the latest (food) epiphany

i've figured it out. sort of.

if i want a lean, strong, healthy body, i have to physically exhaust myself -- i mean, take my body to the absolute limit -- for a few hours every day. oh, yeah. and i have to not eat or drink garbage, cut the carbs drastically and stop eating at night. whether i do or don't do those things, i can see the results immediately.

the problem is that new york city is one big eatfest, with tons of street food options, from exotic food trucks of every ilk to hot dog stands to fresh fruit and vegetable vendors, with better bargains than grocery stores. (quite a few of them are 24 hours.) it's like gotham was designed for non-stop noshing. frankly, impulse eating is an urge that i haven't conquered entirely. although i must say that when its hot outside, the last thing i want to do is eat anything -- so at least the weather is working in my favor.

getting there is hard but i know that maintaining what i'm fighting for will be the real struggle.

parting shots, part one

vermont is lush green mountains, wide open spaces with pastoral settings, diners and eateries and tea houses and antique shops clustered around sweetly antiquated town squares and farming communities. even when it wouldn't stop raining, it was beautiful. all that green, with big red barns trimmed in white, like something out of a picture book, and black and white dairy cows wandering around like lost children, nibbling on grass absentmindedly and counting the cars as they drifted by.

there were moments when it felt as though we were driving through a cloud -- so high up, with our ears popping, losing the radio station and then suddenly getting it back. it can certainly be posh, in a very old money new england way. victorian houses sit against the road like something out of an ancient pop-up book, some of them in rampant squalor and disarray, some grand. all of them, breathtaking -- especially the ones that were on the verge of falling apart.

charleston, sc has that same undertone of starchy tea-sipping english civility that cloaks new england like a well-worn hand-stitched quilt. i recognized it instinctively. there were moments when my nose twitched at the familiarity of it. the element that's missing is a distinctly african one. honestly, charleston feels as haunted as new orleans. but then again, i suppose any old town has it's very own creep factor. oh -- and charleston has the sun's constant presence pressing down on you, year 'round. vermont can get as cold as alaska. it's the chill that kills.

you can stay in a former dignitary's palatial jewelbox of a home, lovingly restored and converted into a hotel, like this one. still and all, bed and breakfast options abound.








but then it started to rain.




tchotchkes!


(so perfect for nana!)