I was going to do a definitive ranking of something important today, but I was trying not to get distracted, so I studied for my test instead. Anna’s best friend from home, Makenzie, flew in today and they are so happy to be with each other it’s so good. She’s so nice! I’m excited for it to be the weekend and for my test to be done and for it to only be 4 more weeks!
I feel out of wack. I feel like I need to reestablish all my schedules and get myself back into check and I think part of that is going to start with actually blogging again. I hate to admit defeat, but Lori Farrell has been kicking my ass at blogging recently, and definitely wins the blogging everyday award.
To restart my blogging I picked an easy post that’s about a week overdue: Top Threes!
March’s Top Three’s were:
Songs:
Heart It Races— Dr. Dog (covering Architecture in Helsinki)
Dream Boy— The Prettiots
Buttercup— Hippo Campus
Albums:
A Necessary Bummer— Sledding With Tigers
I’ll Be Your Girl— The Decemberists
Feel It Again EP— Hudson Taylor
Artists:
Hamilton is sitting in a really good place with me right now. I don’t listen to it often (maybe once a month?) and now every time I listen to it I can appreciate it for how great it is. It’s fun to know all the words and it’s fun to be able to appreciate the artistry without having it all stuck in my head always and driving everyone around me up the wall. I got a little riff from something stuck in my head and put on the song (I don’t even remember which one is is now— a lot has gone on since then). After a few songs passed, I switched my conversation with Hannah about very small clothes to one about said friendly neighborhood musical. It went like this:
And so, I would like to proudly present Quinland and Hannah’s Unofficial Hamilton Bracket:
I have not filled this out yet. Hannah has not filled this out yet. But we’re gonna, and you should to. And you should tell me when you have. And you should send it to me so that I can see them, and maybe they will go on the blog! Woo!
The last few days have been so packed that I haven’t even thought about blogging. Like it completely left my mind. I wish that I had thought more about blogging, but I’m glad to say that I truly didn’t think about it, instead of having thought about it but putting it out of my mind.
I really need this week to be over. I have a group presentation due on Tuesday, and a paper due on Friday, and both will be looming until they are due. Next week is my spring break, and I’m excited to spend the week here without anything going on. I think I need a really slow week to balance me back out. Once spring break is over, there are five weeks until I am home!
I’m so excited to be home. Nine weeks has felt like one million years. Luckily, fifteen weeks will feel like one million and two thirds years, and that’s how long I’ll be home!
One thing that has really been getting to me lately is the weather. It’s horribly depressing. It’s always either too cold, too windy, or too gray to want to be outside, and it’s killing me. 46° feels like incredible spring weather. It’s ridiculous. I need the sun and to want to spend time outside again. The spring will be nice.
We had a serious blast today. It was awesome. Grace and I were out the door by 9:15, and we met Alejandro at the Natural History at 10. We spent a long while looking for dinosaurs before we realized the map had a back, but we eventually found them!
They were awesome.
Really, really awesome.
And, as a bonus, lines were short because there was a snowstorm today! It was the first snow Gracie had seen all winter, and it was her first time building a snowman!
It was really more of a snow cat-dinosaur, but that was ok. We walked through snowy Central Park on the way to eat pizza (which was really yummy) and then we headed to Carlo’s Bakery (like from Cake Boss, but the knockoff version near Times Square). We were massively underwhelmed. (You should be able to see the disappointment behind that smile). 
After Carlo’s we headed towards the MoMa, and on our way, ran into Sofia! And by ran into I mean both parties past each other, and then Sofia yelled my name and gave me a heart attack, causing me to go “AH!” in front of a number of passerby’s. 
We went to the MoMa, which was lovely even though we had to speed through a bit since we got there 90 minutes before closing. 
We got bagels at Absolute Bagels, Zoë’s favorite bagel place, and then parted ways with Alejandro, who was going back to White Plains to stay with one of their friends from school. Gracie and I headed back to Josephine’s where we ate pasta, made brownies, played five crowns, and learned what is apparently a mid-west favorite: euchre. Team Gracie and Madison beat team Josephine and I, but it was still super fun, and I want to play again! Gracie and I have plans to get lunch with Sofia tomorrow before we head back to Purchase, which should be nice.
I had such a great time in the city these last few days. It was so nice to see Josephine and to get to learn more about navigating the city, and I hope I get to come back soon!
