300

This is my 300th post and also the last post of 2013.  Usually when it's the last post of the year, I do a "Year in Review."  But as much of a stickler for tradition as I am, I'm not going to do one this year.  2013 has been the worst year of my life, and I don't want to spend several paragraphs talking about why.*

I feel like I'm walking on this wire dividing the Hope that next year will be better and the Fear that this year was only the beginning.  I guess the stroke of midnight will be toss of the coin to see what happens.  Either way, I'll keep on blogging.

Happy New Year.

A "fun" picture to lighten the melancholy

*This is not to say that no good things happened this year, but...yeah.

Restaurant Review: Washington Square Tavern

I grew up watching Cheers on TV with my parents, and then I spent the last nine (ugh) years watching How I Met Your Mother.  These shows were my original perception of what bars were like, and then I moved to Boston and actually started going to bars sometimes and I was like, television LIED to me!!!!  Real-life bars are not like TV bars and therefore I dislike them.  Here are the two things I dislike about bars:

1. They are full of noisy people trying to talk over crappy music.
2. There's always a TV playing sports.

Washington Square Tavern, however, is a bar, and yet has none of these things.  The music was soft and non-crappy, and there was no TV.  Instead, there was candlelight and there were old-timey books on the walls.  Granted, I went on a Monday night, but I get the sense that it's not noisy and annoying at any time of the week.

I went here last week with two friends.  We all ordered burgers, despite the plethora of other fancy-sounding things on the menu, because the sole purpose of the outing was to get burgers.  The burgers were delicious.  I ordered mine "medium" and it was very juicy (as we were told/warned multiple times by the server and host).  When I go again (and I will), I will take special care to position the first bite over my fries so that they will also be covered in juice, because it turns out French fries covered in what is essentially blood are delicious.  My only issue with the burger was in the shape of the patty which resulted in a rather tall burger, but I'm told the shape contributes to the juiciness, so I'll let it go and just fault my jaw for being non-detachable.

The service was fantastic as well.  The host was really nice and you could tell that he recognized the "regulars."  I hope to one day become a regular so that whenever I walk in I will immediately be presented with a Diet Coke and a burger.   

Washington Square Tavern is located at 714 Washington Street in Brookline, MA.  Find their menu here.

My Grown-Up Christmas List

This is not a post about one of the cheesiest Christmas pop songs ever written.*  Instead, this is my grown-up Christmas list, i.e., a list of stuff that isn't the fun, exciting stuff that a kid would want (like a chemistry set or a box of microscopes or a pony).  Nor is it some cheesy Amy-Grant-esque list of things that my superego tells me that I should want (like world peace or a husband or normal serotonin levels in my brain).  I'm talking about actual stuff, here, people.  As in the stuff that is my response when my mom asks what I want for Christmas.  So here it is:

1. Black boots, to wear on days when I can't wear brown boots because mixing neutrals still scares me a little.  I have to pick these out when I go home because my feet and calves are finicky.  
2. A bathrobe, to minimize my walking-around-naked time.
3. Season one of Grimm on DVD.  This is one of those things that I have to order myself because the parents haven't figured out Amazon, but that they're going to pay for and wrap and give to me on Christmas Eve.  Also my plan is to watch it at home with my parents to convince my mom that Grimm is better than Once Upon a Time.  Because it is.  So much better.
4. Black and blue Sharpie pens.  These are the best black pens and the second-best blue pens, though others may disagree.  But let's all take a second to acknowledge the fact that I'm asking my parents for PENS this Christmas.  #nerdalert 



These are the pens.  They come in a crazy assortment of colors,
as you can see, but that's a little too much for me.
But they've revolutionized my note-taking.

Maybe this is a lame Christmas list, but it's interesting because this is the first time in a long time that I remember actually asking for things for Christmas because I like being self-sufficient and taking care of all my own temporal wants and needs, so this is quite a big step in humility for me.  Finally, just in case there's a Santa Claus, these are just the things I'd like my family members to get for me, and if an awesome herringbone tweed blazer or some funky statement jewelry just happened to show up under my tree, it wouldn't be the worst thing.


*My sister owns an Amy Grant CD; it makes me a tiny bit embarrassed to be related to her, but I can forgive it because it was the late nineties and it was among the first three CD's she ever got.

