Tastes of Home

I'm craving maduros

and if anyone doesn't know

maduros are the life source of any Latino household

they are what people secretly love, more than rice and beans

more than Adobo, Sazon, and cans upon cans of Goya beans and salchichas

If any of these things are foreign to you, please go to the closest

Latin restaurant and enlighten yourself

what makes me sad is that,

when I google 'maduros', I get a lot of porn....

if anyone walks by me in the library and happens to look at my computer

they are going to think I'm being dirty while reading my

extremely boring book entitled Higher Education and the Color Line

I love eggs, but I feel so oppressed when I desperately wait

for there to be omelets all day so I could finally have a meal

I'm going to drag myself to Stop & Shop

to buy some platanos and canola oil, and get to frying up maduros in the kitchen

just like my momma would do,

maybe I'll even play some salsa

and wear a tiny nightgown

so I could be just like her.

In other news, the wonderful freshman baker just brought me a blondie,

with M&Ms in it, right to my desk at the library

Beauty All Around.

The other night

I woke up at 5:04 in the morning to readjust my blanket

and I caught a glimpse of the sky

and it was just gorgeous

it looked like watercolor

so I did what anyone else would do...got out my camera and took some pictures

before I dozed off again

it reminded me of how much I love being home

I know I say it every single day

but to see the sky when I open my eyes every morning

just makes every day so much better

there's just beauty everywhere here, I'm never ever moving away

I mean, where else can you buy mini cupcakes right on the street

(at the Little Cupcake Lover Cart on Broadway, I recommend these noms)

it was like the size of my thumb and the frosting was so great

and the sprinkles were like technicolor

I must try the strawberry tiny delight

I'm so obsessed with mini noms

and eat vegetarian shrimp & southern fried chicken, all in a 4 block radius

even though it was so hot out today, I can't even imagine what 95 degrees feels like

I needed to have one nice stroll around Soho

before ascending into the whirlwind of being a full time intern.

Home Sweet Home

I got home yesterday

and let me tell you, the LES is looking beautiful

I've really learned my lesson

I promise to pack lighter next year

maybe I"ll bring only 20 pairs of shoes next time

but, this morning

I woke up in a room, alone

and it felt good

I could hear all the traffic on the Williamsburg bridge

and right outside my room door

was a patiently waiting pup

just dying to play fetch and lay on the couch

I had my mom's Spanish coffee

right out of my Hello Kitty mug

(college coffee is so nasty)

and a mom-let

with yellow american cheese on white bread

my classic favorite food

there was Spongebob

and lots of revolutionary things happened

Spongebob got round pants, and a booty

Patrick turned into a sexy woman complete with blond pigtails and red lipstick

I must say, he was a hottie

it feels so good to be home

where everyone wears shoes at all times

each street smells like a different type of food

halal is always the most tantalizing

and sometimes you run into a street fair (which made me oh so happy)

thai spring rolls, nom

and you don't see the same face,

or the same college sweatshirt or

ethnic print harem pants (oddly popular at Vassar) twice

I was just speechless as I walked around

I forgot how beautiful Essex Street is, it's an acquired taste type of beautiful

but lovely, and welcoming all the same

I got reacquainted with my non-edible-double-decker love Forever

I was on the L train and I had the fleeting worry

"oh my god, I have so much reading to do tonight"

I forget that those are the worries of the past,

goodbye Art History flash cards

(they really got to my head, I was working in the library the other day

and as I scanned out some books for a girl,

instead of telling her the due date, May 21,

I handed back the book and said 1921)

but, the triumph of the day was the noms

vegan Pizza from Vinnie's in WillyB

Barbeque chicken slice with vegan cheese

I load on the hot sauce and parmesan cheese and I'm just in heaven

granted, when I eat spicy food I feel like my lips swell

but it hurts so good

and who doesn't like a lil added lusciousness.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine: My Home a Few Blocks Away From Home

I feel homesick today

but a different type of homesick

for my second home

which definitely is not Vassar,

but the cozy, warm, decadent heaven

of Sugar Sweet Sunshine

nestled on Rivington Street,

it feels just like home, with the sweet smells

of thick buttercream frosting,

sugar cookies, and chocolate

this was my after school spot

a great place to sink into an old floral print arm chair

and listen to people's cupcake orders, envious after consuming 2 cupcakes

instead of reading Wuthering Heights & the like

the floral print wallpaper, and odd array of furniture

make it pleasantly kitschy

this is really my happy place

I even took my Vassar interviewer there

and I had her at pumpkin cupcake

a delish concoction of pumpkin cake topped with

luscious cream cheese frosting & walnuts

that hurts my heart when I think about it,

for it has been so long since I've had the sweet tastes of home

I've been around the cupcake block,

Magnolia's, Crumb's, Butter Lane, Babycakes

and nothing compares

you can go to Magnolia's if you want a long obnoxious line,

Sex & the City fans, a dense, dry, cupcake with hard icing

and a huge tummy ache afterwards

Crumbs if you want massive, bland tasting cake with fun toppings,

Butter Lane for boring & pricey, and Babycakes for oh so sad vegan creations

Sugar Sweet Sunshine tops them all

oh, did I mention the Zagat says this is the best cupcake place in the city?

