Pray for East Coast

As Hurricane Sandy passes by the East Coast, my heart yearns for the people over there. Y'all know how much I love New York City. As my future home (har har), I pray for the safety being of all residence, including animals, and major props to all of the health care workers that are doing their best to keep saving lives.

I just read that NYU Medical Center's power went out and their generator failed. Now they're evacuating the premises. That's so scary.

What I really want to do now is volunteer over there... If only time and $$$ allows me to do so.

Please keep East Coast in prayers. Not only that, also The Bahamas too that were affected earlier.

xo, Rima

RIMA & GABY INVADES NYC, DAY 3

The queen of slacker is back (which is me) and I would like to share you my last New York Trip back in August with Gaby.

For our day 1, click here.
For our day 2, click here.

Let's start with our breakfast.

Gray's Papaya. You haven't been to New York until you eat a Gray's Papaya hot dog. The wiener itself is alright. What makes it a bomb meal is the PAPAYA DRINK. For a hot, humid day in New York City... to let your taste buds aka mouth & throat that's been dying of thirst to taste this unique sweet with a hint of sour drink = heaven. And of course you can not beat the Recession Deal: 2 Hot Dogs & A Papaya Drink for $5. Cha-ching.

I chugged the whole meal in 5 minutes. Gaby, being the slow eater she is (haha), became my model without even knowing.

Then we walked from Gray's towards Central Park West and walked thru Strawberry Fields (and passing by The Dakota, the apartment of John Lennon, where he got shot) and by the lake. We saw the infamous bridge from afar.

Then we hit Museum #2, The American Museum of Natural History. You've seen The Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller, right? Yup, this is the museum based on that movie. They even have a tour based on the movie outline. Pretty cool. We got all ghetto in the museum when we went to the Asian side and saw a section of Indonesia... more specifically from our very own tribe, Batak. We took pictures like dumb tourist and text messaged our family and friends. ha ha ha.

Of course, gotta take pictures of fossils and such. And in front of an Elephant's ass. Ass ass ass ass.

After seeing outlines of dead animals and such, we headed to a small bakery/cafe called Arte around the Corner and chilled for a moment. I totally love the vibe. They used furnitures from thrifts/second hands, and serve your latte/iced coffee in a wine glass. Tres chic.

After getting refreshed by yumminess, we took the train down to Coney Island. It was a long trip down, but worth it. It's totally Carnival Land and I love the Cirque vibe of it. Gaby had her first taste of deep fried oreo (oh my!) and we road a ride where Gaby got all nauseated. I acted like I was high and laughed all the way. I even recorded a video of us riding Thunder Bolt. Too bad Gaby was cussing up the storm (in Indo), hence I can't post it. Oh and maybe you don't wanna hear my annoying laughing voice.

They even had fireworks! I love fireworks. The show was pretty long and it was very up close. I was in awe. Super cool. Well, the main reason we hit Coney Island because we both wanted to see boobies and watch a Burlesque Show. It was our first time ever. We both loved it. It was a reunion amongst the performers for a 50th birthday for the host, Jo Boobs, and mind you, she is damn hot for her age. We only watched the first half of the show because we didn't wanna walk too late at night on the way back home. Also, this jackass next too me kept on like bugging me and flirting with me (he was like 42, who has a son who's like my age and has grandkids) and kept on offering me to by beer AND even wanted to pour some Jack D for me & Gaby. Uh no. Me & Gaby are there to appreciate the art of Burlesque, while this sonnavabeetch is acting all perverted. Urgh. Go away.

jo boobs there with the pink robe. hawt

Of course, when you're in Coney Island, you must go to Nathan's Hot Dog. Home of the 4th of July Hot Dog contest! In my opinion, Nathan's has the best wiener. The meat is very juicy and yummy.

Then of course we head back to our hot apartment and slept in sweat. Sorta getting used to it by now. Damn.

til day 4!

