The Great Barrier Reef

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Yeah I fucking went there and it’s still unreal.

We walked to the harbor and caught a 9 o’clock boat out to the reef. We stopped on the way there real quick at an Island yo pick up a couple more guests. The views were spectacular. I still doesn’t feel real to me.

We made it to the reef around 11:30. The boat parks at a pontoon which is there floating island where they dock all their boats and snorkeling equipment and we can get off the boat and chill there. Me, Nuti, Tara, and a few other girls had an 11:40 snorkel tour with a marine biologist. That was my favorite part of the day. We saw a sea turtle right when we got in the water which I wasn’t expecting! Of course I had hoped to see one but I was prepared to not. Of course we learned about the coral and fish around. We found Nemo and I got to see the world’s biggest clam. So fucking dope.

After our tour, we grabbed a quick lunch on the boat and attempted to warm back up. Me and Nuti hoped on a glass bottom boat tour and then caught a submarine tour as well. Both were cool but not as cool as snorting obviously.

Me and Nuti went back into the water for about another hour. It was chilly but I would forever regret not taking full advantage of the reef. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

That night we all went out for a pub crawl. I’m not usually one for a late night, but why the fuck not. We actually had a party bus that took us to 5 bars. We got a free drink at each stop and we had a ton of pizza at the first bar thank god. I needed that after all the snorkeling.

I had a bit more to drink than just those 5. I somehow kept getting free drinks. Each bar had different activities. I sang karaoke. I danced on tables. I had a good ass time. No one got too crazy tbh. Like yeah everyone was drunk but everyone held their own. I got back to the room around 1:30 and drunkenly called David for a bit.

Update: the Nicole situation is finally put the rest so hopefully that is all over because I’m definitely over her.

Crazy in Cairns

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Tuesday morning we packed up our bags nice and early and headed back to the airport. I feel like I’ve done more travel than anything else on this trip.

We boarded a 9am flight headed north to Cairns. Cairns is a huge vacation destination. They’re known for their warm weather year round and of course the Great Barrier Reef.

We got off the plane and was greeted by beautiful weather. It’s a beautiful 80 here and sunny. We dropped our bags off on our rooms and headed straight out to explore the town.

Cairns had a beautiful lagoon on the center of town. They use the ocean water for it to encourage people to swim there instead of the ocean. There’s a bunch of crocodiles and jelly fish in the ocean nearby so it’s pretty dangerous to swim there. Hence the lagoon.

I shared some fish and chips with Nuti. We’re really trying to eat the local food. I guess Hoki is a native fish to Australia so we tried that. Tasted just like cod.

After lunch we laid out in the sun by the harbor and toons some photos. We talked with some of the girls until we were supposed to meet for dinner.

Justin was our coin for dinner. He grilled some kangaroo up along with same sausages and pineapple for dinner. It was all so good!

We spent the afternoon walking through the night market and casino. I got some watermelon-line ice cream. We saw some wild bats as big as seagulls too! That was my favorite.

We ended up at a bar for the night. It was fun but I didn’t stay too long. Some people were already sloppy. I left before the wet tee shirt contest (it’s for the best).

So far this place is a lot better than Melbourne. Feels much more like Australia.

Made it to Melbourne

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I had booked my Australian trip about a year ago and it’s finally here! I left from JFK July Friday, 12th. I actually didn’t mind the ride. It was about a 6 hour flight from JFK to LAX. I had a nice pasta dinner with garlic bread and cheesecake for dessert. I also opted for the Australian Chardonnay for dinner.

On the flight from LAX to Sydney, I got a second pasta dinner with herbal bread, blueberry cobbler, and a Moscow mule.

Thankfully I knocked out for the flight. I basically slept until breakfast when they served scrambled eggs, a roasted tomato, and hash browns (I didn’t eat the sausage and bacon). Plus I had a warm apple muffin and strawberry yogurt.

Unfortunately I missed my connection from Sydney to Melbourne and was stranded at the airport for 7 hours causing me to miss a bit of my Melbourne tour, but it’s fine. I landed in time for dinner where we picked from pumpkin and margarita pizza, zucchini balls, and shrimp dumplings. I had a few whiskey and cokes and mingled with my new tour family. I went with a handful of them to a pub that was near the restaurant from dinner. I didn’t drink but I got to meet more people and snap a few pics of the city.

