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Joe’s 26
Today is Joe’s 26th birthday. I am daily wowed at his well of energy and delight in new projects, hurdles, and ways to have adventures. As you might know, our early wuve story charted on graph paper looks like a rough year for the stock market. Two months into dating, I decided we were not meant for each other and refused to date him for three years. Finally, after he graduated our mutual alma mater, I realized I missed him terribly, called him up (in a Hobby Lobby parking lot) to try again and, I’m still amazed this happened, he said Sure (it was a wary Sure). I wish I had known him in high school, maybe I would have picked up the way he jumps into assignments and projects and makes every one of them a new chance to do something interesting. Sometime it turns out to be just a silly lark, sometimes it turns out to be a feature article in a MIT Press volume. Either way, I’m watching and learning and delighted to be along for the ride.
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October Sunday
On Saturday night Joe and I were casually doing research about how to spend our Sunday afternoon when we learned Sunday was the absolute last day we could pick our own apples. Urgent message. As we all know, Midwestern and Easterners agree that if you didn’t pick your own autumn apples you might as well not live here at all. A colonial dame you are not.
On the other hand, as a young couple we have never really partaken in that other autumnal thing: pumpkins.
At the orchard: a chicken royale.
Russell Orchards really knows how to work their barn aesthetic.
Discovered Edible Boston‘s new issue. So pretty. They use matte paper and lots of colors which just feels classy. I would like to write an article for them someday.
What should I make with all these apples? Why does our hunter-gather instinct kick in so much that we have to restrain ourselves from racing to pick dozen of apples when most recipes request around four apples? How about cheddar and apple scones from the smitten kitten? I mean kitchen. Kitchen.
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Got a Haircut
Do you ever get a haircut, and halfway through you think to yourself, “So when am I going to start looking like Katie Holmes?”
This haircut turned out entirely different than I imagined, (namely, much longer). But as Joe says, I can always go back next week.
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Loving Us
Thank you very much, I like to go to independent coffeehouses where my money is going directly back into the local economy and the…what? Oh, it’s gold? And it will have my name on it? Wow. That sounds amazing.
Have you joined Starbucks in their antics to just plain like you more? Joe and I just did. (There are three Starbucks within a five minute walk from our apartment. And one independent that makes a lousy cappuccino.) So far I’m 35 visits away from the bling-in-the-wallet. But I’m fascinated by the idea. What other company would you like to see this type of thing from? For me, it would be gas stations. What is it with gas stations and refusing to make anything to do with them actually fun? You know–playlists at the pump, free Icee on return visits, popcorn for the kids, etc. How about a little customer love, guys.
Photo by SoopahViv.
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Squirrel Seeks One Dark Humored Nut
Allie nicely proposed I return to these pages with an update about how David Sedaris’s new book and I got along. If you like grisly humor, heavily anthropomorphized animals, and riffs on the absurdity of moral social structures, you’ll love it. I finished each chapter with a wrinkled nose and a faint, creeping sense of gagging. Take the story of the lamb and the crow. The crow chats the lamb up, suggests she try mediation to pass some time, and darts in for the lamb’s baby’s eyeballs while the ewe happily takes the crow’s advice. Not my type of visual.
David Sedaris has always hinted that he obsessives over the macabre – illustrated books of obscure anatomy, the fine art of taxidermy. So it’s really not a surprise that the “delightful” in his mind is more delightful grotesque than delightfully lovely. The stories also rely heavily on the idea that imagining animals doing really human things – like conniving or gossiping – is reliably funny.
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is a sold as a bestiary, an old word that means a collection of tales about beasts that is vaguely moralizing. They printed it to be a gift-save-it-for-the-grandchildren book (probably ironically), so the paper is heavy, it’s size-cute, full of illustrations by Ian Falconer (who illustrated the Olivia children’s series, if you’re wondering where you’ve seen that grayscale + one vivid color combo before) and the font is big. It sells for $21.99 (which is not a very ironic price, really, is it?).
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Watched: Bonnie and Clyde
Finally got Bonnie & Clyde from the ol’ Netflix and innocently put it in the laptop to watch. Wow! What a beauty Faye Dunaway turns out to be. I finally understood why people are always talking about it as fashion inspiration. And the boys liked the feisty bank robbings and gun fights. A real crowd pleaser, this one.
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Missed Connections
One of my post-college roommates was a Craigslist Missed Connections obsessor. She’d check them over every day, and occasionally read them aloud to me. They always seemed romantic, or at least dashingly honest. I think Sophie Blackwell illustrations of them are genius. The combination of her watercolors and script and someone else’s passing thought is so “what are we doing here anyway?” Whenever I ride the Boston T, it seems like all of us will never notice each other or the passing breeze of serendipity ever again. But evidently, at least according to the Missed Connections section, people are still paying attention.
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white + black
What a lovely photo for a product line! I spotted it in this past Sunday’s NY Times. It’s the new tabletop line by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. If you saw Objectified, you’ll remember they were those adorable brothers with messy hair and gray & blue clothes.
see? Adorable.
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Sunday
For the first time in 4 1/2 months we don’t have to open the market, but we made it to our restaurant of choice too late for brunch. What? We clicked the dust off our heels from that restaurant and went somewhere else. This summer I learned about rimming the glass with Old Bay (wow!) and the Bloody Maria–replacing the vodka with tequila. Partners & Spade picks a cucumber for their recipe, what’s your bloody mary garnish of choice?
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Reading lately?
I’ve been trudging though Light in August by William Faulkner (which sounds so nice, doesn’t it?) and had to put it down because I was getting depressed. I loved the new be-seen-reading novel Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and read it in a week. I was lucky enough to take a plane ride right after it came out and got to cradle it to myself the whole time and glared at the attendants when they interrupted me (“yes, I’ll take a bloody mary, please. *sigh* yes I have my ID.”). Franzen writes like John Updike did—attempting to sum up whole generations and complicated stories. His characters always stick with me. Next up: David Sedaris’ new book, and his first ever fiction, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. I was getting a little sick of the “this is a true story” bit, and I’m looking forward to reading something unabashedly made up by him. And then (!) Nora Ephron’s memoir I Remember Nothing. I love the way she writes. I read I Feel Bad about My Neck like three times. She is my writing icon. Comes out November 9th.
Photo is an old Kate Spade ad, of course.
