October Mani's + Fun with Nail Stickers

October is my favorite month 🎃 It's finally starting to cool off, it's my anniversary month, HALLOWEEN, and right alongside that are all the Halloween nail releases! I really wanted to make some fun, spooky themed looks for October, but, I suck at nail art. Luckily October is the perfect time to stock up on spooky nail stickers! And oh, I did. Here's a closer look at all my October nail fun :) 

I started the month with neon bang, using these fun stickers from Sinful Colors! They are called Alien Side Chick, and are from their Halloween collection, Made on Mars! I didn't get any of the polishes this year, the colors were great, but textured polishes aren't really my thing. The green is Neon Paradise from the Orly Summer 2021 collection (a great set!!!) and the black is LBD from Live Love Polish (who has since rebranded as Mooncat - I'm guessing their polish Emo for Life is similar, if not the same); my absolute favorite black nail polish. The stickers applied easily, I just used a pair of tweezers to peel them off the sheet. And with a nice thick top coat they stayed on perfectly! For a little extra space-y effect I added a coat of Scattered Holo Taco. Sinful Colors shared this photo on their page, it made me feel super cool! 

My next October mani was a little more subtle on the stickers; I was feeling wiped out, but I had just gotten these new stickers in the mail, appropriately called "Spooky," from Deco Miami! I then proceeded to use them for the rest of the month hahah. This was my first time buying their nail stickers and I'm very happy with them! All the sets are adorable, and you get a lot of stickers on the sheet for only $8! I'll definitely be back for more (specifically the "Deco the Halls" set for Christmas time!). These stickers are smaller than the Sinful Colors ones, so you can easily fit multiple stickers on the nail! The polish I'm wearing is Heavy Metal Mixtape (sold out) from Holo Taco (a decent dupe linked further down!).

With Halloween only a couple weeks away, I wanted to get a little more obvious with my next look. I had also just picked up a topper from the Sally Hansen Halloween collection, Hallo-Queen, and wanted to use that along with more of my Deco Miami stickers (isn't the little bat sooo cute?!. The orange confetti in Hallo-Queen (pictured on top of white on my ring finger) was not as deep as I was hoping (was hoping for a true fall orange), but it's still an interesting, seasonal topper. On my other nails I'm wearing Lion's Ear from Orly's Fall 2021 Wild Natured collection, a great orange for fall! The white is Not Milky White from Holo Taco...NOT my favorite white by any means, in fact I'd love some recommendations for a good white polish! And the black is once again LBD from Live Love Polish/Mooncat. 

My final October look was a tribute to my past Halloween's back in California. I used to work for a theatre company. Every October we did a month long run of The Rocky Horror Show, and on Halloween we would have a show at midnight! The midnight shows were always the most fun. Since I don't live in California anymore, I missed the show. So instead I watched the movie at home and painted these Rocky Horror themed nails. And how perfect did it work out that the Deco Miami stickers had these lips in the set?! It was meant to be. The black glitter polish is In the Moonlight, from Orly's Holiday 2020 collection (I think???). It's a close dupe to Heavy Metal Mixtape if you missed that launch. The red is Candy Apple from LA Colors (Dollar Tree, bitch!). The gold is Frozen Benanas from Holo Taco.

So there you have it. I had a lot of fun putting these looks together! October is really the only month where I like to get super seasonal with my looks, they're just so much fun! I'm usually not into Christmas manis, but I want to challenge myself a little and see if I can come up with something I like for this year. 

💜💜💜💜💜

If you're interesting in purchasing any of the Orly or Sally Hansen polishes linked in this post, I highly recommend signing up for a Rakuten account, first! Rakuten works with thousands of shops to give you cash back on your online purchases. I personally do a LOT of online shopping, and have received numerous cashback deposits from Rakuten, essentially earning money for things I was going to buy anyway! If you sign up using my link, there's a sign up bonus that earns you (and me!) an extra $40 after making any $40+ purchase using Rakuten. Happy shopping! 

"You" book to TV comparison, AKA why do we defend serial killers?

