I have an announcement

I’ve moved again! New blog. Check it! Bookmark it! Delete the old one from your memory asap.

xoxo
JillP

Today’s gchat with my brother

Nothing gets me through a Thursday like gchat and Patty Loveless Holiday on Pandora!

me: im listening to country xmas music on pandora!

Jordan: JILL!!
no country xmas music…you might as well go to church
and get a baptism
while wearing a cross

me: lol

Jordan: in texas

me: it’s so good! im learning about baby jesus

Jordan: well i guess if its educational…stop listening when it tells you to wear sweaters

*Please don’t be offended. My brother is very offensive most of the time, but totes harmless. He just opts for latkes and Matisyahu while I walk around the house singing ‘You really must stay….baby it’s cold outside….’. I’m a lot to put up with, I know.

So Very Thankful

For a wonderful Thanksgiving in Piedmont. I’ve flown to St. Louis for Thanksgiving the past three years, so it was nice to spend this one at home, although I missed my grandma But Piedmont Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite holidays ever. Since we don’t really do xmas (which I know is really the most amazing holiday ever, trust me, I’ve seen it in ALL those cozy beautiful movies), I really get excited for T-giving. It’s MY holiday.

On Wednesday Jor and Sarina flew in from NYC and made it home just in time for our yearly Wednesday night pre-Thanksgiving dinner out.

 

Our puppies were very excited to see Jor Jor.

I love going out to dinner the night before T-giving because it means I don’t have to clean the kitchen 400 times on Wednesday AND 400 times again on Thursday. Victory!

Then on Thursday, some of us (ahem, notice MIA lazy brother) got up bright and early to run in the Piedmont Turkey Trot. It’s like a high school reunion on steroids.

But when I’m with these guys, it’s pretty obvious that I come from the coolest family in town.

Don’t mess.

One of my cousins is wearing long underwear under his hiking shorts, and the other told my dad he looked like a human windbreaker. But that’s why I love them.

After the Turkey Trot, my dad and I headed back to the house to see what was cookin. Sarina had been up since 7:30AM chopping away and (shocker) Jordan was still sound asleep. The little butt-head!

The best part about staying in Piedmont is that my mom makes me a cappuccino every morning. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it here, but my mom has an espresso obsession, and makes the best coffee EVER. I’m gonna Yelp it right now. This is when I say, thank goodness for OCD.

Our friendly 8-year-old neighbor Sara came over to hang out in the kitchen and chat with the girls.

(BTW, do not come over to our house if you don’t want to be attacked by pups)

Really, bugs? You are the most spoiled dog EVER.

Sara could not believe Jordan was still asleep. She was so excited to go into his room and wake him up.

Upsky! Bugs jumped right in the bed while Sarina and Sara rolled their eyes at the lazy boy.

Then Sara ran out of the room and told me ‘JILL!! JORDAN’S WEARING BOXERS WITHOUT PANTS!!!’ I’m just surprised she didn’t name the brand of boxers (not pictured, Sara is wearing her Juicy Couture shoes that she hasn’t taken off since she got them for her brother’s bar mitzvah. This girl shops like it’s her job).

We had a fun day cooking yummy things, all hanging out in the kitchen, before heading over to my aunt and uncle’s house. We took our annual pre-dinner walk in the cemetary, and snapped a photo before we left.

People think its weird when I say we walk in the cemetary, but it’s so beautiful there.

And peaceful.

It doesn’t feel like we’re in a sad place.

Finally, it was time for dinner. But I think I need to save that for another post. This has gone on far too long and I fear I’ll lose my three subscribers if I don’t shorten these darn things. If you made it all the way through this, congrats, you know the story of my life. Be back later, friends!

Oh my gosh

Has everyone in the world already seen this video? I loved it so much. Nothing to do with winter whatsoever but just felt like sharing.

Marissa, will you marry me? from justin on Vimeo.

Snowflakes

My aunt Maude made this beautiful digital story about our family’s snowflake tradition. If you watch carefully, you might even catch [high school] me in a few of the photos behind the braces.

I love how Maude combined her photos with music and stories. Super talented.

P.S. how cute are my cousins? Crafty snowflake-cutting heartthrobs, I tell you. I love that pic of them as little guys at the very beginning taken in front of my family’s very first house. And those red animal sweatshirts. Precious.

This story made me so grateful for my family and for winter. It’s one of the only times we are all together. Excited to see everyone in Piedmont tomorrow night.

Happy three day week, friends!

