I Don't Really Love You Anymore

Anyone who has looked at my Last.fm page lately can see that I have been absolutely obsessed with "I Don't Really Love You Anymore" from the Magnetic Fields' album I. Back when I first started listening to the Magnetic Fields, I realized that I was too poor to buy all of their albums, and so I just picked a few. One of the albums I didn't buy was I, and I don't know what I was thinking!

Ever since I finally got I last Friday, I have been in love. "I Don't Really Love You Anymore" is just so adorable and perfect and heartbreaking and wonderful! Here is a video of them performing a slowed-down version of "I Don't Really Love You Anymore" in Cambridge in 2004:



I just cannot get over how precious and perfect the lyrics are! I want to write about all of them, because I am having a really hard time picking my favorite lines. But if I absolutely have to pick which lines are the best, I would say that the part where he sings, Because I am a gentleman,/ think of me as just your fan/ who remembers every dress you ever wore, is the most precious thing I have ever heard in my entire life!

I know for a fact that no boy I have ever dated remembers every dress I ever wore, or even remembers more than one or two dresses I ever wore. I also know there are are boys who probably do remember every dress I ever wore, and those are never the ones I date! This is probably because I know that they are too perfect and dating them would make me feel the same combination of adorableness and heartbreaking-ness that this song does (that is way too much emotion for María or me to handle). Obviously there are life-lessons to be learned from this song!

I can't write this post without also including the part that goes, 'Cause I've read your horoscope/ and now I've given up all hope./ So I don't really love you anymore, because I totally read the horoscopes of boys I like and I thought that I was the only one weird enough to do that. I have ten minutes left now before my ridiculously hard Italian class (the other one I am taking is really easy), and I will probably spend it sitting in the cafe and listening to "I Don't Really Love You Anymore" over and over until then.

Love, Jillian

Nissan Figaro

I woke up with a horrible headache and I have no idea why but I feel like my head is going to explode. Not adorable. Anyway, I am now drinking an IZZE and listening to Jillian and Jen talk about how horrible computers are. I'd rather not join in the conversation since I've had horrible luck with mine and it just makes me angry. Instead, I'm gonna write this blogpost.


I've wanted a Figaro forever and ever. They are the cutest cars ever. All you have to do is look at the picture and I bet you realize that it is precious. If you don't think it's super cute, something is wrong with you. I just recently found out that the Figaro was originally only sold in Japan. Jillian is Japanese and she's pretty cute so that must be a good sign. Plus the car's name is pretty charming.


So, basically, I just want this car because it is so cute. Plus I bet I'd look really cute driving it because it's just my size. Now I just need to get really rich or find someone who loves me enough to buy me one like in the Korean dramas we watch. Or maybe someone will build me a cute car like in Gilmore Girls. Until then I'll just look at pictures of it whenever I'm avoiding work.

Love, María

Peanuts

I just went to a talk where a bunch of our school's advisors and deans and whoever else talked about grad school and the application process, and it has basically placed me right on the verge of a grad-school-application-induced nervous breakdown. Not cute.

So! I have decided to take a break from listening to Hole while making an overly-complex and comprehensive list of every single grad school I could possibly apply to (with my own personal rankings and really crazy reasons why I would or would not want to go there, mostly based on whether or not I would need to magically be able to afford a car and weird obsessions I have with certain cities that I haven't actually spent any significant amount of time in) to make this post about my other favorite comic, Peanuts!


Just like Calvin and Hobbes, I can't really pinpoint exactly when I started loving or reading or having any exposure to Peanuts. If I had to guess, I would say that I probably first saw A Charlie Brown Christmas before I was actually able to talk or understand anything that was going on, and I definitely used to read the reprints of Peanuts in the newspaper when I was a kid.

I remember when I was in the fifth grade (Ms. Wilson's class), one of the seating charts ended up putting me in the back row of this side-part of the classroom with this kid Grady (my mom called him "the All-American Wonder Boy" because he was blond and tall and played every sport ever) and my friend Nick (hi, Nick!), and it was a disaster. We basically just sat there the whole time and made snarky comments to each other, and Ms. Wilson would always say things to us like, "quiet in the peanut gallery," or whatever.

