Tag: nyc

Early Spring Recap

So remember around January 1st I posted about my New Year’s Resolutions? Remember how one of them was to be more consistent with the blog? Oops! I guess life just gets in the way sometimes and you have to roll with the punches. Lately, that means not opening my computer for any purposes besides work and studying. It’s not pretty or fun to think about, but hopefully it will get better soon.

While I have a few minutes, I wanted to share some of my favorite things that have happened over the last couple of months since I posted!

  1. My aunt, uncle, and cousins came to visit me! We only got to spend a few hours together, but I loved having them here none the less.

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2. I discovered one of my new favorite places in Massachusetts – Birth Tree Bread Company. Since visiting, I can’t stop thinking and talking about how I would love to open a coffee shop just like this one – homemade pastries, fresh bread, delicious coffee, and craft beer. All of this along with the cozy atmosphere and the farmer’s market downstairs — I am in my element!

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3. Mom, Dave, Ant, and Dan came down for a long weekend in March. We had a great time despite it being one of the last freezing cold weekends that we had. We spent our Saturday night at Maxwell’s Tavern and ended up front row at a country concert. It was a bizarre twist of events, but we had fun being front row at a Drew Baldridge concert.

4. I visited Departed Soles Brewing Co. in Jersey City with a friend from college, her boyfriend, and Dan. It was so great to catch up with her after months apart! The brewery that we went to was such a unique and quirky little place – but the beer that I had was fantastic. She loved it because they have gluten free options, which is nearly unheard of for a brewery. Since we went around Easter, the specialty beer on tap was infused with marshmallow peeps. Now I know that this sounds strange, but it may very well have been the best beer that I have ever tasted. I’m still kicking myself for not buying a case!

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5. My five best guy friends from college came to visit me a few weeks later and we had the best weekend. We started the weekend off with a delicious Italian dinner at Margherita’s Pizza Cafe and it was a fabulous choice. All weekend everyone raved about the meal that they had here – myself included.

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On Saturday we spent the day walking around and exploring NYC. We went up to the observatory deck of One World Trade Center, visited Ground Zero, Wall Street, Central Park, and Trump Tower (or as all the guys kept saying, “White House North”).

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It was a full day of walking but we had a blast. I was so grateful to have them here for the weekend! I always find myself feeling so lucky to have such solid friendships that all started 5 years ago in our college freshman dorm.

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6. Last but not least, Easter weekend! I got into MA around 11 PM Friday night and immediately went to bed. I was exhausted after working all day and traveling all night, but it was more than worth it. On Saturday morning,  I took a ride to Birch Tree Bread Company (surprise, surprise) for iced coffee.  They had a farmer’s market downstairs where I picked up two bouquets of tulips from Fivefork Farms in Upton, MA – one for my mom and one for my grandma. The photos don’t do them justice because they were absolutely breathtaking.

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On Saturday afternoon, my Dad and Peggy stopped by to have an early Easter lunch with Ant and I. They brought us the most fantastic Easter baskets, as always, and I’m mad at myself that I didn’t get a picture of it. I was clearly too busy inhaling as much candy as possible, as fast as possible (LOL). We went down to Brew City on Shrewsbury St. for lunch and had a great time catching up.

After returning from lunch, we decorated cupcakes, easter eggs, and made chocolate covered strawberries with the boys!

Sunday morning we woke up early to have kielbasa, coffee, mimosas, and butter braids and it was the perfect relaxing start to the day before heading off Grammy’s house!

Here are a few of the photos taken from the day…

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That’s pretty much everything that has been going on for the past few months around here. I always find it funny how I can get so bogged down with the little details of my day to day life, yet looking back the weeks are filled with so much happiness. Writing recap posts like this really helps me put into perspective how blessed I truly am. God is so good.

xo,

Jaclyn

First Weekend Visitors!

So I’m a little behind here (per usual) but I wanted to fill you all in on the fantastic past weekend that I had with my mom and brother.

Before they arrived on Saturday morning, I woke up early and took a walk downtown to a cute little coffee shop called “bwe kafe.” I heard about this place through Instagram and I am so glad that I decided to go check it out.

They had the cutest little set up and I loved the atmosphere. I’m hoping to spent a few hours here this weekend catching up on some studying!

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I ordered a dirty chai latte, which was essentially a chai latte with a shot of espresso. It was so perfect and I have been craving one ever since. Though next time I do think that I’ll go with 2 shots of espresso!

