the most beautiful box ive ever received. everything feels right again

opinion only: i hate corsets, and i hate looking at pictures of girls advertising these. they were designed to force women into an unnatural shape..binding, restricting, and even painful. the thought of people subjecting themselves to this throughout history is bad enough. but the fact that it is viewed in modern times as sexy confuses me. its just a symbol of oppression in my eyes

one day back at work, and now im free again until tuesday! now i can relax and just count down the days until sunday and this:

back back back back back. i missed my freezing cold room. not. but i missed my kitty sooo much. oh btw, i found my fucking nyc cell phone..in my jacket pocket. the OTHER jacket. the one that i took off when i found my winter coat at the airport. i had it with me the whole goddamn time. i even wore that jacket a few days in nyc because it was warm. i. had. the. phone. on. me. so... i technically didnt lose anything on this trip. i got everything back :/ anyways, i put up the entire album but most of the pics youve already seen through my lj posts this past month

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nilbog2021/sets/72157625665713971/

brunch today at boneshakers was so fucking good so i definitely had to take a few pictures. i also ran into two other friends who walked into the restaurant randomly. that was pretty rad. now we are just sitting around watching some shitty snl clips and then im gonna pack and get my shit ready to go to the airport. peace out nyc. berlin, see you some time tomorrow

mac and cheese and turkey club


franch toast


christmas in brooklyn

im home from my last night in nyc and im trying to finish this awesome chocolate cake i got from whole foods yesterday. i didnt take pictures of any of the amazing vegan food i ate during my 9 days here, because ..there was just too fucking much of it and i knew i wasnt gonna want to document all of that awesomeness. there was just literally non stop badass food eating going on.



yesterday i went back to my old job and hung out with my coworkers again. i was the last person to leave at night and i had to turn off all the lights as i left the office and it was such a weird weird feeling...that i really still worked there. it was crazy. its so weird how something can feel sooo familiar even though it was years ago. then we all met up again at ari's house for a slumber party aka just watch shitty movies and have milkshakes and have farting wars. i swear to fucking christ, theres something strange happening to the citizens of nyc..something along the lines of a really bad zombie movie. it seems everyone is slowly becoming infected with lethal amounts of methane in their bodies and are not only farting uncontrollably, but also shitting uncontrollably. the amount of pant-shitting stories ive heard over the past few days is making me think this is truly the beginning of the end..2012, death my methane poisoning/diarrhea. anyways, today we woke up, played some dr mario on wii, and went to brunch. i truly had the best coworkers. they are more than that, they are amazing friends and i love them



i am totally exhausted right now. its been a long 9 days, and really just a long month in general. tomorrow there will be one last brunch with some people and then just hanging out for a bit before i make my long trek out to the airport. my flight is actually at 10:30 at night. i get to london sometime in the morning...and then i have a sweet 6 hour layover there. i hope i dont go mental, or fall asleep and miss my berlin flight. thank god i took tuesday off from work. im going to crash so hard in my bed, with my kitty. i wis i could just skip this whole flying thing and just be back home. i really have to say that its so constantly heartwarming to see so many old faces i love so much, and to hear them say that they are always there for me, that i always have a place to stay, etc etc. so many people that would go out of their way to help me. and i try to show them that i would do the same for them in a heartbeat. always, no matter how much time goes by. and i just got the sweetest email from my dad about our visit. i cant believe this month is over..it went by so fast/slow/crazily and so much stuff happened and i saw so many people. theres nothing else i can say except i love my family and my friends so much. and im really sad to leave and to know that i have to wait way too long to see them again. emotional overload right now. i just wanna cry in my boyfriends arms for a bit

from sunday night

right now im waiting to see if my old boss will be able to make it into the city so i decided to put up some pics from yesterday when me and john walked down bowery aka former "skid row" (crime, brothels, murder, gay bars, cheap saloons) and residence of the "bowery boys" gang. this led us to 5 points, a crossing of 5 streets buried within notorious gang ridden slums. home to death, disease, and infamous fights in early to late 1800s, as portrayed in the true-to-life movie "gangs of new york"



walking down bowery


5 points


5 points




5 points


walking down bowery


CBGBs (rip) was also on the bowery strip


"bandit's roost"


"den of death"

today i missed my boyfriend a lot as i walked around the city and saw things that reminded me of him. 10 more days

youtube pizza beamer party. best way to spend a night where its gonna snow

im sitting in a cafe right now with john, curtis and dennis...me and john just spent the whole day walking around lower manhattan..ill post those pics tomorrow. but i wanted to put some stuff up from yesterday, when we went on a search for my relatives' houses. the first stop was actually right next to wear john and anna live so it was easy. it was the house of my great great grandpa ..so some time in the mid 1850s. unfortunately there was nothing left



then we went out to jamaica to find my grandmas old house from the 30s and 40s. hers is the one with the 3 satellite dishes on it



then we went back into the city and i got my camera fixed in 2 minutes for free at some small shop. it was fucking freezing but we walked through times square just cause we had more time to kill until meeting up with some of my other friends in brooklyn for dinner



can you find me and john on the big screen?