The next morning, I had myself an egg, bean, hash brown, and toast breakfast before hoping on a bus headed for the Great Ocean Road.

We made many stops along the way to admire the beach and search for koalas, llamas, seals, whales, kookaburras and kangaroos.

We stopped for lunch and I tried a salmon meat pie. I head that really popular in Australia. It’s basically like a delicious chicken pot pie.

The main point of driving the Great Ocean Road is to see the 12 Apostles. They happen to be long stone formations that come out of the ocean. There used to 9 but two collapsed so now we are left with 7. The weather was a bit rainy and Sidney but it was a cool experience.

We also stopped at a gorge where a ship wreck had occurred. It was cool because the weather made the waves crazy intense. That was one of my favorite stops because there were caves and you could go down to the beach to watch the waves. I think me and Nuti were the only ones to appreciate it. I think the weather got to everyone else.

We grabbed a quick dinner at a vegetation Indian joint that is pretty popular in the center of Melbourne. All you can eat was only 7 bucks for naan, lentils, veggies, and rice. It was a good amount of food.

All and all a pretty solid full day even if I didn’t really spend much time in Melbourne. I’m not even sure if I saw the city at all in the sunlight but I don’t think I missed much. Plus there is still so much to see.

The Letter

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Welp remember that Nicole girl who messaged my Instagram? She resurfaced.

After getting back from Texas I spent a couple of days at David’s. I was only home for 4 days in July so we had it get some time in together.

While he was at work, I got bored. I have never gone through his thing before, but again, I was very bored.

I found a little silver box in his closet. It contained old notes for girls way before I knew him. It also had other memories like receipts and movie stubs. Somethings in there were even from me ☺️.

Everything would have been fine if I stopped there. But I was still bored. I decided to go through one of his draws in his living room. I had never gone it then before, so curiously got the best of me.

I didn’t have to snoop at all. Right on top was an envelope addressed to David from Nicole with a 5 page letter inside. You best believe I read all of it multiple times.

This fucked me up. I wasn’t mad that the letter existed or anything like that. I was upset about the second page. How it seemed that she had spent the night and the slept together back in May. She had messaged me that but this just seemed to confirm everything. I texted Alison before I even finished reading the letter. We talked on the phone for two hours until david finally got off work. He knew something was up right when he walked in the door. I cut straight to the point. I told him I found the letter. He continued to deny cheating on me, or sleeping with her, or even her spending the night. But why would she write it if it didn’t happen? That doesn’t make any sense.

He admits fault to the whole situation which is good because I know he’s hard for him to apologize. However none of this is okay. He said he hasn’t talked to her since but that’s not really my concern. I want to know who’s telling the truth. Has he cheated on me? How much of their relationship do I not know about?

I decided to stay the night because I had made sure my laundry was done prior to him getting home just incase I need to storm out. He cuddled more than usual. I think he did feel terrible about The whole situation.

The next morning he had a job interview so I went with him but I didn’t want to bring up anything to throw him off. We went to a gnocchi place for lunch for gnocchi sandwiches he had posted on my Facebook. They were even better than expected.

I told him he needed to talk to Nicole while I was gone and get things sorted out. I’m trying to be understanding but it’s hard as hell. I mostly just want an explanation of her spending the night in May. I don’t want to reach out to her but if he doesn’t give me answers than I might.

On a happier note, my cousin Lauren came to visit for a couple of days. She’s doing this cross country road trip to celebrate earning her masters. Her and her man friend arrived shortly after I got home from lunch with David. We headed to Main Street and ordered a ton of different types of dumplings. They wanted to experience New York from my view point so they needed some Chinatown in their lives.

We grabbed some liquor and headed to the park to watch Reck-it-Ralph on the lawn. I got high and just enjoyed the experience.

Thursday morning we headed into the city to git up the main attractions. We got bagels in Times Square, cocktails at Rockefeller Plaza, and street meet by the Statue of Liberty. We covered a ton of ground but I think they got the full experience of being a New Yorker.

In the evening, I took them where I spend most of my time, the Bronx. We got pizza in Little Italy, a drive-by if my school, and drinks at Bronx Alehouse. David was able to meet up with us and Lauren approved if him. It was a nice little visit.

