Bucket List....

So it's August and I am so thankful that Fall is around the corner. I'm talking scarves, salted caramel lattes, Halloween parties, and Turkey. Before I get too ahead of myself, let's look at what I may or may not have accomplished in August:

Go to a Museum that I have never been to - Check! I went to the Native American History Museum and the The Museum of The Moving Image.
Eat brunch out with the girls - Check again! A group of us went to brunch for a friends birthday this month!
Eat better and at home more - I'm going to give myself a check minus. I definitely ate at home more this month and ate more fresh fruit and veggies, but I am not completely happy with this goal.
Post at least 17 times this month - Ha! I failed worse this month than in July. Putting the pressure to blog makes me not want to blog so this goal is ending.
Explore the new neighborhood - Super Check! I found a brunch place I love! I found a nail place that is super nice and cheap! I am walking distance to the grocery store, post office, library, and produce market! I am a hop, skip, and a jump from the subway - Basically I have yet to find something I don't love about this neighborhood!
Make some of the crafts that I have been swooning over on Pinterest for months - Negative. I got busy.
Get my room unpacked, organized, and make it feel like I own it  - Also, negative. I ended up not being super crafty r domestic this month. I'm hoping once school starts I am able to tackle this on a weekend.

In other August News:

I got a job! I do a whole post about my classroom once it's done being set up!
I went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway!
My new roomie and I hungout and got to know each other better.
We hosted a rooftop party for a friend's birthday!
I went to see Rocky Horror Picture Show with friends and we visited a themed bar called The Trailer Park!
One of my bestest friends from college came to visit! We went to Dylan's Candy Bar, The Comedy Cellar, and attempted to get tickets for Book of Mormon, but failed, so we saw Magic Mike instead. 
I saw the Backstreet Boys perform live on Good Morning America
I saw Adam Brody filming a movie on the street
I went to the US Open!

In September:

I start school this week and I have an hour and a half commute each way, so I am not making too many promises. 

I will NOT order food just because I am tired. I will cook dinner almost every night!
I will attempt to go or do one thing I have never done in the city before.
I am going to see Imagine Dragons this month and I'm pretty sure it will be epic!
I want to buy a crockpot and make some awesome crockpot dinners :)
Maybe I'll get around to painting the other walls in my bedroom...maybe.
I might be going home to Florida this month and if it happens I want to spend some time relaxing with family and friends. I haven't seen anyone from home since April. 

I am making myself promise that with the exception of this first week of school, I will go out with friends at least one week night every week. I do not want to become one of those 25 year olds who have no social life outside of work. I love having events to look forward to and I moved to the city to experience everything it has to offer, I will not waste those opportunities. I can sleep when I'm 80. 

July happened, rather quickly.

I know that I am always saying that time has flown by, but I seriously mean it when i say that JULY FLASHED BEFORE MY EYES. I feel like it was just June 28th and school was ending and now it's August 1st. I am slightly concerned that I cannot even recap July because it was so busy.

For work I got to:

1. go row boating in Central Park
2. go bowling
3. visit the NYC Transit Museum - yes I pretended to drive a fake bus.
4. go to Coney Island
5. go to the Natural History Museum   
6. see animals at the Bronx Zoo

For fun I got to:

1. go to DC over the 4th of July
2. rides some rides at Dorney Park in PA when I spent a weekend there
3. take a weekend to surround myself in music at Firefly
4. see the NY Philharmonic play in Central Park
5. sing like a fool at a 90's music sing-a-long
6. watch some of the Olympics
7. go and see Bring It On: the musical on Broadway
8. participate in the MP3 Experiment

For myself I:

1. turned 25. New York may have decided to have a monsoon rainstorm and ruin my outside plans. The day ended up not being that exciting (aka I cooked a turkey burger and watched reruns of Law & Order) but I'm making up for it when my friends and I celebrate next week.
2. moved into a new apartment. I moved twice in the month of July, so that was really fun. I am thrilled to be out of the horrible situation I was in last year and then I thought I had found a place, but things changed on my roommate's part and I had to move again. I was frustrated with it at first, but now that I have moved, I am really thinking it was meant to happen. My new roommate is much more like myself and I think we are going to actually be friends and not just room neighbors. Plus, the place is bigger and WAY closer to the subway.
3. painted my nails a lot. It is my new way to de-stress (I get it from my sister)

In August (I can't believe I just typed that, I have officially been doing bucket lists for a year) I want to:

Go to a Museum that I have never been to
Eat brunch out with the girls
Eat better and at home more
Post at least 17 times this month
Explore the new neighborhood 
Make some of the crafts that I have been swooning over on Pinterest for months
Get my room unpacked, organized, and make it feel like I own it

Firefly Music Festival 2012

Last weekend was one of those weekends where you have so much fun that you can't possible put down everything into words and have it sound as fun to those reading the words, but I will try anyways.

