hiya, hyannis: cape cod weekend

despite living in the northeast for 25+ of my 27 years and in new england for 15+ years, i'd only been to cape cod ONCE before this past weekend. for summer vacations, my family was all about maine and canada; i've been to ogunquit and kennebunkport and ottawa more times than i can remember because my dad always hated the cape traffic. i always thought he was exaggerating.

that is, until it took us 3 hours on friday night to get from my friend's house in andover, massachusetts, to hyannis, massachusetts: a trip that should normally take about 1.5 hours. woof. thank god that the three of us kept each other entertained by talking about TMZ headlines and friends and all that fun stuff that ladies talk about.

but anyways! we had a lovely time once we actually arrived. the weather on saturday was absolutely picture-perfect. we got up early and enjoyed some breakfast at the b&b we were staying at, before walking down to the beach and spending a few hours just sittin' and rotatin'. the afternoon was spent eating lunch and shopping on hyannis' vibrant main street, and taking a little trip down to check out the kennedy compound. we had a pre-dinner drink (vodka/lemonade/iced tea/fresh mint for me) on the patio at a cute place that looked out at the harbor, and grabbed tapas at embargo on main street. we finished the evening with a beer at yet another patio, just watching the bachelorette parties go by. a great little weekend trip, for sure. picture time!

beach!

and again

and again

adorable & delicious gelato place, run by a husband & wife.  i got nutella & sea-salted caramel!

he was a QT

kennedy compound

house love

honorary kennedys

more house love 

ahhhhh

waterfront drinks

we got the comfy couches!

boathouse

tapas! pulled pork tacos...

& lobster/chorizo-stuffed quahog!

around town: artbeat somerville & outside the box festival

i'm relishing the chance to actually spend a weekend around here, since i was back in NH last weekend, going to cape cod next weekend, and then back to NH the weekend after that. where is this summer going, guys?! i don't like this one bit.

anyways, i've been trying to jam-pack all of the boston goodness into one weekend that i can. currently coming to you live from peet's coffee in lexington centre (yeah, that lexington, where the revolutionary war started?). it's a beautiful little town with lots of shopping, dining, people that probably eat organic, people that ride bikes, and ADORABLE DOGS. it's pretty sleepy for a twenty-something, however, so i feel like living 3 miles away in arlington is like the best of both worlds. 

so, yeah, lexington. i'm going to walk around later and maybe hit on a historical reenactor and who knows what else. but let's talk about saturday!

i'd made plans to meet a friend for lunch at dave's fresh pasta in davis square somerville, but didn't realize that the place had like, 2 seats, so we moseyed over to orleans just down the street. it was decent, but they were only serving brunch, and you know when you just REALLY want a sandwich? that's where i was at. but french toast always has the power to transcend my food mood, so it was fine.

we decided to go to the vintage store buffalo exchange afterwards, not realizing that some random festival was happening. but it was kind of cool! there were people dancing to gangnam style, a parade with tuba players and people on stilts, and other such whimsy. i realized shortly after that this was "artbeat," an annual festival in somerville. here's a few random pictures from that:

weird hippie tent

does anyone know if this cow has always been here? 'cause i've never noticed it.

parade!

AND THEN. i had some time to kill before the concert on boston common, so i decided to stroll in the 95-degree heat from park street station to the prudential center. i'm walking down boylston, minding my own beeswax, when i see like a hundred 13 year-old girls standing in front of the mandarin oriental hotel. "who are you waiting for?" i inquire. "BIEBER!!!" about 3 of them scream at me. i waited around for a bit in case sir biebs dangled a baby out of his suite window or something, but no such luck.

bitches waiting for bieber

maybe his tour bus? maybe not? the world may never know. or care.

