Good morning everyone. My name is Emma. And today I'm going to be spending a self-care day in New York City
Basically at the end of 2018. I was really struggling with my first semester of grad school.
And I just did not take any time for myself
I was constantly stressed and I was just in a really negative place because I wasn't taking care of myself
with the increased amount of work that I had, so this semester I was really focused on changing that and
Relaxing more taking care of myself being kind to myself and just like taking it easy
So I plan to have a day like mid semester to just totally de-stress and focus on myself
I'm really excited about today because I've just been planning it for so long and I'm doing so many fun things that I'm going to
Enjoy and I'm especially excited to take you guys along with me
so originally the concept for today was gonna be like
unplugged in New York City and it was gonna be like the first day in I don't know how long where I just
completely turned my phone off stepped away from the internet and all social interaction and just
Focused on myself, but unfortunately my vlogging camera
Recently broke and I don't have the funds to fix it before this day came
So I have to vlog on my phone and I can't turn off my phone if I want to film on it
So we're gonna be on airplane mode today
Not exactly the same like dramatic thing I wanted
But I'm still trying to take a step away and just like really focus on myself. I feel like some people would say
Oh vlogging isn't really being unplugged but I actually feel like vlogging really helps me to
Appreciate these special days that I do choose to document because it just makes me
Slow down and focus on getting a good shot and really capturing the moment
So I think it'll actually be very beneficial for me to vlog today
Of course
It would not be a cell care day for me without reading so the book I'm currently
Reading is on a scale of one to ten by ceylon Scott
This is an arc that comes out May 14th, and it was sent to me by the publisher
It features a girl with borderline personality
Disorder as she is in a psychiatric hospital and the author herself also deals with borderline personality disorder
So I just started it this morning while I was eating breakfast
I'm already like 42 pages in which is wild but I am really loving it so far the main character is so charming
I'm obsessed with her
it is super relatable to like my
Experiences and I just know that I'm going to fall head over heels in love with this book
So I'm super excited to read it today
So my first stop for today is actually traveling into New York City because I'm from Long Island
so I'm gonna take the train in and my first official stop is
Alice's tea cup
Which is a tea shop that I absolutely love and I'm so excited to go to today
Some other things on my agenda today are I'm actually going to be getting some of my tattoos touched up
I figured I was going to be in the city and I like had nothing specific that I really wanted to do or needed to do
Today so I decided to schedule an appointment. So I'm going to get some my tattoos refreshed which is gonna be great
I'm also taking a pole class
which I'm so freakin hyped for I'm gonna be taking a pole class at body and pole which is an
incredible pole studio in New York City
I've only taken one class there before, but I'm super excited today
Only other thing on my agenda is I'm going to be seeing a movie later
So maybe we'll have a little like movie review later, but overall I'm so freaking excited for today. I'm feeling really good
I had like a nice breakfast
I enjoyed what I was reading and I'm about to head out because I have a reservation for one at
12:30 Oh also if you're like super nerdy and organized like me, I feel like you'll appreciate this
so because my phone's gonna be on airplane mode all day and I like do not want to use my phone unless it's like in an
Emergency other than vlogging. I'm going to a lot of places today and I can't look up directions on the fly
So I decided to write myself like a whole little
Itinerary of like where I'm going what subways to take and stuff
So I just thought that was really cute and I'm excited to like be as off-the-grid as I feel I can like be comfortable with today
Oh
I'm such a nerd
Oh, there's one more reason why I'm like not super upset that my camera is not working today and I have to film on my
phone is because I
originally was like
damn
like I can't listen to an audio book or music today because my phone's gonna be off and like I didn't want to cheat but
Now that my phone's gonna be on and like on airplane mode
I can still like listen to music or my audio book without interacting with people or being on social media
I feel like it's fair for me to listen to it now today
So I'm currently in the middle of Prisoner of Azkaban, but I'm excited to be able to continue listening
Here is the OOTD outfit of the day. I stole this sweater for my mom and I'm like, so obsessed with it
I feel like so much mature. You know what I mean?
