a eulogy for my hair straightener.

Dear wet 'n' wild wet2straight 1.5 inch hair straightener,

When we met back in 2008 and I brought you home with me to my dorm in lavis hall, I couldn't have known how close we would become over the course of your lifetime.

As far as hair straighteners go, you were the bees knees and a trooper at that. You flew with me countless times to England and back to see rich, to Puerto Rico, Spain, and a few others. You were a jet setter and a road tripper at heart, nothing made you happier than getting tucked next to the sequined make up pouch in my bag. Not to mention how you came to camp summer '08 and '09 only to wait patiently for me to use you once a week on my night out.

In life you were one of my go tos, a friend who was sure to tell me that my hair looked like crap and to give it a run through your steamy plates. As the years went by and those plates began to wear, you were still my number one girl. I was not ready to say goodbye to you, dear straightener, but like all of us, your time arrived. It was just too soon. Nothing could have prepared me for the grief that I am now feeling, having held you in my hand on most days for the last five years. You were good to me old friend, so I will grieve for you now and pray for your reincarnation so that you may one day be as good of a friend to someone else's unruly locks as you were to mine.

When you went quietly this morning, halfway through my am straightening routine (that is, left side of the head smooth, right side still fluffy with bed head) I cursed the gods of the morning for bringing me down in yet another way. At least it isn't Monday, I thought. But then something else happened- reality set in and suddenly I was in mourning. My flat and snappy friend was no more. I wrapped your cord slowly around your body so as not to disturb you in your eternal sleep, and I placed you into your Vera Bradley quilted case patterned in Bali gold, a friend of mine older than even you. I slid you into your spot in the draw, wiped away a tear, and baby powdered the crap out of my hair because I was running late for work, as usual.

All I could think of the whole day was you laying all alone in that draw, lifeless, and because life must always go forward, I was wondering what the heck I was going to do with my hair all week in this heat. I am saddened to tell you my dear old friend, that I had to replace you before you even had a chance to get cold (except that's not true, because in these late days of your life you spent more time cold than hot, your basic function no longer easy for you to maintain).

Upon arriving to bed bath and beyond with a 20% coupon in hand, I knew that I only had one chance to replace you and in only one store because I had a froyo/pretty little liars date with the girls. And then I saw her, a hot pink number named Chi, and she was my only option. I went through the pros and cons of her in my head, realized she was the only way my hair was going to look normal this week, and brought her to the checkout counter.

I am nervous wet2straight, because I am afraid that chi won't be able to do the job. She is much thinner than you, and I know you hate skinny bitches as much as I do. But the show must go on, and she will certainly be put to the test. She has a big cord to fill, and even if she is only half the straightener you were, I will consider myself lucky.

So this is my farewell, old friend. We all have to say goodbye to the ones we love sooner or later, I am just torn up about saying it to you sooner. These last five years have been pure magic, and my hair may never be the same again. Thank you for the good times, wet2straight, I'll see you on the other side.

Love always,
Alessia

p.s. I just gave Chi her first run and MAN is she awesome. My hair feels amazing and I don't think I could ever look back now! Sayonara girlfriend!  

i love potatoes so this was interesting.

So this recipe turned out nothing like I thought it was going to, but it was still really delicious. I originally pinned this recipe and thought that it was going to be a mashed potato remix with cauliflower, like the pin said, but it ended up being with actual potatoes. And that's why you check your pins' sources before you pin! But it seems from the comments that a lot of people were fooled.

I followed a recipe loosely based on this impostor recipe, and came up with something that tasted nothing like mashed potatoes, but was so freakin delicious. The only disclaimer though is that even though this is technically a recipe, a lot of the ingredients are to taste, so I didn't really do any measuring. The gist of it is this:

// 1 big head of cauliflower
// 1 clove of garlic
// milk (or half and half) based on the consistency
// 1/4 cup chopped chives
// parmesan cheese to taste
// salt and pepper to taste

1// chop up the cauliflower into chunks and steam over boiling water.
2// mash the steamed cauliflower and drain the excess water. Squeeze out any remaining water with the back of a spoon against the strainer.
3// add the cheese and milk to taste and based on the consistency. The more cheese you use, the more milk you can use to thicken the mixture.
4// mix in the chives, garlic, salt & pepper and add any more milk or cheese based on the final consistency.

