NateTMarkley: you know what
NateTMarkley: is interesting
NateTMarkley: how facebook tells you when someone added something to their profile
NateTMarkley: it makes me wonder why
NateTMarkley: they did
NateTMarkley: like it will say "so and so added 'coffee' to their interests"
NateTMarkley: and it's like
NateTMarkley: hmmm
NateTMarkley: why?
NateTMarkley: why now?
NateTMarkley: interesting
NateTMarkley: facebook is like some big pyschological experiment
bethanypickard: yeah
bethanypickard: i like it more when peopld delete interests
bethanypickard: like oh you no longer like gardening? what happened/
NateTMarkley: haha
NateTMarkley: yeah!
NateTMarkley: like that day
NateTMarkley: they had some terrible experience
NateTMarkley: in the garden
NateTMarkley: and they were like
NateTMarkley: "I gotta get to my facebook and erase that interest!

NateTMarkley: I'll teach you garden!
bethanypickard: "fuck gardening, that rake just attacked me!"
NateTMarkley: or like, someone is sipping on a coffee
NateTMarkley: and is like
NateTMarkley: you know what
NateTMarkley: I really enjoy coffee
NateTMarkley: and not only that
NateTMarkley: I want all my friends to know that I really enjoy coffee

My Top 10-20 of 2007

Here are my Top 10-20 of 2007. It's hard to rank.

1. The National - Boxer

2. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

3. The Teeth - You're My Lover Now

4. Maximo Park - Our Earthy Pleasures

5. Menomena - Friend and Foe

6. Junior Senior - Hey Hey My My Yo Yo

7. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

8. Bishop Allen - The Broken String

9. M.I.A - Kala

Other things that would be in the Top 20 in no particular order:

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

Mando Diao - Ode to Ochrasy

Dr. Dog - We All Belong

Art Brut - It's a Bit Complicated

The High Strung - Get the Guests

Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

Vampire Weekend - weird blue disk that Hunter gave me

Sondre Lerche - Phantom Punch

Ehh I think that's it. Does liking Band of Horses make me one of those old people? I've been listening to KEXP a lot too. Eek.


Best Shows of 2007 (some of these might be from 2006.. can't remember!):

The National @ Middle East Downstairs

Maximo Park @ Paradise

The Hives @ Middles East Downstairs

Junior Senior @ SXSW

Menomena @ Great Scott

Jens Lekman @ Paradise

Imperial Teen @ TT's

Richard Hawley @ TT's

The Dears @ Paradise

The Teeth @ SXSW

The absolutely worst thing about looking for a job is having this time to sit here and stare at my inbox and my phone and just wait wait wait for someone to respond. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't the holidays and everything was moved into slow motion. I'm not expecting to hear anything from anyone until into the new year and the thought of that makes me chomp on my nails and bite my lip non-stop.

I saw Sweeney Todd last night with Cat and Andrea and her friend Peter. I really liked the movie. I might even say I loved the movie. I went into it knowing very little about the plotline (and none of the songs thank goodness) and was very very pleasantly surprised. I could see how it would all unfold on the live stage and be just as thrilling. I've been out of the musical theater loop for quite a while, so this really brought me back in. I want to see Les Miserables again dammit!

Tonight I am going to see the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at the Middle East. It should be very entertaining and I'm excited in a "there's going to be lots of funny Boston locals to observe" sort of way. Plus it'll be one of those shows to bring me back to my 16 year old self. I doubt it will be as satisfying as watching Less Than Jake from backstage with Eric Christiansen a couple years back, but still. Plus Doug Blake is in town and I can't really remember the last time I saw him. It may have been June. I really really really hope there's lots of skanking.

My computer is trying to try. It's been trying extremely hard since yesterday. I refuse to let it. Mostly because I can't afford to fix/buy a new one. Stupid stupid technology.

It's Christmas, so Merry Christmas. I'm sitting my bathrobe and Court TV is on in the background. By the way, Court TV is still making the switch to Real TV on Jan. 1st. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with out my default channel. Ugh.

At around 6pm on Saturday I called Carl. He picked up the phone saying "yeah yeah I'll bring headphones." So he did, and I DJ'd for the first time in months and months and months. It was the perfect show to do so (Deer Tick, Wonderful Spells, Mean Creek and Tulsa) and all of my favorite GS people where there, even Tim the Doorman. Sometimes I do regret that my beloved bar is so far away, but I suppose it makes the times that I do go there a hell of a lot better. Less "going to work" and more "going for fun."

