Filed under: architecture, books, budget luxury, celebrities, culture, europe, food, gay, home, interior design, luxury, people, plans, projects, relationships, romance, shopping, travel

This is the place where I will ride bareback across fields, raise strong, beautiful children, and spend my evenings writing and reading by our blazing hearth.
(with David Beckham, furnished by Ralph Lauren Home, groceries delivered by yummy.com, and weekly visits to London.)
ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! i didn’t realize that an ebay auction in which i was bidding on a grab-bag of old etiquette books was ending tonight! and it sold for the minimum bid incresase above mine!
well, whoever got them better enjoy them.
Filed under: books
a few years ago i picked up the habit of reading all of the books of one particular great author in one fell swoop, or really one 2-3 month long swoop. i like it, because it makes me feel like an expert. also, the books are usually pretty good. the author of the moment is hermann hesse, i just finished his Das Glassperlenspiel or Glass Bead Game. I love laying in bed or on the couch after finishing a book that i really loved and holding onto the way it made me feel for as long as i am able.
Filed under: books, etiquette, friends, gifts, kindness, people, shopping, the grove, travel
today i came across two books while at the grove that i couldn’t pass up,
i have a bit of an obsession with etiquette books, some of the older, more archaic versions are great for a few laughs as well as a window into social codes and structures often extinct. Many others, though, can be relevant, insightful, and unpretensious reminders of how to be a modern lady or gentleman.
the art of civilized conversation, by margaret shepherd instantly drew me in with the author’s charming, easy voice. it seems to be a genuine, unstuffy, and instructive book on improving and perfecting conversation skills. will write more when finished.
here is an interesting article i found about conversation in history:
http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8345491
sunny and i have both been the victim of some pretty messed up deeds by villainous strangers lately, so when i saw the kindness of strangers - a collection of travel stories about kind deeds by total strangers, i thought that it would be the perfect book to help us both reframe our state of mind. it is edited by don george and has a foreward on the importance of kindness by the dalai lama.
Filed under: 3rd street, beverly center, books, budget luxury, food, friends, los angeles, mid-city west, my neighborhood, people, shopping, the grove
- slept in ’till 10,
- got a surprise im from sunny in togo and talked for about an hour,
- picked up fresh apples, bananas, squash, and mint at the farmer’s market and a baguette from monsieur marcel,
- found an ettiquette book i had to have at anthropologie and (i hope) the perfect gift for sunny at borders.
- watched people decorate the enourmous christmas tree at the grove,
- met sophia on robertson for some more shopping and coffee.
this is a picture i took last summer of the stand i buy my fruit and veggies from at the farmer’s market.


