6 Year New Yorkiversary!

January 23, 2017 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Each year it’s become a tradition to blog on my New York Anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been 6 years and the amount of big life changing events that have happened. It make me so fortunate for this life path and makes me think of how everything could have been so different.

Last year I completed my first half marathon and got engaged on the same day. Went to Ireland, Savannah, and lots of trips back to Florida. Got a new job. Was in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade again. Still have the cutest cats on the planet.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the past year.

Every year, I try to take away an important life lesson that I’ve learned. This past year it’s tough. I’d say being at my old job was very challenging. I had no management or guidance, the commute to the city everyday was exhausting. I also felt that I wasn’t achieving my full potential, only pushing paper. In my new job I absolutely love that it’s not only closer to home but I’m doing event planning which is my dream job. Yet, maybe it’s the timing of things, but I’m currently taking on multiple responsibilities at the moment, leaving me back to feeling exhausted.

My lesson here is to try to listen to the signs. When I had one of my biggest meltdowns at my old job, I was on the phone with my dad, taking my usual commute and had heard gunshots behind me. A drunk man welding a knife at a police office was shot right outside my office. If I was literally a minute earlier I would have been in the crossfires. It was a huge sign, and I then took every ounce of energy to looking for a new job. I’m much happier where I’m at but again very tired. I’m hoping to get back into more meditation, reading, writing, walking. Things that will bring me more joy and calm.

As for this year, I’m excited for more trips, brunches, seeing friends and family, and marrying my best friend. xoxo

Taste the Rainbow for New York Pride Week 2016

June 26, 2016 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Anyone who knows me knows I love food, photography, and exploring. With the NYC Pride Parade weekend with week I wanted to find the best rainbow themed foods out there, and NYC did NOT disappoint.

Having gone to school in Orlando the city holds a special place in my heart – with all the tragedy surrounding the shooting and all those innocent victims; I tried to find as many restaurants as I could that donated their proceeds to good causes and organizations within the LGBT community.

From doughnuts and cookies to ice cubes and burger buns, here’s my top picks:

Pride doughnut at Doughnut Planet

Doughnut Planet – 220 W 23rd St, New York, NY

Rainbow shortbread cookies at Rex Coffee

Rex Coffee – 864 10th Ave, New York, NY

Rainbow Latte (Not from New York, found in Las Vegas – but still it’s beautiful!)

Sambalatte – 3770 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV

Rainbow bagel from The Bagel Store

The Bagel Store – 754 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Special edition Rainbow Doodle half pound cookie from City Cakes. They will be donating profits from every cookie sold to the victims and families of the Orlando tragedy.

City Cakes – Lower Level, 251 W 18th St, New York, NY

Rainbow bun at Joe’s Bar NYC. Back for pride week, and available by request.

Joe’s Bar – 480 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY

Pride Margarita with a Rainbow Ice Cube at Quality Eats. All proceeds will go to the One Orlando Fund @oneorlando to help the families of the Orlando shooting victims.

Quality Eats – 19 Greenwich Ave, New York, NY

Pride Flag Packs Cupcakes from Baked by Melissa. 100% of net proceeds will be donated to @lgbtcenternyc.

Baked by Melissa – Various locations in NYC.

Rainbow Jello shots from Mekelburg.

Mekelburg – 293 Grand Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

***

You can follow along @WomenWhoBrunch‘s Instagram for more food finds

5th Year Anniversary in New York!

January 27, 2016January 27, 2016 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ 1 Comment

This past Thursday, January 21, 2016 marked my 5th year anniversary living in New York!

5 years ago I remember packing my bags and making my way to the big city. As my cab drove past Central Park, I looked out at the beautiful park and horse-drawn carriages. I remember locking that moment in my memory. Not only was it my first day living in NYC but it was the first time I’d ever seen snow.

Flash forward as I look back on the past year, I’m flooded with so many wonderful milestones. Last year I started working at WebMD, I moved into a new house upstate in Suffern, NY with my boyfriend, I bought a car, and adopted two of the cutest kittens alive – Earl and Lady Grey (like the teas). I also traveled to Iceland and was the first Monahan to be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Photos of all these adventures below.

Every year I write an anniversary blog post. Each year I like to reflect on one thing that I’ve learned, and last year involved an overwhelming amount of change.

