too many dresses? never!

mom's first gchat question of the day on tuesday...
(that's right, i said gchat. my mom gchats. she's so cool.)

cathyjohnson: so how many dresses?
Lauren: ummm...eight?
cathyjohnson: hmmmm
Lauren: what?!? i took three out...

of course that was her first question. not..."are you packed?" "how heavy is your suitcase?" "are you ready?" "are you excited?" no no, she gets straight to the question she knows i struggled with most.

hoooow many dresses are tooooo many for a trip to Greece? don't say eight...

erroneous. there is no correct answer. because there can NEVER be tooooo many dresses!

:)

i'm off to Greece for the next 2 weeks. I'm meeting up with this crazy world traveler...


Greece! yayyyy!

it's one of the most spontaneous decisions i've ever made. but hey, what are airline miles for anyway? unless you blow them on a super fun adventure? there are no words to describe my excitement.

Greece, Greece, Greece! here i come!

A Weekend in Pictures

Lindsey and Jenny came to visit NYC from Tejas last weekend!

It was Jenny's 1st visit to see me and Linds' 1st visit to my new Upper West Side apartment. She's always visited me on the Upper East Side and I think it really threw her off to be across the park!

It was also the weekend of the Texas Exes Alumni Chili Cookoff - our very favorite NY + Longhorn event to officially kick-off the summer!

On an annoyingly rainy weekend, the sun came out for approximately 4 hours on Saturday, making it the perfect afternoon for rooftop celebrating. And resulting in approximately 4 hours of sunburn. That must mean it's summer!

The views from 230 Fifth on a sunshiney day are really really perfect.

And the heaters were still out...definitely NOT necessary when it was 78 degrees on Saturday. And mostly just really annoying for our pictures.

Lindsey and Jenny rockin' their burnt orange.

Caro and me...with flowers...not burnt orange. Oops.

Soooo much love for the heater polls.

Former roomies!

Love her.


Mike and Katy...separated by the poll.


Not sure if you've heard, but the we (the Longhorns, duh) are going to have our own cable network. Add this to list of reasons my college is cooler than yours.

A sea of Texans! (and some honorary Texans...)

Aaaaand...the inevitable after party at Rodeo. Why not continue the festivities at a bar with peanuts on the floor and killer margaritas?

Sunday we headed to Harlem to see Yankee-Mets Subway series, Game 3.
Great seats, great game, great time...no sun. Oh well!

Seat back disclaimers. Ladies. Be alert.

Festive Yankee food.


Ice cream in a Yankee hats. Necessary. Despite the lack of sun.

Our new friend Ron. Security at The Dugout. Which is apparently quite the hangout after Yankee games.

The craziness happening on the dance floor behind this photo can only be described as...
"Is this real life?!?"

Such a fantastic weekend friends!
Come visit again soon! And this time, please promise to bring the Texas sunshine with you!

Justin Timberlake should always host SNL

And this is why.

Brooklyn Bowl?!?

Open Scene:
Brooklyn Bowl - Lanes 11 & 12


Group of friends anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Birthday Girl.

9:00pm. Birthday Girl Lindsay Ann walks in. Completely oblivious. And clearly confused as to why Kyle did not take her back to Manhattan after dinner...

Group of friends cheer: SURPRISE!!!

Birthday Girl, once oblivious, now shocked to see her friends here...in Brooklyn. She spins around in disbelief. Realizing that her friends are here to surprise her. And that she is just sliiiightly over-dressed for bowling.

Hugs. Smiles. Squeals. Cupcake surprises. Bring on the birthday bowling.

Lanes 11 & 12

Me & Krista

Lance & Hannah

9A Roommates - Me, Bethany, Birthday Girl & Hannah

Cue the band!

No leaving until the margaritas are gone! No, seriously...

11:00pm.

