So during this newfound time I came up with a list of 12 things for 2012. They’re not resolutions per se, but they’re not exactly goals either. Insert random movie quote here: “it’s more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules” (Quick, name that movie!). How about this? It’s a list of 12 things that I want to make happen, learn, and experience before 2012 comes to a close…ok, fine, call them resolutions (just don’t do it in ear shot of me).

1. Travel somewhere new: This is actually one of my lifetime travel goals—to travel to at least one new destination per year—along with seeing all 50 states before I’m 50. Jury’s still out on where I’m headed this year…I think I need to find a globe, spin it, and just blindly point to a spot. That always works out, right?
2. Be more timely: Clearly this is a work in progress (i.e. a blog post like this two weeks into 2012 already).
3. Bake/cook more often: A creature of habit when it comes to baking and cooking, I need to branch out. It’s not that I eat out that often, but I tend to stick with easy familiar recipes and now I’m getting a little bored. Recipe thoughts and suggestions are welcome!
4. Run a 5K: For real this year.
5. Incorporate more theater and play reading into my schedule: I watched Anna Deavere Smith’s eye-opening Let Me Down Easy last night on PBS and it really reminded me of why I love theater and do what I do (we all need that every now and then, yes?). I saw it off-Broadway in 2009 and was blown away. Check it out: “I can’t talk to ya right now. You’re using up my chi!” Seeing as theater is not my immediate background, (though I have learned and seen a lot over the last few years) there’s always room for more!
6. Do one thing a week for no other reason than because I want to (and not feel guilty about it): For starters, this weekend I’m going to go see a movie. (Anyone who knows me well will know that I rarely see movies in the theater…most recent was Bridesmaids. Enough said.)
7. De-clutter my apartment and don’t let my semi-pack rat tendencies and absurd craft supply hoarding get the better of me: Already started doing this last week. Win.
8. Read more, write more, and learn new things: Easier said than done, but I’m actively working on it (while boycotting/avoiding e-readers as a crutch to read more).
9. See a project through from beginning to end: Remember that time I thought it’d be a fun idea to make a quilt entirely by hand? Yeah…don’t ask me how that’s going.
10. If a new article of clothing or pair of shoes is bought, another must be gotten rid of: I got a few new things over the holidays and already have a bag of clothes ready for Goodwill. Solid start!
11. 2012—The Year of the Art Journal: I’ve been toying around with starting one for a while just for fun (and to actually use things in my giant craft supply stash). Plus, I found this blog post so inspiring that it sealed the deal: The Year of the Art Journal
12. Be me: That’s all!

I know I’m two weeks late, but here’s to a happy and healthy 2012! For the record: I have no doubt that anything written from a feverish Natalie over the holidays would have been highly entertaining, but most likely full of snark, too many commas, and quite incoherent.

Well, it’s finally happened: the 365 photo project I started last year on my birthday came to an end a week ago. I have no earthly idea where all that time went as it doesn’t quite feel like a year has passed since I started this. Not only am I older (am I really 26 now?), but I’m 365 photos richer. It was a challenging project at times (Oh, crap, I STILL need a photo for today and it’s 11:34pm!), but also a very fun and entertaining one (This will make a great photo of the day! Let me go get my iphone…DON’T MOVE!).

The biggest downside to this project is that I’ve gotten so used to taking a picture of something every day for the past year, that I’m not quite sure what to do now! Clearly I have a void to fill (and I’m open to suggestions…anyone?). What, oh what, a year this has been! Here are some of my favorites:

Click to view slideshow.

And lots of it! Now this is something I would expect to happen in Wisconsin at this time of year, but certainly not in New Jersey. I can recall a handful of not-so-fun memories of going trick-or-treating with a winter jacket and boots on and treading through the snow around the neighborhood (hey, we did whatever it took to get some candy!). I kind of have a feeling that Mother Nature just didn’t want us to enjoy fall as apparently winter is already upon us and November just got here (as you can probably see, my timeliness with blog posts is…well…less than desired. I’m working on that).

The snow started in the morning and it just seemed to be a light dusting at first. I distinctly remember saying to people throughout the late morning “Well, it’s coming down as slushy snow right now, but it’s not sticking to the ground at all so I highly doubt it will actually accumulate.” Spoke too soon. By noon the cars parked out in front of my building had a healthy layer of heavy, wet snow on them. Everything looked very picturesque from my kitchen window–which looks out over a main road in Princeton–and only once did I think about putting Christmas music on…but then I quickly remembered that, oh, right, IT’S OCTOBER.

Last month (better late than never with blogging, right?), a co-worker and I set out on a spontaneous, epic—and lengthy—journey to the Midwest, with stops in Streetsboro (Ohio…just for the night…thankfully), Kalamazoo, Chicago (where I dropped her off), and finally, Milwaukee.

