My review on the Big E: and my confession: I’m having an affair. With Wicked Whoopie pies.

Dennis & I went to the Big E on opening day and planned on staying a few hours. I figured we would walk around the whole place in a matter of 30 minutes and then spend the rest of the time trying to decide whether we wanted fried dough or hot dogs. But this was no local fair! The Big E was not the hometown country fair I was used to. We spent 7 hours there and ended up leaving because of sore feet, not out of boredom or because we conquered it.. not even close! So our journey went on for an entire day as we ate our way through the Big E.


Let me start by making a list of Big E
Must-haves:
Comfortable shoes
Cash(there are ATMs but probably charge a fortune.. plus you wont be able to get out of the Avenue of States without buying at least one snack in every building!)
Camera

Must-sees:
The view of the entire festival from the ferris wheel. I did have a little bit of a panic attack (I hate heights) but with a little talking down from Dennis, I ended up appreciating it. The view was absolutely amazing.

The Opa Opa Saloon: the most fun we had all day. The set up alone was enough to make me want a beer. Not to mention they had watermelon ale, and blueberry ale, both of which Dennis and I sampled. And when I say sampled I mean bought a 20 ounce cup of it.

Must do-not sees:
The sea lion show. I hate seeing the poor animals forced to perform.
Gyros. Wasted $20.00 on two gyros which we thought would be amazing because it was a Greek place named Demitri's Greek Foods, but do. Not. Eat. Any. Gyros. I literally shuddered just thinking about it.
The kettle corn that everyone freaks out about. It’s called NH Kettle Korn. To be honest, microwave popcorn tastes better. As kettle corn connoisseurs, Dennis and I saw all the different kettle corn stands and wanted to taste each and buy an entire $12.00 bag(The biggest bag, almost as long as me) of the best kind. That was literally our plan. We went to the stand with the longest line behind the New Hampshire building. It was so disappointing!

Must-eats(my favorite part!):
The baked potatoes from the Maine building are a given. I thought, “What’s so special about a baked potato?” but, it was baked to perfection. Pure bliss.
There were many fudge stands but the best fudge was in the big building. It is in the building near the Asian massage exhibition. They use Jif peanut butter to make the Chocolate peanut butter fudge and make it fresh all day. The samples are warm and fresh. Heaven!
Like I mentioned, the watermelon and blueberry ales from Opa Opa Saloon!
WICKED WHOOPIES. You know how they say pregnant women crave certain things and they have to eat them right then and there? That’s how I feel about these. I’m already planning on pre-ordering and freezing a case of them because I’ve been craving them ever since. They’re in the Maine building. Eat one and think of me. Or, better yet, bring me home one! I had the original whoopie, but with flavors like red velvet cake and peanut butter chocolate, buy more than one and bring it home.


Goals for Round 2 of the Big E:
Eat a Big E cream puff. These things are so popular, they have an entire BILLBOARD devoted to them on the thruway near the venue.
Find a hot, buttery lobster roll on a toasty bun. I saw some made with mayo, but I think the best part about lobster is the heat and the BUTTER!
Try out the raviolis in Venda Ravioli in the Rhode Island tent. My favorite.
Sample the raspberry wheat ale at Opa Opa!

I was rather boring this trip! Dennis and I were getting over stomach bugs, so we didn’t stuff our faces like we usually would have. Until next year… (or next week, if Dennis and I try for round 2!!)

“Everything that is or was began with a dream.”

I have dreams. I just have to think about how to narrow them down. I have so many dreams it will take an entire lifetime to fulfill, so I have to stop trying to rush it! My dreams:

I want babies. I want 2 or 3 babies, preferably at least one of them a little princess girl. I love children, and I feel like I would be the best mommy. Is it a coincidence that I’m dating the most doting, responsible, caring man alive? I hope not! Dennis would make the best daddy. I’m just sayin’.

I also want a happy life! I want to have Sunday dinners that smell like rosemary chicken and cinnamon sugar. I want to knit handmade scarves and give them as Christmas gifts. I want to be famous for making “the world’s best” pasta e fagioli. I want to have an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe that I only share with my closest friends.

Career wise, I still don’t know exactly what I want to do. I want to be a teacher, a cosmetologist, a hair colorist, a makeup artist, a children’s book author, a greeting card designer, a woman’s magazine beauty article writer. I want to cook, write, draw, paint, create, teach.. I want it all! I guess it’s better to start out with many dreams rather than none.

