What I Like

I like

1. My friend Chou
2. Hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows from the City Bakery
3. Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge
4. Chocolate croissants

The combination of the four made for a very lovely day today.

Please Recommend

When I was still working in a public library, I read seven professional review journals every month, so I always knew what was happening in the world of publishing and I always had 30-40 books on hold and a good stack of reading material at the side of my bed. Now, I'm cut off. I'm perfectly aware of all the free review sites and recommendation sources available to the general public, but I really miss those review journals. My brother's leaving me his library card and the public library is just two blocks away, so I'm going to pay a visit there tomorrow. I have a short list of books I want to read

the new Barbara Kingsolver
the new Jeanette Walls
the new Anna Godbersen
the new Freakonomics
The Help by Stockett
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Larsen

but I need more recommendations. Marmot Dad believes in backups, mostly (it seems) backup pants. I believe in backup book lists. I feel nervous if I don't have a long list of books to read. Tell me what you recommend. Please.

Safe Arrival

1. I am at my brother's.
2. I have been given the tour of the neighborhood and seen the old bank building with the sad hound dog carving.
3. I have been given instructions on how to use the entertainment system (say it with me: the entire series of Arrested Development on DVD).
4. I have been given instructions on how to learn about happenings in New York City.
5. I have been given instructions on what to order and where at the Shake Shack.
6. I haven been given instructions not to burn down the building.
7. I have been given instructions on where I am not allowed to go.

MBC's month of Girl in the Big City commences . . . now.

Walk This Way, Part Two

In the spring, I posted about taking walks with my sister. I also take walks with my mother and they are equally special. I can't find my tennis shoes, so today I borrowed Mom's. She has two pairs that are exactly the same, so we matched. I always think Mother-Daughter wardrobe matching is a poor idea once the daughter is over the age of, say, 8. (Wearing identical shoes is much preferable to wearing identical bathing suits, though, which is what my sister and I have done the last couple of years. We haul all my sister's kids to the pool and we wear our matching suits and we look just like polygamous wives as we both call out warnings and praise to the children.)

So Mom and I were matching and we were walking up a hill, when Mom suddenly said, "How would you like to pull me up this hill?" (she has a cold, so she's not at her walking best). I didn't pull her, but I put my hand on her back and I pushed her up the hill. When we approached the top of the hill, I took my hand away and Mom stopped walking and slumped over at the waist.

MBC: Oh, you're naughty!
Mom: I'm not naughty. I'm just old.

Fair enough. I pushed her to the top of the hill and then she walked very nicely like a human being (until we reached the next hill). And now I'm going to go eat her chocolate. She's going to be glad when I leave on Saturday, don't you think?

Advice from the Unemployed

When you make a to-do list and it's full of things you don't actually want to do, like calling Utah Retirement Systems about rolling your 401k into your IRA and registering your car in a new state, you should always add something pleasant to your list. Like 'Find Mom's hidden stash of Dove dark chocolate and eat half the bag.'

My Mother is Full of Surprises

One night last week after my sister's kids had been put to bed, my mom, my sister, and I were up talking (and busting out the treats, which I always KNEW happened after I went to bed as a child). My sister was saying how it would have been impossible for her to marry someone whose favorite movie was something like Legally Blonde.

MBC: Yeah, well, you have to cut people slack on things like that, though, because we all have our guilty media pleasures. Like, you know, maybe some of us find ourselves unexpectedly fond of, you know, maybe, The O.C.

Mom: That's right. Or Judge Judy.

MBC and Sister: the sound of heads whipping around to stare

MBC: You watch Judge Judy?

Sister: You like Judge Judy?

Mom: I want to be Judge Judy.

MBC and Sister: open-mouthed staring

Mom: Yep, Judge Judy just lays down the law. Tells it like it is. Sets everybody straight.

Wow. True confession.

Road Trip

Mom and I finally started our cross-country road trip to take most of my belongings (except for all the stuff that wouldn't fit in the car and is still sitting in my long-suffering friend's basement in Utah) to Tennessee. It's a lovely road trip. My ever-lovin' mother is a great travel companion. She thinks of good songs to sing and she changes the CDs and this morning she spent 20 minutes holding a map up against the windshield to block the rising sun in Kansas so it wouldn't blind me while I drove. Here are a few things I would change about this road trip if I had it to plan over again, though.

Good Change:
I would remember to pull out all the good road trip CDs before packing the car. They're in the trunk somewhere. John Denver. I need John Denver.

Even Better Change:
I would go back to 2003 and purchase a car with cruise control. My knee just about broke in Kansas.

Best Change:
I would ask my parents to drive the car to Tennessee back in July when they came to visit before I went to Europe. I could have completely avoided three days of driving in the wake of a giant winter storm. Not that I don't love spending Halloween in a wacky inn in Strassburg, Colorado conveniently located within feet of the train tracks.