nyc diaries | apartment hunting, celebrating my birthday

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

good morning hi a vlog no one's surprised are we hi hello how's it going it's alan and welcome back to my channel so happy you're here my day off with a little cup of chai tea giant coffee dirty chai i guess they're gonna do a smidge smidge lid of the chicken i fully accepted the fact that my door's haunted no one else is home did you hear that the door just closed on its own probably it's like us to win but that happens so frequently i'm just accepted i'm probably living with a friendly ghost there's your proof literally just like slams by itself anyway i don't know it doesn't freak me out though i'm like it is what it is i'm about to head to the upper west side to film an apartment tour my friend melissa which i'm excited about kind of making the rounds and doing different parts of new york which is kind of been like a fun series to dive into and it seems like you guys are gonna enjoy it here's a little fit of the day i definitely feel like a french painter or something right now this turtleneck is from uncle this blouse i've had forever i don't even remember where it's from and then these are secondhand wearing some jewelry from a jury my favorites who are also today's video sponsor which i'm very excited about because i obviously love their stuff okay before i run out the door i'm gonna tell you guys a little bit about my jury today's sponsors and also my one true love if you haven't heard of majority it's basically fine luxury pieces that are super high quality for every day it's like 80 women run company which i love we need more of that and they just have the most elegant beautiful pieces i always i'm wearing their different hoops and piercings and beautiful gold pendants and like silver chains so they have a sale from the 23rd to the 30th for black friday where it's 10 off one item 15 of two items and 20 off three or more items of course leave a link below so you can check it out for yourself if you want to get some like really lovely dainty gold pieces there are some of my favorites so right now i have the floating sapphire necklace on the star necklace their lightning bolt studs and their beaded hoops as well as the slim signet ring i think their pieces are great for stacking on one another like the way i kind of stacked like the necklaces and if you have multiple piercings they have different hoops of different sizes as well as different studs and i love how like slim and chic this ring is i've been such a fan of the look of it all i feel like just having a bunch of well-designed gold jewelry and like well layered gold jewelry is just like the best way to finish off a look so if you want to check out majuri this is definitely the time with the sale going on i'll leave everything in the description below definitely check them out louie a spicy moon it's an incredible vegan spot every minute but i don't mind why do we keep on strolling wow oh my god oh my god i know like imagine hello straight kind of how's it going i'm gonna do a quick little makeup routine of sorts i already put on a little foundation by laura mercier wow i've really lost my summer tan and now i'm using the sheer perfecting powder i have this terrible habit of starting books and then starting another book and starting another book saying currently i'm reading kitchen confidential by anthony bourdain i'm reading the burgess voice i'm reading untamed on audiobook i'm reading this book called beirut health fire society i just recently finished two books one called earthlings and one called memory police that are both written by japanese authors which i don't really know how to put a finger on i'm by no means a literary critic but i think it kind of reminds me of murakami a bit and it's kind of like a bit in that like absurdist genre at least of my own interpretation where it's like really weird earthlings was so strange i read it in one sitting it's like only 250 pages but i like powered through it cause i was like what is happening it was so bizarre and i just finished memory police yesterday and it kind of touches on themes of like your sense of self loss the importance of memories it's kind of like a dystopian book so it touches on like authoritarian authoritarianism the freedom to make decisions and like everything kind of in that realm if that makes sense even though i'm talking about them i wouldn't necessarily they'd say they'd be like my first recommendations i feel like i've been reading a lot of great books this year and things some things that i'd kind of recommend the top of my list would be like sapiens i found would be really incredible beauty booth was really incredible i love transcendental kingdom this is like very very niche but specifically for people who grew up in evangelical like christian communities it's called pure and it kind of talks about like the purity movement and the purity shaming movement i found to be really well done i could relate to a lot of it because i grew up in the church and i was super involved in high school i went to a christian university and while there's some really beautiful things about that there's also some things that are not so beautiful and i think have caused people hurt i just think there are some problems with the cultural christianity personally exclusion and judgment if you're someone where you're like oh i just resonated with what she said about that like purity christian evangelical movement then i would really highly recommend it i thought it was really good but i've really fallen back in love with reading this year i definitely put it on the wayside in prior years even though we all know it's good to keep learning and growing it's hard to like actually set aside time to dedicate to reading but i finally got a kindle which i'm really excited about was like i'm gonna treat myself and that's helping me read more and i try to just like read a little bit in the morning and especially at night it's a really good night routine and it puts me out like a light so quickly i've just gotten some work done here a bit this morning and i have a few appointments and go with my friend leilani to see an apartment for her because i'm obsessed with apartments and then i'm meeting my friend peter to film the end of an apartment tour series so i'm gonna get some more clips for that i'm gonna come back and edit and all that good stuff so kind of just a classic day running around new york semi-busy um should be good so hello from williamsburg apartment because i'm addicted to apartments yeah oh my god it's huge so here's entrance nice big closet this is like the first room which is a bit interesting interestingly shaped at least the window here there's leilani it's such good light it's crazy here room number two i guess technically super spacious kind of like weird lighting and not the most finished and then over here is the living space which is absolutely insane for uh new york standards that's for sure the third bedroom which is pretty spacious you have a nice brick wall slightly unfinished final room here hello from dante with peter we just got some tasty little meals we're filming his apartment tour and getting some b-roll shots no they're getting some good snacks some three o'clock coffee we love to see it much much needed just finished up a late lunch like very late lunch it was like three o'clock and i picked up a little bottle of wine for myself for tonight and it's only like four of us getting dark which is so frustrating so definitely need to get some work done but this dark is really unmotivating i'm gonna try my best the sweet angel naps making cutie little cupcakes all right what do we got going on this is your chef moment to shine vanilla chai pumpkin latte cupcake tell me what she did frosting and a little chai sugar spice yes she did heading into bubba with the ladies what up so i originally wasn't gonna include anything from my birthday and i didn't film most of it because i kind of just wanted to be present not have a camera in front of me the whole time but it ended up being really sweet and just a wholesome day i went to the moma museum with my two roommates and my good friend leilani that i've been seeing since the beginning and had a few other little special things and moments to celebrate turning 24 and i haven't really thought about what to say until this moment so this isn't planned out but i feel like there was a certain weight turning 24 and kind of entering my mid-20s at times i can feel like this past year was robbed by the pandemic and was robbed of the things that i was supposed to do and the memories i was supposed to make and the experiences i was supposed to undergo but at other days i'm really grateful for some of the things i've been kind of forced to learn this year and this time to really be forced to sit with myself and learn more about myself birthdays are odd it's not like you wake up and you suddenly feel older it's just life passing you by but i do feel like 24 is a different season of life and i'm excited to push myself to keep learning and growing and figuring out where i want to go and who i want to be it's funny to look back when i was 16 and you know you think you're going to have it all figured out by the time you're in your mid-20s but i can tell you that's certainly not the case but i'm excited for the adventure i have in front of me and continuously just get more comfortable and confident in my own skin and my sense of self i'm just trying to become a little better every day and be a little bit kinder to myself and more generous to those around me and you don't have to be perfect to inspire others all right that's been enough cheese for me love you guys thanks so much for watching