Okay, so, until I looked it up approximately ten minutes ago, I totally thought that the term "peanut gallery" was a reference to Peanuts. The really complex explanation that I came up with in my ten-year-old head was that because Peanuts occasionally makes somewhat snarky social commentary, a group of people sitting and making snarky comments (think Lucy) was a "peanut gallery" because it was like a "gallery" of Peanuts characters sitting and saying sassy things about whatever was going on.

Apparently, this is not the case, and the story behind the term "peanut gallery" involves actual peanuts. I still like my explanation better.


Basically, I relate everything in life to Peanuts. My favorite character was always Schroeder, and Linus always reminded me of my sister, because he carries his blanky with him everywhere and sucks his thumb. Snoopy only served to fuel my incessant begging for my parents to get a dog, and I always kind of assumed any pet dog would also have a bird-friend like Woodstock. And finally, there was an exceptionally dirty guy at Haverford last year that María and I would call Pigpen.

But most of all, I associate Peanuts with Christmas wonderfulness! We always listen to the A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack during Thanksgiving dinner (Thanksgiving is the day that it officially becomes socially acceptable to allow Christmas music and decorations and everything else Christmas to permeate every aspect of your life), so just hearing it makes me happy and hungry. Obviously, everything about Peanuts is just incredibly adorable!

Love, Jillian

Lorrie Moore

Does Lorrie Moore belong on Flower Farm? I don't know. Do I think she's precious? Yes, I do.

I saw her read last week and it made me giggly and giddy and I felt a little stupid. But I can't help it, I love her! I know at least 10 people who hate her. It's true. Once we had to read Self-Help in my class and a girl said something about how stupid everything sounded and how there was no point. That girl also wrote one of the worst stories I've ever read. Oh well. I'm not even really sure if Jillian would like Lorrie Moore, but I really really do.

Lorrie Moore's writing is super heartbreaking/funny/cute/smart/sadsadsad all at the same time. And if you haven't noticed yet I am really into things like that. When I was younger, I used to think that if I read "How to Be a Writer" and "How to Be an Other Woman" enough, I'd eventually be able to write my own really great short stories. Sadly, no matter how many times I read anything, I just kept coming up with the most horrible half short stories half prose poetry blobs. When I read Anagrams, I just fell more and more in love with all her characters and with Lorrie Moore. I just kept wishing I'd magically write a whole book one night and it would be at least okay. It didn't happen.

I was excited to see Lorrie Moore read at Bryn Mawr last week. I was also a little scared. It's kind of how last year Marilyn Hacker was one of the writers that taught my poetry class. She was the third one, so I had to wait 4 weeks before getting to have her. I spent those weeks eagerly reading all my favorite things and getting more and more scared that she'd be really intimidating and hate everyone. Then, she got to class and she was still the amazing Marilyn Hacker but was also super sweet and calm and I was pleasantly surprised. I even kept the whole 2 pages she wrote me about one of my poems. Anyway, this is kind of how I felt about Lorrie Moore. But from the moment that she got on stage, all I could think about was how precious she was and how much I like her. It was all okay. And even though she read from her latest book, which I haven't read, it still made me really happy.

I convinced my friend Melissa to go with me to the reading, and then I got really nervous that she might hate Lorrie Moore and then decide that we could no longer friends. Okay, not really, but almost. Fortunately, she really loved it and she mentioned how nice Lorrie Moore's voice is, saying something about how it was the kind of thing you wanted to hear before falling asleep. I'm gonna say that I think that's pretty true. And even though I hadn't shut up about Lorrie Moore and hadn't been able to let her borrow my books because they are all sitting in a flowered hat box in Chicago, she seemed happy to be there.

So, all in all, it was really great. And I should probably shut up about it now, because I'm sure this whole post is just me gushing and gushing.