thats news to me, but the Zagat is holy and therefore is always right

a dollar fifty for a piece of utopia? they got that, and much more

like banana pudding, with Nilla wafers, and cookies in glass jars

but the winner of all noms is the pistachio cupcake

this little baby is the best, and I've never encountered anyone

who doesn't fall fast in love with this creation

topped with Satin Buttercream (the Moose) and crushed pistachio nuts

nom nom nom little green cake

the other best is the classic Sunshine

vanilla cake, with vanilla buttercream

in pretty colors like hot pink & seafoam (my favorites)

its so sweet, it feels like a hug & a kiss from your first crush (I swear)

what's even better than eating the cupcake itself

is the aftermath

they are so moist that cake sticks to the cupcake liners

and my personal favorite part of the whole experience

is hopefully and wistfully scraping the cake bits off the liner

to get that last, divine taste of harmonious delight

just 31 days till I get home

away from Vassar, and into the warm embrace of a Sugar Sweet Sunshine cupcake.

eat your heart out, this is food porn.

This is What I Live For

This fateful Friday I finally got to leave Poughkeepsie

and it felt so good

midterms week was so oppressive

all I did was sit in various library cubicles

staring at the walls 

and listening to Robin Thicke to get me by

while my roommate overdosed on caffeine 

literally, she said her teeth were buzzing

which worries me a bit

but enough with that 

because Vassar seems like just a distant memory 

still covered in snow 

so for now I'll just pretend that I'll be in the city forever

not for just 2 more weeks

it's actually spring here

and I'm storing the snow boots

and my winter jacket away

hello leather jacket, 

sweet thing, how I've missed you

I traded in the library cubicle 

for the park benches at Tompkin's

watching pups in the dog run (and sane squirrels)

I saw the cutest bulldog

a chubby, scrumptious little thing

that looked like a roll of sugar cookie dough

pups help past the time when you're waiting 2 hours

to get a coveted seat in 

the Clinton Street Baking Company

for the best blueberry pancakes ever (more on that later)

so the wait was productive,

I finally got to take in my neighborhood(s)

while the sun was shining

perfect weather for an iced coffee

and a long walk

so here are some pictures I took

because one of the best things about the city 

is the street art, the graffiti, the murals

this is one of my favorite ever

an amalgamation of everything about the city that I love

the Lower East Side is the most beautiful place in the entire world

no matter what anyone says 

I'm a sucker for any tag in pink 

so long drab brick buildings of Vassar

I get so sick of staring out my window onto the quad

where everything looks the same

where nothing is colorful

where the extent of history isn't just some 

tall tales about Jane Fonda 

I just wish I could stay here forever

where there's a bodega on every corner

and a photo op on every block

and I don't have to wait for a shuttle to go to the supermarket

where the extent of my walk isn't to 

English class

where there are pigeons and buses

and different types of people (this is probably the most refreshing thing about being back)

for the next two weeks 

me and my leather jacket

are going to take on the world 

(because the Lower East Side is definitely the center of the world).

Ten Things I Take For Granted

Now that I'm home

back in the city where the air smells different

and the pizza place and about 7 different Chinese 

take out joints are within a one block radius

Wah Lung, Golden Forest, Six Happy Kitchen etc

if I owned a Chinese take out place I would name it

Favorite Panda

that sounds like a perfect name

and I would personally sit in the back steaming dumplings

and making homemade duck sauce

and my priority would be

making the fortunes for the cookies

I would probably say mean things like

"Today you will experience some sort of spill"

"Learn Spanish! bacalao=very salty codfish"

etc

Anyhow, here is my list

1. Clean toilets, and not waking up for a 9 am religion class and sitting in someone else's pee that is sprinkled all over the toilet seat

2. My mother watching Spanish soap operas on Telemundo and yelling at the TV at 11 at night [Learn Spanish! novella=soap opera]

3. Rice & Beans, real island style, not the type they have at the Vegan Station in college

4. The scowls and fast cell phone talk of everyone in Grand Central

5. Dogs that don't exactly know how to play fetch

6. Orange juice, in a carton, and not a dispenser-it feels so much more "fresh from the grove"

7. Walking around barefoot and free, showering with no shower shoes and no hair balls that look like centipedes [that really freaks me out]

8. The view out my window, a bridge and lights and cars and civilization....not an all girl's dorm and a sad snowy quad with the occasional penis snow structure

9. Not having to wait in a large stinking mass of kids to cram into a shuttle to a mall with tiny sized stores, I can leave my house and go shopping immediately 

9 1/2. 99 cent decadent loves of chocolate cake [that look like the cake the fat kid was forced to eat in Matilda]

10. My couch [the new love of my life]

I literally feel like a plump dreaming puppy

on this love seat right now

not a care in the world

just wrap me up in a fleece blanket

peachy as a pup.