five good things

Do you guys think Niecy Nash is a drag queen? A little bit I do.

ANYWAY.

1. Ask and you shall receive: my jury duty got cancelled today, which means I’ve got myself an unexpected Friday off, and it is seventy degrees outside. Am erranding, thrifting, planting, writing, baking, and generally bringing the funk. Happy, happy.

2. Tom, in conversation last night: “He didn’t believe me, because he doesn’t know what a maniac you are.” Also we went for a walk to Carson Beach and I told him all about how when I was in seventh grade we acted out the Stations of the Cross and all the robes smelled like the kids who had worn them before you and this girl in my class made up R-rated lyrics to “We You There When They Crucified my Lord,” and Tom went to Catholic school too and he knew exactly what I was talking about.

3. An Education: completely lovely and affecting even though it stars Creepy Peter Saarsgard as Creepy Peter Saarsgard. Plus it really made me want to get a spiffy dress and some Audrey Hepburn sunglasses and jet over to Paris for a little while and practice being fabulous.

4. I mentioned last week that I was jonesing for prints for the kitchen. Thanks to everybody for your suggestions–Kim, especially, was a total Soldier of Art. I was looking for something that elicited some kind of gut happiness, and I’m delighted to report that the 8×10  prints by NayArts had me throwing my head back and dying of glee. I bought five of them, and cannot wait until my kitchen walls are adorned with reminders like “I love banjo music” and “Let’s pretend we are secret agents.”

5.. My tax refund is enough for a plane ticket to London in the fall. I’M JUST SAYING.

Okay. I’m going outside now.

1. You GUYS, it is 72 degrees in Boston today. Last weekend I was wearing my winter coat, and this morning I went to brunch (Greek omelette with feta and olives, what what) in shorts and flip-flops. New England is so incredibly weird and awesome sometimes. It’s supposed to be forty and rainy on Monday, but that is A-okay.

2. Who has two thumbs and froze six quarts of chicken stock this week? THIS GUY. I put it in fancy jars and everything. Come over and we’ll cook some dinner.

3. Teaching myself to make marshmallow tomorrow for book club (at least, that is the hope. Otherwise, I will be teaching myself to buy a giant bag of Kraft Jet Puffed). Our theme is BBQ. I’m bringing the s’mores.

4. Tom telling me we should go ahead and sell the extra sofa on Craigslist and put the money toward this desk from Pottery Barn, which has literally been my dream writing desk since before I met him in 2002. You have to be pretty nerdy to have a dream writing desk. I am pretty nerdy.

5. I’m off to go sit on the deck and read for awhile until it’s time to go meet Abbey for cocktails. I reckon I might just wear a dress.

Happy weekend, loves.

1. It has been freakishly warm here. I know that makes Al Gore really upset, and it makes me really upset too in theory, but I can tell you that I did not feel upset at all this morning when I left the house in an unbuttoned jacket and bought an iced coffee at the weird shady variety store by the bus stop. I did not feel upset at ALL.

2. Media I have been absolutely loving this week: Romancing the Stone, the first season of The Wire, Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen, Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie, Carrie Underwood Pandora, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe by Vincent Van Gogh (ALSO, did you know there is a theory among scholars that Paul Gauguin is actually the one who cut Van Gogh’s ear off? And Vince had acted like a jerk that day or something, so he was all, “Uh, yeah, I did it myself”?), and the new episode of Lost (which made me cry twice because I am a sucker for cyclical storytelling and also slow motion montages).

3. Late-night trips to Target and economy-sized boxes of Cheerios, plus a Starbucks to hold while you wander around.

4. Did I tell you that I made Deb’s Banana Bread before I left on vacation? And that it was AMAZING but I only ate one crumb of it because the whole point of making it was to get all the food out of my house because I didn’t want it to go bad while I was away? Anyway, I am totally making it again tonight as part of my “Hell yeah I am a hermit, I do what I WANT” Friday Night In. Also on the docket: beet and goat cheese salad, and a nap on the couch.

5. There are two brunches and a night on the town with the book clubbers in my immediate future. I anticipate a bitchin’ time.

Word. Happy Friday.

001. UH, excuse me, did you know that this was a thing?

If you did, WHY have you not told me about it? Whatever, it doesn’t matter, I can’t even be bothered to muster up any anger, because I am too busy imagining myself on the day I get home from Mexico with half gallons of all three flavors (YES, they make Tagalong kind and Thin Mint kind also, I KNOW) and a tablespoon. Or a trowel.