And that's about it. This made a great side dish to my signature dish, chicken wrapped in pancetta with leeks. Mm mm goooooood.

rooooooad trip!

When I put going on a road trip on my bucket list, I didn't know if it was going to be something as big as driving to Chicago to see my friend Sheila, or if it would be something a little more low key. Turns out it was the latter, but that's okay! R and I drove out to Amagansett two weeks ago because I had an unexpected Thursday off, and we met up with my friend Meagan and her dad who were staying at a family friend's beach house that I've stayed at before. And when I say beach house I mean the water laps up onto their sandy backyard. Bliss. We got out there around eight and went straight to dinner at Swallow, an awesome little place that has changed owners since the last time I've been there, but definitely for the better. Meagan and I ordered killer blood orange margaritas, and as for the food, everything came as small plates so we all ordered something (then a round two after that). Everything was delish, my favorites specifically were the calamari (which was like sweet and sour Chinese chicken but better) and the muscles, which we ordered twice with two different sauces. Pinches fingers and thumb together and kisses their meeting point. After that we spent some time in the hot tub drinking wine, time that could only be measured by our pruney appendages.
The next morning's early start included bagels and coffee at the bake shoppe, and a wander around the farmer's market. We stumbled across the stand of a very animated woman who owns that company Fat Ass Fudge (as seen on Shark Tank) and bought some delicious peanut butter fudge.The rest of the day was spent in the sun kayaking, reading, napping, and walking up and down the main strip in East Hampton. It was nice to have a day off away from my house so that I had no choice but to sit back and relax. That's what vacation is supposed to be all about, right?
We ended the day with dinner at the Indian Wells Tavern where I had the most amazing prime rib sandwich, and drove home through typical eastern LI traffic. The trip was short but good, and the sunset on the way home was the perfect end to a perfect and relaxing twenty four hours.

tunes tuesday // favorite tracks.

Lately I've been listening to the same few CDs in my car over and over again, Imagine Dragons, Ed Sheeran, Ben Howard, Passenger, Gabrielle Aplin, and One Direction. Pretty standard picks for me. I decided that since I am the type of person that can listen to the same music on a loop without getting too bored of it, I would compile a list of all of the best songs on my favorite albums, you know, the track that you skip to as soon as the CD comes on before you go back to the first song and listen to the whole thing through just so you can hear your favorite twice. Turns out I have a lot of favorite albums and favorite songs that are classics to me, so I narrowed it down to 25 for now.

1// can't help falling in love / ingrid michaelson - be ok
2// walking far from home / iron & wine - kiss each other clean
3// ghosts / laura marling - alas, I cannot swim
4// self-conclusion / the spill canvas - one fell swoop
5// give me love / ed sheeran - +
6// freewheel / duke special - songs from the deep forest
7// you, your cat, and me / frank hamilton - you, your cat, and me: ep
8// enchanted / taylor swift - speak now
9// 9 crimes / damien rice - 9
10// wedding dress / matt nathanson - some mad hope
11// never say never / tristan prettyman - cedar + gold
12// somebody that I used to know / gotye - making mirrors
13// set the fire to the third bar / snow patrol - eyes open
14// yellow / coldplay - parachutes
15// all at once / the fray - how to save a life
16// use somebody / kings of leon - only by the night
17// after the storm / mumford & sons - sigh no more
18// best thing I never had / beyonce - 4
19// little talks / of monsters and men - my head is an animal
20// machines / biffy clyro - puzzle
21// song for the road / david ford - song for the road
22// to take you home / frank turner - love, ire & song
23// iris / goo goo dolls - dizzy up the girl*
24// birds / kate nash - made of bricks
25// brat pack / the rocket summer - hello, good friend
* quite possibly my favorite song of all time.

