BACHELOR

Oh, Juan Pablo.

I've never been a fan of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette franchise. It's just really, REALLY not my thing. In fact, I've purposely avoided anything associated with the Bachelor for many years, but when one of the girls brought up doing a bracket, this cut-throat elimination perked my interest. 

Mr. J is out of town for the next few days, so this date came at the perfect time to keep me occupied. Good company, trashy TV, pizza and wine, lots of wine. 

Solid Wednesday night, if I say so myself!

The Bachelor is just soo stressful!

**BY THE WAY! We are watching the show a week late, so don't spill the beans! :)

BILLY JOEL

Whew! I am finally closing the book on the recap of our winter New York City trip. 

Here are several clips that I took at the Billy Joel 2013 New Year's Eve Concert in Brooklyn.

Enjoy! xx

GRAND CENTRAL

For those of you that have the opportunity to visit Grand Central, you should check it out. 

I was completely awestruck by the beauty of the building, inside and out. I mean, the ceiling has constellations on it-- how cool is that?! 

Considering we had no plans to visit Grand Central initially, this was by far my favorite NYC landmark that we visited.

**NOTE: Our pictures truly don't do it justice; you're just going to have to check it out for yourself!

NYC PART DEUX

Ah, New York City.

You can't say that you've seen New York City if you haven't experienced Time Square; it's practically a rite of passage! 

We successfully navigated the crowds and managed to get out without any major panic attacks.

After all that walking, we worked up an appetite, so we decided to get in line at Carnegie Deli. The food was good, but take my advice on this-- PAY THE EXTRA $3.00 TO SHARE THE SANDWICH WITH A FRIEND! There is just no way to finish one on your own!

 Our last stop, or, so we thought, was Rockefeller Center. I have never visited New York during the Christmas months, so I was excited to see the tree and all the Christmas decorations. Even though it was a few days past Christmas, there was still plenty of Christmas spirit in the air!

It was freezing out, so we found a close wine bar to post up at for a few. We were waited on by the only friendly bartender in New York City. He was amazing. 

Once we were warmed up, we set out to find our way back to Brooklyn!

NYC PART UN

This was James' first time to New York City, so we were determined to hit up all of the iconic tourist traps. We only had one day to do it all, so we were up and out the door early Monday morning.

We started out in the Financial District at Ground Zero. Though I have been to New York many times, I haven't ever seen the Freedom Tower, and therefore, it was at the top of our list.  Unfortunately, we didn't purchase tickets for the 9/11 Memorial in advance, and due to the line being super long and it being freezing outside, we didn't get to go in and pay our respects; it will definitely be first on our list for next time.

After experiencing Ground Zero, we hopped back on the subway and headed north towards the Empire State Building. I could not stress enough that it is NOT  worth waiting in that long line to go up to the top! #1: We really didn't have enough time to do stuff like that and #2: It was freezing!

Needless to say, we enjoyed it from a far!