WHAT TO DO and WHERE TO EAT when visiting NYC//

Like any blogger living in New York City I get a fair amount of emails or comments asking for suggestions in terms of what to see/do/eat. So I thought I'd finally compose some posts with all my favorites in one place. I've added a link to the side (VISITING NEW YORK?) so that the posts can be easily accessed. Or you can get to them by clicking on the photos above. The lists are by no means comprehensive and will be under a perpetual sort of construction, but rather than overwhelm with suggestions I've shared my absolute favorite places to see and to eat.

Do feel free as a NYC resident yourself (or as someone who's visited the city) to throw your hat in the ring and offer up your best advice and suggestions for those visiting.

I hope this helps and makes for happy travels!

trading in my New York for the Berkshires.

Last week i took a quick trip to the Berkshires to do a play reading with the Berkshire Playwrights Lab--a beautiful new play by the inestimable Jessica Provenz (I've long been a fan of her work and think she's gonna move mountains with her words). It was such a treat on every level--from the kindness of the Artistic Directors, to the other wonderful actors, to our esteemed director, to the hospitality (and damn fine food) of the bed and breakfast. Now it's back to the real world and I find I'm already missing the sprawling vistas of green, the cool comfort of a theatre, and the general departure from the every day grind.

longing for fall.

I am child of Fall, born to October--a hopeless devotee of the month. I sometimes wonder if my attachment to the season begins and ends with this alone. But its more than that--the colors, the cooling, sweetening air, the promise of all that's just to come.

And this summer has been sticky and hot. I can barely open the door to leave the apartment when the need arises--thank you humidity and expansion--and after my first coned bill I refuse to turn on my small air conditioner (in fact I'd like to remove it from the window all together because it's blocking my view). Between the sweating that happens on-the-way-to or waiting-for the subway I feel cleansed and purged and ready to welcome the next seasonal chapter.

I don't mean to wish away Summer, I really don't. I just can't help dream of fall. So indulge me, won't you?

I've never been the girl that wants to strip down for summer. the layers--tights and scarves and jackets and boots--of Fall hold much more sway, and that's part of the pull right now, for sure. 

Here's to a happy Monday! And surviving this mid-August week, wherever we might be (unless of course you're in the Southern Hemisphere in which case that's a whole different discussion--and how exciting that Spring is just around the bend! {i am a big fan of Spring!}).

photo sources:

that inspirational girl tumblr

note to self tumblr

urban lifestyle tumblr, unknown

just me tumblr, matchbook mag

note to self, emerson fry

where the mind will go.

it's a funny thing to love someone from afar. because the love takes on a quality of what cannot be known or named. it cannot be defined or settled. it, by definition, lives in a sort of fault-line. cracked and heavily tread upon.

it cannot be touched or felt and it most certainly cannot be talked away.

i know there are others out there who will say, this is not love then.

but it is. if there is anything i know, it is this: it is most certainly--most assuredly love. some very particular version of it.

and i know this because it is my experience.

i don't know that love at first sight exists. i'm inclined to think, no. but i have never experienced it, so how can i say? how can i know?

loving someone from afar is a tricky thing in this age of social media where much as you might want to--much as you might try to escape the reach of information, it's not so easy. and much as you might wish for their happiness--more than anything--there is still a sadness in watching it unfold without you.

i didn't understand that before. didn't know.

i went to a tarot card reader not too far back. and i asked about a guy. and a very particular lie that was told. and she said to me, he doesn't look too often--because he sees that you're happy. and this makes him sad. and i didn't get it then.

how you can want the best for a person? how you can truly wish them nothing but happiness? and how can there be a sadness in that actualization? how can both these things be true? how is it both selfish and not? how it is so achingly human?

you see only the snippets--you see the snippets and you fill in the blanks with your worst fears and unspoken hopes and there are all those damn unanswered, unanswerable question.

they haunt, they do.

and you wonder if this is forever.

and you move on. and you meet someone else. and they do too. and it's so good.

but still.

i guess this is what it is to be human. this is the human story--or mine at least.

and i know it could all change in a moment, in a minute. in the span of ten years, too, but that's mostly too far to think about.

you survive and you hope and they do as well. and you're left wondering if you've already witnessed the end of the story, or if that's still to come.

quick trip to the berkshires...

yesterday i hopped on metro north for a quick trip to the berkshires. i'll be here for the next few days doing a play reading and reveling in all the green and sharing as much as i can.