the royal wedding

thursday night we all had a brilliant plan to stay up until 5 am to watch the royal wedding.  unfortunately that didn’t pan out, but since we woke up yesterday everyone has had royal wedding fever.  i don’t really understand the fascination and why i have it, but i think the royal family is SO interesting.  now, instead of studying for finals like i should be, i have been reading about the history of the royal family and scouring people.com for all of the details.  i love william and kate together, and these official portraits i just found are so cute. i should probably get back to “studying”, but in the mean time i figured i might as well blog about this obsession.  do you guys have royal wedding fever too?

xx m

just a few things

hiii lovelies!

sorry we haven’t been around in a while. we’ve been naughty bloggers. this week was the last week of classes, so we had MAYJAH papers due. work 24 hours a day urryday. no time for ANYTHING, including eating or sleeping haha. def no time for blogging! but i’m here today and that’s what counts!

nothing too exciting happened this week, except that m got T.W.O. (!!!) internship offers! woohoooo- we’re SOOOO happy for her! so i figured i’d just throw some random things atcha because i know a lot of you are probably drowning in work too… we still have finals coming up, after all.

what do we think of kate middleton’s dress? i certainly think it’s elegant, classic, and perfectly appropriate for a princess, but i don’t loooove it. i think it’s the boob part that actually bothers me. m said it reminded her of cone boobs haha- like madonna. i also don’t really like how the train attaches to the back of the dress. it sticks out a little too much. it’s definitely not a seamless transition. however, i LOVE kate’s sister (pippa’s) dress. so sleek and beautiful. my favorite part of it is the fabric covered buttons that run all the way down the back.

on the topic of beautiful outfits, check out this photo (mupload) i took of some of my BE.A.UUUUUU.TIFUL friends before they headed out to an event last night. (i couldn’t go because i had two papers to write). they had soooo much fun, and i hope m and mary will share some stories with you later! they are both in this photooo! guess which ones they are…

hmm what else has been going on? ohhh, speaking of photos, i thought i’d share my sister’s friend’s photography blog with you. this girl is only 15 and her photos are AMAZING!!! take a peek at some of her safari pics!

have a greatttt day!

xo charlotte

in honor of m’s post

i’ve realized something traumatic after reading m’s post. no, not that i won’t see my family for 5 months while i’m in australia but that  i will NOT be in here for the last harry potter movie (or m’s 20th bday!!)

HEDWIG..just kiddin’, hedwig’s dead. but seriously…THIS IS NOT OKAY. i love harry potter and daniel radcliffe even though he’s a midget (i saw his you-know-what in equus..it was kinda disturbing, not gonna lie) and ron weasley is my favorite ginger hands down.  i’m genuinely upset by this realization…HP was also a big part of my life. they’re my favorite books (esp 4, 6 & 7..i HATE 5!) which is funny because the first 3 times i tried  to read the sorceror’s stone i couldn’t even finish the first chapter. and i can’t believe i’m going to miss HP7. but it’s also weird to think that i’ve grown up at the same time as the actors in the movie. it’s weird to think that i’ve grown up as much as they have:

even neville longbottom (matthew lewis) is  HOT as long as he keeps his mouth closed is HOT. (he IS british though..enough said)

oh gosh, i remember when neville was just this chubby little nerd (this is also what people probably said about me in middle school too) and now he’s SEXY (again, minus the teeth..i’m really a teeth person. i like boys with nice teeth. teeth can really be a dealbreaker.)

anyway i’m going to try to figure out if harry potter comes out in Australia because if it doesn’t i’m not going to get to see the movie til the end of november :(

-Mary

hp7p2

i don’t know about you guys but the upcoming and final harry potter movie is one of the highlights of my summer (and also a great way to celebrate my birthday–it comes out that night!).  as cheesy as this sounds, i feel like i’ve grown up with harry potter.  we started out the same age and have grown as harry grew in the books (yes i am aware of how intense this sounds, but i know i’m not the only one who feels this way).

in 3rd grade we read hp in open circle time and i think that’s where my obsession began.  in 4th grade we were taken to see the first hp movie in theaters BEFORE it came out (it was the morning of the release and i thought i was the coolest person on earth for being “one of the first” people to see the movie).  ever since these big moments, hp has remained an obsession for me.  i used to get the books sent to me at camp and spend literally the entire day reading them.  i spent one vacation driving from san diego to san francisco listening to hp 6 on tape with my family, and hp7 part one came out on my 18th birthday.  clearly i love it and feel a connection to it hah.  this past winter break on our way to marco island, florida, my family took a special pit stop to visit harry potter world.  my family is aware of my obsession and decided to let me have my day there.  it was amazing (probably just because of how much i love it) to stroll around hogsmeade and feel like we were actually in the hp world.