on a serious note, it was incredibly moving to see that life is back to normal after the bombings, but that the memory is still fresh and thoughts and prayers still abound:

okay, so finally onto the good stuff. what i'd been waiting all day for. one of the highlights of my '90s-loving life. a FREE concert with buffalo tom and the lemonheads (oh, and the mighty mighty bosstones too, but...not a huge fan and didn't stay for them, sorry not sorry). this was all part of this awesome, free, weeklong music & arts festival called "outside the box". just walking around the common, i pretty much cried tears of joy because i'm so happy to be back. you'll have to drag me kicking and screaming away to get me to leave again, man. yeah, the winters are miserable, but when it's good -- like yesterday -- it's just so. friggin'. good.

buffalo tom was awesome! they played "soda jerk" and i danced, and then evan dando (lead singer of the lemonheads) came out and sang with them. somewhere, angela chase was smiling.

then the lemonheads played. can we talk about how evan dando is still totally dreamy at 40-whatever he is? and still totally on drugs, probably? and wearing long-sleeved shirts when it's almost 100 degrees out?

if i could put emojis in blog posts, the heart-eyes one would go here.

the radio station chick literally introduced them as "the ever-still-hot evan dando and the lemonheads." ouch! 

all in all, an EXCELLENT day. 

sincerely yours: the breakfast club effect

I pop in the scratched DVD, curl into the sunken corner of my couch, and press “play.” Shoveling Lucky Charms into my mouth, I savor the tinted, marshmallowy milk as I prepare to indulge in John Hughes’ sweet ‘80s masterpiece, The Breakfast Club, for the umpteenth time. I was 13 years old when I discovered the film, which was recorded off of HBO, sandwiched in between episodes of Cagney & Lacey on a homemade VHS tape, and stowed away in a forgotten drawer in my parents’ living room. On the surface, I was immediately drawn to John Bender’s mysterious persona and gratuitous f-bombs, Claire Standish’s dated-but-fabulous wardrobe, and Brian Johnson’s lovable, naive nerdiness. My barely teenage existence, filled with gel pen-laden notes, close reads of Seventeen magazine and visits to the orthodontist, paled in comparison to their seemingly sexy school days. With that first glimpse of what high school could be like, I became obsessed with all things brat pack, from the subtle nuances in each scene to the background songs that were almost as important as the one-liners. When Napster took hold, I agonized for hours, trying to find the song that plays on Carl the janitor’s radio when he strolls in to impart some wisdom on the kiddos (it’s “Waiting” by Elizabeth Daily). 

Despite spending countless hours in the fictional halls of Shermer High School, Shermer Illinois, 60062, this time was different. When I wasn’t mouthing “Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?” and “I’ve seen her dehydrate, sir. It’s pretty gross.” along with the script, my mind wandered. I began to consider the brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses, and criminals that had weaved in and out of my own life. True, I’d never set foot in detention or even made so much as a visit to the principal’s office during high school. Yet, there are always those people—those groups of people—that you’d never find yourself drawn to in so-called “real life,” but that you somehow become intensely intertwined with through a twist of fate, a certain set of circumstances that can never be replicated. Friendships that are built completely around an immediate, shared experience: the sense that you’re all in this together, whether “this” is a crappy part-time job, a stalled subway ride, or hours of rehearsal for a recital. 

Just like that, these strangers turn into temporary soulmates. You’ll create your own inside jokes about the time that one of you stashed drugs in your underwear in the nick of time.  You’ll shimmy and swivel to pop songs and claim them as your own. You’ll trust them with those buried parts of yourself that you swore you’d never let anyone see, like how you failed shop class last semester or how you can apply lipstick flawlessly without using your hands. You’ll discover that you have far more in common than you ever thought possible with the person that you initially sneered and scoffed at. You’ll come to have an intimate familiarity with each and every one of these people for just one moment in time; a snapshot that partially but perfectly captures all of your lives. Your very own March 24, 1984.