Adjusting to a new job involved change.
Living with my boyfriend, being a homeowner in a new town and having a new commute involved change.
Visiting Iceland, a country I’ve never been too – change both change of cultures and changing me as a person.

It’s been a rollercoaster of adapting, mixed with stress, and just trying to figure it out. For the most part I think I’ve learned that change is exciting and you never know where it will take you.

The best thing to do is to keep an open mind. Eventually you’ll get into a flow, and even if you’re not comfortable with that person, place, or thing that’s changed you, you can either embrace it or learn from it and move on.

Over the next year to come I’m excited to see where life takes me. I’ve already booked a trip to Ireland, Florida, and Charleston. I’ll also be running/speed-walking the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February.

Finally my main focus this year is to make new friends in my area and to focus more of my time on my passion for food. This means a lot more cooking, blogging about health and fitness, and of course continuing to eat my way through NY.

UPDATE:

While this blog post was sitting in “Draft”, I found out some very heartbreaking news that my grandmother passed away on Sunday, January 24, 2016 at the age of 88 years young.

I want to include her in my post because she means everything to me and who I’ve become as a person.

On Sunday my dad sent me this photo of the hotel bill from my grandma and grandpa’s honeymoon in New York. The date (1/21) is my NYC anniversary – only 60 years prior. I thought that was very serendipitous.

I miss you terribly but you’ll never be forgotten. I will continue to take you with me through every journey and milestone. Rest in peace grandma, love you.

My Journey in Trading in New Year’s Resolutions for 30 Day Challenges

March 10, 2015August 16, 2015 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

We’re probably not thinking about or sticking to our New Year’s Resolutions by mid-March, but I am.

This year instead of making that infamous New Year’s resolution list, I decided to break down my goals and made 30 day challenges. Here’s what I’m on track for this year. [Will be updated each month]:

January: Work the Brain.

Practiced French lessons via Duolingo and trained my brain with Elevate app. Along this journey I was also introduced to NPR’s Invisabilia and National Geographic’s Brain Games, both are fascinating and have kinda changed my life.

February: Photography. Take a photo a day and share it on Instagram.

I love this challenge because it reminded me of when I did the 100 Happy Days Project last year and countless of Project 365 Challenges I used to do in college. It makes me excited to find something new or unique or something that makes me happy in the everyday.

March: Talk to Strangers.

This 30 day task was especially hard. Who actually wants to talk to strangers in NYC? However one encounter with a stranger I met at an event really stuck with me. I was in the process of moving, a major change and next chapter in my life. This woman gave me a great analogy for life. (I know, that escalated quickly!) She had said life is like driving from the East coast to the West coast at night. You know you’re going to get to your destination, but with the headlights at night you can only see 20 feet at a time, that’s life. You’re going to get there but can only see or do so much at a time.

April: Cook More, Try New Recipes, Eat Healthy (No Junk, Less Sugar)!

Here are some of my favorite new recipes I tried from April’s challenge:

Skinny fettuccine Alfredo — Skinny Fettuccine Alfredo

May: Catch up with friends, family, and acquaintances.

Caught up with a bunch of old friends. I was most surprise when I tried to reach out to acquaintances from NYC. Everyone seems “too busy” with lots of loaded excuses and “let’s try in a few weeks to get together”, which never happened. Nothing short of a surprise with New Yorkers though.

June: Yoga / More Mindfulness

Favorite new mindfulness/meditation apps: Calm, Stop, Breathe, and Think, and Headspace.

July: Learn a new skill. Coding, calligraphy, or storytelling are on my list.

Took up calligraphy from I Still Love Calligraphy.

August: Read everyday for an hour.

Books read: Big Little Lies

September: Write/Journal every day for an hour.

October: Practice happiness and start a gratitude journal.

November: Finances & Savings. $$$

Have already started a 401K!

December: Random acts of kindness and giving. Donate blood, volunteer, make someone smile.

Four Years in NYC! A Recap on the Anniversary

January 19, 2015January 22, 2015 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Big day, ladies and gents. Today marks my 4 year anniversary living in New York. Ironically, I’m also traveling back to Florida today (where I’m from) and will be visiting my alma mater, UCF this week for the first time since graduating. So meta.

