WICKED good.

This is the story of a tragedy turned into good fortune.  The tragedy was that my roommate Lauren's mom was supposed to visit her a couple of weekends ago, but she got ridiculously sick and couldn't make the trip.  I regret to inform you that she never did make the trip.  However, the good fortune that resulted was the Lauren asked me if I would like to go see Wicked with her and her friend, Daphne.

This show was BY FAR the best show I've seen to date (including Avenue Q, Marry Poppins, and American Idiot).  Everyone has seen The Wizard of Oz - which portrays the Wicked Witch of the West as just that, wicked.

Wicked is "the untold story of the witches of Oz."  One witch, born with green skin is a gifted student but is largely misunderstood.  The other witch, is the most popular and beautiful student in school.  Wicked tells you the story of their friendship, and how they ended up being the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

My favorite part about Wicked was that it tells a story that was untold before this.  There are tie-ins to the Wizard of Oz which, if  you're familiar with the movie, will be easy to catch on to.  Throughout the play, you're filled in on both witches, Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the infamous flying monkeys.

I absolutely LOVED this show.  If you want to see something on Broadway - SEE WICKED!

Positives:  AWESOME show
Negatives:  Lauren's mom being sick = (

The Burning Sensation

Two weeks ago, I and everyone else at Ogilvy received an intriguing email.  Ogilvy was to hold their own Great American Bake Sale to raise money for Share Our Strength, a national charity that works to end childhood hunger in the United States.  The more exciting part?  There was also a CUPCAKE COMPETITION!  The cupcakes would be judged and then the winner would be announced by Sandra Lee, celebrity chef from Food Network and spokesperson for Share Our Strength.

A bunch of the interns quickly formed teams, and the planning began.  Lauren, a fellow intern, volunteered the use of her kitchen to bake our cupcakes, and after that, the hard part began.  What kind of cupcakes were we to make!?  I browsed plenty of recipes online including things like s'mores cupcakes, cookie dough cupcakes, and churro cupcakes.  When we all met at Lauren's house to discuss -- Gabe introduced his big idea... Jalapeno cupcakes.  Most of us were wary of the idea at first, but we decided to give it a shot. 

When we all met again to bake the practice cupcakes, we settled on two test recipes:  Peanut Butter and Garam Masala Cupcakes with Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting, and Candied Jalapeno Cupcakes with Mango Cream Cheese Frosting.

Peanut Butter Garam Masala Cupcakes

While the Peanut Butter cupcakes were delicious, we ended up deciding to make the Jalapeno cupcakes for the competition.

Unfortunately, I couldn't be present for the baking of the actual cupcakes because my roommate Lauren, her friend Daphne and I had tickets to go see American Idiot (blog post later).  However, I did get to help decorate them the next day before the judging!  We frosted the cupcakes and garnished them with dried mango, candied jalapeno tops, and fresh mango puree.  They looked and TASTED soooo good!

Candied Jalapeno Cupcake with
Mango Cream Cheese Frosting

The perfect combination of spicy and sweet, our cupcake was definitely one of the most original flavor combinations.

Sandra Lee came to Ogilvy today to collect our donation for Share Our Strength and also announce the winners of the cupcake competition.  First she spoke about her history with poverty and told everyone about the organization.  Then she talked about the cupcakes that she had a chance to taste that morning.  Finally, she got to announcing the winners.

All of the different cupcake entries

Honorable Mention went to the S'mores Cupcake.  Our team got THIRD PLACE with our Jalapeno cupcake affectionately named "The Burning Sensation."  Second went to Death by Mudslide, and First went to Coconut Dreams.  All of the winners got a signed copy of a Sandra Lee cookbook!

Check us outttt, interns making names for ourselves at big bad Ogilvy = )

The Big TWO-TWO

Well ladies and gentlemen... I've finally made it to the birthday that means nothing - 22!  Every birthday before 22, you have something to look forward to.  You looked forward to being 13 so you could be a "teenager."  You looked forward to being 16 so you could drive.  You looked forward to being 18 so you could gamble, buy cigs and porn (if that's your cup of tea), and vote.  You looked forward to being the long awaited 21 so you could legally drink alcohol and go to bars!  You looked forward to being 22 so you could.... um.... be 22?  Oh yeah, that's right, NOTHING GOOD COMES AFTER THIS!  After 21, you get older and older and typically begin to dread the years that go by!

