Moving Day

Readers,

If any of you are still out there, I'm temporarily moving to tumblr. I want to keep blogging but need a little break from good ol' blogger. Please please please visit me here. If anyone links me in their blogs, I would be e-v-e-r so grateful if you could update them to my new blog.

Gracias (and as ever, thanks for reading!),

Anne

Polish and Circumstance

This sounds waaaay too familiar. Soul mates?

Guess Who's Back?

Why, hello there!

I am (finally) back in Boston after an exhausting six weeks in China and Hong Kong. 

I'm broke, unkempt and totally jet lagged, but couldn't be happier to be home. 

I have so much to show and tell, but my body is currently fighting me to the death to stay awake (it's 1:30 in the a.m. in Hong Kong). So more later! 

Come Sail Away

Hello from China

Readers,

Hello! I missed you. I don't actually know if you can miss readers over the internet, but I sure did.

I am in my fifth day in Beijing and three days of Chinese lessons (Ni hao!). Discoveries: China is BIG. I am terrible at Chinese. Cleanliness is not so much of a thing here. I can get the New York Times online but not Huffington Post or YouTube (no videos for a while).

Here's something else: Chinese people r-e-a-l-l-y love to take photos with Westerners. African-Americans especially, but pale brunette girls with light-colored eyes will do as well. The photo is of Hana Nobel and me at the Great Wall (hell yes) and a random man who wanted our photo. This is not a one-time event.

Today we went to an old old old Buddhist monastery where we took a tour given by the Great Monk (read: the head honcho). He gave us prayer beads and bananas and let us participate in
one of their services. I never really felt spiritual before, but it really did move me.

Anyway, have to go, having borrowed someone else's computer, but I'll update when I can.

Leave Your Yuans on the Counter, Please

What a Day for a Daydream

On Saturday morning I had the (sort of) good fortune to be walking up Newbury (sort of) early in the morning. Read: 8:30 a.m.

And, you know, I actually kind of enjoyed it. Yeah, I was REALLY tired. But it was the first really hot day, and I had the sun on my face and a cool breeze in my hair. I felt great.

I also had the opportunity to snap a pic of the new art installation in front of LouisBoston. 

It sort of reminds me of those stretchy tie board things I played with as a kid. Except colorful. And high end. And artful. 

My Life Would Suck Without You

My sherbet orange Vans are kind of my life.

Tragically, we must part Thursday morning for six weeks while I head off to the Far East.

I'm not so hot as this kind of thing, but maybe Matt Collette could write a haiku on my behalf for them?

HAIKU UPDATE:

I'm off to China
and I've got everything but
my little red shoes

Very Gray Gardens

Last week I ventured to Newport, Rhode Island to check out the notorious mansions built in the late 19th and early 20th century by the nation's wealthiest families. It was totally worth it. 

There are several mansion tours you can go on, but I hit Chateau-sur-Mer, the only of the historical society's houses to have been a full-time residence, and The Breakers, the massive summer palace built by Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The former was kind of meh, but The Breakers is a must-see for anyone schooling on the East Coast. It's unimaginatively big, and the audio tour absolutely rocks. Plus, had the manse not been sold to the historical society, Anderson Cooper (son of 70s jean designer Gloria Vanderbilt) could have been an inhabitant. So there's a little journalism trivia for you newsies out there.

Eric and Anne go to the Garden

Eric and I gardened in our Symphony Road plot for the first time yesterday.

This was, for the both of us, our first real gardening experience. We weeded, planted some things and combed our earth.

Three hours in the 80+ degree weather left us tired, hot and incredibly, INCREDIBLY dirty.

But we had an excellent time, made some pals and took a break to snap the group photo. The whole thing made me a little sad I'll be gone for fourth months and will miss most of the gardening season. And then I remembered how hot it gets here and then I really wasn't so sad anymore.

Sorry I've Been So...

Amazing Grace

Drunken Ruminations

I Want to Thank You

Life's So Bright

Okay, so I realize that the Wayfarer thing is a little over. Every celebrity on the face of the planet has been seen wearing them, I know, I know.

Yet, I still wear my pair on sunny days. It's just a classic shape that looks good and effortlessly cool on anybody.

So obviously, as part of this country's SHOCKING visually impaired contingent, I gravitate toward my own pair of Wayfarer eyeglasses. Maybe that's one of the things I can pick up cheaper in China? Here's hoping.

Daily Lyrics

Walk, Don't Run!

For it is Free Cone Day at B&J's today.

I believe there are ice cream shops located in the Prudential Center as well as one further down on Newbury Street.

Yeah, yeah, it's raining and maybe not a super inspiring ice cream day, but are you really going to turn down free ice cream?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Sneak Peak: My Nightstand

So I'm a pretty finicky sleeper.

It takes me forever to fall asleep, and once I do, I wake up about a million times. So, I'm extremely picky about the things I use to help me sleep, from my delish Marvis Ginger Mint toothpaste to my face cream, lip balm, etc. 

I can't sleep without CO Bigelow brand Rose Salve (yeah, yeah, it's a rip off, I know), Clark's Botanical's Smoothing Marine Cream and a sleepmask, preferably one pilfered from jetBlue. I also depend on reading material (Tom Wolfe right now now, an essay book on China in preparation for my departure and the Portable Dorothy Parker always). 

I also have a pretty healthy relationship with ambien (not pictured)

(More More More)

 

Fashionista has this super cute mini-commercial for the first cookbook from BabyCakes, an all-vegan bakery in New York, New York (the city so nice they named it twice...). Now, I've never really been too into the vegetarian/vegan thing, but a healthier cupcake can't be a bad thing, can it?

My cup(cake) hath runneth over

Readers, I have some news:  I found a new cupcake joint, and it is actually better than Sweet. 

Enter:  the South End Buttery. 

Located on Shawmut Ave in the South End (duh), the Buttery is the grown-up answer to Sweet. The bake shop actually functions as a full-service cafe, with a really rad vintage-looking espresso machine, real food to eat, and wine. The cream, brown and yellow interior feels both fun and sophisticated.

And then, of course, there are the cupcakes. You can check out their full menu here, but I enjoyed a Madison (read: vanilla). The cake was spongy, but not overly sweet (as real cake should be), while the small heap of delectable, buttery frosting lived up to the bakery's name. And, really, it's not like a tour through the South End to get to the place is unpleasant.

Speaking of cupcakes ...