winter runs

I’ve recently discovered that winter running (particularly when the snow flakes are coming down hard) is basically the best thing ever. Once you get over the initial feeling of cold biting at your hands and face, your body starts to warm itself from the core, making for a picturesque workout with a hint of adventure. I’ve been meaning to try for years, and somehow never got over the psychological hump of leaving the house dressed in less than a giant puffy jacket in the dead of Cleveland winter. But it really just took the investment in a good pair of wind resistant, lined running tights and an ugly looking headband to join in on the fun! Highly recommend.

backwards, forwards

Rang in the new year with a group of my oldest friends (some that I have known for upwards of 18 years), sharing reminisces over a game of telephone pictionary. There are some things that never change, and for that I am so very grateful.

2012 was a year of growing pains but also much learning and exploration.

Travel highlights:

Numerous trips to NYC (half of my time spent wandering aimlessly around central park), a return to San Francisco/Napa Valley, so many incredible places in China and never enough time (Chengdu I will be back!), Puerto Rico and Montreal with my endlessly entertaining and adventurous group of coworkers, and various flavors of summer/fall in New England via Provincetown and Newport, RI; Portland, ME; and the Berkshires.

And because food is (in-arguably) the most important component of any travel, or of just hanging around Boston, here are the year’s food highlights, in no particular order (rating for overall impression):

  • South End Buttery (Boston) 3/5
  • MET Back Bay (Boston) 3/5
  • Estragon (Boston) 4/5
  • Suishaya (Boston) 3/5 - Standard Korean Fare
  • Zero Zero (San Francisco) 5/5
  • Lala Rohk (Boston) 2/5
  • Metropolis Cafe (Boston) 3/5
  • Sibling Rivalry (Boston) 3/5
  • Gaslight (Boston) 3/5
  • Eastern Standard (Boston) 4/5
  • Oleana (Boston) 5/5**Amazing
  • Allium (Great Barrington, MA) 4/5
  • Public (NYC) 4/5
  • Cookshop (NYC) 5/5
  • Salt House (San Francisco) 5/5
  • The Girl and the Fig (Napa Valley) 5/5
  • Estelles (Boston) 4/5
  • Ma Peche (NYC) 5/5
  • Seagrass Bistro (Yarmouth, ME) 5/5 
  • Verses (Montreal) 5/5
  • Jose Enrique (San Juan, PR) 5/5**

Here’s to many more adventures in 2013 to places far and near, and (finally) applying to medical school! I’m looking forward to more books read, more miles run, and more amazing food and drink consumed in the company of people who inspire me to be better everyday. 

cheers,

r

brunching finds - Tatte bakery & cafe

Went running with M Saturday morning and stumbled upon a great new brunch location in the city. Later learned that they actually also do dinner - and I am already looking forward to going back. 

Check out the website and menu! We tried a Sabiche sandwich (roasted eggplant and tahini) and perfectly runny poached eggs over halloumi cheese and sourdough - both delicious.

And look how cute the lights are! Did I mention the serving spoons and napkins come in a flowerpot? Genius.

Tatte, owned by Tzurit Or offers breakfast, lunch, dinner, and baked goods.

unnecessary sadness

There are moments that make all the other moments OK. The moments of resolution and understanding, of at last seeing the point of all of this! at the end of so many moments spent combing through endless uninspired words describing cash flows and future risks and debt revolvers. Words you never imagined existing until recent memory, and now seem to take over your entire existence.

Any meaningful and authentically challenging experience, they all say, will come with very high highs, and very low lows. You are taught that you must learn to be more comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. You wonder if this is all true. You bury your uncertainty in layers of sweaters and jangley silvery necklaces. Leather boots in fall, various shades of brown marching down Newbury St. with LA Burdick cup full of pumpkin spice in hand – and try to decipher what it is that seems so vaguely sweet, but unmistakably sad.

You think about purpose and calling and helping people and making a difference and being happy. All of these words that people toss around. Words with meaning, words without meaning. Meaning – as the soul to instantiate the sounds that fall out of our mouths.

These days I walk out the door and in a storm of envy I secretly judge all the tourists decked out in film noir-esque black leggings, black drapey sweater and black finger nails. The only thing that is not black is the brownish LV tote bag that seems to take over their entire frame. And sometimes the bleached reddish brownish hair that tumbles in smooth locks over all the black-ness. I wonder what will become of all of the contents of all of her shopping bags – probably relegated to some corner of her vast and expansive closet filled with other monogrammed Louis Vuittons.

I will probably never be that kind of woman. My own shopping bags are more modest in nature – still unsure of the woman in the idea that I would like to embody. Enigmatic, perhaps – but what does that really even mean. After you have lived in a language for a while, words start to take on their own meaning in the context of your own experiences. I wonder how much my concept of words and phrases actually overlaps with Webster’s storied definition.

Is that what you are looking for in me? That mysterious quality that rubs off in the layers I shed as I tell you I love you. The soul that is hiding behind all her layers of expensive black fabric, beautiful but falling apart at the seams.

Brownies

ROMNEY: Oh gosh. Brownies. I love brownies. Ann and I both love brownies. Always have. We used to make them all the time when we were young. From scratch. Grew our own cocoa. Hard to do but we did it. Well, literally impossible in North America. But Hershey’s makes some. Buy it. Just go in that supermarket and buy it. Or send someone in to buy it. Or buy the store and the store’s parent company. Great fun. Brownies.

-thenewyorker