Dear Diary, BuzzFeed quizzes are everything

I love a good quiz, and who doesn't? It's like someone asking you fun questions about yourself, and you get to think all about #1. 

Last week I stumbled upon this quiz from the best news source after the SNL weekend report (RIP Seth Meyers), BuzzFeed. 'What City Should You Actually Live In' is the title and I was intrigued. I moved to another state for college and even though I'm from Dallas and eventually want to make it back to the Big D, I'd like to live some other places first. 

What I loved about this particular quiz were the relevancy of the questions to my life. How do you take your coffee? Iced, and no other way. Pick your poison? White wine good time. The hardest question is 'Pick a Beyoncé' because there's no wrong answer. I went with Super Bowl Beyoncé. The numerous Mean Girl references, sarcasm, and straightforwardness of some of the answer options make me wish I'd written it, which is the core of why these quizzes are so addictive. 

In the end I got Cape Town, Africa, a place I'd be down to visit. African safari is high up on my bucket list, right next go glamping, so it could be a two three-birds-one-stone type situation. After that quiz, I did "Which Disney Couple Is Your Ideal Relationship?" (Beauty and the Beast), "What Kind of Sandwich Are You? (Grilled Cheese), "What Type Of Dog Are You?" (Great Dane, duh) and about 20 more that aren't worth listing, but it was quite the rabbit hole. I guess I'm proud that I got every answer right in "Who Said It: A Child Or A Serial Killer?"?

XOXO

Dear Diary, Feeling Very "nauti"

 As T-Shirt Chair, I've had spring break gear on the mind for weeks. Ever since my back to back trips to Seaside last year, paired with my discovery of Sarah Vickers and KJP, and my good friend from Cape Cod's support, I've fallen in love with the east coast culture. The crisp shades of blue, preppy prints and nautical vibes are all the epitome of American class. My infatuation has manifested in our chapter's spring break collection -yet to be unveiled- but here's a sampling from my inspiration board!

Vicker's Bow Bracelet - Summering Nantucket 

Tory tunic

Vineyard Vines Ropes Printed Shorts

Kiel James Patrick Lucky Sailor Belt

XOXO

Dear Diary, How-to clean your Longchamp

About a year ago I ordered a custom Longchamp (correct pronunciation here), straight from the factory in France. The website has a fun 'make your own' feature online where one could easily spend hours mixing and matching sizes and patterns, handles and metals (link here). Finally I settled on my bag: I was obsessed with the versatility and perfectness of the wide black and white stripes.

Since it's glorious arrival to my doorstep (addressed to Mademoiselle Sophie Orlich), the perfect white stripe has gotten dirtier and dingier with wear. At first I tried to get off dirt with a wash cloth, then disinfectant wipes, nothing worked. After my trip to NYC it was truly gross and I got aggressive about how to clean it; of course, my first place to turn was the internet. Some people said they threw them in the washing machine, but that made me nervous cause of the leather. Someone else suggested a toothbrush, water, a little bit of detergent and a wash cloth. Tonight I had some extra time so I tried it- and it worked perfectly! Here's how-to:

Before (dirty & dingy)

Gross.

Soap, water and a little scrubbing...

It worked like magic!

Best of luck cleaning your 'champ!

XOXO

Poem of the Week: the Epitome of Junior Year

an original poem

by Sophie Orlich

Tonights nightly events,

if the time permits,  

include a fraternity semi-formal, 

but instead of planning like normal, 

I've taken the laid-back route, 

that junior year salutes- 

When I woke up in my bed, 

I ran this checklist through my head:

Do I have a date?

No.

Do I have a wristband?

No.

Do I have a dress?

No. 

Do I know have shoes?

No. 

What about my hair?

No.

My make-up?

No.

Wine?

Yes.

And then I went back to bed.

XOXO

Dear diary, check out this cute company!

This cute new company called The Lettered Company reached out to me last week. I checked them out and it's a fresh jewelry company started by a Kappa Kappa Gamma alumna out of Washington D.C. 

They make rings, necklaces, lavalieres, and earrings. Currently their only ready-made stuff is KKG, but special orders can be made for your sorority. Right now our chapter has an open custom order for Chi Omega lavaliere's, so if you're interested please let me know! They are $22 each and come in gold and silver. Here is a link to their website so you can check them out yourself!

XOXO

Dear Diary, the First Week of Being T-Shirt Chair, a poem

An original poem by Sophie Orlich

The first week of classes,

Might move like molasses.

But if you’re the t-shirt chair,

You’re losing your hair!

Date party shirts,

Come with opinion quirks.