A couple weeks ago I finished reading the book You, by Caroline Kepnes. It's what the Lifetime-to-Netflix show of the same name, starring Penn Badgley (or Dan, of Gossip Girl fame), is based on. I've already watched both seasons of the show, so I already had an idea what I was getting into when starting the book. Of course, screen adaptations will always have their differences from the source material. I don't consider myself particularly snobby in this regard; sometimes scenes in books just don't translate well on screen. It happens, and that's ok. So with that said, I was not surprised to note a handful of differences between the two. But in this case, the more I thought about them, the more upset I got, because I realized all of the major differences had one big thing in common.

I think it goes without saying, but, past this point are HEAVY spoilers for the book You, season 1 of You, and a little bit of season 2 as well. Proceed with caution.

I think it's safe to say that our protagonist in You, Joe Goldberg, is a bad guy. He is a stalker, a liar, a thief, and, ah yes...a murderer. In the book the fact that he is a terrible person is not up for debate. And the fact that it's narrated by him even makes it more apparent, because you can literally hear his thoughts and realize how flawed his thinking and reasoning is. Then why, oh why, in the TV show do they seem hell bent on justifying his actions? Let's break down some of the larger differences and what (in my opinion) they're trying to say:

In the book, Benji did not drown a fraternity pledge. In both stories Benji is a tool; there's no arguing that. But on paper he was mostly a narcissist and a shitty boyfriend; Joe kills him simply because he's in the way of Joe getting close to Beck. I can't help but wonder if they added in this tidbit to try and justify Joe killing him. Another Benji-related book tidbit: while it's never said outright, Joe is very self conscious about the fact that he didn't go to college. Meanwhile Benji paid and cheated his way through an Ivy League. When Joe has Benji locked in the cage, he makes Benji take quizzes on books to prove that he lied about reading them or didn't fully appreciate them (Joe is practically the definition of a gatekeeper).

In the book, Paco, Claudia and Ron don't exist. There are no hospital visits or drug overdoses from Claudia for Joe to assist her with. There's no neglected Paco for Joe to befriend and look after. There's no abusive Ron for Joe to save them from. It feels like they were created for TV to show us that Joe does have some empathy (deep, deep down), because he rescues Claudia and Paco from who is framed as the "real" bad guy - Ron (and I mean, f*ck Ron, seriously, but you get what I'm trying to say). A recurring trait of Joe's in the show are his relationships with troubled children, so you might also find it interesting that Ellie, in season 2, doesn't exist either.

In the book, Peach doesn't have as much drama with Joe. She's still pretty snobby and she doesn't seem to like Joe simply because she wants to be spending time with Beck, but that's about it. She still believes she has a stalker, but as far as I could tell she doesn't believe it's Joe. She's still obsessed with Beck, which Joe knows, but she never finds out that he is as well. In the show he ends up killing Peach because she's on to his shit and she very may well have killed him, too. In the book he kills Peach because he doesn't like her and because she sucks up a lot of Beck's time.

Finally, my personal favorite.....

In the book, Candace is definitely dead and it was definitely intentional. So a BIG part of the show is that Candace is actually alive, and has come to wreck havoc on Joe's life. There seems to be some discourse on how/why she died in the show, so I'm going to summarize it real quick. Basically, Candace cheats on Joe and dumps him. In an attempt to win her back, Joe kidnaps her and takes her to a spot in the woods where one of their previous dates took place. He even packs them a stupid little picnic basket. When he lets her out of the van, she runs off. He chases after her and tries to restrain her so she doesn't get away, and as she struggles her head gets hit on a rock or something. He believes she's dead and it's pretty clear her "death" was an accident. In the book, her death is mostly glossed over, but what is clear as day is that he did it and he did it on purpose (also, he drowned her, if you were curious). 

Do you see the theme I'm getting at here? Book Joe is a murderer, point blank, no questions asked. Show Joe has an excuse for everything. It was an accident! She broke my heart! But he killed someone first! He was hurting a woman and a child! In a way, we are supposed to root for him, because of all these terrible things that have happened to him and because the people he kills are arguably worse than he is. I'll call it the Walter White Effect. Or Dexter Effect. Whichever white, male, murdering protagonist you prefer. 