Love, María

Restaurant Week: Time

Our last restaurant of Philly Restaurant Week was on Friday, and that makes me sad! But Time was totally delicious and wonderful, and it was a good ending to our Restaurant Week adventure.


María and I weren't huge fans of the atmosphere (it was so dark that we didn't even bother trying to take pictures), but the food was SO INCREDIBLY GOOD. Thinking about the Free Range Chicken (sweet corn and bacon stuffed leg, red cabbage puree, sautéed fingerling potatoes) is making me drool right now. They also had a really delicious risotto with mussels in it. I can't write about the food anymore because it is making me way too hungry.


I would definitely go back to Time. I wish I could eat delicious food like theirs every day of my life! Plus, they had a jazz trio playing when we were there, and jazz makes me really happy. Hopefully, after I return my weird-fitting-and-insanely-expensive Anthropologie sweater, I will once again have enough money to go to more restaurants in Philly!

Love, Jillian

Park Ave.

This post is funny since I never thought I'd be writing a blogpost about Park Ave. EVER. Posting lyrics on my LJ back in high school doesn't count. But here I am, writing this blogpost. Here's why: I really like/hate Park Ave. and it's this weird thing that makes me feel like it should be a secret and like I am a really sad 15 year old girl. At some point, I liked them for exactly that reason. I was a sad teenage girl who needed to write about her feelings. Plus Omaha was so close, but so far. Again, life was hard! I mean, remember when everyone was either really in love with Conor Oberst or just wanted to kill him? Everything was so complicated.


Now I like Park Ave. because the songs almost make me giggle. I am positive that they are pretty horrible and probably not very cute. Also, this is crazy, but at the back of my mind, I have this weird fear that my life will turn out like the song "She Teaches Art?" or just a combination of a bunch of Park Ave. songs. Scary. Anyway, the cute part of all this, isn't so much Park Ave. as it's just all the silly memories I have about listening to them. Like how at 14 I was sure that being 20 would end up being incredibly heartbreaking, but that just meant that I had to paint my room a horrible turquoise color and wear really adorable seafoam flats that looked like they were made of foam. They were precious though. Also, as much as I love writing posts about really adorable things like gumdrops and pink ponies, I think sometimes I want to write sillier posts. Plus, even if they're not cute, that's fine, it's not like I'm writing a post about Commander Venus.

Love, María

Update: Starfucker

The Starfucker show was amazing! I am even more in love with them now than I was before, because even though they told me they weren't going to play "Boy Toy" when I talked to them before the show, they did! And they played "Girls Just Want To Have Fun!" It was so good, and free, and wonderful, and probably one of the better concerts I've been to, and definitely the best concert I've been to at Haverford. And I got the set list after the show! I can die happy now.

Love, Jillian

Velocity Girl

It's been so long since I've posted anything on here! Good thing Jillian has been blogging enough for the both of us. The thing about posting anything on here is that I have 1000 ideas but I can never decide which to finish first. Because of that there are like 60 drafts. Oh well. Anyway, since I'm sitting at the cafe waiting for Maggie and Jillian to get here so BURGER FRIDAY can begin, I think it's a good time to update.


Lately I've been listening to a lot of Velocity Girl and I love them. They're so incredibly 90s, but so good! I think writing a whole blog post about them is a little difficult though because all I wanna do is post random lyrics and tell you all about cute I think Sarah Shannon is. Because, well, she really is. Plus, she had that short but not too short hair that I kept wanting but could never actually pull off.

I used to listen to Velocity Girl and dance around my room. "Drug Girls" is the best song to do that to because of I could yell that part where she sings "fun is never easy its an occupation!" Then I'd pretend to clean my room but would instead only make my bed and throw all my clothes in the laundry room. "Hey You, Get Off My Moon!" was the song I could sulk to when I was done pretending to clean. My life was hard!

Now, when I listen to "I Can't Stop Smiling" it makes me really happy, or at least it makes me wish I were super happy. I also really like "Pretty Sister" and "Copacetic" and of course "Crazy Town" I enjoy all the really ridiculous videos that come with some Velocity Girl songs, and it's totally worth it to search for them. If only so you can see how horrible/great they are.