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When I got home from the coffee shop, Anthony and my mom were here! We brought up all of the stuff that didn’t make it into my car during the first move and spent a few hours unpacking and chatting.

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By the time we finished, we were starving and decided to head over to Mom’s favorite deli – Fiore’s. We got roast beef and mozzarella subs and they were just as great as we remembered from last time that we visited there.

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We spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on the couch watching movies and napping. Around 7 o’clock, Anthony was starving so we ordered pizza and wings to snack on during the football game.

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On Sunday morning, we woke up early and headed into the city for a fun and touristy day, starting with Times Square!

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We went into the M&M store and the Hershey store, both of which were absolutely packed for so early in the morning. We had enough of the huge crowds after that, so we decided to head over to Rockefeller Center.

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On our way we stopped into St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was just recently renovated. It was beautiful inside. I wish we could have stayed for mass!

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We spent the rest of our day walking down 5th avenue, visiting Madison Square Garden, and getting an awesome lunch at “The Counter.” We had huge cheeseburgers with french fries, which pretty much put us into food induced comas immediately.

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We headed back to Hoboken and spent the rest of the afternoon napping and hanging out.

Even after our fun weekend, I think my favorite part was coming home from work on Monday night to dinner on the table and all of my grocery shopping done for the week. I am so lucky and already can’t wait for their next visit!

I have a fun post coming up regarding some of the things that I’m loving lately, so keep an eye out! 🙂

xo,

Jaclyn

 

Happy Saturday!

Today is an extra happy Saturday because my mom and my brother came down to visit me! Anthony is working on a paper right now though, so I figured I would hop on here for a few minutes and catch up with all of you.

I am so proud of myself after this week for a few reasons. The main reason being that I finished my first full week of working in and commuting to NYC, as well as living in my very own apartment. I had been so nervous for this week for so long, but now I realize that I had no reason to be. It was a piece of cake…. well kind of. I struggled a bit towards the end just because I was so darn exhausted.

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Mandatory first day of work selfie!

The second reason is because I worked out this week every morning at 5:30 before work. If you know me, you know that I would be happy sleeping until 10:30 every single day. This was so hard, but I’m so happy that I forced myself to do it. I loved coming home each night knowing that I had already been active for the day.

Before moving to Hoboken, I did tons and tons of research regarding which gym would be the best for me to join. Unfortunately, fitness is super expensive in this area and as a new grad, I’m still trying to get on my feet. Eventually I hope to start taking classes here and there at local studios (they have barre, yoga, and spin classes that I can’t wait to try ) but for now, I figured a program that I could do for less money from my apartment would be best.

With this criteria, I decided to jump on the Beachbody bandwagon and sign up for a year of on demand workouts. This allows me to stream any workout that I want straight to my TV and includes a great variety. Some of the more popular ones included are Insanity, P90X, 21 Day Fix, and Core de Force. I’ve mixed it up a bit to see how I liked the different programs and I haven’t been disappointed yet.

Right now I’m fully committed to 21 Day Fix and have already finished Day 7/21! I’ve been sore every day and I LOVE that the workouts are only 30 minutes each. I’m not sure I could handle getting up much earlier than 5:30 everyday!

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My favorite post-workout / pre-work protein shake 🙂

Now I’m off to the supermarket to get some snacks and games for us to enjoy during the Patriots game. Go Pats!!

xo,

Jaclyn

 

 

Weekend in NJ

On Friday morning, I headed out to Westfield State to pick up my brother before we headed to New Jersey for the weekend. We had big plans to visit my dad and visit NYC to try and scope out places for me to live come January.

We arrived to my dad’s house around 3:30PM and we were tired. They went out hunting for a few hours and I stayed at the house to catch up with Peggy. Chatting with some coffee, snacks, and wine – what more do you need? We ended up spending the rest of the night relaxing and watching Netflix. We planned to head to NY early on Saturday, so we all wanted to be well rested. Including Sadie…

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On Saturday morning, I woke up only to take my first ever motor cycle ride with my dad’s friend. It was pretty cool – though not something I would ever want to buy for myself! The area where they live is so beautiful, so that was a perfect way to explore.

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Around 10 o’clock, we started out journey towards NYC. I had a few places in mind that I wanted to visit and Hoboken, NJ was on that list. It’s super close to the city and I had heard a lot of good things about it, so we decided to check it out.

