All posts filed under: America

More Things To Do In The Steel City

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Originally posted on for the love of nike:
After spending Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh, I have a few more travel tips for ya. (Just in case you didn’t get your fill from this one or this one.) Where to Stay: Hotel Monaco: This trendy spot is in a fun location downtown. It’s filled with whacky art, and if you’re there when the weather is accommodating, there’s a great rooftop bar. We had brunch at The Commoner on the lower level. It’s a fun place to grab a drink or make your own at the bloody mary bar. The Westin Convention Center: We stayed here the same night we went to the Penguins game, so it was quite convenient. (The weird reflective bean hanging thing pictured below is from their lobby.) What to Do: As I’ve said many times before, I love the Carnegie Museum of Art. This go-round, I got to talk to a parrot in the Hélio Oiticica exhibit. There’s also a room filled with hammocks where you can hang out and jam to Jimi…

Why I Must be a Better Citizen

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Originally posted on Travel Bugg :
? It happened. The thing we all laughed about, but no one took seriously. The thing that was too tinted by a surreal, orange haze to be considered a true threat. We elected a candidate whose rhetoric is openly misogynistic, racist and xenophobic, who is largely unfit to be president. What were we thinking? This isn’t the America we all know and love. Except it is. The current rhetoric is not new. It is not special to this election and it negatively affects millions of neighbors around the world in their day-to-day lives. We are all joking about moving to Canada to sing kumbaya with Justin Trudeau and the mounties, but the thing is, we can make those jokes. In most parts of the world, if your leader sucks, you can’t just leave. You don’t have a universal passport to get you to a safer, less stressful place. You have to go through miles of desert or years of legal paperwork. You have to get on an overcrowded boat, even…

Exploring Connecticut: Kent Falls

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Originally posted on The Picky Eater Travels:
I recently went to Kent Falls located in Kent, Connecticut with my friend, and I visit here about 2 times a year in the warmer months. However, with all the nice weather recently I decided to be daring and visit during February. Looking back at it, that might have been a bit of a mistake. First of all, there was ice all around where the falls was so you couldn’t walk directly to the bottom of the falls unless you want to look like a penguin sliding on your stomach all the way to the falls. Even some of the stone steps were covered in ice, but it made it a little easier with a hand rail there to hold on to. And lastly, I almost got lost in the woods because of all the rain recently there was mud everywhere on the other side of the trail so it made it difficult to spot the trail or to even cross it. However, this seems like something that…

Manhattan

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?? ?I exited my apartment building, curt note in hand for the UPS delivery person: The buzzer for 2R is broken – please leave delivery inside the door. Contrary to what somebody told you yesterday, there are tenants in 2R – one especially who would have loved to have slept on a mattress last night. I crammed the note between the old brick wall and the broken buzzer and made my way down the now-familiar street to get coffee at a café that I had been referred to by seasoned locals. They’d been here since August, anyway. The rectangular olive-green sign beckoned me onward, steel and hard with flashing bulbs that made it look like an old and woefully lost Vegas sign. I ordered an almond croissant and a cappuccino and took a seat at a small, round marble table. I found myself flanked by hipsters, the luminescent glow of chalky white Apples and the click-click-click of their modern keyboards surrounding me. Extremely conscious of being the only person in the large café without a…

The Paradox Of Expectations

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Originally posted on A Couple Talks:
Oh WordPress, how I’ve missed you. Actually, no, I haven’t. I’ll come clean; I almost forgot the password to this?account. Guess you’re our illegitimate stepchild after all. We go into blogging with the mindset that we’ll keep it up and post regularly. I mean, c’mon, surely we have at least fifteen minutes a day that we can spare to blog, right? Right? No, we do not. We’re too busy watching the same Vine loop a thousand times on our phone or stalking our ex-lover, ex-friend, ex-coworker, ex-whatever on Facebook. If you’re new to blogging, just know this: one day you’ll hate blogging. I listened to a podcast episode of NPR’s Hidden Brain the other day. This episode featured Aziz Ansari, and they discussed a concept known as the paradox of choice. We love having options, but is there such a thing as having too many options? I do get frustrated when I can’t decide on an entree at a restaurant that has a million dishes to choose from, as…

D.C. Days: The Capital in Under 48 Hours

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Originally posted on Erin Leigh Ever After:
A big problem about catching the travel bug is being 22 and broke. A quick-fix solution for this is to keep your trips short and sweet. This sparked the two-day trip to Washington D.C. my boyfriend Nick and I took this fall. Luckily, we live within driving distance (about two and a half hours), which of course saves tons on travel costs! We got there on a Saturday morning and left by Sunday night, but had a awesome, activity packed two days in the nation’s capital. After sitting in traffic most of the morning I finally got into D.C. and met Nick (who was coming from school in Virginia) at The MadHatter. The restaurant was unsurprisingly decked out in all things Alice in Wonderland, but in an almost subtle way that wasn’t completely overwhelming. I didn’t feel like I was in Disneyland; instead there was an assortment of portraits and memorabilia of Alice and the gang along the wood-paneled walls, which I absolutely loved! After a waffle-filled and lovely brunch, we headed over to…

Home Alone is 25 Years Old! Here is a Delightful Oral History

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Originally posted on The Nostalgia Blog:
This is a delightful oral history of what I think is safe to say my generation’s all time favorite Christmas movie, Home Alone (all due respect to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation). The piece is written by James Hughes (son of Home Alone writer, John Hughes) for Chicago magazine which is fitting as the film took place “on the most boring street in the whole United States of America, where nothing even remotely dangerous will ever happen.” which happens to be in Chicago. If you aren’t familiar with oral histories, they are in my opinion the best way to recount stories (especially in the entertainment industry). The reason they are so good is that it is the people involved just recount their versions of what happens which usually makes for a more interesting read. The article is full of fun anecdotes and delightful stories, so please, grab a whole cheese pizza, sit down and enjoy reading this oral history…ya filthy animals. link to oral history found below: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2015/Home-Alone/