All of these songs are awesome (read: I think they're awesome, so it's totally biased). Definitely give them all a listen if you haven't heard them before. There are a lot of different genres mixed in there so it truly is a mix tape, there's definitely something for everyone. Listen to my playlist on spotify (you need spotify to listen to a spotify playlist, and if you don't have it you're weird).

& he's gone.

Another airport drop off yesterday, another teary goodbye, and another car ride home spent trying to stifle the sobs. After every one of these trips to the airport I feel a little bit emptier inside than I did the last time. With every drop off and additional time spent apart I get less sad and more angry that it has to be the way it is. And knowing that the result of this drop off is another full year apart just makes me sick to my stomach. An entire year. 365 days of "I miss you"s - exactly what I didn't want after hitting our five year milestone last month. In this next year it is in my estimation that we'll spend about sixty three days together (most of which one of us will spend waiting for the other to get home from work at the end of the day to spend a few hours with before they pass out).

That's 17% of the year at best. The other 83% of my year will be spent attached to my iPhone, waiting for an opportunity to FaceTime, iMessaging the crap out of my data plan, and wondering why I'm going home to my parents instead of the guy I love. These past four weeks weren't ideal what with me working full time and R being stuck at home waiting for me (not to mention sleeping in my full size bed with Lucas at the foot of it every night), but they were good and they went as fast as they always do because our time spent together is so seamless and easy.

This past Friday Rich came to work with me and it was just such a picture of my future life. I've seen him with kids before, but seeing him with Max, a kid who I am so in love with and spend so much of my time with, made it so much harder for me to have to say goodbye to him. I want to be  spending my spare time apartment shopping and talking about the future, not retreating to my parents house boyfriendless while R flies 3,500 miles away from me. I'm more determined than ever to move out on my own and hope that at the end of this year R can follow me wherever I go. For now, I'm still finding myself as a long distance relationship connoisseur, something that I hope will change after a few years of normalcy. I'll get back to you then I guess.

pinterest to-do list // drinks & cocktails.

Even though I haven't finished my first pinterest to-do list, I decided I would start another one from my cocktails board to work on simultaneously so that I have a variety of tasks at hand. This one is going to be all about the art of the cocktail. Actually, that's a lie. None of these are that intense, but they all really appeal to my taste so I'm hoping that at least one of these will end up being a go-to.

1// pomegranate lime white wine spritzer. There's just nothing about this name that I don't like. White wine is my preferred choice, I put limes in everything, and pomegranate is delish.

2// strawberry sangria. I love strawberries and I love sangria. I'm seeing a pattern in my reasoning already.

3// raspberry beer cocktail. Well, for this one, I do love raspberry, don't like beer as much. However, I had a beer cocktail for one of my college housemate's birthdays and it was really good, so I'm thinking we revisit it.

4// pink grapefruit margaritas. Margaritas are one of my go-to's because I love tequila, so changing it up with pink grapefruit should be amazing.

5// sparkling white peach sangria. White wine, peaches & bubbles? Mmmmm.

6// strawberry coconut margarita. Another delicious sounding take on a classic marg.

7// apple cider sangria. I'll have to do this one just in time for fall!

8// sparkling grapefruit cocktail. Have I mentioned I love grapefruit and drinks with bubbles?

9// raspberry mango sangria. Raspberry, mango, white wine...you get the idea.

10// strawberry lemonade. This is the only list item without alcohol, so by the end of this I will either love that it isn't a cocktail, or I'll be adding rum to it to get it on the level of the other guys. We shall see.

So a run down: strawberries, good; raspberries, good; grapefruit, good; white wine, good; bubbles, goooood.

See my progress here.

boozy brooklyn.

