I saw you lingering still

Happy Friday, folks!  I'm in a pretty good mood despite Cornell's crushing defeat last night against #1 ranked Kentucky ("your last name is Cousins because you're going to marry yours!"), and the fact that it's "spring" and yet still freezing outside (go away, winter!).  The upside to those is that I saw a lot of my friends last night to watch the game (yay!) and it was supposed to rain/snow all day and I see none of that - it's just cold.  AND, I'm technically "earning" money right now because my training day at work let out early but we get paid for the whole day.  Sweeeeeet.  I love being paid to sit and watch Freaks and Geeks and listening to She & Him Volume 2.

While I was in my (incredibly boring) training sessions, I flagged oodles of good stuff in Google Reader, the best of which I'm sharing with you here:

An interview w/ Julian Casablancas about The Strokes and their new album (which indirectly explains his absence from this other video):


This is my favorite Sartorialist photo of the week. (duh, it has a bicycle and a moustached gentleman!)

This is a great cover of "excuses" by the morning benders (who I just got tix to see next month! $12! totally affordable!) (video via we all want someone to shout for)




Anyway, I have a jam-packed weekend ahead of me full of visiting friends and randomly themed parties!  (maybe I should nap first...)

small highlights of the weekend

I have a Netflix subscription that I often forget about for weeks at a time--usually until I get my monthly payment withdrawn from my bank account and suddenly realize that I've had the same DVD for an entire month without watching it. This weekend was one of those times. According to Netflix, I've had this copy of Jules and Jim since the end of September. Oops. So after watching it and sending it back in the mail, I remembered to check what was going to be coming next in my queue, which only led to me spending the next several hours looking at what was available for streaming.

...All of this is what led me to watch the first season of This American Life. As a fan of the radio version--and Ira Glass in general--I surprisingly had never watched the show, minus one episode that was on the flight from Amsterdam to Chicago. I was very pleased to find this funny little excerpt available to share, as it was one of my favorite parts:

I know, beards are not the same as mustaches, but I bet you could make a similar "chart"...

Also, this weekend I fell in love with this pair of slippers, went out and bought them, and have more or less lived in them (while in the apartment) ever since. They have this inexplicable quality of making me giggle every time I look down at my feet. I feel like I should be in a cozy ski cabin instead of watching This American Life on my futon...

feeling fall

When I woke up this morning, it was colder in my apartment than it was outside (and the A/C wasn't even on)-- fall must be coming! I'm excitedly preparing myself for my favorite season :)

This past weekend we went to Lederhosen, a German restaurant/beer hall - an idea that seems very fall-ish already. While there, we were surrounded (surprisingly) by a lot of very "bro"-types, but there was this gem of a guy at the table over from us:

very blurry, but it's hard to photograph someone discreetly...

the bottom of my Berliner Weisse glass

Sunday, Eve and I went to the Antiques Garage in Chelsea, as well as a few places around Union Square. I bought myself this fall hat at Urban Outfitters:
I'm not usually a hat person, but I do like cloches, and this colorway/trim was right up my alley. We'll see if I actually decide to keep it...

I've been looking for a good pair of oxfords for fall, that weren't too expensive, but weren't cheesy. I think I struck gold at DSW, with this pair of Steve Madden cognac brown leather oxfords--they were in the clearance section for under $50. Win!

Tomorrow I'm off to Amsterdam for a week! I am incredibly excited, and I just finished making the dress that I plan on wearing to my cousin's wedding. I'll post pictures of it when I'm back!

Chicago vs. NY, round 1

I'm back in NY after spending 5 days at home in Chicago. My schedule was jam packed and I was all over the city/suburbs; to give you a better idea: my car is from 1999, I've been driving since 2002, it only had 20,000 miles on it when I came home, but I drove 400 miles around the city this past week. That would have been like...a month of driving for me in high school!

I saw high school friends and Cornell people, mostly. But I must say one of the highlights of my weekend was going to a dance party at The Hideout with Ali and Eric, where we stalked this guy:

Moustache + suspenders = <3

Also, on Sunday, Eric and I went to both Meatloaf Bakery and Molly's Cupcakes in Lincoln Park. For all the skeptics who think that meatloaf in the shape of a cupcake is gross, you're wrong. It totally changed Eric's mind. And then we went and had real cupcakes at Molly's, sat on some swings at the counter and played Connect Four (I lost...horribly).

I wish I had more time to see more people! But, isn't that the way it always goes? This trip was definitely the best argument towards living in Chicago I've had in a while. But then again, visits are never the same as living somewhere for real...

mesclun thoughts

I can move in one month!  As in, my "financial backers" will allow me to overlap my lease starting June 1st (who needs a real job? oh wait, that's me...)!

And now for the debate: where to live? do I value space or awesome location more?  and, exactly how much of my stuff am I willing to toss in order to fit into a new apartment???

To help answer these questions, I began packing today.  This may seem extreme, unless you've ever seen me try to pack and leave a place, in which case you realize that this is oddly sensible.  I already have many things I am willing to part with, many of which are clothing (some come take them away if you want!)  Whenever I start to pack I always think that things are going well and that I don't have as many things as I had thought.  This is ALWAYS wrong, yet I am kindofsortofmaybe falling for the lie yet again.

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I regret to say that in my music reassessment, nothing has been as striking as my discovery about Crane Wife.  Some Loud Thunder: still not very good!  Sky Blue Sky: pleasant, but still makes me want to take a nap.

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This past weekend was Ana's birthday, and we went to botanica, where I spotted this pair of guys:

I don't know when this blog became about facial hair, really.  But just look at that beard!  And the funny moustache on the guy with the sweater!  Cracks me up everytime...

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On a parting note, I am newly loving Discovery...I attribute 90% of this love to it being a side project of Ra Ra Riot, and only 10% to it having something to do with Vampire Weekend.  I've really been in a RRR mood a lot recently.  Check them out if you haven't already!

not to make this blog about moustaches or anything...

...but I saw another great moustached man on the train today:

speaking of facial hair...

Last night a bunch of friends and I went to the "NYC Beard and Moustache Championship" at Public Assembly in Williamsburg.  The burlesque was mediocre, the band we saw was actually pretty good (The New Familiars), and the beards were, of course, amazing.  We even chased after the winner of the "full beard freestyle" category to pose for a picture:

a great LIRR customer

Spotted: this man on the train today.  Nothing else needs to be said!