Ba dum bum.
Grasshopper walks into a bar. Bartender says, “Hey, we’ve got a drink named after you!”
Grasshopper says, “You’ve got a drink called Steve?”
Uncategorized
Monday Funday
We have a standing Monday night double date with R & A, former roommates and bartenders extraordinaire. Sometimes we’ll head out for drinks or a movie, but in the summer we usually wind up on the roof, stuffing our faces and trying to outclimb the damp, nasty heat. Last night we did dinner for eight: a whole chicken on the grill (why yes I am awesome, thank you), three bean salad with tomatoes and corn, and peaches and goat cheese with candied walnuts over baby spinach.
The lovely L, who I’m only just getting to know, brought the prettiest tomato mozzarella salad ever, and we finished off with s’more pie which we ate too fast for me to photograph, which is a shame because the one on the website looks kind of twee. Anyway, it was good and easy and no-bake, and if you like s’mores and happiness and have some stale graham crackers lying around your kitchen, you should try it out.
More Militerry Less Skools
Because we are lazy beyond comprehension and I hate us, it took Tom and me until THE LAST POSSIBLE DAY to make it to the Shepard Fairey Show at the ICA.
You know, the one I talked about going to back in February. At the museum that is within walking distance of our apartment.
Anyway. We got there. And I have to say, it was so worth the trip. It’s all cool and trendy to like Shepard Fairey right now if you live in Boston (or, I guess, if you live in the White House), but the whole business was just super cool and accessible and visually striking, stencils and bold colors and crazy re-imaginings of images you see every. Single. Day.
Obey Giant.
Love Story
Dear President Obama,
I don’t know if you know this, but back in November you won the election, and we were VERY EXCITED ABOUT IT.
It was a romantic-comedy fairy tale if there ever was one, complete with meeting cute and a montage of us frollicking in the park while Sara Bariellies played in the background and a happily, happily, happily ever after. You stood outside our window with a boom box. You made us want to be a better man. We flew across the country to meet you at the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day. Nora Ephron couldn’t have written it better.
Six months later, we’re hitting a little bit of a rough patch. We still love each other, obvs–how could we not? But now instead of us running along the river and canoodling at Starbucks, the montage is of you eating dinner alone, us staying at the office until all hours, one side of the bed unslept in. Probably the song is by Iron and Wine or some other sad sack band.
Maybe we grind our teeth at night and it keeps you awake. Maybe we hate your friends. Maybe sometimes you try and try and try to explain to us very patiently about universal health care and WE WILL NOT LISTEN BECAUSE WE ARE NITWITS. We argue, and we shout, and we get backed into corners and lose our patience and have to go outside in the backyard and smoke a cigarette because are fighting so loudly the neighbors are starting to peek over the fence. Our sassy girlfriend wants us to kick you to the curb. Your buddies think we’re more trouble than we’re worth.
It’s okay.
The honeymoon is over, that’s all. Now comes the real relationship. The part where we talk and compromise and try to make it work because we kind of dig each other, because we think it means something, because we’re better together than we’ve been apart.
Don’t give up on us, okay? We won’t give up on you.
Also, we’d really like it if we could be played by Sandra Bullock.
Five Good Things: Run This Town Edition
1. Being home, finally, for more than a couple of days at a stretch. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks feeling completely disconnected from my life, and I’m excited to spend some time with her. For the weekend: a trip to Crane Beach, Shakespeare on the Common, and (finally, finally, by the skin of our teeth before it closes) the Shepherd Fairey show at the ICA.
2. A boyfriend who will pick you up at the airport, listen to your familial histrionics, then sit in bed and watch TV at a low volume when you pass out at ten o’clock. Also who did the grocery shopping while you were gone.
3. That episode of Saved by the Bell where Slater randomly has a sister who comes to visit and Zack likes her and they have a sock hop and sing “Come Go With Me”. You know which one I mean? That is like my favorite 22 minutes of television of all time, ever.
4. Getting up early and completing a small project well.
5. Gratuitous hip hop jam of the week! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-QT5pIjygA]
Turn Turn Turn
My Great Aunt Betty died on Monday. She was 93, and had four children, and loved to laugh. She helped raise my father when his own mother died, and so in that way I guess she helped raise me, too.
I spent the week with my family in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, trying to figure out where it is that I am from.
Hey Miss American Girl
I have these girlfriends. We dig each other a lot.
When we are together, which is not often enough, we do a lot of eating.
And drinking.
And loving on each other.
I am because you are, chickens. You are all across the country, and you are safe right here with me.
(Photos gakked from M. That’s me in the sunglasses in every single picture. Sometimes I like to act famous.)
Five Good Things: Summer Vacation Edition
1. SiriusXM Love. You GUYS. Have I talked to you about this already? It’s a whole station devoted to the great ballads of 70s, 80s, and 90s. It’s amazing. They play Celine Dion every minute. Also, “Lady in Red”. Also, a benefit of keeping it on constantly is that sometimes you get to listen to your sister sing “Can’t Stop Loving You” while she tries to cut the tape on a FedEx box with an unsharpened pencil because she couldn’t find the scissors.
2. How when Tom says, “I made dinner,” he means “I made Bagel Bites,” and even though I am not supposed to find that kind of thing charming, I actually really do. Plus he always shares the Bagel Bites.
3. Bill Clinton doing that awesome thing he did this week. I mean, yes clearly Bill Clinton is a dirty old man, but he is a dirty old man who knocked on the door of North Korea and said, “I think you have something that belongs to us.” I freaking love Bill Clinton. There I said it.
4. S t r e t c h i n g. If I know you in real life then odds are I have already whined to you about this, but I’m having all this weirdness with my joints and muscles and basically my whole BODY is a crappity old rubber band you found in your great aunt’s desk and it is kind of papery and has no give left to it at all and when you try to put it around the mail it SNAPS. So…I’m trying to fix that. Toe-touching, breath-taking. You know.
5. Making the most of this long damp summer of ours.
