Brookyn, Brooklyn, take me in...

WHAT A STRANGE WEEK I HAD LAST WEEK. I put that in all caps to emphasize my point. It was a week of extreme emotions. Like, covering the whole spectrum. WEIRD. Oh man, so weird. So, it was kind of perfect that I had a trip to Brooklyn planned for the end of the week. Elizabeth was flying up from Austin, and Joe and Aliya already lived there! So, it was an almost-complete MOD 16 reunion. Kerianne couldn't make it :( But, we'll see her soon.

So the last time that Joe, Aliya, Elizabeth and I were together was in Ireland!!! Yes, that's right. I hadn't seen Elizabeth since DUBLIN. Crazy, right?!?! UM, YEAH.

Remember this one? This photo was self-timered in Doolin! If the four of us started an indie-rock-folk band, this would be the cover of our first record.




Also, note the bras hanging from the bunk ladder. Keepin' it classy 'cross the globe.

So, I had seen Aliya over the summer in Chicago, and then in Ogunquit, and I had seen Joe when I was in Manhattan back in October. FINALLY we were all able to adventure again!

We had a GREAT AMAZING TIME in Brooklyn.

I left late Wednesday morning. Stopped for gas and coffee. No matter how much gas prices rise, I never seem to pay more than like, $27 to fill my tank. I think that's still the most I've ever paid for gas. Weird. But, awesome, because I was getting 52 mpg on the trip down to NY.

So, the ride down was super easy. I kind of switched up my directions mid-trip because I looked at the GPS directions and it was saying that I should go on 91 and 95 and I was like, "no thanks." So, I called Kara and had her give me alternate directions, because I knew I wanted to stay on I-84 most of the way there. So, I did. And it was still super easy.

I had only ever been over the Whitestone Bridge once before, and it was my second year at Hampshire when I drove to the Bronx to visit Maria. It was on accident, and one way across was $4.50. I thought THAT was outrageous. THIS TIME ACROSS, it cost me $6.50. One way. Unbelievable, right?? Yes.

But, I made it. And driving through Queens I drove under Queens Boulevard, which was exciting, because it is referenced a bunch on Entourage. I might have actually uttered aloud, "You kidding? I am Queens Boulevard" whilst passing under... (Entourage reference.)

ANYWAYS. I drove through Brooklyn under I arrived at Joe's house!!!!! Parking on his street is super easy, and I was able to get a spot right in front of his house! And on the correct side of the street. (Street sweeping purposes.)

And I rang the buzzer and walked up to Joe's apartment and ELIZABETH WAS THERE!!!!! Lots of hugging took place. As well as lots of exclamations of excitement. SO GREAT. As it turned out, Joe was off filming a Pretty Reckless charity concert, so we wouldn't see him until later that night. (Taylor Momsen, of Gossip Girl fame, is the lead singer of the band, so it was pretty exciting.)

So, Elizabeth and I sat on the floor and talked. Ohhh it was great to see her.

Then Aliya called after she was out of work and we planned to meet up with her for drinks in Manhattan. She was at a Sporkful podcast event, so we would meet her there. So, eventually we found our way from Joe's house to the train station and took the train right onto Houston Street!!!! Which was where we saw Crash Kings back in May at the Mercury Lounge. Also, that was where I saw River City Extension for the first time. MEMORIES. So great.

We made our way to the East Village and ended up at Drop Off Service, the bar where we were meeting Aliya. AND THEN WE FOUND HER!!!!! Ohhhh reunions are so great. It was a super exciting time. We drank hard cider together!! We stayed there for a little bit and then ventured back to Brooklyn. We went to TJ's to pick up delicious things to eat. Including goat cheese, chocolate ice cream and ginger cookies. YUM.

Then we went back to Aliya's lovely apartment, met her roomie, also a Hampshire alum, and proceeded to make dinner! Delish. And YAY - with friends. The friend euphoria was still intense. AND THEN JOE SHOWED UP!!!!!! So great!!!! Then we all sat around, drank red wine, ate chocolate ice cream and ginger cookies, and talked until the early hours of the morning. Even though Elizabeth and I didn't have any of our things with us, we opted to stay at Aliya's house rather than walking the 2 miles back to Joe's house. So, we set up shop in the living room and I slept great that night.

The next morning Elizabeth and I woke up and Aliya had already gone to work. So, we hung around only for a little while, and then headed over to Joe's house. But not before getting awesome coffee from this super cool skate shop/coffee shop, Homage, right around the corner from Aliya's house.