18 Songs For Winter

Sorry for the guest blogger delay, friends and family. I was away last week in LA, and then spent last night in Santa Cruz, but now I’m home and so excited to introduce Cody, week 3.5’s guest blogger. Cody is awesome, one because he agreed to share his winter playlist, and two because he started with a quote from High Fidelity, one of my FAVORITE MOVIES EVER and the reason I love top ten (and top five) lists. Cody even made me my own winter CD in preparation for his post. You should all follow his musical guidance asap and download the recommendations, if you’re not lucky enough to be on Cody’s winter gift list.

Thanks, Cody! You rock.
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“The making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do’s and don’ts. First of all, you’re using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.” – Rob Gordon, High Fidelity

(OMG. Note from Jill – sorry to interrupt – but I LOVE Rob Gordon. It’s official. I loved him before Jim Halpert!)

Winter reminds me of my family. Specifically — having grown up in rural Northern California — waking up early, scraping layers of ice off my windows with the temperature in the low 20s, and driving 35 minutes on icy roads to high school. Oh, and heating my socks up by holding them in front of my parents’ wood stove. And moreover, the smell of all of those burning wood stoves filling the crisp air as the frost began to evaporate off the grass. Those mornings were terribly cold. I often resented them, because to a seventeen year old, nothing beats hiding under a warm comforter on a freezing morning. But, now ten years later, I look forward to them again every year that I return home for the few short days I get for the holidays.

But, I guarantee you that I don’t look forward to these experiences because of the season alone. Despite a nostalgia that says winter forms great memories, winter also has arguably crummy weather and short days that makes people depressed. It’s music, in my opinion, that helps bear the weight of the winter season. For me, music provides a sort of inflection point on memory that generates a warmth to get through rain, snow and ice. It’s much like the combination of lumber and oxygen in my parent’s wood stove. Each one plays off each other to create light that sheds nuance on both. I feel that winter is particularly guilty of needing a good soundtrack. Is a song great during the summer? Yes, of course. But, it’s effect is sort of like a popsicle. It’s tasty and then it’s gone — I would likely enjoy the beach about the same without it.

And, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a song I was listening to at the time to have this effect. I often find myself several years later mulling over an experience to the sound of a song that I am hearing for the first time. A particular piece of music can have a mood that sparks perfectly off an old image. Fountains of Wayne’s “Valley Winter Song” will always remind me of driving over heavily salted and sanded roads. However, the record hadn’t been released yet and I was probably listening to The Smashing Pumpkins when the majority of that driving actually took place. Driving in those conditions totally sucks. I know several people that ran off the road and hit a tree. Somehow, though, I want to be driving in those conditions nearly every time I hear the song.

To help you through this winter, I recommend making a winter themed mixtape. John Cusack’s character, Rob, in High Fidelity claims that the making of a perfect compilation tape “is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem … There are a lot of rules.” To hell with Rob’s rules, here are five of my own rules for making the perfect winter compilation tape. These should help you finish your own tape in no time. Of course, like any good music commentary, they’re both pretentious and silly.

Number 1: Winter is cold: don’t go putting a bunch of pop songs on your playlist. A pop song (think Yellow Submarine by The Beatles) is a flash in the pan. It burns out way too quickly. Fun pop songs, while fun, simply don’t have the density to provide the slow burn that winter requires. They don’t give off enough heat. Avoid them if you want to survive. And, under no circumstances, are you to use crappy techno or a hip-hop recycle of an eighties song.

Number 2: Winter is like red wine: pick some songs with a bit of seduction to them. The winter season has a density and a thickness all its own. The colors and the weather have a romance that evokes the oak and deep hues of a glass of red wine, not the fruity nature of a glass of white (remember: no pop!). This density needs proper accommodation in mood. See track 9 from my own winter compilation below for a perfect example, it was shamelessly borrowed from Wong-Kar Wai’s beautiful and appropriately winter feeling film, “In the Mood for Love”.

Number 3: Winter has it’s own pace: make sure you pace your tape appropriately. Ok, I know I said to hell with Rob’s rules, but this is one of them. Just like you can’t have 70 glasses of red wine in a row, you can’t go having 70 minutes of music with the same density (unless you’re Slipknot). Winter ebbs and flows: sometimes there is a drizzle, other times there is an outright downpour. Then you’ve got your flourishes of lightening and thunder. Your tracks should tell a story and give the listener a tour of winter as you see it. Alternatively stated: don’t blow all your good tracks immediately, save some for the appropriate effect.