Unfortunately, while trading music with Maggie, I realized that I no longer have their album Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts which makes me really sad. It makes me wish that it would somehow magically re-appear on my computer. Anyway, Burger Friday is almost over now but I'm wearing a really adorable dress that's also really soft, and I'm in a good mood so I'm gonna keep listening to Velocity Girl.

If you've never heard any Velocity Girl, you should probably start now. And if you have that last album you should probably let me know!

Love, María

Starfucker

I am super excited, because tomorrow is basically going to be one of the most awesome days ever. María and I are having our usual lunch date with Maaaaaaaaggie at the cafe (Burger Friday), going to our last restaurant of Restaurant Week for dinner, and then we are going to go see Starfucker play in Haverford's Lunt basement!

This is significant because I basically swore off Lunt basement this year for two reasons: 1) I am now 21 and therefore I can now go to all of the 21+ shows in Philly instead of hoping that good bands get tricked into coming to Lunt, and 2) I spent way too much time there sophomore year and last semester and I am kind of sick of it. But Starfucker is so full of Portland electro-pop adorableness that I am willing to go!


I have basically spent all of my free time in the last week or so being super excited that they are coming and listening to their albums over and over again! My favorite song by far is "Boy Toy!!" The lyrics are super cute when they sing, No sense in hiding away/ when you're already gone/ and I want you to stay/ in my arms/ in my head/ in my eyes/ in my heart/ in my lungs/ in my lungs/ in my lungs! I put it on repeat and dance around in my room, even though anyone walking on the path outside my window can totally see how ridiculous I am, and everyone on my hall probably hates me for blasting music at really weird hours.


I also think that there is some sort of rule that says all adorable bands have to do a cover of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun." If they play both of those songs at the concert tomorrow night, I will die of happiness!!!

Love, Jillian

Restaurant Week: Chifa

On Monday night, María and I went to our third restaurant for Restaurant Week, and it was super adorable! We went to Chifa, which is on Chestnut St. and super close to Market East. It's a Peruvian restaurant inspired by Chinese food restaurants called "chifas" that are all over the place. Basically, it is Latin-Asian fusion food, and it is delicious! We didn't take any pictures, but you can see the table where we sat in this picture I stole from their website.


The whole inside of the restaurant was so cute and had really adorable blue and white tiles on the wall behind us, and in the back of the restaurant they have these little semi-enclosed rooms for bigger groups of people. But since it was just María and me, we had an adorable little two-person table in the front where we sat and made fun of this couple that was on a date a few tables down from us because the man had ordered a cocktail. It was even more funny because our waiter and a bunch of the other waiters and the bartenders couldn't believe that María and I both got beers instead of cocktails, and that we completely devoured all of our food.

Everything we had was incredibly delicious. My favorite thing was the Chaufa Rice (stir fried rice, chorizo, mango, edamame, soy glazed scallops), but the Aji Gallina, Beef Noodle Bowl, and Scallion Pancakes were insanely delicious as well. Basically, this is how I feel about the restaurants so far: I don't really feel like I want to go back to Xochitl, not because it was bad at all, but because I cannot bring myself to spend that much money on Mexican food when I am used to $2 tacos, I definitely want to go back to FARMiCiA, but I won't get a cocktail, and I absolutely have to go back to Chifa or I will die, because it was too delicious for me to never eat there again.

Our fourth and final restaurant is on Friday!

Love, Jillian

Fall

As promised, I am going to make a post about why each season is adorable on the solstice or equinox or whatever it is. Today is the fall equinox, so now it is officially fall! Fall is probably my favorite season and Bryn Mawr/Philadelphia/Boston/the East Coast gets really pretty, so I am excited.


Fall is adorable because of changing leaves, crisp weather, cardigans, thick-knit sweaters, boots, hand-knit scarves, baseball games (still), back-to-school shopping, brand new notebooks, school supplies, bonfires, apple picking, apple orchards, Halloween, pumpkin patches, Thanksgiving, leather jackets, fall break and imaginary fall break travel plans, apple cider, apple pies, pumpkin pies, hot tea, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Love, Jillian

Apple Cider!

