Valentine's Day! Let's get sexual.

As someone who has never had an actual Valentine on Valentine's Day (gal pals & family aside.  YES YOU ARE THE LOVES OF MY LIFE), I honestly don't feel any different on this day than any other day.  I've definitely had teenage angst-y Valentine's where I wore Claire's jewelry and black clothes, wallowing about how emo my life is and how no one will ever love me. 


....so glad last year's over.  (Just kidding.  Kind of.  No, really.)  


These days Valentine's Day for me is just another day to celebrate the people and things that I absolutely adore and make me laugh.  Last night, my fabulous sister, @CraftyBelka, and I took our mom out for a Galentine's Day dinner a la Parks & Rec.  We bought her flowers, treated her to a delicious meal at an adorable restaurant called Penelope, and topped it off with strawberries & nutella.  

img courtesy of newyork.cityvoter.com

It was a night full of food, chocolate, hugs, and love.  Who could ask for a better way to bring in this Day o' Lovin? 


As for today, I'm surrounding myself with all things that put a smile on my face.  (Mainly to distract myself from the hell cave.)  A peak into what's on my list today -- 


1.  Jenna Marbles' Face:  For those bitter souls out there who don't want to even think about significant others (I've been there.  I'm mostly there about 80% of the time), I give you Jenna Marbles' famous "Face."  This video is genius and I've even gone so far as to perfect my own face.  I must say, I'm pretty good at it.

2.  Krav Maga:  Tuesdays are krav days.  I can't tell you all how much krav maga has changed my life.  Whenever I get overwhelmed or worried, I go to krav and it all goes away.  (Mainly because I'm too focused on how much pain I'm in.)  It's the BEST stress reliever, teaches you how to defend yourself, and just be more confident as a woman overall.  My instructors recently made it onto the Anderson Cooper Show and kicked serious ass!  I'm so proud to train with them.  

3. The Brooklyn Brainery:  Words cannot describe my love for this place.  The Brainery is changing the way education happens in this city one funky food/karaoke class at a time.  But seriously, this little organization gives ridiculously affordable classes on anything, ranging from economics to beekeeping to whiskey.  It's all taught by community members (I even taught Spanish there!) and they're quite possibly the nicest group of people I've ever met.  

4.  Michel Telo "Ai Se Eu Te Pego":  Wouldn't be a list of things I love without my current musical obsession.  Most recently on repeat on my iPod is this little Portuguese ditty.  Although I do speak Spanish, I haven't the faintest clue what he's singing about, but it sounds happy, so I'm gonna go with it.

What are you loving today?  How are you spending Valentine's Day? 


-Beetle, xx.      

Beetle Introductions

Greetings blogging universe!

Now that Nibs has taken the liberty of writing our first blog post, you get a little taste of the types of conversations we have had over our 8+ year friendship.  To put things into perspective, that day that Nibs rescued me from my soul-sucking job, we went to Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn's gigantor public library, to wind down and curl up with some reading.  On the way home, we sat in the subway, waiting for the train when she came to the following conclusion:  "These shoes make my feet look like sweet potatoes!"

For most of you, this may sound strange, but that's only because we haven't introduced ourselves!  So here's a little about us --

The Leetle Beetle

LB is a small, feisty creature who most definitely has a Napoleonic complex.  Her job is the bane of her existence, so she occupies herself with a ton of other amazing activities that she wishes she could get paid for, but doesn't.  These include:  learning to kick serious ass at the Krav Maga Academy (Israeli self-defense classes),  doing volunteer translations for Global Voices Online (a ballin' citizen media news source), and teaching Spanish classes at the Brooklyn Brainery.

At the moment, she's constantly on the hunt for a new job so that she can finally quit the hell hole and move into a new apartment (preferably with Nibs!).

She also has an obsession with good food and fashion, so you'll probably be hearing a ton about that.  Follow her on twitter at @leetle_beetle and Beetle's Blabberings for more randomness! (and please excuse the occasional work-induced profanity.  Happy hour usually cures that.)

Nibs 'n Ink (written with loooove by LB)

Nibs is quite possibly THE most energetic person ever to walk this planet earth.  Even when she's upset, she is jumping around and makes it impossible for anyone to stay sad around her.  She's a super genius who studied Bio-medical Engineering in college and now wants to cut eyeballs in half (a la Un Chien Andalou) for a living.

To completely counteract all the science that bounces around in her head, Nibs is also incredibly creative and draws, paints, does crazy things on Photoshop, and occasionally makes fabulous handmade cards.  (Do I smell at Etsy shop in her future? Methinks yes.)

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But enough about us!  Actually, wait.. this is a blog, so this will probably be all about us and the ridiculous things we do  (like pretend to be tourists looking for the Brooklyn Bridge whilst eating ice cream in 30F-degree weather).  Oh yes, that happened.

xx, Beetle.

P.S.  Puppies.