Once the last frame was bowled -- the boys successfully killing the girls with their triple-digit scores -- all the pictures were taken and the margs were gone, everyone made their way back to manhattan. Well, the girls did at least.

All smiles. Surprise birthday's are the best.

End Scene.

Happy Happy Birthday to Roommate Lindsay Ann!
Love!

some springy things

finally?! maybe?!

i think...i think maybe it's really staying warm this time!

see the pretty flowers in madison square park?! yay spring!

we had this cute lil furrball staying with us at 9a last weekend. his name is jabu. he is a very fluffy (and very barky) house guest.

this is us on an afternoon walk around the neighborhood. he gets so many compliments.

we stumbled upon this lovely community garden on 89th street. a tulip festival!

aaaand in true springy fashion...
...last weekend i switched out my closet.

(yes, that's a thing here in new york. we have one season closets.)

trading my winter skirts, jackets and scarves for my springtime flowery dresses, bright colored cardi's and shorts.

happy!


switching my closet is a long and annoying process.

oh but the best part of the closet-switch is definitely the shoes.
goodbye boots! hellooooo sandals!

roommate lindsay ann says we can never judge her for having too many shoes after seeing all mine. what? i just really like sandals!

also...

i never thought i'd say this but...i think i have too many dresses.
is that even possible?!? i'm all out of room! eeek!

at least it's officially flowery dress weather!

happy spring! :)

A Lil Thursday Night Music

Last fall me, Lindsay Ann and Susan went to see singer songwriter, Andrew Belle, at City Winery. Andrew opened for a very tall, very talented, singer songwriter who kind of rocked, Tyrone Wells. We were in love from his first song.

After the concert, we each bought a different album and shared. It didn't take long before we knew every word to every song that he has. Love him.

Last week, Tyrone was back at City Winery and we went back to see him. Turns out, our friends Krista and Vadim are also big fans. Krista walked down the aisle at their wedding to Tyrone's song, Seabreeze.

I'll give you a hint...Tyrone is the tall one.

It was another great concert. Even better this time since we knew the songs and could sing along. And he had Jason Reeves (also awesome!) join him on stage to sing their song -- "Give Me One Reason."

Ohmygosh, it was just so good!!

We met Tyrone afterwards...I think I mentioned something about how great the show was and how I saw him last time he was in town. Hah! We also got our picture taken with him, but it's on Krista's camera.

So instead, I'll leave you with a lil clip of Seabreeze. Enjoy!

P.S. On Friday @TyroneWells started following me on twitter. I am so cool. :)

But She's a Real Princess!

The following gchat conversation happened last Thursday afternoon with roommate Lindsay Ann --

Lindsay Ann: how do you feel about getting up early tomorrow for the royal wedding?
do you have any crowns laying around?
I know you are very princessy

LJ: BAHAHAHAHA
i feel good about wedding watching
and i sadly have no crowns...but i'm sure that i can come up with something princessy for the viewing party

1) Princessy! Oh she knows me well! Not like a have a sparkly Princess sticker hanging on a photo board in my room or anything...ok, I do.


2) Royal Wedding watching! Oh yes please! Of course we will all get up early for this!


And then this pretty pink and gold, super official invitation arrived in my inbox! Krista sometimes spends the night with us at 9A when her husband is out of town, so naturally, she was invited to our royal affair. Please note the time on this invite...

We were up at 5:30am, well...Linds was up earlier because she is good with alarms. But the rest of us were up at 5:30am. We had very large mugs of coffee, followed by mimosas and Magnolia cupcakes - our version of wedding cake!

Krista, Hannah and Lindsay Ann around 6:30am...

Treats!

Add this impromptu royal pink soiree to the ever-growing list of reasons I love my roommates. There may or may not have been lots of squealing. And exclamations of "ohhhhhhh! she's soooooo preeeeetty!" followed by "she's a real princess!" and "this is just like a fairytale!"

We are such girly girls. And I won't apologize for it at all. I love it lots!