So I'm in currently Alice's tea cup this is literally like my favorite place in the world
I feel like when you walk in here like you're just entering a different universe. Where nothing on the streets matters
So I got their afternoon tea which comes with unlimited tea, a sandwich, a scone and cookies
The tea I got is the unbirthday tea. I just I love the name of it, but it's also really delicious
it's a Black tea and it has
Tropical fruits and flowers in it. So it's just really aromatic. It's so good.
Because I get unlimited tea and I always get the unbirthday tea when I'm here
I feel like I need to try something new. So maybe for my second pot of tea. I'll try something different
I got a pumpkin stone with a caramel glaze and it comes with clotted cream and jam
I can not get over how good the scones are here
The clotted cream is just so light and fluffy and the scone is so flavorful and for my sandwich
I got a ham and Gruyere sandwich which I've had before and it's really really good the ham is just like so sweet.
and I don't know when I turned into a food blogger, but like here we are
so I'm just gonna sit here and eat my scone and eat my
Sandwiches, my cookies and just drink a lot of tea and enjoy the day
So I'm gonna order another pot of tea. I just don't know which one I want to try
I'm pretty stuck on black teas. Like they have so many different types of teas here
so they have their house blends here, but then you open it up and
This whole row and up here are different black teas for me to choose from and then they have oolong, green tea
Meets white teas. We take tea seriously, that's for sure. So I decided to get the
St. Mark tea which is a mysterious blend of black tea, red berries
Chinese and Tibetan fruits and flowers and a hint of vanilla to make this rich and complex
I don't know why I'm such a baby about trying new things, but we'll see if this is any good.
Oh my goodness
That is absolutely delicious. It's literally like a strawberries and cream black tea. I'm in love
So I just got out of my tattoo touch up
I am like so happy with both my tattoos now. I like forgot how good these tattoos could look. Firstly on my ribs
I have this one which is the outline of Hogwarts in between like a heart monitor and
I love it. And then we have my ankle which is a a monogram of every letter of the alphabet and the first 10 numbers
I'm so so happy with it now.
So right now I'm just walking to my pole class
I got to the area a little bit early and there's a buffalo exchange like right around the corner from body and pole
So I just looked around wasn't like specifically looking for anything because I really don't need any new clothes
But I bought these super cute earrings
but I will put a photo or a clip in of
So now I'm gonna go work my butt off at Pole and hopefully I make some progress today and have some cool things to show of it
So I just left a body and Pole. I
decided not to film anything because body and pole has like really strict rules about when you can record in their studio
But to compensate I will insert a video from like a few weeks ago where I did something cool so you can appreciate that
Overall my pole class was great. The instructor was Roz mase who is like a really well-known poler in the community
She's just incredible and it was super cool that she just like happened to be teaching the day
I was in the city for this so everything seems to be working out so far
So now I'm going to be heading back uptown
I've just gone like up and down all day and I'm going to the movies to see five feet apart
Simon teen invited me to an early screening of five feet apart just to be clear
This video is not sponsored by Simon teen whatsoever. They don't know I'm making this video
It just so happened that they invited me to a screening on a day that I was already going to be in the city
again I really have like no concrete plans for today
I had like nothing else really to do so I was like why not go to a movie
That's like a great form of self-care. So I'm gonna be traveling uptown now to do that. Hopefully after that
I will get some dinner because I am hungry but I'm excited for the movie. I think it's something I'll really enjoy
So I'm heading back to the train station I
Picked up some food for dinner. I was gonna eat in the city and just like take a later train
But I want to go home. It's been a long day
I got dim sum from dim sum palace because I have been craving dim sum so much lately
I feel like I'm in a constant state of craving dim sum. so I'm gonna catch my train
Go home, eat
Then I'll tell you my thoughts on the movie and just the the end of the vlog. That's all there is left
So it is the next night, let's be real none of you expected me to finish this vlog in one day
I have two short little mini reviews to close out this vlog firstly
I'm gonna be talking about my thoughts on the film of 5 feet apart
And then I also finished on a scale of 1 to 10 today
So I can tell you how I felt about the end of this. as for the things I liked
I did enjoy the cast I particularly thought that the humor in the movie was really great and well done
Especially for such like an emotionally dense film. I thought there was a lot of lightheartedness that really balanced it out
What can I say try as I might I will always be a sucker for a forbidden young adult romance
so, of course that's like one of my favorite tropes, so I enjoyed that and I was also really happy to see a
disease that really needs a lot of attention getting more awareness on the big screen cystic fibrosis is a
Really serious illness and though, I've grown up around people that have had it
I feel like I never really knew a lot about it
so it was really
Enjoyable to see a movie that had a lot of attention to bringing awareness to it. as for my critiques
It was mad corny. There was so much drama in this film
Like I literally don't think I have ever seen a movie that had more drama
I get the need for theatrics, but damn was is it full of drama.