I have gotten into this really fun/embarrassing habit lately of turning my music up really loud while I am getting ready to open the cafe on Saturday mornings (baking cookies and scones, making coffee, trying not to burn or otherwise injure myself), and singing at the top of my lungs and dancing around like an idiot. Unfortunately, I can't seem to remember that the doors to the cafe are glass doors, and therefore anyone walking through the campus center can see me, and people who are coming to the door to look at our hours usually end up staring at me like I am crazy.

But whatever. The point is that this happened today, but was enhanced by my joy at the discovery of apple cider in our barista fridge! We only carry apple cider at the cafe seasonally, so when we get apple cider, it means that it really is finally fall, and that is exciting for all sorts of reasons that I will list in my upcoming post about fall.


Plus, apple cider is super delicious and adorable in its own right. It is full of all sorts of delicious spices that just make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, and who doesn't love that?! I will leave you with the video for the Weezer song that I was caught singing and dancing to before I opened the cafe today (it won't let me embed it, so you'll have to click this link).

Love, Jillian

Restaurant Week: FARMiCiA

Tonight María and I went to our second restaurant of Philadelphia Restaurant Week! FARMiCiA was super adorable and delicious! It's right off Market St. and all about organic wonderfulness. The main courses weren't as amazing and different as Xochitl, but they had a lot of really good comfort-food dishes and all of the desserts were insanely good. My favorite part is how they don't put a basket of bread on the table, there's a waiter who goes around the restaurant with like four different kinds of bread and you get to pick what kind you want! The bread I had was too good for words.

The inside of the restaurant is adorable, and they have like a million different cocktails to choose from, although some of them are pretty iffy (by "iffy" I mean that María's tasted like Dimetapp and mine tasted like a liquefied cough drop). But we had lots of fun with Melissa , Allegra, and Isabel, and I will definitely be going back to this restaurant even after Restaurant Week is over!

Here's some of what we ate:

Saffron & Raisin Challah

Lancaster County Chicken Breast with Parmesan Polenta and Green Beans

Boneless Pork Chop with Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli

Classic Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée & Raspberry and Peach Fruit Crisp

Our third restaurant is on Monday, and since no one else can go, it will just be a special me-and-María date!

Love, Jillian

PhillyCarShare

Since my sophomore year at Bryn Mawr, I have been a member of this really cute organization called PhillyCarShare . They have a bunch of places in the greater Philadelphia area where anyone who is a member can use the cars parked in their special parking spots to go to all sorts of fun and adorable places around Philly. That way, you don't have to actually own a car if you're not going to use it that often anyway, and you get to save money and the planet! Adorable.


I just remembered how cute it is because I am sad about how I had to cancel my membership today. They had to cut back on cars, so there is no longer a "pod" on Bryn Mawr's campus or on Haverford's campus, so it isn't really worth it for me anymore. But it is still a really cool thing to have, and if I somehow end up living in Philly after I graduate, I will totally become a member again.

I am going to really miss my PhillyCarShare membership, because I was able to do all sorts of adorable things because of it! I went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore (my favorite aquarium of all time, I need to make a post about it), an orchard in Westchester, and Longwood Gardens during their Christmas display (I need to go to that again this year and make a post about that as well)! Basically PhillyCarShare is adorable, and facilitates all sorts of adorable activities! I will miss it.

Love, Jillian

P.S. Writing this post made me remember Captain Planet. I love that show! Now I have like eight new posts to make.

Restaurant Week: Xochitl

Last night was the first night of Restaurant Week, and I can't believe that I didn't discover this sooner! María and I went to Xochitl, and brought Melissa , Julia, and Anisha with us. It was basically perfect, delicious, Mexican wonderfulness. The whole restaurant is adorable and the walls downstairs where we ate are painted the same blue that everyone's apartment is painted in Adam.