This past weekend was the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, DE. My friend Jenny, her cousin Jacob and myself decided to make the journey and attend the inaugural festival. We knew it had an amazing lineup, we knew we had a plot of ground for a tent, and we knew that we needed a buddy system. Other then that, we went in with not a whole lot of expectations. There were rumors floating online, but since it was the first festival no one really knew what security would be like, how strictly the acts would adhere to the schedule, or if there would be decent priced food, etc.

Friday 10:00am -We loaded up the car (quickly and unorganized) and headed out of the rainy dreary Manhattan towards Delaware!

  We made a pit stop in Jersey to buy some forgotten goods (aka a sweatshirt) and repack the car since there was no rain when we stopped.

Heading over the Delaware Memorial Bridge! 

Our trusty passenger, preparing for the weekend.

 

Dover Downs Stadium. We may have missed the exit and had to ask for directions. 

Wristbands secured for the weekend. It's like we're superheros.

4:30ish - Tent up, car somewhat organized, rain still falling, ready to head into the festival.

The entrance on Friday.

We stopped by the John Legend set.

We headed to Walk The Moon. They were fabulous! If and when they come through New York I definitely want to see them again.

The would be the Silversun Pickups (aka Jenny's favorite band EVAH) She may have made her way to the center of the crowd in the first few rows while Jacob and I wen tin search of food.

 

Friday night's headliner was Jack White. Apparantly, none of us took pictures of him. It was sorta rainy during his set and his sound messed up in the first few minutes, but after a brief temper tantrum that involved sitting down and throwing his boot iff, his show was good. This is officially the second time I've seen Jack White live and he has thrown a temper tantrum both times. Maybe it's his thing.

Then we headed back to camp. It was about a 25 minute walk from the festival to the campsite and I expected the party to be much louder and crazier then it was. People were pretty tame Friday night, but it was rainy and freezing!

Saturday begin with an epic band and ended on a super high note: 

Imagine Dragons - I have a lot of pics of them because they were who I was most excited about and they delivered. I love that they are so new to the scene and they were super humble about their music and support from fans. I want to see these guys again too! 

Just hanging out between sets. Jake and I were twins with our striped shirts. #FFFF

This guy may have had too much fun, too early.

This is Trampled By Turtles, I liked them a lot and they have a folky sound to them. Saturday also brought Awolnation, Cake, and Grouplove, The Cold War Kids.

Saturday night's headliner was The Killers. Going into the festival I didn't think I was a big fan of theirs, but I soon learned that I knew everyone of their songs, but just didn't realize it was them. The show was phenomenal. They had fireworks, confetti, an amazing set list, and good showmanship. I was really impressed with them and they didn't throw temper tantrums.

On Sunday, we started the day with showers (we had to pay $5), a trip to McDonald's (we walked hoping to secure an outlet to charge our phones). The day had such a good line-up that we forgot to take some pictures. This is Death Cab for Cutie.

 We also saw: Penguin Police, Girl Talk, The Head and The Heart, Reptar, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Tinie Tempah. A few times we split up to watch conflicting sets, but the schedule was pretty great the whole weekend. 

Sunday's headliner was The Black Keys. Considering it's only 2 guys, they were also pretty awesome. I liked them more than Jack White, but not quite as much as The Killers.

They had a disco ball drop from the stage ceiling and when the lights shined on it, it appeared to be FIREFLIES! Clever event planners!

 

After The Black Keys, we made our final trek to camp with 30,000 of our closest friends.

Monday morning involved lots of cleaning up, tearing down, and repacking. This is my least favorite part of camping. During this part of our morning it was mentioned that we should make our way to a fast food joint that we don;t have in the city. Sonic and Chick-fil-a were mentioned.

Success! As we were driving we hit an intersection with both a Sonic and a Chick-fil-a, so we hit both up because when on a road trip, eat like it.

Overall, the weekend was awesome. We had fun, listened to some amazing music, and I experienced a music festival which I never imagined myself doing. I liked camping (we will camp again next year, even if Jenny thinks she is getting a hotel), I would totally pay to take a shower again, and I thought you could tell that the organizers had spent a lot of time planning out the festival. The maps and schedules were great, the food was decently priced (for us New Yorkers anyways), the cooling down stations were pumping cold air, and the music was fantastic. I am excited to see the line-up for next year because I would like to go again. If for some reason that doesn't happen, I can always say that I went to the very first Firefly Music Festival.

Not everything was birds and rainbows...later this week I'll post about the things that I didn't like so much.