now that you are all probably sufficiently creeped out by my obsession AND to make this relevant to today, a new trailer is coming out tonight!! soo exciting, check out abc family at 7pm (or just look online later) to find it!

xx m

UPDATE: HERE IS THE TRAILER!

detox

straight up, this past weekend was full of horrible eating. we really did not monitor our eating at all and went a little crazy with pizza, mozz sticks, candy, cookies, etc. we were left feeling horacious (combo horrible + atrocious) come monday morning. we even had heartburn/acid reflux. not normal!

i was talking about it with my friend casey, and she felt the exact same way. we both said at the same time, “i need a detox!” i told her about the blueprint cleanse, a cleanse i have done several times before. in fact, i want to do it again when i get home from school this summer. therefore, i thought i’d tell you guys a little bit about it in case you’re in the same boat.

in my opinion, the blueprint cleanse is the best cleansing program out there. the premise is that it will “gently rid your body of impurities, regain an alkaline balance and normalize digestion and metabolism.” basically, i think of it as just cleaning you out, getting rid of all the toxins, and making you feel light and healthy.

the standard blueprint cleanse is 3 days, but my gym, the equinox, offers it just one day at a time if you want. there are also 3 different levels of the cleanse, but i recommend that everyone start at Level 1 aka “Renovation.” you drink 6 juices a day. that is all you eat/drink. no solid food. 2 of the juices are green juices, and these are my absolute least favorite. i hate them, but that’s probably just because i really hate kale and that’s one of the main ingredients. this juice is really the best one for you, however, so you kind of just have to plug your nose and chug. i’ve very good at chugging things i don’t like, so this isn’t toooo much of a problem for me. the spicy lemonade is fine. it’s kind of weird drinking lemonade with cayenne pepper in it, but it’s really not too painful. the beet and carrot juice is okay. not nearly as bad as the green juice.

the other 2 drinks, however, are actually DELICIOUS. the pineapple, apple, and mint juice is SOOO good! in fact, i order it from the equinox even when i’m not on the cleanse. it’s so incredibly refreshing. and the cashew nut milk one is also phenomenal. it has vanilla bean, cinnamon, and agave in it- sooo yummy. it’s kind of like dessert.

the only real negative about the blueprint cleanse is that it costs over $60 a day. you can have it delivered to your house, or you can pick it up at a nearby location. it’s totally worth it in my opinion! a great way to start off the summer feeling light and healthy!

xo charlotte

top 5 chick flicks

yesterday i decided to treat myself to a movie and i chose notting hill (hugh grant and julia roberts, it was adorable).  after watching it i was trying to think of my 5 favorite chick flicks and here’s what i came up with (in no particular order)

1. love actually  
2. when harry met sally (SUCH a feel good movie, could be my favorite)
3. pretty woman
4. 1o things i hate about you (i’m proud to admit that i have this one on vhs)
5. sixteen candles (totally unrealistic but still amazing, also love that the love interest is named jake ryan [i hope that that reference is lost on most of you])

there are obviously so many more classics (i know that if charlotte were writing this pride and prejudice would be number one, and for me emma gets an honorable mention) but these are just the top 5 that came to mind.  which are your favorites?

xx m

the week before finals week…

Mary

oh the times they are a-changin

i’ve been thinking a lot lately about how things change as i get older. i find that i don’t get excited as easily. i’m more used to things, and i’m not really phased much. the biggest change i’ve noticed surrounds holidays.

i used to get SOOOOOO excited for holidays. so excited that i felt like my heart was burning- literally on fire. i couldn’t contain all of the excitement. i felt like i was going to explode. for weeks before holidays, that was all i thought about as i laid in bed at night. the entire month was devoted to the holiday. for instance, all of december was about christmas. i was so happy and full of excitement and joy.

now, i feel like holidays have become just another day. they seem to come and go without much recognition. yesterday was easter. when i was younger, easter meant a new frilly dress, an easter egg hunt with the entire association, a big meal that my mom cooked, the uncontainable excitement over opening up my easter basket, taking a walk down to the ocean with my entire family after eating, and candy scattered throughout the house (in silver bowls, of course- this is connecticut we’re talking about after all).

yesterday, however, i did absolutely ZERO out of the ordinary. i woke up and threw a study break event for the school; then i hung out with friends and did work all day. i didn’t even go to church or wear a cute outfit. i saw no family members. i didn’t eat any candy or even have a special meal. the part of the day that most reminded me of the holiday was when my housekeeper sent me a text of an emoticon/video of jesus dying and being resurrected and ascending to heaven.

easter came and went. i hardly realized it. is this what happens when you get older? does excitement just fade?