Howdy partner

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I’m back in Texas for round two! I was here a few years ago visiting Nicoletta. This time wasn’t too much different. It was supposed to be a roommate trip with Nicoletta and Jessica. Jess dropped out last minute which was probably for the best.

David dropped us off at the airport on the 4th and we landed in Houston around 3. We did some running around with her parents and then unwound at her house for a bit. Her dad made a seafood boil with octopus, clams, muscles, corn and potatoes. Her mom made fresh cornbread and cherry cobbler for dessert. We feasted for the 4th before heading out to get sparklers.

The evening was spent warily watching her drunk neighbors shoot off fireworks and making sure if anything went wrong we had something to jump behind. It was a nice little 4th. One of these days I will finally see some fireworks with David though.

Friday morning, Nicoletta’s mom made us eggs Benedict for breakfast and her friend Sarah came over. I met Sarah last time I was here. She’s nice and all, but definitely not someone I would be friends with on my own.

Sarah drive us to the river where we floated along for three hours. I would have preferred to get to the river earlier because by the time we left around 6 I was chilly from the long shadows.

We stopped in Gruene for Mexican food before making the long drive back. I ordered a marg which hit hard since we hadn’t really dated since 10. Nicoletta surprising ordered two which she promptly threw up on the side of the highway on the way home. I couldn’t make up my mind about what to eat so I ordered cheese enchiladas and a fish taco but I should hav whist gotten the tacos. They were much better.

Saturday morning was our windows day. I went with Nicoletta and her momma to her a breakfast kolache. They’re so good. I need to find them in New York. Mine had potatoes, egg, and cheese it it. It did not survive the car ride.

We spent the day at the Galleria in Houston, which is the 8th largest mall in the world. I feel like I barely saw half of it though. The crew I was with isn’t into “exercise”. I bought some new bras and underwear on sale and got David a journal for when he travels.

We grabbed food from the food court. I got a crawfish po boy sandwich from a Cajun place and they grabbed chick-fil-a. I made a great choice.

On the way home we grabbed dessert at Unicorn, a magical dessert bar. We all shared a rad velvet milkshake with cake. Good decisions were made.

Hr had made us some delicious octopus pasta that I’m gonna have to attempt to make. I need to learn how to make octopus.

Sunday morning momma Sarantidis made her famous French toast casserole. At this point I’m so full from the entire weekend but I had a bit. We were supposed to head to Austin but we decided to go to San Antonio which I wanted to do more anyways.

We walked around the zoo has her mom complained about the heat and the animals. I still enjoyed myself though. I’ve always liked zoos. And they remind me of my mom.

After the zoo we drove to the Alamo and the river walk. The river walk was my favorite. I want to go back with David and really walk around. Plus I heard different time of the year they put up lights and it’s beautiful. We got more Mexican there and I got my shrimp enchiladas. Next time I’m in Texas I need to eat tacos 24/7 haha.

Twas a good trip. Next time though, might not be with Nicoletta. We will see.

Land of the cheese

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School is finally out! I feel like NYC schools go so late! Like summer officially starts and we are still in school!

Anyways summer break finally started June 26th and I was OUT. I left as soon as I could and drove back to Cleveland. I got in late that night and woke up Thursday to do all my running around before we left for Wisconsin. I got all my running around done and even go to walk around Edgewater water and get Mitchell’s Lu like we usually do. I tried pralines and cream which is the perfect combination with my wild berry crumble.

When Steve got off work Thursday night, we headed for Wisconsin for the weekend. Three of my cousins earned their graduate degrees (two masters and a doctorate).

Friday was a chill day. We hung at my grandma’s house most of the day. We did go out and see Toy Story 4 in the afternoon. Then for dinner we went to a little Mexican bar for Steve’s birthday. I had these delicious seafood enchiladas that I would definitely get again. Me and my mom headed back up later in the night for a few margaritas and fried ice cream.

Saturday morning we went to the farmer’s market. Me and my mom got a red velvet bunt cake to eat later. Then we went antiquing and I got David a Marvel lunch box as a souvenir.

In between the market and the party, me and my mom stopped by Culver’s. I hadn’t been been to Wisconsin since Kelly’s wedding about 4 years ago. I live for the fried cheese curds.

The party was chill. I got to catch up with the Kolbs and Lauren plans to visit me in a couple of weeks. The party was llama themed so me and my mom had to take a llama selfie.

