Monday Memos // 104

Listening:

“Miss Chew” (feat. Jesse & Forever) by Nick Hakim.

“Color Me Badd” by Land of Talk.

Reading:

Is It Ever Okay...To Eat the Food Off Your Date’s Plate?

One Scene, 42 Takes and 2 Hours in a Bathroom Stall

Updated Etiquette Posters from the M.T.A.

Craving:

I am an avid craver of bowls. Rice bowls, quinoa bowls, noodle bowls, sautéed greens bowls. Sometimes, when I make them at home, I call them piles. Those tend to be the exhausted moments after work when I just throw together whatever ingredients appeal to me or are readily available (eggs, sweet potatoes, kale, peas, crushed up chips, weird “free table” snacks, hummus, etc.).

This week I went wild on dairy-free ice cream. Super rich and creamy chocolate citrus cake from Van Leeuwen. Ben and Jerry’s vegan Chunky Monkey and PB Fudge, too. Oh, also Pressed Juicery’s chocolate soft serve freeze. I might need to go to Ice Cream Anonymous.

Even when it’s freezing, I love ice cream. (image via medium)

Wearing:

Last week my nails were painted bright blue. I wore lots of wide leg pants—black, mustard, denim—and lots of sweaters—grey, cream, and more grey. I’m really ready for spring now. I miss seeing my legs and ankles and arms.

Watching:

TV: A steady stream of the greats: True Detective, High Maintenance. Also, remembered SMILF, and the second season is better than the first—definitely worth a watch. Plus, I started Nurse Jackie while on a Showtime perusal. (I was feeling under the weather so the couch was my best friend this weekend.)

Movies: I rewatched Frances Ha, hence the story about the scene above. I also rewatched The Royal Tenenbaums, excited about living near the house but forgetting how sad makes me.

Treasuring:

Stories: One of my favorite things is hearing stories. From friends, from strangers, from lovers, from relatives, from children, from performers. I love eavesdropping, I love a really long text, I love a phone call filled with stories. Over the weekend, I stopped one night at an Italian place near my apartment to get a slice of cake to go—cake sounded great and I had a gift card. While I waited for the slice—the kitchen was slammed—I sat at the bar next to a man with great, wild, white hair. He was a writer working on a biography of a modern dancer. He had spent his day going from place to place, snack to snack, writing and writing. Now he was here with a cocktail and a finished chocolate mousse. He admired my wrinkle-free face and I learned a little bit about his days traveling with a dancing company (he had stopped in Gainesville at lease once) and he showed me photos of his stunning dancer leaps and turns. Good stories, good people. The cake wasn’t as good as the last time, but worth the trip.

Monday Memos // 103

Listening:

"Hire" by Girlpool. New girlpoooool. Woohoo!

“Sugar Bum Bum” by Lord Kitchener.

“Cavern” by Liquid Liquid.

Reading:

I wrote about wanting to read Her Body and Other Parties months ago and I’m finally reading it and LOVING IT. So weird and wonderful.

“A wife refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses. One woman’s surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella “Especially Heinous,” Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naïvely assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgängers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes.”

Craving:

Dinner from Zyara. “… the Vegan Arabic Sandwich, a kitchen-sink sensation of deep-fried veggies (cauliflower, eggplant, and paper-thin zucchini) plus falafel, tomato, cabbage, and assorted pickled things that all gets stuffed into a housemade pita like circus clowns into a Volkswagen.” (via Grubstreet)

Cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine. As someone who often proclaims they don’t care for cupcakes, even though I greatly adore cake, these really were outstanding. Very unassuming but absolutely delicious.

Sometimes less is more. (image via sugarsweetsunshine)

Wearing:

When I woke up Wednesday and the temperature said “4,” I just piled on all the things. Long Johns, undershirts, sweaters, boots, scarves, hats, gloves. I am ready for spring. I am ready for summer. I have finally maxed out on the cold. I forgot what it’s like to have my legs exposed to the fresh air.

Watching:

TV: I’ve already rewatched the first three episodes of High Maintenance season 3 (so many amazing comedians I admire keep popping up!). I’m deep into True Detective—it’s good! I tried a couple episodes of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, but I’m finding it too slow. I’m a few episodes in Russian Doll, the latest Netflix original with Natasha Lyonne—I wouldn’t say it’s brilliant, but it’s entertaining. It’s cold! so the tv is on!

Movies: I watched The Lives of Others. A German drama/thriller from 2007. It was very good. As one apt review says, “fierce and gloomy.” I just learned while looking up the cast that the main actor, Ulrich Mühe, died months after the film won an Oscar. So sad.

Ulrich Mühe enjoying his stolen literature.

Treasuring:

Warmth: As cold as it is and all the complaining, sometimes the blast of freezing air, especially when you have a warm home and a warm beverage nearby, can be a bit magical. One evening I walked out of the subway station, music playing in my earbuds, and I let the hot tears mix with the frigid air. Emotional release paired with the refreshing winter wind, hey, it’s not so bad.

My winter look. (image by marc pilaro)

Monday Memos // 102

Listening:

“Dead Flowers” by Townes Van Zandt.

"Random Rules" by Silver Jews.

“No One's Easy to Love” by Sharon Van Etten.

Reading:

This was wild and crazy: A 4-Year-Old Trapped in a Teenager’s Body

This was true: 20 Things John Mayer Looks Like in This Photo

This was silly: Quiz: Who Wrote It: Edgar Allan Poe or an Emo Band?