002. It is FRIDAY, which could theoretically be on the list every week, but this week in particular it means Thai with Abbey and Mari, followed by brunch with Haney and dinner with Leslie and BOOK CLUB (I’m making a key lime pie with a coconut topping, because the theme of my book club this month is “margaritas”. See also: my book club is awesome) and trying to navigate some computer stuff and PACKING and maybe an art project because I am feeling itchy that way and maybe The Wackness, which I got from Netflix but am not terribly optimistic about. Anyway, the point is, today is the mother of all Fridays, and I am so glad to wave it a hello.

003. Tom picked me up at the T last night because it was pouring rain and I was soaking wet and bedraggled, even though it meant losing his Hollywood parking spot in front of the house, which like, if you know Tom, he takes his parking spots REALLY SERIOUSLY. And then he listened to me talk about how I am going to invent hand socks all the way home (HAND SOCKS: the wave of the future. One day I will tell you all about my plan for them. And also how I want to start a Boston-based cold weather accessory company called Witch’s T*t that sells both hand socks and winter hats with ponytail holes in the back. But that day is not TOday).

004. Bethany: Game Change is awesome and smarmy and SO SCANDALOUS. I love so much about the things it chooses to be.  Also it says the nastiest things about Elizabeth Edwards, and I LOVE Elizabeth Edwards, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know what a crazy biotch she really is. And it totally confirms Michelle’s status as Our Number One Awesome No Bullshit Heroine Tied With Beyonce and Lady Gaga.

005. My sister is seeing John Mayer tonight. I told her to make sure and call me during the good parts, though I probably didn’t need to. We have been calling each other during the good parts for 22 years.

1. I wiped out HARD CORE on some ice outside my apartment this morning (I mean, of course I did), but my coffee emerged completely upright and unscathed. Amazing, right? My knee might be sporting a purple bump the size of a golf ball, but I am happily caffeinated, and clearly that is all that matters. Plus I think bruises make me look kind of badass. At least that’s what I tell myself when I fall down.

2. Nefarious sidewalk glaciers not withstanding, I got my first whiff of spring last night. It was still kind of light when I got home, and everything on the street smelled fresh and wet. It’s coming. I just know it. Am imagining flowers and herbs and garden parties in preparation. Which reminds me: does anybody out there have a recommendation for a good book about container gardening? Am determined that THIS will be the year I don’t kill everything I try to grow.

3. “Making shapes” is a Tom expression. It means getting a move on. “Ooh, it’s late. I gotta make shapes.” Or “I made real shapes on that project today.” In any case, I may or may not have made serious writing shapes yesterday, and even if nothing comes of it I am feeling pretty good. I love the smell of productivity in the morning, and all that.

4. Speaking of Tom, he is turning twenty-five on Sunday. You guys. My boyfriend is a quarter-century old. Yowza. To celebrate: steak and eggs brunch at our house tomorrow morning, followed by a fancy dinner one night next week. He’s a nerd so he’s working on his birthday. I might or might not bring him some cupcakes.

5. Two weeks from today I will be sitting on a beach in Mexico, drinking Coronas and sunning myself, possibly with one of those big reflective cardboard things girls used in the eighties. If that isn’t good news, then I just don’t know what is.

Happy weekend! Also, thanks for all your sweetness about my secret lives. I so loved reading about yours.

001. I’m going to New York tonight! I’m going to love on my sister and brunch with my best girls and laugh my ass off at Dear John and drink large quantities of Jaques Torres hot chocolate without one ounce of guilt and wear a pair of fierce high heels all over the effing place, snow be damned. PLUS Tom is going to meet me down there on Sunday for romantic Valentine’s-type festivities. AND I have the first Harry Potter loaded onto my phone for the bus ride. I have never read any of the Harrys, can you imagine?

002. Speaking of Tom, he got a new car this week and it is HUGE inside and looks like a spaceship. Am a fan of riding shotgun and messing with the radio presets. Also speaking of Tom, last night he out of the blue referenced something I said on this blog like two weeks ago, and I almost fell out of my chair: I had no idea he was reading it. Which, by the way, is classic Tom-style.  So…hello, sir. It’s nice to have you aboard.

003. I went into Marshall’s last night in search of a pair of nude fishnet hose (done and done–thank you, Jessica Simpson, I’m sorry John Mayer said those crass things about your sexual proclivities, and I’m sorry I laughed so hard when I read about them on the Huffington Post) and walked out fifteen minutes later with three new tops. Impulse buys for sure, but rather fantastic ones, if I do say so myself.

004. IT IS OLYMPICS DAY. And that’s all I have to say about that. Except: the degree to which I love pairs figure skating is only one more reason on the long list of reasons I will never be cool.

005. I may or may not be eating cereal and watching Arrested Development on Hulu.

Happy long weekend. Find somebody and smooch ’em.

