NYC x 4th of July weekend

I had a lovely 4th of July weekend.

On the 4th, I went to Tompkins Square Park with Michelle, Daniel, Carrie, and Jon to tan and picnic. The next stop was Washington Square Park, where Jon and I swam in the fountain (yes, we know it is dirty) and walked around the park a bit. After, we watched a Bloomberg episode about Magic Johnson as a business man. It was really interesting. Then, I came back to the apartment where Daniel and Michelle had made dinner- chicken, rice, brussel sprouts, zucchini, fruit, and (bought) cheesecake. I cleaned up and made mango berry margaritas in the blender. Carrie came over later and we went to Sophie's boyfriend's rooftop to watch fireworks. Overall, it was really nice. My only complaint in that I got sunburned in the park even though I wore sunscreen. I am only a little lobster-y and it turned into a tan, but I guess I will just have to deal with the cancerous implications later in life...

Friday, I went to the gym, visited a museum, and went out with Sam, Alice, and her friend Antonella from Cali.

Saturday, I got brunch at Veselka with Sophie, went shopping at Urban (didn't buy anything because I was attempting to practice self restraint), and ran some chores. Later, I met up with my coworker Carolyn who is new to the city. She started around the same time as me, studied at Ithaca, and is from PA. She is super nice and I really like her. Anyway, we got overpriced (but delicious!) tea at Physical Graffitea (because I had been wanting to get it) and sat in Tompkins Square Park. Later, Joe came over to my apartment to do laundry. Then, the three of us met up with Sophie and got food at Hummus Place across the street. I got shakshuka and split a large chickpea hummus with everyone. Carolyn left and Joe, Sophie, and I hung out in my apartment for a little bit. Then, we all split up and I went out in Williamsburg. Why do I keep ending up in Brooklyn?

Sunday, I just didn't feel like doing much with my sunburn and just wasn't feeling well. My former plans to go to the beach and go kayaking fell through. I basically just finished some little chores and went to the gym, but I will be more productive next weekend.

---

I feel like every experience in life is a learning experience. I think I also think too much. Anyway, here are some realizations I wanted to share:
1. Relationships are really hard- to get someone to care about you and you to care about them. Plus, neither party should be flakey. #strugglecity
2. Feelings are hard to deal with. Why don't they teach this in school?
3. Personality counts for a ton in business and life in general. Why don't they teach this in school either?
4. I need to work on budgeting.
5. I want to really focus on work and step my game up big time. This is important to me and I want to give it my all.
6. We control our own happiness.
7. Don't wait for other people to do the things you want to do, because a lot of the time, you will never end up doing them.
8. Often what you think of someone is much more important than what they think of you. Besides, what other people think of us is none of our business.
9. I spend too much time on the internet. I want to spend more time in real life, smelling the flowers, reading books, and not worrying about what person x has posted on Facebook/ Twitter/ Tumblr in the latest day. There are much more important things for me to focus my energy on.
10. I need to make a bigger commitment to eating healthily.
11. I used to think that people were fundamentally evil. Instead, I think that (for the most part) people really are trying their best everyday, but don't always make the best decisions and usually focus on themselves. In return, their actions could easily be interpreted as horrible/ evil/ mean, when in that individual's own perception of reality, they were acting in an appropriate way and doing what is best for themselves. Of course, this is not always true, but I felt like ranting a little bit.
12. I get attached to people super easily. Not in a needy way, I just care and have an affinity towards certain people.
13. I need to take my own writing more seriously. We will see how that goes...

At this point in time,  I feel like work and relationship-wise, things are pretty stable. I want to maintain and build this stability for now. Things are good and I don't want to mess it all up because I almost did that this weekend.