I made my mom a few drinks at the party so by the time we got back she was pretty drunk. We hid in my room so we didn’t have to share our cake from the market. It was nice to see my mom and spend some quality time with her.

We headed back home Sunday and that left we with two days to spend in Cleveland. Monday I was about to get together with Alison and catch up with her at the beach. We got vegan dogs after she was approved for an apartment so big things are happening.

After taking a very quick shower after the beach, Noel picked me up and we headed to the drive-in. We caught up. She signed for her house and is going to Ireland at the end of July. I’m really happy for her. We saw Toy Story again and Aladdin. Disney has done well. I was very satisfied.

Tuesday I saw my grandma and met her new kitten. She’s doing well but her kitty is a handful. Very cute though.

I met up with Nuti and we got floats at Sweet Moses. We caught up a little bit but I’ll see her in Australia so it wasn’t as big of a deal. I got to see everyone I wanted to while I was home and that’s all that mattered.

Slice of Heaven

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David is always claiming the Bronx is the best borough. I do love the Bronx but tbh Queens keeps it together better. In order to decide which one come out on top, we figured we we could compare the Night Markets.

Before all that though, we got ourselves a couple of drinks at Dallas BBQ. That drink always hits me hard, and today was no different. Plus I always love the drunk conversations we have. They’re always so free flowing.

We stopped by Penn Station to grab our free Krispy Kreme donuts, then headed to my house. We napped and headed to the Queens Night Market fairly late which was fine. I got myself a spinach empanada and a tofu boa sandwich. The boa was actually incredibly filling.

We then proceeded to wait in line for an hour for these twister cones with ice cream in them. They weren’t great I’m not gonna lie. I feel like you get them for the picture.

The next day we got up fairly early and drove straight to Brown University in Rhode Island. I want to visit all the Ivy League schools and I was just missing Brown and Yale. I’m saving Yale for my mom though.

We parked and walked though a cute little market along a river and then got food. We went to this burger joint we had looked up and ordered sliders, cheese fries, onion straws, and spiked milkshakes. We hadn’t eaten breakfast.

After eating, we walked around campus a bit and enjoyed the weather. I snapped a few pictures and then we headed out to our main destination.

David wanted to take me to Mystic Pizza (yes where the movie was filmed). He had gone there a few years ago and said it’s the best pizza outside of New York that he’s ever had. I ordered a Mediterranean pizza and he got a seafood pizza. Mine was good, but the seafood one was banging. We also bought some tee shirts before heading out to go look around at the shops. They had this little village of shops set up sober had to walk around all of it. David bought me a ukulele and I got him a sling shot. We got ice cream and enjoyed some air conditioning. Plus I found a giant gnome!

We had a very nice weekend together like we usually do.

Bronx Night Market

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All of our dates revolve around food. This is why our relationship is so strong. He really knows the way to my heart is through my stomach.

Wednesday he invited me over for a pizza date. We made our own pizza with fresh mozzarella we had gotten during our last date. We popped open our extra bottle of Bellini that I had brought back from Vegas. It was one of my favorite nights in.

Once the weekend rolled around, we were all ready to head to the Bronx Night Market. I’ve been to the Queens Market but the Bronx one is new so I had to go compare.

I still like the Queens one but it wasn’t bad. I started off with a Cajun twisted potato.

We moved on to empanadas, he got pork and I got cheese. I’ve had better.

We took a mini break and went to Applebee’s were we had $1 drinks until they cut us off. We continued around the market with our buzz and ended with some latkes and apple sauce and a cookies and creak cookie we ate on the way to a carnival in Little Italy nearby.

When we got the the carnival, he grabbed some sausage and I got some elote. I’ve always wanted to try it. It was pretty good.

A played some games but we mostly walked around and looked. We ended up getting strawberry shortcake from one of David’s favorite bakeries. We had gotten a cake from there before and I keep trying to tell him it’s a cassata cake and not strawberry shorty so of course he had to make a big deal out of it…

Can’t live with him, can’t live without him. ❤️

The good times and the bad

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When we got back from Vegas, David’s mom and brother were still staying at his place. I was able to get to know them a little before heading back to North Carolina.

His mom liked having me around. She always seemed disappointed when I would go back to queens. I stayed at his place for almost three weeks straight.