What I enjoy about writing these posts is the fact that I can take this time to look back at some of the highlights I’ve had throughout the year. Let’s begin here, seems like a good place to start.

The Big Egg Hunt:
Year four included this really wonderful Easter Egg hunt presented by Faberge which featured tons of local artists. Each artist would create their own egg and were then hidden throughout NYC. It was a fun twist on the game while catering to adults, plus it was a great excuse to explore the city.

Our Women Who Brunch “Breakfast for Dinner” one year anniversary party. This is something I was truly proud of this year. We were able to execute a sold out 100 person event with over 15 sponsors including Wix.com, Rent the Runway, and Lyft. A good 80% of which were women run businesses. It’s always rewarding to help fellow ladies!

My birthday was pretty epic this year. Not only did Women Who Brunch run a brunch giveaway in partnership with Food Network’s New York Wine and Food Festival, but also happened to score tickets to Trisha Yearwood brunch we helped promote. To top that, I waited in line for hours to snag broadway tickets to The Book of Mormon, only to be rewarded with winning their lottery giveaway and scoring front row tickets for $32! Lessoned learn, there is such a thing as karma.

Got to see my spirit animal, Mindy Kaling at the New York Festival.

Saw the New Jersey Ballon Festival

Visited the Domino Sugar Factory and Kara Walker’s exhibit before it shut down.

This year I made trips to Savannah, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco, and St. Maarten. Proving that I both love to travel and need breaks from the NYC chaos.

Savannah, GA

Portland, OR

Seattle, WA

St. Maarten

Lessons I’ve Learned from Year 4:

Last year I departed from Digital Dumbo. It was a fun year and a half journey, but what leaving has taught me was that I needed to go even if the decision was hard. Ultimately, I learned that I deserve more out of my career. It’s ironic that even as I say this now, it has still taken me six months after leaving to truly realize this. After leaving I spent months trying to figure out what I want… Did I want to continue freelancing? Take on Women Who Brunch full time? Or did I want a full time position? It turns out to be the latter. The overall lesson here is don’t settle for less in your career, especially when you have the skill sets. Ask yourself, where did I see myself in 3-5 years? I know, it’s a typical interview question, but I’ve recently realized that I’ve always blocked it out and ignored the question. It wasn’t until I actually thought about the answer that I realized that I want to work for a company that continues to challenge me in my professional and personal growth everyday, where I would like to eventually lead and mentor my own team and projects.

Bonus lesson learned is I need to keep negative people out and let more positive people in. This is actually something I’ve be trying to practice in the New Year. Life’s too short to surround yourself with negative people.

New Challenges and Milestones:

Last year, and even now, I wanted to make public speaking a priority. Although the act still freaks me out, I know I want to really learn the art of speaking my truth, hearing my voice, and telling compelling stories. I am happy to report that last year I took major strides in this goal by taking a storytelling class and speaking at my first event at Pace University!

This year I’d like to write and blog more in the professional aspect. Also, this year I’m working on 30 day challenges instead of New Years resolution, more on that in a separate post.

I’d like to say there were more milestones, but this year was equal parts failing and learning — it happens. I will say that my career focus is clear and can’t wait for what’s ahead for year five!

Side note: It snowed today in New York. My NYC anniversary– snow streak continues! I’m just glad I’m in Florida this time.

The Best Things I Ate in Portland, OR

June 18, 2014 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

This year I went on vacation to Portland, Oregon. Being that I base my vacations around food I did a hefty amount of research ahead of time. Overall, there was just too much and think it’s safe to say PDX will soon be the go-to destination for good eats. Here’s a list of all my favorite bars, food carts, desserts, coffee, and more from my visit. Enjoy!

The Doughnut/Donut Debate:

Voodoo Doughnuts is an obvious must thing to try. It’s been on tons of Food Network shows and has received so much press and hype. They’re open 24 hours, so you can go at any time but the weekends are the worst. I’d suggest a weekday if at all possible. It has some funky creations, they are creative but overall they tasted like overly sweet regular doughnuts.

I got the Voodoo Doll, Miami Vice Berry, Maple Bacon Bar, McMinnville Cream, The Loop, and the Dirt Doughnut. Also it’s only cash only.