You can’t make everyone happy,

Even the dates were getting sassy!

Winter gear is fun I guess,

But the deadlines are longer than the rest (1/26).

Licensing laws are a new thorn in my side, 

Why can't you just let some things slide?

A surprise order you need in less than a week?

It feels like I’m up a creek!

But wait, I’ve got to attend classes too?

And work a part time job?! (I need money- it’s true!)

Don’t even get me started on the mess I was left,

Organization certainly was not kept.

Thankfully my assistant rocks,

And is on board to get ChiO socks!

Meetings, retreats, passouts and planning,

This job takes a fair amount of manning.

But I know I’m in for a treat,

Because I cant imagine a job more sweet!

XOXO

Dear Diary, NYC Part 3: Sightseeing

·      American Museum of Natural History - “It was like the first Valentine’s Day after the war.” That’s how my best friend described it, and she was pretty accurate – it was couple central. But the museum itself was really cool, I loved all the life size animals sprinkled throughout like the dinosaurs in the entrance, the tiger in the rainforest, and the giant whale suspended from the ceiling in the aquatic area. I’m not sure if it’s a permenant feature, but there was an entire section with rocks that was really neat. The museum as a whole was oddly dark which was a bit annoying but we had a great time.

·      Brooklyn Bridge – It was too cold to walk there from Ground Zero, but on a nice day we easily could have. Instead, we did opted for the quicker lazy option by hailing a cab and having him take us to the Brooklyn side of the bridge. We hopped out, snapped some pics of the iconic landmark and scurried back to the semi-warmth of the city. After consulting our friend who goes to school in New York, we jumped in another cab and headed for Williamsburg for lunch- there’s not much to eat around the foot of the bridge.

·      Central park – My favorite place in NYC, the day we went there was snow on the ground everywhere but it was pleasant enough to walk through. Some of the trails were icy and the sailboat pond (where Jenny facilitated a drug deal in season 3 of Gossip Girl) was frozen solid. A gang of squirrels tried to attack us and it was touch-and-go there for a while but somehow we escaped. It was really beautiful to walk through – I’d never seen it snow covered! It was just fabulous.

·      Fifth Avenue – See my post on shopping here.

·      FIT Museum – Only one museum exhibit was open but it was really interesting little interactive display. “Trendology” (the study of fashion trends) was the subject and is apparently a new thing you can study at FIT. Where was I when this was happening and is it too late to transfer?

·      Ground Zero – It was raining when we got here and so windy that it was coming down horizontally. We took the subway straight down the island from Times Square to the World Trade Center memorial, got off and were lost for the next 25 minuets because of the construction and lack of information. Even our phones weren’t much help. We eventually figure out where the entrance was to the memorial and luckily they were offering free tickets to the people walking up cause we had not done the online pre-reservation. The memorial itself was nice, sad and slightly anticlimactic. It could have been so cool if we could have learned something new from the experience but the memorial didn’t tell me anything that any American born after 1995 (and pretty much everyone else on Earth) could tell you. The information pamphlets were worded as if this was a little known event that needed to be spelled out for a child, which I guess is fine for someone from another country who maybe doesn’t know much about world history, but it seemed overly simplified and not informative whatsoever to me or my friends. There was no explanation behind the design or significance of the memorial or anything of that nature. The only tour option was one given by a family member who passed away in the event which was way too personal and none of us wanted to cry that morning. The most significant thing about my entire experience there had nothing to do with what they built but with a woman’s personal reaction to the memories connected to that event and this location. All in all it was a very awkward experience.

·      Rockefeller Center – Chilly but fun, they still had their Christmas decorations up and we got to interact with the crowds craning to see the skaters below. The Free People across the street is fab and so is the J. Crew, Longchamp store and Anthropologie around the square. The NBC store is also on the corner next to the 30 Rock building; we went in last year but skipped it this time.

·      The Met – Who doesn’t love the Met? There’s something for everyone and we got to spend a few hours looking around at all the art, catching on to random tours and pointing out famous works of art. Also we spent some time sitting down, resting and warming up because the hour long walk we took from our hotel nearly froze us solid. If you go soon don’t miss this cool exhibit going on right now featuring jaw-dropping jewelry by JAR.

·      Times Square – What can only be the origin of the phrase “bright lights, big city”, Times Square is a wild, loud, overwhelming experience and yet never changes. We got discount tickets for Cinderella when we went under the red stairs. It was too cold while we were there for the mounted NYPD officers to walk around which is pretty much the only thing I like about the square other than the Sephora, which is amazing.