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I ended up loving it! There were tons of restaurants, shops, parks, and young people. I really think this is a place that I could see myself spending a lot of time in future. Everyone that we met was so kind and I loved the small-town atmosphere despite being so close to NYC.

We stopped at a small diner called “Stacks “for brunch where I had the most delicious eggs florentine.

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Then we just roamed around the little city before getting back in the car and heading to Carlo’s Bake Shop.

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This is the bakery from the popular show “Cake Boss.” We waited in line for about 20 minutes but it was well worth it. We felt obligated to stop since we were so close. 🙂

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We ordered lobster tails, a mini cheesecake, and a cannoli. Everything was delicious.

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Next, we left Hoboken and headed into the city. I had intentions of looking around the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, and we tried our very best to do so. Unfortunately, it was super chaotic and there were people everywhere. I give my dad so much credit for driving through there.

It was still great to see everything! While I think that I can adjust to city life during the work week, I’m not sure that I can see myself living right in the heart of all the craziness. After we left the city, we headed back to the hotel and we all passed out. It was a long day that took a lot out of us! Around 8 PM, we rallied and headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings to grab some supper and finish off the day.

On Sunday morning, we headed back to Hoboken so that I could get one last look around before going home. We stopped at O’Bagel for (pumpkin spice) coffee and home-made bagels.

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They were so yummy. 🙂

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We all piled back in the car and were able to make it back to my dad’s house in time for the Pats game! I was trying to multitask by studying and watching the game, but Sadie didn’t seem to want that…

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Overall, it was a great weekend!

xo,

Jaclyn

The Next Step

The past month has been a stressful, chaotic whirlwind in regards to finding a full-time job. After my internship this summer, I wasn’t sure that I chose the right field and I was making myself sick about it. My summer was spent largely staring at a computer screen and entering data into excel sheets. I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life doing this.

I have always dreamed of making a difference in some way, and I felt like my work was completely irrelevant- affecting nobody. I worked so hard over the past 18 years to get a great education, so that in turn I could have a great career and a comfortable lifestyle. Come the end of August,  I just couldn’t see that happening with the position that I was in. Everyday I was miserable and regretting my decision to pursue engineering. I questioned whether it was too late to apply for medical school or dental school. I questioned whether I should have pursued teaching. I questioned everything.

Eventually I had to force myself to stop stressing out about it and I did what I always do when I feel lost… I made a list. I made a list of all of the things that I wanted in a future career, no matter how far-fetched they seemed, and I prayed that some clarity would come to me.

A few weeks later, still worrying about a job, I emailed a contact in my field. Within moments, he called me and said that he had the perfect opportunity for me and that I was the exact type of candidate they were looking for… The only catch was that the position was in New York City.

My first reaction was to say “no, absolutely not.”  My entire life has been spent in Massachusetts, almost my entire family is here, my friends are here, everything is here. Against my first instinct, I said that I would go to New York City for the day to meet with the team there and that I would honestly try to have an open mind about it.

Within a week, I found myself on a train to New York City. Only two days after that, I found myself signing the offer letter for my very first full-time job in Manhattan!

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It’s hard to explain, but during the day that I spent visiting with the company in New York, I could see so much potential. It was by far the best career opportunity that I came across as somebody fresh out of college. It met 9/10 of the things that were on my “list” (which I never thought I would find)- atmosphere, growth potential, flexibility, field work, etc. I felt comfortable and welcome. Never once had moving to New York City been part of my plan, but I felt excited.

With this job, I will not be stuck behind a desk for 40 hours per week. I will be working with a small team, being challenged daily, and exploring New York City. Approximately half of my time will be spent out in the field, reviewing the buildings of the city and interacting with clients, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

I am so excited for all of the potential that this opportunity brings. I am so nervous to move to a new (huge) city all by myself. I am so sad that I will no longer be within 20 minutes of my family. I am so worried about how this will change my relationships. I am so happy that I will be closer to my dad and stepmom. I am so grateful for the support I’ve felt regarding this decision. I am just SO full of emotion.

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The next few months will surely be crazy as I begin to prepare for this next stage in my life, but I’m ready for it. God works in mysterious ways and I know in my heart that this is what I’m meant to be doing right now. Regardless of how scary it seems, I worked hard for this and now it’s my turn to spread my wings. I would not be in this position if it weren’t for my family and friends who supported me over the years and I am so so thankful for them.

I’m sure there will be many posts over the next few months as I get ready for this move, so be sure to check in!

xo,

Jaclyn