Sunday was uneventful except for some grocery shopping and whatnot. I also attempted to spend part of the Amazon gift cards given to me by Brother and my dad. I've already purchased 2 pairs of shoes, a copy of Kitchen Confidential and The Abstinence Teacher and a couple other things. Shopping online ain't really my thing, but I'm trying to work with it.

Last night was the big(ish) Christmas Eve dinner that I prepared for most of the day. The weather yesterday was incredible and reminded me of what winters in Boston aren't THAT bad.. we got two feet of snow and all but then yesterday it was sunny and warm. Anyway, Nellie, Austin, Matt, Danielle and Galen came over about 6pm and we completely overstuffed ourselves. Matt works at Formaggio Kitchen, so he brought over all sorts of insane cheese, including a four year old Gouda. We ate it with bread and the arugula salad with tomato and goat cheese that I made. Next we had the cauliflower and leek soup, followed by lentils with brussel sprouts, garlic green beans, Nellie's quiche and "Melting Eggplant." Dessert was Danielle's pumpkin crumb cake. As soon as everyone left, I fell asleep on the couch. For like 3 hours. And then went to bed. Gahh.

Tonight I'm supposed to go to Austin's for pizza making.

Work tomorrow? Oh my. I'm not even sure what's going on with my job and where I'll be working from in a week from now. Aint' the holidays lovely.

"They" always say that when you grocery shop, you should have a certain percentage of fresh fruit and vegetables vs. packaged food in your basket. While I know this rule, I never really stick to it, because I love snack food and cheese and things that are bad for me. It's been like that since I was a kid. The amount of quesadillas and popcorn I ate was ridiculous (Brother can attest to this.) That being said, I was very proud that when I went to check out of Star Market today, my basket was 90% vegetables, 10% dairy and 10% diet coke. Not bad? I bought butternut squash, yellow onions, brussel sprouts (for xmas eve), cauliflower, leeks and cream. More soup will be made today! I will have soup coming out of my ears by the end of the weekend.

Last night was Hunter's last night in town, so we decided to test out his newly purchased Rock Band. Given my suckage at Guitar Hero, I was a little hesitant to try out Rock Band, but after assembling the "drum set" and whatnot, it was a pretty good time. I even made it through "I Think I'm Paranoid" once (that was after he saved me twice.) The vocals are super easy, but sadly they don't give you high scores for singing the harmony you made up to Say It Ain't So. I'm thinking that if develop my hand-eye coordination through Rock Band, my life will improve greatly. We'll see.

Soup time. Tulsa tonight (maybe.) I also need to create my Top 20 list for the year. I was struggling to make a Top 10, but then I remembered a bunch of decent records that I want to include, so it'll now be 20.. or somewhere around there.

Ahh anyway.

Last night I took advantage of the (mostly) empty apartment to try out a couple of the recipes I had learned in class last week. I turned on some music and went to work on some sweet potato fries with seasoned greek yogurt and the cauliflower & leek soup. It didn't go AS smoothly as I hoped, because I forgot the rule of not adding too much liquid to the soup (if it's too thick you can add more later).. My soup was too soup-y so I had to boil some of the water off to get it the right consistency. Eventually it was, and it tasted pretty spot-on. I was able to find some white truffle flavored olive oil which wasn't as powerful as the real thing, but still did its job.

The sweet potato fries filled some void that my body had (iron? B6?) so I'm glad I have two more potatoes to eat. I seem to be lacking in some vitamins.

Today is the last day of work before "vacation." Even though my friends and family will be dispersed to various parts of the country, it'll be good to have some time to be alone and focus on getting some things taken care of. Important things like painting cute animals on pieces of paper and taking long baths. Important things like visiting my neglected friends at Great Scott and staying out too late. I think I'll be okay.

I saw today that Mason Proper's going to be in Boston in February. I haven't been good at keeping up with them, but they have a new EP on the way. I'm not even sure when the last time was that I saw them.. Spring? Gahh.

It snowed about 7 more inches yesterday. We're up to a grand total of around 2 feet I think. The backyard looks like a big white pillow that needs to be jumped on. This is starting to feel like Winter 2005 already.

It's been one of those weeks. I remember that I did a lot. Something like 3 job interviews, 1 doctor's appointment, 2 parties, 1 cooking class and 1 movie. There's more that I'm missing, but let's dig in.

2/3 of the job interviews were for a job I didn't end up wanting. 1/3 was for a job I do want, badly. Crossing my fingers. I won't find out about anything for a few more weeks, which may kill me. In the meantime, I keep looking.

Party #1 consisted of Hunter's chili, some whiskey, country music and several of his coworkers. Party #2 consisted of Pete, Cat, christmas party snacks and Adam's mysterious red liquid.