But what gets to me the most is that this tactic actually works. If you're up for some cringe, take a dive through posts about You on reddit, or the comment section on a You related YouTube video. People LOVE Joe (I'm not really sure why), but they HATE Beck and Candace, because they treated Joe, a murderer, poorly. When really, we should be hating, well, just about everyone. Obviously Beck and Candace were not great people, either, but I really need us all the agree that lying and cheating on someone is on a very different level than KILLING SOMEONE. THERE IS NO DEBATE HERE! 

Now, to lighten the mood, here's some more book/show differences that are interesting but not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things!

In the book, Joe's creepy memento box is hidden in a hole in his wall. He made the hole by throwing a type writer at the wall, then he covers the hole with a tapestry. In the show it's hidden in a ceiling tile in his bathroom.

The subplot with Beck's creepy professor doesn't exist in the book. We don't actually hear much about Beck's school life. She also doesn't seem to have a job aside from the brief stint of working at Joe's bookshop.

Since Claudia doesn't exist in the book, you're probably wondering about Karen Minty. She's still there, but obviously she has nothing to do with Claudia or any of Joe's neighbors. He meets her on the subway.

In the book, Beck's friend group works a bit differently. Her friends are Chana, Lynn and Peach. However Peach and the other two don't get along, so Beck mostly just hangs out with Peach on her own. And the influencer friend, Annika, doesn't exist.

Beck has brown hair in the book. In the show, she's blonde. Game changer, I know.

The story with Beck's therapist, Nicky, goes a lot more in depth in the book. You also get to see a pretty messed up side of Beck. She convinces Nicky to leave his wife and children for her, but once he does she tries to break it off with him. She later admits she just wanted the satisfaction of knowing he chose her over them. Yikes.

Book Joe thinks about sex ALL THE TIME. I'm not gonna get into detail about it, because I wrote a whole paragraph trying to explain but then I felt gross and deleted the whole thing. You'll just have to take my word for it.

So that's my rant for the day. If you've read the book I would love your thoughts on this. I know TV shows are just entertainment so I'm aware I'm taking some of this too seriously, I just don't understand the desire of wanting to make a "bad" character more desirable or vulnerable. IMO it changes the entire vibe of the story! 

Now for the final question...do I want to read book two? 

Essie Winter 2020 Collection

(Quick note - I meant to post this when it was actually still 2020. However it is still Winter and I made sure to check that these were still available before I published this, which they are, on Amazon!)

I've never been a huge fan of Essie nail polishes. They're mostly known for clean, pastel colored, creme polishes. And to be fair, it's a classic look and there's nothing wrong with that! But it's not usually what I'm attracted to (Neons! Sparkle! Thermal! Holo! More sparkle?!). But I like to keep my options open, and I'm always interested in new collections. So when the Essie Winter 2020 collection showed up in my feed, I decided to take a closer look.

First impression - so shiny! The gold Shimmer! Pearlescent! Perfect for winter! So I ordered most of the set to try them out. We have:

Love at Frost Sight: An icy baby blue shade with gold shimmer. If you have Essie's Bikini So Teeny it kiiiiiiind of reminds of that, but if you make it like 10x frostier.

Twinkle in Time: A pearly white with gold shimmer. The most basic of the bunch but possibly my favorite. I always feel like my nails look like whiteout when I wear white polish and this does not suffer from that at all!

Bonbon Nuit: A pastel pink with gold shimmer. It's pretty but meh. Not much to say on this one.

In a Gingersnap: This is the one I didn't get. It's a HOT pink (with gold shimmer, naturally), which normally I would be very in to. However part of my interest in this collection was that the shades all complimented each other. This one stood out a little too much in comparison imo.

Peppermint Condition: A minty green with (you guessed it) gold shimmer! This shade reminds me on the inside of an Andes mint. 

Sugarplum Fairytale: A pretty, light lavender with gold shimmer. It's a nice purple without being in your face about it.