Blue Star Donuts, has some really delicious donuts and unique flavor combinations. Including a boozy Cointreau Creme Brûlée. Plus the interior is adorable.

Here’s the flavors I got:

Blackberry Compote with Peanut Butter Powder
Real Maple & Bacon
Blueberry, Bourbon, & Basil
Valrhona Chocolate Crunch

Brunch!

I went to two brunches on my trip, first was at Tasty & Alder. Best known for its shared plates, so pick a handle of items for the table. But you must get the chocolate potato doughnut with creme anglaise. Other noms I had were the fried egg & cheddar biscuit with house cured bacon and the Auntie Paula’s french toast with pear maple & whipped cream

Mother’s Bistro & Bar:

My second brunch stop was at Mother’s Bistro & Bar. Compared to the tiny brunch spots in NYC, this restaurant is HUGE! It has a cute interior decor and these mugs that say “Call Your Mother”. They also promote a Mother of the Month, featuring special dishes from mother’s around the world, because the best meals aren’t found in restaurants they’re found in the home.

For eats, my boyfriend and I got the specials of the day. He got the corn beef hash with sunny-side up eggs and toast, and I got the cornmeal pancakes which was the most delicious take on pancakes I’ve had in a while.

Food Carts:

Nong’s Khao Man Gai

Nong’s is one of the most popular food carts in Portland, and all they serve is chicken and rice. The chicken is poached, whole chicken, then they use the chicken broth to cook the rice with Thai herbs. Here they wrap it all up in butcher paper with her special sauce and side of soup. No frills, super simple, but the most tender chicken I’ve ever had.

Location: SW 10th & Alder St. Portland, OR 97205

Grilled Cheese Grill

I’m not usually a fan of ordering or eating food I could make at home, but while on vacation… I went for grilled cheese with avocado and fried cheese. It was definitely worth it.

Location: Alder Pod Carts – SW 10th & Alder

Cultured Caveman

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of my meal because the sides and main dish is shoved into a to-go container, it’s like a meal all in one deal, but this spot was definitely unique and had really great spices and flavor. It’s a paleo-friendly food cart, I don’t even think we have one of these cuisines in NYC.

Location: SW Stark between 2nd & 3rd

Bars & Drinks

Bailey’s Taproom

Within the first few hours of touching down in PDX, the first place I stopped at was Bailey’s Taproom for a drink. What impressed me most about this place with the amount of local beers they had in stock and this fancy beer monitor contraption, which told the bartenders keg levels and when they were about to kick.

Multnomah Whiskey Library

Besides the interesting decor and wide selection of alcohol, the service was pretty awful. Also a lot of the reviews say you need to wait an hour, but I went on a weekday at around 7/8pm-ish and it was only half full.

Clyde Common

Pro-tip: Come here during happy hour from 3pm-6pm, cocktails are $5. I can’t stress the importance of this enough, coming from NYC where cocktails are $15. The bartenders are also really friendly and drinks are so delicious.

What I got:

The Pacific Standard:

Vodka, lemon, ginger, honey, soda

The Spelling Bee:

Reposado tequila, agave syrup, absinthe, bitters, grapefruit peel

Other Good Eats:

Lardo

Amazing sandwiches, it’s also right across the street from Ruby Jewel ice cream if you’re planning for dinner and dessert.

What I ate:

Korean Pork Shoulder with cilantro, house kimchi, spicy mayo

Pok Pok

If you’re looking for some great Thai food this is the place to go to. Their most popular items on the menu are their Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings and drinking vinegar.

What I ate:

Kaeng Hang Leh with sticky rice and Yam Samun Phari

Dessert

Salt & Straw

This place warrants an OMG. This ice cream is that good. The line is ridiculous but well worth it. They have some really unique flavor combinations including rhubarb and saffron in champagne, honey balsamic strawberry with cracked pepper, and pear with blue cheese.

Flavors had:

Freckled Woodblock Chocolate, Chocolate with Gooey brownies, Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache, and Sea Salt with Carmel Ribbons.

Petunia’s Pies and Pastries

All these lovely cakes and pastries are gluten-free and vegan, and so yummy!

