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

Yes I am back... and Bolu's First Giveaway!!!

I was awake by 6 AM to the noise of Chimmy taking a piss on to Gaby's suitcase. Sorry love, I'll clean it. Damn. This past week I was awaken by the New York Humid Heat and the sound of drills and people yelling outside (we had the windows up due to NO AC in the apt) and now I've been awaken by my Dog just... pissing. 

Anyways, when I was in New York, I immediately know where I wanted to go to shop. The Japanese version of H&M called Uniqlo. So far for right now, they only have 3 locations in the US, all in New York. 

What I love about Uniqlo is that they're SUPER affordable. It had that Japanese feel to it. All 3 stores are at least 3 stories so you know Gaby & I went crazy. I spent $80 on 7 clothing items. Yes. 7. Uniqlo rules. 

Uniqlo also has an Alarm app for the iPhone. I have it and I use it all the time. It's cute. Kawaii. 

So anyways, when I was there, I went to the Special Edition side. It's where Uniqlo collaborates with artists or other designers to come out with their own version of clothing. You know, like when H&M collaborated with Karl L at one point. There were a lot of CUTE T-Shirts and I decided to pick 2. One with Lulu Guinness and one with Hello Kitty.

But, why do I need two t-shirts? My closet looks like shiz especially now after coming back, so I decided, you know just from being awesome, to host a giveaway for y'all. 

ONE WINNER WILL GET TO CHOOSE ONE OF THESE T-SHIRTS!

Who doesn't love free stuffs? If you don't, shame on you.

THIS

OR

THIS?

Both shirt are size M. Retail is $19.90 (partay like 1990)

Aren't they cute? The giveaway is super easy just follow the box below to enter. The entry ends Friday by Midnight and the winner will be announced on a separate blog post and you will be showered with Blog Love. You get a special Winner Blog Post filled with oohs and aahs and fist pumps (oh jeah i can be festive like that)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

via here

Bolu by Rima Presents: A Broke SoCal Girl's Guide to NYC in the Summer (or other seasons, I guess)

So here it is...My lame guide on how to survive and roam around the city of dreams, the Empire State of Mind, the Big Apple, the City that Never Sleeps, land of subways and tourists, awesome foods and wannabe musicians and Broadway performers... You know what I mean. NEW YORK CITY. I love this City, you don't even know it. I love Los Angeles, but NYC is different. You just feel that things are possible in this Big City. Just being in Times Square squished by tourists from all over the world and locals trying to make money by selling you those typical I <3 NY shirts or a ticket to a cheap comedy show... Or a Black Guy who tries to fool you that he's Snoop Dog (we were fooled the first night. Seriously, a lot of people were fooled)... makes you feel... Awesome. Just standing there by that infamous landmark makes you feel that everything you dream of will do come true.

First things first: Try to avoid going to NYC in the Summer. Why?

1. It's so Humid. It reminds me of Indonesia. No kidding. My hair went Fro to the max. I never had a beautiful hair day. I washed my hair almost every day I was there, making it super frizzy and dry. My scalp got sweaty right I exit the shower :( Nasty, trust me.
2. It's the peak of vacation time. I mean, no matter what tourists are always there year round, but since it's mmm... hello Summer Break, everybody and their mother is there. Times Square became Times Scare because of the whole population of Mother Earth is there taking pictures (like me) of themselves (guilty!) in front of the infamous bright billboards of Broadway shows and advertisements.
3. Did I said Humid? Seriously you don't need lotion. Your skins moistens up immediately after you shower. Like nasty. Super yucky.

I really recommend going in the Spring time. Or so I've heard the Fall time. Weather is very nice. I don't know about winter. Unless you want frozen snot in your nose while you watch the ball drop in Times Square (true story, according to The Pillow who was there with his mum a couple of years ago. Lucky fool.)

Be prepared. This is a long-ass entry. It may bore you. So grab a cup of coffee or tea of choice and some sweets and read on.

Good Morning From Brooklyn!

Hi Bunnies!! Good Morning y'all! I'm in the bed of the apartment that I'm staying (this apt doesn't have AC for the room that we're staying in o_O) enjoying (not really) the humidity of NYC. It rained last night and some old friends of mine from New Jersey came and took us to a park that over looked the Manhattan Skyline and Brooklyn Bridge (after we killed the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity 3!) Gaby & I were like, "oh mothereffer, it's raining outside and we don't want to get sick. But who gives a crap? It's NEW YORK CITY" (we're trying to talk with our made up Brooklyn accent. Haaaay) Anyways I would like to share to you a picture of moi getting wet with the awesome NYC behind me.

