tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71775123021206523502024-03-08T06:33:53.855-05:00Pies Etc.A celebration of life, love, and the pursuit of pie.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.comBlogger317125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-4006426027123765412016-12-15T07:30:00.000-05:002016-12-15T07:30:16.733-05:00status update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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December 2016 shall henceforth be known as the month I became Very Boring. After months of frustrating unemployment interspersed with exciting travel to exotic places, I finally took a perfectly acceptable temp job at a Real Company. It's a very dry temp job though. I spend my days staring at spread sheets and sending follow-up emails and tracking misplaced pieces of paper, and though I get a full hour for lunch during which I take a brisk walk around midtown, I sit right back down in my cubicle at 1:15pm each day to reacquaint myself with those darn spreadsheets. It's a good change of pace for me though. I'm finally learning what having an actual office job is like (answer: dull, but they give you things like free flavored coffee and a whole swivel chair to yourself), and it's been a relief to take a pause on the ole' job search. I've also used this time to take a pause on the ole' blog posts, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I have a list of posts I want to write - I have honeymoon pictures to share, a whole wedding to process, and lest I forget the idyllic Thanksgiving weekend we recently spent with friends in Palm Springs. On the other hand, I've been putting a lot of my spare time and energy into my <u><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/maryspadonidesigns" target="_blank">Etsy shop</a></u> which I've found to be a much-needed push into a different creative direction. So who knows? Maybe I'll come back from this little break with a million more words to write, maybe I won't. What I do know is that the holidays are almost here, I don't have a white dress to fit into anymore, and yes I will have a second helping of Christmas Day Lasagna. Stay cozy, my friends.<br />
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- Make <u><a href="https://www.themuse.com/advice/48-questions-thatll-make-awkward-small-talk-so-much-easier?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_20161213&utm_source=blueshift&utm_content=daily_tuesday_fullarticle&bsft_eid=74a07b4b-c919-4ad5-850a-6f9e6487c906&bsft_clkid=e1baec16-d330-4abe-9cfa-e5f75f89fe2f&bsft_uid=c86e8475-a179-4289-875b-17632a358fb8&bsft_mid=65953a30-6046-4ec8-83ae-0e884a50e280" target="_blank">good talk</a></u> not small talk<br />
- <u><a href="https://www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/new-york/mta-resumes-w-subway-train-service-in-nyc" target="_blank">Welcome back</a></u><br />
- <u><a href="http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/are-semester-abroad-accents-real-or-fake?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=ddc77db74f-Newsletter_12_1_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-ddc77db74f-63391465&ct=t(Newsletter_12_1_2016)&mc_cid=ddc77db74f&mc_eid=62e11cea44" target="_blank">Guilty as charged</a></u><br />
- This might be my <u><a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/116001370/sideways-initial-necklace-initial" target="_blank">Christmas present</a></u> to myself<br />
- A quick, easy, and winning <u><a href="http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-broccolini-chicken-sausage-and-orzo-skillet-234135" target="_blank">weeknight dinner</a></u><br />
- <u><a href="http://imgur.com/7xHaUXf" target="_blank">Check yourself</a></u> before you wreck yourself<br />
- Between the holiday gift exchanges and my burning desire to wrap myself up in a blanket and hibernate for the <strike>next four years</strike> rest of winter, I thought it best to invest in a <u><a href="http://www.shop5thandmadison.com/greenwich-classic-white-single-wood-wick-collection/" target="_blank">few new candles</a></u><br />
<br />Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-73679032035247239542016-11-15T07:30:00.000-05:002016-11-15T07:30:30.228-05:00status update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Welp, this month has been a doozy of emotions. There was that whole depressing/upsetting/baffling election debacle that I'm still not over (not even close), but I also spent two glorious weeks on a boat in southern Europe AND the cubs won the world series. So I'm in a quandary: how do I reconcile the fact that the world is (probably) going to hell in a hand basket and still take such pleasure in remembering some of the happiest times of my life (wedding, honeymoon, world series)? Is it wrong to post pictures and think, aw that was so fun! while we collectively have so. much. work to do to turn this country into one of peace and respect? Oy. I don't know. There must be a middle ground between dwelling on the negative and blithely skipping though life, pumpkin spice latte in hand. What I do know, however, is that these questions are not going to be answered quickly or entirely by me. So in the mean time I will take long walks with friends through crunchy fall leaves, spend way too much time planning extensive Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving meals, and cozy up with as much tea and bad tv as I possibly can without actually becoming one with my couch. Be well, my dears.<br />
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*I already bought my <u><a href="https://riflepaperco.com/shop/calendars/2017-constellations-wall-calendar/" target="_blank">2017 calendar</a></u>, but this was a <u><a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/252146940/2017-wall-calendar-colors-i?ref=shop_home_active_2" target="_blank">close 2nd</a></u><br />
*<u><a href="https://www.buubble.com/" target="_blank">You can sleep in a bubble!!</a></u><br />
*I love me some trial sized anything and <u><a href="https://www.keapbk.com/products/scent-to-home" target="_blank">this</a></u> might be my next indulgence purchase<br />
*It's been a time for comfort food and I've been making <u><a href="http://www.cookingclassy.com/slow-cooker-chicken-noodle-soup/" target="_blank">chicken soup</a></u> on repeat<br />
*Didn't think an ESPN article could make you cry? <u><a href="http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17961684/chicago-cubs-fans-celebrate-game-7-victory-mourn-missed-out" target="_blank">Think again.</a></u><br />
*<u><a href="https://medium.com/@kimfrancenyc/this-is-not-my-beautiful-house-899180e993cf#.ddh4tu1n3" target="_blank">Heartbreaking</a></u><br />
*I could stare at <u><a href="http://thierrycohen.com/pages/work/starlights.html" target="_blank">these</a></u> all day<br />
*<u><a href="https://www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/new-york/mta-resumes-w-subway-train-service-in-nyc" target="_blank">Welcome back </a></u><br />
*I don't know what I'm doing so obviously I opened <u><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/maryspadonidesigns" target="_blank">my very own etsy shop</a></u> (!)Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-34081719487020365562016-11-12T08:00:00.000-05:002016-11-12T08:00:30.269-05:00we're all in this together<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Ok, so this week didn't turn out exactly like we had hoped. I was all ready to wax poetic about glass ceilings and historical moments while recalling the spirit of Sister Joan, the super-liberal nun who taught me world history in high school and kept a giant poster of Rosie the Riveter outside her classroom. I was preparing to babble on about how tears sprang to my eyes as I filled in the bubble next to who I thought was going to be the first female president and how I blasted Beyoncé as I walked down the street and how I kept thinking about what a privilege it is to be a woman in this country and have the right to vote. I mean, I now have 12 (twelve!!) Vote for Her buttons that I have no idea what to do with, for god's sake. But that post will remain unwritten, at least for the next four years (or 1,452 days to be exact...but who's counting?). Until then, we need to grieve and to commiserate. We need to let ourselves be baffled and confused. We need to allow the anger and hurt that's bubbling inside of us be let out, but we need to do all of these things together and productively. We cannot perpetuate the hate. We cannot shut out those we do not understand. We must create lines of dialogue and open conversations no matter how hard that may be. We need to look our cousins (or brothers or aunts or mother's best friend's sisters) in the eye and empathize with their frustrations and work to understand why they voted the way they did. And then we need to rally and get our sh!t together and never let this happen again.<br />
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Tomes have already been written in an attempt to unpack this election, but to help you sift though them all here are a few articles that have helped me the most:<br />
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*<u><a href="http://www.readingmytealeaves.com/2016/11/what-will-i-tell-my-children.html" target="_blank">What Will I Tell My Children?</a></u><br />
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*<u><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/11/aaron-sorkin-donald-trump-president-letter-daughter" target="_blank">Dear daughters</a></u><br />
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*A huge part of <u><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/how_journalists_failed_in_2016_and_what_we_must_do_to_cover_president_trump.html" target="_blank">why I'm angry</a></u><br />
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*Channel that anger into something good - <u><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/how_liberals_can_channel_their_post_election_anxiety_into_action.html" target="_blank">this</a></u> and <u><a href="https://www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/new-york/volunteer-opportunities-in-nyc-for-groups-individuals" target="_blank">this</a></u> can help you figure out your next step<br />
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*<u><a href="http://www.vox.com/presidential-election/2016/11/10/13586322/trump-brexit-safety-pin" target="_blank">Wear a safety pin</a></u><br />
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*<u><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/womans-best-friend?utm_term=.hapdOr4Y#.wdnRP6KB" target="_blank">She's gonna be ok</a></u><br />
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*And finally, <u><a href="http://www.gifbin.com/981126" target="_blank">something silly</a></u> because we need to laughMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-10093913497099700862016-11-07T07:30:00.000-05:002016-11-07T07:30:23.429-05:00I'm with her<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm with her because in grade school my gym teacher yelled that I "run like a girl" as if it were a bad thing.<br />
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I'm with her because in college I asked to borrow a friend's car and was denied because "everyone knows that women can't drive."<br />
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I'm with her because I once went on a date and the guy looked me in the eye and said, "never trust something that bleeds for seven days and doesn't die."<br />
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I'm with her because wearing a tank top to work an outdoor event in the summertime pretty much guarantees I will be ogled by every man on the job site.<br />
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I'm with her because I told a guy he was making me uncomfortable and he replied I was his "worst mistake of 2011."<br />