First of all, when we walked in they were playing "Eres Para Mí," which is a super-cute song by Julieta Venegas. I don't think we've made a post about her yet, but we've mentioned her and posted two of her videos and she is adorable and María and I love her. Then, everything I ate at Xochitl was really delicious, and I'm pretty sure that María approved as well, and she is pretty critical of Mexican food.

Xochitl's Restaurant Week menu has four courses, and you have a choice of three or four different things for each course. And María and I got completely different things for each course, without even planning it that way, so we ate all sorts of delicious things! My favorite part was dessert, so that is what I am going to post pictures of. I have pictures of every course, but that would make this the longest blog post ever!

María & Tres Leches

Me & Churros y Chocolate

Julia & Pan de Chocolate

And at the end, they gave us each a $10 gift card to come back! I definitely want to. Our next reservation is on Friday night, so get ready for more adorableness from Philly Restaurant Week!

Love, Jillian

Al Franken Drawing STATES!

A few days ago, I stumbled upon this adorable video of (Senator!) Al Franken at the Minnesota State Fair drawing an adorable and perfect map of every state in the United States! For some reason, when I first saw it I thought it was adorable, but decided that I shouldn't put it on Flower Farm, so I put it on my Facebook instead.

Then, last night, I realized that all I've been doing is watching this video over and over and thinking about how cute it is, and that everyone who reads this blog (all five of you) already knows how María and I feel about states! So, here it is!



This video has already done a really good job of being cute enough to make me feel better today. I needed to feel better today because I obviously am not competent enough to do anything that requires fine motor skills, like unlocking a door. I'm at work right now, and I have been here for less than two hours and I have already had to use the little first-aid cabinet in the back TWICE. That's right. That means that I've now used it a total of four times since coming back to school, which was around three weeks ago.

But it's okay, because now my hands finally match again! Thanks to my clumsiness, both my right and left hands will each have one weird-looking finger as a direct result of me closing a door on it. And I didn't even cry this time, probably because I am now used to shutting doors on my own fingers, so that's kind of an improvement. And it doesn't even hurt anymore, because Al Franken and his state-drawing are adorable enough to make the throbbing pain go away!

Love, Jillian

Lisa Loeb and Laundry

I've been sick for the past couple of days. It was totally not fun and I feel like the taste of cold medicine will never leave my mouth. Gross. But since I'm feeling tons better today and couldn't sleep, I woke up and decided to do laundry. Right before I was actually completely awake though, Lisa Loeb's "Stay (I Missed You)" began playing and I remembered how much I love that song. I spent a lot of time wishing I was Lisa Loeb, I mean I'm pretty sure I'm still sort of wishing for that. She is just super adorable in a very 90s I want to wear velvet mini dresses sort of way. I also like listening to Lisa Loeb because I begin to think of how I spent a large part of my life thinking I was definitely going to end up with Jordan Catalano or Troy Dyer. Sick, right? It makes me laugh.

Anyway, now I'm just sitting in my room reading blogs and waiting for the rest of my laundry to be done. I love doing laundry. Perhaps it doesn't sound cute to other people, but I think it's really nice. It's really relaxing and makes me feel a lot better about my day, especially if I do it right at the beginning or right at the end of the day. The only thing I don't like about laundry is socks, but that doesn't matter because I own maybe 6 pairs of socks. I also like how accomplished I feel after doing just my laundry even if it's nothing compared to the ridiculous amounts of clothes I wash when I'm at home and do everyone's laundry. Plus, after doing laundry, my room smells super clean and it's just really nice.

I'll leave you with this video while I go back to folding clothes.


Love, María

the Pentatonic Scale

My flute teacher from when I was in high school posted this video on her Facebook a while ago, and I think it is so cute! It's Bobby McFerrin ("Don't Worry, Be Happy") at 2009's World Science Festival, which I imagine is something like TED, which I am addicted to/in love with. I already love Bobby McFerrin because "Don't Worry, Be Happy" is my JAM and if the title of the song was "Don't Worry, Be Happy, Fill Your Life With Adorableness," it would probably be Flower Farm's motto. After watching this video, I love him even more!