Gawd I'm so hardcore.

xoxo, Rima

Happy Sabbath from Harlem!

Hi Bunnies. I'm currently in Harlem, enjoying God's love through to a different ethnic SDA Church. It's so cool to go to another ethnicity church. It opens my eyes to another side of praising and worshiping God.

I know I rarely blog about religion, but I'm a Seventh Day Adventist. That's what I was raise as and I believe in.

Anyways, hopefully all of you are doin awesome. Sorry if my blog is been lagging. It's hard to blog while you're in vacation... Especially in New York City.

Feel free to follow me via instagram @bolubyrima where I post tons of pictures of my trip.

I'm planning to post a NYC guide (in a jokingly point of view) when I come back to SoCal. Woo.

Love ya all. Thanks to my 2 blogger Bff's, Alex & Evani, for the guest posts! Please go and check them out! (unfortunately it's hard to create links and all on the Blogger Mobile app hehe)

xoxo, Rima

Btw I did a guest post on my cool indo friend's blog, Niken. Awesome.

Hello from the Big Apple!

Hey folks! Just droppin to say hi from NYC. Weather sucks but its gettin better! One thing for sure is that your iphone batter will die so fast because you're abusing the camera and yelp like a bitch. I'm waiting and charging in a Starbucks near Theater Distrcit while waiting for the show Rent to opened up.

Anyways I hope you all are swell and well. At least I am... Despite my hair isn super fro-ish and my legs are like jello!

xo, Rima

Goodbye Cali

I'll be here. For one week. And dancing. With Gaby. To the soundtrack of Enchanted.

I'll miss you all.

The blog may be abandoned for a little bit (a guest post will be on tomorrow).

New York New York

get this book here

If you know me, you would know how much I love New York City. Raised in the City in Indonesia ( hello, Jakarta), I am soo used to the fast pace, traffic galore, smog land, lots of people, loud car music combined with honking cars part of the big City. 

Been there twice already and going again in August, you don't know how excited I am. I'm actually going to save up and apply for my Nursing License for the state of New York, hoping one day I will live there, haha. Well, me & the Pillow had multiple discussion about moving to NYC one day once we're married. Hm. HMMMMMM.

from neither fish nor fowl

Anyways, I went to Anthropologie on Sunday with the Pillow, and I saw the book (pictured above) The Stylist's Guide to NYC by Sibella Court, and flipping thru it, I told Rob, I need to get this. I went on my Amazon app, ordered it and got it last night. I was so excited to read it, so I was reading it in between patients (bad nurse!) The book is incredible. If you love crafting and vintage stuff, you will definitely would LOVE this book. It's filled with informations about stores, services, galleries, markets and places to eat. She even gives you a to-do guide for the day on the categories she made. And comes with a fold-out map as well. 

I've marked some stuffs from the book that I hopefully will be able to visit for my 1 week trip. 

• Once Upon a Tart. It's a bakery in SoHo, and it looks like a super cool, vintage version of Panera. Hm. Bread and Coffee. nomnomnom
• Kiosk. Also in SoHo. Its a store where the owner decides to sell goods from some countries, changing it every few months. I love stuffs from other countries. And I love buying random stuffs, which is dangerous. 
• Paula Rubenstein. I LOVE flea market stuffs. Oh uh.
• Matta. I love the Bohemian style. And the Boho in me said that I must go here. Like, must. Now. How about now?
• MoMa. This will happen, for sure, because my friend, Gaby, hasn't been there before. Hello... Gonna see some Warhol. Van Gogh. Dali. 
• Indochine. Their food looks awesome. French-Viet cuisine. This shall be interesting. Hmmm.
• Pearl Paint. I'm a huge sucker for papers/art supplies/stationaries... So this would be heaven/hell for me. Oh no. I guess Michael's got nothing on this. 
• Kate's Paperie. Like I said, I love PAPER PAPER PAPER. Oh no.
• Anthropologie Gallery @ Rockefeller Center. Hello. Need to say more?

That's just some. Oh my I really can not wait.

Any more suggestions? Please do share :)

And I'm linking up Neely from A Complete Waste of Make-Up.

It's OK...

• To just lie down in bed, being a vegetable, after a long day at work
• To isolate yourself in your room, with a nice scented candle on, and reflecting about your current issues
• To yell at your dog for barking like a maniac
• To go to your kitchen and eat anything you see
• To go to work, as a nurse, with a bed-head. I do that all the time. Hahaha... Why? Because I wear a surgical cap.
• To be obsessed about Instagram and liking everyone's pictures
• To collect a lot of baking books and only bake one goodies from each book

Ok, I'm tired. Hot Yoga beat me up yesterday. I'm a veg.

moonbeams,