Small Pleasures of April

I love Taurus season.

I’m headed to the Catskills to celebrate my 30th birthday this weekend. Aaron, Noguchi, and I are staying in a cabin next to a stream. Aaron will fly fish, Noguchi will play fetch outside, and I’ll read and do whatever I feel like doing. It’ll be a weekend of leisure.

It feels surreal and exciting and magical to be turning 30 in a couple of days. I have so many thoughts on the passage of time and all the things I’m grateful and excited for, but maybe that’s for another letter. In honor of May, these are the things that brought me joy in April. Food, friends, special moments, all the good stuff!

April’s Small Pleasures

• Power naps with Noguchi on the couch

• Mornings getting brighter and sunnier and as a result, waking up earlier and having even longer, slower mornings

• Dinner at Allswell with Aaron and new friends (this is my favorite chicken sandwich in the city)

• Taking a day off to just breathe, have a solo breakfast, do laundry, and write

• Going to a neighborhood you don’t go to that often on a rainy weekend

• Having dinner at Casa Adela and being reminded of how much you love it there

• Hanging up and organizing my new shoe organizer

• Le Puzz reaching out about gifting me a puzzle (I’ve never had one of their puzzles before)

• Helping my long-time friend organize an Earth Day film screening at the Brooklyn Museum and seeing it come to life

• Much-needed slow Saturdays with nothing on the agenda

• Visiting the Met on a Sunday and finally stopping by the gorgeous bookstore Albertine in the Upper East Side

• Making coffee with my Moka pot

• Becoming an advisor for an interiors app startup

• Having fun interviews come out for Into the Fridge and These Things Matter

• Seeing White Lotus for the first time (I just have S3 left)

• Buying myself cookies and tulips from Poppy’s

• Friends hosting a cute apartment café with all the best homemade pastries

• Finally developing 3 rolls of film from the previous 6 months and spending hours looking at them and sending photos to friends

• Going to Big Night in Greenpoint for their grand reopening

• Taking myself on a solo movie outing to see A Man and a Woman at Film Forum and having dinner at Hamburger America afterwards

• Breakfast at La Bonbonniere and bopping around West Village with my friend who was visiting

• Meeting new people and having incredible conversations

• Hearing *good and big and exciting* news from friends who I love

• Going to my favorite neighborhood butcher shop and getting a roast beef focaccia sandwich every Sunday

• Good PR mail days like receiving this Max Breakfast Set from the Heller Furniture x Thuma collab with Win Son pastries — and this chair

• Good nature days like planting herbs at the community garden (my friends/neighbors got a plot and I’m helping!) and visiting the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with a friend

• Ending the month with dinner at Long Island Bar (deviled eggs, little gems salad, burger always)

For Your Leisure: What I Wrote in April

In Pursuit of Home Improvement

It's Okay to Live Under a Rock

How to Welcome Spring

P.S. I’ve been sharing daily-ish art/design/history book recommendations on Notes and it’s been so fun. Oh, and I’m working on a *big* Catskills guide: restaurants, antique shops, cute stores, etc. Coming soon. 🌳

Okay XOXO, enjoy your weekends, happy May, happy Taurus season, happy spring, thank you for being here!

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