Tweed Jacket (on sale for 40% off and under $90!)  // Skinny Jeans // Tom’s Peep Toe Heels (similar) // Basic T-Shirt // Gold Bar Bracelet

Most Monday’s are tough, but waking up this morning was especially brutal. I flew back from NYC last night after having a wonderful time with my sweet friend Claire, only to get halfway to Chicago and have the pilot realize that the heater in our engine wasn’t working so we couldn’t land in the Chicago. After a few hours in the air, they took us back to the airport in NYC and we all waited 4 hours for another flight – at 11 PM. Needless to say I am a little more sleepy than anticipated this morning, but hey – at least I’m home!  Besides the rocky (literally…) trip back to the Midwest, I had the most amazing time in NYC, both for work and for fun.

We started the trip out with a tour of the Food Network studios where we saw the studio space where shows like Iron Chef or Beat Bobby Flay is filmed, toured their test kitchens where they make/test out all their recipes for the magazine, met a few people who do some of their social videos and trends research, and got to walk around and enjoy the Chelsea Market where their offices are. I wouldn’t say that I was ever a Food Network buff, but it was pretty cool to see a little behind the scenes of how the magic happens at the network. We then went to a conference with the Food Network about Millennial and Gen X’ers food habits and relationship to food, which is one of those wonderfully nerdy things I geek out about. It was fascinating having an anthropologist explain the psychology behind why people want to take photos of their food, and the reason why more Millennials are cooking at home, and are also obsessed with eating out so much, even when they can’t afford it. Made me miss being in college when all you had to do is listen to fascinating lectures all day everyday. Obviously, I don’t miss the homework part, but the rest of college sounds really delightful 😉

We also got to spend part of the trip checking out the Buzzfeed offices and meeting a few people who we work with for editorial content and Tasty videos with ALDI. It was awesome touring their studios (we saw the Tasty kitchens and their amazing offices), and I even ran into Hunter Hayes which I embarrassingly geeked out about. And no, I didn’t get a picture – and now I of course regret it…haha. The second part of my trip (the for fun part!) involved catching up with my friend Claire who’s lived in Brooklyn for the past 5+ years. I had been meaning to visit her for years, but life was always seemed a little too busy to plan a long weekend to visit – so being able to visit for work and stay a few days was the dream. We went to so many delicious restaurants (Hart’s in Brooklyn for some Spanish inspired dishes, Buvette NYC for the most delicious Croque Madame, Atoboy for the best Korean food, and Rucola for the yummiest brunch),  grabbed drinks at The Carlyle to enjoy some awesome music, and ended Saturday night and Blue Hill where my friend used to work for some bites and many, many glasses of wine 😉 When we weren’t eating, we explored vintage shops, and spent some time taking in the Met.

I hadn’t been to NYC in 10 years, and always thought of NYC as completely overwhelming from my memories being a perpetually unaware 18 year old. But after spending some time exploring and seeing so many neighborhoods, I understand the allure of living in the big city. I don’t plan to pack my bags and move anytime soon, but I definitely understand why people love living there so much – and I definitely loved visiting. And eating. I’m literally going to need to just eat salads to make up for the wine and food I had these past few days!In other news, I came back to Chicago after the first snow and holy hell is it cold outside. I was just wearing this tweed jacket as an actual jacket last week, and now I can barely feel my toes in my winter boots. I always think to myself that mayyyybeeeee this winter won’t be so bad (or better yet, never come…), but it looks like it might be another brutal one this year. Hopefully things will warm up-ish soon – or at least over Thanksgiving so I can walk off eating way too much food after dinner 😉

Anyways – how’s everyone’s week looking? I’m excited for a few fun dinners I have planned, catching up on life after so much traveling, and getting my epic to-do list done at work. Hopefully you have the perfect mix of fun and productivity planned for this week too! xx