Check it out, and sing along with the people in the video, because something really cool happens!



I guess I should probably add that I am a huge music nerd, and that is probably a lot of why I think this video is so cute and exciting! But also, it just is super cute and exciting!

Love, Jillian

Calvin and Hobbes

I don't remember when I first discovered Calvin and Hobbes or who showed it to me, but it is definitely the best comic ever! I don't even know how to explain why it is so adorable, because everything ever about Calvin and Hobbes is perfect!


We even have The Complete Calvin and Hobbes at my house, and it is huge and in hardcover and was probably really expensive, but also totally worth it. And it's not one of those comics where you think it's a really good idea to buy the complete set, and then after you read like five of them in a row, it's too much and you have to stop. I feel like that happens with TV shows on DVD a lot, too, but not with Calvin and Hobbes! I basically read the whole thing as soon as we got it, except for when I took breaks to sleep and eat.


I mentioned it earlier, but Barbara has a Hobbes bumper sticker. I always used to wish that Hobbes would be MY friend, because he is just so cuddly and soft-looking and then he always randomly attacks Calvin just like how María and I randomly attack each other! And they do everything together, just like how María and I do everything together!

Also, for those of you who were following the story of my disastrous adventure into the world of paint colors (that's you, Mom), I finished painting over the Arizona Green Tea color and now my room is perfect and wonderful and I love it! My walls are covered in Veiled Violet, and it is adorable and the most perfect color because it kind of reminds me of blueberry smoothies and prettiness and flowers and fairies (sometimes even I don't understand how my brain works). I want to paint my whole life this color!

Love, Jillian

Menswear for Women

I guess it is officially a trend now (?), but I am totally in love with this whole menswear-for-women thing that I've been seeing lately (especially at J.Crew). Now, I have to specify that I am in love with the formal aspect of it, rather than the casual. I love the idea of taking blazers and trousers that are normally very masculine looking and making them part of a really girly outfit. I am NOT in love with the idea of wearing giant, gross jeans and calling them "boyfriend jeans" when really you just look like you broke out your cargo pants from the nineties/from before you lost twenty pounds and rolled around in some paint. That is casual to the point where it just looks sloppy. But the whole I-borrowed-my-preppy-boyfriend's-trousers look is adorable.


That's not to say that I actually own anything that could be considered menswear, because I definitely don't. This is because, when I was somewhere between the ages of twelve and fifteen, I used to spend a lot of time in front of the mirror, pulling my halfway-down-my-back hair away from my face and thinking, "I could totally be a boy." But then I would let my hair down and I was really obviously a girl. And then I would pull it back again, but let a few pieces fall forward, and that was also somehow feminine rather than masculine. Then I turned fifteen and cut all my hair off. The fact that I have been contemplating the fluidity of gender identity since the age of twelve just goes to show that Bryn Mawr is my perfect school, even though it sometimes makes me think I am going crazy.

But the point is, I've always felt like there was a lot of potential for me to kind of become a boy because I always thought I had a kind of androgynous face and rarely wore skirts or dresses and my best friends were boys more often than they were girls, so when I realized during my sophomore year at Bryn Mawr that I really want my life to be full of all things feminine, I felt the need to absolutely drown myself in them. I feel like, even if I could be a boy, why would I actually want to?! For example, I have only worn pants three times in the last two weeks: two of those times I was at work and I am not allowed to wear skirts there, and the other time was because it was so cold in the room I had to be in all day that I couldn't tolerate wearing a skirt. I still feel like a boy when I wear pants. But seeing how adorable this whole menswear thing is is making me want to incorporate it into my wardrobe (you know, if I magically won the lottery).


I really love this outfit, because even though the blazer is pretty masculine, I feel like the whole outfit together basically screams, "I AM A GIRL!!" especially with the giant necklaces and cashmere hoodie. The same thing is true I think for the first picture, and I think that the only real reason that I think menswear-for-women is adorable is because you can wear these super-masculine pieces of clothing and still make them girly and pretty and wonderful.

