It's a New Year: Time to Travel B****es!

I'm not usually a fan of making New Year's resolutions, but this year I decided to make two that I'm actually super stoked about. What are they, you ask?

• Legit pursue a career in freelance writing. 
• Travel a f*** ton.  

I've been working on both, but I plan to keep going full throttle. I turned 29 in October and my experience in traveling is practically nil save for some experiences I can credit more to my family than any actual go-getting on my part. As a Baltimore native, I've (like every Baltimore native to ever exist in the history of ever) been to Ocean City, Maryland tons of times. Even that is in large part due to my father being an avid surfer. Speaking of my dad...

Post by Tracy Dye.

Ok, I derailed a bit with that but I feel it deserves some public admiration from the tens of people many people reading this. I digress...

I've also been to Los Angeles, California because my sister lives there and a few other locations have been peppered in throughout the years (Vermont and Orlando, Florida when I was younger, and there was a spontaneous trip to New England a year back...blah blah...), but for the most part I've unwittingly allowed the years to accumulate untraveled. Between school and work (retail) and then going back to school while selling overpriced body lotions and hating my life working followed by the oh-crap-I'm-actually-a-grownup-now-or-something type of work, sewing my traveling "oats" became a point of regrettable procrastination. While my friends were studying abroad or taking Euro-trips, I was overloading myself with classes coupled with work, coupled with bad dates that later transpired into even more dire "long-term" relationships (i.e., three to six month rotations...late teens and early-to-mid twenties are a time of great life lessons, albeit horror stories). All of these events were punctuated by a slew of tequila shots and apple martinis.

At least I can check "hangovers" and "date a string of crazy people" off my bucket list.

In less than a year I'll be turning the dirty thirty, and I realize that I'm at this strange point where I get to straddle the proverbial line between free-spirited flirtatious single life and conscientious, mature taxpayer. I'm going to bed at decent times before getting up for work in the morning and keg stands are a thing of memories, but the prospect of "settling down" (a phrase that starts to insinuate its way into everyone's vernacular the older you get) still hasn't made a blip on my radar. I feel like once you enter your mid-twenties, there's this influx of weddings and subsequent baby showers--overlapped by even more weddings--that unfolds. People get married and start families all the time, but suddenly it becomes this omnipresence.

I'm nowhere near ready for that, which is fine according to an online quiz that told me no one's even going to decide to put a ring on it until I turn 41. And because the internet is always right (right?), that gives me over a decade to revel in my bachelorette-hood!

I had some time off for the holidays while awaiting the start of a new job, so I decided to cease the opportunity to get at least a little bit of traveling in. I didn't go terribly far, but it was still new territory for me.

Trip #1: New York City

Even though I only live four hours from New York City, I had never been there--blasphemy for someone that's grown up on the east coast and also used to be a theatre major.

My best friend is actually from New York (I know...why the "F" had I never been there, again??) and was spending the holidays there. My sister was also in town over the holidays, so I didn't want to commit to an entire weekend away, but Alice (the bestie) was going to be heading to the city on Friday from her hometown, so I booked a MegaBus ticket for a day trip.

Spoiler alert--the bus broke down...and it took over two hours to get it fixed.

That was fun...

In short, I probably should have planned for a longer trip or at least a much earlier arrival since I didn't end up being able to enjoy that much time in a new, exciting city. Still, I considered the trip a nice "preview" of NYC and still got to see some amazing friends, visit Chinatown and marinate in the illumination that is Times Square. Here's a panoramic summary of my time there:

#Bests

NYC Subway. Pretty much sums things up 

Some building

Chinatown (obviously)

Times Square

Trip #2: Philadelphia

My friend Paul goes to medical school in Philly, and we'd talked off and on about the prospect of me coming to visit. Steadfast in my NYE resolution, I took a weekend trip to visit him and it was pretty freaking phenomenal.

For one, alongside being a genius whose likely going to cure lupus one day, Paul is one of the funniest, nicest and most awesome guys I know. He was the quintessential tour guide, ensuring my trip was replete with food, drinks, sight-seeing, culture, more food and more drinks. 

Who needs a cheesesteak when you have bacon, eggs, cheese and maple syrup wrapped in a crepe? I ordered this masterpiece at Cafe Lift. 

The Franklin Institute was AHHHH-MAZING! The Animals Inside Out exhibit was ridiculous. You can ch-ch-check out some gross-yet-awesome photos on my Instagram.

For the love of science!

Chilling on the bone bench #bonebench

Then the drinking began...

And kept going...

And kept going...by candlelight, no less!

The truffled mushrooms with fontina at Tria Cafe were amazing, btw.

Here's to a new year and new experiences!!

xo

This Response to Russell Crowe's "Female Actors Need to Act Their Age" Comment is Awesome

Apparently actor Russell Crowe is sick of women in Hollywood of a certain age complaining that certain roles "dry up" for them more easily than their male counterparts. Crowe is now coming under fire for the comments made in The Australian Women's Weekly, in which he notes that females should not expect to play ingenues once they entered into their 40's:

"To be honest, I think you'll find that the woman who is saying that (the roles have dried up) is the woman who at 40, 45, 48, still wants to play the ingénue, and can’t understand why she's not being cast as the 21 year old...I have heard of an actress, part of her fee negotiation was getting the number of children she was supposed to have lessened. Can you believe this? This (character) was a woman with four children, and there were reasons why she had to have four children – mainly, she lived in a cold climate and there was nothing to do but fornicate all day -  so quit arguing, just play the role."

Nothing can warm up a cold night like some good old-fashioned fornication. However, as my glance shifts to my window here in Baltimore, where the snow is falling unremittingly (it's like an influx of God's dandruff at this point...if God has dandruff...I digress...) I realize that a sweater can also suffice. I wonder if said actress would agree.

Jezebel contributor, Rebecca Rose, had more than a few rejoinders for Mr. Crowe's remarks (the title of her post was "Always Full of Sh** Russell Crowe Says Actresses Should Act Their Age" to preface):

"Strange how in an industry where actors vehemently defend people like Jared Leto playing a trans character or white actors cast as non-white characters on the grounds that acting is about stepping outside of your physical barriers it's such an affront to consider that women be allowed to step outside of their actual ages...Funny how Crowe doesn't bother to offer any opinion about the mind boggling legacy of Hollywood men playing romantic leads to women 10,20, 30, and sometimes 40 (!!!!!) years younger than them. Because it's clearly the sad old women daring to pretend they are outside their actual birth ages that are ruining Hollywood."

I'm going to have to give these sentiments an emphatic "AMEN!" Another gal who is with me on that would be my ever-so-lovely friend Jessica Baroody. After the story broke, she posted this quip to Facebook:

Case in point: