I sit at the table in the food court in Flushing, unfamiliar yet comforting smells and sounds swirling around me. Directly across from me sits a pretty young woman, earbuds in, absorbed in her reading as she deftly makes her way through her bowl of slippery noodles with her chopsticks. My own deftness is lacking, and I wince internally whenever I drop a particularly large noodle back into my soup, and glance at her surreptitiously to make sure I haven’t…
Well, here I am, tucked into my cozy little Airbnb room late at night, my first night alone in NYC. My lands, it has been a crazy past few weeks. I have found gray hairs all over my head (Well, I found one on each side and one in the middle, that counts as all over right? I mean, I’d only ever had one before that, so three new ones is a lot for me!) and I have basically spent…
Dear Packing, I know people aren’t supposed to like packing, but there is something about fitting everything just so into a box that is immensely satisfying to me. I guess it’s like solving a puzzle, which is one of the best Sunday evening activities (I know, I’m 85). It sure makes this whole moving process a lot easier, all except the books. I started packing my books three times before I could leave them in the box. I’m just gonna…
So there’s something you should know… …In case you didn’t know already. It’s true- this pineapple is gonna go find some New York City stripes. And yes, I’m as surprised as you are. The whole thing is a massive series of surprising events for me. I’ve been dreaming about living in the city for so long that I’m pretty sure I won’t think it’s real until several weeks in when I’m sitting on my lumpy bed eating cabbage and nothing…
I leafed through my February issue of Bon Appetit, looking for something to make that I wouldn’t have to shop for, something I magically had all the ingredients for. And then I stumbled upon the Arctic Char Tostadas, which can also be made with salmon, a fish which was lurking in my very own freezer. “Aha!” I thought, “Something I can whip up out of my own larder.” Well. Three grocery runs later, I finally gave up trying to get…
I’m sitting at my favorite local coffee shop- favorite because it’s actually open until a decent hour of the evening unlike most shops. I can loiter here till almost midnight if I please, which is just my cup of tea. And I’m having a cup of tea, or actually a whole pot of tea, and a double-chocolate cookie the size of my face to balance out all the healthy effects the tea might have on me. I’m a firm believer…
Update: We have winners! Congrats to Alyssa R for winning Mansfield Park, Vanya for winning Garlic and Sapphires, and Shianne Kropf for winning Canterbury Tales. The only thing more fun than finding a perfectly delicious book is forcing all your friends to read it as well. (Don’t ask my friends if I am annoying this way; I already know the answer.) Anyway, I think my friends’ “To-Read” lists are all quite long enough, so there’s nothing left to do but…
In November I had the opportunity to pack myself into a car with four other people and drive the many hours first to Bainbridge New York, then down to Queens for several days to practice my au pair skills with Roman and Mimi on their business trip. Now, spending 24 hours in a car with two kiddies and then babysitting them for several days in a wee New York apartment may not sound like the most fun to you, but I…
It feels like sitting in front of a screen, wondering about the meaning of life, and not being able to put any of it into words. It feels like endless rabbit trails of researching the effects of SPF and watching screaming goat videos and taking stupid quizzes to see what kind of pizza topping I am most like in order to avoid opening my drafts and working. It feels like browsing the explore tab on Instagram to avoid even writing…
One of my goals for 2018 was to read or get rid of all the unread books in my library, with the exception of a couple reference books, and a wee French book I have, because je ne parle pas francais. It was a hefty stack, although some of them were gotten out of the way in short order, such as the treasury of Beatrix Potter. I really couldn’t help myself from throwing some additional ones into the mix, so…
There are a lot of things I think people should stop arguing about because they’re stupid and divisive and less consequential than we think. Many hills I don’t think are worth dying on, as it were. But there are some things I feel very strongly about, namely, good literature, a good bed, and good pickles. Enter Bon Appetit’s December/January issue. Now, you might expect a Christmas issue of a food magazine to be full of hams and sweets, and while…
There is a common misconception regarding many love songs and romantic books, and today, I’d like to set the record straight. When reading or listening to these, many people have misattributed who the writer was talking to or about, but it’s time the truth comes out. Let’s look at a few examples: “I have struggled in vain and I can bear it no longer. These past [hours] have been a torment… I have fought against my better judgment, my…