This past Sunday R and I drove out to Williamsburg in Brooklyn to go on the Urban Oyster tour of the Brooklyn Brewery, which he got me for our anniversary. Little did I know, this tour was also of the Brooklyn Winery and the New York Distilling Company as well. This kind of screws up my plans for a day at a vineyard, because I was apparently wrong about where you should go to taste wine, but I'll explain later.The tour started at the Brooklyn Brewery, where we got a mini tour of the machinery in the back and it was explained to us and our six tourmates how beer is made. I went on a similar tour in Colorado, so the fact that we were ten minutes late (oops) wasn't a huge deal. After that, we were brought to the tasting, which was obviously the best part. We were given tasters of eight different beers, including a 'brewmaster's reserve' beer that will be gone forever after it's limited appearance. The beers included (from left to right, top to bottom) the Halfling, Brooklyner Weisse, Brooklyn Radius, Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn Brown Ale, Scorcher #366, Sorachi Ace, and the 'I Wanna Rye It', which is a hilarious name, but a really heavy beer, which is not my thing. I should have mentioned in the beginning of this that I really am not a beer drinker. I prefer cider when I have to drink a beverage like this, but really I'm a wine and tequila girl, so I went into this keeping an open mind, yet knowing my own preferences. I ended up falling in love with the second sample, the weisse, probably because it's made with the tastes of bananas, cloves & melon. Yum. I also really enjoyed the Scorcher (the brewmaster's reserve), which is a shame because it is so limited, and the Sorachi Ace, even though that was on the heavier side as well. The Halfling tasted just like any other beer, the Radius was similar to the Weisse but lacking some of the flavor, and the Lager was boring to me, as was the brown ale. I think they did a really good job impressing me though, and I liked a lot more than I thought I would. While our tour guide was speaking about the beers and the brewery's history, we drank our samples and ate thin crust Brooklyn style pizza from Fornino's, which was quite possibly the best part.After the brewery we walked over to the Brooklyn Winery, which was my favorite of the three places. I love wine so much, and our tour guide from the winery was amazing. She knew so much about everything, she was funny, and she let us peek into the room that a wedding was going to take place in later that afternoon. [One of the things she explained was that a vineyard and a winery are two seperate things, and they are not necessarily next to each other, and rarely are. The diagram above explains that they get their grapes for different wines imported from Sonoma, CA, and the Fingerlakes and North Fork of Long Island in NY. I still kind of want to go on a vineyard tour, but I would rather find one that is a winery as well, or has a tasting room, so who knows if it'll happen this summer. Bummer, but I'm glad I got to do tasting on this tour.]Our UO tour guide also gave us information about their wine, and we tasted a stainless steel aged riesling (right), and a cabernet sauvignon (left). I'm not a huge red wine drinker, but this one tasted like blackberries and was pretty good, and the white was crisp and delicious. I was extremely pleased with the wine, the tour, the atmosphere, and the music in this place. Also, they do live screenings of Breaking Bad every weekend. I don't watch that show, but I think it's fun that they do stuff like that. However, because this is a small, craft winery, the wine is sooooo expensive, and I don't think I could ever just sit there and enjoy a glass or two of wine at at least $14 a pop.Our last stop was the NY Distilling Co., which was probably my least favorite in terms of drinks, but I liked the actual place a lot. Because you can't serve alcohol in an actual distillery, they built on a tiny attachment called 'the Shanty', where there is a little bar, a few tables, and a lot of alcohol. We got to try the two types of gin that they make on site, Perry's Tot, which is Navy strength gin that burns your throat on it's way down, and Dorothy Parker, an American gin that is slightly less burny and a little tastier, but still not so much my style. They also make whiskey on site, but because whiskey has to age for three years by law and the distillery is only about a year and a half old, it's not ready yet.After the two mini shots we were served a 'Tot + Tonic', a classic G+T made with the Perry's Tot. It was really strong, but with another squeeze of lime I think I could have really liked it.This is my drink post lime squeeze, and just a little bit more full than how I left it at the end of the tour. Overall, it was an awesome day, really fun, really boozy, really hipstery Brooklyn (which I secretly love), and R and I got a nice little chunk of time to do something fun on our own. I really recommend doing this tour if you live in NY or are planning on visiting (and are over 21 of course). It is worth the money and definitely a worthy day out.