One would imagine that such defining experiences are bound to inspire bonds that promise to endure for weeks, months, or years after you’ve signed and sealed your letter to the principal and returned to your respective lives. And sometimes, just sometimes, they do. The dismal truth for me, at least, is that I can probably count the number of times I’ve spoken to most of these individuals since our finite time together on one hand. Even when we run into each other on a Sunday afternoon at Target months later, or manage to make lunch plans, the connection crumbles without the context. That realization still doesn’t stop me from crossing my fingers behind my back every time. Hope creeps in, and gives me those anxious butterflies. This is it, I think. That time when I finally prove history wrong and carry these friendships over the threshold and beyond the stuffy confines of the school library. 

So this one goes out to my very own breakfast club. To the other writers on my high school newspaper staff with whom I agonized over layouts and fought halfheartedly for free speech. To the ladies on my high school dance team, too. We teased truck drivers with cheeky signs en route to competitions, shared the blissful, greasy satisfaction of post-performance cheeseburgers in a decrepit Boston neighborhood, and exchanged high-fives after our devastating performance of “Thriller”—complete with zombie make-up and ripped fishnets—at the spirit week pep rally. To the five corporate interns that I worked with during college on an abysmal, ongoing PowerPoint project. We religiously completed the USA Today crossword, came up with stupid nicknames for the real nine-to-fivers, and giggled at the Sextrology books in Barnes and Noble during our two-hour lunches, occasionally detouring to Hooters for wings when the male majority ruled. 

To the waitstaff at that faux Irish pub in Boston, my compatriots during the summer of 2007. Over slow Wednesday dinner shifts and loud, trivia-filled evenings, we discussed everything from failed romances to red velvet cake, abused our employee discount in pursuit of mozzarella sticks, and even spent a sleepy Sunday brunch trying to score Tegan and Sara tickets. To those two girls that my friend and I shared Nickelodeon nostalgia and trashy celebrity gossip magazines with in a Burger King booth at a Connecticut rest stop, after our faulty MegaBus was forced to make a pit-stop on the way home from a music festival. To those 19 instant friends with whom I sipped Sangria, cringed through a bullfight, and danced ‘til dawn in a dimly-lit Florence nightclub on a two-week tour of Europe. Slow change may have pulled us apart, but I still have one lingering question. 

As you walk on by, will you call my name?

five things i love right now: home decor edition

sorrrrrrrrry guys, i've been MIA again. i was pretty nonchalant about moving, but as it turns out, i guess it's kind of a big deal.

i still have no cable or internet (this is why i'm writing from the starbucks in my new neighborhood) due to the "historic charm" and terrible wires in my apartment, but that shall all be resolved by next week!

in the meantime, i've been keeping my media-dependent self busy by going out to dinner with friends, exploring my 'hood, and going to see chuck klosterman (well, a signing for his new book, tomorrow). oh, and decorating my apartment. it's not quite all together yet, but here are a few of my favorite items so far.


1. this blue cynthia rowley chair

2. this badass bird lamp

3. this antique kitchen table & chairs

4. this folk art painting of quincy market

5. a charcoal couch (not this one, but it looks similar)

the weekend in videos

ice cream.

100th birthday.

flea marketing.

the best pop-punk throwbacks you never heard (or forgot about)

i claim to hate generic pop-punk sometimes, but then i get kind of hypocritical and have like 50 exceptions, mostly because of the nostalgia factor. here are 6 random ones.

1. lucky boys confusion - "hey driver" 



need an opening song for a driving-in-the-summer mix? you're welcome.

 2. my american heart - "the process" 



my friend dragged me along to see these guys--whom i'd never heard of before--back in like '05, and i was actually super impressed with their stage presence and catchy songs. this one was stuck in my head for at least the entire week afterwards. we may have also had a lil' crush on the cutie-patootie lead singer.

 4. northstar - "for members only"

 

i don't know. this song takes me back to a high school field trip to some weird theater. and the time that i made my myspace headline "these are the things she can take apart" and some crazy northstar fan started messaging me incessantly because of it. also, do you love the cheesiness/low-budg nature of these videos as much as i?

