*Reason # 106 - I gave up Atkins today

So Saturday was my birthday! I turned 28 on the 28th. Thank you for all the birthday wishes y'all (practicing for when we do get to West Virginia). Matthew had to go to a CPR course in the afternoon so we walked in the morning and after he left Fr. Andrew and matushka Zhanna invited me to go to Brighton Beach with them. I should have deduced from the name that we were going to a beach but somehow I didn't really think I would find a beach scene in NY though we are surrounded by water. I must say that lots of places around these parts have names that lead you to believe something about the place they refer to only to find out that the name bears no relation to the place. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised to see this -

And like in Yarmouth there is a population of dirty birds. People feed them around here.




The sand was really nice and there were other things that reminded me of home.


After the beach we walked on Brighton Beach Avenue. It's a very interesting area of Brooklyn. A lot of it is comprised of Russian stores where you can get all kinds of tasty Russian treats. I wanted to show you this shot because of the railroad you see on top of the street. This is a usual thing around here. You have a street covered with rails for the subway. It makes the streets really dark and loud.

After our adventure we came back home and Matthew and I went to church for the vigil. It was really nice. Metropolitan Hilarion was there and we got to have his blessing, not only that but they took out the Kursk Icon which resides at the Synod permanently and we got to venerate it. Now that we live here we get to venerate it every week (usually through the glass though, which is nice but when we venerated it yesterday it was fragrant and we couldn't smell that through the glass). The first time we venerated it was right before our wedding. We were told it would bless our marriage. That was a highlight. On our way home I decided I wanted a cupcake. I've read much about NY cupcakes and frankly I didn't really get what the big deal was with eating an oversized muffin. That was until I stepped into Crumbs and bought a black forest cupcake.


I waited until we got home to eat it (I hate eating on the run - how can you savor anything in a hurry?) and this is what I did to the poor thing.

First bite was good.


The second one was great.

The third one was even better.
The thing was to die for. I didn't have to quit Atkins (I've never been on Atkins, just to make that clear) to eat their cupcake and I don't need any reason other than the fact that it was soooo good. Sooooo good that after today's Liturgy I stopped by and got another one. I also got Knitscene, a knitting magazine with a few nice vests I intend on knitting. this cupcake is named Red Velvet and looked much better in the shop but it had sustained a bit of damage from being in my bag for the best of 3 hours.

I'm hooked and we're now officially in Lent which means no cupcakes for me for the next 40 days. Reason # 107 - Lent is over.


*There is a board in the shop showing people's reasons for eating Crumbs cupcakes.