Number 4: Winter is not summer. This should be self-evident, but you’d be surprised. Don’t put a summer song on a winter mix. I’m aware that I already said no pop songs, but pop and summer don’t always equate. Examples of banned songs include: Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer,” Sting’s “Fields of Gold”, Chris Isaak’s “Pretty Girls Don’t Cry” or just about anything that sounds Latin inspired (that means no Santana, sorry).

Number 5: Winter is contradictory — so break the rules. Winter isn’t all doom and gloom. Sometimes snow doesn’t always mean running off the road, it means sledding. Sometimes I have to turn the AC on in my car because it’s too hot with the heat on. “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas & The Papas is ostensibly a summer pop song and it somehow makes the perfect winter song. I promise that you’ll be happier if you ignore some of the above rules.

Finally, if you’re still not inspired — and frankly, I’m not sure if I can blame you now — I’ve shared my own winter mixtape to help inspire you further. There are 18 tracks here, or one piece of lumber for each week. While I know they are mine, I hope that they keep you just as warm as they keep me. And, I’m always in need of a good firewood supplier, so don’t be bashful (yes, that means you!) and comment with some of your own winter tunes.

Track Listing:

1. Imogen Heap – First Train Home
2. The Mamas & The Papas – California Dreamin’
3. Whiskeytown – Sit & Listen to the Rain
4. Aphex Twin – Avril 14
5. Beirut – Postcards from Italy
6. The Decemberists – Eli, The Barrow Boy
7. Benjamin Gibbard – Farmer Chords
8. The Watson Twins – HighSchool
9. Shigeru Umebayashi – Yumeji’s Theme
10. Bic Runga – Say After Me
11. Fountains of Wayne – Valley Winter Song
12. The Weepies – Antarctica
13. Nat King Cole – Quizas, Quizas, Quizas
14. Jose Gonzales – Heartbeats
15. Neko Case – That Teenage Feeling
16. Badly Drawn Boy – Easy Love
17. Explosions in the Sky – Your Hand in Mine
18. Iron & Wine – Passing Afternoon

** Note from Jill P: This article is part of my 18 Weeks of Winter guest blogger series. What gets YOU through the winter? Tell us. If you want to be guest blogger, email me or leave a comment. Because let’s be honest, I do not have 15 friends who owe me favors.

I Heart Huckleberry

ZOMG.

Granted I haven’t been to too many lunch spots in LA (como se dice zero?) BUT, I’m ready to say Huckleberry Cafe has the best lunch EVER as in 6.5 Yelp stars.

I got warm goat cheese on mutligrain toast with mixed greens salad.

And amazing berry cornmeal cake. ZOMG.

Then the sweet servers gave me a free mini chocolate cupcake since it was my first time there. WAY TO WIN ME OVER.

If there wasn’t so much darn traffic in LA I would have gone back for lunch and dinner every day. But instead Adam found a Chinese restaurant right near my hotel called Genghis Cohen. Only in LA. And there was Shalom Pork on the menu I kid you not.

Curbed

No way.

But well said.

Hey Tory, when you gonna make a Target line?

I want these boots sooo badly. I think they would make me LOVE winter. They are so insanely out of my budget but I tried them on anyways walking around in LA tonight. There was only one pair left and it happened to be my size and I think it was a sign.

A sign that my credit card company would be calling for fraudulent charges if I didn’t resist. I resisted.

* image from Saks Fifth Avenue

But I can’t get them out of my head. Whaddya think? They’re even better looking in person.

I’m ready to camp outside TJ Maxx if Tory decides to liquidate there. I love TJ Maxx. But that’s a story for another time.

Murry! Murry! Murry!

That’s me, cheering! Murry! Murry! Murry!

I do this cheer a lot at work and people usually say, ‘Jill, what does it feel like to be from another planet?’ But in this situation, it’s actually fitting so I’m super excited.

My dear friend Mary, who I’ve written about here and here, just ran a half marathon with NO training whatsoever. She’s ridic. I told Murry all about my 10K, and she felt all motivated to run a race without training, too. But races in New York during the winter are freezing, even for a Mainer. So when Murry was in Florida for the weekend hanging with her parents (what up Liz and Mark!), and there happened to be a half marathon going on that weekend, she signed up on the spot. Seriously the girl signed up the day before, got her usual 14-hours of sleep (I’m not kidding, we were roommates senior year and she seriously slept until 4PM multiple times a week, but now she’s a nurse and works 10-hour shifts starting at 7AM so it’s acceptable), and ran the whole darn way! She totally rocked it. And ran fast! I’m SO proud and inspired and cannot wait until we can run a race together.

Congrats from CA! Love you, Sunny!