1. Thanks to everybody who chimed in about the long dress dilemma! After all that drama and flail, they didn’t even have my size in the long one, so I went ahead and ordered this:

in a deep, plummy purple. Hopefully it won’t make me look creepily pregnant, as J.Crew dresses have been known to do. Speaking of which (looking weird, not being pregnant. Didn’t mean to scare you, Dad!), I also bought a bathing suit this week, and have since eaten absolutely nothing worth talking about. Noticed a lack of tasty cookie recipes on this blog recently? YEAH THAT’S WHY. Luckily, vodka is very low in calories, so…crisis averted!

2. It is census time! I LOVE THE CENSUS. I’m sorry but I do. It’s so orderly! And also makes me feel like I’m in the Bible, ridin’ a donkey back home so I can get myself counted. A giant roll call, if you will.

3. Currently reading: Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, which has already made me cry on the T once so far. It’s not great literature, but I love all the moral complexity and how distinct the voices of all the different narrators are. Worth checking out, for sure. Anyway, I had to take a break from the Pulitzer project when I realized I hadn’t picked up a book in three weeks.

4. Tom and I are spending Valentine’s Day in Manhattan, which means I’ve spent this week clicking through approximately one million restaurant websites. I love trip-planning. Anybody out there have can’t-miss suggestions for drinks and dessert in New York?

5. Lost comes back on Tuesday, and I’m all spastic about it. Look for a giant flaily maudlin TV post next week.

Happy Weekend, kittens! I’m off to hang out with my mom.

1. We have reached the portion of our program where I start listening to a whole lot of Dave Matthews in order to avoid falling into a bottomless grey pit of sloppy winter despair. Hard to feel blue when you’re tromping down the street in your snowboots, rocking out to Listener Supported. Also, in a related story: the other night while cleaning out the fridge Tom made up a new song to the tune of  “Don’t Drink the Water” called “Don’t Eat the Roast Beef.” I may have peed my pants a little.

2. American Idol. I’ve probably told you before how much I love this show–the music and the joy and the fact that it starts every year in frigid January darkness and rushes full steam ahead until my birthday in May. Carrie Underwood. The golden tickets. That kid with the two broken arms. The distinctly American quality of the (supposedly democratic but possibly rigged) process. Simon Cowell’s  gross chest hair. The bridge jumper from Tennessee. Michael Jackson night. Everything about Kara Dioguardi.

3. My dad sent me the hugest, loveliest bouquet of tea roses yesterday, all pinks and oranges and yellows. Thanks, Dad! You’re a peach. (Pictures to come.)

4.  I did not turn the oven on once this whole week. It wasn’t on purpose or anything–things just kind of shook out that way. And you know what? I kind of liked it. I could get used to this whole “takeout and restaurants” thing.

5. We have houseguests this weekend! Woot.

Oh hello, Friday!

So…2010 is amazing so far?  Seriously, it’s off to such a bitchin’ start I’m almost afraid to talk about it.  But I’m gonna anyway.

001. You GUYS, I tricked another magazine into publishing my fiction. Looks like you’ll be able to find me in the January 2010 issue of The Broadkill Review. The story’s about a bakery and SECRET LOVE, which if you have ever met me (and probably even if you haven’t) you know are basically my two favorite things in all the world. I’m just saying, it’s nice to be able to share those passions with the population at large.

002. Speaking of writer-type stuff, my awesome former roommate Rebecca has super-graciously asked me to be a part of the 2010 Writer’s Challenge, a blog that encourages (wait for it) either 10 or 20 (or 20 or 10) minutes of honest-to-goodness creative output every day this year. Stop by each morning for a different writing prompt to get you started. And, you know. Tell your friends.

003. I made chili last night, and OH MY GOODNESS it was the best thing I’ve eaten since I got back to Boston. I can’t even take any real credit for it, since my chili recipe is as follows: 1) chop onion and peppers 2) open various cans and jars 3) dump everything into dutch oven and cook. BUT STILL.  Tom and I were happy puppies.

004. My hair is a really good length right now. I’m sorry but it is. I think I’ve got another few weeks before I start looking like I should be on The Jersey Shore, and in the meantime I am living it up.

005. I posted awhile back about Micaela and her awesome Pay It Forward challenge, and I am totally delighted to report that I got my package in the mail earlier this week. IT WAS SO GREAT. Among the bounty: a delicious-smelling candle + a coffee mug + the sweetest little clutch purse you ever saw. I nearly swooned. Thank you so much, M, and congratulations on your engagement! You are a star.

OKAY. I’m off to do work and eat leftovers and smile at everyone I see. Happy weekend, doves.