Desserts eaten:

Orange Olive Oil Bundt Cake

Black & White Cake

Coffee:

Stumptown Coffee:

It’s a must, we have a location in NYC and lots of restaurants carry Stumptown, but when in Rome… I love their coffee so much I stocked up on whole bean. Weekends were crazy but during the week wasn’t so bad to stop by.

Public Domain

Public Domain was also a favorite with its coffee, pastries, wi-fi, and laid back atmosphere.

Hidden Gem:

Portland City Grill on the 30th Floor

I found out about this place from our walking tour guide. Come here as soon as they open for happy hour at 4pm to grab a good spot by the window. You’ll get some great food and drink deals and on a clear day you can see Mount Hood and the entire city of Portland.

That’s all she wrote, hope this food guide helps plan your eats if you’re ever visiting Portland. Any other recommendations for food you’ve had there, leave them in the comments!

xoxo

Covered in Color! Saturday Adventures at the 2014 Color Run

June 12, 2014 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

I used to love running… I’d wake up early. Get the runner’s high. Push myself further and further each run. The best part was getting toned and in shape, having buns of steel! Yet, I gave it up about two years ago. I had been training for a 10K religiously. I’d hit Central Park on the weekends for my longer 6 mile runs, and along the west side highway to the Chelsea Piers on weekdays for my shorter runs. I actually kind of miss the routine and structure of it all. However, hitting the concrete jungle’s pavement for too long really damaged my feet, before I knew it I had plantar fasciitis and was going to physical therapy.

I stopped running after completing that 10k, but I knew in 2013 I wanted to do the Color Run 5k. Pathetically I tried training again but at the root of it I ended up mostly run/walking most of the way. There’s no denying that the Color Run truly lives up to it’s slogan, the happiest 5k on the planet. I had a blast, completed it, but didn’t have much interest in coming back next year and messing my foot up any further.

All of this was thrown out the window four days before this year’s Color Run in Queens. My friend Megan, pounced at the opportunity to win tickets from blog celeb Gala Darling‘s Color Run giveaway. A few of the original winners didn’t claim the prize and now the Color Run was ours for the taking! We both responded to her and won instantly.

The whole giveaway was in partnership with one of the Color Run’s sponsors, Shout, which was produced by Edelman. Gala had to do a number of things like take part in photos and videos, Instagram/Tweet the event, and write a blog post recap. Overall, all of us got to reap the sweet benefits and were treated like royalty. We received ahead of time Shout/Color Run swag by mail, although I still never received mine due to UPS. Womp Womp. But they took really good care of me when I arrived there, showering me with shirts, bags, and tons of free stuff. We also got to skip the entire line and went straight to the starting line.

Other fun perks:

We had a videographer follow us around for most of the run, and one girl got to wear a GoPro through the whole race.

We got to cut the line for the Shout 360 Color Cam Videos.

We got to cut the line and go directly on stage for the orange color throw. (Shout’s brand color)

And overall I didn’t have to force myself to run or hurt myself. We all walked it and it was so much fun to hang out with a brunch of friends and meet a whole group of new friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my Saturday. These ladies were awesome!

Here’s Gala’s blog post from the Color Run adventure. And a few more photos below from the event.

xox

Tea + Purpose Recap – Developing Your Life Philosophy

March 11, 2014 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

I know creative abundance is available to me in this moment…

This is how we began Tea + Purpose, a new monthly tea meetup that connects over a topic area allowing more women to create awareness and action in their lives, all created by my dear friend Carla Blumenthal. For this meetup, Sarah Kathleen Peck, writer of the blog “It Starts With“, joined and guided us to develop our own life philosophy framework.

We started the meetup with tea and scones at Press Tea, one of my favorite tea shops in the city. As more and more women trickled in we gathered around and got started with introductions. We began with answering this question – What have you been proud of so far this year? This question really opened people up a little bit more, in addition to signing this realness contract, promising to bring our real selves to the tea table.

Following intros, Sarah dove right into asking the group this question, when was the last time you felt an adrenaline rush? A lot of folks including myself mixed this feeling up with the feeling of anxiety. With all these fears, moments of anxiety, adrenaline, and vulnerability stemmed raw emotion and positivity. Here’s some of the comments I scribbled from this round of discussion:

It doesn’t always get easier the more you get into something and put it on the line. It’s a leap of faith and only gets more risky.
It’s hard to go into the unknown and know it’s going to be okay.
You have permission to screw up and change your mind.
We’re all humans having an experience.
Showing up everyday counts for something.

