How To: Have A (Real) Girl's Night

This wasn't the only thing that
made my Valentine's Day great!

After college, there are many times when the term "penny pinching" is a gross overstatement. True friends will remind you that you only live once. Even truer friends will ask you to be their Valentine's Day date and enthusiastically encourage you to indulge yourself. 

That's what I have my friend Megan for. 

With our S.O.V.S.' elsewhere on the planet, Megan and I organized for ourselves what would be the ultimate Valentine's Day...just for the two of us. We settled on sushi as our main event and selected the Back Bay locale known as Basho Japanese Brasserie. I coordinated our reservations and we settled on an 8:45 seating. Normally this would be unpleasantly late for me to be eating, but I knew Megan and I would pass the time with good conversation and some sort of adventure.

Megan, like me, enjoys a healthy tasting of beer every once in a while so it only seemed natural that we whet our appetites with some beverages at Boston Beer Works following our long days at the office. Megan met me at the Brookline Avenue location just a after 7 p.m. and we chose to sit at the bar. After we settled in, Megan informed me of a mini-sampling option they offer so that we could try a few different beers at once. When the bartender came to take our order, we instructed her to pick her three favorites from the menu and include the milk chocolate stout they were featuring. Once our "micro"-brews arrived, we began exploring the flavors of  Bunker Hill blueberry ale, Landsdowne lager, Patriot pilsner and the milk chocolate stout. Pretty soon, we were lost in conversation and our beverages but ordered one round of full-sized beers before we crossed Yawkey Way where our dinner awaited us.

This is my valentine with our sampling of beers, from light to dark!

Once inside Basho, we waited a mere five minutes to be seated. The lighting was dim with a pastel glow and Megan and I were seated towards the front of the restaurant by the windows which was both intimate and cozy. By this point, we were starving so everything on the menu enticed us. We settled on appetizers of gyoza and vegetable tempura (which we varied between sweet potato, avocado and cauliflower). Megan chose a Philadelphia roll as her dinner and I eagerly ordered my favorite, Spicy Tuna. Our cocktails came quickly which was excellent because I had been craving a lychee martini for some time. The service was friendly and attentive to clearing excess dishes. Even our dessert, a tart creme brûlée, was briskly whipped up and delivered to our table.

My favorite sushi roll thus far: Spicy Tuna.

Like any good date, we lost track of time and were likely laughing and smiling our way out of Basho sometime after 11. Pleased we had only spent about $50 each on the entire evening, we made a vow to try and repeat a girl's night tradition very soon! 

Basho's interior: Day light.

Did you spend Valentine's Day with someone other than your significant other? Tell us all about it! 

We'd love some recommendations and date ideas! Comment below, 'like' us on Facebook or find us on Twitter @citygrlthoughts

Can't wait to hear your ideas!

How To: Make New Year's Resolutions Stick

It's what we're all thinking...

Drink less alcohol. Eat healthy food. Get a better job. Get fit. 

How long is your list of resolutions for the year ahead?

If you're anything like the statistics we found, you're more than likely to give up on your ambitious goals anytime after your first month. We're not saying that to discourage you. In fact, we're hoping you're up for the challenge and, if so, we have a few pointers that just might give you the confidence you need to finally make those resolutions stick!

1. Make your goals realistic and attainable: If your plan is to lose weight, plan a realistic goal for yourself. You can always add more to a task later but by starting out small you can aim for big, overall success.
2. Work with a friend: Sometimes its easier to work in a team. This is an effective way to reach goals on a timeline when you are part of an encouraging group. (It's like having you're own built-in cheerleaders or personal trainers!) Your successes will be their successes and you can work collaboratively on the parts of your goal that might prove to be more difficult.
3. Rewarding yourself is okay: Every so often, a little compensation for a job well done is in order. But, be careful! Stay away from "days off" and instead do less. In lieu of completely giving up for a day, allow yourself to take a mini-vacation and do something that makes you happy but maybe temporarily takes the focus off the one task you're trying to accomplish. You might even feel better about being able to get back on track once you've taken a short break!
4. Give yourself credit: Some goals (like quitting cigarettes) are harder to achieve than basic and simple adjustments to a lifestyle. When dealing with goals that encourage the breaking of habits, sometimes its better to set intervals of scaling back bad behavior or adverse habits and also more manageable. You'll feel more accomplished if you can accomplish pieces of your plan instead of building up anxiety when you don't meet your mark.
5. Don't give up!: Stay focused. Even if you slip, don't beat yourself up about it. Twelve months is a long time to set and accomplish any given task so while there's room for error, there's also room for success!

Whether you are trying to save money or you just to want to plan a trip, we're rooting for you! Send us suggestions you have for meeting your new goals in 2012 by commenting below, on our Facebook page or on Twitter by following @COSMOpolitique!

Here's to a happy and healthy 2012 & may all of your resolutions be successful!