Charlotte Gainsbourg

Like everyone in the world, I love Charlotte Gainsbourg and everything she does. Her latest album, Stage Whisper, is pretty good, but parts of it are great. You can hear a lot of her influences and trends but that's cool. Art is art, right?

My Birthday!

Today was my birthday. Actually yesterday, since it's after midnight now. I've had a pretty busy week with holiday parties and get togethers with friends, since most people who live in this great city of ours are not locals and nobody is in town for my sucky birthday. Andy and I have been going out to eat in our neighborhood a lot lately (yay for December baby birthday money) and Williamsburg has been surprisingly deserted, since I wrongly assumed most of us have less than simpatico relationships with our families. At dinner at the St. Austere on Friday night (by the way, an epic and amazing meal), we were the only customers there from 7-9pm. Andy made the observation that we are the uncool townies. Which was true, I guess, in a way, except for the uncool part.

We spent Christmas lamely in our apartment overdosing on junky TV, but did our prodigal duties today in visiting and breaking bread with both his and my family. Which should hold us for another couple of months.

My amazing friend Peter, at Fresh Salt, the greatest local watering hole I've ever had in this god forsaken city.

Quinn, Sonya, Olive, Beezus, Amanda, (from left to right) at Amanda's digs in Fort Greene for a semi-birthday/pre-holiday gathering.

My Birthday/Christmas Wishlist

My birthday is the day after Christmas which is the worst birthday ever. Not that I'd change it if I could, but the whole youngest-in-your-class thing, combined with the one-present-per-year, and everyone-is-tired-of-celebrating all add up to a pretty sad birthday. I kind of hate my birthday and never celebrate it except with my parents and sister and boyfriend. The other thing is how I'm petrified of death, and every birthday seems like a giant marker symbolizing what's over and pushing me closer to that mysterious cliff, but that's a whole other post.

Anyway, here is my holiday/birthday wish list of stuff I am pretty sure I won't get:

1. A soprano ukelele.
2. 3-d geometric wall sculptures I saw at Craig's apartment but don't know where they are from.
3. A house (with a pool)
4. A dog (A big one.)
5. A new SLR (and to find my 18-55mm.)
6. To go to my friend's bachelorette party in motherfucking Jackson Hole.
7. A gym in my building.
8. Ginger holiday cookies.
9. A vintage Wedgwood tea set.
10. A new sofa.

Craig & Justin's Holiday Party

A former CD threw a holiday party at his beautiful apartment in Long Island City.

There was tons of champagne, ginger cookies, and amazing decor. There was also a sick deck which would probably be awesome in the summer, but that night was just too cold to hang out on it (despite a pergola, pillows, and hula hoop.)

The entire place was done in my favorite design style, aka the super glam regency mod look. There were incredible details in every corner that made the whole place feel so personal and considered, versus the standard blank white box you usually see in these new construction deals. I love getting a peek into people's homes, and especially when they're so gorgeous.

Donde Esta Santa Claus

Donde esta santa claus - Augie Rios by ChristmasCountdown

If any of you have spotify, my holiday list is here

Holiday Party

My work holiday party was on Wednesday. It was pretty epic. It was at Skylight One Hanson, aka the former bank building that's now the Fort Greene Brooklyn Flea space. All of the teller windows were bartenders. They did run out of champagne and ginger ale pretty quickly, but we still had plenty of bourbon, scotch, wine, which was enough for me.

Cheese & Wine (& Love) 101

For Steve's birthday, his fiance Kat suggested surprising him at a class for Artisanal's Cheese & Wine 101. It was really an awesome thing to do and totally worth it. You get four glasses of wine (with unlimited refills!) to try with a plate of cheeses. (Or is it cheese? Is cheese plural?) Our plates included the spendy Blaue Geiss above, which they sell for $80. Yeah.

I don't think I actually learned anything, because I had too much wine. But it was a fun way to spend the evening, especially if you go with friends. Even if you have a strict teacher who doesn't like when you giggle and make cheese jokes.

The most interesting part of the night happened a few days later, when a friend received a long, secret-admirer email from someone we can only guess was an employee at the event. (This friend has attended more than one of these classes. Too many, clearly.)

