I had a super eventful June this year and as someone who is normally a homebody, it feels almost relieving that I got myself out and about so much. I saw a lot of people that I love and got to spend some special moments with them.
On June 5th, I celebrated my boyfriend, Andrew’s, birthday with him and his family. When we lived upstate for school, we had a tradition where we would buy each other dinner on our birthdays, but since moving home to Long Island, we’ve altered it to breakfast so that we can celebrate with our families. I bought him IHOP for breakfast, and for dinner we ordered from a local restaurant called Vicky’s Casa del Sabor who have the BEST empanadas. The Colombiana was definitely my favorite. Andrew’s mom bought him an ice cream cake and snuck on a silly photo of him that I sent her.
We continued the celebrations the next day when we went to Dave & Buster’s with his brother and friends. It was a lot of fun to play all the different games together, even though I embarassed myself on Dance Dance Revolution. Somehow I even got the high score on the Pacman game. I love to see Andrew smile, so it made me happy to watch him excitedly play a Godzilla Virtual Reality game.
On June 10th, my sister took me to see Chrissy Chlapecka perform in Brooklyn, NY as an early birthday gift. I originally found her in 2020 on TikTok and have come to enjoy her music as well. Her opener was Priyanka, who I hadn’t heard of before the concert, but ever since, I’ve had their song, “No New Friends,” stuck in my head. My sister and I were awestruck when Chrissy came out painted pink and covered in glitter. Literally jaw-dropping. She performed all my favorite songs, as well as her newest ones. She even snuck in her renditions of a couple of Lady Gaga songs. It was my first concert in a while and I was not disappointed. Of course I had to buy a t-shirt from the concert! I had a great time and was happy I could spend it with my sister.
On June 14th, I turned 25. I couldn’t help myself from making jokes about my brain being fully developed. My day started off with Andrew buying me breakfast at my local Brownstones. It’s my favorite breakfast spot and they have the most amazing honeybee latte that I absolutely love.
We did lunch with my family, where we ordered in from a local restaurant. I got penne alla vodka, my favorite. Since Andrew’s and my birthdays are so close together, my family also gets him a cake and we celebrate both of our birthdays together. Mine was triple chocolate and his was a strawberry shortcake.
After finishing lunch and cake, I got all dressed up to go out to dinner with some friends. A few weeks before, some friends and I went to a german restaurant called The Village Lanterne and I absolutely fell in love with it. A polka band walked around the restaurant singing and playing songs and the food was great, so I went back for my birthday. One of my friends ordered a boot of beer which turned out to be a giant, wide glass in the shape of a boot. It had to be around 3 liters of beer. I ordered muenster sticks for my table, which are like mozzarella sticks but instead of mozzarella they have muenster and they are so good! The polka band sang happy birthday to me and I had a great time drinking my long island iced tea, eating my schnitzel, and spending time with my friends.
After the restaurant, we met with more of my friends at a bar nearby. Almost everyone showed up and I spent the rest of the night drinking and chatting with everyone. It was definitely one of my favorite birthdays I’ve ever had. I feel very grateful for all the people in my life who made it so.
On June 23rd, Andrew’s mom, Kathy, and I went to her niece’s bridal shower. Her niece, Liz, and her wife, Anne, make such a lovely couple. You can tell that they love each other very much. I had never been to a bridal shower before, so I’m happy my first one got to be theirs. I got to spend the event with Kathy’s sister and other niece, as we drank tea. ate pastries and sandwiches, and, of course, CAKE! The bridal shower only made me more excited for their wedding.
On June 28th, Andrew, his brother, Eric, and I went into the city to see WWE‘s Smackdown at Madison Square Garden. Andrew and his brothers have been wrestling fans since they were children and he introduced me to it when we started dating. I never imagined that I would be a wrestling fan, but here I am, and I love it! He’s not fully in the WWE yet, but the three of us love a wrestler named Joe Hendry. He made his debut a few weeks ago on NXT, so we hoped he would show up to the show we went to (SPOILER: he didn’t lol). We bought and wore Joe Hendry t-shirts to Smackdown and to our surprise, there were a lot of Joe Hendry fans at the show. We had a great time and all of the wrestlers we wanted to win did. At the end of the show, Cody Rhodes came out and raised the old World Championship belt that his father once won in the ring. It was a nice homage to Dusty Rhodes and we were so happy that we were there for the special moment.
On June 29th, Andrew, his family, and I went to Liz and Anne’s wedding. Andrew and I had never been to a wedding before and it definitely didn’t dissapoint. I love Liz and Anne, so I felt so honored to be there to celebrate their love. Their ceremony was beautiful and so sweet. They did a handfasting ceremony which I thought was really cool. They looked so happy and in love and it warmed my heart.
They had amazing food at their wedding! I tried duck for the first time at the cocktail hour, and was also introduced to something called a chickpea stick or chickpea fry. It was similar to a mozzarella stick, but instead the filling was mashed chickpeas. They were insanely good and our table ate A LOT of them. Anne and Liz had two signature cocktails that they named after their cats which I thought was a cute idea.
I tried my first ever espresso martini at the wedding and I was amazed by how good it was. It paired so well with the cannoli cream wedding cake, but I couldn’t help myself from ordering a second martini after dessert. I finally understand the hype around them and it’s well-deserved.
Andrew and I spent the whole time smiling, laughing, dancing, and, obviously from the text above, eating. I was happy to spend that time with his whole family and to have special memories to talk about for years to come.
On June 30th, Andrew, Eric, and I went to a Goose concert in Connecticut with two of their friends. Andrew’s whole family absolutely loves Goose. I’ve watched livestreams of their concerts with Andrew’s family before, but this concert was my first time seeing Goose live. Back in February, Kathy got the tickets to the show and she came into Andrew’s room and pointed at me and said, “YOU’RE GOING!” I immediately marked the date on my calendar. The band was great and the lightshow was amazing. My favorite part of the show was seeing how excited and happy Andrew and Eric were to see one of their favorite bands.
After having such an eventful month, I’m definitely tired, but I also feel energized. I feel like my life has been so boring for the last year or two and I feel so grateful that I got myself to do so many fun, different things. I want to do more things—go to more concerts, more events, and more fun dates. I feel blessed that I have a loving boyfriend, as well as, both of our families to help get me out of my shell. I’m excited for all the enjoyable things coming up in my future and I’m ready to savor all the special moments.
Little Life of Amber 