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I'm with her because once I offered a suggestion in a rehearsal and the director literally held his hand over my head, imitating the glass ceiling.<br />
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I'm with her because these are all minor grievances compared to the abject horrors faced on a daily basis by women in this country.<br />
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I'm with her because this has nothing to do and everything to do with the fact that she is a woman.<br />
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<i>I don't often venture into the political realm on this blog, but this country has a big decision to make tomorrow. It is my wish, my hope, my prayer that we all do the right thing and vote for her.</i><br />
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<br />Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-60278277451075056342016-10-14T07:30:00.000-04:002016-10-14T07:30:19.465-04:00status update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You guyssssss - I did it! I actually for real's not for fake got all gussied up and walked down an aisle and got married in front of 100+ of our closest friends and family and didn't fall down once!! And it was fun! It was also stressful and overwhelming and something I need not do again, ever. But it was also a ton of fun! My b'maids were total rockstars. Or rather, they made me feel like a rockstar. They fluttered around me like they were the birds in a Disney movie and I was one of the princesses, shoving me into my spanx (seriously, thanks ladies), buckling my shoes, and last-minute (literally) sewing my corset to my dress because somehow I and my seamstress, over <i>three</i> different dress fittings, failed to notice that the bustier was visible to anyone taller than me (which is most people). We traipsed around a nearby mall taking pictures at the Barnes & Noble and Johnny Rockets (apologies to all the people we made switch tables so that we could have the cute corner booth), had a most beautiful ceremony, and then danced like idiots for the rest of the night. I still can't feel my feet. I have a ton of ideas for separate and subsequent posts that offer actual wedding planning advice instead of just a bunch of exclamations, but for now I'm simply going to bask in the rest of this post-wedding glow and get my honeymoon on. Happy fall, y'all!!<br />
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* I'll be taking <u><a href="http://www.afar.com/magazine/the-best-gelato-shops-in-italys-major-cities" target="_blank">this advice</a></u> very, very seriously this week<br />
* <u><a href="http://fontflame.com/" target="_blank">My new obsession</a></u> (and time-waster)<br />
* I put a temporary moratorium on all things baked goods due to the wedding (see: above) but this is a strong contender for <u><a href="https://www.earlywooddesigns.com/blogs/earlywood-llc/salted-tahini-chocolate-chip-cookies?utm_campaign=Recipe+-+2+-+Salted+Tahini+Chocolate+Chip+Cookies+%28shTLHa%29&utm_medium=email&_ke=c3BhZG9uaS5tYXJ5QHlhaG9vLmNvbQ%3D%3D&utm_source=Earlywood+News%21" target="_blank">First Thing I Bake When I Get Back</a></u><br />
* <u><a href="http://www.racked.com/2016/9/19/12865560/politics-of-pockets-suffragettes-women" target="_blank">Political pockets</a></u><br />
* <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/normal/2016/10/04/how_often_should_bras_be_washed_every_few_weeks_at_most.html" style="text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">I'm not alone!</a><br />
* I needed this a few weeks ago when I swear <u><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/business/how-to-pick-the-fastest-line-at-the-supermarket.html?_r=3" target="_blank">every line I waited in</a></u> was the LONGEST everMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-82778615796082657332016-10-11T07:30:00.000-04:002016-10-11T07:30:27.828-04:00(new year's res) Roll of Film #3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In a burst of fruition and serendipity, I happened to actually read one of the dozens of promotional emails that crowds my inbox every hour and learned that the Lomography store was giving away a free roll of film during a "Photo Week" (or something like that, I didn't read the email <i>that</i> well) in August. So I scooted my way down to the store and picked up a roll of their own brand of film, <a href="https://shop.lomography.com/en/films/35mm-film/lomography-color-negative-400-iso-35mm-3-pack" target="_blank">Lomo Color Negative</a>. I shot on my La Sardina wide angle camera over the next few months - my journeys took me all over Manhattan and up to Portland, Maine for a most lovely bachelorette weekend, and I made sure to snap at least of couple of pics every few days. The results are stunning - the colors are vibrant and saturated, and while the few pictures I took at dusk did not come out at all, hazy, overcast days were no problem. For being a cheap and plastic camera, the La Sardina takes some fun and dreamy photos. It's not as "gimmicky" as some of the other Lomo cameras I have (the Diana camera is good but a little too retro and blurry for my taste and the FishEye is frankly annoying) and the pictures tend to be much richer than anything I can natively take on my iPhone. I'm taking this camera and a handful of film to Europe and I can't wait to see what images I get!<br />
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<i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Film</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">: Lomogropahy 400 Color Print Film - ISO 400</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Camera:</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> La Sardinia 35mm</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Photo locations: </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Midtown Manhattan, Portland Head Light (Portland, ME), Central Park</span>Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-65932664071366950742016-10-01T07:30:00.000-04:002016-10-01T07:30:33.375-04:00walkin' down the aisle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Welp, it's here! I'm walking down an aisle today that will end with a priest, a rabbi, an octad of groomsmen and bridesmaids, and the man I'm going to marry. It's exciting, it's overwhelming, it's something that people do every day all around the world, and it's something I never thought I'd actually do. But I am, and it's going to be awesome. I'm sure I'll have much more to say after the fact but for now, thank you all for all your help this past year, whether in text form, email, or just listening to me yammer on for hours about whatever wedding crisis I was experiencing at that moment. Time to raise a glass and get your dance on!<br />
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xo,<br />
MMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-86042877534419651572016-09-26T07:30:00.000-04:002016-09-26T07:30:16.153-04:00book report #10<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mother-Tongue-Familys-Globe-Trotting-Mandarin-ebook/dp/B014EOUPLG/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474857479&sr=1-4&keywords=mother+tongue" target="_blank">Mother Tongue</a></u> (Christine Gilbert) - I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir about a mother's (admittedly crazy) idea to become fluent in three languages - Mandarin, Arabic, and Spanish - and raise her family in a multi-lingual household. I admired Gilbert's honesty. She made a few huge mistakes in her journeys (China was a giant bust) but wasn't afraid to fess up, ask her husband for forgiveness, and move on - a lesson in humility she wasn't shy in sharing and one that we as readers could probably use ourselves.<br />
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*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eleanor-Park-Rainbow-Rowell-ebook/dp/B008SAZHLQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474857518&sr=1-1&keywords=eleanor+and+park" target="_blank">Eleanor & Park</a></u> (Rainbow Rowell) - all the feels. All the teenage angst. This book was every John Hughes movie rolled into one hormone-fueled, modern-day Shakespearean drama, and I loved it. I was surprised though - I normally can't stand love stories, but this wasn't a typical romance novel nor was it a splashy beach read. It was a tale of pure yet unrequited love between two desperate teens told with both innocence and passion, and I never wanted it to end.<br />
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*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flood-Girls-Richard-Fifield-ebook/dp/B010MH9ZO2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474857542&sr=1-1&keywords=the+flood+girls" target="_blank">The Flood Girls</a></u> (Richard Fifield) - not a fan. The first 97% of this novel painted a vivid picture of an odd and quirky small Montana town that was part <i>A League of their Own</i> and part <i>American Graffiti.</i> I enjoyed peeking into this world so unlike any I've ever experienced, even if most of the fictional residents freely oscillated between character and caricature. But then the story turned tragic for no other reason (it seems to me) than sensationalism, and the last 20 pages were entirely dark and depressing with little chance for hope or redemption. It was by no means a long or difficult read, but I wouldn't recommend this one. It left me feeling strangely empty and dubious of humanity's ability for compassion.<br />
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*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Guernsey-Literary-Potato-Peel-Society-ebook/dp/B0015DWJX2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474857571&sr=1-1&keywords=the+guernsey+literary+and+potato+peel+pie+society" target="_blank">The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society</a></u> (Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer) - I grabbed this book off the library shelf for two reasons: it was a softcover small enough to fit into my purse, and I had a train to catch and couldn't spend any more time in the library. As it turns out, my methods for choosing reading material aren't so terrible because this was a delightfully surprising book. Set in the years immediately following WWII and written as a series of letters and telegrams, this tells of the inhabitants of Guernsey - one of the Channel Islands (between France and England) that spent the entirety of the war under German occupation. I had never heard of Guernsey, let alone it's particular role in the war, and this book was a wonderful introduction to a time and a place unfortunately glossed over by my teachers. It was written with humor and empathy and had me googling all sorts of historical facts alongside my reading.<br />
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*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sons-Daughters-Ease-Plenty-Novel-ebook/dp/B016JPTLKY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474857609&sr=1-1&keywords=sons+and+daughters+of+ease+and+plenty" target="_blank">Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty</a></u> (Ramona Ausubel) - an intensely compelling novel about a couple's infidelity and how a series of events and one small decision can completely unravel a previously happy family unit. Ausubel created an inhabitable world and often revealed fascinating details and backstories of minor characters for the sole purpose of adding color to the story, which made me want even more from the book. The characters were all flawed but relatable, and toward the end I was rooting for no one and everyone. Definitely one of my favorite books of the year.<br />
<br />