We left Princeton late on the Thursday afternoon of Labor Day weekend. After a never-ending seven hour drive through nature’s roller coaster, aka Pennsylvania, we made it to Ohio around 12:30am on Friday. Highlights of this leg of the trip: seeing a shooting star for the first time and eating at one of the nicest Panera’s I’ve ever been to. (It should also be noted that during these first 7ish hours, it became quite apparent that we had not made enough CD’s to listen too…oops)

One fitful sleep, a hot shower, a decent free breakfast, and sub-par cup of coffee later, we were back on the road at 9:30am en route to Kalamazoo for coffee and beer. I know what you’re thinking…and the answer is yes. We drove up to Kalamazoo to get coffee and beer to bring back to The Jerse. What can I say? We’re snobs when it comes to amazing coffee and a delicious brew, particularly when either come from the Midwest (while we’re on that subject, I also brought back a ridiculous amount of the always delicious Spotted Cow).

After some crisscrossing through Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, we finally made it to Chicago…just in time for rush hour. We sat on I-94 for a while, listening to the radio, taking in the skyline, and generally absorbing all the midwestern-ness that was surrounding us. Then I saw my first Wisconsin license place in ages and got a little giddy. I dropped my co-worker off (I’m not actually sure where in Chi-town we were. I was so turned around!) and was en route to Milwaukee. I had about an hour and a half to go before reaching home and I figured listening—Oh, who am I kidding? I didn’t listen; I loudly sang along—to Philadelphia Freedom, Man from Milwaukee, and Fly Like a Cheesehead on repeat the whole time would make the drive go faster. It didn’t.

I passed the old, wooden Welcome to Wisconsin sign on I-94 and started screaming with excitement! It was nearly 7:30pm by the time I made it into Greendale. I parked a few houses away 1) in an attempt not to be accidentally seen by my folks and 2) there was a party going on somewhere and really had no other choice. I started walking toward our house and called my parents, using a clever rouse that went a little something like this:

ME: Was there a box outside the house when you got home today?
MOM: Nope.
ME: Are you sure? I ordered a birthday present for Dad and it arrived earlier than I had expected. The UPS tracking said it was delivered today…can you check if it’s hidden in the bushes or something?
DAD: Ok, I’ll go check!

Cue me—standing on the side lawn (our asphalt driveway was just redone and I couldn’t walk on it, bad timing), still talking with my Mom, when my Dad opened the door and saw me there. Then I hear on the phone “Hold on,  Dad’s yelling at me to come to the door.” The phone gets put down (while it’s still connected with me, by the way) and Mom appeared at the door too…SURPRISE! And that was the start of a fabulous holiday weekend in Wisconsin, filled with good food, amazing theater (Blithe Spirit at American Players…awesome!), and great family and friends.

Plus, I got to have brunch in Chicago with my favorite partner in crime/theatrical troublemaker/mafia maven, Kit the Lit. Like I said before: Epic. Weekend.

And in case you’re wondering how the drive back went…this should tell you all you need to know about the 13 hour trek back East that we did all in one day: it was so long we did not take a single photo while on the road to document the last day of the trip (though being at a dead stop on the interstate in Indiana long enough to turn off the engine and pace outside the car for a while would have been a prime photographic moment…damn). Enough said.

Due to my lack of closet space, abundance of clothes, and a strong need to have a bright red piece of furniture in my apartment (true…), when it was offered up I immediately took it! I got red paint (actually, the color is called heirloom tomato) and wooden drawer knobs to paint myself. All in all, I think it cost around $25. Not too shabby! So after a little patience, some TLC, and inhaling paint fumes for a week, this was the result:

The one thing that was prolonging this seemingly never-ending quest was the arrival of the famed Sprinkles Cupcakes in NYC. Multiple friends had told me that their cupcakes were amazing and when I heard they were opening a store in NYC, I knew that I could not officially conclude my search until I’d tried their red velvet too.

I went into the city last weekend to see Measure for Measure at Shakespeare in the Park, hang out with some good friends, see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at The Met (which, by the way, is AMAZING! Check it out: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty), and go to Sprinkles (that was seriously on my to-do list, no joke).

Sprinkles has a cute little store on 60th and Lex, conveniently located near an H&M and Urban Outfitters…danger zone! I went in and ordered a cup of milk and my red velvet cupcake (you can also get it gluten-free or vegan, which is a nice option as very few places offer that) and sat down by the window that’s facing Lex to dig in. Verdict? Fabulous! The cream cheese frosting perfectly complemented the moist, bright red cake. Overall, it was a pretty amazing cupcake!

That was Saturday…and on Sunday, I had a thought; since I was going all the way up to The Met for the McQueen exhibit anyway, I might as well go to the other bakery whose red velvet cupcake was currently my number one: Two Little Red Hens.

I don’t often travel to the Upper East Side as there’s not really a reason for me to go all the way up into the 80′s…until I discovered Two Little Red Hens, that is. I came here earlier in the year and had one of their suped-up red velvets with a lovely colorful frosting flower on top of the cream cheese frosting. It was heaven. And seeing as I had quite a delightful red velvet the day before that essentially gave all the other cupcake shops I’d been to in the city a run for their money, I needed to trek up to Two Little Red Hens to settle the score once and for all. Despite just coming off a very filling lunch and a bloody mary, I was ready to reach a final verdict in this ultimate red velvet cupcake hunt I’d embarked on in September 2009.

