Monthly Archive for January, 2010

List of positive things

Published on January 31, 2010 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments
  1. My house slippers.
  2. Lists
  3. Forcing myself to do enriching things. Like reading and writing.
  4. Breakfast
  5. Financial independence
  6. Spending quality time with quality people
  7. Routines

What We Talk About…

Published on January 20, 2010 in raymond carver readings short stories books. 0 Comments

I recently finished reading Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Jessie gave me this collection of short stories for Christmas, I think because of the title story. She also knows how much I prefer short stories to long ones.

To my surprise, many the stories were pretty fucked up and sad. That says a lot about how much I know about American writers, I guess. I love how understated the stories are. My top three: “After the Denim,” “Why Don’t You Dance?,” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” They were all a little less shockingly sad than the rest and I liked that.
In the title story, two couples sit around a table drinking gin while the sun goes down and they talk about love and what we talk about when we talk about it. During their conversation, one of the characters says,
“You guys have been together eighteen months and you love each other. It shows all over you. You glow with it. But you both loved other people before you met each other. You’ve both been married before, just like us. And you probably loved other people before that too, even. Terri and I have been together for five years, been married for four. And the terrible thing, the terrible thing is, but the good thing too, the saving grace, you might say, is that if something happened to one of us tomorrow, I think the other one, the other person, would grieve for a while, you know, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have someone else soon enough. All this, all of this love we’re talking about, it would just be a memory.”

I can relate. I mean, who can’t? Anybody who’s been in more than one serious or not-serious relationship can, I think. It makes me reflect on my own relationships, the relationships I’ve witnessed come and go. There’s nothing more reassuring to me than the idea that, even if everything gets burned to the ground, new things will grow again.
Let me be more understated and more personal.
Love,
Kirsten

Vegan Brunch Review, New York

Published on January 18, 2010 in vegan brunch new york. 0 Comments

I spent this weekend with Jessie in New York. It was great, we took it easy and just hung out in all my favorite places. We avoided the stress and pomp of getting to a Broadway show (I wasn’t really excited about anything anyway) and spent our time visiting museums I’d never been to, seeing a little improv and eating delicious food. It was my personal goal to eat as much Vegan brunch as possible and here’s where/what we ate:

(Brunch – West Village)
I got this weekend’s brunch special: Banana & Pecan vegan pancakes with fake sausage. Plus a half pitcher of Sangria. The service was a little slow and poor, which we’ve come to expect from cool, vegan restaurants, but my food was amazing. Hands down the best pancakes I’ve ever had, vegan or no. Melt-in-your-mouth good. The sangria was also a hit, mostly because of the adorable chopped apple garnish.
(Dinner – East Village)
We tried to go to Angelica Kitchen, a cute little vegan dinner place on the Lower East Side on Saturday night, but were met with a 45 minute wait. So instead, we wandered over to Telephone Bar, where we ate some standard bar food and drank cheaply. I had an dry black bean burger and Jessie had some awesome pasta with shitake mushrooms and peas. The best thing about this place was the outside.
(Brunch – East Village)
We waited around a half hour in the rain on Sunday morning for this place. By the time we sat down, we were ready to eat. I got the Slumberjack special – vegan pancakes, fake ham, scrambled tofu, fruit, and curly fries. Sounds like a lot, right? I ate the whole thing. The pancakes tasted much healthier than Sacred Chow’s, but the scrambled tofu was pretty good. One of the best scrambled egg substitutes I’ve had. We finished our breakfast off with a piece of vegan red velvet cake, which was super rich. I only lasted about three bites.
(Coffee, Pastries, Lunch – West Village)
I’d been to snice before (for Wahima’s cupcake adventures!). This time I got a bagel w/tofu cream cheese and a vegan panini to go (to save for lunch). The worst part of both Curly’s and Chow was the waiting to sit at Curly’s and to order at Chow, it was refreshing to walk into Snice, order, and easily grab a table near a window. That being said, this is much more of a coffee shop than a restaurant. My vegan panini had smoked tofu, pesto and sundried tomatoes – really well-balanced flavors.
Anyway, this has been the blog where I pretend I’m a food critic. I love you nork.
Love,
Kirsten

[title of blog]

Published on January 16, 2010 in title of show die vampire die theatre. 0 Comments

I saw the final dress of [title of show] at Speakeasy Stage with Nat yesterday. I’d never seen or heard the show before and I really enjoyed it. There were a few really honest, resonating moments sprinkled throughout a pretty funny, weird script.

My favorite song of the show, “Die Vampire Die” Check this shit out
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Occurances

Published on January 16, 2010 in new years resolutions music. 0 Comments

Things have happened that involved my resolutions:

The other day, I spilled all my hot coffee on the floor of my room when trying to carry too much stuff in for breakfast. I did not freak out, what a fucking miracle.
Priorities are pretty much as they were.
I’ve been writing so much! I wrote two new songs and am working on two more. And I recorded two of them. This has been a very fruitful two weeks for me. I love it.
That’s that.
xoxo
Kirsten

Resolutions

Published on January 7, 2010 in new years resolutions. 2 Comments

Without explanation or apology, I plan on writing in this blog again and for the first time.

Resolutions: 2010
1. Be more chill.

I stress out about things way too much. Though I may appear laid-back, I’m wound a little more tightly than I’d like. In fact, I’d say that everything in my nature makes me a spazzy control-freak. If given the opportunity to re-wire something about myself, I’d make myself more easy-going.

2. Be clear about my priorities.

If my life were a well-oiled machine (which it was), 2009 was the wrench that brought my gears to a crunching halt. My mom’s death really shook me up, for obvious and not-so obvious reasons. Losing my mom made me realize how brief life actually is and how stupid it is to not do what makes you happy. In 2009 I quit my steady, awesome career-path job so that I could make more music and do more improv. And though I haven’t done all the things I’ve wanted to in the past four months, I feel freer and happier than before.

This year, I’m going to what’s right for me, whatever that means. I’m going to be wiser about taking on extra work and look out for my own interests, because nobody else is going to do that for me.

3. Write more.
More everything. Songs, sketches, stories, things I don’t want to forget. Everything. Nuff said.

Other goals include: getting my health insurance back, spending more time with my friends, home-recording a couple EPs, playing out more, eating better, and being more active.