Proposition:  We need to invent more milestone birthdays!  Like 23, the year where you can.... Okay I don't have anything yet... But I'm going to work on it!

My parents had flowers delivered to work!

Lauren bought mini cupcakes from Crumbs to celebrate! 
Best Roomie Everrrr

 Anyways, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!!

Well the Shake Shack is a little old place where...

I first heard about the Shake Shack through Food Network.  I don't remember which show it was, but I do remember talk of delicious burgers, ice cold shakes, crispy fries, and super LONG lines.  When I told people in New York City that I had never been to Shake Shack, the most common reaction was one of shock and amazement.

This is ittt!

On the recommendations of many New Yorkers, my roommate Lauren and our friends Meylin and Desiree went to the ORIGINAL Shake Shack, the one in Madison Square Park.  Due to the famous long lines of hungry urbanites, Shake Shack has the "Shack Cam."  There is live streaming video of the line at Shake Shack which constantly plays on their website, so you can check the line before you go!

To our surprise, the line consisted of ONE MAN when we got there!  We ordered our food and sat in the park with our little buzzers to await our greasy hangover cure.

Meylin willing her buzzer to buzz.

No wonder this place is famous.  The food was DELICIOUS.  The burgers were so juicy they were dripping.  My recommendation... don't eat anything before you go!  Get there early (we got there around 11:50 a.m. on a Saturday and there was no line)!  Order the Shack Burger and a Peanut Butter Shake, and you'll be good to go for the rest of the day.

Positives:  SHAKE SHACK!  No line, delicious food
Negative:  $6 milkshake?  Come onnnn - The shakes cost more than the burgers!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

My parents accompanied me back to NYC after Sarah's bridal shower weekend!  Sunday night, I was absolutely exhausted due to the fact that I got a total of 9 hours of sleep all weekend, so I left my parents to fend for themselves after we got to Penn Station and I headed home to CRASH.

Monday (my mom's birthday), I had to work, so Deb and Barry explored the city by themselves. I went to their hotel room once I was done working and we headed out with our stomach's rumbling and Grimaldi's calling our names.  I've been talking this place up so much, that I assume their expectations were pretty high, so I hope they weren't disappointed.  We ordered our pizza for takeout and ate down at the promenade.

Tuesday, Lauren and I met my parents after work and we grabbed a quick dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (so New York right?) before heading to MARY POPPINS!  The show was SO good.  I'm not really a fan of people describing things as "magical,"  but that is undoubtedly what this was.  If you're thinking of going to see a show on Broadway, I highly recommend this one.  The story differs slightly from the movie, but rest assured the classic songs are still there.

Megabus... YOU SUCK.

This is my little online rant about Megabus.  The first time I took Megabus to State College from New York City, it was great!  The bus pulled out from near Penn Station at about 7:00 a.m. and got to State College around 11:15 a.m., and we even took a 15 minute stop.  Couldn't really have gotten any better unless I had gotten there early enough to get a window seat!

So when I had to buy a bus ticket to go home this past weekend for my sister Sarah's shower, I thought, yeah, Megabus is only $23, I can work most of the day Friday, take the 4:30 p.m. bus, and make it home by 9 p.m.!

WRONG!

When I got to the bus stop, one of the workers told me that the State College/Pittsburgh bus was running a little bit behind schedule.  It turns out that "a little bit behind schedule" means AN HOUR! You may be thinking, cool it Maria, it was only an hour late.  But that was only the beginning of Megabus' giant fail.

We finally got on the road around 5:30 p.m. and everyone was relieved to be on the road.  Shortly after leaving the city, right outside of the Lincoln Tunnel to be exact, our bus driver pulled that thing over to the side of the road and made an announcement that he was going to turn the bus off and back on again in hopes that it would "reset itself."  What does that even mean?