Personally, I feel like the things I did like about the film like the specific scenes and storylines that I really cared about
I feel like they just didn't get as much attention as the
Storylines and scenes that I didn't care about as much personally
I have not read 5 feet apart, so I can't give you an adequate explanation as to how it compares to the book
Personally, I don't feel the need to read the book after seeing the movie
I'm sure there's gonna be changes, but I feel like I just got the overall story
Oh, another thing I really liked about that movie is I thought they used emotion. Really well
like the scenes that were supposed to make you be happy or sad or heartbroken or
Hopeful like they all came across so well, and I thought that the audience really mirrored what the movie was trying to say
So I thought that was well done. Overall, though, wasn't my favorite movie in the world.
Definitely rolled my eyes like numerous times while watching but like I had a good time with it if it was on TV
I would watch it again. As for on a scale of one to ten
I had similar thoughts because I started out loving this book in the morning
and by the time I was heading home
Yesterday I just wasn't really feeling it anymore. Which is so unfortunate cause I thought it had so much potential
I just found the pros and the plot construction to be very amateur
I did find out that the author's actually younger than myself. As I said the author herself deals with borderline personality disorder
So I'm like not here to police anyone's experiences, especially something that I have never experienced myself
But I just felt like a lot of the events in this story
We're kind of like stretching the limits of reality as to what teenagers are capable of in a psych ward
Also, like I'm American and I'm pretty sure this book is set in England
So like that could be part of it
But it just seemed like it went well beyond what like anyone could experience in this position?
So that was a little distracting for me. I think the representation for mental health in general was just really well executed
I will say I do think this book could be very triggering to people who deal with self-harm and suicideality
just because it is very vivid and graphic and does not hold back
That's a great thing because it shows so much authenticity and it really shows what it's like to live with mental health disorders
Without it being watered down, but it can be troubling for people who don't have the tools to combat seeing that type of content
But overall I just feel like this book could have used so much more development in so many areas
Whether it is the writing style, the dialogue, the plot construction, the expansion of scenes
I just feel like everything would have benefited from more time, more editing and more practice
So I think I would still recommend it
If you're someone especially looking for books with borderline personality disorder representation or just more mental health contemporaries in general
I think it's something you should consider trying
But if you're someone who's like a real stickler for writing and can't get behind something that is a little contrived
This might be one that you'd want to pass. So that was my self-care day in New York City my goodness
Was it just refreshing and lovely and so necessary?
I swear I woke up this morning just like so ready to face the day
like I was so ready to get my stuff done at work and my personal stuff done and just
do everything that I needed to do and I feel like I haven't felt that way in a long time and it's specifically because I
Had this really beneficial self-care day yesterday
and that's really what self-care is like so many people think that self-care means just cancelling all of your
Responsibilities for the day and staying home and watching Netflix and while that's a valid form of self-care
sometimes. The whole point is for us
To build up our strengths and work on our well-being so that those days where we have these immediate stressors
They're not as difficult
Because we've prepared ourselves for them. in the comments below to let me know if you're interested in any of the things that I did
Today like tattoos, pole dancing, going to movies and whatnot
And I'd also love to know what you guys do for self-care. I feel like this was a fairly good
Representation of a lot of different things of self-care that I enjoy, but I'd be so curious to see what brings you guys more energy
But that is it for this video. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you soon for a new one. Bye