Movie was Juno. It was cute and I even laughed at the same time as other people in the theater.

Cooking class was excellent. Here's what we made:

Sweet potato fries with mint aoili (made with greek yogurt)

French lentils with carmelized onions and oven roasted brussel sprouts


Roasted Cauliflower and Leek soup (with white truffle oil)

Mushroom oatmeal risotto

I think I'm going to make the lentils and soup for Christmas Eve dinner. Still trying to figure out a good side dish (or main dish, with lentils as a side) to finish it off. I just purchased a hand-held blender so that I can make the soup.

I also made a trip to the Garment District and dug into the dollar a pound. Found a pair of cowboy boots, a long grey wool jacket, a sea foam green foofy dress, a neon pink sweater, neon green tights, and a tablecloth.. all for about $15. I think I did a pretty good job.

Oh and it snowed this week. A lot.



Brooke is in town. Then she leaves and everyone leaves and I spend my first Christmas in Boston. At least I will have my blender to keep me company.

Oh this is typical. I make plans to do something (King Kahn and BBQ Show) but now it's getting down to it and I really don't want to trek to Allston in the 34 degree weather. Will I regret it if I don't go? Probably. Do I care that much at the moment? Not really.

Weekend, weekend, why must you be over? Why must my laundry and grocery shopping still not be done and why must the apartment still be a mess? Wasn't I supposed to do these things?

I did other things instead. I stayed home alone most of Friday drinking Paulaner double bock until Caitlin came home and we shared the events of the evening (dates gone bad, emotional freakouts) Hunter came over eventually and we all stayed up too late because it's a great idea to watch Arrested Development at 2am.

After sleeping in late (noon?!) it was Jazz Brunch time and then I convinced Hunter that we should lay around in the dark watching Anthony Bourdain dvds. This time we got to see Anthony eat fermented shark in Iceland and get wasted off of rice wine in Vietnam. For all of his chain-smoking and heavy drinking and cynicism, he has the best job ever. The most exhausting job ever, but still. Iceland? 4 hours of daylight? What?!

Later that night I had sushi with Ashley and Caitlin at Blue Fin (eh) and then headed to Zuzu for another round of Soul Le Lu Jah. We met up with Hunter, Heather, Michael Pace, Laura, Ali, Andy, Liz and Nate and it was the first time in a long time that I've seen all of those faces in the same room. It was great.

This morning we met up with Laura in Inman to test out the East Coast Grill's brunch. It was creative in flavor and presentation and at some point I thought I was going to die from overstimulation (guava paste? molasses grilled banana?) After we were sufficiently stuffed, we went to the Kendall theater to see Atonement. Although it was overdramtic at times (mostly the fog around Kiera Knightley in the "dream sequence") it was an enjoyable film. I give it a B+.

And now I'm here. Buried in a blanket. Wondering how I'm going to get to Charlestown tomorrow.

Did I ever discuss the Richard Hawley show we went to on Tuesday? It was great. Really really great. I took a bunch of pictures from the same angle, so they're all similar but here are my favorites:




Even though the next week is going to be great, it brings me one week closer to Christmas. In Boston. Alone. Thankfully Nellie will be around too, so I will only be mostly alone, but in general I'm not sure what I'll do with myself. It's going to be interesting...

I got approximately 3.5-4 hours of sleep last night. If I were still 19 or like 21, this would be no biggie. I would skip class and spend the morning sprawled in bed. But noooo 26 year-old me is yawning and carrying on.

Last night was weird. We found out that our non-existent roommate Dan is moving out (fine.) I've only seen Dan once since we moved in. The potential of having a real fourth roommate is a little weird to me still.

So I went to Faneuil Hall. To Hennessy's. Watched some bands. Drank a couple beers. Then, when Mako came on, my personal space was invaded by a girl wearing leopard print and too much perfume. She asked me (over the band) if I was alone. I told her no and pointed to Hunter on stage. She then said something like "awww you're in love" and I replied "...yep.." Then she asked me how to dance to Mako's style of music. I told her that you didn't usually dance to it. She tickled my chin a few times. I didn't know what the hell was going on. Later, she came by and kissed my cheek. In the bathroom she told me she loved me. She was not a lesbian, she was just drunk. Sometimes there is a fine line between those two things.

After the show we went out to the van and the boys loaded the equipment. Unfortunately when Hunter went to start the car, the battery was dead. We ran around in the 22 degree weather at 2am looking for someone (anyone)with jumper cables. Finally a cab driver with three teeth helped us out. I connected the cables like a greasy mechanic. Then we drove everyone home and got lost a few times. Ahhh.