I ordered my red velvet—sans the fancy frosting flower—and sat down to indulge. And with that first bite, I had a winner….(drum roll, if you please)…Two Little Red Hens! There’s just something about their cream cheese frosting that sealed the deal for me. Along with the gorgeous crimson color of the cake that was moist and so flavorful. (Wow, I just re-read what I wrote just now…obsession is clearly an understatement. I think I have some kind of incurable red velvet complex.)

Anyway, you can see for yourself by this photo. The Two Little Red Hens red velvet cupcake…holy freakin’ amazing red velvet cupcake, Batman! It is definitely worth a trip all the way up to 85th and 2nd for this baby. It is the real deal; exactly how a red velvet cupcake should be: cream cheese frosting (with real cream cheese, unlike some notable NYC cupcakes establishments that shall remain nameless) and moist, crimson cake.

This has been a long time coming, but the day has finally arrived. Here it is, my official ‘Great Manhattan Red Velvet Cupcake Search Extravaganza’ Top Three:

• Two Little Red Hens (Upper East Side)
• Sprinkles Cupcakes (Midtown East)
• Little Cupcake Bakeshop (Soho)

In the words of one of my favorite movie characters, Indiana Jones, “Ahhh, Red Velvet.” Wait…or is it “Ahhh, Venice”…damn. I forget. So now that my red velvet quest has ended what’s next, you ask? Je ne sais pas. But the red velvet buck certainly does not stop here.

In the 10 years I’ve had my car, the ‘get gas now, girl!’ light (as I like to call it) has only come on 3 times…all since living in The Jerse as I routinely see how far I can go without getting gas with the hope that I just might be in another state at the right time so that I can fill it up myself. Pathetic, I know. What can I say? It’s the simple things in life – like filling up one’s gas tank – that I enjoy.

Navigating a completely new state where I know not a soul was scary, daunting, exhilarating, tricky, awesome, and dare I say, fun. Though looking back on the last year, I found that I’ve traveled a lot to be closer to family and friends, if only for the weekend…hmmm. And I don’t really see that stopping any time soon.

Now that I’m in a new apartment closer to town and can easily walk/bike to the theater, everything is so much nicer! Just about every night I take a walk around town and campus and it’s so pleasant. No particular destination; just walking and usually chatting on the phone (yes, I AM that person with the iphone ear buds who looks like I’m talking to myself). My old apartment was in the boonies surrounded by woods and I feared unexpected confrontations with deer, foxes, coyotes, and the like, so needless to say, I’m quite happy where I am now.

Speaking of which…I’m nearing a state of complete apartmental unpackedness. Only one full box of crap remains and it’s all left over from Rhode Island which didn’t get unpacked during the move last year, so I really don’t have high hopes for it at this point. But we all have a box like that somewhere in our homes, right? No? Just me? Damn.

As I lift my glass of water in the air (it’s 11:30 on a Wednesday night…what’d you expect?), cheers to another year of NJ in NJ. You know you’re as excited as I am, admit it.

A: All of the above (Ah ha! Trick question!)

So I’ve been at the new digs for a little over a week now and definitely have had one too many rousing games of ‘Where the Hell Did I Put That?’ and ‘Where is That Other Thing?’…and as fun and entertaining as those games may be (let’s be honest here – me tossing clothes about for 15 minutes looking for something… if that’s not pure entertainment then I don’t know what is), I’m still only about half unpacked. Oops.

The apartment is about two-thirds the size of the previous cave, behemoth, monstrous box I was living in before – which is great. But now since I have less space I need to consolidate and get rid of some things, which I kinda have been…key word: kinda. It’s just taking me longer than I thought. And also, because I’m on the third and top floor of the building, many of the walls are slanted. They give the place nice character, but present a challenge when it comes to hanging things. And all the walls in the kitchen (except one!) are also slanted and thus, there are no high cabinets. They are all underneath the counters. For someone who’s vertically gifted (that’s the opposite of vertically challenged, right?), such as myself, that is its own unique situation: trying to figure out where to put things so I’m not stooping down to the floor all the time and making an even bigger bum out of my already bum back. Creative organization…that’s all it’ll take. I’ll post more photos once things are more organized and boxes are put away, but for now, here’s one of me in the empty living room:

YAY! New apartment!

Since summer is nearly here, I figured now was as good a time as any to get my hair cut. Hadn’t gotten it cut since last July, so I was definitely due! And, seeing as I work in theater, I decided go semi-dramatic…I. Got. Ten. Inches. Chopped. OFF. How liberating. The last time my hair was this short was back in 2004 when I was a freshman in college. Yikes. Here’s the play-by-play.

Yesterday, I felt like this:

Today I said screw it…CHOP! And ended up like this:

And voila! Short and much cooler:

Now I have 10 inches of hair (Neatly in two ponytails…I thought about telling the hairdresser to stop and leave it after she cut one side cause I thought it looked rad. Yes, I did just say rad.) to mail off and donate to some lovely folks somewhere in Ohio who will use it to make a wig. Ok, it’s not as sketchy as that sounds. Really.