*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Cursed-Child-Production-ebook/dp/B01BMJWU4Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474857637&sr=1-1&keywords=harry+potter+and+the+cursed+child" target="_blank">Harry Potter and the Cursed Child</a></u> (J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany) - so...I didn't like this. And it pains me to say that, because I love the <i>Harry Potter</i> books. I read each one within 48 hours of their release dates back in those early '00s, and hell, I spent this very evening taking a quiz to discover my true Patronus (spoiler alert: it's a grey squirrel. I'll be unpacking that one for a while.) But this play was vapid. And not written well. Or rather, written at a much lower reading level than the final books in the original series (a literary device I truly appreciated), which frankly just pissed me off. Either the playwrights didn't think a play can be written with compound sentences (it can) or they were intentionally writing for the grade school set, but either way it created a disjointed narrative. Also - the scenes were JARRINGLY short. From both a literary perspective (let's try a little harder, shall we?) and a technical theater perspective (SO many scene changes!!), it was distracting. Finally, I just didn't like the story. Without giving anything away, it felt forced, unbelievable, and obvious all at the same time. I've heard the London production of this play is fantastic, so maybe all the smoke and mirrors help hide the structural flaws in the script. But since it's unlikely I'll be seeing the play in person any time soon, I'm going to need a little more than this version of the script to keep me interested.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-25306916643319063932016-09-15T07:30:00.000-04:002016-09-15T07:30:24.477-04:00status update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I don't want to be one of those people who only talks about her wedding, but my wedding is in 15 days and I can think of no other worthwhile topic to occupy my every waking thought and most of my sleeping thoughts as well. The programs have been written but not printed, the dress has been hemmed but not picked up, the card box that goes on the gift table is a task I keep shuffling to the bottom of the to-do list and you guys, NO ONE TOLD ME WEDDING PLANNING WOULD BE THIS TIME-CONSUMING!!! Blame Pinterest (obviously) and those cutesy little 6-word programs that say "music starts - we kiss - everyone parties." Granted, I knew it was going to be a little more complicated then that, but it's as though I've been in a year-long production meeting for a one-day party. Oh and on top of that I'm still trying to find <strike>my purpose</strike> a day job and jumping in on a few theater-related gigs because why the hell not. So I guess it's a good thing that my focus has been elsewhere, because this is one of the few status updates that didn't begin with a blithering recap of the current weather situation. Yay me!<br />
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*There's an entire world of <u><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtKPGso1DFM" target="_blank">competitive steel drumming</a></u> and it's a rabbit hole but one worth going down<br />
*I'm seriously considering signing up for <u><a href="http://makeworkshop.com/collections/embroidery/products/embroidery-with-sarah-k-benning?utm_source=Thanks+for+Subscribing%21&utm_campaign=87d1ebc6fa-Don_t_Forget_Sarah_K_Benning_Contemporar9_2_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c1cfd6cacf-87d1ebc6fa-129699229&mc_cid=87d1ebc6fa&mc_eid=d77504aba8" target="_blank">this</a></u> and <u><a href="http://theprimaryessentials.com/collections/workshops/products/quilting-workshop-with-thompson-street-studio" target="_blank">this</a></u><br />
*<u><a href="http://www.danbannino.com/portfolio/unknown-stories/" target="_blank">The eye of the artist</a></u><br />
*I can't <u><a href="http://www.mcmansionhell.com/" target="_blank">unsee this</a></u><br />
*The <u><a href="http://www.miyassushi.com/" target="_blank">best sushi</a></u> in all the land<br />
*It turns out I've been <u><a href="http://dineanddish.net/2016/08/slow-blogging-movement/" target="_blank">slow blogging </a></u>this entire time!<br />
*I don't know the first thing about neuroscience, but this was <u><a href="https://player.fm/series/studio-360-with-kurt-andersen/360-live-dr-rachel-yehuda-misses-her-rats" target="_blank">one of the sweetest stories</a></u> I've heard in quite a whileMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-21728728037421921142016-09-13T07:30:00.000-04:002016-09-13T07:30:02.308-04:00the organized life - travel tips and tricks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am by no means a true frequent flyer, but 2016 is shaping up to be my personal Year of Travel. I've already taken eight flights and a handful of train trips equalling over 80 hours of travel time, and I've got at least four more flights before the year is over. Though I'd previously done a decent amount of traveling, this is the year I finally got smart about surviving the sometimes endless journeys. With a little pre-planning and investing in the right tools and gear, I took a huge step in making my time on a train or airplane a bit more comfortable.</div>
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* Reusable and collapsible water bottle - <u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008VEU7P0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" target="_blank">this collapsable water bottle</a></u> is my no.1 smartest purchase of the year. While bringing an empty water bottle to the airport is a no-brainer (fill it up after security at a water fountain to save yourself some $$ and the environment from another discarded plastic bottle), the collapsible nature of my bottle means I'm no longer carrying around the weight of an empty bottle. Granted, it's not as pretty as some of the "fashion" bottles out there (because we need water to be fashionable?), but at 3oz in weight, I'll take it over your 11oz Swell bottle any day.</div>
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* Clean socks on long flights - I love taking my shoes off on long flights. I often sit cross-legged in the seat and for obvious reasons, don't like to do so with shoes on. However, my go-to transit shoes are a pair of Tom's (they're flat, comfortable, and quiet, and perfect for this 32-going-on-62-year-old) - but thanks to my smelly feet I need to wear little nude socklettes with them. The socklettes are great underneath the shoes, but not so much as stand-alone socks. Cue a fresh pair of clean, white cotton socks. I'm not sure why, but there's nothing so refreshing as putting on a pair of socks just as you're settling in for a long winter's flight. I don't necessarily do this for quick trips to Chicago, but by hour 4 of my 10-hour flight to Hawaii? So glad I added a pair of socks to my carry-on.</div>
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* Snack attack - I do not care what time it is in New York or what time it will be in California. If I'm hungry I'm hungry (and if I'm hungry I'm cranky), and the airplane is not the place for me to reset my internal clock. If you're unlike me and use the flight to get yourself on "local time" then you must be a robot and please tell me your secrets now. I've learned (the hard way) to always have a snack or three on hand. Subsequently, I've decided that I am too old and fancy to eat like I'm at an airport just because I happen to be at an airport. So remember: as long as it isn't a liquid, you can get it through security. A giant bagel with artisanal cream cheese, a Tupperware full of fresh blueberries, or a DIY cheese and cracker plate will not only sustain you beyond Delta's idea of a dinner, it'll also make you feel downright posh. </div>
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* Wrap it up - I make sure to pack a scarf, sweater, or a <u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PKTF31M?colid=MZ8GNN3KGV4F&coliid=I2BPKJM4P3JKJY&ref_=hit_wr_dt_vr_md_pt" target="_blank">Turkish towel</a></u> in my carry-on, even if I'm going to Mexico in June. That flying metal tube can get mighty chilly, and even if you're not cold per se, it's sometimes nice to wrap yourself in something soft and comforting.</div>
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* Charge it - I've mentioned this before, but I recently invested in a second set of all my charging cables/plugs/cubes/doohickeys. While it's certainly not necessary, it is a tiny luxury to not have to undo my at-home charger situation every time I travel. I now have a ready-to-go baggie of all the cords I need for all my devices and have shaved at least a few minutes off that dreaded packing process.</div>
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* Go analogue - even though I do my due diligence and save PDFs of important documents and correspondence to both my Dropbox and email, it's often very helpful to have a physical printout of a few of those documents. Itineraries, contact info, and maps are all things I need to have at the ready - and I don't want to wait for my phone to turn on, recharge, or find a strong signal to access this info. And, because I'm an adult and it looks bad to use crumpled papers pulled out of the bottom of my bag, I store everything of this ilk in a slim, old-school folder. It's lightweight and doesn't take up any extra room but does wonders for my overall organization level. Also - I add an empty #10 envelope to the folder for any receipts I need to save for reimbursement purposes. The last thing I want to do is scramble to find a random $3 parking lot receipt that <i>I know I put here somewhere but can't find so I guess I'll just eat the cost.</i> No way.</div>
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Are you a frequent traveler? What tricks have you picked up over the years?</div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-69247668476385144832016-09-06T07:30:00.000-04:002016-09-06T07:30:13.696-04:00Portland batch!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I recently had the most lovely pleasure of spending a weekend in Portland, ME celebrating my upcoming nuptials (#kaydoniwedding). Some call it a bachelorette, others call it a hen party, and I called it all that <i>and</i> a much-needed weekend away from the hot and sticky mess that was New York in the summer. Portland turned out to be the perfect destination for the weekend - for a myriad of reasons, I wasn't interested in embarking on a traditional bachelorette evening of shots/strippers/sequins/stilettos (and honestly I got more than a dose of that kind of night two weeks later in Chicago...but that's another story for a much other time). Instead, I wanted a little bit of everything - good food, craft beer, fresh air, and ocean views. And since Kristen had recently moved to Boston, Portland turned out to be relatively easy to get to - Claire and I took a train to Boston (no more Bolt Bus for us!) and then drove with Kristen the remaining two hours to Portland.<br />
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We rented an Airbnb for the weekend. While there were a handful of really cute boutique hotels in downtown Portland we would have liked to use, we couldn't get our act together and by the time the three of us gathered to organize the trip, everything had been booked for ages. Luckily though, we found a fairly affordable attic apartment available for rent, and since we had a car, we were able to stay outside of the downtown area in the quiet and residential South Portland. I wouldn't recommend that area for anyone without a car though. It would have been a 45 minute walk to downtown, and though Portland itself is extremely safe and walkable, that's not a trek I'd want to make at midnight.<br />
