June Picnic
A casual feast of life updates, shopping picks, TV recs, and links
Hello friends,
This month’s picnic is coming to you a few days early, with good reason…. tonight I’m headed to Dublin for The Eras Tour, which I am stupendously, gleefully excited for. I’ve never been—to Dublin OR The Eras Tour. I’m told the latter will spiritually transform me. I’m ready. Beam me up. Stack my forearm with friendship bracelets. I’m following it with a few days in London, which is one of my favorite cities. I’ll send a separate trip recap when I’m back.
When I look back on June, my primary impression is that it flew. One minute I was saying “Rabbit, rabbit!” and the next I was getting my recurring end-of-month calendar reminder to pay rent. Though I try not to be in the habit of wishing my life away, I’ll confess I’m happy to see June go. On the plus side, I’ve been not-so-patiently awaiting this trip. But on the other hand it’s been a rough quarter (hello fellow recovering business ladies, I see you!), and I’m eager to turn the page and start fresh, including starting a new draft of my second novel.
The other thing that stood out about June was that it was an incredibly social month. Maybe it was the blissful bubble of perfect weather the first three weeks of the month brought, but it felt like New York was collectively shaking off its cabin fever, the whole city a tiny bit feral. There were spontaneous calls from friends saying, “It’s so nice out, we need to do something. Let’s take a walk and find somewhere to get a spritz.” There were out of town friends passing through. There were birthday parties and just-because parties. There was one night I stayed out until 4 a.m. (Who is she? I don’t know her.)
Let’s dig into this month’s picnic basket and see what’s inside, shall we? As an FYI, this month’s basket is STUFFED—once an over-packer, always an over-packer, am I right?—so you might need to open this email in a browser to get to the end.
One small, happy thing: I dove headfirst into the “stick of butter” manicure trend. I was delighted to run into my friend Morgan (AKA @NYCbookgirl) at an event and discover we had the exact same nail color.
One big happy thing: I got to celebrate my podcast co-host and the launch of her debut novel, SUCH A BAD INFLUENCE. On launch day, I met her and her family for drinks at The Mark Hotel to toast the newly-minted author. Then later in the month, I got to moderate her NYC event at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. Not only am I thrilled for her (and her INSTANT BESTSELLER STATUS!), but seeing an audience full of Bad on Paper listeners truly made me so happy.
One travel-y thing: I took a girls’ trip to Montreal. It’s become a bit of a joke on the podcast that I’ve never been to Canada. It’s not that I didn’t want to go, it’s just that Canada was never is the first destination that came to mind when trip-planning. So, two friends and I decided to make it happen (they’d never been either!). I’m happy to report I have nothing but great things to say about our northern neighbors. Here were the highlights: