i love everything lately

this has been my first full week of summer vaca from grad school and i am totally making the most of it and loving everythinggggg. such a nice little shift, to be able to have so much more free time for a bit! i didn’t get to post a What I Love Wednesday post this week so i’m just going to carry that right over into today.

*my new sneakers. they’re the same model i’ve been wearing for the past year +, the New Balance 750s, but these rainbow sherbert looking guys are just wayyyyy too much fun:

i’ve only run in them once so far and i swear it was like a party on my feet. i couldn’t stop looking at them. runnerd alert. i don’t want these babies to ever die.

*The Book Thief. now that my semester is over and i can finally return to reading for fun (hallelujah), this was the first book on my list — and i was hooked from page one.

one thing i really appreciate in a novel is a unique writing style — and this one certainly has that. the storyteller’s persona is entirely intriguing, and he lures the reader in by addressing him directly, adding little asides and “let me explain this” tidbits.  it’s raw. it’s creative. it’s captivating.

i highlight parts as i read. here’s one i that spoke to me so far:

“somewhere, far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. he was afraid of what might come leaking out.”

what a commentary on humanity; on how afraid we are to expose our deepest vulnerabilities and “scratch the itches in our hearts” until our rawest, truest sentiments come leaking out before another’s eyes — or even before our own, if we’re so cloaked in comfort of denial — that we often choose to bury those itches beneath all sensible reasoning and leave the darkened corners unexplored.

i like to read into things. i like words to challenge me, and change me. i like a book to find me one way, and leave me another, and embed itself into the core of my being long after i’ve closed the back cover.

*good cocktail bars. the only thing better than drinks with the girls after work is stumbling upon an adorable new bar in which to have fun & unique cocktails with the girls after work. we lucked into not one, but two fantastic hidden-gem cocktail bars in Midtown last night.

the four of us met at Lantern’s Keep in the Iroquois Hotel, a charming, cozy little French-style salon tucked in the back of the main floor of the hotel. it only has a handful of tables (30 seats total) and a very tiny bar and boasts a Prohibition-era heavy menu of unique cocktails. there are no flavored alcohols —  all ingredients are fresh and homemade and pure, and we were all really happy with our choices.

i definitely ordered well, as i liked mine the best: it was called Sutter’s Mill and was bourbon, honey, lemon, pineapple and cinnamon, served “on a rock” — one of those massive ice cubes that make any drink better. i can honestly say this was the best drink i’ve had anywhere in a long time, and i am far from a bourbon drinker. it was so well-balanced and perfectly spiced and like nothing i’ve ever tasted.

i really must get my hands on one of those big ice cube trays.

after one drink at Lantern’s Keep, we flounced directly across the street to Forty Four at the Royalton Hotel. who knew W44th St btwn 5/6th Aves was such a happening street? this was one hip hotel lobby bar: spacious, sprawling (dare i say massive?), sort of modern chic with a lot of dark wooden touches. and it had an impressive cocktail list to boot. i had a Chai Manhattan, which was a chai-infused version of a Manhattan, and i really enjoyed it.

quite the night of fancy-pants cocktails for me. i like it.

*because life is really that good, after all.

 

xoxo.

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