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I tried my hardest to not pre-organize every minute of the weekend as I am wont to do while on vacation, but one of the sights I definitely wanted to see was the Portland Head Light, the oldest lighthouse in the state of Maine. Situated on the beautifully maintained coastline, the lighthouse and the surrounding walking paths, beachfront, and gardens are all free to visit. We spent over an hour wandering around the area, and when the fog rolled in from the east we used the moody scenery as inspiration for few moments of quiet seaside introspection.<br />
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We ate and drank like <strike>kings</strike> queens all weekend long. In addition to artisanal pizza, craft beers, fancy cocktails, and the best donuts I've ever tasted (really, the only donuts I've ever even liked), we sat ourselves down at a roadside shack called <u><a href="http://www.fishermensgrill.com/" target="_blank">Fisherman's Grill</a></u> and ordered the. best. lobster. rolls. ever. While most lobster rolls need to add globs of mayo and/or butter and/or a bunch of other random veggies to make up for lack of lobster meat quality, what we ate was pure, fresh, lobster and little else. We barely spoke as we savored our rolls, and even though they were gigantic (the three of us split an extra large order with three buns) we still found room for a shared cup of clam chowder and a huge order of the silkiest and most flavorful scallops I'ver ever eaten.</div>
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We also found time to lay out on the beach. Even though clouds threatened our lighthouse visit earlier in the day, the notoriously mercurial Maine weather cleared up in the afternoon and allowed us to have a solid three hours on the beach at the nearby Two Lights State Park. I did, however, underestimate my ability to withstand cold water. Boasting that "the cold doesn't bother me" because four years ago I swam for hours at a beach in New Hampshire, I was quickly shown up by both my friends and everyone else at the beach when I put one toe into the freezing cold water and immediately ran shrieking back to my towel.<br />
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I came back to New York relaxed and ready to take on this last surge of wedding-planning frenzy (less then a month away now!), which is more than I can say for my pre-Maine state of mind. My friends were so generous in giving me their time and energy, and I can't thank them enough for letting me drag them across four states just for a silly bachelorette party ;)<br />
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<u><b>If you go:</b></u><br />
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<i>Where to stay:</i> Portland has a handful of lovely hotels, both chain and boutique - but we opted to stay in an Airbnb in nearby South Portland. Looking to book your own weekend getaway? Use this link: <u><a href="http://www.airbnb.com/c/mspadoni3">www.airbnb.com/c/mspadoni3</a></u> to get $35 off your first stay!<br />
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<i>What to do:</i> Downtown Portland is easily walkable and navigable and home to a ton of cute shops. If shopping's not your thing and want a breath of fresh air, the nearby <u><a href="https://portlandheadlight.com/" target="_blank">Portland Head Light</a></u> and <u><a href="http://www.maine.gov/cgi-bin/online/doc/parksearch/details.pl?park_id=28" target="_blank">Two Lights State Park</a></u> have walking trails, beach access, picnic areas, and great views. We also stumbled up on the <u><a href="http://www.portlandmainefarmersmarket.org/" target="_blank">Portland Farmer's Market</a></u> and spent a happy hour oohing over giant tomatoes and taste-testing fresh cheeses.<br />
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<i>What to eat:</i> I had some of my most favorite meals in Portland. In no particular order, I can gladly recommend <u><a href="http://www.ottoportland.com/" target="_blank">Otto's Pizza</a></u>, <u><a href="http://ciacafe.com/" target="_blank">CIA Cafe</a></u> (in South Portland), <u><a href="https://theholydonut.com/" target="_blank">The Holy Donut</a></u> (go to the Park Avenue location, order at least three Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt donuts, and savor them at Deering Oaks Park across the street), and <u><a href="http://www.fishermensgrill.com/" target="_blank">Fisherman's Grill</a></u> for a lobstah roll and all the other fresh seafood you can manage (be warned: it's cash only and expensive - but beyond worth it. Just fork over the money and stop complaining.) Also: we never made it to <u><a href="http://duckfat.com/" target="_blank">Duck Fat</a></u> but I swear on my next lobster roll that I'll get there one day!<br />
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<i>What to drink:</i> <u><a href="http://www.novareresbiercafe.com/" target="_blank">Novare Res Bier Café</a></u> has an outstanding beer menu, <u><a href="http://www.thebeardedladysjewelbox.com/" target="_blank">The Bearded Lady's Jewel Box </a></u>has an impressive cocktail menu that was almost too hip for us 30-somethings, and the <u><a href="http://www.theregency.com/dining-en.html" target="_blank">Armory Lounge</a></u> in the lobby of the Regency Hotel has an old-school old-man vibe that turned out to be exactly what we needed for our final nightcap of the trip.</div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-53475151526896991922016-09-02T07:30:00.000-04:002016-09-02T07:30:04.629-04:00zucchini bread<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sometimes it's a late summer afternoon and you're one month away from your wedding and even though all the pesky details and questions about those details are finally starting to come to an end, you now have an onslaught of wedding presents showing up at your door every day that you really shouldn't have registered for in the first place because where the heck are you supposed to put them in your teeny tiny new york apartment? You're tired and hot and overwhelmed and kind of just want it all to be over but instead of having yet another meltdown you see a bowl of vegetables in your kitchen from a recent CSA haul gifted to you by a friend who was going out of town and didn't see the point in picking up a bag of food she'd never be able to use. And even though you should've been at the gym ten minutes ago (because, you know, the wedding), you start to bake. Eggs, flour, sugar, a little cinnamon and a whole lot of zucchini. You shouldn't be wasting time and calories on this bread, but you're pretty sure it's going to taste good and you're really sure you need this right now. Something to focus on. Something for your hands to do. It's quiet in your kitchen, save for the crack of an egg and the scrape of the zucchini across the grater (and the construction across the street and the crying baby next door and the helicopter flying overhead, but you choose to ignore those sounds as they do not positively contribute to your afternoon). And soon you find a familiar rhythm you didn't know you missed. Measure, pour, stir. Measure, pour, stir. You don't know why (and you're certainly not going to take the time to analyze why), but you have calmed down. A bit. There is still a stack of thank you's begging to be written and a pile of towels that need to be washed and a whole wedding you need to finish planning, but right now you've got a fresh loaf of bread begging for your attention. A bit of butter, a reheated cup of coffee, and a very deep breath for reassurance: you've got this.<br />
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<i>for the curious and hungry: <u><a href="https://smittenkitchen.com/2007/07/summer-of-the-bats/" target="_blank">my go-to zucchini bread recipe</a></u></i>Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-35376445281626771702016-08-15T07:00:00.000-04:002016-08-15T07:00:12.312-04:00status update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I don't want to be one of those people who only talks about the weather, but you guys, it's like a sauna out there. Seriously I broke a sweat just walking <i>to </i>yoga the other day. I really don't remember it being this hot and humid when I was a kid, but then again I spent the first 18 summers of my life at our local pool, first as a pool rat then as an actual lifeguard. So it's entirely possible that it was this hot but masked by my ability to jump in freezing cold water whenever I wanted. Since this adult life of mine does not have such easy access to a cool body of water (note to self: become friends with someone who has a rooftop pool), I instead have been obsessively watching every moment of the Olympics while setting a personal best record for ice cream eating. Those athletes are working so hard down there, it's only right that someone compensates for all their burned calories, right? Here's to Team USA!<br />
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*<u><a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/07/15/485001753/like-these-books-here-are-60-things-you-might-also-like" target="_blank">Read this, watch that</a></u><br />
*Be still, <u><a href="https://riflepaperco.com/shop/fabric/flamingos-ivory-cotton-lawn-fabric/" target="_blank">my fabric-loving heart</a></u><br />
*This sparked a <u><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/23/fashion/weddings/marriage-questions.html?_r=1" target="_blank">fantastic</a></u> brunchtime conversation<br />
*<u><a href="https://medium.com/@shitHRCcantsay/let-me-remind-you-fuckers-who-i-am-e6e8b297fe47#.u6zuamrxs" target="_blank">Just in case you forgot</a></u><br />
*<u><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/hollywood-has-ruined-method-acting/494777/" target="_blank">Method man</a></u><br />
*The <u><a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/read-darkly-comedic-seinfeld-spec-script-set-days--240577" target="_blank">darkest</a></u> of comedies (but still so funny)<br />
*<u><a href="http://every.single.one/">every.single.one</a></u><br />
*"...Leona Watson Chalmers would cite those grueling six-day weeks of theater life as the <u><a href="https://psmag.com/why-has-it-taken-the-menstrual-cup-so-long-to-go-mainstream-9797b1f76799#.li2b3jbf5" target="_blank">inspiration for the Tassette</a></u>, the first commercial menstrual cup."Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-54036210470309533612016-08-11T07:00:00.000-04:002016-08-11T07:00:26.514-04:00(new year's res) Roll of Film #2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Even though I try my hardest not to keep too much unnecessary "stuff" around the apartment (small-space living ftw!), I have been slowly collecting film cameras over the years. The most recent edition (given to me for my birthday by my most lovely fiancé) is a Lomography <u><a href="https://shop.lomography.com/en/cameras/la-sardina-family" target="_blank">La Sardinia</a></u>, a wide-angle 35mm no-frills camera. I loaded it up with a roll of film as soon as I took it out of the box but as it is wont to do, life got in the way and it took me a few months to shoot the entire roll. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with the new camera. It didn't handle shadows very well and a few pictures I took around dusk were so grainy and distorted that the subjects are barely identifiable, but shooting in bright daylight produced some vibrant colors and even few fun light leaks. I'd been toying with the idea of bringing a film camera on our upcoming honeymoon (does one person really need to bring <i>three</i> cameras on vacation?) and based on this first roll, I think I'm going to do it.<br />
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<i>Film</i>: FujiColor - ISO 400<br />
<i>Camera:</i> La Sardinia 35mm<br />
