In honor of mother’s day, here’s a list of some of things my Mom knew were awesome before I did. Fortunately (though she never forced them on me), through her example I got around to loving them all too. Thank you Mom – you are an incredible Mom and friend.

10 things my Mom knew were awesome before I did:

1. Irish music
2. Embroidery
3. Flea Markets/Antique Stores
4. James Taylor
5. Harry Potter
6. The novels of Charles Dickens
7. Dipping fries in mayo
8. The northern lights
9. Speaking conversational French
10. Jeeves and Wooster

What things did your mom know were awesome before you did?

We started in Carroll Gardens and rode north to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Then we rode over to the west side bide path all the way up to 79th.

During rest stops we sometimes have to take out a jump rope and tripod and conduct an impromptu photo shoot:

The ride along the west side goes right by the Intrepid. I’m always amazed by how awesome it is.

Once you hit Riverside Park things get super Saturdayish:

At 79th street we cut over to Central Park and rode the bike loop down and back up to the top of the park.

Then we rode back down the west side and stopped at the Boat Basin. We found it in the midst of some serious Cinco de Mayo celebrations. So we joined in, a little:

Another rest stop to enjoy the view:

Back down in lower Manhattan near the construction at One World Trade Center. The put the beam up this week that made it the tallest building in NYC. Yesterday it was so foggy that you couldn’t see the top:

Back home across the Brooklyn Bridge:

(photo by Kordulak)

The last stop we made was Alma for some well deserved mexican food and drinks.

I love both of his collections, What Learning Leaves and The Last Time as We Are. You can read a handful of his poems online here.

My favorite poem is “The Missing Shepherd of Your Dreams” from The Last Time as We Are, but I think you should read his collections and discover your own favorite.

This month I’m reading Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich and Good Poems: American Places edited by Garrison Keillor.

Do you make a conscious effort to read more poetry during National Poetry Month? What poems are you reading?

Last week was the Flea’s second week outdoors this season, but my first outdoor visit of the year. After an amazing panini for brunch at Bocca Lupo, I walked over to Ft. Green with my friend Ash.

I found these three vintage full color Golden Nature Guides, the same ones my Mom has and I grew up reading. I remember the Trees one in particular. They are still a treat to look through, and are small enough to be easy to collect. I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for the Stars guide next.

A lot of people use Pinterest as an idea board, or a to-do-list. Things to cook. Hairstyles to try. Crafts to make. Ways to paint your nails. I don’t really enjoy using it in that way – I have enough never ending to-do-lists elsewhere.

I enjoy using Pinterest as a visual collage of things that I love. I’ve always loved collecting images and photos – I can’t read a magazine without tearing pages out and filing them or tacking them up on the wall. Pinterest is perfect for this.

I love both the hodge-podge randomness of my “all pins” view:

and also the visual cohesiveness of the specific boards:

Some of my favorite boards are my winter, spring, summer, and autumn boards, where I’m collecting photos that remind me of each of the four seasons. I love making these collage boards and then gazing at them dreamily. As a major armchair traveler through books, it doesn’t surprise me that I like to do the same with Pinterest.

I love following boards by other bookish folks as well. For book lovers, I’d recommend the following boards:

• Where Books Live – by The Warby Parker
• Office Supplies – by Poppin
• Book Cover – by Deborah Piragibe
• Library – by Giiez Boiie

So how do you use Pinterest? What are your favorite boards, and favorite pinners?

- A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker, page 91

So let’s time travel back to Michigan Snow Days with Etsy.

I’m guessing that one of the strongest memories of winter for any kid growing up in Michigan was taking all their snow gear on and off, over and over again. On normal school days you would do this at least 4 times a day – once in the morning to go to school, twice for recesses, and once more at the end of the school day to go home. Full snow outfits included a hat, gloves, scarf, coat, snow boots, and – most important and inconvenient to bladders – snow pants! All of it should be as brightly colored as possible, and also have a large number of different colors on each item. I think my coat had at least 5 colors of nylon arranged in geometric color blocking. On snow days I would usually gear up shortly after sleeping in and eating breakfast to check out the feet of snow that had magnificently accumulated and cancelled school. In Michigan school didn’t get cancelled for anything less than a full foot of snow, and sometimes not even then, if the plows had time to make their routes.

Snow Pants on Etsy – $23

After playing outside in the snow for a while, I would come in for lunch to get warm again. Usually I would curl up with a book, and more than likely it was a Baby Sitter’s Club book.

Baby Sitter’s Club boxed set on Etsy – $7

Or, I might have been reading an American Girl Doll book. Molly’s books were my favorites.

American Girl Molly – Complete Book Set on Etsy – $18

I would also lounge about on the couch and watch TV. When you were home from school at times that you shouldn’t have been, you had to watch shows that were meant for younger kids. There was no Clarissa Explains It All or Pete and Pete on during the daytime. However (this being 90s Nickelodeon), all the shows were great, even for younger kids. I remember watching a lot of Eureeka’s Castle:

Eureeka’s Castle Hand Puppets on Etsy – $20

And that, with the addition of Campbell’s soup and a snow fort, was a Michigan Snow Day. Simple, but divine.

I’m off to enjoy the rest of my grown up day off, which includes reading Charles Dickens, going to see a movie, and cooking tacos for dinner. Also simple and divine.

Wake up. Make coffee. Make breakfast. Read. Get dressed. Drop off laundry. Go to Brooklyn Flea. Browse all vendors. Head to BK Flea food court. Eat 2 pulled pork sliders from Asia Dog. Eat 1 chocolate with cocoa nibs donut from Dough. Browse (ok, buy) books at BookCourt or Greenlight Books. Get a Stumptown cappuccino from Cafe Peddler. Pick up laundry, now washed and folded for me, on the way home.

Have I mentioned that I absolutely adore living in Brooklyn?

I don’t always get to do this routine (traveling is the main thing that interferes), but it is my very favorite way to spend my Saturdays. Saturday nights are always different, but the day is a perfect routine of my favorite places and things to do.

I usually buy 1 vintage thing at the Flea each week. This week it was a small blue vintage pyrex casserole dish that I found for $10:

It looks perfect for stashing leftovers in the fridge, doesn’t it?

As far as the food at the Flea goes, this is a Dough donut:

It tastes like heaven would taste, if heaven were a donut.

And that’s what Saturday afternoons are like. I figure I’ll start posting photos of vintage things I buy (sometimes from the Flea, sometimes from Etsy) because finding something old that still has use and value is so much fun, and I love giving things a new appreciative home.

Lovely evening at a Billy Collins reading at Strand.

On whether or not he’ll ever write prose:

“No.”

…

“No one asks prose writers if they’ll ever write poetry.”

…

“Poetry is a bird, prose is a potato.”

PS – My blog is back up, after a several month struggle/confusion with hosting.

Hover over the photo or click through to Flickr to see the very short or unhelpful titles they might have.