Also, María and I finalized our Philadelphia Restaurant Week schedule tonight (it's really two weeks), and it is going to be SO PERFECT. I'm going to bring my camera to all four restaurants and make María take pictures so that way she won't have to be in any of them, because she hates being in pictures. We are going to eat at a Mexican restaurant, a Peruvian restaurant (Peru has a lot of Asian immigrants, so the menu definitely shows that influence), an organic hippie-but-still-cute restaurant, and a French-inspired restaurant. I am beyond excited, even though we will both have no money left afterward. It will be totally worth it, just like the dream macarons!

Love, Jillian

Juana Molina

Juana Molina isn't exactly cute to a lot of people, but that's okay with me. Her music has huge sounds and perfect silences. And even though I first fell in love with her album Son, which has one of my favorite titles ever and some of my favorite songs in Spanish, I spent my last weeks at home listening to Un Día.


Her fifth album, Un Día, was released almost 3 years ago. And even though I sometimes jokingly refer to her as "mi argentina favorita" I completely stopped listening to her after finding Son forever ago. I just stopped, and that was it until I heard the song she did for the Rudo y Cursi soundtrack. I am in love with that song. I listened to it so many times that my sister was ready to kill me, and I didn't even care. The song is basically the plot of the movie, but it's Juana Molina's voice and the little starts and stops that really get me.


I like Juana Molina now, and I liked her 2 years ago. But I like her for completely different reasons. Un Dia, isn't as sweet as Son, that's the first thing I think of. But it's also a lot louder than Son, and that's part of why I like these songs. I don't miss the quietness of Juana's voice in songs like "Micael" when I listen to "Lo Dejamos" from the newer album. I also get really happy when I hear those little bits in songs like sweetness of songs like "No Seas Antipatica" which is from the older album. Plus "El Vestido" is so amazing that I have to love Un Dia. Basically, Juana Molina's music has changed, but I don't want to say it's evolved. It's all still very her, and I love it all equally. And I think that's why I love "Rudo Y Cursi", because it has all those really big moments from Un Dia and all those tiny sugary parts from Son. And when I listen to it, Juana Molina is really mi argentina favorita.

Love, María

the Hardware Store

I just got back from walking over to Suburban Hardware in Bryn Mawr, and it made me realize that hardware stores are probably my favorite places to go! They are full of adorable old men (I love old men, I think they are the cutest people ever, I know it's sick and weird) and all sorts of fun tools and hardware things that I don't know how to use, but I want to! Plus, hardware stores make me think of all those Home Depot commercials with people being happy and painting their walls and doing all sorts of things to their houses to make them even more adorable than they already are!


Hardware stores also remind me of when my grandpa worked at Fishkin's, which is actually a camera supply store according to what the internet is telling me, but that is basically the same thing. When we used to go visit them in Perth Amboy from California, my mom would always take me to go visit him at work, and I would get to sit on his lap behind the counter and for some reason he would always be eating a doughnut with chocolate icing on it, and I would get to eat some.

Then, in the hardware store today, they were playing Steely Dan! That is basically my dad's favorite band and I have been listening to them since I was in the womb. I know every word to every Steely Dan song, and that is not even an exaggeration. So, that made me happy, and I told the old man who was ringing me up that my dad and I love Steely Dan. I am pretty sure that my dad loves hardware stores, too. He definitely loves Fry's, and that falls under the category of (specialized) hardware store in my brain.

I also realized today that Southern California must miss me, because while they are stuck with the humid, super-hot grossness that we would normally be having in Philly right now, the wonderful, seventy-something, sunny, beach weather has followed me here! That kind of weather makes school so much better, even if Bryn Mawr doesn't have ocean views from the English classrooms like my high school does. Now I am going to run over to the Campus Center to see if my package got here yet!

Love, Jillian

P.S. Restaurant Week in Philly is coming up, and I am planning on doing a big post about it with pictures of the restaurants that María and I are going to go to with our friends! It should be super cute, so look for that sometime this month.