<i>Photo locations: </i>Central Park, Jones Beach, Coney Island, Astoria ParkMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-70228427756422767072016-08-04T07:00:00.000-04:002016-08-04T07:00:22.810-04:00summer in the city<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been a strange summer. I haven't been stuck in a theater like I normally am this time of year and the surplus of free time threw me for a loop. Instead of plowing through my usual "Summer To-Do List," I instead have been greeting each day with an odd amount of disengagement and ennui. The world also seems to be going to hell in a proverbial hand basket and more times than I can count I've forced myself to turn off the news and go for a walk. We're also less than two months away from the Big Day (!) and since it's been a fairly pricy couple of months (understatement of the year), we've been making a decent effort to curb unnecessary spending - which means no weekend getaways, lavish dinners, or any big purchases not related to the wedding.<br />
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This city, however, is at it's best in the summer. Or maybe I'm just such a hot-weather person that I put on my rose-colored sunglasses sometime around Memorial Day and actively ignore the hot-garbage smell that emits from nearly every New York street. Regardless, I've managed to fill a few of those endlessly vacant days with some lovely walks around my neighborhood, walks around Central Park, walks through the greenmarket, and even a trip down to Coney Island to (finally!) see the Cyclones play.<br />
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August has arrived, and while <u><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2001/07/august.html" target="_blank">some argue for getting rid of it</a></u> I for one am excited. I'm having not one but two bachelorette parties (because why not?), hopefully going to the US Open trials once and for all, and planting myself in front of the television to watch every second of the Olympics while audibly disagreeing with all scores given by the Russian judges. Happy summer, everyone ;)<br />
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1.) Summer veggies at the greenmarket<br />
2.) Long Island City rooftop<br />
3.) Astoria Pool<br />
4.) Cyclones game in Coney Island<br />
5.) More veggies<br />
6.) Sunset over the East River<br />
7.) Jones Beach<br />
8.) View from the newly-opened Hallet Nature Sanctuary in Central Park<br />
9.) Sunset walk through Astoria Park<br />
<br />Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-17589947308173780732016-07-28T07:00:00.000-04:002016-07-28T07:00:27.089-04:00top 10 ways to not write your blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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1.) Start four different posts that you immediately hate because they are trite and/or uninteresting and/or boring for even you to read. Do not finish these posts.<br />
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2.) Sign up for a three-week new student pass at a local yoga studio and take a vinyassa and a barre class back-to-back. Be amazed at how much your abs now hurt and decide that your computer is much too far away from the couch; you couldn't possibly write anything now.<br />
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3.) In anticipation of blogging about it, take a zillion pictures of your favorite necklace that broke in a Macy's dressing room but you managed to fix so it's nearly as good as new. Compare your pictures to any number of necklace-based instagrams, get discouraged, delete the pictures, do not write about the necklace.<br />
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4.) Have a meltdown about a variety of wedding-related issues, including but not limited to: a never-ending search for first the "perfect" pair of shoes, than an "acceptable" pair of shoes, than "any f'ing pair that fits and looks remotely close to what I originally wanted;" the sheer panic you feel every time you get a wedding present and have no idea where to put it in your teeny-tiny one-bedroom apartment; the outrageously high cost of hiring a hair and makeup artist to turn you into a photogenic sun goddess for the day of the wedding; the incredulousness of "escort cards" (those things that tell your guests what table they're sitting at) and how something that someone will use <i>for five seconds</i> can cost so damn much and be so complicated to organize. Do not use any of this material as fodder for a series of articles to feature on your blog.<br />
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5.) Take a day trip upstate to see an opera recital. Romp through the woods, revel in the quiet of nature, and take an obscene amount of selfies with your iPhone camera remote (because that's who you've become now). Share the best selfie to instagram and fall asleep on the bus ride home because you've had a long day.<br />
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6.) Mope around like a sad puppy because one of your closest friends in New York had the audacity to move all the way to Boston to be with her fiancé. Bake two dozen unnecessary yet delicious rosemary shortbread cookies in an attempt to dull the pain.<br />
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7.) Have a second meltdown because you can't find a dress to wear to your upcoming wedding shower. Try on every dress in Manhattan and most on ModCloth. Curse the clothing industry, your genetic history of short torsos and large ribcages, and your penchant for tater tots. Try on a jumpsuit. Curse everyone and everything. Search Pinterest for more ideas and get instantaneously demoralized because every dress looks as though it's being modeled by a professional fashion blogger because everyone on that site <i>is </i>a professional fashion blogger. You can't get five people to read your blog. You just need one peach-colored dress to wear. You should go back to bed.<br />
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8.) Use the time you'd normally spend prepping posts for the week to apply for dozens of "real jobs" because you're 32 and this whole freelance thing just isn't cute any more. Obsessively refresh your inbox as you wait for those offers to roll in. Wonder if gmail is down. Send yourself an email from another address to make sure the internet is working. Contemplate moving to a country with free universal healthcare. Like Iceland. Iceland could be fun.<br />
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9.) Spend waaaay too much time researching options for the upcoming NYC Restaurant Week and make sure to get your reservations in as soon as the site goes live because last year you got crappy time slots and you will NOT be slighted again.<br />
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10.) Contemplate opening an Etsy store for your embroidery designs. Do not let the fact that you have no previous embroidery experience deter you. Spend hours at Michael's fussing around with different thread color combinations, doodle a bunch of new patterns, and make a test piece to give to your partner for his desk at work. Decide it doesn't look too bad and move forward with your new business venture. Do not waste precious time blogging about it because that would be ridiculous.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-36539668252549619772016-07-15T08:00:00.000-04:002016-07-15T08:00:08.305-04:00status update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today, my beloved Fitbit app told me that I have walked a total of 1,600 miles since first donning the tracker a year and a half ago - the equivalent of the length of the Great Barrier Reef. I for one am just grateful that we in this world have the technology and the means to aggregate such ridiculous data for people. I mean, think about it: I put on a rubber bracelet, go about my business, and then months later I get a notification from the tiny computer in my pocket that I've covered a distance equal to one of the natural world wonders. It's a technological amazement. You know what else is a delightful advancement? The internet. It's full of weird and magical and sometimes even informative things, and in case you've had enough awful news this month (I know I have), here are some things that aren't so awful and that may brighten your day. Be well ;)<br />
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- <u><a href="http://m.chicagoreader.com/chicago/local-accent-dialect-daley-superfans-wendt-mancow/BestOf?oid=22604803" target="_blank">Sweet (home) Chicago accent</a></u><br />
- Be more <u><a href="http://www.hemingwayapp.com/" target="_blank">Hemmingway</a></u><br />
- Aziz <u><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/opinion/sunday/aziz-ansari-why-trump-makes-me-scared-for-my-family.html?_r=1" target="_blank">for the win </a></u><br />
- Claire and I <u><a href="http://iambaker.net/blueberry-zucchini-cake-with-lemon-buttercream/" target="_blank">made this last week</a></u> and it was delish<br />
- <u><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_united_states_of_debt/2016/06/dieting_and_budgeting_does_not_work_how_the_need_to_control_food_and_money.html" target="_blank">This one</a></u> hit close to home<br />
- Are you confused as I am about this whole Pokemon thing? <u><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/wtf-is-pokemon-go-explained-20160711?page=2" target="_blank">Rolling Stone explains it all</a></u><br />
- <u><a href="http://thebaffler.com/blog/laurie-penny-self-care" target="_blank">Life hacks of the poor and aimless</a></u><br />
- The most delightful <u><a href="http://www.continuethethread.com/" target="_blank">piece of mail</a></u> I've ever receivedMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-89046875343735166112016-07-13T08:00:00.000-04:002016-07-13T08:00:25.914-04:00book report #9<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Love-Chance-Drowning-Torre-DeRoche/dp/1401341950/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468337724&sr=1-1&keywords=love+with+a+chance+of+drowning" target="_blank">Love With a Chance of Drowning</a></u> (Torre DeRoche) - a fun and entertaining memoir about a woman who overcame her fear of water (hence the title) and embarked on a three-year sailing adventure from LA to Australia and beyond. I'm not normally a fan of memoirs but I am a fan of boats and love stories, and the humorous and familiar tone DeRoche took to tell her story kept me engaged instead of at arm's length. While I doubt I'll sell all my possessions to live full-time on an 18-foot boat, this book almost made me want to take sailing lessons and definitely made me want to jump on the next flight to French Polynesia.<br />
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*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Undermajordomo-Minor-Novel-Patrick-deWitt/dp/0062281224/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468337704&sr=1-1&keywords=undermajordomo+minor" target="_blank">Undermajordomo Minor</a></u> (Patrick DeWitt) - this one was strange and not in a good way. I never quite figured out if it was a fairy tale, allegory, magical realism, or some other type of literally genre I never learned about in college. Amazon reviews call it "delightful, wacky, quirky, and charming" but I just thought it was weird. Not my cup of tea.<br />
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*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Nature-Siberia-Australia-Wilderness/dp/1250081971/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468337688&sr=1-1&keywords=wild+by+nature" target="_blank">Wild By Nature</a></u> (Sarah Marquis) - honestly, this book eventually pissed me off so much that I stopped reading it about 75 pages from the end. It started off with promise - independent female explorer sets off to walk the length of entire countries - Mongolia, China, Thailand - on her way to Australia. After some obvious setbacks (weather, equipment failure, more weather, a tooth extraction) her trek totaled nearly three years in time, and this book is her memoir about the walk. But at no point did she ever say <i>why</i> she was obsessively walking. Was she running from something? To something? To discover something? To learn something? And even though she had helpers and fixers throughout her journey (she was given a contact person in each country and boxes of supplies at each stopping point) she never justified how she could simply take three years out of her life to walk. I guess it was a sponsored trip? Even if it was, she wrote with such a jarringly jib tone throughout (oops! almost died again lol) that it was entirely off-putting. I had high hopes for this one and it sadly did not come through.<br />
