor G was in the hospital the whole weekend my parents were visitng, so nate and i cheered him up (maybe?) sunday night.

introducing nate and valerie to snapchat was one of the highlights of the trip. we spent the whole day sitting next to each other...snapchatting each other.

this was my favorite day - we ate in and explored soho and, of course, did shopping.

samples of our snapchats.

valerie bought a scarf from zara and nate "tried it on" for 6 hours. and after insisting on holding the bags while we waited to be seated for dinner, he was looking extra fabulous.

#bonding. i look waaaay too excited, it's embarrassing.

nate and his ladies.

just being divas.

my special needs brother loves cupcakes as much as i do.

Needless to say, it was an amazing trip. Sure, I may have come back to a buttload of homework, debt, rash on my leg, and the flu (ok that's dramatic it's just a cold BUT FOR THE SAKE OF THE STORY just...ok?) but it was totally worth it. 

Bye New York. You were good to me. 

psuedo hot tubbing + shameless fast food runs.

Oy.


Women are a strong, hearty, smooth bunch. We birth babies and stub our toes and pluck our eyebrows. We kick a lot of a$$.

But sometimes, we melt. Usually in the instance that a boy is around and doing cute things. Case in point: C took me out to dinner then the BYU basketball game, and let me tell you, that boy is a good date. He is THE most validating human on this planet, he makes me feel so good, like I could go out and catch another dude. After spending this much time with him, he has quickly become one of my favorite people.  Even when we're with a big group of people - like the Super Bowl or the Cards Against Humanity game night we had - it just feels so comfortable to be with him. This whole thing is turning out to be quite the surprise.



In other news, yes, this happened again. Sorry the bathtub is our safe place! Where any (and I do mean any) topic can be discussed! And relationship advice can be dealt out like we actually know what we're talking about!

This week has been a busy one, but if you know me, you know I'm never too busy for a Sonic/Sodalicious run. So on Tuesday night, M and I bonded over his love of high school girls (lol) and flappy birds.  Then the very next night, Emilee and I found ourselves curled up in my car chatting about love lives (cause WHAT ELSE is there to talk about when you're girls, amirite??) Sonic is such a funny place to me. Like, if you have a car, you can roll up to the drive-thru and get your 4,000-calorie meal handed to you without even having to put on shoes or throw away your pride!

Here's to another week full up Dirty Dr. Pepper's, hot tubbing, and (hopefully) taking more pictures!

ox/C

my future children are up for sale!

........

The beginning of 2014 didn't start perfectly - there were definitely some road bumps that set me back, and I almost feel like I have come to terms with the fact that I could potentially be poor forever (I won't deny the fact that I have looked into donating my eggs and also food stamps...? anyone else out there feeling destitute alongside me? cool). my name is christina + i have no money to offer + i may not ever, thx teacher salaries. hear me roar. 

Last night at FHE, my wonderful psuedo-husband (being FHE mom may or may not be the death of me + my happiness on Monday nights) gave a spiritual thought based on President Monson's talk Your Future Is As Bright As Your Faith. And I got to thinking about how we are rarely in stable, happy, successful, perfect situations. Heavenly Father doesn't want us to become too comfortable, because without change we could not perfect ourselves and progress. 2014 has taught me, so far, that it is okay to not have everything together all the time + to not alllllways be happy + not allllways be charming and fun. it's okay to not know how everything is going to turn out + to have my heart in vulnerable situations because then I prove to myself just how important my feelings are. And it's also great to take time to decide what's important to me, how I feel about certain things, and how I can show love to people that are different from me. 

Also, it's okay (I hope) to know the workers at sodalicious by name and base my validation on the words of phlebotomists who all think Mimi and I are just the greatest humans alive. 

Remember M? I guess he could be considered one of my roadbumps (I know that's dramatic but hello sorry I have a sensitive heart!) at the beginning of this year. But last night, I was invited over to his apartment to watch a movie, and I didn't think he would be there so I said sure! But of course, he was there, and it was actually great to chat with him. We sat in his kitchen for the whole movie and just laughed and chatted and it felt totally normal. It was also refreshing because I didn't feel any lingering feelings for him. When I got up to leave, he put on his shoes and walked me to my car. He asked if we could get in my car and talk for a minute (which, I mean, those are the scariest words to hear cause what did i do?? they're just like texts from parents that say "call me" or "how is your bank account?"). He apologized over and over again for not handling the situation very well and opened up a little to me about why he felt like we couldn't date. Next thing I know, he was telling me how he still liked me, and maybeeee in the future he could take me out on a date and we could try again? Likeeee maybe this weekend, if I wasn't busy? 

I have no idea where any of that came from, but I just told him to take his time to do whatever he needs to do, and we can hang out whenever he wants to! But obviously something didn't work the first time so let's not rush to make anything happen. 

It felt good to say to him, to say the least. And it was fun to bond with him again! 

And now, top snapchats of the week: 

Life is cool, guys. 

Also p.s. is there such a thing as a functioning relationship where both parties just decide they like each other and bam we'll work through all our problems together? Two of my roommates have something figured out so TEACH ME YOUR WAYS. 

ox/C