Here's To The New Year
I’ve always harbored the silly superstition that whatever you do on January 1 will echo throughout the rest of the year.
Like that New Year’s Day at the Loveless Cafe in Nashville where I ate a pimento-cheese + fried green tomato biscuit for breakfast.
I’m pretty sure I spent the rest of 2016 eating really well.
I rang in 2020 with good friends, lots of Veuve and the best chocolate crinkle cookies i’ve ever had in my life and that seems like a pretty fantastic way to not only start a new year but a new decade too.
I’ve never been a big New Year’s Resolution kind of girl. You know what you call it when you decide to drink champagne and change your life for the better?
Tuesday morning at 11:27am or Sunday afternoon at 1:08pm or somewhere over Nebraska at…wait. Which time zone are we in?
You wanna change your life and drink champagne?
Make that magic happen - don’t wait for anything or anyone. Especially not some arbitrary date on the calendar.
That being said, I do like the aspect of reminiscing on the past year and looking out towards a new horizon with fresh hope.
Shit That I Loved in 2019
Getting married. 13/10 - highly recommend marrying a guy who quotes Braveheart and Kings of Leon in his vows.
Traveling. This year, I was lucky enough to visit Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Spain and Morocco - the latter being where we went on our honeymoon.
All of these places are breathtaking and if you get the opportunity, I highly recommend you go, but no place stayed with me like Sevilla - a city bathed in honeyed sunlight and the scent of orange blossoms and frankincense. A city where wine is cheaper than water and the very state of merely existing feels like a holy sacrament…even to a heathen like myself. A city seemingly created for those in love and those wishing desperately for love to be real.
“Back of my forehead
I feel tonight
A whole sky full of stars.
Under a western moon.
Life is indeed lovely”
And other assorted shit I loved this year:
NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Prague and Liquid Suede Cream Lipstick in Cherry Skies.
Dolly Parton’s America podcast.
$chitt’s Creek and pretty much everything Catherine O’Hara does ever.
Congressman Adam Schiff and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The chili-garlic sauce at Peppermint on Clematis.
Long-ass caftans as an acceptable look.
Chef Jose Andres and the ideal that when you feed people, you save the world. Also, I think we all know that Chef Andres is actually the real life Santa and no-one’s saying out loud because we’re all just being cool about shit, right?
People I love having babies.
Raspberry sorbet + Rose.
Argan oil - the stuff I brought in a pharmacy in Marrakech which makes my skin feel and look amazing.
Making drop biscuits from scratch and saying, “You know, I really need to get a subscription to Garden & Gun,” every time I do.
Shit I’m Excited About In 2020
Not planning a wedding. It was super stressful and if I could do it all over again, I would have hired a wedding planner.
Seeing Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band live.
New albums from Kings of Leon (hopefully), The 1975 and The Strokes.
Visiting London this summer for my cousin’s wedding - wandering around Camden Market, eating many proper cheese and pickle sandwiches and figuring out for myself if Dishoom is overrated or actually decent.
Learning how to make legit vegetable biryani and dabeli.
Champagne and french fries, cheese plates, craft cocktails and popcorn with salt, brown sugar, cayenne and smoked paprika.
Having kids. We’re ready to be parents.
Reading more thanks to the Libby app which connects to your public library account. I’ve currently got Ali Wong' and Ronan Farrow’s respective books on hold and I cannot wait to dive into them. Ditto the William Dalyrimple book on the British East India Company.
Bill and Ted Face The Music
The Aaron Hernandez documentary on Netflix. Worst/best thing I ever did was name my trivia team Hangin’ with Mr. Hernandez which admittedly is fucking terrible but hi - remember when that dude murdered a bunch of people? Yeah.
Season 4 of The Crown featuring the storyline about Charles and Diana.
Voting. To make this country a better, smarter place by getting Trump and his kakistocratic administration the fuck out of the White House.
Writing - blog posts, my novel, odes to Shirley Manson, roiling invectives about fake meat…
Hanging out with my dogs and husband.
Getting a subscription to Garden & Gun.