I realized another thing about myself recently. I am a pretty wholesome girl. The only thing I really do that’s considered “bad” is curse. I have a mouth like a sailor! I get it from my mother. And now I cannot escape it especially because driving in New York City makes me even want to invent NEW swear words for some of the whatchamacallits that get behind the wheel down there. But I don’t drink, smoke, do drugs, party, or do anything that’s classified as wrong. I even hate being in situations where I don’t feel completely safe. I have always been like that. I like being totally comfortable with my surroundings. I think it’s because I am such an aesthetic person; I always feel things out to see if I like the way it makes me feel. I like feeling good!

I am in love with this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VgL3NFCg34

I had an epiphany! It's 1 am, later than I've stayed up in a loong time. I am so used to going to bed early, but since Dennis has been here and since I kind of attempted to go out last night and went to bed around 12:45, I am just not tired yet! I spent the day feeling like poo, sick with the stomach flu and sick in the head from this PMDD nightmare. I was so depressed and questioning my life and my future and everything like I always do, and I started watching all these makeup tutorials online by this celebrity makeup artist Kandee Johnson. She is so sunny and happy and upbeat and I actually watched her "story", an inspirational video about how she got to where she is, including the obstacles she went through and how we should never give up. She quoted a boxer who said his biggest weapon was his right hook and the fact that he always gets back up when he's knocked down. I think it's because I don't have anyone in my life to inspire me, I just always look at the negative and feel down about myself, but her video and her attitude really inspired me to change the way I look at things. I got into an arguement with my Grammy today. I really treat her badly, I always complain about her and never want anything to do with her. But since having this realization I wrote her a letter pretty much bearing my heart and soul and apologizing for being so difficult to be around. It made me feel a lot better. I also made a pact with myself that I am going to stop feeling sorry for myself and start caring about what I look like and how I act. I am starting my beauty regimen tomorrow. I am going to start eating right and running daily. Starting tomorrow morning, I am going on a life diet. I am going to change the way I look, feel, act, and treat people. The book The Secret talks about how if you project positive messages into the universe, positive things will come your way. Maybe I am always so miserable because I allow myself to be miserable. It's almost like I want misery to come my way. I am expecting things to go wrong because I am feeling sorry for myself. I am going to start thinking positive.
Starting with a list of things I like:
My Forget Me Knot ring from my boyfriend for my 22nd birthday:

The fireworks over the Brooklyn Bridge from Harbor Light Restaurant on July 4, 2008; one of the best nights of my life:
Rollercoasters!! I have yet to get Dennis on one of these:
Drawing:
Baking(especially cupcakes, my favourite!):
Friends<3:
My boyfriend and our antics:
Being genuinely happy:
Rockaway Beach at night:

"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:7

I couldn't help but re-post again today because I have to put up some photos of some movies I am so eager to see: Where the Wild Things Are, and Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland!!

The start of something new. Along with the coming of autumn(my favorite season) I decided to start a blog. Not only for me too remind myself of memories and review music, recipes, movies etc., BUT also to keep at least some part of my life a little less cluttered than the rest. Unfortunately, the inner workings of my mind are just as clumsy as i am physically. I mix up memories, make up a few of my own, and jumble up to do lists with recipes I am trying to remember and make up ideas I tried to memorize. Today I felt extremely depressed (Not only do I have a stomach flu that's lasted about 6 days longer than it should have, but I have been diagnosed with PMDD and ADD. In essence the latter two make me extremely miserable before my period and can only be compensated with an emergency dose of Coldstone Creamery's Birthday Cake Remix and laying in bed all day.) I went grocery shopping and although my stomach bug won't let me eat anything and actually enjoy it, I still bought some comfort foods to ease my severe case of PMDD this month. The ever-popular Smores Poptarts, Banana Nut Cheerios, Healthy Nut Whole Wheat Bread, and Honey Turkey & Cheese filled my cart and my heart with a promise of a better evening. I also bought some curl defining mousse and the new Stiletto Waterproof Mascara. I will update to review on those products. Thankfully, when I got home, I learned that A Walk to Remember / Dirty Dancing movie love sesh were on! Now the end of my day will be just as sweet as the start of it. It was just the middle that sucked. This morning Stacy & I went to Grace's Diner for Banana Nut Bread French Toast(maybe it's something about autumn that makes me crave banana nut everything?) But nonetheless it was amazing.