currently.

living in maxi skirts.

playing with bubbles on the regular.
trying out new hairstyles, mostly buns.
listening to 'best song ever' on repeat (max is partially to blame for this one, but I don't hate it).

watching every episode of friends on a loop with R.

planning this weekend.

dreading rich leaving after it.

wishing I had more time to run lately.

thinking I probably need a hair cut.

partying with the girls while outdoor parties are still doable.
working on my summer book and loving it.

feeling motivated to post five-six days a week.
reading blog, inc. by joy of oh joy! and loving it.
getting excited for fall with each passing day and nightly temperature drop.
snuggling with max whenever I can.

loving august.

cheesy enchilada casserole.

Cooking really makes me happy, especially when it's something I see in a book or on pinterest and I know that it's going to be easy and delicious. But sometimes it's not as easy or delicious as you thought it would be. This is an example of that.

On my to-do list for food, I included this enchilada casserole. It sounded yummy, and who doesn't love enchiladas? Turns out I still prefer enchiladas in enchilada form, but I think I can rev up this recipe a little bit to get it to be more exciting. This dish wasn't completely horrible, just a little too rich and mostly deprived of any nutritional value (which is fine when it's something delish, but not something that you're not crazy about).

There are probably tons of people out there who will love this dish, so I will do my best to describe it and try to include some suggestions I have that could have made it better for me, even after the adapting I did to the recipe in the first place to accommodate my family's tastes.

Ingredients [with adaptations]:
// 12 soft corn tortillas [twelve is way too many in my opinion, I used eight and it was still way too much, so I'd go for about four. The tortillas that don't sit on the top get very soggy and thick and it was a very odd texture and definitely took away from the flavor of the meat and everything else]
// 1 lb. ground beef
// 1 can chopped olives [I used a small can and it was plenty]
// 2 10 oz. cans cream of chicken soup [the original recipe called for one chicken and one cream of mushroom soup, I used both chicken instead but honestly could have used just one and would have been more than fine]
// 1 10 oz. can enchilada sauce
// 1/2  chopped white onion [could have definitely used a whole onion in the end]
// 1 lb. shredded mexican blend cheese
-------------------------------------------------
would have included:
// 1 large chopped tomato
// chives to taste

Instructions based on what I did and what I would change for next time:
1// cook minced beef thoroughly in a sauce pan.
2// mix together soup, enchilada sauce, olives, onions, chives, & tomatoes.
3// add the beef and cheese to the mixture and transfer into a casserole dish after combining everything.
4// cut up tortillas into eighths and add to casserole dish, making sure each piece is sticking out a little bit, rather than shoved inside [this will prevent most of the sogginess on the inside, and plus, the crunchy ones on the outside were my favorite part].
5// bake on 350*F for 45-55 minutes.
6// garnish with sour cream, guac, or salsa (even all three).

Like I said, this dish wasn't terrible, it was just a little bit overwhelming. I served lettuce and tomato on the side along with fresh corn + feta guacamole and sour cream. My whole family enjoyed it for the most part, we just decided that it was too heavy, it was a little too liquidy, there wasn't enough beef for how much soup there was, and there wasn't nearly enough onion. The point of this recipe is that it is supposed to be easier than just making enchiladas, but to be honest, I've made them before with R and they didn't really take any longer; if anything, less time is taken because they don't cook as long and the prep doesn't include chopping up the tortillas, just rolling them.

I suggest making this if you're adventurous and love Mexican food like my family does, but bear in mind how heavy it may be even with my proposed changes. It's not for delicate eaters, that's for sure!

summer book // update 2.

Have I mentioned how much I'm loving getting back into scrapbooking? I LOVE it. I'm so excited about this book that I find myself saving every little scrap of anything during my days just so I can sit down and make a page when I get home.

I paper clipped a few pictures of the picnic I went on with my friends to the left page and used a smash stamp and elise's i love stamp to decorate. I slipped a pretty forever 21 tag into the top ring and used the back of it to journal about spending way too much money there for summer clothes. I used a vellum envelope that I scored in an 8 pack from ac moore for a dollar, and slipped in all of my memorabilia from the taylor swift and ed sheeran concert.