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*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Book-Silence-Sara-Maitland/dp/1582436134/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468337665&sr=1-1&keywords=a+book+of+silence" target="_blank">A Book of Silence</a></u> (Sara Maitland) - I've obviously had female-adventurer memoirs on the brain this year, and this one was interesting and informative, if not a little too heavy on the dry research. Regardless, it was an interesting concept - a post-marriage woman in her 50's goes in search of silence - but what is it, exactly? And what does prolonged silence do to a person? I most enjoyed when Maitland got personal and reflected on her own silent discoveries as opposed to the more scholarly sections, but even so, this book got me thinking about my own auditory experiences, including but not limited to the ironic fact that I read the majority of this book on the subway, a notably loud method of transport that leaves little room for silent introspection.<br />
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*<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nest-Cynthia-DAprix-Sweeney/dp/0062414216/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468337646&sr=1-1&keywords=the+nest+cynthia+sweeney" target="_blank"><u>The Nest</u> </a>(Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney) - an all-around wonderful novel. A smart, funny, and captivating story that was a welcome blend of epic family saga and modern relevance. The characters were beautifully flawed but entirely relatable and the plot was so enticing that I actually woke up early one morning to finish reading it before heading out for the day. I'd been in a bizarre literary rut for the past few months (see above) and this was the perfect story to get me back into the reading game.<br />
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*<u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142180823/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3M104YOS5A9GT&coliid=I2AYQ8FDOY5AZF" target="_blank">We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves</a></u> (Karen Joy Fowler) - part mystery (but not really), part anthropological study (but not really), part memoir (but not really) and part tell-all (but not really), this beautifully bizarre work of fiction is narrated by a woman who was raised alongside a chimpanzee back when these kinds of things were still kosher in the scientific world. Needless to say, her upbringing screwed her up in all kinds of ways, and even though I tend to stray from the "I had a terrible childhood" kind of stories, this one was just enticing enough to keep me reading and get me thinking about what exactly determines the difference between humans and animals.<br />
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<br />Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-90769239597779469782016-06-24T08:00:00.000-04:002016-06-25T09:11:32.365-04:00Cabo San Lucas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On nearly every vacation, trip or excursion I've ever taken, I am the one that plans things out. I'm the one with the map, the guidebook, the train schedule, and the annotated to-do list. It's me who carries around the giant purse laden with extra tissues, band-aids, a water bottle, two cameras, a charger, Advil, and an extra map just in case that first one flies away. I can't help this Type-A preparedness of mine. I blame it on being a Girl Scout, but it's also partly because the one with the map is the one in control (or so I tell myself).<br />
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In preparation for a work trip to Mexico last May, I did much less than my usual obsessive level of pre-departure research. Outside of flipping through one brochure I picked up at last year's NYT Travel Show, I didn't read up on the best restaurants or the must-see attractions, and I didn't endlessly scroll through Instagram trying to plan out photo ops before I even got there. A business trip is entirely different than a for-pleasure vacation, and I was to be at the ready at all times to attend to my boss' and the client's needs. Sight-seeing was not on the schedule. I simply got on a plane, sped through the airport in Mexico City in an attempt to make my connecting flight (spoiler alert: I did, but barely), and followed a vaguely-worded email to find a guy named Mush who would drive me in a sketchy white van through the backroads of the Baja Peninsula to a hotel on the ocean.<br />
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From there, I followed an equally vague daily schedule that gave me and the other production assistant ample time to wander the gardens of a <u><a href="http://www.flora-farms.com/" target="_blank">renowned organic farm</a></u>. We contemplated the origin of tropical fruits and vegetables (omigod mangoes grow on <i>trees!</i>), picked up random Spanish vocab words (muneca = doll; mantel = tablecloth), watched our lunch get cooked over a giant open roasting pit, and ate some of the best crew meals we've ever tasted. But our hours were long - early morning to well after sun down each day, and after working ten hours under the hot Mexican sun the only thing I wanted to do each night was shower and collapse into bed.<br />
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The event went extremely well. The client was pleased, my bosses were pleased, and I executed my task of monitoring a dozen mini-projectors way more smoothly than I did the previous month at a similar event in Hawaii. But there was still no down time. We needed to be back at the farm by <u><a href="http://www.piesetc.com/2016/05/sunrise-sunset.html" target="_blank">6am </a></u>the morning after the event in order to load up the trucks and shut down our production tent and watch the empty truck get stuck coming up the dirt road and wait for a machine to come to clear the road so the truck could get unstuck and then finally for reals load up the truck and say our goodbyes and have one last delicious meal at the most captivating farm-to-table restaurant I've ever had the pleasure of patronizing.<br />
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It was around 1pm when we made it back to our hotel. We were officially off the clock and the rest of the evening was our to do as we pleased. I looked at two of my coworkers. "Should we see the arches?" I asked. "What are those?" they asked. "They're these natural stone formation in the ocean. I saw a picture. They looked cool." I said. "Sure." They said. "We can take the rental car." said David.<br />
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After a quick nap, the three of us were on our way to the end of the Baja Peninsula, or as the <strike>locals</strike> tourists call it, Land's End. But we still didn't have a plan. We weren't really sure where exactly these arches were or how to see them, but we were at least heading in the right direction (south). After a couple wrong turns down trashy and spring-break-bar laden Cabo streets, we found a parking lot with open spots. As soon as we got out of the car, a man approached us. "Want to see El Arco?" he asked. "Si!" we replied. "The boat leaves in two minutes! We must hurry!" he said.<br />
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I soon found myself once again following a strange man into a sketchy vehicle, although this one was accompanied by a $15 "boat fee" and a separate $1 "dock fee." We were granted permission to board the water taxi and immediately set sail for the choppy waters of the Cabo San Lucas Marina.<br />
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It was an utterly delightful ride. We somehow timed it out so that we were on the boat at golden hour, which is really the best time to do or see anything. The captain didn't speak any English, and when I asked him what caused the arch to form (earthquake? tetonic plate shift? global warming?) he gave a giant grin, pointed at a giant seal sunbathing on a rock and said "Si! Sello!!" and then arched his neck back and let out a eerily accurate seal bark. Our seal friend threw us a sideways glance and responded with an annoyed "arf."<br />
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45 minutes later and we were back on dry land. Then a walk around the marina, some nachos and guac, a giant margarita, and a Yelp consultation that led us to an <u><a href="http://www.templocabo.com/" target="_blank">Asian-fusion restaurant</a></u> for wine and ceviche and ramen and coulis-covered sherbet. An evening full of good food and wonderful company fueled entirely by uncharacteristically spur-of-the-moment decisions. While I am in no way going to stop planning and researching and measuring distances between sights in anticipation of upcoming vacations, my evening in Cabo reminded me that spontaneity is a virtue worth having. Sometimes the unplanned moments make for the best adventures.<br />
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<br />Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-44232319285904012032016-06-15T08:00:00.000-04:002016-06-15T08:00:07.868-04:00status update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been light on the posts this month for reasons that range from acceptable to excuse. I got caught up in a work project, I got caught up in an arts and crafts project, I had to drop my winter coats off at the dry cleaners, I spent too much time lounging in a park with friends over Memorial Day, I'm doing a <u><a href="http://remedydaily.com/2016/05/18/try-the-28-day-planking-challenge/" target="_blank">30-day plank challenge</a></u> AND a 30-day step challenge and after all that planking and walking I'm just plum tired out, I didn't have (and still don't have) the appropriate words to talk about Orlando, we cleaned out our storage closet and it took longer than expected, I started taking a class about brand management, I had to pick up my winter coats from the dry cleaners, I spent too much time lounging in another park for a friend's birthday, and ultimately, I ran into good old-fashioned writer's block. But this marks my 300th post on this little blog of mine, and while I certainly didn't expect to make it this far, I'm really glad I did. Though I'm decidedly less pie and more smorgasbord these days, this site has been one of my longest non-human relationships outside of an ill-fated seven-year tryst with T-Mobile. And despite the writer's block and the post-travel blues that descended upon me after my whirlwind world tour of this past April and May and the fear of having virtually no plan or foreseeable path towards any form of consistent employment, I write and I photograph and I post because frankly, I just really enjoy creating this space. So thank you, dear reader, for sticking with me this long - and I hope you will join me in raising a (digital) glass to the next 300 ;)<br />
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*<u><a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/2016-05-16/amy-schumer-sketch-about-shopping-as-a-regular-woman-shows-the-stark-stress-of-finding-your-size/" target="_blank">This was me</a></u> at a BCBG in boca<br />
