Week 9 in New York: Subculture in the Suburbs

Late nights in Westchester are pretty uneventful - dare I say - boring. For those of us with schedules even remotely on the cusp of being nocturnal, it's damn near impossible to find anything to do after 10:00 pm, let alone a place to eat a good meal. With NYC only 20 minutes drive, you'd think that this sleepy suburb would take a page from their book and have some semblance of a night life - but, you'd be wrong.

Out of this though, has evolved an interesting subcultural - the diner life. Where I'm from in Upstate New York, there's one diner. It's where everyone ends up, every weekend night, after a night of drinking and closing down the local bars.

In Westchester though, every town has a diner, and sometimes two. You can take a drive down Boston Post Rd and see not one or two - but three - in a 5 mile radius. It's a diner-lover's paradise. Here is where not just drunk people stumbling around and hoping to sober up before they drive home come, but where you'll find every different walk of Westchesterian life. The older married couple, out for a late night steak, the college kids gossiping about the latest scandal, the crazy woman who can't believe the waiter would have the nerve to sit her in the back room. Then, you'll find me, the late night yogi. Usually accompanied by Carlo and Carolyn, or any combination of the three, ravenous after yoga or school and too tired to think about cooking.

On this particular night - a Friday night, mind you - after eating a nice dinner out with five of our friends in honor of Carlo's birthday - at the ripe hour of 10 pm we were kicked out of the restaurant and had to find somewhere to sit down, have coffee and dessert, and continue our little celebration. Where could we possibly go? Well, that's right, the local diner.

Just a mile away - because diners are everywhere you want to be - we settled into a two hour encore conversation complete with bottomless coffees, delicious cheesecake, and real vanilla bean milkshakes.

At midnight, when Carlo's birthday actually struck - we all wished him well, went our respective ways, and said what I'd like to think, were our silent little praises for the diner capital of the world - Westchester County.

Cheers,

Breezer M.

Week 8 in Seattle: Handmade Goodness

My bouts of craftiness go in spurts. I will work for weeks on knitting, scrapbooking, or sewing projects then take a month or so off. I think this stems from not having a "crafting studio" to really get work done. Now that I think about it, I've not had a studio since I left New York for Seattle. Even there the studio was part time since I had my best friend move into the room for a while. I'll be moving into a 3 bedroom condo/townhouse on July 1st. The third bedroom is small, but definitely large enough for a crafting desk, shelving, and a comfy chair. I'm hoping that will help spark some inspiration and motivation!

The fingerless gloves you see here are my new favourite thing. I've made a few pair in different weight yarns to find my most loved. This yarn is Mission Falls Superwash Merino. It's DELICIOUS. These are super squishy and very toasty. Generally when you are binding off your piece at your fingers you bind off in a way that makes it stretchy. I did the opposite. I bound off so that they have very little give. Let me tell you- best decision ever. Most gloves like this that I've tried stretch out so much they start to fall off you. These are PERFECT.

I'm hoping to find more crafty motivation soon. I find it hard to make good things come from a non-ideal situation, but maybe it's time to change that.

Cheers,
Jill Rachel