Letters from Camp...and your Weekend Buzz.

Moroccan Shabbat, Barbecue Brunches, and Live Music

Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash

Happy Friday my friends. Hope you have all been enjoying this lazy week. For me, it’s been a bit of a blur, quite honestly, with both kids at sleepaway camp, and the midweek July 4th holiday. I’ve felt like I am in some sort of hot and fuzzy time warp. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s been pretty nice, having all this time to myself.

I’ve dug into launching a new part of my business, The Culinary Concierge, which has been exciting. (Read about it here.) And I’ve been able to spend lots of time doing all sorts of things I have wanted to get to: theater (Prima Facie), movies at BAM (Past Lives), many books (The Best Intentions, Heartburn, Mean Baby, Maame), many dinners (Mel’s, Ruthie’s, Superiority Burger, Lamb’s Club, Sushidelic, Miss Ada), races (a 10K on Governors Island), oysters (Island Oyster), and even a day at the amazing spa on Governors Island (QC NY). I have slept in almost every day, lying in bed reading and nodding back off to sleep.  Heavenly.

On the ferry to my NYCRuns 10K on Governors Island.

To be sure, the missing of the kids is for real. I walk around feeling like I’ve lost an arm or a leg, a sort of aching phantom pain. (I’m a sap, I know.) I’ve gotten three postcards from the kids so far—beautiful, heartbreakingly vulnerable moments in time scrawled by flashlight in the dark of a cricket-filled night. I plan on saving them forever.

“My cabin is great. I have a little window,” wrote Sam about his bunk. Then: “I miss you and I have cried five times, but it’s getting better.”  “The food is still terrible,” from Eiji. “But it’s edible.” 

I remember writing to my mom from sleep away camp. (My mom of course saved all my letters.) The letters, written in my careful pretty cursive on my Holly Hobby or Hello Kitty stationary, were all a variation on this theme: I have a crush on [insert name of teenage boy] who is so so so cute, but he doesn’t know I exist, followed by a list of requests: a medicinal cream for my puberty-driven pimples called Fostril, a pink terry cloth Izod shirt I had left at home, and many boxes of Entenmann’s. A well-curated list.

And so here we are at the weekend, though this week has felt like one long Sunday. If you’re in town there are some fun things happening! Have a look and as always, thank you for supporting my work and being a paid subscriber!