My Music, December 2013 Edition

I haven't done a "My Music" post in a while, I realized.  Also, this will be my 297th blog post, and I think it would be cool to get to 300 by the end of 2013.  So here are my current "Top 25 Most Played" on iTunes:

1. "C'est la Mort" - The Civil Wars
2. "Poison & Wine" - The Civil Wars
3. "Hold On" - Mary Beth Maziarz
4. "How" - Regina Spektor
5. "Thursday" - Asobi Seksu
6. "Organ Donor" - Jeremy Messersmith
7. "Snow Day" - Jeremy Messersmith
8. "Look At Me Now" - Karmin
9. "Elsewhere" - Sarah McLachlan
10. "Falling" - The Civil Wars
11. "I Want You Back" - The Civil Wars
12. "Anything Could Happen" - Ellie Goulding
13. "My Eyes" - Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day (from "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog")
14. "Shake It Out" - Florence + the Machine
15. "21 Guns" - Original Broadway Cast of American Idiot
16. "The Call" - Regina Spektor
17. "Gravity" - Sarah Bareilles
18. "the zombie song" - Stephanie Mabey
19. "Skeleton Song" - Kate Nash
20. "Safer" - Krysta Rodriguez (from First Date:  The Musical)
21. "Timshel" - Mumford & Sons
22. "Promise Me This" - Pancho's Lament
23. "Homeward Bound" - BYU Singers and Concert Choir
24. "Explosions" - Ellie Goulding
25. "Falling Slowly" - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (from Once)

Confession:  sometimes I wish I felt more morally okay about resetting some of the more listened-to pieces on here, especially since they're not things that I've wanted to listen to recently at all.

Also I like that I have a skeleton song and a zombie song right next to each other.  

My "Depressing" Blog

Sometimes I feel that my blog readers think that I'm like this:

Granted, sometimes this is what I actually am like when I blog.

And then they feel bad for me, or tell me to cheer up, or get over it, or whatever.  To them, I say this:

And some people acknowledge that, and to them I say, thank you, and keep on reading.  To those who don't say that, keep reading anyway.

Love you guys.

Fluffy Bunnies and Santa and Disneyland

My mother doesn't even read my blog, but she heard about it at a Thanksgiving dinner at our family friends' home.  I imagine it was kind of embarrassing for her to be surrounded by a zillion grandchildren who weren't hers when all she had to brag about was how her still-single daughter got an A in the class with all the dead bodies.  But anyway, she told me the following:

"I think it would be better if you had a positive blog instead of a depressing blog, even if it isn't true."

So, per my mother's request, here I go!  Feel free to listen to some Lesley Gore as you read.

I have never been happier in my whole life!  Coming back to Boston was absolutely the best decision I've ever made because I get to be around so many close and trusted friends who totally left room for me in their lives even though I disappeared for a year to focus on my career!  Sure, I'm single, but it's great because I really get to "work on me," because even though I've been alone for 27.4 of the 28 years of my life, I've still got a lot of finding myself to do!  And it's totally cool that I'm not having any babies, because who would want to spoil such a rockin' body as mine with a pregnancy?  Not this lady, let me tell you!  Life is totally worth living and love conquers all and Christmas is magical and also America!

Happy?

Why I Don't Want It to Snow

It snowed for a minute today, but just a minute.  It also did a similar thing a few weeks ago.  People got really excited, but I didn't.  I don't want it to snow yet.  I want the snow to wait, possibly for forever.  Here's why:

Anyone who knows me (in real life or on Facebook) knows that, for the past few months--basically since I've been back in Boston, I haven't had the best outlook on life.  And by "I haven't had the best outlook on life," I mean, "I'm no longer 100% convinced that life is worth living."*  Anyway, despite my better and more realistic judgement, I'm hoping this could change, and that maybe things will be better one day.  The thing is, however, that whenever a character has the realization that life is worth living after all, like in Its a Wonderful Life, or this song, or the Christmas episode of Buffy,** that miraculous moment (the "George Bailey Moment," I like to call it) is accompanied and enhanced by the first flakes of falling snow.***

I haven't had that moment yet, and right now, all the snow is going to do is remind me that I haven't, like a big, cold, crystalline slap in the face.  So snow clouds, until I have that moment, please just wait.

Also, this is so not real snow.

*This is just my life that I'm talking about.  I'm sure other people's lives are chock full of joy and meaning.

**This may be a faulty metaphor, because in Buffy, snow was the thing that convinced Angel not to kill himself, because apparently when it snows in Southern California the sun doesn't come out all day and vampires can just walk around without the fear of bursting into flames.

***And real life is totally, 100% like the movies.