Dating App Absolute Gems No. 4

Some real wild ones this week so let’s dive right in!!!! No time to waste:

 

I’m gonna go ahead and say you will never get an Uber with this guy.

 

Big words from a guy who literally took the time to put his own Zodiac in his bio.

This guy matched with me while my job title clearly states that I’m in Social Media?

I don’t know guys, I don’t think he’s gonna find anyone for his niche interests.

These were funny in 2014 for 5 minutes.

When your friend is way hotter than you so you have to cover his face with an emoji. I get it, I see you.

Even the Bumble bio has it’s limits.

 

Mystery, ladies, you ever heard of it?

 

 

And lastly, our Absolute Gem of the Week. I’m bestowing this honor on this guy for not taking the 7 seconds to google Shawn Mendes and then matching with me after I was incredibly snarky. God speed, king.

Let’s Be Real: Is Renting Your Clothes Actually Worth it?

Coming up on Fall and Winter, I have soooo many clothes. These two seasons are the longest and when, for whatever reason, I’ve bought the bulk of my clothes. I want new clothes, but the thought of having to put more sweaters in my suitcases for storage in the spring makes my skin itch. Enter clothing rental services.

Ive been wanting to try Rent the Runway Unlimited FOREVER. I love the idea of getting fancy clothes you can endlessly swap and make cool outfits, constantly. For $159 a month, it’s just not in the budget. It’s fantastic if you’re always buying clothes and usually spending more than that a month, but I’m definitely not. Recently, they added an option for $89 per month for 4 items a month. A better option for people like me, but I was still on the fence.

I came across this ad recently for a clothing rental service called Nuuly. It’s from the same company that does Urban Outfitters, Free People and Anthropologie. It’s super new and launched in July. It’s $69 a month for 6 pieces you can rent and return or buy for a discount (most of the time). Basically the same as RTR, but with more clothes for less money (which makes sense because they aren’t designer brands).

Since I had a good number of how many pieces in my box, I decided to build one full outfit I figured would go together. The next few pieces would be either things I liked but maybe wouldn’t buy or something different I wouldn’t normally wear. Here’s what was in my first box:

 

 

First thing I wore was the cheetah print romper. I figured it would be something I’d only be able to wear this month before it got too cold and I honestly wasn’t sure how it was gonna look on me. I surprisingly loved this piece. It ended up being so comfy, fit really well and the neckline was super flattering!

 

 

 

Next, was this snakeskin trench coat. I bought this to go with the neon turtleneck, but it ended up not looking that great. I really needed a white chunky turtleneck or something similar, but tried to pair it with what I had anyway. Loved this piece individually, but was really hard to style. With the right pieces, it would’ve been so much cooler.

Then, was the neon turtleneck shirt. Wouldn’t call this a sweater since it wasn’t super thick. I thought the material would’ve been thin, but it was actually not see-through while not being heavy. It looked really cool with on all black look!

 

Next, we have the Paige jacket. Mostly just got this because I was lusting after it. It ended up being another one that was a little hard to style. I felt like it really looked good with turtlenecks and thats about it. Still a gorgeous jacket and loved the print.

Last, but definitely not least, the patchwork flare jeans. I saw these and immediately had to try them. It was another risk because they could’ve not fit or been actually so weird in person but wow. These were so good I really wanted to keep them. Fortunately, the price tag kept me from that, I could get two more Nuuly boxes for the price of those pants alone. My only regret is that I didn’t wear them more!

If you can count, you’ll notice I left something out. The black pants with the ruffles were very underwhelming and fit weird. I’m a high waisted pants girl and these were not high enough for me, I need them boob level!!

I thought when I ordered this stuff “If I can wear 3 pieces out of all of these, it’ll be worth it.” Turns out, I found some stuff I really loved and took some style risks I wouldn’t have normally taken. That last sentence sounds like its a life changing thing and I’m a motivational speaker, but you get it.

Dating App Absolute Gems: No. 3

This week features a man that is definitely wearing a toupee and a new segment I’m calling “Absolute Gem of the Week.” Let’s get started:

 

Idk if my standards for men are too low, but I have never seen a drunk guy wash his face before bed. Let’s be honest, I can’t really recall a time I’ve ever seen a guy wash his face.

And on today’s episode of “holy shit, is that a toupee???”

Wow what a mystery, I’d love to be that lounge one day.

Ladies, red flag or deal breaker? This dude has absolutely no brain, but is probably a fun time.

Ugh, guys it’s fine. They’re just homies!!! Also probably the thing he’ll say after the 5th time he cheats on you with her.

 

I’m just gonna leave this one here. His entire profile was just pictures of food. Can’t bear to make fun of it, just bums me out. I hope he finds his food queen.

And last, but not least, this week’s #1 Absolute Gem. He deserved an entire screen recorded video for his profile. I can’t believe he’s single.

