In a nutshell: carting my new Stephen King novel, the titanic Under the Dome, from place to place and becoming vaguely annoyed whenever anyone tried to, you know, interact with me.
101 Results for: stephen
Friday Night @ Stephen & Dave’s
This weekend, we had two (!) nights out. For us, this is big.
Stephen Bald-freaking-win. OMG.
I pretty much tackled the poor man, because I miiiight have a little crush on him from this classic film.
Links & Love & Stuff
I don't think I've ever had more people stop me to ask about something I'm wearing than these slides. You will actually not believe the price.
If you are a parent and exist anywhere on the socioeconomic spectrum apart from "insanely rich," you need to read this. (I Killed My Teenager's Fancy College Dreams. You Should, Too, via Slate.)
I was in & Other Stories yesterday, and these earrings literally stopped me in my tracks.
What I’ve Been Reading Lately
I've gotten a lot of questions about whether the effects of the retreat I went on in September "lasted." It was an expensive trip, and for me to opt out of my entire life for a full week required about as much insane hoop-jumping as you can imagine...but if I had to do it all over again, the answer to "would I?" is "absolutely."
I'm not meditating every day anymore. I'm not using all of the "tools" that they gave me (although I am using some). But there was one very fundamental takeaway I got from the retreat, and it's one that appears to have taken root.
I give myself space now.
Still There
I've had many summers that felt like little jewelboxes of time, sweet and slow - the one we spent living in temporary housing while we waited for our daughter to be born comes to mind - but there was one that was wonderful in a completely different way than all the others.
It was the summer after Kendrick and I moved from our tiny Hell's Kitchen place to our slightly-less-tiny Upper East Side apartment. The summer that I quit my office job, and started writing for a living (well, that was the plan, in any case). The summer that we were working out how to be married and wondering how in the world we were going to pay our rent and trying to figure out what we wanted to be when we grew up...but it was so exciting. The sheer possibility of it all. We were children standing on the edge of adulthood, thinking about jumping.
We had a little crew that summer. Stephen and Dave, of course - we had rooftop cocktails with them most nights, Lucy whizzing in circles around us while we watched the setting sun light up all that silver paint. Francesca was living in the city then, just a few blocks away, and a few of Kendrick's other friends from college lived at various points along the 6 line. We'd all go out to terrible bars and drink terrible drinks and stay up far too late, because we were still so young, and it still felt like bad choices were a life imperative.
In Which I Go Full Digital Detox
As of tomorrow, I will be doing a thing that I have not done in a solid decade: I will be going offline. Not for a day here and a day there - that, I've done, albeit with much reluctance and even then only because of catastrophic cell phone service. Nope, this time it's for more than a week.
And I won't even be able to break rank and load up Instagram in a moment of weakness, because the place where I'm going requires you to turn in all electronics upon arrival.
About that place: it's in Northern California, in the woods, but I'm not going to say exactly where I'm going - largely because the place emphasizes anonymity and such, but also because it feels like a good idea on a personal level. I learned about it in the wake of this wildly melodramatic moment, when a couple of people - wholly independently - reached out to me to suggest giving it a try. During that not-so-long-ago time, I found myself in a place where I knew I needed help, and finally realized that the methods I'd been using to cope were really just that: things that were helping me "get by." They weren't helping me get better.
Links & Love & Stuff
Blurry screengrab; favorite filter.
Currently wearing nearly every day: these vintage Givenchy clip-ons (lots of similar styles are here).
Because not everything in the world is broken. (17 Acts of Kindness by Total Strangers Who Expected Nothing In Return, via Buzzfeed.)
The Fall
California sunrise via
I woke up this morning cold. Not just "annoyed that I had to get out of bed and abandon once and for all the chance that I might be able to sleep until the point where I actually feel rested" - that hasn't happened in a few months, and I don't see it in my near future. Like, freezing. Teeth-chattering.
(Yes yes, the former Boston/NYC-dweller in me is rolling her judgy little eyes. Whatever, my body is set to California now. I'm cold.)
Links & Love & Stuff
Tiny Tags dog tag and nameplate necklaces
My thoughts on going back to my maiden name are over on IG.