RIMA & GABY INVADES NYC, DAY 2.

Hah. So here's DAY 2 of our epic trip (Sorry it took me so long to do this. I'm gonna make it a weekly series. I'm so busy!)

in the sub; MAGNOLIAAA; Posing; @ Dean & Deluca

As far as I can remember, we woke up late. Hahaha... after our random Pizza run in Day 1, we slept in the humid heat (remember... no AC!).

So we started heading to the Rockefeller Center with intention to eat at Dean & Deluca, and we accidentally bumped into Magnolia Bakery. Mmm... Hello. Like I said, I judge a bakery by it's Red Velvet Cupcake. It's pretty good. The frosting is not sweet at all (which I love) but it doesn't have that cream cheese tartness. I wonder if it was cream cheese frosting. Not sure. Then I stood by the door for like 4 minutes watching a pastry chef frosting a cake. I stared at her for like forever. She was probably annoyed by me. 

Then we walked around Rockefeller, passed by NBC and the Radio Music City hall and found Dean & Deluca. We both got their reusable bags (I'm a sucker for reusable bags), since we both thought, "Er, we're gonna like be shopping like crazy why not just get a reusable bag so we can stuff our stuffs in there? huh?" Anyhoo, great success.

Then after that we went to MoMA. Yay, MoMA. My favorite. That was my 2nd time there, and Gab's first. My goal was to find my favorite painting of all time (again), The Starry Night by Van Gogh and to catch some classics, like Dali, Picasso and of course, ms. Marilyn Monroe herself by Warhol. #highfive.

nerd

After MoMA, we headed to Theater District, with pitstops to the mother of Anthropologie by Rockefeller (I died) and the massive St. Patrick's Cathedral. This was my 2nd time too & Gab's first. When we got there, we caught a glimpse of a mass that was going on. I'm not Catholic, so I had no idea what's going on, so when the people were praying, I was busy admiring the interior.

We headed to Theater District, picked up our tickets for Rent (which featured Anthony Fedorov from American Idol 4) and hung out at Starbucks (yes, our favorite go to place to charge our iphones). Gaby went outside where she caught Woody Harrelson walking by. Moments later I saw the sight of his ass (I saw him from behind from Starbucks). Hey, I saw Haymitch from behind. Woo.

Anyway, RENT was good. The casts was amazing, especially the guy that played Angel. Wow. Homeboy can sing and dance. Gotta love gay men. And Mr. Fedorov was awesome. 

Since the night was still young (actually not really. Young in California time) we decided to head to Times Square and admire the iconic billboard lights. Man, such a touristy sight. Body bumpin no bueno. Gah. 

And again, due to our abusive nature to our iPhones, we stopped again to grab "water" and charge our phones at Starbucks nearby. This Starbucks is legit. It has a big ass TV/Computer screen where you can take a picture of yourself and email it to you. Then it gets displayed on top of the monitor, projector style.

Feelin very touristy ourselves, we walked around Grand Central Station. Such a pretty place.

nerds

And of course, what's New York without some Halal Food? Yum. We wanted to go to that infamous 52nd St one but we were too tired. So we just headed to the first one we could find. And twas yum. It was so yummy that the picture was blurry.

Gawd I'm hungry now. 

Well we accomplished quite a lot in a day. Super.

We headed back to Brooklyn, and to our surprised, we saw a guy, in his underwear, playing the computer as we walked into our apartment. My eyes went straight to his south side. "WTF?!?" was in my head. And that was Barak, our host. (the computer desk is the first thing you see to the side when you walk in). And this, people, was my first time meeting our host. In his underwear. 