We were next asked to talk about happiness. What’s the definition of happiness and is it even the goal? Takeaways from this included:

Happiness is a feeling of inner peace and reflection.
Be in the present. It isn’t about if I get this job then I’ll be happy. Once you get to that goal or thing you’ll always be looking for the next thing. This turns into a vicious cycle, wondering if you’ll ever find peace and happiness.
Take away the “SHOULDS”. I should be like this. I should be doing that. Take it away. You don’t need to feel guilty about anything, just be yourself.
Set time aside to think and reflect. Schedule unplanned time.
When someone is being negative it means they need love or a boundary.
What you give attention to grows. If someone says something negative or you believe something negative it grows. If you don’t accept these things, it can’t grow… This has been the biggest eye opener for me because for the longest time I’ve said and thought about my job search in this way. I blame the economy, the competition here, thinking I’ll never get something. If I keep thinking that I won’t find anything, then I really won’t. Acknowledge. Don’t think about the negative. Don’t engage. Then the other person/thing is left with it.

Next came loneliness. What is it and why do we experience it?

This was also another awakening. When I feel lonely, it’s particular when I work from home. I’ve always wondered why I feel this way. Sarah shed some light on this for me by sharing some of her tools on how to improve this feeling of loneliness.

Use your voice. Ask yourself how much did you talk today, sing, anything? I should also note that this is why Sarah opened up this discussion, so that everyone could talk instead of her doing all the talking.
Language – Write and reflect.
Touch – Maybe we’re feeling lonely because we haven’t been touched all day like a hug or a handshake.
Eyes closed – Not sleeping but understanding and being aware of the moments and your surroundings. Meditation. Focus on your breathing.
Connect outward – Giving a warm real hug. Sharing with others.

Lately, I’ve been experiencing more revelations from friends (and in this case strangers) about who I am as a person. I’ve realized I can do a much better job at speaking up and showing who I truly am as a person. I’ve learned that I’m not the only person that has these fears or feelings and have come to peace with feeling vulnerable, it just means you’re being real.

Solving Problems Over Dinner – My Project Exponential Experience

February 25, 2014February 26, 2014 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

About six months ago a friend had told me about a dinner event called Project Exponential. Each month, a woman named Michelle Welsh plans and carefully selects a group of artists, professionals and entrepreneurs to attend each dinner. It begins with an application and ends in stories and connections. Here’s my dinner story…

We started the night at Bacaro in Chinatown with a spread of food and place cards in front of us. Leading up to the event I felt totally disconnected from the whole event. My mind was racing with unanswered questions. What was I to expect? Who was I meeting? There was no flutter of mention or buzz on Twitter. No hashtag. I wondered if this was some kind of Fight Club thing. What happens at dinner stays at dinner. I’m so used to being able to find information I need, this unknown was rather exciting.

I’d come to learn that Michelle doesn’t share people’s names or titles ahead of time because she doesn’t wants these dinners to be confined to what someone does for a living but instead focus on who they are as a person. She also does heavy research on everyone ahead of time to form the perfect connections. With this in mind, when I arrived it felt like solving a puzzle with my group as to what’s the connection here.

At first, we were instructed to break into groups of the four people seated closest to you and ask each other a problem that you are facing that you would like to solve right now. The person that was supposed to sit next to me was sick and couldn’t attend. I’m still unsure if this makes a difference, but I soon realized everyone in my group used to work in finance, except for myself… Admittedly, it was a tough first round for me. I always feel uncomfortable talking about myself, I’m a much stronger listener. Plus, the problem I’m facing right now is the fact that I’m going through this adult/figuring it all out phase in my life right now. At the time it felt selfish discussing, but now as I write this and in weeks passing I’ve realized I’m not alone in this feeling. I’ve been diving into more meals and conversations with really interesting thought-provoking women and friends and now know I’m not the only one that feels this way.

For round two, we had to match the person with the same letter we had on our card. No match. Again, I think my match was sick so I joined in on the same group I started with. We were served our next course of gnocchi, salad, and steak, and Michelle passed around sets of small envelopes with questions for discussion in them. Mine said, “What relationships have been most meaningful to you? Who are your mentors?” while the guy next to me had, “Mistakes you’ve learned from. Dare to share.” Both great conversation starters.

