New York isn't for the faint at heart (and The Fhitting Room on the Upper East Side is certainly not for the faint). Still, being courageous has nothing to do with going back for more.

Although many city experiences (good and bad) are one-of-a-kind, there are a handful I refuse...

Oh, adolescence. So easy, comforting and devoid of awkwardness. #SaidNoOneEver

The consensus that high school is always full of fun, friends and forever-in-our-hearts memories exists for a select few. For the rest of us, there are ups and there are downs, mistakes and mishaps. We learn in the classroom...

Whether atop a cake, cookie, or stack of pancakes -- when I blow out candles celebrating another 365 days of my existence, my birthday wish is always the same: to be happy.

This may sound silly, or even simple (and now that I've revealed it, un-superstitious). As I...

All is fair in love and... food.

Unlike my last name, which is clearly of Jewish descent, my size one/two frame is quite deceiving, as I happen to be a very good eater. Though my palate doesn't involve pork (I didn't grow up with it in the house) or...

Surviving in New York isn't easy.

Between winter blues, the high cost of living, annoying subway delays, and the ban of extra large soft drinks, I still manage to love this city. Perhaps it's because I can't live without Tacombi at Fonda Nolita tacos, people watching from R Lounge...

Much like the gym, (for me) the hardest part of volunteering is getting there. And yes, the difficulty I speak of includes torturing myself by watching Rachael Vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off and other Food Network shows from the treadmill.

Although working out and volunteering may have little else in common,...

I was never a cheerleader. Ever.

"Peppy" isn't a term I use to describe my high school-self. Awkward? Probably. Smart? Sure. Ambitious? Yes. Spirited? Not so much.

It's not that I didn't have school pride- - I played varsity tennis and ran cross-country -- but shouting words of encouragement from...

I talk to strangers. A lot.

This a) terrifies my mother, b) sometimes embarrasses my friends and c) has created some awkward situations.

In fact, as I write this in a hotel lobby, I've been holding intermissions for conversations with a woman talking to me about her family life,...

Senior year of college, I decided to hold a pre-Thanksgiving Friendsgiving potluck in the month of October. Perhaps it was out of sheer boredom (my course schedule, which included Stress and Relaxation online, wasn't particularly challenging). Plus, I figured this was the perfect time to practice Turkey preparation for my...

My oldest memory, as many of my childhood recollections, takes place at my grandparents' house in New York -- before they migrated to Florida. I am happily splashing around in their backyard pool. I'm nearly 4 years old, wearing a sparkly Barbie bathing suit, my blonde curly hair in pigtails....

Hurricanes, shmuricanes.

This was my blasé feeling toward the natural disaster, having grown up in South Florida, where they make an appearance two to three times a year. I remember Hurricanes Andrew through Wilma -- all boring and requiring me to pick up a book when the power went...

In New York, nothing surprises me.

This includes $300 steak and eggs on LAVO's brunch menu, restaurants (like The Smile) open on Thanksgiving, the inability to find a cab when I'm already running 10 minutes late, and my patience waiting in line for frozen yogurt at 16 Handles (it's...

I remember crying for days.

Tissues, a tub of ice cream, sappy love movies and my best friend -- a true cliché of young heartbreak -- kept me company when I thought I was going to die. I had never felt so sick, so lost, so alone and rejected.

Three weeks ago, my family adopted a new member. His name is Phelpsy... or something. Though his name seems to change each week, he joins a household of three other animals -- a dog and two cats -- who were also homeless before we found them (or they found us).

"You either know fashion or you don't," according to Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

I, alternatively, would like to think fashion and I are neither friends nor foes -- more along the lines of acquaintances that run in the same circles... like Facebook friends who may or may not wish...

I have a twin... sort of. He's taller, blonder and better at math than me. He's also nine years my junior.

My birthday is April 2. On the morning of my ninth year, in true day-late April Fool's fashion, Andrew was born.

Not only do we share a...

Jersey Shore: Two words that ignite controversy, YouTube impersonations and fist pumps.

Here's the situation: In May 2010, US Weekly magazine asked me to interview the eight self-proclaimed "guidos" and "guidettes" who have taken over Seaside Heights, N.J., Miami Beach, Florence, Italy, and the world.

Interview the cast that pulled...

Years before Miley Cyrus couldn't be tamed, there was a different Disney princess who stirred up controversy for her rebellious ways. Trading talent to fit into a world she deemed more glamorous than the one in which she lived, this young woman caused a bit of drama and wouldn't take...

Every three minutes, a woman in the US is diagnosed with breast cancer.

That means, during the span of an average song on my iPod, an American woman has been given the burden of news that will change her life, her family's and her friends'. It means an agenda...

My quarter-life crisis might as well be called a "teenage meltdown" -- not because I'm particularly dramatic, nor because I'm a Belieber losing my cool (sorry Justin).

The complexity of my issue is this: I'm a college graduate, I vote, I pay my own rent and I feed myself...