Barak: "Hey, Guys. How's is goin??" *eyes on the computer*

Gaby: "Oh hey Barak. It's going great. This is Rima, my friend." *eyes like a deer in the headlight*

Me: "Oh hey, nice to meet you, Barak. Errr... What are you playing?" *thinking, WTF. He better not be playing with himself* (walking towards our room)

Barak: "Oh I'm playing this dragon war game." *eyes still on the computer*

Me: "Oh Cool." *walks into room*

I was totally o_O

Gaby was all WTF too. This boy has no shame. And we both LOVE that! Somebody didn't care... Maybe if we were both males, it'll be a different story. Hahah.

Mkay, til Day 3 :)

PS: photo layouts/templates are made by Katrina from Pugly Pixel. Stop by and say hi (and say hi to her from me!!)

Rima & Gaby invades NYC, Day 1.

Ok, finally I have the time to post my recent trip to New York City. This time I was accompanied with my good friend, Gaby, who I've known since kiddy land back in Jakarta. One word: AWESOME. She's was an awesome companion. 

Too bad our seats were separated, she opted the front while I got stuck in the back near the bathroom. Gross. All I smelt was dirty diapers. Double Gross.  

We flew from Ontario and had a pit stopped at DFW for 3 freakin' hours. So we decided to make the best of it by eating at TGIF. Beer it up. Gosh my arms look nasty. Mind you, I was wearing a push up bra AND sports bra at the same time (I was probably saving some suitcase space?) so my boobs felt so full yet so big yet so awesome. Too bad Pillow wasn't there to witness some cleavage view. 

I love having window seats because hello, I get to see awesome clouds and take pictures of them. Oh since the flight was pretty long, I managed to kill a novel from Ontario to New York. Awesome. I was very into it too. 

Top Right: That's our Station!; Top Left: Heaven in East Village; Bottom Left: Artichoke Pizza; Bottom Right: Margherita Pizza.

Anyways, once we hit saw the sight of Manhattan, me & Gab managed to blast Jay Z's song "Empire State of Mind" in our own iPods. Awesome. Thank God for him to create that song. Once we hit La Guardia, we got our Metro Card and figured out how to get to our place. What we found out was that the apartment owner, Barack, was in Chelsea the time we arrived, yet the apartment is all the way in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Boo. After so many debates, we hailed the great Yellow NYC Taxi and head down to Chelsea.

We were greeted by an old Korean man who injured his back tripping in a sauna. The first thing he said, "Can you please lift big suitcases? Back hurts. Fell in Sauna. No compensation. No good, huh?" Being Ms. Nurse me, I felt bad for this old man already. Anyways homeboy decided to start a conversation with us about various things and it was hard to understand him with his thick accent and the noise from the traffic outside (we had the windows down). While Gaby went to fetch for Barack once we're in Chelsea, I managed to converse more with Mr. Kim. He's been in NYC for 35 years, but originally (from Korea) from Redondo Beach, CA. I was like, "HOLLLAAA WE NEIGHBORS!" And he got all giddy talking about his glory years in Los Angeles. Then he asked what nationality we both are, and he got super excited when we said we're both Indonesians. More crazy conversation about how awesome Indonesia is from his point of view. Then he managed to give us some tips and tricks on what, where and when to visit NYC. He even gave us tips on safety once we told him where we're staying. He was like, "OH YOU NEAR RABBI LAND. LOTS OF JEW!"Anyways, after spending our first 1.5 hours with Mr. Kim, he felt like family. We even hugged it out when we got to our place. I regret not taking a picture with him. Damn.

Anyways, once we were settled and melting away to the damn NYC heat, Gaby & I were starving. Thanks to Yelp and her friend's recommendation, we decided to go to Artichoke Basille's Pizza in East Village.

It was 1 in the morning already. We don't care. And we live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It's filled with gangsta lookin' people with Jamaican accents. We don't care. It was 1 in the morning. Our Subway stop is a 10 minute walk. We don't care. The trains that head to Manhattan stops every 15 - 20 minutes because it was so late, and we were hungry. We don't care. A trip that supposedly takes a 20 minute train ride turned into a 1 hr + ride. We don't care.