So, overall? They're not quite as shimmery as I was hoping for, but they're not terrible. The colors are cohesive, and while they don't bring anything new or exciting to the table, they're definitely pretty. If you like your pastels but want to add a little more fun and glamour then these would be great! The formula is pretty average - 2 to 3 coats for full opacity. They have a bit of a pearlized finish but are not especially streaky, which is great. Finally, I really like Essie's brushes. Obviously it's a preference thing, but I love wide flat brushes. My only real complaint would be that in different lighting some of the colors look a little too similar; particularly Sugarplum Fairytale and Bonbon Nuit. I don't think both were needed, and between them both I prefer Sugarplum Fairytale. In fact they're so similar that I forgot to make sure to include it in the picture!! It's on my thumb, so you can see it a little bit, but...yeah. It's pink. Sorry hahah.

I read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and I have a few things to say

I recently finished reading "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue," by V.E. Schwab. And I have some things to get off my chest.

(You really, really should not read this unless you have already read the book or you have zero plans to ever read the book. It's literally all spoilers, and they're not even in order so you can't be like, "I'll just stop before she spoils the ending." It will already be too late.)

1. Addie herself is kind of insufferable, as she is a victim of the popular "not like other girls" syndrome, while also managing to be very similar to many (if not most) other girls. Nonetheless, all the characters in the book find her seemingly perfect. All men fall head over heels for her, even though there is nothing particularly interesting about her (no, her curse does not count, as most of the men she beds don't even know). She's naturally beautiful. She also loves reading, which seems to also be a trope in books to make people seem quirky or different. Yawn.

2. Also, no one cares about her seven freckles. Literally no one. 

3. How does Henry manage to be the most boring and pathetic love interest ever? I don't want to be insensitive but reading his back story didn't help. This bitch gets dumped a couple times and decides to trade his fucking SOUL and ALL but ONE YEAR of his life just to enjoy ONE YEAR of people being MIND CONTROLLED into loving him? Henry I'm sorry but you need to get a grip my guy.

4. Would Addie still love him so much if he didn't remember her? Is this just a circumstance thing? It has to be.

5. Because how can the author really expect us to not root for the "bad" love interest, the actual DEVIL, when his competition is HENRY. Literally all the other male characters in this book are more interesting. Even the asshole that broke Addie's jar of honey.

6. V.E. Schwab obviously has a type. If I have to read about dark curls hanging in front of peoples faces one more time I swear to GOD.

7. Legitimate question - when Addie and Luc are in NOLA do we actually believe this whole romance thing was a ruse to get her soul faster? Still unsure. Please respond.

8. Also, Luc is definitely, 100%, not a sexy name. And for a character that was supposed to be mad sexy this was a little distracting.

9. At this point Addie has been alive for...300 years? Because she LONGED to be FREE and SEE THE WORLD? Then why do all of her escapades seem to happen in Europe and America?

10. There has been some debate on whether this book should be categorized as YA or Adult. However the publishers and the author say it's Adult which I think makes the answer pretty cut and dry. But it does read a little YA-ish so I get what people are saying. If you guys really want to nitpick a better debate would be if it should be categorized as "New-Adult," which is for people that are starting to feel too old for YA but not ready to read the same books as their mom.

With all that being said, you probably think that I hated this book. Not true. I actually enjoyed it very much (sometimes I wonder what Addie and Luc would be up to right now if the book hadn't ended; they probably would have gone back to Europe because of COVID and all). Do I think it was a life shattering masterpiece? Also not true. But not all books have to be. However I must admit when I read that this book has been TEN YEARS in the making I did give a little side eye. It's nice, but it's not a ten years to write kind of nice.

I should also mention this is my first time reading V.E. Schwab. I do know she's very popular though. If I decide to read another, which do you think I should try next? I'm thinking A Darker Shade of Magic?

Orly Color Pass, Winter 2020 - Metropolis Collection

 2020 has been my first year dabbling around in the fun (and maybe somewhat addicting) world of subscription boxes. And to be perfectly honest, I started doing it because I was feeling sorry for myself. I don't think I have to tell you that 2020 was a shit year. So one day I just decided I wanted to treat myself every month without the hassle of deciding what I would do or get - a surprise!

