Photo by Rodolfo Marques

We are one week closer to Christmas, and I am so excited for a much needed break from work. Although we just had Thanksgiving off, because I work in Fashion PR/Influencer Relations, I need to work a little bit every day (including weekends and holidays). To be honest, all of my team members work around the clock. Kind of the nature of the beast for the time being. So I am excited just to be out of the office for a little bit longer. I certainly feel like I'm on the verge of a big burn out, but it's nothing some much needed TLC can't solve.  In the meantime, I'm very blessed to have a happily balanced holiday social calendar with the right amount of holiday activities with friends but also enough solo time for me to work on my blog, set goals for the next decade (because fuck planning for just one year - that rarely works in my favor), reflect on the past year and come up with action plans to make major changes in my life! The system I have going now is not what I want to bring into 2020. Oy, there is a lot to do in the next following weeks. A lot of changes are happening rapidly, but life guarantees change. Nothing we can do but role with it and use it to make us more durable. I hope you can use these next few weeks to reflect as well. I think it's soooo important to make time to reflect, reset and realign with our priorities and values so we can cut out the stuff that doesn't work and add more of what we actually want in our lives. I'm excited to reflect and plan! Maybe it's my type A personality, but whatever. I am who I am. Anywho, below are a few things that stuck out to me on the world wide web this week. I hope you enjoy! 

• Tis The Season: I really want to bake some holiday cookies! And drink wine and watch holiday movies :) 
• Better Safe Than Sorry: This is an INSANE story of a girl who escaped a psycho who tried to hold her captive! This woman is so lucky to be alive but it's also a really important wake up call for why we should all put a little more thought into our actions, especially when it comes to a party or substance abuse culture. It might seem like fun and games all at first, but you never know how quickly something can escalate. This story confirmed my fear of why I have never done drugs and why I never plan to! 
• Little Acts of Kindness: This is the cutest reaction ever! I totally want to do this for my local delivery people! 
• Love Birds: This is for all my friends in relationships. I highly recommend listening to this episode about want matches. It's so fascinating and eye opening! I personally think this is something everyone should listen to if they want to take their relationship to the next level. 
• Self-Love: The Art of Being Single - I really enjoyed this article. Being single during the holidays can induce more feelings of loneliness. Especially if most of your friends are in relationships, because being the 5th wheel is never fun. But I love how uplifting this article is. I like that the universe is essentially forcing me to focus on building a fulfilling life because I have so much time to focus on dance, pole, my blog and mapping out my career/side hustle path so I can make more money. I feel like that has been the biggest blessing of all this year... I just didn't realize it until now. 
• And to piggy back off this topic, I also liked this article about refusing to be sad because we are single during the holidays. I have been pretty sad this holiday season, and at first I thought it was because I don't have an intimate relationships with anyone special... but then I had a really upsetting daydream where I completely relived visiting my dad in him coma every day during Christmas break back in 2014... and I was like "oh, I'm sad because I'm still grieving" and grief is something that never truly goes away. We just get better at learning to deal with it and channeling that pain into compassion for others. Which leads me to why I am LOVING Meghan Donovan's #SpreadKindnessSpreadJoy campaign. I get so happy reading what other people are doing to spread kindness this year. Please, please, please try to participate. If you can. I promise you, doing something nice for someone else is the fastest way to turn your day around! 
• Clean Living: OH MY GOD!!! Please listen to this podcast about sustainable eating and the broken red meat industry!!! I love that they discuss the broken poultry industry as well. Luckily, I've never really been able to digest red meat, but I eat chicken and turkey every single damn day! I know it will be a costly expense, but I only want to eat sustainably raised chicken, turkey and (on the rare occasion) beef going forward. I have also been to the sustainable restaurant discussed in the podcast episode, and I can admit that I didn't feel sick after eating beef like I usually do! It was certainly more expensive... but all burgers in nyc are expensive, so I'm use to it. *chuckles and cries while looking at bank account
• Shopping Addition Is NO Joke! This podcast episode is perfect for this holiday season. Obviously, I have struggled with this… a lot. I have turned to shopping to get a huge rush of adrenaline. But for this holiday season I've only purchased a few things that I truly, truly love. I did drop about 45 things in my shopping cart during the black friday sales... but I only ended up purchasing 2 dresses and 2 headbands! Can I get a round of applause for my restraint! I finally have a much better understanding and more self control, but I could have saved sooooo much money on dumb asss purchases if I had said no to frivolous things and yes to financial freedom (aka savings, investing, travel, etc). I have a long journey to clea
• Get out of debt: I have an intense journey to clean up my mess from over spending, but it's one of my top 3 priorities for the next 36 months. I hope you make financial freedom one of yours too if you're in credit card debt or have student loans! We in this together fam! And ThisArticle Will Help Us Get There! 
• Pop up holiday bars in NYC I want to check out! Thanks Meghan Donovan for sharing this link!