Once we got to East Village, we both felt HIP right away. We so hipster it hurts.

Gaby got the infamous Artichoke Pizza while I got the Margherita.

We took a bite of our pizza, and died.

We went to Pizza Heaven.

A...... MA................ ZING.

Gaby's pizza was foremost the BEST PIZZA I'VE EVER TASTED IN MY WHOLE LIFE. I wanted to cry. My mouth was partying like it was 1999. It's like drinking soda with pop-rocks in my mouth. That's how EXCITED my taste buds once it got in contact with that awesome Artichoke Pizza. The Margherita was excellent as well. But the Artichoke... MMMMHHHMMM... OH MAH DAYUM. There's just something about the cheese on that pizza. Gawsh, I'm drooling right now. I'm so sad we don't have it in California.

If any New Yorkers out there who's in California, PLEASE... PLEASE recommend me a New York Pizza in Cali. I'm desperate.

After our 15 minutes in East Village devouring the awesome pizzas, we went to the CVS of NYC, Duane Reade, and got water. Yes, the heat was insane, so we needed water. And Vitamin C.

And head back to our apartment. We got back at 4 am. Yes. 4 am. With heavy water in hand. Walking in the middle of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. To our apartment that's 10 minutes away by foot from the station. We don't care. We're 2 fine fresh meats from California walking in the Brooklyn in the middle of the night at 4 AM, belly filled with gooey cheesy pizza, laughing and fist pumping to the first night in NYC, while there were some gangta lookin people staring at us. We don't care. We did it.

Day 2 coming up soon :)

http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p518/bolubyrima/bolusignature.jpg

Guest Post: Simply Evani

Well... While I'm on my plane heading to the Big Apple while listening to that infamous Jay Z & Alicia Keys song (can we all sing in unison, "IN NEEEWWWW YYYOOOORRRKKK..."), here I present to you one of my Bloggie BFF, Evani of Simply Evani. She's gonna share to you some advice on something I'm not very good at: Current Fashion. Lol. Yes, I'm not that Fashion Frenzy, as I must say. I think I only shop for clothes if I need to. You can catch me in the same jeans with a different top at any given day. Maybe it's because I use scrubs from Monday - Friday. So by the time I hit weekends, I'm just confused on what to wear. Oh well. I'm confusing myself just talking about it. I usually just shop a thrifts and H&M, F21 or Macy's for special occasions. Woop.

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Hi there! I'm Evani and I blog over at Simply Evani. I was crazy excited when Rima asked me to guest post on her wonderful blog because 1. I completely adore her and 2. She's headed to NYC which is on my bucket list! I thought it'd be really fun to do a style post on summer NYC style, in honor of her fab trip.

Umbrella/Skirt/ Tank top/ Cardigan/ Flats/ Wedges/ Bag/ Bracelet/ Clutch

So I've heard New York can be quite humid in the summer so I opted for light pieces but a cardigan for when the stores are blasting the a/c. Going from flats to heels can take this outfit from day to night, especially if you throw in a sexy leather jacket at night. The crossbody is a good size to hold close to your body in the subway, while the clutch is perfect for a night out! And I've heard it will occasionally rain, so I threw in a cute umbrella just for good measure.

I mean I watch a lot of Gossip Girl so my expectations could be unreasonably high but how fun would this outfit be in NYC?

Over at Simply Evani, I will blog about anything under the sun whether it be a cupcake recipe, crafty DIY or styles I'm crushing. I'm guilty of loving Disneyland way more than any adult should and consider myself a total social media addict. Much like Rima, I LOVE the Backstreet Boys, I have a BF named Rob and have a soft spot for Channing Tatum (Can I get an amen?!). I hope you come check me out, I promise to try and be cool.

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Thanks for having me Rima!! You rock my socks.

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After reading this, now I have an idea on what to pack (ok... not really. haha. I'm confused). Thanks to Evani for having time to post this. She rulez.