Turns out the bus was incapable of "resetting itself,"  so we waited there on the side of the road for over 2 hours for a new bus to come rescue us.  The only saving grace was that the girl I was sitting next to (shout out to Ashanti) was a grad student at PSU, and she was SO funny.  For real, that girl should be a comedian.

After multiple buses drove past us and honked, our rescue bus finally arrived and we got on the road yet again.  As the bus driver said, "Well, we're already screwed on time, and I'm sure everyone is thirsty and hungry, so we're going to stop as soon as I see a gas station and then we'll stop somewhere again to get something to eat."  ARE YOU SERIOUS?  We are already running like 4 hours late and you're going to stop to get some cheetos?  Anyways, that being said, I have to commend the guy.  He kept his spirits up even though he had to be just as discouraged with the situation as everyone else.  He actually encouraged all of us to call Megabus and tell them how we felt about that little trip.  I think I might just do that... or get Barry to = )

We ended up pulling in to State College around 2:00 a.m. -- FIVE HOURS LATER than we were supposed to get there.  It seriously reminded me of a field trip in elementary school where our charter bus broke down... it was terrible.  Zach, being the wonderful boyfriend that he is, came to pick me up anyways even though it was SO late, and we got home around 3:30.  Talk about a long day.

So yeah... anyways... Megabus, YOU SUCK.

Avenue Q

This past Tuesday, Lauren (my roommate), our neighbor, Sarah, and I went to see Avenue Q at New World Stages.  We bought the tickets through EHS, our summer housing, so we only had to pay $40.  I first heard about Avenue Q when Duff and the Charm City Cakes crew from Food Network's Ace of Cakes made a cake to celebrate the opening of the musical.  From that, I gathered that it was a comedy, with puppets as the main characters, and it could be a little bit dirty.

 According to Wikipedia, "It is an 'autobiographical and biographical' coming-of-age parable, addressing and satirizing the issues and anxieties associated with entering adulthood.  It's about a kid named Princeton who moves to Avenue Q after he graduates from college.  Throughout the play, he's constantly trying to find his purpose in life.  Anyways, I'm not going to tell you a ton about it.

The verdict?  It was a GREAT show!  It was in fact pretty dirty, well, as dirty as puppets can get I suppose.  "How can puppets be so racy?" you may ask... well, there was a puppet sex scene, a song called "The Internet is for Porn," and a character named Lucy the Slut.   So no, I wouldn't take my mom to see it (those of you who know Deb can imagine why), because I know from 21 years of experience that she does not appreciate that kind of humor.  As for the rest of you, GO SEE IT!  It was a great show and was so funny.

This is what a full time job is like?

I went home for the 4th of July and totally surprised the parents.  They had noooo idea!  I hung out with ZB a lot of course, but go to have some family time too.  It was so nice to be home, but the weekend went by wayyy to quickly.

So now I'm back, and today marked the beginning of week 5 of my internship with Ogilvy!  That means, after this week is over, my New York City adventure will be half way over = (. 

I am realizing that having a full-time job is exhausting!  For the past two weeks, I have worked 48.5 hours each -- which makes for a nice paycheck, but a tired Maria.  With having lots of work to do for my Avon team, and then working on this IKEA Intern Project, it's not uncommon for me to get home after 9 p.m.  Lauren is usually home already, and we are content to eat food, chill on our beds, watch TV, and fall asleep.  When I look back at the recent times when I made fun of my parents for going to bed at 10:00 p.m., the humor turns to envy, and I think to myself, "I wish I could go to bed at 10:00!  I'm so tired!"

At this point, Lauren and I have decided to start taking serious advantage of the EHS events -- especially shows.  Last night, after our reunion and Chipotle date, we bought tickets to see both Avenue Q and American Idiot!  Soooo excited.

As for this blog, sorry I haven't written in so long!  Also, it seems to be having some technical difficulties and not letting some people see all of my posts.   I have no idea what's up with that... but if it continues to be a problem, maybe I'll call someone from Blogger and have to tell them where to put their stupid blog.

Be on the lookout for an Avenue Q review after Thursday's show!

Positives:  Tickets for Ave. Q and American Idiot, nice paycheck
Negatives:  Only 5.5 weeks left!