Because the envelope was see-through, I made sure I put things from the concert flipped both ways, and put a picture of ed sheeran performing on the back. On the right page I put a few pictures from my trip to the boardy barn with my friends, along with some random journaling and a sticker from the fine establishment.

I used a full 4x6 photo of my running shoes after a long run because I loved the colors and thought it would look better bigger. On the right I took a page out of elise's book and copy pasted the text from a 'currently' blog post, which I printed straight on the paper that came in the book, and made the text all dark yellow to match a little smash tab that I have been trying to find a use for.

I pasted in two movie tickets, one from a dinner and movie date with my frien
ds to see the heat (pretty funny), another one from the way, way back, which I saw with R and my friend Meagan (2/3 of us were sobbing at the end, I'll leave it up to your imagination though). I used letter stickers from michael's that I got so long ago and removed from the packaging, but it was nice to finally use them. On the right I put three of the twenty pictures I took the day before R got here of max throwing a tantrum, and threw on a piece of washi tape from target to add a bit of journaling because it matched the shirt max is wearing in the pictures. I'm weird like that.

I printed another 4x6 picture of mine and rich's drinks at a ben howard concert in central park and added flair buttons that say his and hers. I slipped the ticket from the show in between, and put a picture of us on the right with some journaling, letter stamps from michael's dollar section, and an ampersand stamp from paper source.

That's most of what I've got so far, besides a bunch of half finished pages, so to be continued again!

Supplies used: vellum envelopes from ac moore, elise joy's i love stamp, smash date stamp, mt washi tape, smash tabs, target washi tape, flair buttons from ormolu, letter stamps from michael's, kc collection hole punch, polka dot labels from michael's.

buffalo chicken dip.

YUM, is all I will say to start this off. I love buffalo chicken, I love spicy, and I love dips. Win, win, win here with this recipe (adapted from here).

Ingredients

// 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast

// 12 oz. frank's hot sauce

// 8 oz. cream cheese

// 1 cup mexican blend shredded cheese (or any shredded cheese of your choice)

// 1 cup bleu cheese dressing (I only had ranch at hand but bleu cheese is the way to go if you like either)

1// poach the chicken [note: I looked up a few different ways to do this, and in the end I combined a few because it was my first time doing it. Boil water in a pot, put chicken breasts cut in half in the water, immediately turn heat down to low, let chicken simmer for 25 minutes or until cooked through].

2// shred the chicken into bits and soak in the hot sauce.

3// spread the cream cheese on the bottom of a casserole dish.

4// add soaked chicken on top, followed by the cheese and the drizzled dressing.

5// bake on 350*F for 20 minutes, then broil for 2-3 minutes to crisp up the cheese on the top.

6// serve with chips, celery, bread bits, or a spoon.

lust list.

Today has been like a half summer, half fall day and it is making me so ready for fall. If I'm being honest I'm always ready for fall, but even more so now that the nights have finally started cooling down, sweaters have been making more and more appearances outside of my closet, and socks might be bearable again soon. With that said, these things that I've been lusting over are half fall, and half for my new desk (details about that project to come!)

1. trouser socks // j.crew
2. ny necklace // baublebar
3. polka dot backpack // forever 21
4. bicycle bookends // cottonon typo
5. chambray dress // h&m
6. sassy pants tee // skreened
7. eiffel tower scissors // cottonon typo

Want 'em, need 'em, gotta have 'em.

have a six flags day.

Every year my mom's company gets half price six flags tickets, which you think I would take advantage of more often, but I hadn't been in about three years. So I put it on my bucket list along with all of the other fun stuff I wanted to do this summer, which lit a fire under me to get my friends together, buy tickets, and go. That being said, I barely took my phone out while we were there because it was hot and my wristlet was attached to my pants and I probably wouldn't bother to post about it if it weren't on the bucket list. But it is so I will. End of rant.