I started with the Pura Vida Monthly Club, because I like that they donate to so many different causes and because I like the bracelets too, obviously. I'm also a Pura Vida brand ambassador (uhm...use code NATALIEA20 for 20% off your order). I did this for a few months, then realized an arm can only wear so many bracelets. Now I just buy the sets I truly want. Next I moved on to Ipsy, which was a lot of fun. I even upgraded to the Plus subscription (the best tier and best bang for your buck IMO, because it was the most customizable). But now I have a large basket of products I'm still working my way through, and an AWESOME assortment of face masks. So I eventually cancelled Ipsy, too.

Then one day, the most obvious thought popped into my head. There are very few things in life that I've been consistently obsessed with for the majority of my existence: cheese, books and - drum roll - nail polish. Why didn't I think of it before? So I started my search for the best nail polish subscription service. Surprisingly, there's not a whole lot to choose from (in the US, anyway). But that's ok, because I found exactly the one I wanted - Orly Color Pass! It's a quarterly box where they send you their upcoming seasonal collection (a set of six full size polishes) plus a couple other nail related goodies. The price of the box is 50% off what you would pay to buy the set in store, and considering you get the extra stuff too, it's a pretty great deal I think! Before signing up I was already a big fan of Orly. They have a great formula, and what's not to love about a 18ml bottle?! 

Anyway, sorry for my very long winded explanation of my journey through subscription boxes and how we got here today. My first Orly box recently arrived and I'm excited to show it off! This is the winter collection, called Metropolis (they say it's inspired by The Great Gatsby - NOT the movie Metropolis, sure). Here's a closer look.

On my thumb is In The Moonlight, a blue toned black glitter. If you like black nails but want a step up from a plain black creme then this is it! For being so glitter packed, it applied incredibly smoothly and evenly (same goes for all the glitters in this collection). For me it was opaque in three coats. Sometimes three coats can feel excessive, but for a full coverage glitter I don't mind. If you have short nails and don't have to worry about a visible nail line then you could probably get away with two coats.

My pointer finger is Infinite Allure, a charcoal metallic. I'm not normally into charcoal shades (if we're going dark then let's GO DARK you know?) but again I am in love with this formula. I used two coats and it looked great. Metallic polishes can be tricky sometimes, if you don't apply them carefully enough then they can come out streaky and messy looking. But Orly said "Streaks? We DON'T KNOW HER." 

My middle finger is wearing Nouveau Riche, another dope ass metallic. Like I just said, their metallic formula is on point. Technically this is kiiiiiind of a duochrome, it shifts from light green to dark green. But IMO it just makes it look extra shiny. If I had to judge it as a duochrome polish I would have to say the color shift isn't intense enough. But as a metallic polish I think it's great. There really aren't as many green polishes on the market, so I love adding a nice one to my collection. Opaque in two coats!

On my ring finger is my favorite of the bunch, Inexhaustible Charm, a rose gold glitter. I love how the glitter flakes are different shapes and sizes, and that they're subtly two different shades. Yes, there are other rose gold glitters out there, but I feel like that makes this one unique. And it's so shiny! I wore three coats for full coverage. However I think it would also look nice with one coat over black or a wine red maybe? 

My pinky is wearing Opulent Obsession, a deeeeeeeep, deep red. What do we call that? I like it! Again the formula is great so there really isn't much to complain about. I'm wearing two coats!

The final polish I'm not actually wearing...it's a six polish collection and I only have five fingers and couldn't figure out how to incorporate it hahah. But it's called Untouchable Decadence and is a very classic gold glitter. I'm sure you can guess what it looks like. I did play around with it on a swatch stick to get a feel for it, and no shocker the formula is still great. Again, three coats will get you full coverage (can we talk about how consistent these all are?) but the base is clear so you could also use this as a topper! 