Photo by Alina Stiba

Hi friends,

I'm happy to be back. Sorry, I took a break from the blog last week; I just couldn't make myself write, even though I really wanted to. But instead of beating myself up all week long, I only beat myself up part of the week for blowing off my responsibilities... LOL progress. But hey, baby steps in the right direction add up quickly. I'm proud of myself for not degrading myself all week long for not hitting all of my goals last week. And now it's spring in the city. If you've never been to NYC, Jersey City or Hoboken, I highly recommend making the trip. The weather is actually perfect right now, everyone is a little bit nicer on the sidewalk and rooftops are opening back up for the year.

Between grabbing a great book or inspiring magazine to read along the river or in the park, listening to a stimulating or hilarious podcast while walking around the neighborhood or taking an outside workout class, Spring offers so many opportunities to do small things by yourself, for yourself that feed your soul. I think it's vital to soak up as much sun as possible (while wearing sunscreen of course) while we can before it gets too hot to go on a 20-minute walk without melting. I hope you make sometime this week to go on an evening walk or spend some time in the park next weekend. Scheduling short little breaks are some of my favorite ways to reset and escape the stress of the work week. I hope it works for you too. Now on to the things that caught my eye on the web this week. I hope you can relax and dive into these links below. Happy Sunday my friend.

• Do Good: I've been wanting to spend more time giving back to my local community, and I want to check out some of these volunteer opportunities in Hoboken and Jersey City. 
• Shopping Cart - Barcelona Edition: 
• There are a few things I want to pick up before my trip to Barcelona at the end of this month. I really need comfy, white sneakers, and these have great reviews! I love Soludos; I have an amazing pair of wedges that are super cute and comfortable, so I have faith in these shoes. 
• I really want this romantic red top for Spain. 
• Safe Travels: This article has so many good tips for staying safe while traveling as a woman globe trotter! 
• In My Hood: I am dying to check out this new restaurant/bar in Hoboken! I'm getting good vibes from the photos. I also am so excited to check out this new food hall in my area! I'm gonna f**k some ish up when I go there and eat everything. 
• Live Well: I want to check out these wellness books and documentaries that The Fox and She recommended
• Menu: Uh, I am so excited to cook this! I'm trying to switch to a low card diet/lifestyle and this sounds and looks delicious! 
• Speaking of low carb diets, I'm probably going to buy this "bowl cookbook" by this blogger who we've worked with at my company for a few years. It's pretty affordable, and I really want to start cooking more. 
• Culture Fix: I HAVE to go to this Jane Eye ballet show! I love going to the ballet. It's such a magical experience. 
• LOL: Here are a few more meme accounts that my friend Melody introduced to me or I found on IG. For some reason, taking a 10-minute meme break when I'm stressed out at work is the best thing ever. I've been liking this one, this one (private but hilarious) and this one lately! 
• Brunchin in the City: I want to check out all of these places in NYC this spring. Honestly, brunch is my favorite way to bring large friend groups together. 
• Rooftop Season: Yeah, I'm also checking out all of these places this season. 
• Bing Watch: If you haven't watched Shrill on Hulu yet, I highly recommend it. I love the topics the show discusses. I found it to be pretty relatable and refreshing, 
• Food For Thought: This post. The caption really struck a chord with me. I took a second at work and thought about how I’ve reacted to being disrespected and how I want to react with poise and grace. But it also made me realize how much I have to learn and how much I have grown from those negative experiences. It’s a blessing that I can look upon fairly recent experiences with a new set of eyes