Now, is there any way – over the age of 14 – to send an appropriate anonymous love letter? We debated it, and I've come to the conclusion of no. While it's perfectly nice and flattering in a way, it's also incredibly invasive. The anonymity of it is what I don't like. When you like someone, you ought to do the socially acceptable thing where you stare at them and smile and make awkward conversation and do other physical things that make it clear that you like them, so they can clearly do the vague, physical acceptance or rejection (smiling and engaging/avoiding.) Obviously this is challenging, but it allows the relationship to flow through a Panama canal of checkpoints. Doing a massive emotional dump on an unsuspecting victim is like screaming at a stranger for getting in your way. Well, maybe not that bad, but it ignores all of those little polite and important interactions for the sake of indulging your emotional impulses. It's rude and selfish. Not too mention a little creepy for the "I love you based on what you look like without knowing one other thing about you."

But maybe I'm just a cynic. Millions of people will watch New Year's Eve and enjoy it, right?

Random photo of the day

I took this photo of Andy in Costa Rica in early 2008. We were in a cable car climbing up into the mountains to do some ziplines. The very first line was 1 kilometer long (it took nearly two minutes) and over 1200 ft up in the air, which was not what I had been prepared for at all. But this photo was the exciting part before I knew to be scared.

Yes, I ziplined with my SLR. And no, I did not take any photos as I was on the line.

I miss doing new things.

Russian-style Korean Dinner

I made veal dumplings today, in the usual Korean way that I learned from my mother. Tonight I ate them pelmeni-style, aka with butter and sour cream. Um, it was amazing. And I realized that Korean dumplings and Russian pelmeni are basically the exact same thing, just served with different sauces.

Tonight's Dinner:

1.5 packs of dumpling skins/wonton wrappers
1 lb. ground veal

1/2 a large onion, diced small

3 scallions, diced small

1/2 zucchini, diced small

1/2 block tofu, squeezed dry with paper towels

Sea salt

Splash of soy sauce and sesame oil

Some fresh thyme and rosemary

I sautéed the vegetables with butter, because I knew I was going to eat the first few pelmeni-style. Then mixed them in with the veal and tofu and seasonings. Quickly (took me about an hour) I scooped about a tablespoon into each little dumpling skin. Mine were round, so I pinched them into a half moon shape, floured them, and packed them away in groups of 6-8 in tin foil and tossed them in the freezer. 

A couple hours later, I was hungry so I brought a pot of water to a roiling boil and dropped them in. They floated up done in about three minutes, at which point I tossed them with butter and put a dollop of sour cream on the side. Ta-da! Multicultural dinner in four minutes.

Holiday Blues

As cool and cynical as I try to be on a daily basis, I love Christmas in the totally cheesy, naive way of a small child. Probably partly because I had a great childhood, and partly because inside I can be a big soft optimistic idiot, and when else can I let that out besides the holiday season? I even love holiday music (although by that I mean real, Bing Crosby holiday music, not anything by a boy band or the Biebs. Even if Bing was the Biebs of his day.)



So after four days of pestering the boyfriend to go with me to buy a tree and carry it home, we were finally on our way. "What's the big deal?" he asked me, as we were walking in the cold. "It'll be over in a few weeks, and we're not kids anymore."

I thought about it for a moment before answering. "Every day is the same," I finally told him. "I go to work, come home, the weekends blink by, and then years have passed. I've been in the same routine for nearly eight years, with ten vacation days off per year. I need something to anchor me." It was the first time I'd ever really articulated that out loud. Also, as some background info, the boyfriend is one of the privileged few who makes his own works hours and never really experienced office life.

"Wow," he said. "That's really bleak."

And then I was proud to have a bitter, sad angle on my corny holiday glee.

Why Time Goes Faster as You Get Older via Psychology Today

Battez-vous by Brigitte

Brigitte - Battez-Vous by 3emebureau

From the bucket list: Learn French.

From the fantasy bucket list: Be a French pop star. Smoke cigarettes and say rude things to everybody.

New necklace

On Saturday I met my friend Amanda for brunch (at Miriam, was delicious) and we stopped off at the Brooklyn Flea to do some holiday shopping. Well, that was our original intent, but we just ended up buying shit for ourselves.

I bought this necklace, by Birdhouse Jewelry. It made me wonder how difficult it is to make a living on handmade jewelry in our area. I'd say a good 50% of the booths at the flea were some form of either handmade or vintage jewelry. The idea of just making something I think is cute and being able to live off of what I make selling them is super appealing, but then I remember the part where you have to sit in a booth all day long and deal with people shopping (shoppers are one of the worst kinds of people I think), and then I feel glad that I have an office job where the people you have to deal with on a daily basis are pretty fixed.

UPDATE: I have already broken this necklace. This is why I can't have nice things.