then we had some awesome vegan thai food and went bar hopping



we are gonna have a "best of 2010" youtube/ pizza party tonight and its supposed to snow a lot. wonder if ill get stuck a few extra days in nyc...

im so fucking sore and tired tonight. i walked the entire day from around 12 noon till midnight, while carrying my backpack with all my shit in it. i started out down by battery park to meet raul and close my bank account and get cash out since i already spent all my cash in florida without realizing i would need it in nyc. cant take cash out with my german credit card so i pretty much wouldnt have been able to eat at any small restaurants (including foodswings)

his bank is down on the south end of manhattan so i walked around and saw the statue of liberty, the new york stock exchange, and the world trade center. then i walked all the way up to the lower east side to do some shopping. i also found the store i needed for a friend who wanted some jeans brought back for her. then i went to moo shoes to check out their vegan boots but they were way too expensive so i said peace out bros. then i walked over the williamsburg bridge to get back into brooklyn because i thought it would be nice to take some pics of the skyline from the bridge as the sun was setting. but i forgot about the high chain fences that keep you from taking nice pics. so ..i didnt get any nice pics. then i met with raul and my friend craig who just moved to philly from long beach and came out to nyc to hang! last time i saw him was when him and evey crashed at my house for a week last february. so that was a sweet reunion. we ate lots of shitty but awesome vegan food at foodswings. i got a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, 2 pieces of fried chicken, and a mint cookie milk shake. raul went home but me and craig decided to walk from williamsburg down to the brooklyn bridge. i was a bit nervous because foodswings always gives me the shits big time...and at first when we started our hour long walk, my stomach was starting to act really sketchy. but thankfully it went away..that would have sucked because we definitely would have been in the middle of nowhere, with no bathrooms. so..fuck yea!!! we walked through the crazy hasidic jew part of brooklyn which is like a completely different world, passed some creepy abandoned houses and finally made it to the bridge in freezing cold. hung out there for a bit, then we took the train up to central park where we walked around and then got some hot chocolate and headed back home because by that time i was so fucking tired, i could barely keep my eyes open. and i feel a million knots in my shoulders right now...i wish massages were cheap because i would go get one tomorrow. anyways it was worth it because today ruled and i didnt have to crap the whole time.







more here http://www.flickr.com/photos/nilbog2021/

today i went to my old job and hung out with my bestees there. it was just like old times! except cooler because i didnt have to actually work while i was there.


then i met up with some super old friends from college and we bar hopped a little bit around williamsburg.






the past two days were awesome too because i met up with some other of my awesomest friends and we ate so much food, had youtube parties, and went to a few bars. it made me so happy! but also sad because the times are so short.



im doing well at seeing a lot of people so far, but its definitely starting to get more and more stressful organizing meet-ups when i have no phone. i really hope i can manage to see everyone i want to, and im really glad i made this list of people i need to see because its helping big time. and i need to remember to put aside time for myself to actually relax and walk around the city too.. AND go on a scavenger hunt for some of this stuff im supposed to bring back for my friends, and also close my american bank account, and get something fixed on my camera. lets see if i can manage all this

i got really lucky last night and delta found another plane and after only two hours of waiting in atlanta we were flying to new york. after dragging my shit around the trains and buses..i got to ryans house at exactly 6pm...which is 12am europe time so i called basti to wish him a happy new year.. he is on tour right now and just finished a show and was probably partying pretty hard. then ryan had a small pre party at his house, entirely of florida friends. everyone that came through the door made the whole room seem like we traveled back in time. most of us in that room started college together when we were 17 and 18. and a few others were met throughout the years in orlando. it was very cool to all be partying together still, just like we were doing for the past 10 years.



then we went to dennis's house (another florida friend) where we met up with even MORE florida friends. it was insanity. we danced really hard and moshed and sang and hugged were taken even deeper into that weird flashback. but it really seems like no matter how much time passes and where people move to, we all somehow still find a way to gravitate towards another and find our way back into each others lives. and im really grateful for this because those friendships were and are so strong, the kind you could never replace no matter how many times you move and meet new people. when you spend so many years with someone and create a history, and pretty much grow up with someone, you have this great bond with them. cant beat it, and i was stoked to be in the room with so many people i love











more here http://www.flickr.com/photos/nilbog2021/

there were so many people i DIDNT see last night, because they were all spread out around brooklyn and manhattan at other parties. but last night was only day 1 of 9 i will be here and ill be making sure i see as many baby loves as possible. i have no cell phone..but ryan gave me a key to his apartment and i can leave all my shit here and even stay in his roommates room while hes gone. ill be couch hopping a bit but its nice to be able to leave all my shit in one central location! friends, fuck yea. happy 1111!!!