I can’t believe everything that’s happened since December, which at this point feels like it was 3 months ago. This month was packed and I was super productive – yes, I am tooting my own horn, but I’m proud of running at 10 miles an hour recently. I don’t even know how I did all of the below and still managed to fit in the entire series of Making a Murderer, a repeat viewing of all seven seasons of 30 Rock, my last two events as a TriviaAD host, my French lessons (and homework) at Fluent City, and two and a half books.

A New Blog!

After years of wanting to change and months of sitting on the domain name, I officially moved my blog over from Blogspot to WordPress and “rebranded” (I hate that word) to 10 Miles Behind Me. This change was long overdue and has motivated me to work super hard on the blog this month. I’m still editing and reformatting old posts, but I’m already back in 2012. There are still more changes to come, so stay tuned!

Posts I Wrote This Month:

• A New Look for the New Year
• 2015 Resolution. Check!
• The Best Snack in Charleston, SC
• A Sunset in Venice Beach
• The Largest Elephant in the World
• Should You Volunteer to be Bumped off a Flight?

A New Year!

I started off the year with my dear friend, Erin, aka The World Wanderer. I unexpectedly found myself without plans for New Year’s and we decided to take a yoga / meditation retreat in upstate New York. Yoga, I’m used to. Meditation, I was not. It was certainly something different and I’d wished there had been more yoga involved and a little less spirituality, but I’m glad we did it. Erin writes about the experience here.

A New City!

As a follow-up to last year’s MLK weekend trip to Charleston, South Carolina, the same sister/cousin/frousin crew traveled to Austin, Texas this MLK. We spent the weekend eating a ridiculous number of tacos and doughnuts, being treated like straight-up royalty at Olamaie, seeing live music (Dale Watson <3), walking along the river, trying on cowboy boots and hats, making friends with and being entertained by many Uber drivers, and tons and tons of giggling. I also earned $1300 toward future flights by giving up my seat on the plane back! Other Austin posts to come in upcoming months.

Old Friends!

I spent two weekends in a row with some of my closest friends from college who don’t mind when I show off my yoga moves in the middle of the living room or eat the entire tray of brownies. My friend Jenna just moved to the city and we caught up those two nights and over coffees and avocado toast at an Australian cafe, Little Collins.

Kater and I finally saw each other for the first time since AUGUST at Cafe Select in Nolita and relived our Swiss days. Look for an upcoming Global Bites without the Flights feature on our private chalet fondue meal.

Aubrey and I got together a few times, including for my cousin Jake’s birthday at Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club in Brooklyn, where I want to go every weekend from now on, and at Ample Hills Creamery, where I want to go every *day* from now on.

I also took some (long) lunches with my amazing coworkers to some of my favorite downtown restaurants – Khe-Yo (a Global Bites!), Viet Cafe, and the Ear Inn – where I’m pretty sure Mickey, the resident ghost, tugged on my ponytail.

Travel Friends!

Katie, Marie, Karissa, and I met up in West Harlem at Safari, the city’s only Somalian restaurant. I’ll be writing about the meal (during which I ate goat for the first time) for Global Bites without the Flights. Plans are in the works for a February dinner.

I spent the second weekend in January at the NY Times Travel Show, which is wonderful for performances, panels, lectures, and destination booths, but mostly for the after parties. I became inspired for future travels by the booths, the programs, and by my conversations with others who are as overly obsessed with seeing the world as I am.

Erin and I met up for a quick bite at Ruby’s, another Australian place where I had the best salad I had all month (but also the ONLY salad) – shrimp, avocado, greens, & lime dressing. This past weekend was spent with Erin, Lola, and Jeff. We had a fun Friday night starting at Flatiron Hall with a huge pretzel and ending in a variety of nearby dive bars and then had a Saturday brunch at Resto, one of my go-tos. I’m kind of still recovering.

Bruuuuuuuuuuuce

On Wednesday, my sister, my cousins, and some friends of ours went to the Bruce Springsteen concert at Madison Square Garden. In mid-December, I bought 8 tickets on my phone, and my life has changed in about 1,000 ways since that morning. It’s comforting that even with all these changes, some things remain the same. I’ve been to four Bruce concerts since moving to NYC – all with my sister, Katie, all with my cousins Christie & Emily, all with a heart-bursting performance of my favorite Bruce song, “Thunder Road.” The ridiculously wide smile I felt on my face during the concert did not go unnoticed.

February, whatchu got?

xx