like Sunday morning, like Friday evening

Short ends:
Relatively new album "Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs" is still awesome, and worth the three-week wait after Kim's semi-snobby music clerks repeatedly shafted me in their slacker-ness about ordering it. I'm sure Mr. Bird is not under-appreciated in indie circles, but I sure am a fan. You'll thank me later, like I thanked Kurt Anderson and Studio 360.

My devotion to bean salads in the summertime has been vindicated by none other than Mark Bittman, who, as we know, can cook everything. I made a black bean/corn/cherry tom one last week, and tonight it was chickpeas, Parrano cheese, hearts of palm, and stuff on salad greens. This is one of those cases where the Joy of Cooking and my Midwestern foremothers still deliver the goods.

Imelda and I discovered on Wednesday that "youngberry" is like blackberry, at least that version which is in Ceres juice (and so maybe it's the South African blackberry?). We trusted the random guy in Fairway who advised us, and were rewarded for the experiment. It also makes a surprisingly good cocktail when muddled with ginger, canteloupe, lemon, and gin. Really!

And longer ends:

I'm going to be away for three weeks in July, and had a moment of feeling like my whole summer in New York was slipping away - with the 2 hours of German a day, twice-weekly tutoring a woman in English, and wholly inefficient levels of stressing about Berlin, June has flown by in a haze of disorganization and snippiness. There's so much to do here in the summertime, and didn't I used to be able to meet my friends for lunch & dinner?* Where are my evenings in sidewalk cafes? My Central Park? But we do have this weekend before flying away South, and if tonight is any indication, it's going to be a nice one.

Kolz is at a show with summer associates tonight, and flying solo has reminded me of how nice an evening alone at home can be -- and has, consequently, made me a little less scared about the move to Berlin. Alone is relative, I 'spose, given how much I've talked on the phone today, but I got things checked off the list, maneuvered to avert panic upon our return, et cetera. AND I invented, then executed, a nice little project by turning a piece of fabric I bought with Lau into a properly-hemmed bandana-able length of cloth now. Stitching was the first thought, but then the sewing stash revealed some of that heat-activated hemming tape, and we were off. I have so many projects and things I'd like to make and design. I want to make a perfect strapless cocktail dress out of the fabric I got last summer in Moshi; I want to turn these awesome "vintage" (read: found in attic) pajamas into something that would fit me. ...I need to suck it up and find a good tailor. It's New York, for pete's sake.

Berlin apartment anxiety was assuaged this week largely because of Bess, who sent me an Craigslist posting perfectly suited to me price and size specs. Other leads were either short-term, or in not-so-great neighborhoods, or just dead ends, but the housing stock is really, really great. I am optimistic, except for the constant reminders that things are done differently there. Unfurnished, in Berlin, means you may have no kitchen appliances, and certainly no washer or dishwasher. Furnished means a 100% or more mark-up. Taking over someone's lease AND their furniture for a set price is looking like a very, very good possibility, if the right thing turns up.

And, anyway, advice that things for September will be opening up in July has given me leave to leave it behind when we head to Mexico on Monday. I hardly know what to expect, down there, but whatever it is, I'll have my snorkel ready...



* this and its accompanying food suggestions are partly to blame for the homebody June. I am not a big diet- or exercise-bandwagon person, but for some reason, my competitive nature is currently aimed at my tummy and taking better care of myself. And rather than making me feel inadequate (I mean, Women's Health magazine? The "women" in there are Amazons), it has made me feel like a badass. I can't quite figure it out, but it's, like, a breakthrough.