Photo by Nicolette Meade

Hope your day is off to a great start! I'm currently writing this post from a coffee shop in my neighborhood. I haven't worked from a coffee shop in a while, and I almost forgot how much I love this ritual! It's so blissful to take two hours for myself and block out the surrounding world. I used to fear to be alone with my thoughts because I didn't know how to be kind to myself, but now alone time feels like a luxury. I hope you can sneak in a little alone time this weekend as well. It truly is quite refreshing. I also hope you find the links below to be helpful, entertaining or inspiring. I know I do! If you have any links you want to share in the comments below, I'd love to know what meme, article or video has put a smile on your face this weekend. 

Weekend TV Guide: 10 Documentaries every woman in their 20s should watch  
BYOB restaurants in NYC - Because we all need to save money this year! 
BYO food bars in NYC - Great for all my friends who are on special diets 
Terrible People: Ew!!! NEVER eat here! I hope this manager got fired for being so sexist! 
Self Love - What you should focus on instead of focusing on finding the “love of your life” 
Beauty Bar: I’m intrigued by this new beauty trend  
Fashion Nerd: This is so interesting! I’m excited about this new fashion/psychology series. I’ve always been fascinated with psychology and have a deep connection to fashion. Here’s one I’m excited to read this weekend. 
HBIC: An interesting resume tip 
Black Girl Magic!!! Time to celebrate these amazing black women 
Get It Together - This inspiring closet organization article plus the new Marie Kondo show on Netflix is going to help me feel more put together. 

Weekly Highs:

This week was a whirlwind! A lot of stressful incidents happened over the past 7 days. But oddly, I’m in a much better mood than I’ve experienced earlier in the month. I guess a lot of shitty things happening all at once helped me re-adjust my perspective and focus on what truly matters and why gratitude is so important. The best part of this week was the fact that I proved to myself how resilient I can be. 

Yes, I cried a lot. Yes, I let 95% of my weekly to-do list fall through the cracks and beat myself up about it. Yes, I have a loving boyfriend who comforted me and told me everything was going to be ok. Yes, I called my best friend Kendra to help cheer me up. I know I am blessed to have their love and support, but at the end of the day, we have to depend on ourselves in order to see the light again. Words of comfort from other people are nice, but they don’t magically change your mindset. Only you have the power to focus on the positive side of things. And unfortunately, that’s a skill that we all have to work at every single day if we want a sustainable positivity. I’m just grateful that all of my loved ones are safe and sound, I have a source of income in my dream industry and I can start planning to redecorate my apartment for the spring. 

Weekly Lows:

I want to keep this part short and sweet because: 
a.) I don’t want to sound like a whiny little punk and 
b.)listening to me complain won’t help you on your path to success. 

But I will briefly list all the poo things that happened in my life this week so you know how unperfect my life is. This way, you don’t feel so alone when poo things happen to you.

• Lost my Chanel wallet in a cab 
• Was overcharged $152 by the terrible restaurant/bar Tijuana Picnic in the LES (which refused to answer the phone, return my email or speak to a manager when I went back to the bar). 
• One of my immediate family members in Georgia was rushed to the hospital (this emergency made all of my other problems seem very small)

As you can see, my life is messy. I think our social media society has caused us all to compare and desire the lives of others. I don’t want to portray that my life is better than yours. I want us all to work together so we all live the lives of our dreams. Thank you so much for stopping by my site to read this post. I hope this article helped you smile. Until next time my friend! 

Photo by Filip Zrnzević