 

 

 

 

 

Dating App Absolute Gems: No. 2

And we’re back! Got a few very interesting convos that I just had to share, and one very rude suggestion from Hinge. Let’s go:

 

 

 

 This man does not know his own angles, lemme tell you.

 Scrolled down to find that this man was neither Obama OR Michelle. Shocked and confused.

 Never felt more connected to a person in my life.

 But Matthew, I have got to know what the hell a youth motivational speaker is.

 

 

 According to Hinge, this is the vibe I’m putting off on my dating profile??? Much to think about- Billy Ray Cyrus

At least girls have the decency to put music with their selfie videos!!!!!

 

  I mean no hey, hi, or how are you???At least pretend to be interested in my mind and not my brain. I reported him because I’m petty. Mom, if you’re reading this, don’t.

 

 First time I’ve ever been greeted like this and I didn’t hate it. Didn’t work out with us, but I’ll think about him always.

Dating App Absolute Gems: The Weekly Roundup

As you’re all aware, I’m frequently on the dating apps. Some people say they don’t use them and to that I say, where does your validation from men come from? I’ve been sharing some things I’ve seen that are mostly what? and a little bit of why? and a dash of whomst mans is this? I’ve decided they really need their own post because they’re too good not to share everywhere, hence this weekly post was born. Let’s jump right into it:

  HATE when a guy is on a dating app and is clearly already in a relationship!! Ugh!!

 I have so many questions. How many times has he been asked to iron something by women? Apparently a lot since he had to add it to his profile

 Sir, this is a New York City.

 The bar for men is literally on the floor.

 

 And on today’s segment of I’m not sure if this is racist or I know nothing about Korea Town and it’s just mean??

 

 

 

Same PicNic energy.

 

 Yet another unattainable beauty standard for women!!!!!!

 

I’ll leave you all with this absolute gem of a conversation:

 

 

Only myself to blame with that one. Big Yike

 

I Re-watched Sex and the City and It Changed How I Feel About Aiden

I’m Stanford!!!! This is the first time I’ve written in months and if you’re wondering why I’m writing this, of all things, I have no answers. I do, kinda, have a reason for this post.

So let’s go back, why am I re-watching Sex and the City for the 16 billionth time? I started listening to this new podcast called The Bradshaw Boys. It’s 3 straight guys watching Sex and the City for the first time (mostly) and then discussing it. Super hilarious and fun, highly recommend. At first, I wasn’t going to go back and watch the series with them since I’d already seen it multiple times. As they started going through the episodes, I really just couldn’t help myself and jumped in around Season 2.

One of the surprising things is the newfound annoyance with Carrie. I mean, come on girl, how are you trying to make this relationship with Big work if you never tell him how you feel about things? Every fight they ever have is about how she needs/wants something from him emotionally and is too scared to ask for it. This leads to her inevitable explosion and makes it a giant deal. I don’t wanna say the Big is innocent here, not at all. Anytime she does finally ask what the deal is, he’s usually super vague. I don’t, by any means, think their relationship is something to strive for. I do, however, get where she’s coming from a little. Personally, I find when I really like a guy; I hate bringing up any relationship talk. If you’ve been dating around a while, you sort of get the clue that when you bring that stuff up, it can blow up in your face. You either hear something you don’t like, or get rejected, and so it ends up just nagging you until you explode. I will say that sometimes when she does explode on him, it gets her the results she was looking for. For instance, when he doesn’t tell her he loves her in Season 2, she gets pissy and leaves him at a party. The next day, he actually says it over the phone. Thus, starting the cycle of silence, fight and reward. This is extremely toxic and pretty immature behavior, but I’ve been there. Should they have ended up together? No. You cant allow someone to treat you a certain way for X amount of months and then be surprised when they don’t get the hint that it’s not actually what you want.

I’ve never really been “big” on Big, but on the “Big vs. Aiden” debacle, I’ve always been Team Aiden. He was so sweet and soon much better than Big! I would argue Carrie was over correcting. By that, I mean she hated how badly she was treated by Big, so she went super left field. She needed the opposite of Big and she definitely got it. I always thought he was great, but in actuality, he’s kinda blah. He’s just there all the time. In her space and her life, but doesn’t really add anything. I don’t think he could ever actually hang out with her and her friends. He immediately tried to change her with the smoking thing. Literally all they do is lounge around her place being boring. We give “nice” guys such a huge pass, simply because they’re nice, but let’s please up the bar ladies. Maybe if we did, there’d be more nice guys to go around! Nice should be base level, what else does he have besides nice? I think Carrie stayed with him half of the time, just because he was nice, and then the rest of the time, just because she felt bad for him because he was nice. Think about when she first said, “I love you” to him. She said it right after he did and she had just cheated on him with Big. She didn’t love him, clearly. Also, they just truly did not mesh well. He didn’t like smokers; he liked the outdoors and loved staying in with his dog. She liked to party, smoke and be glamorous. She literally never went to a single party or outing when they were together, I mean what up with that? At least Big could keep up with her, her friends and her lifestyle. I get it nice is so refreshing. Dating a bunch of crappy dudes will really have you reaching for some boredom in your love life. It’s easier and you think that’ll mean predictability and that it’ll work out better. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t. Nice just translates to “I’m saving myself from getting hurt this time” which isn’t always the case, especially with Carrie.