xo charlotte

the crazy antics of room 110

as an objective third party witness of the insanity that occurs in charlotte and mary’s room, i think i am the perfect person to make a short commentary on their lives as roommates

countless times a day i hear insane amounts of noise from the opposite side of my wall.  as charlotte will tell you i ALWAYS have fans on in my room so the sounds get muffled, while charlotte sits with her ear against the wall and listens to everything i have going on in my room from tv to listening to my bbm sound.  when i hear the noise through the wall, about 98% of the time it’s charlotte and mary having one of their patented fights.

just to give you a little taste of my life, one of the best fights that they’ve had this year was about food rotting.  mary has this tendency to make comments ending with “i read it, it’s true.”  during this fight, mary was trying to convince char that the fruit that she had bought 1 week ago was going to create bacteria that would make all 4 of us endlessly sick.  clearly that was an overreaction and i got to watch this argument play out.  somehow we got to the point where this happened:

“you’re a great babysitter, EVERYONE wants you to babysit.  i’m just saying maybe an ant hill isn’t the best situation for our room.  we’re merely having a heated debate” –mary

clearly these fights do not make sense, they go from rotting food to ant hills to charlotte babysitting to arguing about whether we’re having arguments.  don’t you wish you were our roommate too?

xx m

my big fat greek easter

i can’t wait for tomorrow because i love greek easter! easter is a big deal to greek people, especially in astoria where my grandparents live. ever since i could remember, we would go there on the saturday night before easter for midnight mass. and let me tell you, midnight mass starts at 6 o’clock. so you’re sitting in a church packed with (usually all old) greek people. and it doesn’t end til midnight. fml. for 6 hours you sit there and listen to old priests chant in gibberish that supposed to be greek while clanking these bells that have smoke coming out of them. if you suck at life, you have to STAND for six hours and listen to that. my grandma and me would usually be the only ones who went to this (cus i got guilted into it) while the rest of my family stays and watches tv at my grandparents house til 11:45. that’s because at 11:45 they walk over to the street in front of the church and the whole street is FULL of greek people. the police are there and the streets  are blocked off. there is a parade float in front of the church (red) with a priest standing on it…chanting of course. at exactly midnight, or when jesus was resurrected, the priest cries “CHRISTOS ANESTI” (christ has risen!) and everyone yells back “ALITHOS ANESTI” (indeed he has risen!) then, fireworks and cherry bombs are set off (yes, greeks go all-out for easter)

the priest has a candle and shares his flame with someone around the float. then slowly the flames are passed to one another because we’re all holding candles (your godparents are supposed to buy you this candle when you’re young– like the one char makes fun of in my room) until everyone in the crowd is lit. sometimes this is dangerous because it’s so crowded and one year i almost burned some guys jacket and he flipped out at me. i was only 11 so i was pretty traumatized. also there’s a huge underpass by the church and sometimes fireworks are set off under it…it’s the scariest thing ever and i always thought we would get burned when i was younger. after all this, we walk back to my grandparents house with the flame-lit candles and when you walk in, you burn a cross at the top of your first doorway of the house for a good year and then we eat a HUGE meal full of lamb and meat (because if you do lent, you can’t eat meat, dairy, or anything that bleeds). i don’t do lent lol so this doesn’t break my fast, but it’s still AMAZING. also, greek easter eggs are only died red. no fancy schmancy decorated ones for us. it’s a tradition where everyone “versus” eachother with the eggs. you have to try and crack other people’s eggs. if your egg doesn’t crack, you win and you’ll have good luck for a year. we usually get home by 3 or 4 in the morning, and then the next day is the big family party.

i love easter sunday. ever seen the movie my big fat greek wedding? remember the scene where the two families meet and the whole family showed up for party at the greek house? i’m convinced they based that off typical greek easter. as soon as we go to one of my family members houses, we walk in and there’s loud, obnoxious greek music playing. i honestly love that music because i grew up with it and learned all the dances to it (the ones where you go in a circle!) and it reminds me of greece. we walk onto the patio and there’s a huge, whole lamb on a roast as well as a whole pig. creepy. the lamb looks like this:

appetizing right? the faces are definitely the worst part. but i still eat them cus they’re delicious right off the spit when they are ready as well as the rest of the food. it’s like thanksgiving, but better. i’m convinced i could become a vegetarian, except i couldn’t give up eating lamb on easter. also, my grandma would probably kill me, seriously. she doesn’t understand the concept of vegetarians, diets, or being full. i feel so guilty whenever i leave any of her food on my plate (even though it’s probably like my fourth plate). in addition, everyone is soo rowdy because everyone is drinking, talking and having fun. definitely one of the best parts of being greek.

happy easter everyone!

Mary