It’s been a wild four days and it is going to continue to be wild but it is so good. On Saturday morning Lois arrived in the city, and I met her in the middle of the day. We went to the Strand, ate French fries, walked around Greenwich Village, and slowly but surely made our was back to the hotel room she was going to be staying in with her mom. We hung out there until her mom got in from the airport and sat and talked for awhile before they went to go get dinner and I went to meet Alejandro, who was supposed to get in at 7. I met them near Madison Square Garden, and we walked up through Times Square before going to get pizza at a place Zoë suggested. The pizza was alright, but I pretty much never want to walk anywhere near time square again. There’s like 2,000 too many people. We went back to Josephine’s which was lovely, and slept really well. On Sunday we went to Washington Square Park in order to find what we have deemed to be the most iconic intersection in New York:
Then we walked up to Union Square when we spotted a big red sign. We found the Kellogg’s store.
It was incredible. They had a cereal bar with toppings and different kinds of milk (imagine a fro-yo place but for cereal). There was Kellogg’s memorabilia (including our iconic white plastic Kellogg’s bowls), Kellogg’s merch, giant cereal boxes hung from the ceiling, and huge murals of the characters from Kellogg’s cereal. We ate our Froot Loops and played Bananagrams and basked in the glory that was the Kellogg’s store. 
And we took cute pictures in front of the Froot Loops wall.
Then we walked along the high line, looked at buildings, when we stopped to paint! There was a little city made of tiny paintings, and when we were admiring it, the guy running it asked if we wanted to contribute. 
Alejandro’s is the left, mine is the right. Don’t ask me why the Columbia river is running through Idaho or why Oregon’s basically a square or why it looks like Portland has just been blown up.
We laughed hard at that.
We took the subway to get bagels, stopping to pose with these cool subway tiles:
And then we made our way home! It took us a million years. Weekend trains our awful. Everything was wrong. But we were troopers and we made it home eventually.
Yesterday we had just a nice, chill day. Alejandro and Anna and I went on a walk, and I climbed a big rock, after many attempts.
It was a good time.
I spent most of today studying for my midterm, but as soon as it was over I started my journey to Gracie. We met in Grand Central, got shake shack, and went back to Josephine’s. We’re both exhausted (Grace is already asleep) but tomorrow is going to be amazing! Posts might keep being sporadic because of all this craziness but I will make sure to say something everyday.
I hope this post shows you all how cool New York is so that you will all come visit me. The end.
Too sleepy to post. Long, full days. Everyone is getting along really nicely, and Gracie comes tomorrow! I can’t wait. I’ll keep you updated tomorrow. Goodnight!
I’m not forgetting to write a post.
I’m remembering to write a post.
But I’m too sleepy to write a post, so I will post pictures of my picture wall.
It’s a good wall.
Goodnight.
I’ve been up since 8:30. I have been on so many trains today. My feet hurt and my back hurts. But I’ve had a good day! I came into the city with Anna and we came and met Josephine and talked about college. We went downtown and got coffee and then she went to go meet someone and I met Lois! We walked and talked and ate an outrageous amount of french fries at a Belgian fry place. Then we walked more and talked more and went to the Strand bookstore, which is New York’s Powell’s. It really felt like what it would feel like to go into Powell’s as a tourist, which was kind of surreal. We met up with her mom, and while they went to dinner I walked to meet Alejandro! We walked through Times Square (tourist hell) and then went and got pizza at a place Zoë recommended. We thought the pizza was ok, but we had a wonderful time and are now back at Josephine’s. She is the sweetest nicest and I am glad were are here.
Tomorrow we are going to go to Waverly Place and maybe walk the high line. It’s gonna be wonderful, and I hope this week is good!
I just babysat.
For the first time ever. This might seem weird since I’ve spent so much time around kids— Willowbrook, preschool at church, Outdoor School etc, but I’ve never formally babysat before tonight, and 19 and 1/3.
It went great! The kids were really sweet! We ate pizza, the ten year old got to teach me Forbidden Island (and despite having seen it on the shelf at home for years, Charlie beat David Thompson to it,) we watched a bit of a Barbie video game movie that was super super bizarre, and then everyone went to bed!
I was pretty nervous about it, so I’m so glad everything went so well. And now I have a little bit more spending money to spend when Lois and Alejandro and Gracie get here (tomorrow, tomorrow, and Tuesday respectively). This upcoming week is gonna be great!