 5. number one fan - "come on"
 

i could never tell if i hated this band or not. even though they're long broken up and reformed as a band called the wildbirds who are actually pretty decent, i still can't. mainly chose this one because the lead singer really just captures that mid-'00s emo look PERFECTLY. why did i ever find labret rings attractive? do i still? all questions that i still struggle with.

6. envy on the coast - "temper temper"  
i heard this one in the middle of sets at an outdoor concert in college...AKA before the days of shazaam. i kept being rude and telling my friends to shut up so i could hear the lyrics. finally found it about a week later and have been angrily singing along every since.

around town: brunch at aquitaine

is it possible, at 9 pm, to still be full from 10am brunch? because i think i am.

my birthday is on tuesday, and i was in the mood for a more low-key celebration than the past few years  (last year i happened to be in italy, for my 25th i partied at foxwoods, and for my 24th i danced all night at a ghetto-fabulous guido nightclub in malden). plus, i also wanted to celebrate being back in the boston vicinity. i figured a brunch would be the perfect solution: good food and good friends in my favorite city in the world!

word on the street was that aquitaine, a french bistro in the south end, had a ridiculous brunch deal. seriously, $9.95 for an omelette, toast, potatoes, cinnamon roll, juice and coffee sounds too good to be true, right? i was skeptical, but this place delivered. while the menu has a bunch of other tempting options, all six of us went with the prix fixe menu.

first came the cinnamon rolls, which had lots of delicious frosting and were more puff pastry than cinnabon. also, note the fancy coffee glasses!

the majority of us also got the omelette de la maison, with gruyere cheese, bacon, and tomatoes, which looked a little somethin' like this:

 god i love the french.

five things i love right now

1. coffee meets bagel

i swore that i'd never do online dating again, but this site just done changed my mind. it's so casual and simple and i promise they're not paying me to say this! the site connects to your facebook account and emails you a "bagel" (prospective date) each day at noon--often a person that you have a friend in common with--with non-identifying information about themselves/their interests and some pictures. you then have 24 hours to "like" or "pass" on your bagel, and if both of you want to connect, you can message each other privately. GENIUS. OBSESSED. i legit look forward to my bagels every day.

2. stonewall kitchen cinnamon & sugar donuts

speaking of breakfast baked goods, i whipped up a batch of these babies on sunday night and they were incredible! also probably a little healthier since they're baked and not fried (okay not much, since you have to dip them in butter and cinnamon/sugar). but honestly, best donuts i've ever had, and super easy to make.

3. this song that i just heard last week but apparently it's from last summer?

turns my car into tha club, man. love it...but i freeeeeaked out when i discovered that it was a dude singing. those pipes cray.

4. chris d'elia's vines

so, y'know that dude from the terrible show "whitney"? he's actually hilarious. my friend kari turned me on to his vines and nearly all of them make me cry with laughter. here's one of my favorites (link since i can't embed): vine.co/v/b2xujh7L63z 

see the rest at his twitter.

5. this new natural child tee (and button) that i just bought

these complete my quarter-life crisis.

i'm feelin' rootless

long time, no blog! since my last post, i've graduated with my master's degree, packed my life away in orlando & made the three-day move back to NH (for the moment). and oh, what a trip it was.
here's some random stuff that happened:


-i discovered the sirius XM "pop2k" station which basically captured my entire tween/teen years. enrique, mandy moore, dre & eminem, chili peppers...it was literally flawless.

-pretty sure a hillbilly freak was trying to take pics of me in a hardee's in the middle of nowhere in virginia. he was doing that thing where you pretend to be looking at your phone while aiming it DIRECTLY AT THE PERSON you're trying to creep on. dude, you can't outstalk this stalker. also the hardee's staff all looked related, in the deliverance sense.