This whole thing has been written like a 9 year-old so far. "I like books. They are fun. I read them a lot and they are fun."

I have a job interview on Monday in Charlestown. Charlestown is a really lovely place (Bunker Hill! Slanty streets!) but it's sorta in a weird area that I'm not sure how I'd get to every day. It's a position in HR.

Next week is super nuts (King Kahn and BBQ Show, interview, Hunter's Country Time Chili Cookout (ahahaaaaaaaaaa) Cait's screening, Charm School, cooking class, Nate's Holiday Party, Pete and Cat's party, Brooke's coming into town... my oh my oh my oh my.)

I called my mom earlier to see if she was alive. I hadn't realized the severity of the flooding & storming in good old Bremerton until I checked the Bremerton Sun website..

Here is Waga Way!


And the Fred Meyer parking lot!


And of course, the Brownsville Highway!


Sort of amazing to see familiar places ravaged like that, but also know it is bad bad bad and I'm hoping that Mike Burdick's house doesn't mudslide down the hill into my mom's.

Solving all the problems

NateTMarkley: damn
NateTMarkley: the national debt
NateTMarkley: increases by 1 million
NateTMarkley: every minute
NateTMarkley: $1 million: Amount the national debt expands per minute, totaling approximately $1.4 billion a day. The debt is up from $5.7 trillion when President Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009.”
bethanypickard: it's just imaginary money anyway
NateTMarkley: yeah, imaginary money with serious impact
bethanypickard: they should just make all of that money at the money factory and then it'll be fine!
NateTMarkley: ahaha
NateTMarkley: yeah
NateTMarkley: it wouldn't lose it's value or anything
bethanypickard: well
bethanypickard: they can make the money to pay back the debt
bethanypickard: and then
bethanypickard: set the mint on fire
bethanypickard: so there is no money being made
bethanypickard: and then the dollar will bounceback
bethanypickard: PROBLEM SOLVED
NateTMarkley: man, they should make you secretary of the treasury
NateTMarkley: with that economic insight
bethanypickard: yeah i can't believe i'm not Queen of Earth by now

Boston had its first real snow this weekend. I celebrated it by eating a bunch of nicely prepared food. And buying some new clothes. So now I'm chubs with nice clothes. Curse you winter and what you do to my metabolism!!!

Anyway, Hunter's family was in town this weekend. Friday we had dinner at Henrietta's Table, which is one of those restaurants that has its own farm to grow vegetables and cows and make its own beer. I had this homey-sounding selection: Anson Mills Stone Ground Organic Grit Cake, Sauteed Mushrooms, Roasted Tomato and Flageolet Bean Ragout. And then Hunter and I shared Henrietta’s Chocolate Bread Pudding Sundae: Caramelized Bananas, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Chocolate Sauce, Whipped Cream, and Nuts.

Yes I am writing about food agaain.

That night I met up with Nate, Caitlin, Elinor and Aaron for the Union Square Round Table's Birthday Celebration. Pa's Lounge isn't a huge place, but the room was packed and spilling out the door. Fire codes were broken, laughs were had. We saw the following perform: Ben Dryer, Nick Branigan, Steven Derocher, and Keira Horowitz, Eugene Mirman, Caitlin Roy, Chris Braiotta, Sameer Naseem, TD Sidell, and Michael Brodeur. The #1 most funny was Eugene. That is me stating the obvious, thank you.

The next morning was a trip to good ol' Brookline to introduce the Hunter fam to Zaftigs. The restaurant pulled out all the stops this time, even providing an hour-long wait for an authentic Zaftigs experience. Brunch was delicious and provided us with enough energy to brave the parking complex at the Prudential Center.

That night was our final stop, a fantastic meal at Olives in Charlestown. I was a little unsure of what to expect, since Todd English is one of those "celebrity chefs" and I hadn't been too impressed with Mario Batali's restaurant in NYC.. But Olives was great, even if our waiter reminded us of Martin Short's character from Father of the Bride. The chesnut ravioli was delicious, as was the greek salad Hunter and I shared.. and then there was the dessert of all desserts.. the cookies and cream. I literally felt like I was gonna die. 4 kinds of warm cookies, 3 little scoops of ice cream, a chocolate brownie and a chocolate cupcake. Ohh my.

Yesterday I took my birthday money from October and hit up H&M and purchased some black wool sailor pants that might remind me too much of gwen stephani. And two sweaters and and shirt. Very responsible clothes. Clothes that can be worn to work.

And that's it my friends. No pics, no crazy stories.