Way Over Yonder In the Minor Key

Another largely ordinary day here. I finally got around to unpacking--mostly because I have to start repacking soon--and got Indian food for dinner with my family.

I also watched "Love and Other Drugs," which I thought was pretty decent in its portrayal of a young adult dealing with a progressive, degenerative disease. I guess it really kind of pinpointed a lot of concerns I have myself about being a burden and such because of medical reasons, and it was certainly more "real" than most romantic comedies I've seen. Its soundtrack was pretty phenomenal as well, and included one of my favorite songs:

Billy Bragg & Wilco- "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key"



(This whole project is really interesting--Billy Bragg and Wilco were given lyrics written by Woodie Guthrie in the 20s and 30s and asked to put them to music and record them by Guthrie's family. Two albums (Mermaid Ave Vol. I and Vol. II) were released as a result of the collaboration.)

Here's another great song from the first album:

California Stars

Mushy Peas & Tea Towels

So, I had a lovely lunch with my flatmate--there were pictures but fish and chips (or fish and mushy peas in my case) tend to look the same, so I won't bore you with that. I love the restaurant--A Salt & Battery-- for several reasons, but the main two are 1. all the people who work there are actually British and 2. their motto is "Cod save the queen." Ace, really.

We obviously went shopping after, and I got some adorable tea towels that look like bus tickets. That sounds ridiculous, but they're adorable:



Functional, cute, and British! How perfect.

I suppose I've only just recently realized that I'll be living in a house next year--which means lots and lots of kitchen goodies to buy! I was always that kid in high school who had a few aprons and several pie dishes for no reason...but now there's a lot of reason and just as much possibility. Excellent!

Oh, we used to wait...

So, already broke that post-a-day promise. In my defense, I did absolutely nothing interesting yesterday. No, really. I'm only a little embarrassed to say that I discovered "Lifetime On Demand" and rewatched their cringe-worthy (but still somehow cute!) Royal Wedding movie (which, I'll admit, inspired fantastically ridiculous dreams in which I attended said wedding after I saw it the first time when it was broadcast).

ANYWAY, here is one of the gems off of the Arcade Fire's Subarbs which is quickly growing on me:



Fun Fact: I was at this concert! It was absolutely amazing and they managed to sell out the O2 in London (which is a HUGE arena) two nights in a row! Probably one of my favorite memories from my week of Euro-tripping.

Speaking of Eurotripping, I can promise you that tomorrow's post will be much more interesting because I'm getting lunch with my favorite flatmate from my term abroad whom I haven't seen since and it's going to be fabulous!

Meet Me on Mclean Tonight

Today was actually quite a busy day!

I went up to Yonkers to stock up on some Irish groceries. The area's always been very Irish, but it's only recently started having Irish stores, etc. There's an area of about two blocks that is strictly Irish butcher shops, sweet shops, and pubs. Fantastic, really. Stocked up on bangers, rashers, and puddings, and then went to a deli for Club, red lemonade (which I haven't seen since Cork!), malt vinegar, jam (made in Dublin, obviously), and maltesers.

Then I met up with some friends from school for dinner; we went to this great burger place (no, really. It's called "The Burger Joint") in midtown which is hidden behind some curtains in the lobby of a ritzy hotel. Afterwards, we went shopping and got gelato on the Lower East Side, which is probably my favorite place in the city.

Here's the gelato place--they make everything onsite, which is cool. I can vouch that the Bailey's and the pumpkin gelato are brilliant.




...and this is just a really cool motorbike we saw




And, a typical snarky city billboard: "Why would you want to leave a city that has six professional sports teams, and also the Mets?"

So, it has just come to my attention that in a mere 364 days, yours truly will be a college graduate. Whoa! Crazy, yeah?

This coming year is big for many reasons, including but not limited to:

1) Starting and (hopefully) completing an honors project
2) Not living in a dorm for the first time
3) Applying to grad schools

...so, lots of stuff going on!

I just decided that I will post something--a recipe, a new band, dorky honors student research breakthroughs--every day, just because. This decision was, of course, made at the beginning of the summer when I have absolutely nothing to do but surf the internet looking at other people's cool blogs, so I can't make any promises that this plan will stick past October, but from now until (at least) then, come hell or high water, I shall post!


So, starting off:

The fantastically catchy and absurdly short "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" by the Vaccines

1. This is our heyday, baby

Mic Christopher & Glen Hansard--"Heyday" (Busking on Grafton St., Dublin)

So, I've been listening to this song a lot lately. It's fantastic for any of several reasons, but this line is just phenomenal:

This is our heyday, baby, and we're not not gonna be afraid to shine 'cause we can make our heyday last forever and ain't that what it's all about?

I spent a lot of time when I got back to the states (...basically until a month or so ago) talking nonstop about my time abroad like it was my crowning moment. In some ways it was, but that's so limiting. It certainly was part of my heyday, part of the "time of my life," but not the middle and certainly not the end. It was the beginning.

So, here's to less reminiscing and more living.

cheers!
S