It was a lovely walk back to Joe's. We got back and Joe was awake! We all hung around a little bit, then I took a shower and Joe went out to get BAGELS. Yummm. Then we ate lots of bagels with hummus and did some more hanging around. Then Joe needed to be off on another important assignment, so Elizabeth and I made ourselves at home. We took over Joe's iTunes and ended up listening to a recording that Joe had of Elizabeth, Aliya, Kerianne and himself at SAGA one day. Remember SAGA? The Hampshire dining hall? YEP. Ohhhh college. That was like, 45 minutes. Nice.

Then Joe came back after about an hour or so. We decided that we wanted to walk around Brooklyn before we had plans to meet up with our friend Finn, who we went to Hampshire with. (Brooklyn is basically like an extension of Hampshire's housing developments.)

So, we walked over to Prospect Park. Saw the famous, Grand Army Plaza, which I had never seen before, so that was cool. I didn't want to seem too touristy by taking pictures all the time, so Joe, Elizabeth and I devised this story that I was a location scout taking photos for a new spy thriller rom-com starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Clever, right?

These are the pictures I came up with:




Secret spy meeting under a quaint bridge? Check.









Sp pretty, right? Joe said one time he was walking past the boathouse and he saw a giant film crew! Everyone was wearing period costumes and they had giant wind fans trying to create waves. COOL. We sat in front of the boat house for a long time and people-watched. There were lots of small children getting way too close to the lake. We were nervous. Also, there was "Hott Legs." This girl wearing a very short mini skirt was walking around with a personal long-range photographer. We watched their photo shoot from across the lake. HOTT LEGS.





More boathouse. We hadn't seen Hott Legs in a while and then..... SHE WALKED RIGHT BY US. We tried not to stare. Joe said,

JOE: I think I was the only one staring at the camera and not at her legs.

He was right.





Joe, Elizabeth and Julie!! Together in Prospect Park.

Then we continued on our walk.




That location was for the other secret spy meeting/love confession portion of the movie.

Then! We exited Prospect Park and took the train back to Manhattan to 14th Street. Union Square! Where Joe and I had met up before. "Our park." I had also been there with Ryan a heck of a lot. Last April, in fact, we stayed nearby to Union Square with Ryan's friend on our way back from Philadelphia. And we ate at the same coffee shop twice in one day with two different people!!! It was funny. So, Union Square is fun. And this time - we were meeting up with Finn!! Who, I hadn't seen since I graduated from Hampshire in 2008. So great to see him!!! He suggested that we go to this restaurant, Thai Terminal, for dinner. I loved this place. It reminded me of being in the Airport Lounge, because it was furnished like one. AWESOME.

Food was great, mango thai iced tea was excellent, company was wonderful. Aliya joined us after she got out of work! And Finn's brother, Thomas, joined us as well!! We knew him from the times he went to visit Finn at Hampshire. And we would all hang out in MOD 16. Super fun.

Then, we google mapped a bar on Aliya's phone and found our way. The 11th Street Bar! It was a great time. I had some kind of a Southampton beer....?? I don't understand beer, but it was called Southampton something. And it came with a slice of lemon. I thought it tasted like cinnamon. Delish.

Then we ventured back to Brooklyn and parted ways with Finn. Super fun night.

I stayed at Joe's house that night, while Elizabeth stayed with Aliya. Nice!

The next morning, we all had plans to meet up at DOUGH, this lovely doughnut shop not too far from Joe's house, in Clinton Hill. Aliya's dad had found this shop on a food blog and told Aliya she should go! They have delicious flavors including: blood orange, passion fruit, chai cream, hibiscus, cafe au lait, and lemon poppy. I tried a hibiscus because I was curious about it, and also because it was this gorgeous shade of fuschia. And it had dried hibiscus flowers on the top. It was super tangy and fruity and delicious. SO GOOD. I ended up bringing some home for my mom and Kara. Yumm.

Then, Joe had to leave to go to work. He works at the Park Slope Food Coop, which is like the most brillz place ever. It's a grocery store, but you can only shop there if you work there. And all work is volunteer. So no one's getting paid, but the benefit is that you are allowed to shop there. And since they have to pay no employees, the food prices are super cheap. And there's like, 14,000 members, so all you need to do is work 3 hours every month and that's it! Great plan.

