7 Sweets for Your New York Sweetie on Valentine’s Day

A heart-shaped box of chocolates is the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift cliché. If you want to think outside the box this Wednesday, NYC has countless treat options. Here are some of my favorites! 

Li-Lac Chocolates

If your Valentine is a certified Chocolate Lover get them something special from New York City’s very first chocolatier! Li-Lac has been churning out chocolates for V-Day since 1923. One of the more unique things they do are chocolate molds. You’ll find something fun for every taste from pure chocolate miniature dinosaurs to Empire State Buildings, footballs to grand pianos.

Levain Cookies

The most decadent cookies in NYC are from Levain. They’re so big they look like scones! Absolutely delicious and unlike anything you can DIY, you’ll likely have to wait in a line to get your hands on them. The line moves fast (promise!) and makes them more of a special treat! Four flavors to try that would make a perfect quartet of cookies to try – though it would probably take days!

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[Replay Cliché] The Best Valentine’s Day of the Millennium

Originally posted February 2011, gifs added later. 
Still one of the best!

My locker was the place to be in middle school. Giggling groups of girls gathered there. Boys played it cool, casually leaning against the wall, hiding surging hormones and the accompanying acne behind baggy pants and Nick Carter bangs. None of it had anything to do with me. The buzz of activity and angst was all because Kristina Lau was in my home room. Her locker was next to mine.

She was (maybe still is- we’re not Facebook friends so who knows) the rare type of girl who was popular not merely for looks (though she did have boobs before a lot of us) or athletic ability (though she was on the basketball team) but also because she was a genuinely sweet person. The combination of boobs, basketball, and sweetness caught the attentions of the one or two boys who hit puberty in 6th grade. Once they took an interest, peer-pressure and the herd-mentality of tweens (though “tween” was a term yet to be coined) meant she had a steady stream of admirers.

Thus for all visits to my middle school locker,  I was escorted by the clichéd green-eyed monster.

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Weekly New York Minutes #4

Every Friday I feature some fleeting moments from my week that made me stop and think, “I’m so lucky to live in NYC!” Here we go for the first full week of February (oh February…)

It’s one of those winter weeks where I just wanted to wine about the weather! Cold AND snowy AND rainy AND gray – why, winter, why? The sky matches the concrete.

But the sun came out for one day!

So much easier to deal with the cold when it’s sunny out! Honestly, I spent a lot more of this week than usual bundled up in doors! Definitely falling prey to the hibernation trend… Read More

My Experience at the Met’s Mega MUST-SEE “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer”

Every couple of years, an exhibit comes to a New York museum that is such a must-see, you know people will be talking about it for years to come. “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer”, currently on view at the Met for four more days, is one of those exhibits. I knew I would regret it if I missed it so I went one Wednesday on my lunch break. With only 40 minutes, I frantically glanced at each work like a teenager scrolling their Instagram feed. I really didn’t get much out of it, except the ability to say forever more,

“Oh, that historic Michelangelo exhibit the Met had in 2018? Yes, yes, of course I saw it.”

Lame, I know.

I hoped I would have time to go back an really look at the art…

When I visited the museum for the Museum Hack Harry Potter tour, I thought I had my chance. It was a Saturday afternoon and so crowded – of course everyone in NYC wants to see the must-see of the season! But my boyfriend wasn’t feeling great the whole Harry Potter tour…so I conceded to leaving the Met as soon as it ended.

I mean, I’d already seen it. Kinda. Not really.

Then this week I found myself with a free morning. I arrived at the Met at 9:40AM and sat outside for 20 minutes waiting for the museum to open. This is something I’ve never done before…it was touristy, but also rather amazing to be one of the first people inside this epically large museum!  Read More

NY Cliché of the Day: On the Street Where Carrie Bradshaw Lives

Perry Street in New York’s West Village is tree-lined, mostly residential, and only six blocks long. It has a couple cute bars that make for nice first date spots and no shortage of  brownstones to lust after #NYCGOALS. Most New Yorkers would just think of it as another Village street that’s easy to get lost on because it’s not numbered. Yet there is one trivia fact about Perry Street that makes it an ultimate destination for a niche NYC fandom…

On any given day, you’ll find crowds on this quiet New York City street photographing a building just off West 4th. Why??

No, it’s not Alexander Hamilton’s downtown home.

It’s not another addition to Taylor Swift’s real estate empire.

Not Melania Trumps safe house. 

66 Perry Street is Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment from the TV show Sex and the City.

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Museum Hack’s Unofficial, Unlicensed, Unbelievably Awesome Harry Potter Tour of the Met Museum

Harry Potter mania is sweeping NYC what with previews of the Potter play “The Cursed Child” just one month away. Now, you could sit in front of a screen for the next two days and attempt to get tickets… Or you can embrace that you don’t actually want to see a 6 hour play with ticket prices that rival Hamilton!

I solemnly swear I’ve got the perfect Hogwarts ticket for you instead.

Put on your house colors and head to the Met Museum for an event that’s faster than a Firebolt! More Potter-full than this theme restaurant in Brooklyn! Yes it’s-

The Completely Unofficial & Definitely Unlicensed Boy Wizard Museum Hack Tour!

Museum Hack, a tour company I love like Hagrid loves terrifying monsters, is known for energetic, off-the-wall, sassy tours of NYC’s biggest museums. Guides craft their own tours around exhibits and artifacts they are most passionate and interested in. This makes for the most intriguing stories, plus excitement and energy that never stop! Read More