It also came with the Orly Argan Oil Cuticle Drops. You can never have enough nail oil. I'm kind of on a nail oil pen kick recently, but even so I must say this one is really nice. It's moisturizing without being too oily feeling, it absorbs quickly, and it smells like...lemons, maybe? Using it feels luxurious. It's definitely not purse friendly, but I think it will be my new home go-to.

Finally, it came with these cute little Orly 45th anniversary pins! Nail polish themed merch is hard to come by, so these are a fun little collectors item if you're into nail polish and/or pin collecting!

So I think it's safe to say that I'm really happy with my new Orly Color Pass subscription. And because I subscribed so late in the season, I only have to wait a couple more weeks for my next box! I can't wait to see what's inside :)

One Year

 Thanks to my Instagram Story archive, it occurred to me that I've been living in Maryland now for one year. How did time go by so fast? I feel like I just got here. I still have unpacked boxes in the basement (actually...this is not surprising). Its been a weird year in a lot of ways, and not just because I moved...[gestures broadly to our COVID apocalyptic world with significantly less mailboxes]. So suffice to say, my time here hasn't been all that I'd hoped and dreamed quite yet. But I'll admit the first few months were pretty rad. Here's a list of some of the things I was originally excited to do here once we got settled:

- Visit the National Aquarium (awesome aquarium in Baltimore, also where I got engaged, awe)

- Drink alcohol in very tall glasses while rooting for my knight at Medieval Times (if you know you know).

- Go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC.

- Visit Hershey Park (my body is too old for cool theme park rides, I mostly just want to buy a 5ft tall Hershey Kiss).

- Take a weekend trip to New York and see a show.

Obviously, I didn't do any of those things. But I don't want my first year to sound like a total downer, so instead I'm going to talk about the things I did get to do. My top five things I've done/experiences since moving to Maryland!

1. I started turning my house into a home (still a work in progress). Moving into a much larger space with the freedom to do just about whatever I wanted with it was very exciting! But I quickly learned I have absolutely no idea how to decorate and arrange things, and then there's also this crazy thing called money that sometimes gets in the way. Everything I know came from Apartment Therapy articles about maximizing space in your 5 square foot apartment. But NOW I get to do totally WILD stuff like hang PICTURES on the WALLS. The downstairs bathroom has a 36x47 Lichtenstein print I bought at a garage sale - wild!!! I've always been into subtley themed rooms and have slowly been turning my home into a relaxing-artsy-spooky-tiki-paradise (I never said I had good taste, but it's mine and I'm thriving.) Oddly enough, my favorite room also happens to be one of the smallest - the library. Shortly after we arrived in Maryland I dragged Andrew and Madyson all across Anne Arundal County to pick up four book cases from four different Targets. They were only TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS, but each Target only had one of them in stock, so off we went. This is also when I learned not to go to the Annapolis Target ever again; it is hell on earth and whoever designed it and thought it was ok to make people haul furniture down two escalators and through a parking garage really needs to re-evaluate their choices. This weekend we also plan to buy paint! I've never painted my own walls before!!! Hoping I don't drip it everywhere, but no promises. 

2. My first Maryland Halloween. If you didn't already know, Halloween is my favorite holiday. Spooky Season starts September 1st and no one can tell me otherwise. So I was very excited for my first east coast Halloween season. I enjoyed getting lots of Halloween decorations (something I wasn't used to - there just wasn't enough room in our old place), even though most of them were from the Target dollar section. I was also excited to have trick-or-treaters for the first time. Obviously I've passed out candy before, but it had only been at my parents house since no one trick-or-treats at apartments. My plan was to make sure I had the good candy to pass out, to ensure people would want to come back the following year (in hindsight I see that this was creepy, and also pointless seeing as trick-or-treating was basically cancelled this year). I also learned that in the east coast a big fall thing is to get mums for the season. They are just as important as pumpkins, if not more so. I didn't get any last year, because honestly I just think it's weird, but I did this year. And before someone calls me out for not mentioning it, YES we also went to Markoffs Haunted Forest last year and NO I will not ever go back because I am a big baby and that's all I have to say about it!!!

