April & May 2012 Review

I took a deep breath and suddenly it was June (twelfth).  Celebrated Passover and Easter with the relevant family members. Visited my grandmother in Tampa, FL, attended a wedding in Hartford, CT.  Spent Memorial Day wandering all over California, drunk 40% of the time. Good times.

Books

I read John Green’s lauded “The Fault in Our Stars.” The book isn’t perfect but if I were still in the age range of the intended audience I would’ve thought it was and for that it deserves all the stars. I couldn’t get it out of my head.

I also recommend Wild, by Cheryl Strayed. The only thing I can’t recommend is the fact that her last name is one she made up for herself, as she explains in her book. And that pisses me off for some reason. Some people. Anyway it’s a really easy read and wonderful because unlike that idiot who wandered off into the wilderness of Alaska to die from poison berries, Cheryl is a pretty normal non-outdoorsy person who just wanted to see if she could survive in the outdoors for a while. SPOILER ALERT: SHE DOES.

Anyway, in the book she talks about her mother dying of cancer and now I am really really really sick of reading about cancer.  Fucking cancer. Please tell me about a book that doesn’t have cancer! That’d be great, thanks.

Food

I didn’t do much eating out while in town – the best I can offer is that the new Boqueria is fantastic, especially if you can make it for happy hour, and my usual favorites, Boundary Stone and Birch & Barley, remain strong. But while in Hartford I dragged a couple people to try some New Haven-style pizza at Frank Pepe’s for pizza research. Verdict: I am obsessed with that clam pizza. And in California I adored the skewered duck hearts at Alembic Bar in the Haight, the roast chicken at Zuni Cafe, the thrice-cooked bacon at Mission Chinese and the banana bread pudding at ad hoc.

While in wine country I somehow got tricked into joining a wine club and now I’m getting wine to sent to me like whoa. Wine tasting is the greatest! Admittedly I could only get to through two wineries before I was asleep in the passenger seat, mouth hanging open. But now I want to go back and drink more wine.

Music

I channeled my inner pop princess and listened to a lot of Carly Rae Jepsen, Gotye and Bieber. Ain’t no shame. But if you need a little more substance I really liked this song:

TV & Movies

I’ve practically canceled my Netflix account since we’re too busy catching up on Parks & Rec, 30 Rock, Community, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Veep and Girls. And lord knows I can’t make it to the theater to see a movie these days. But wasn’t Moonrise Kingdom delightful? Avengers was alright too, I guess.

June is already halfway over! I suck at this whole blogging thing.