We’ve All Been There

It’s safe to say that everyone has been on a bad date at some point in their life. Whether it was at age thirteen and your “boyfriend” had clammy hands at the movies, or last week when the hot stranger from your building admitted to watching people out his windows over drinks, it has happened to all of us.

Enter Raz, a twenty-something living in New York enjoying all NYC has to offer: friends, food, social events, and of course, bad dates. Raz’s blog When Bad Dates Happen To Good People is a collection of stories from all across the dating world. The stories range from borderline stalking (just happened to know exactly what apartment you live in) to people that just won’t get the hint (“are u there? hello??”) to a date with a bucket of nerves (it’s never a good sign if you end up sustaining injuries on a date due to clumsiness). Raz encourages friends to submit their dating adventures and includes some stories of her own.

Names are changed to protect the innocent (and not so innocent), so next time your date with that “really hot” guy from the bar goes awry, think about emailing Raz. At least something good’ll come of it!

Posted by Maya

Image source BadDatesGoodPeople.com

A Place to Shop for Fashionable Felines

Image source Etsy

As I was researching bloggers for the beauty team, I came across Rue Le Chat and was immediately faced by a cat wearing a James Bond inspired untied bow tie. Confused yet intrigued, I scrolled down to read the rest of the post to learn about CATetelier, a fashion boutique selling handmade clothes for pet cats. Turns out, there’s a whole world of kitty apparel I had never even imagined.

On the Etsy site, cat lovers can purchase a variety of chic cat accessories, including colorfully patterned bow ties, knotted neck ties, berets and newsboy caps. Are these kitties trying to compete with Menswear Dog? I think so. In my opinion Menswear Dog is winning (cats make my eyes itch, so I’m a little biased), but I’m sure fashionable felines everywhere are excited about this line of trendy pieces…or their owners are, at least.

If you’re dying to dress your cat up as a cast member of Newsies or James Bond for a night out of the litter box, CATetelier is the place to shop. Maybe even Grumpy Cat would sneak a grin if he was decked out in one of these looks!?

Posted by Allie

Mirror Mirror on the Crappy Apartment Wall…

Image source fairytalesfor20somethings.tumblr.com

We could all use a little fairy tale magic in our lives. It’s nice to keep on believing in Prince Charming, the inevitable downfall of your ugly stepsisters and the trail of breadcrumbs that’ll guide you home after a tipsy night out. But alas, the enchanted years of our twenties involve more toads than princes, more prosperous mean girls than well-deserved karma and way more out of service T cars than breadcrumb trails.

Let’s face it. Sometimes our twenties are more like an episode of Girls (minus Shosh’s sweet NYC digs) than the ultra-glam lives of Gossip Girls and they’re definitely nothing like Cinderella’s epic rise from sweeping floors to full-on princess-hood.

Fortunately (thanks to a tip from my wannabe BFFs at The Frisky) Fairy Tales for Twenty-Somethings gets what it’s like to be a 22-year-old Goldilocks struggling to keep her blond strands highlighted and to find the cheapest brand of porridge that’s not too hot and not too cold. The hysterically cynical Tumblr page takes classic storybook plots and twists them to fit the reality that is quarter-life livin’. Take Sleeping Beauty’s over-used snooze button, for example:

Sleeping Beauty kept turning off her alarm and falling back to sleep without even noticing it, so she put her phone on the other side of the room so she’d be forced to stand up to turn it off. But then she just woke up lying on the floor across the room.

Or Chicken Little’s fears:

Chicken Little feared the sky was falling. She also feared that when people “liked” a photo she posted, they didn’t really like it.

And Puss In Boots’ rookie social media mistakes:

Puss In Boots’ boss friended him so he figured it was time to do some profile grooming. Take out any photos in which he was half-clothed or obviously inebriated. Delete the ones from those months when he tried to grow his hair long. Make himself look respectable, or at least not so feral. But then he was like, If she doesn’t like me for who I am, then I don’t want to work there!

Two weeks later he was fired.

Depressing? Completely. But let’s be real – living in a flowery, Bambi-like fairy tale world will land you with a massive reality check over your dreamt-up happily ever after.

Posted by Mary

2.5 Cinnabons = 60 Carrots

Image source BuzzFeed

Anything and everything about food peaks my interest: restaurants, grocery shopping, new recipes, food facts; even just counting down the minutes to my next meal. I admit, I’ve definitely strolled the aisles of Whole Foods simply for fun on a Friday night and ogled the sea of 20 varieties of yogurt and the hot bar’s endless offerings. Food is awesome and interesting in so many ways, from watching how yeast makes dough turn into something out of a sci-fi movie, to enjoying the randomness of chicken and waffles. But in a world where we can supersize everything AND eat Doritos tacos, you just don’t even want to know what this all means nutritionally-speaking. I thought this video from BuzzFeed was weirdly fascinating; it showed what 2,000 calories looks like when made up of certain foods like doughnuts, Big Macs, almonds and carrots. The video had the same mesmerizing effect as the popular book “Eat This, Not That” but I won’t lie, it definitely didn’t deter me from wanting to eat things like McDonald’s or bacon… but I’ll just remember not to eat 50 pieces of bacon in one sitting, if I can!

Take a look and see if you are shocked or not about what unfolds. My biggest takeaway? The guy who got to take bites out of each item in the video has an awesome job.

Posted by Amanda

Grumpy Cat is Ready for Her Close Up!

Image source Friskies Facebook

Cat videos, memes, gifs, and even cat-covered clothing have been blowing up recently; it seems the usually despised house pet is making a comeback. And the leader of this coup? Hands down, Grumpy Cat.

Frowning her way into the hearts of cat lovers and haters alike, Grumpy Cat has become somewhat of a celebrity. She was even spotted at SXSW, and had hundreds of people wait in line in the rain just to meet her. True cat-lovers have had Grumpy on their radar for a while now, but some are just warming up to her poutiness.

Big news for Grumpy Cat!!! She has been recruited as the star of Friskies newest TV commercial campaign “Will Kitty Play With It?”  What better feline-brand ambassador could you pick? I can’t think of any other cats with over 400,000 Twitter followers; some D list celebrities don’t even have that many followers.

Grumpy Cat (whose real name is Tardar Sauce) had a recent photo shoot for Friskies that produced some of her best shots yet. Though I tend to mute the TV or fast forward over commercials, I think the cat-lover in me will have to go out of my way to watch Grumpy’s on-air debut.

Image source Friskies Facebook

Side Note: If you have time, look though this Grumpy Cat tumblr, which documents her in her natural habitat with slightly less Grumpy brother Pokey.

Posted by Nina