Aliya, Elizabeth and I walked around Clinton Hill a while. Went to a hardware store, went to a dollar store, went into a cutesy clothing store. Then, decided to go visit Joe at work. But, we didn't want to walk there because it was far away.

That's us in Dough. (Hotties.)

So, we walked back to Joe's house, got into my car and drove through Brooklyn until we found a parking spot close to the Park Slope Coop. We found a spot like, two blocks away, so that was awesome. And we walked in and had to announce ourselves as visitors, because we were not allowed to shop there. And then this beautiful woman named Karen came over and gave us a tour!! Of the grocery store! And explained a lot about it and the way it works. It was like the best time ever. Love that place. I can understand why Joe is obsessed with it.

Then we found Joe!

Joe's job is "walker" which means he helps people walk home with their groceries. Nice guy, right? On this particular day, he walked someone home and through conversation, he learned that this man's niece went to Hampshire and that Joe actually knew her. Small world.

After visiting the Coop, we drove over to Aliya's house and found a great parking spot like, two streets over. NICE. Now the plan was to meet one of Aliya's friend Amy for Vietnamese sandwiches!!! OMG DELISH. Like, we walked into this place and it smelled amazing. And the food tasted exactly like everything smelled. OMG SO GOOD. It was seriously like delicious. I was blown away. I would eat there like every day if I lived in Cobble Hill. Amy is in fashion designing school in NYC, so she told us all about all the rompers and bathing suits she makes.

This place was just across the street from Aliya's house, so we walked over there after and explored her backyard!

Backyards of Brooklyn! That sounds like the name of a coffee table picture book. Aliya's backyard was super cute. That fountain was in the backyard next door.

That night, we had plans to go to Camp, which is a bar right down the street from Aliya. Best bar ever. It's all camp themed with smores and games and movies. Um, funnest bar ever.

We all talked about it and decided we wouldn't get the smores. Because, they were $16 and we hadn't had dinner really and we also wanted to buy drinks and so we decided instead, we would go to TJ's after the bar and buy things to make smores at home instead.

And then Aliya and I got up to the bar to order beers and open and tab and we were like, "screw it! Let's get the smores!!" So, we got the smores. And they were awesome.

Here's Camp:

SMORES. MINI CAMPFIRE. IN BROOKLYN.




Elizabeth doesn't actually eat marshmallows because they're not vegetarian, but she was an excellent roaster. This also meant that Aliya and I ate like, 6 smores each. True story.

Ohhhh it was a great, great night. Super fun times. And, may I mention again, that Aliya and I ate all the smores. Yeah, like all of them.

Then we walked back to Aliya's house. But not before stopped at a 24 hour diner and getting some onion rings. Then we stopped at a little bodega and bought some eggs.

Then we went back to Aliya's house and made scrambled eggs with spinach and goat cheese! So good. And we drank some more wine, ate some more ginger cookies and played Ticket to Ride! This was the first time I had ever played this game. It was pretty confusing at first, but once you understand the game and the point of the game, it's super fun. All about creating different train routes across the country.

We also did laundry that night.

Then sadly, Joe had to leave. And we had to get to bed because I needed to leave early in the morning. I was supposed to leave Friday night, but opted for Saturday morning instead. So, I said goodbye to Joe :(

We all went to bed very shortly after and woke up at 7:30am. While I got ready to leave, Aliya and Elizabeth walked across the street to Dunkin Donuts and picked me up a coffee and a bagel. Thanks friends!

Then, sadly, we had to say goodbye. I was very sad to leave, as it meant going back to the real world and not fake Hampshire world.

The drive back north was good, no problems. Stopped twice, once for gas, once for bathroom, and arrived home just before 2pm on Saturday.

I told my mom all about our exciting activities in the city, showered very quickly, and then had to leave for work around 3:20 or so. I was kind of like, super flustered at work for a bit because I had just driven from BK and got to work and it was pretty busy. This was clothing store work, not coffee shop work. But eventually the night calmed down and it was okay.


WHAT A GREAT MINI-VACAY I HAD. Ohhhhh it was so, so, SO wonderful to see my friends. Like, so great. Mod 16 rules Brooklyn. To the max.

Hope you all are having wonderful, friend-filled times wherever you are as well. We'll talk again soon!




Brooklyn Brooklyn take me in
Are you aware the shape I'm in
My hands they shake my head it spins
Brooklyn Brooklyn take me in...