*<u><a href="http://www.thehuttoproject.com/" target="_blank">Spread the light</a></u><br />
*<u><a href="http://halliebateman.com/project/the-museum-is-closed/" target="_blank">Art, anyway</a></u><br />
*Are you as obsessed with the Brady Bunch as I am? No? Well <u><a href="http://www.bradybunchshrine.com/bbsounds3.htm" target="_blank">you should be because this exists</a></u>.<br />
*Cultural literacy is an <u><a href="http://the-toast.net/2016/05/24/the-pitch-meeting-for-animaniacs/" target="_blank">Always Food</a></u><br />
*<u><a href="http://distractify.com/humor/2015/11/14/beth-badass-book-dedications" target="_blank">I dedicate this book</a></u><br />
*love is love is love <u><a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/entertainment/2016/06/13/tonys-miranda-sonnet-victims-of-orlando-shootings.cbs" target="_blank">is love</a></u> is love is love is love is loveMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-61255891219254446932016-05-19T07:00:00.000-04:002016-05-19T07:00:20.475-04:00Springtime at the New York Botanical Garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In the midst of some truly awful New England springtime weather systems and some truly wonderful travel opportunities to exotic tropical locations, J and I managed to find an entire day that was a.) a Saturday b.) warm and sunny and c.) one in which we were both free and in town. And while J had visions of curling up on the couch and doing nothing all afternoon, I was all nope! Look at this glorious day! It's a day made for doing things! And we're gonna do those things! And then I pressed pause on the music I had swelling underneath my proclamation and we headed straight for the <u><a href="http://www.nybg.org/" target="_blank">New York Botanical Garden</a></u>.<br />
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I'm a sucker for a good garden walk, and this one did not disappoint (but with over 250 acres and home to the largest botanical library in the Americas, I was not expecting someone's backyard garden). I lost myself in a sea of azaleas and tulips, and while walking one of the many trails, we were able to have a few moments where we didn't see any other people or hear anything but birdcalls above us - a rarity for New York City. <br />
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If you find yourself at the garden, I highly recommend taking the tram tour. It's a (roughly) half-hour narrated, hop-on-hop-off tour that's not just a good way to get from one corner of the park to the other, but is also surprisingly interesting and informative. I for one know so little about plants and trees and anything else that grows naturally from the ground (oo look a pink flower! a tree with leaves!) that I was able to learn a good amount of flower and tree types and the history of the surrounding Bronx area on the tour.<br />
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<br />
We lasted a good three hours before our allergies got the best of us, but we felt the benefits of being amongst nature and out in the fresh air long after we returned home.<br />
<br />
<b>If you go:</b><br />
*Getting to the New York Botanical Garden is a hike - if you're inclined to take public transportation, it's a 20-minute walk from the nearest subway or a ride on the Metro-North. If you can, take a car - although with tolls and a $15 parking fee, you could easily find yourself spending over twenty dollars before you even get inside the garden.<br />
* An All-Garden Pass (which includes entrance to the Conservatory and the Tram Tour) is $25 for adults on the weekends ($20 on weekdays), but if you just want to walk the grounds and not see any special exhibits a $13 Grounds Only ticket is available. The Garden has two Ground Only Free Days - Wednesdays (all day) and Saturdays from 9a - 10a.<br />
*So is it worth it? Possibly - we used a corporate discount and got our entire entrance fee waived, so our expenses were simply tolls and parking. I might be singing a different song if we had spent $50 to walk around the gardens when I knew that a similar (although not as good) "nature walk" could be had for free in the much more accessible Central Park. Find a coupon or discount code if you can, or take advantage of the Gardens-Only options if you're looking to save some pennies.<br />
*Hours, directions, and a whole lot more info can be found <u><a href="http://www.nybg.org/" target="_blank">here</a></u>.<br />
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-69990520544742028052016-05-17T08:00:00.000-04:002016-05-17T08:00:20.834-04:00Sunrise, Sunset<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I keep a lot of lists. Like, a ton of them. I have New Year's Resolutions that I make a good effort to keep, I make obsessive daily to-do lists, I keep an eye on the larger week-long and month-long goals, and just for fun, I often break my larger lists into smaller, more attainable lists that are project and/or task specific. But then there's my other list, the one that I go weeks, even months without ever thinking about or making progress on - it's cliché to say and almost passé to have, but I have a bucket list. Or rather, a Things To Do Before I Die list. I'm currently on Version #4 of this list - I made the first version in the basement of my childhood home when I was 13 after reading an entry by <u><a href="http://www.johngoddard.info/life_list.htm" target="_blank">John Goddard</a></u> in a <i>Chicken Soup for the Soul</i> book (don't judge - it was the 90's), and I pretty much copied his list but changed the nouns to suit my teenage taste.<br />
<br />
Over the years I allowed myself to delete, add, and adapt some of the entries, and my current version has 101 items. By design, some of the goals are achievable with effort ("learn to juggle"), some I just need to get around to doing ("send a message in a bottle"), and others I know I may never accomplish but will nevertheless enjoy trying ("write an article for <i>National Geographic</i>"). Often times, I seek out experiences or actions that will allow me to cross something off this list - #12 is "see the Parthenon" and while I certainly didn't structure my entire honeymoon around my bucket list, it's not entirely accidental that one of our stops on our cruise will be to Athens. But there are other instances where I realize I accomplished something only after the fact, like the time the photographer got sick and I was the one to take all the publicity photos that got published in the <i>New York Times</i> ("#41 - have a photograph printed somewhere").<br />
<br />
Serendipity graced me with her presence last week when I unknowingly checked off #96 - "see the sunrise and the sunset from the same spot on the same day". I was working an event in Cabo, Mexico that was in the middle of the gorgeous Baja dessert, but since I was on the clock, it was never a guarantee that I'd be able to catch even a glimpse of the sunset. As luck would have it though, the schedule was in my favor - my first major task of the evening wrapped up well before the sun started to set, and I was able to spend golden hour at dinner. After eating, it was time to check in back at the production tent (which coincidentally provided a pretty great view of the sunset that was starting to bloom), where I learned that my next task would be to deal with a dozen mini digital film projectors (long story). There's not much you can do with a projector while it's still light out, so I was able to soak in the entirety of the stunning sunset. I smiled, I snapped a couple of photos, and then I made for those projectors like it was my job (because it actually was).<br />
<br />
By the end of the evening, I was feeling pretty good. The projectors had behaved exactly as I needed them to, and my boss let me have a celebratory cocktail during the last half hour of the event. But before I got too comfortable, I was reminded of our call time the next morning - we needed to be back on the property at 6am. Which wouldn't have been so terrible, except that it was nearing 1am by the time we were ready to go back to our hotel that was 20 minutes away from the event space.<br />
<br />
A quick, three-hour nap later, we were back in the van and driving through the pitch-blackness of Mexican dessert roads. The good people at the entrance gate let our bleary-eyed selves in, and I found myself back at that stupid production tent (please note: I don't hate the production tent. I love the production tent. I was just reaaallllyyy tired). But then I noticed that things were changing. Specifically, it was getting lighter out - which I eventually realized is what happens WHEN THE SUN RISES!!! You have to understand something: I don't see a lot of sunrises in my day-to-day. I work in theater and production, and especially in the wintertime, I don't even leave for work until it's already dark out. But there I was, standing in the exact same spot I was in just 12 hours beforehand, watching the sun rise over the mountains. So I snapped a few more pictures, thanked the sun gods and goddesses, and got straight to work on packing up the mini projectors because the faster I finished strike the faster I could go back to bed.<br />
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<i>Please note: I realize that my original entry in my List of Things to do Before I Die said "photograph the sunrise and the sunset from the same place <b>on the same day</b>" and that technically, my sunrise and sunset were from two different days. But whatever. I saw consecutive sun movements and since I'm the only one who actually cares about my list, I'm calling it a goal accomplished. </i>:)<br />
<br />Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-62844422702953367222016-05-12T10:57:00.000-04:002016-05-12T10:59:06.446-04:00status update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Thanks to a recently diagnosed tree nut allergy, I've been starting my mornings with an egg as opposed to my usual bowl of <strike>allergens</strike> vanilla almond cereal. I'm uncomplicated when it comes to my eggs - one egg scrambled and fried on a piece of toast, sprinkle some shredded cheese during the last five seconds of cooking, maybe a swipe of avocado if I'm feeling fancy. It's quick, easy, and foolproof, and I've been making my eggs like this for quite some time now (and even more so now that I have to remove my beloved cereal routine). Except that this morning I completely screwed it up. I don't know if I added too much milk or didn't use enough heat or maybe I scrambled the uncooked egg too vigorously? Whatever errors I made, the egg was bubbly and oversized and entirely too runny and took over the toast like a b-movie blob. I still ate it, though. Runny or not, it was still an edible breakfast, and anything can be tasty if you cover it in enough cheese.<br />
<br />
*Speaking of breakfast, it's <u><a href="http://luckypeach.com/what-do-people-eat-for-breakfast-around-the-world/?utm_source=newsletterApril202016&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8AM/?omhide=true" target="_blank">8am somewhere</a></u><br />
*<u><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/cheese-genius?utm_term=.wkjM8YNZ8#.vfMXk9vEk" target="_blank">And speaking of cheese...</a></u><br />
*<u><a href="http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2016/04/how-i-stopped-biting-my-nails.html" target="_blank">Nail biters anonymous</a></u><br />
*There's more than one way to <u><a href="http://www.madfeed.co/2015/mad-dispatches-on-all-the-ways-to-write-a-recipe/" target="_blank">write a recipe</a></u><br />
*An old friend and <u><a href="https://www.instagram.com/postitportrait/" target="_blank">her new endeavor</a></u><br />
<i>*</i>This is <u><a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/internet-wrote-full-length-jeb-bush-inspired-versi-235615" target="_blank">everything I love</a></u> about everything (did I mention I love this?)Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-9324644873859473202016-05-05T08:00:00.000-04:002016-05-05T08:00:36.983-04:00book report #8<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
