books are better than boys

The Mountain Goats are playing at Cafe Mustasche and it feels almost like it’s Christmastime.

Last night I was talking to Kate about traditions. My mom’s parents would always come over and we would order pizza and watch a Disney movie on Christmas Eve. Christmas day we could have cookies for breakfast and read the Christmas story (straight out of the bible) before going to see my Dad’s side of the family. I would wander around my Granny’s house and count all the Santa’s from her collection and Poppy would sit in his chair under the taxidermied head of a deer he shot long before I was born. Before I started smoking, in the 10th grade, I would lecture to my uncles about the perils of cigarettes. They tried not to laugh while listening to my concerned plea and then snuck out to the back yard for another smoke.

Pizza delivery and the smell of just extinguished cigarettes are my scent memories of Christmas. 

Merry everything. Happy always. To you and yours.

Christmas 1982 with Poppy (by sister reba)

If you didn’t know, I can be hopelessly nostalgic. So, of course, this weekend I went to the Braid show at the Metro. I didn’t get to see them before they broke up in 1999 and missed the 2004 tour. Finally, in 2011, I saw them for the first time. And I, no lie, described the show as “redunk awesome” via text message to the first person who asked me how it was. And it was. Redunk awesome.

See also - Cap’n Jazz reunion show.

(image by Jeff Kroll via)

Last night, when in addition to the cutoffs, t-shirt, sneaker combo I was wearing I added this watch and a homemade friendship bracelet I felt like I was dressed like a camp counselor and nostalgia completely took over.

I went to sleep away camp every summer as a kid. I can’t explain how psyched I was for it every single year (well, except the first, during which there were a lot of tears when my parents dropped me off). I would sit in my room and make illustrated packing lists months in advance and think about all the obscure places our counselors might hide when they would sneak out of evening chapel (church camp, y’all) to hide for the big counselor v. camper hide-and-seek game.

Swimming, horseback riding, capture the flag, the talent show, hearing your name called when they are handing out mail from home in the cafeteria, making friendship bracelets, crushing on the cutest counselor, bug bites, s’mores, kickball, summer-time bffs…yeah, I really loved camp. And then I found out about this place in WI, which I’m seriously considering adding to my summer travel plans. Or I could just might watch a marathon session of Salute Your Shorts followed by Wet Hot American Summer.

camp counselor (by sister reba)

How do you know it’s summer?

If you don’t wake up late and sweaty to ride your bike to Taco House and get a veggie burrito in the hopes of curing the hangover from too much drinking and dancing at 700 Club.

If you spend less than half of your day either sitting in front of The Last Drop or in Rittenhouse Square looking at cute boys, playing spot the celebrity*, and waiting to see nearly everyone you know pass by.

If you can’t wander around the Foodery for a ridiculous amount of time trying to pick out a mixed six pack and take advantage of their air conditioning.

If the night doesn’t end with sitting on the stoop, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, or ordering Chinese from Sam’s and hanging out at your pal’s house - and laughing. Always lots of laughing.

If you don’t get eaten alive by mosquitoes the minute the sun starts setting.

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*How to play Spot the Celebrity

1. You can play anytime, anywhere, with as many people as you want.
2. The point of the game is not to spot actual celebrities. When you see someone (and occasionally it can be a something) that has at least one similarity to a celebrity you spot them by saying something like, ‘There’s [insert celebrity name] (e.g. You see a fellow with an ugly sweater and you say ‘Oh look, It’s Bill Cosby’). The funnier the celebrity spotting, the better, though no extra points are given for making other player laugh.
3. For every celebrity spotted you receive one point.
4. Any one person (or thing) can only be spotted once (e.g. If the dude with the ugly sweater - Bill Cosby - is also wearing a football helmet you, or anyone else, can’t spot him as Joe Montana as well).
5. When playing with friends you can spot someone (other friends, your favorite bartender, etc) as a celebrity if they are someone that all of you know.
6. If you see the actual person (e.g. Bill Cosby, Joe Montana, your bartender) you DO NOT ‘spot’ them. If you do so you lose ALL OF YOUR POINTS. (But say you do see Joe Montana, and even though you’re playing the game you’d like to alert your friends - just preface saying ‘Look, there’s Joe Montana’ with ‘Off the record’ and you’re a-okay).