3. The first snow of the season. I am not specifically saying snow in general, because honestly only the first one is exciting, especially when you've lived in California your entire life. The second snow was still a bit exciting but significantly less so. Every snow after that is just cold and wet. Wardrobe-wise I was also very unprepared for the snow, and I am not pleased to inform you that I never really remedied that. The Christmas season as a whole was also very fun, but I'm not going to write about that today because I already did extensively in my older posts.

4. Trying all the new food. Obviously this hasn't been happening as much recently, but we did a pretty good job making it count while we could. Our friend, Chris, introduced us to the Amish market, which is not only a market with bomb ass food to bring home, but there's also a restaurant inside! For weeks on end the three of us went there for breakfast almost every Thursday morning after work. Even now we still go pretty much every other week. Another great breakfast spot is Iron Rooster, it's a very cozy place and they make their own giant pop-tarts from scratch! So, so, so good. Double T diner is also very good - open 24 hours! A must-have when you work a weird schedule like we do. For my BIL's birthday we went to Old Ebbit Grill; Washington DC's oldest bar and supposedly where the presidents used to dine as it's around the corner from the White House. The steak was amazing and the experience was pretty cool! Also, in Maryland everyone is obsessed with the chicken from Royal Farms - a gas station!!! Which I thought was the funniest thing. I only recently got around to trying it; it's good, but not as good as Chez Soul. The food at Wawa (another gas station!!!) is also held in pretty high regard. This one I can actually get behind; I'm at Wawa more than I'm willing to admit. Not really a food place specifically, but I also found my new favorite store - Baltimore Coffee and Tea! So much good stuff. Oh, and because a lot of people have asked, yes, Maryland runs on Dunkin' Donuts. In my opinion they are just ok. The coffee isn't bad. The donuts are alright. But considering their advertising, their hours are not great. How is America supposed to run on Dunkin' if you close at 7pm? 

5. Our cats. Obviously I couldn't write this without mentioning my baby cats, Mulder and Scully! They're so sweet and silly; they make me smile every single day. They recently turned one! I love them and spoil them rotten.

Christmas Eve at Enchant

Andrew, his family and I spent our Christmas Eve in Washington DC at a new holiday event called Enchant. "The World's Largest Christmas Maze and Market." We had a lot of fun! It was open from November 22nd through December 29th. There's also locations in Seattle and Florida, so definitely check it out next year if you're able.

It was located in the Nationals Park baseball field, so for some people being able to walk on the field was already cool enough (me, I don't do sports). The entire field is filled with fun and unique light displays set up as a maze for you to work your way through. There's also some sort of scavenger hunt for the kids, but I opted out of that, hard as it was to retrain myself. There was even an ice skating trail, if you'd rather skate your way through. It looked pretty dang festive; but the week before I attempted ice skating at the The Wharf and learned that twenty-eight year old Natalie CAN NOT ice skate, so I decided to pass on that portion of the night. Strange, how much easier it seemed when I was thirteen at an ice rink birthday party...

Not my photo! I nabbed this from the website.

Ice skating failures aside, the lights more than made up for it. Looking back, I wish I had taken more pictures to show off, but I was trying to do that whole "living in the moment," thing. So I guess the lack of pictures means I did that fairly well...except now I wish I had pictures? It's hard to find that happy medium. Anyway...it was really cool walking through all the lights, looking up at them towering over you. It was also a Christmas selfie nirvana. Trying not to bump into all the people taking pictures did get a little annoying, but I couldn't really blame them.

After you work your way through the maze, you can head up to the market. It was full of handcrafted goodies, and more importantly - warm food and drinks! They even had deep fried Oreo's, so I was definitely pleased. Near the food stands were lots of tables to sit at to enjoy your treats, while listening to a live band that was playing upbeat jazz renditions of Christmas songs.

Andrew made me wear earmuffs DON'T LAUGH AT ME or this blog is OVER (jk...maybe, best not to try, tbh)

I think everyone had a great time. Back in California my family has their own list of Christmas Eve traditions, which I was sad to be missing out on for the first time. Being out and having fun despite that really helped. Everyone is already talking about going next year, so maybe we just made a new Christmas Eve tradition.