No rhyme or reason
Walk with me.
I have a lot of things to catch you guys up on that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with each other. So, here are my top level highlights of last week.
On Friday night, I saw my favorite artist, Gracie Abrams, at her Radio City Music Hall debut. I was immensely excited for this, and bought tickets off of StubHub after seeing the early access Ticketmaster queue was over 21,000 people long. I was not going to miss this. I saw Gracie last year at the Brooklyn Steel (subtle brag), which was anxiety inducing enough to get tickets, but now, she’s even more convoluted after the Eras Tour (to which I was unable to see her at, but victorious in going to nonetheless).
I defeated the thousands of newfound fans and bandwagoners by acting fast, was able to get resale tickets for a fraction of what they were being sold for over the past month leading up to the tour date, and have thought about it nearly every day until Friday.
Similarly to when I saw Olivia Rodrigo in April, we were surrounded by tweens and girls who could not relate to a lyric such as “and I won’t miss your shitty friends and nights of their binge drinking”, but sang it with their chest anyway. I will say, tweens bring an incredible vibe to a concert, and we could all use a night with the local youths more often than you may think. There was a sea of bows as far as the eye could see, an army of peasent-esque maxi skirts, and an unmistakable, beautiful vibe of girlhood in the air, barely tainted by the few boyfriends who lingered in the shadows of the plush, velvety seats that lie within Radio City Music Hall.
I hadn’t been to said venue since I was less than ten years old to see The Christmas Spectacular, but I certainly won’t wait that long for my return. It was such a pleasant experience, particularly made great by the minimal bar lines (perhaps due to the age demographic), and the chic women’s restrooms. Gracie was amazing, definitely one of the highlights of my year, and a very much-needed, all around great night. Her vocals were incredible, hearing songs I haven’t heard live yet like “Close to you” and “Us” was fulfilling me mind, body, and soul, and it made me realize how much she means to me as an artist.
Gracie makes music that relates to me on such a deep level it’s almost scary. It feels like I told a lyrical genius superstar all of my secrets and experiences, and she then turned them into the most amazing songs I’ve ever heard. She captures this part of life and the past few years of young womanhood in a way so few artists are capable of, and in the same way as Taylor Swift, if you merely printed these lyrics out on paper and removed the background instrumentals from the equation, they would be equally as impressive as just pieces of writing. Seeing her is always so special, and I highly recommend it if you can.
Autumn is also the perfect season to be listening to Gracie. Moving onto our next topic…
New York City in the fall is the best time of year to be here, hands down. It’s almost like a reward for suffering from endless days of 100 degree mugginess, sweaty thighs and ruining your clothes before even getting to the office. This weekend was simply perfect. The only thing wrong with it is that it maybe was a little too warm, Saturday in the high sun got a bit toasty, but the leaves are changing, the mornings are crisp, and I got a slice of pumpkin bread from Abraço on Sunday, so I can’t complain.
Sally Rooney feels like the perfect author to be reading as the seasons fully change. Everyone’s been talking about Intermezzo, and I will be starting it tonight as I’m extremely proud to announce that I’ve completed the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
Finishing this series has taken a piece of me with it. I truly loved these books more than I can remember ever loving books before. My list of favorite books aside from these is as follows:
These are all extremely different than ACOTAR, but all very similar to each other. As I discussed, I was pretty uneasy starting ACTOAR because of this. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to not judge a book by its cover. If you told me that I would lay awake thinking at night about faeries in love and fighting wars, I would never believe you. Yet here we are. Even influencer Hannah Chody is making ACOTAR content, something I would never expect from her.
I’m excited to move on, but sad at the same time. I don’t want to leave this universe. I need Sarah J. Maas to put pen to paper on the next one, because I’m ready. Something also about me as a reader is that I tend to not read any books by male authors or about male stories, I’m just not really interested in them and they don’t find themselves on any reading lists of mine, but I’ll stay open minded as Intermezzo has two male protagonists. Updates to come. Should we start a book club?
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Another thing that signals fall being in full swing is me finally narrowing down my boot decision. The Real Real has been down every weekend that I try to log onto their website, do you think they’re aware of this? It’s making things really difficult for me because I was looking forward to completing my purchase while binging the latest season of Love is Blind.
Friends of the blog, also known as my incredible grandparents, are equally as committed to my boot journey as I am, and decided to send me some extremely generous financial assistance for the cause. As Minnesotans, they understand the importance of an amazing winter boot more than anyone, and I couldn’t ask for anyone better to have taught me that lesson growing up. I have them to thank for my love and obsession of boots that has manifested into great content for the blog.
I’m leaning towards either a) Hunter Rain Boots, b) new UGGs, or c) pre-owned but in excellent condition See by Chloe Hiker Boots. I realize that this is a lot different than the direction I was leading you all in a few weeks back, but it’s something I feel solid in. A pair of Clarks Wallabee’s keeps making themselves known in the back of my mind, but I’m staying focused for now. Boot reveal soon—I promise.
Lastly, I’m extremely excited to announce that I’m plotting the Coffee Order 2024 Holiday Gift Guides with immense detail and care. I want to go all out and leave no stone unturned. No unbeatable deal or occasion will be left behind. You need something for your boyfriend’s ex-stepmother who still comes to the night before Thanksgiving? Consider it done. I already have lists that I’ve already checked twice.
That being said, if there’s anything you guys are looking for specifically, or any requests for the guides you want to make, feel free to reply to this email! I want them to be for everyone, and on par with what you all are shopping for this holiday season. I put my elves to work before Trader Joe’s put their pumpkin spice flavoring away.