His mom found out I ate salmon so she wanted to make me salmon patties and potatoes. David has to go to work, but she made me them for breakfast the Saturday after we got back from Vegas. I really appreciated her cooking for me. It made me feel accepted.

I came back after work on Monday since both me and David had off work Tuesday. He made me breakfast in bed on Tuesday and then we headed to White Plains with his brother Ryan and Elston. We shopped around. I was finally able to use my bath and body works gift card from Jacolby’s mom so that’s the last of that. He got Buffalo Wild Wings since Elston won a $40 gift card. ‘Twas a good day.

David’s family left very early Wednesday morning. Even though we had been downing so much time together lately, we made weekend plans. We were supposed to get donuts and then head to Queens for the night market. Then Sunday we could go to Brown University and get pizza in Mystic, CT. That got all kinds of fuck yo though.

When I came over Friday, Elston was still there and stayed the entire time. It’s annoying because he’s always our third wheel and sometimes I just want to be alone with David. Because of that I was just in a pissy mood and slept on the couch. David thought I was upset with him and it just snowballed. We didn’t talk all morning and when it was time to head out, we ended up on different train cars. Communication was off and he ended up going to the donut place without me and then headed home. I was livid. I spent the whole day crying and upset and called to yell at him. I was so disappointed because I had really been looking forward to this weekend.

He tried to make it up to me by inviting me to lunch Sunday and doing what I wanted. I was still upset when we first met up because I was still hurt and disappointed. He had left me the day before. But was the day went on I warmed back up.

He found this place online that did burger kabobs. He was very happy and I though the food was subpar.

Next we got cookies around the corner at Schmackary’s. I got cookies and cream, a cereal cookie, funfetti, blueberry crisp, s’mores, and a regular chocolate chip cookie. After picking up cookies, we headed downtown to an ice cream place I’ve wanted to go to for awhile. Milk and cream cereal bar was pretty good. You pick your cereal and they blended it into your ice cream which is cool. I got Trix with vanilla ice cream topped with fruity pebbles and caramel, all in a fruit loop cone.

We picked up fresh buffalo mozzarella at a nearby cheese shop and then headed home. When go got off the train, I mentioned how I had ever had an icey before. After hearing that, David made me try one so I got cherry and rainbow.

We chilled the rest of the day and I waited for Elston to leave. He didn’t. I got upset all over again and went to bed. I laid there thinking about everything that had upset me the night before and being posed about Elston being around and everything bubbled over again. I also found out that Nicole had gone down to North Carolina last summer and he had never told me. That was pretty fucked up. We stayed up until almost 3am talking things out. He explained everything with her again and how his mom invited her. And how he is afraid to get too excited about us because he is scared about it going bad which is why he doesn’t want to post anything about us. He talked about his father issues more and how he felt after his dad left multiple times. It was a very good talk. Much needed and brought us closer again. He apologized for this weekend which I appreciated. It was honestly a really good and much needed help.

Viva Las Vegas

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Our last day in Vegas was a full one. It was the hottest day since we had been there. It was only 68 when we first landed and the temps stayed around 75 he whole time. Our last day it finally hit the kid 80s. Because we had to check out around 11am, we don’t want to swim since we couldn’t shower.

We got breakfast/lunch down at the hotel one last time. We tried the cafe since we had coupons for it. We shared spring rolls and calamari as an appetizer and then he got a burger of course and I got peppered shrimp and rice.

Before we left I wanted to check out the adult pool even if we couldn’t swim. It was on the 24th pool and you had to show your id before heading up since it was adult only and topless. The view was nice minus the 40 year old tits we saw.

David also wanted to gamble once before we left. He played a quick $10 before we headed out for the day. At least he didn’t lose it all.

We walked to Fremont but it wasn’t as nice as I remembered. A lot of the casinos weren’t lit up and there were more homeless. We took plenty of pictures though and spent some time away from the lights and casinos.

We found this area called the Container Park. It was shops and restaurants made up of old shopping containers. It was one of our favorite stops. There was no smoking there so we finally were able to breath fresh air for the first time in Nevada. We shared some tacos and explored the shops. He got me ice cream and we enjoyed the shade on this hot day. Every moment we spend together, we grow closer.

We made our way back to the hotel so we could get read for the airport. It was time to say goodbye to Las Vegas, but I will always have some great memories.