On Sunday morning me and seven of my friends hopped into the car and drove out to Jersey for our little road trip to great adventure. Two hours later we made it, parked in the tweety bird four section, scanned our tickets (a simple process made difficult by a ticket lady who would not let R go through the turnstile without saying a million things in his accent - I don't know why I keep taking him places), and got on line for kingda ka. Bold move.

Kingda ka is probably one of the only roller coasters that no matter how many times I go on it, I will always get that nervous pit in my belly beforehand, and I was especially nervous this time because I hadn't been on a roller coaster in three years before Sunday and this was our first one. But to be honest, it was probably the best choice we made all day. The line was only a half hour long when normally it takes absolutely forever, and it set the tone for the rest of the day in that we weren't nervous or anxious at all for the rest of the coasters we rode.

After the whiplash that is kdk, we headed over to the green lantern, which I was excited about because I had never been on it, and it is a standing roller coaster, a type I've never been on. Double whammy. Not. The coaster was sooooo average with drops and flips, but also a lot of curves that are the type that make your neck hurt, the line took so long, and the standing part ended up being annoying rather than novelty because after 45 minutes in line I really just wanted to sit for a minute or two. So overall, I'm unimpressed with that one and probably won't waste the time to wait on line for it again on any of my next visits.

After that we went over to El Toro, which I had only ever ridden once, but it is definitely one of my favorites. The drops are huge, you're held by a tiny hip bar that causes your tush to leave the seat the whole time, which is the best kind of ride I think, and it's really long. It's a winner.

Then we walked to Bizarro, which used to be Medusa, but I don't think that they changed the track at all, just the colors and designs. It is another favorite of mine because your feet dangle out of the car. Lastly, we went on Nitro, which has always been the one I look forward to most anytime I visit six flags. It is just so much fun. It's another one of the tiny hip bar rides, the ascension takes forever and makes you all giggly, and the last thirty seconds of up and down drops are amazing. I did black out once on Nitro though during a part where they twist you around tight loops because your brain gets smashed against the side of your head and your vision gets all blurry. The rest of the ride makes it worth it though!

And that's about it. I didn't take any pictures of the roller coasters, I didn't try to sneak ones of the funny faces we made on the rides, and I didn't even get a group shot of the eight of us. Fail. But to be honest, it was nice to just enjoy the day without my phone, and I kind of wish that I didn't even take it with me because holding a wristlet and trying to tuck it into my pockets on the rides was a hassle. But I did get this gem of a photo of a 1D in a log. It would have taken someone a while to carve that in, and it was very high up if you can tell from the  fence that is just at the bottom of the photo. I admire this person's dedication to One Direction. They can hang with me anytime.

So that's six flags ala me. Not too exciting sounding, but it's definitely worth going if you've never been and love rollercoasters. Another bucket list item done, and many more left with a worrying month and a bit until fall! Time to crack down.

corn + feta guac.

I'm positive that I must have mentioned quite a few times that I have an intense passion for guacamole. I could eat it anytime, anywhere, on anything. See an example in my revolutionized guacamole grilled cheese.

Another recipe on my pinterest to-do list // food edition was corn and feta guac (adapted from here), and it was soooo easy to make and so delish.

// 2 large avocados

// 1/2 cup corn

// 1/2-1/3 cup feta

// 1/2 medium red onion

// clove of garlic

// 2 tbsp. lime juice

// ~1 tsp. pepper

// ~1 tsp. salt

// 2 tbsp. cilantro (my local supermarket was out of fresh cilantro, which was a bummer because it is my favorite ingredient, but the corn & feta made it less apparent that it wasn't there, so if you don't like cilantro, this will still be great guac)

1// mash avocado.

2// add chopped up red onion and garlic, lime juice, salt + pepper, corn, and most of the feta to the avocado.

3// mix well, top with remaining feta & serve.

That's literally it. The prep takes longer than the making and eating combined, guaranteed. I am convinced now that the guacamole possibilities in life are endless.

i love you to...

...the moon and back.