It’s probably true that every time you watch a series again, you get something different out of it. You hopefully have different experiences all the time, so you watch things though a different perspective. I know Carrie’s overcorrecting because I’ve been there myself. On the Big vs. Aiden thing, I’m neither. I’m more of a Harry-Smith-Steve gal myself.

Let’s Be Real: Is ClassPass Worth It?

Starting a new series today, whoop! I was trying to do what I did with the “Sunday Summary” that I used to do, but maybe make it less lame? Trying new things is my favorite thing so this is more of an in-depth at the stuff I like. Enjoy, nerds.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been a workout person for about 10 years now. I’ve done pretty much everything from pilates, weight training, running, back to pilates, cardio HITT, and back to weight training. A couple of years ago, I started trying workout classes at my college gym. I started with a 7 AM cycling class and pretty soon I was doing any one I could fit into my schedule. Who knew I would like sweating with other people? Luckily for me, that gym was in my tuition and so none of those classes ever cost me an extra dime. Unfortunately, you can’t stay in college and live the good life forever.

Since moving to the city, I didn’t have the luxury of a free gym with free classes. Gym memberships that included classes were a little steep for me, so I stuck to taking about one workout class a month. Your basic first time class at an NYC studio is around 30 bucks a class–sometimes free if you’re lucky. Every place will have some sort of package, but the only way to get an unlimited amount of classes is to pay upwards of $300. That cuts right into my booze and outfit money, so, hard pass. Also you can only take that certain class–cycling, barre, yoga etc.

ClassPass, here to solve all of your problems. It’s a place where you pay a certain amount a month, which gives you a certain amount of “credits” to book any kind of workout class you can dream of in the city. I have the lowest plan where you pay 50 bucks a month to get 27 credits. I usually can book around 2-3 classes a month since most classes are 10 credits. You might be saying, wait only 3 classes a month? That’s nothing. Yes, Deborah, you’re right that’s not a lot, but keep in mind I was spending around $30 on one class. In my research for this I also discovered you can get a Blink all access gym membership (which is the gym I go to) and get 45 credits a month for $94. Which I’m switching to as soon as my membership runs out this month, spoiler alert. I’ve done HITT classes, barre, yoga sculpt, cycling and I’m trying boxing this week!

So let’s be real:  If you love going to workout classes and hate spending a trillion dollars, yes! I wish I would’ve done this sooner

Adventures in Crazy Workouts: Flywheel

I have a love/hate relationship with cycling classes. Okay, it’s mostly hate. I used to take them all the time at my University gym a couple years ago, ya know, when I was living my best life with a free gym included in my tuition. I thrived on my cycling 7 am classes on Monday’s and have tried to re-create those happy times in these trendy NYC cycling classes. I do love a good Monster cycle class, and I had some high hopes for Flywheel. As you guys know, or maybe don’t, I very much dislike Soulcycle. It’s got flashing colored lights, there’s a lot of yelling, and too many different moves (i.e MOVE UP! DOWN! HANDS AT FIRST! SECOND! RIGHT! LEFT! JUMP!), you get it. I prefer not to be screamed at while I workout, but maybe just me.

I figured I would try this place, simply because the first class was free. I went in, found my assigned bike, and patted myself on the back for being all early. The instructor walked in, talked at a normal volume and I took it as a good sign. As soon as the thought This might actually be okay started forming in my brain, he began to play house music and yelled, “YOU GUYS READY TO GO?!” It was definitely a struggle after that. I checked my apple watch probably every 10 minutes waiting for it to end. Which is sad because the only other time I do that when I work out is when I’m running—because running is just excruciating.

You know how you have ac certain voice when you talk to someone professional? Some people refer to this as their “customer service voice.” Our cycling instructor obviously had a “cycling instructor voice.” He sounded like a gay radio announcer. If you’re wondering “hmm, what does that sound like?” Here’s my best impression:

Okay it was deeper than that, but you get it. Now, I don’t wanna make fun of this dude. However, I can because I know he was putting this voice on. Imagine hearing that mixed with way-too-loud house music.

The one thing that was actually different about this class that I enjoyed was the ranking. We were able to see how we ranked in the class the entire time and even had short bursts of competition with each other towards the end of the ride. Definitely made me push myself to go faster!

