eight ways of looking at a birthday month

1. this month i will turn 23. it will not be my golden birthday, like it was last year. it will not celebrate the first time that i can drink legally, like it was two years ago. no. this month, i will turn michael jordan's chicago bulls number. and i couldn't be more comfortable about being rather tall.

2. this month will be my last living on the upper west side. does moving out of the neighborhood of one's school signify something about becoming a grown-up? let's pretend. and let's pretend for a moment that next year i will actually stick to my plan of biking into manhattan from brooklyn every day. what a good butt i will have. also, i hope that in my new neighborhood i can recreate this comfortable feeling that i get in my current neighborhood that comes from seeing my regular taco truck, my regular corner donut man, churro woman, my regular neighbor evan. 

3. jesca hoop is who i've been listening to this morning. she opened for punch brothers. it took me many minutes on google to realize that she is "jesca" and not "jessica," but it was worth it, and in another life i would want to be similar to her.

4. my eating habits have spun out of control. a rob coffee date turns into a rob short rib sandwich date, i nonchalantly had fried green tomatoes during the middle set at dizzy's last night. i haven't been to the grocery store in weeks. in april, this worried me. but now it's my birthday month so i can eat whatever i want, correct?

5. lol @ "birthday week" expanding to "birthday month." life is simply too short for your birthday to just be a week. 

6. my body has seen a ridiculous amount of hives in the past week. mum thinks i've tout à coup developed an allergy to something that i'm exposed to regularly. could you imagine if it was an allergy to sugar? or lemons? unfortunately, it's definitely not vegetables since i haven't had them on a regular basis in many days. maybe it's my penguin, or may, or shampoo.

7. the david little opera dog days is something that i can't stop thinking about. it is one of the most ferocious pieces of music that i've ever heard. the story, the lyrics, the use of vibrator on brake drum: it is brilliant. and though i love this month, performing in september's premiere is something that i am very much looking forward to.

8. high-waisted jeans, yo.

-yeh

home {again}

for the second weekend in a row, i flew home. 

and it was bliss.

bliss because i got to see my dad accept an award for his work with my old youth orchestra,

bliss because, as much as i love my life in new york, every day i think about how much better it would be if i could see my family without having to get on a plane.
every weekend i could do exactly what i did this weekend...

i could have lazy mornings in the kitchen reading cookbooks while mum makes crepes,

we could make chocolate rugelach whenever we please,

pops and i could take zumba classes {and i would die watching him}.

stoop and i could curl our hairs while we sip mimosas,

and i'd sit with mia while she practiced the piano.
{this weekend. oh it was perfect.}

-yeh!

30 hours with mum.

20 of which were spent eating.

the other 10: in the theater or shopping for cookie cutters.

and, i don't even know why i asked, but the first words out of my mouth when she got to my apartment were why do you have that massive suitcase? you are only here until tomorrow. of course it was to carry the lemon cake and pumpkin bread and madeleine pan and makeup presents. of course.

{i can't wait to do that for my offspring!}

in true mum-visit fashion, 

i think we beat everyone at eating this weekend,

for what we ate included:

sandwiches from no. 7 sub + a hot ass pickle + stumptown

on a couch in the ace hotel lobby mixing with the cool hip crowd?

and broccoli on a sandwich = tasty yum yums

gnocchi x 3 + vanilla soda {!!} at esca

over a discussion of my new schnitzel and calf skin drum head business model. with rob and so much laughing.

not late night snackees at má pêche 

because their website is confusing and f that and i wanna cry about it but i was still full from esca so it kind of worked out.

cake + carbonara for breakfast at prune

after nearly having a conniption from seeing the line and then having the opposite of a conniption upon seeing that jusbit was holding our spot nearly at the front. yay!

english muffins with peach jam at sarabeth's

because cookie cutter shopping really does take a lot out of you.

and sarabeth's english muffins are so delightful.

...

it was such a lovely weekend.

i simply couldn't have asked for anything more

{except more belly space!}

-yeh!!! 

happy birthday, mum!

dear mum:

even though my recent influx of grey hairs is all thanks to you,

i still love you...

because yesterday you suggested that i should be rosemary for halloween,

and then said that i shouldn't because it might look too much like marijuana...

and also because when i tell you that we are going to pick out each other's toe nail colors and i choose neon orange, you are nice and choose a pretty pink.

oh. what jingles on my desk?

a telephone text: hey! it's my birfday! you say. hehe.

it appears i got my impatience from you, too!

i suppose, though, i am quite alright with turning into you...

because you are silly and happy and love what you do,

and because you make the baddest boozey brownies on the planet.

happy birthday, mama!!!!! 

i love you!!!

love,

mollsy