-right before that, i saw a white van with spray-painted dogs on it and laughed/cried

-also spotted a license plate that read "DOL LUVR" and shuddered :(

-i was forced, against my will, to eat at a friggin' olive garden in maryland. my family was all super-tired and wanted somewhere really close. we were also in the mood for italian. so, i asked my homegirl siri for some help (thanks to the hotel wi-fi because i had no cell service in this joke of a place?). her response was the following:

GODDAMMIT, SIRI!
so we went to the OG and i had eggplant parm and our waitress was *~super perky~* and whatever. it was fine and i felt a little dirty afterwards.

-almost every hotel we stayed in had cookies and i went on cookie missions every night. still got some of those suckers in ziploc bags.

-i saw an AC/DC tribute band's van in the parking lot of wendy's, smiled, and then turned around to see that i was eating my spicy chicken amongst mock-rock royalty. i thought about hitching a ride with them to their next biker bar show but they seemed a bit surly.

things i will miss about florida.

well, just about 21 months have come and gone since i moved to orlando for graduate school, even though it kind of seems like yesterday that i packed up and left boston. it's been a good/weird/challenging/transformative time down here, but as many of you know, i have done a lot of soul-searching and decided that:
a) i miss my family and friends immensely
b) my heart is in boston, and it felt like home from the first night that i spent in my north end apartment at age 20 (something which unfortunately never really happened here), and
c) i had my move-across-the-country adventure and don't get me wrong, i'm still a free spirit, man. that said, i'm kind of ready to put down some roots. go all house hunters or some crap in the next couple years. y'know?

so! enough sap. since i made this post when i moved away the first time, i figured it was only fair to give flo rida the same courtesy. so without further ado, the things i will miss about the sunshine state!

1. the weather
'nuff said.

2. the mall at millenia
literally the nicest mall i think i've ever been in. it has a very "florida" feel and a great forever 21/urban outfitters to boot! also, valet parking. at a mall. and PINKBERRY! there's a pinkberry.

3. the vero beach hotel & spa
i'll be making my third trip here next week, before my graduation, because my family and i are obsessed. mainly with the nightly free wine tasting and the weird-ass people that show up to it. and it's right on the ocean, and the staff is really nice, and they have a little sign with the names of the dogs that are staying there(!).

4. goodfella's pizza/sweet! cupcakes/marshmallow delight from publix/four rivers bbq
these four things are honestly all you ever need to know about if you're visiting orlando (aka chain restaurant capital of the world). goodfella's has the best italian & pizza i've ever had, sweet! has the best cupcakes i've ever had (owner is a 2x cupcake wars champ), and four rivers has the best BBQ i've ever had. DONE. i can probably make publix marshmallow delight myself, but it won't be as good.

5. palm trees
never got sick of 'em! :)

6. the winter park farmers market/downtown winter park
a little taste of class, and new england, in florida.

kurt vileophile

still obsessed with this like a week later. i've always been lukewarm on kurt vile, but his new album is SO GOOD. and the promo video for his first single is the most adorable thing i've seen, like, ever.

7 things i want for my 27th birthday

so i'm like, less than two months away from my late 20s. i never make birthday wish lists, but i feel like i need some new stuff that both reflects my maturity and also helps me recapture my rapidly fading youth.

1. either this "burger wolf" workaholics shirt or the "classic lineup" guided by voices shirt

the first says "hey! i can still be funny and ironic." and the second says "hey, kids! i'm a misplaced member of gen x. let's watch reality bites."

2. a french press

every sophisticated person i know has one. sophistication by association?

3. a new romper. preferably one of these two. 

light! carefree! summer!

4. MY CHEESEBURGER TATTOO,  FINALLY

minus the weird blue aura and about half the size, this is pretty much exactly what i want. i can even wear the burger wolf tee to my appointment! it's happening this year.

5. an electric fireplace for my new apartment in boston (still TBD)

i like to be cozy, okay?

6. a barefoot contessa cookbook

for that dinner party i've been meaning to have. i dream of having this woman's culinary and entertaining skills.

7. these shoes!!

because...how cute?!