Overall, this wasn’t my favorite. I like cycling, but hate when my ear drums burst while have a seizure from flashing lights. This is a workout, not a Kesha concert, thanks.

2018: What A Year

Can I just say this was the longest year of my life?

I’ve learned a lot about myself that I didn’t know. I did things I never thought I would do. I definitely feel like I’ve matured a lot for just one year, but my 25 year old self might read this and internally groan—who’s to say?

Winter…was rough. Let’s start with the good! I discovered that snow storms are simultaneously amazing and horrifying. You’re scared your pipes will freeze and your heat will go out, but its so quiet and pretty to watch you’ll think you’re actually in heaven. Spent some fun times with Ruby (shout-out to Ruby because I really think I would’ve moved, had I not met her) doing things on my New York bucket list and eating some amazing food. Discovered some cool places near my apartment – like a bakery full of cat things and a place where I frequented to get bagel sandwiches. Christmas in New York is so cute and exciting to be a part of. Pushed myself to learn new things and tried to do things solo to make myself as happy as possible.

When I wrote my “goals” for 2018 and my year in a video, I was in a weird place. I was just starting to feel lonely, sad and very nostalgic. This feeling would definitely be an overriding emotion for the rest of the winter. I don’t know if it was what you’d call “seasonal depressive disorder” or just some serious growing pains, but I would say the winter was hard for me. I spent the majority of the time feeling unsuccessful and beating myself up frequently for not having my life look the way I’d pictured it when I moved to the city. Not just in my career, which I’ve talked about, but in all aspects of my life. I didn’t make a bunch of friends like I assumed I would. I spent 6 months in an apartment I hated and lived above a bar—unsurprisingly the worst place I’ve ever lived. I also went on a clump of last-luster dates and even one with a guy I can confidently say was a (borderline) sociopath. Everything about life doesn’t change immediately. I would say the weekends were hard when I had no plans and was stuck in my loud apartment with nothing to do.

Thankfully, Spring actually came after what felt like a trillion years. I made some really awesome friends and finally had a group that I felt were really my people. I moved to a new apartment and actually enjoyed being at there instead of feeling trapped.

In the summer of 2018, I finally quit my job in order to find something I really loved, which I did. Spent time doing things that inspired me and also had a lot of fun draining all my bank accounts.

Fall was definitely a big blur, but in a good way. I turned another year older with the best people I could ask for. Spent some much needed time at home, and for once, coming back to the city felt exciting instead of dreadful.

Of course, dating life is still pending, but three out of four ain’t bad!

One year ago, I was slightly sad, but very hopeful. I knew my life now  would not be the way it was then. I was right and couldn’t be happier about it. Here’s to more crazy times and doing things that scare the crap out of me.

 

Adventures in Crazy Workouts: DanceBody

It has been a hot minute since I did one of these babies. I’ve been doing a lot of the same things and trying to keep it consistent, rather than fun. What can I say, I like a routine. I’ve also really been enjoying CorePower Yoga’s Yoga Sculpt class. It’s longer than normal, but I feel amazing afterwards. Definitely worth checking out if you have even a slight interest in yoga. 

On to what I ACTUALLY did. I went to my very first DanceBody class, on a Sunday, no less. I want businesses to know that influence by bloggers works cause the only reason I know about DanceBody is because of a blogger. I, being uncoordinated with dance and having *ahem* larger boobs, was apprehensive about taking this class. After I booked it, I thought “Why am I trying to take this class? My boobs are gonna fly all over the place and I’m going to look absolutely ridiculous. I really should just do a cycling class where it’s dark and comfortable.” BUT, it is 2018 and I’m not here for my own negativity about what my body looks like while trying to workout, thanks. I decided to book the class and interested to see how it would go.

I took the “Follow Along” class, which is the least amount of choreography and concentration. First, everything is fine, you’re dancing looking weird but it’s fine!! Next thing you know you’re sweating, calves dying and somehow it’s only been 15 minutes. This class was no joke. We were jumping and dancing for literally 45 minutes. There’s about an 8 minutes break to do arms, but is it really a break if you’re still moving your entire body I think no! 

The last 10 minutes is a lovely pilates tone while on a mat. It’s nice because you’re on the ground, no more jumping and you can finally breathe. It’s not nice because you’re somehow still out of breath, what the heck, your leg does not bend that way and oh my god I’m shaking. 

All in all, I loved the workout. Yes, it was very hard and yes, watching myself bounce around VERY uncoordinated was weird. However, I tried it, I liked it, I got out of my comfort zone and I didn’t die. The earth is still turing and no one stopped dancing in order to laugh at how uncoordinated I was. I recommend it if you’re a cardio queen like myself, would rather dance than workout or maybe can actually dance? If I was a richer woman, this would be my go-to after a long weekend of drinking and too much pizza.