Listening:
Similar to last week, I was eating another beautiful breakfast alone and the music playing was getting me deep in my heart. My brain then unlocked a playlist from another life and these jams just kept coming to me.
"New Partner" by Palace Music.
"Wish You Were Here" by Sparklehorse and Radiohead.
Reading:
My Grandmother’s Very Specific Meat-Related Rule for Finding Love
The 25 best icebreaker questions for team-building at work - #20: How do you like your eggs? Recently I went out for breakfast and when the server asked me how I wanted my eggs, I responded with "over medium." She then said, "is that over easy?" Me: "Uh, no." And then she walked off. It boggled my mind for days.
Angelica Hicks's NYC Apartment Is as Cheeky and Chic as Her Art - These murals are so good.
Always into cake. (illustration by Grace Lee via bonappetit)
Craving:
I have a strong urge to walk into every "healthy market" I come upon. There is something comforting about a store with rows of bulk bins (dried fruits, raw nuts, nutritional yeast, carob covered things) and oaten treats and maybe even a corner with a wheatgrass juicing machine. Yesterday, in such a store, I stumbled upon these healthy sweet treats called Cookie Brittle. It's just the right amount of salty and sweet and textured (almonds, chocolate, cocoa, oat flour, etc). The Brooklyn-based company, "Baked By Bibis," makes all sort of breads, crisps, and loaves. I've got my eyes peeled for more BBB delights.
"A healthy treat." If you say so... (image via sephardic.org)
Wearing:
I cannot wait to recover more of my clothes as I begin to live again beyond my suitcase. I have a simple formula lately: black puffer coat (looks similar to a thin sleeping bag), sweater (solid colored turtleneck), pants (jeans or patterned black slacks), wool socks, boots (black Frye hikers), sometimes a hat or a scarf or a handkerchief. At least I'm warm.
I went on a hunt for cheap sweatpants this weekend. I had the specific goal of finding a pair to wear for my wintery walk to the gym. As I was browsing the discount activewear section and all the not-totally-ugly sweatpants were too far in the double digits price range, I had my aha moment. The old standby: look in the kids section! I found decent pair, youth large, for $8. Perfect. When I paid, the cashier said, "I hope he enjoys them." Ha! My son, aka myself, will.
I didn't see enough wildness during Fashion Week. (image by Aisha Franz via nytimes)
Watching:
I can finally reenter the world as I fully, obsessively (now mournfully) finished my Australian show. Just a day later I miss my characters.
I'm interested in seeing HBO's latest series, "Here and Now." Holly Hunter and Tim Robbins with creator Alan Ball. Seems promising, but I've glimpsed mixed reviews. I'm also curious about Netflix's new show, "Everything Sucks." "A coming-of-age story, set in the 1990s, that revolves around the A/V and drama clubs at a Boring, Ore., high school; the two crews of outsiders join forces to make a movie and endure the purgatory that is high school." Sounds like a mashup of a variety of popular tropes.
Treasuring:
No Conclusions / Many Happy Endings. Cup of Jo is the land of wonderful stories and amazing comments. This comment was highlighted the other day and I found it to be more than I could articulate... Says Kate on an accidental wedding dress: “I was married in a rose-colored dress, am now divorced but count my ex-husband among my closest family members, and am in a monogamous (unmarried) long-term relationship and full-time parent to my partner’s two step-kids. On the day I got married in that beautiful rose dress, I never, ever would have predicted that a decade later I would find myself here, living a completely different life. And so I offer you this: There will be many milestones but no conclusions. The feeling of being settled is a transient one — regardless of whether we remain married to one person ’til death do us part or spend our lives single, stability comes and goes, and any belief to the contrary is an illusion. There is at once no answer and always an answer: It exists right here, in this essay, inside yourself, in the people you love and places you go and the work you do. You are the answer, the one constant in the cornucopia of happily-ever-afters that will most likely exist within the span of your lifetime. So, let’s let go of the idea that there is one happy ending and celebrate the many happy endings, the shapes of each other’s lives and the many shapes of our own. And let’s do it in whatever damn dress (or jeans or pajamas) makes us feel most like ourselves.”
(image by Gabrielle Assaf)