spaghetti westerns, stuffed gnomes, paying for apples in cash at the farmer's market

+ masha tea in the saveur magazine valentine's day gift guide for food lovers

Since this year began, I’ve felt as if in constant motion. That’s kind of my way, as for many New Yorkers, and because of that, I savor the small quiet moments that I’ve slowly built into my life. Time in the sauna after working out (I am SHOCKED every time I see someone on their phone in the sauna.. like.. besides the fact that it won’t kill you to take ten minutes off, isn’t that bad for your phone?), a cup of tea after the baby goes to sleep, a candle while working, the right song, a massage after days on my feet. A friend got me a massage at the Chelsea Hotel as a birthday gift (a perfect gift in my opinion). I had the Leonard Cohen song stuck in my head all morning when I went this week.

I really enjoy moving fast, the pace of my life, but I’ve noticed that I’m better able to do so - and also more pleasant to be around - when that speed is punctuated with sensory pauses. Not absences of sensory experience, but pauses as sensory experiences themselves.

I watched Once Upon a Time in the West -a Spaghetti Western -over the course of a few nights last week which was SO good. Obsessed with the costume design, especially the long dusters and everything about how Claudia Cardinale was styled. It’s like - these people are living in an essentially ongoing dust storm and this woman is always in full drama big hair, smoky makeup, a corset. I love her. Spending a winter in rural Wyoming in a country town after watching the Ralph Lauren documentary on the flight there got me into Westerns a few years back.

On the theme of gifts, beauty, care, I’ve started to really enjoy Valentines Day lore. And I think that Valentines Day prep has also had a cultural shift. There’s a house on my street in Brooklyn that has Halloween-level Valentines Day decorations. Ten stuffed gnomes decked out in pink, enormous hearts, pink faux-candle lights. Why not? Masha Tea got a cute + unexpected Valentine’s Day mention in Saveur Magazine - “Best Valentine’s Day Gifts for Food Lovers.”

An idea for a really glamorous gift for your loved one this Valentines Day would be a trip to Italy this summer on the Masha Tea writing retreat. Organic vegetables, an infinity pool, pilates, writing in an olive grove — email me for more info :_) We have a couple of rooms for two. And I know that I keep saying this, but I will properly email with more details soon. Spots are starting to fill up!!

The day I went to get that massage, I went to the market in the morning and got two old books, paid for honeycrisp apples in cash, and otherwise skimped on my shopping because I didn’t want to leave my massage lugging pounds of meat, yogurt, flowers, and vegetables back to Brooklyn on my shoulders.

To be honest, the reason why I started the Wednesday market habit in the first place is because I started working with an amazing personal trainer a few blocks away.