*<u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Story-New-Name-Neapolitan-Novels/dp/1609451341/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462196036&sr=1-1&keywords=a+story+of+a+new+name" target="_blank">The Story of a New Name</a></u> (Elena Ferrante) I was hooked by book no. 1, and now with this second Neapolitan Novel, I have become fully addicted to all things Ferrante. It's a little like the first-year psychology student discovering that he has all the issues he's studying, but I found so much of myself, my teenage years, and my current feelings toward life-long friendships in this book that it was almost as if I was reading my parallel universe. I'm at the mercy of the Queens Public Library to decide when I get to read the third book, but if it takes much longer I may just buy the series myself.<br />
<br />
*<u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Among-Ten-Thousand-Things-Novel/dp/0812995228/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462196079&sr=1-1&keywords=among+the+ten+thousand+things" target="_blank">Among the Ten Thousand Things</a></u> (Julia Pierpont) a slightly disjointed narrative that annoyed me at first, but then I got used to it. I can't say I ever got fully onboard with this book, but the storyline was interesting, if not the tiniest bit tired (husband cheats on wife, their entire family derails). A quick read that does well on airplanes and subways.<br />
<br />
*<u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Will-Teach-You-Be-Rich/dp/0761147489/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462196109&sr=1-1&keywords=i+will+teach+you+to+be+rich" target="_blank">I Will Teach You To Be Rich</a></u> (Ramit Sethi) I haven't proselytized a book in quite some time, but I cannot shut up about this book. Seriously, ask my friends. I've talked about the financial lessons I gained in this wonderfully comprehensive and plainly stated how-to book over dinner with friends, in bed with my fiancee, to my parents around the breakfast table, on the subway, at work, and even while driving a golf cart in Hawaii - because it's just that good and easy to understand. By breaking down money management to its' most elementary terms and practices, Sethi makes having and keeping money entirely possible. I read this book off a suggestion of a fellow blogger and wish I'd read it five years ago. But there is NO time like the present to get started on making smart financial decisions that will benefit you for the rest of your life.<br />
<br />
*<u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/House-Spirits-Novel-Isabel-Allende/dp/1501117017/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462196140&sr=1-1&keywords=the+house+of+the+spirits" target="_blank">The House of the Spirits</a></u> (Isabel Allende) it took me a REALLY long time to get into this book. It's not a nice story - set in pre-revolutionary Chile, the men are mean, the women are persecuted, the rapes are rampant, and there was such a graphic abortion scene that I had to skim over a few pages. However, once we met the mother of this multi-generational saga, the harshness of the characters' lives eased up (slightly) and things got good. Above everything else, it's a beautiful tale of love, life, and revolution in an era and country I know so little about. Also, it counts as the second of <u><a href="http://www.piesetc.com/2016/01/2016-new-years-resolutions.html" target="_blank">ten translated works I'm hoping to read this year.</a></u><br />
<br />
*<u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vacationers-Novel-Emma-Straub/dp/1594633886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462196220&sr=1-1&keywords=the+vacationers" target="_blank">The Vacationers</a></u> (Emma Straub) A light, quick, and breezy read (which I really appreciated after the heaviness of the aforementioned Allende), but nonetheless surprisingly poignant and delicately written. The setting (a two-week vacation in Mallorca) didn't hurt either, nor did the dime-store descriptions of the sexy Spanish tutor. The perfect beach book.<br />
<br />
*<u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Little-Life-Hanya-Yanagihara/dp/0804172706/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462196256&sr=1-1&keywords=a+little+life" target="_blank">A Little Life</a></u> (Hanya Yanagihara) Devastating, depressing, and over 800 pages long, yet somehow also easy to read and impossible to put down. By the last 100 pages, I was crying so hard that I could barely read the words on the page, and this book was ultimately the catalyst for not one, but two evenings of actual weeping. This was my pick for my book club (I know, good job, Mar) and everyone who finished the book had equal-if-not-worse visceral reactions to any one of the horribly violent and sadistic rape scenes. One member had such bad nightmares that she threw in the towel at page 400 and didn't even finish the book. So it it worth a read? Well, the ensuing discussion at book club was one of the longest and deepest we've ever had - so many themes and questions emerged from the reading that we couldn't stop talking about it. If you're looking for a meaty but upsetting tome to sink your teeth into, this book is for you. Just be warned that it is not a nice story.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7177512302120652350.post-88086017212756200722016-05-02T08:00:00.000-04:002016-05-02T08:00:15.176-04:00Quality Meats<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was recently on a flight (MCO - LGA) where I was trying with all my might to ignore the screaming children seated behind me. They were old enough to know better, and even if they didn't know better, their grandmother, seated in the aisle seat (the children were in the middle and window seats, respectively), most certainly should have been proactive in keeping them quiet. She, unfortunately, fell into a deep sleep before we even got off the runway in Orlando and remained in said sleep until we landed two hours and twenty three minutes later in New York.<br />
<br />
I know all this about the family behind me because the children started screaming as soon as they sat down. Both I and my next-seat neighbor (me, window seat; he, middle) startled forward at the first of hundreds of kicks to the back of our seats, and I, already tired and annoyed at having to get up well before my usual wake-up time to make a 10am flight, grumbled something under my breath about how these kids will NOT scream through this entire flight if I have anything to say about it.<br />
<br />
"I'll hold you to it!" said the man.<br />
<br />
"Pshyeah!" I stammered, not realizing that I actually said my inside thoughts aloud.<br />
<br />
Then an announcement came over the loudspeakers, the man closed his eyes and laid his head back, and I stuffed my earphones into my ears and tried to let the cool tones of Hoda and Kathie Lee lull me into oblivion (thanks, JetBlue!) as I mindlessly paged through a magazine.<br />
<br />
The kids would not stop. At one point I was driven from mere passive-aggressive thinking to actual communication when, after sustaining yet another kick to the back of my seat, I lurched over my chair and said to the boy, "hey buddy, when you kick the back of my seat I feel it, ok?" He nodded blankly and to my surprise, ceased all extraneous movement.<br />
<br />
For about 20 minutes, that is. Halfway through the flight, the child in the middle seat let loose a kick so hard I was surprised the captain didn't ask everyone to brace themselves for turbulence. The man next to me flew forward in his seat, glanced sideways at me, and said "I thought you were going to keep them quiet."<br />
<br />
I shook my head. "I tried! And I failed miserably!"<br />
<br />
He laughed. "Ah well. Looks like I'm not getting my nap in this morning."<br />
<br />
"And I guess I'm not reading this magazine today," I sighed as I silenced Kathie Lee.<br />
<br />
"I'm Mark," he said as he extended his hand. "What brings you to New York?"<br />
<br />
And with that, we began as all pleasant airplane conversations begin. I told him how I was between gigs and had seized an opportunity to spend a few days in Florida at a friend's parent's house (free food! In-ground pool!!), and he told me how he used to travel from his home in Connecticut to New York on business all the time, but that he's retired now and has permanently relocated to Florida. We talked about jobs and politics and the weather and the Queensboro Bridge and how I'm an only child and he has two kids and six grandchildren, all girls. Eventually, I got around to inquiring why he was on his way to New York.<br />
<br />
"Well," he said, matter-of-factly, "I'm going to have dinner with an old buddy of mine. One of my closest friends, in fact. We met on the golf course forty years ago, and we were foes when we started out because we were always trying to beat each other's score. But eventually we realized that we liked hanging out more than we liked playing golf, so we gave up the game and started being friends. People used to call us TooTall and TooSmall (he was very tall, you see, and while you can't see it because I'm sitting down, I'm actually very short!), and they'd see us coming and say, 'Oh look, there's TooTall and TooSmall, together again!' We even went into business together for a while, and even though we're both retired now, we talk on the phone two, maybe three times a week. But he just got diagnosed with stage-four cancer and was given only a few months to live, so I'm going to New York for the evening to have one last dinner with him. We're going to Quality Meats for steak and then we're going to find a nice quiet bar and have a couple cocktails and reminisce about the old days. This'll probably be the last time I see him."<br />
<br />
I was very quiet for a while. "I am so sorry to hear that. That's the saddest thing I've heard in quite some time. I hope you have a good time tonight...?"<br />
<br />
"Oh we will! It'll be good to see him again. And don't be too sad, he's lived a good long life and we've been lucky to have been friends for so long. I'm just grateful that I get to do this. But this is the important thing: live your life so that one day, you too can buy a last-minute plane ticket to say goodbye to your friend. Not everyone has the means or the freedom to do something like this, but I do, and I'm grateful for it."<br />
<br />
We began our descent into New York not long after that. The plane came to a full and complete stop, the seatbelt sign went off, and we stood for the never ending process that is disembarking a plane, taking the opportunity to glare at the oblivious children and grandmother behind us (I noticed, with more than a little satisfaction, that I was not the only passenger in the vicinity shooting angry looks at the family). But secretly, I was the tiniest bit thankful for those obnoxious kids and their headphone-less iPads. How often do we actually talk to the stranger seated next to us on an airplane?<br />
<br />
I'm not suggesting that every flight is going to be accompanied by moving and thought-provoking dialogue. People are often at their worst during times of travel (I know I am), and the last thing I want to do is be stuck next to some bloviating armchair politician while speeding through the air in a flying tin can 20,000 feet above the earth.<br />
<br />
But sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind (and throw out all hopes of rest or magazine-reading) and talk to the person sharing your recycled air, because you just might be granted the gift of a beautiful story.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13647596121650771503noreply@blogger.com0