This was funny and informative: Trader Joe’s Gets into Jackfruit in 2019: The Journey Begins

Craving:

Highlights: cumin-roasted carrots, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, a fresh Goldberg’s pumpernickel bagel with buttery spread and jam, tuna salad with Branston pickle, extra crunchy dill pickles, and homemade sesame chicken with broccoli.

A perfect New York bagel via Baltimore. (image via Goldberg’s)

Wearing:

It’s been cooooold, so lots of wool socks, turtlenecks, scarves, and beanies. I also wore my new red jumpsuit twice this week. I had a relaxing family weekend where I primarily wore sweatpants and sweatshirts. I looked in the mirror one day and thought I could be mistaken for dude in a 90s grunge band—lots of long disheveled hair and bagginess.

Watching:

TV: I watched the entirety of Sex Education on Netflix in roughly two sittings. I’m having withdrawals. It reminded me of The End of the F*cking World. Endearing characters, English accents, hilarity, really good music.

Gillian Anderson makes for a good wacky mom.

Movies: I rewatched The Big Lebowski over the weekend. It had been years since I had seen it—brilliant as always. I forgot how good the soundtrack is too. When I Googled the movie, this shopping link for the Dude’s sweater (from Dillard’s) came up: Pendleton sweater.

Treasuring:

Unwinding and nostalgia: A weekend in the suburbs means becoming so calm I have no worries or needs. Family laughs and baking cookies and dancing to bad music (We all have “Closing Time” stuck in our heads now, unfortunately). I made a visit to my storage unit for a stack of old journals from 2005-2008. Often painfully angsty and full of pointless minutiae, it’s been eye-opening and very humorous to revisit. So much and so little has changed.

I read a lot about this period of life—my sweet sixteen with Blake and a tandem bike.

Monday Memos // 101

Pardon the unintentionally long break. I took a much needed vacation and felt true rest and relaxation. Then I got back to work where Mondays are no longer my constant day off. Adjustments, new year, new brain reorganization coming soon.

Listening:

“Diamond Day” by Vashti Bunyan.

“Poly Blue” by Jessica Pratt.

“Edge of Town” by Middle Kids.

Reading:

MATERIALS I’D RATHER BE THAN “WIFE MATERIAL”

Neither of my parents was exactly who I thought they were

What Is This Exercise Tool and How Do I Get One?

Craving:

I was in LA for Christmas and ate sooooo many delicious things. At Wax Paper, an amazing sandwich shop, I had the Ira Glass with turkey: avocado, cheddar, sprouts, pickled and raw red onions, cucumber, and garlic aioli on seeded wheat. Sitting in the sunshine with my brother, sipping a pamplemousse La Croix and eating amazing chili-lime tortilla chips (Rusty’s Chips—some of the best I’ve ever had) was wonderful.

Trois Familia was another gem. French-Mexican-California cuisine. I didn’t know what that meant but when we feasted it was all incredible. Beet tartare tostada—yum. A double decker potato taco with lime, crème fraiche, carrot pico, and cheese—this was wildly good. Parisian gnocchi with mushrooms—wow. Chicken milanesa, with raw and pickled cucumbers, and maggi ranch—wowowow.

Plus I finally fulfilled my lifelong dream and waited in line to eat at Sqirl. So excited that it was WORTH IT. My sister-in-law and I got the ricotta toast. It was like a dream. Brioche heaven, fluffy ricotta, and a rainbow spread of fresh jams—quince, blueberry and blackberry, and pluot. I got the sorrel pesto rice bowl too.

Bonus: My sis-in-law also made me the most perfect birthday cake and I, no joke, ate it every single day for an entire week. My pants are too tight but my heart is very full.

Wearing:

I was fulfilling dreams left and right in California (they do say something about dreamin’ there…). I bought myself the jumpsuit I’ve been pining over for a year, maybe two at this point. Big Bud Press: they really know fit, detail, and COLOR. It was hard to choose just one. The winner was mustang red. I also bought their pants in royal blue. Both have gotten lots of wear and lots of compliments. I will love them forever. I can’t wait for some wild color block outfit combinations.

Watching:

TV: Too quickly I watched the entirety of Friends From College and rewatched the last 3 seasons of Sex and the City. I’m ready to get back into the deeper stuff like new True Detective and High Maintenance.

Movies: On Christmas Eve I watched Love Actually (on an airplane) and Die Hard (when at my final destination while eating Chinese food and birthday cake). I’ve also recently seen Little Odessa (love Tim Roth) and In the Realm of the Senses (disturbing and… more disturbing).

“In the fact-based 1930s drama, streetwalker-turned-maid Eiko Matsuda hooks up with innkeeper Tatsuya Fuji; he leaves his wife and family for her, yet this only further inflames her obsession with him. The intense depictions of copulation and the couple’s fate will disturb even those familiar with the story.” (image via quad cinema)

Treasuring:

Connections: The last few weeks have been full of ups and downs. New, fabulous humans. Old, supportive folks. Friends and family, companions and strangers. Death and birth. Sadness and joy. Exhaustion and exhilaration. Stress and hope. But in the end, I’ve been squeezing my friends tighter and glad for everything around me. Definitely always say yes to friends and squeeze them as tight as you can.

I can’t remember where I found this, but I love it.