Following this discussion we had to flip our cards over and find our match according to the symbol on the back of our cards. I finally had a match and had a really great conversation with this woman. She could relate to my problem and we shared an additional problem of connection, as we both felt that there should be better resources to connect people in NYC. I like to think I’m solving that problem in a way with Women Who Brunch, I want to connect more women in New York but feel it could grow to so much more… This short discussion with her and this dinner experience has made me really think about how we connect. I’ve always been a fan of curated and unique events and the connection between people, but how can these connections form stronger more meaningful relationships? It’s a problem I’m excited to dig deeper in.

Once dessert came we were asked to meet someone we didn’t talk to yet. I met a guy that does photography and asked him to tell me more about his personal photo projects. He told me about how he enjoys photographing hearts in odd places. He mostly shares these on his Instagram and calls it love in unexpected places. I love the thought of looking for love, almost like a scavenger hunt. He then pointed to the dessert cake where pieces of it had fallen and naturally formed a heart. It was one of the best things I heard all day.

Of course, then, another guy had chimed in with a photo project his friend told him about called 100 Happy Days. The challenge is, can you stay happy for 100 days in a row? According to the site 71% of people won’t finish the challenge because they get too busy or state they don’t have the time. I’m always up for a good challenge and have been doing it ever since the dinner. It’s honestly made me feel a million times better. I used to write everyday and do a similar project called 365 Project, where I’d take a photo once a day. It’s really made me feel more grateful about each day and I actually look forward to finding something in my life that makes me happy each day even if it’s something small.

Finally, Michelle wrapped up dinner with giving us these cards that say, what is your special, as a reminder that everyone has something special about themselves.

I’d love to hear what your special is in the comments. Let’s discuss! xo

3 Years and Counting! A Recap of Another Year in the Big City.

January 22, 2014 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Thank you Timehop for the reminder that today is my third year living in New York! Time really does fly when you’re having fun.

Honestly, there are some things that haven’t changed since last year.

My cat still goes into baby mode every time I visit Florida.

It also seems to snow every single January 21st anniversary. (Real picture from today.)

I am still freelancing which is unfortunate. It’s not that I dislike where I work but definitely want to settle into one permanent company, not only to get my career where I want to go but I’m exhausted jumping from one client to the next. People seriously take having a laptop at work for granted. Benefits too. Spoiler alert to anyone who freelances and is over 26: Obamacare is the worst. Be very grateful your company takes care of you and/or your parents. This is also just one of the harsh realities I faced in year 3… Most of all though, I really miss having coworkers. People I can talk to or grab a drink with, can’t do that as a freelancer. In part, I know it’s still the economy but hope this goal is reached in year 4.

I still live in Astoria and still love it. Although we did lose a pretty big member of the family this year…

New Changes & Milestones:

Year three marked the start of Women Who Brunch and my leap into entrepreneurship. In the summer of 2013 my friend Megan and I took on this project to crate a monthly brunch series dedicated to inspiring and connecting more women over a great meal. I’m still blown away by the success and growth we’ve had so far. We have a new logo, just wrapped up our 6th brunch, have over 900 members, and have met amazing women from all backgrounds including agencies, startups, to companies such as MSNBC, Eventbrite, Mashable, CBS, Hearst, and Warner Bros. I love planning these events and can’t wait for what the next year will bring.

Bonus: I’m also very excited for my first speaking role this Friday at #CMGRHangout, where I’ll be discussing how I’ve built this awesome food community.

This year with Digital DUMBO I have successfully planned 2 conference, 31 events (with Google Local, Bing, Huge, 7Digital, Maker’s Row, and Venmo to name a few), and grew our Twitter following 174% and Facebook to 57% over 2013. Woop! Our events and social media are only going to get better.

Lessons I’ve learned:

My biggest lesson over the past year was learning to say no. As much as you try, you simply can’t do it all here. I’ve had to learn how to say no to many requests and opportunities that just aren’t the right fit for me. This really forces you to do some soul searching and truly think about what it is you want. Additionally, learning how to say no helps understand how your time and efforts could be used more effectively.