One Lucky Dinges

Soon after moving to New York, I saw a video online or read an article or something, about the best food trucks in NYC. Two of those food trucks went on my list of things I had to do/see/try while I was living here (at the time it was only going to be a 3-month period of time).

The first food truck was the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. I haven't actually seen the truck ever but I did visit their store location in the East Village when my room mate from college visited me over the summer. Yum!!

Fortunately, I did get to stay longer than 3-months because I never got to try the second truck, Wafels & Dinges, until today. I'd seen the truck once, before I even knew what it was, on the street where I had my first internship in Brooklyn. I was still new and didn't realize that the truck wasn't always there until one of the other interns came into work wondering aloud if anyone else had seen "the magical waffle truck of happiness?"

I haven't seen the truck again since that day but I have seen a food cart set up in Central Park and been tempted to pay it a visit, the timing wasn't right however. Today though, I went to pilates and noticed a Wafels & Dinges cart set up right by the subway stop I got off at. It was a lovely day and since everyone seemed to have plans or work to rush off to right after pilates, I went back to the cart and looked over the choices.

I'd heard of their savory wafels -- chili con carne, pulled pork, bacon and syrup -- which all sounded amazing, however this cart was a smaller version and didn't seem to have those options. There were a few different "wafels" to pick from -- brussels or liege -- then you could top them with one "dinges" or pay extra for more dinges.

I went with a liege waffle (more caramelized than the brussels variety which is more like what Americans know as the "Belgium waffle") topped with strawberries, which were fresh, not the syrup-y strawberries I half expected, and topped with powdered sugar.

Oh. My. Goodness. It was sooooo good!! I can't wait to go back (hopefully the cart is there again next week!) or actually catch their truck, and try something else. I hadn't had a real Belgium waffle before, not like the kind my mom always describes as being her favorite part of visiting the Netherlands, and it was awesome. I'm hoping to take my friend who is visiting me this weekend and see how they measure up to the waffles she ate in Belgium last summer.

Mmmm, just writing about these is making me hungry all over again! If you're ever in NYC, you must try out a waffle from Wafels & Dinges. If you have Twitter you can follow them @wafeltruck to find out where their truck is any given day.

After my wafel, I wandered to a Barnes & Noble to buy a new journal (I have so much time to write while I'm on the subway they've getting filled up really fast since I've been in NYC!) and moseyed around there for an hour or so before heading to work. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon :)

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Home, sweet home :)

After working 60 hours each of the last 2 weeks, I am finally home and ready for a break! In typical fashion, I took a Greyhound last night at 11 out of New York, expecting to arrive in Columbus at 11 this morning. Well the bus that I was transferring to in Pittsburgh was running late, it was also coming from New York but was supposed to leave an hour before us and hadn't left when we did... After a 2 1/2 hour delay in Pittsburgh we were on our way again!

I was able to sleep on and off during the trip and was amazed that every time I opened my eyes, the scenery was more an more white! It was in the low 40's in New York and the more east I got the worse the weather became! I got in around 1:45, two hours and 40 minutes later than anticipated, and was happily reunited with my family :)

On the way home the roads were bad and the snow continued to fall and blow. Right in front of us, a man in a 4-wheel Dodge slide into a deep ditch. We pulled over and helped him get a tow and were reminded to drive slow and be wary. We passed another car being pulled out of a ditch on our own road later.

Once we were home, we were ready to settle in for the evening and enjoy being together again. I'm very excited to have this break from work and stress (hopefully) while taking care of a few things I need to do here. But most of all, I'm thrilled to be back with my family and ready to pick up on all our Christmas traditions and make new ones. It finally feels like Christmas to me :)

The Heat is On!

It's been getting pretty chilly here in NYC. I fell like I was just wearing shorts 2 weeks ago (oh wait, I was) and now it's already jacket weather! It got cold quick, and I'm not a fan of cold weather. This sudden change in weather makes me wish I was back in Kansas where the winters were extremely mild and unseasonably warm, the two that I experienced were at least.

My apartment doesn't hold heat very well and has been almost as chilly as it is outside! That might be a slight exaggeration, I do think it's been warmer than 50* in here... Nonetheless, I'm naturally cold pretty much all the time and having only a little space heater and only a few warm clothes (I was only supposed to be here for the summer after all) meant that I was drinking a lot of hot chocolate and tea and bundling into the few pairs of sweats I had with me.

Towards the middle of the week things improved with a wonderful care package from my parents, full of sweaters, dress pants, and shoes that I had left at home but now needed for my internship, and the chilly weather, plus a lot of food! Yay for my wonderful parents :)

Then, this morning, the heat was on!! There are two heaters in my apartment, one in the bedroom and one in the living room. Apparently  the heat for the whole house goes through these before getting to the rest of the house so I'm not in control of my own heating. My days are shivering in my own apartment are over! (Ok, it wasn't really that bad) In fact, from what I hear it'll be so toasty that I'll probably be wearing shorts around my apartment in the dead of winter--which is fine with me!

Because the heat was on (well, I'm guessing that's why) we had an unexpected visitor (I wasn't expecting him at least): the gas and electric guy. I was still in my pajamas and about to do some yoga when he and Danny, who lives upstairs, came to my door to explain that he needed to come in and check the meters which are conveniently located in my apartment. That was a lil awkward... Mostly because he couldn't find the electrical one and neither Danny or I knew where it was and the guy was in a hurry and impatient with us as he had a big route to do today.

Oh well, we'll look forward to another visit from him next month and for now I'll enjoy basking in the heat :)