Thing of the Week: Banh Mi & Pyjamas Shopping Spree Day, 'Your Sister's Sister' & Magic Marshmallows, Laura Dern

LJ'S THING OF THE WEEK: Banh Mi & Pyjamas Shopping Spree Day

Monday was one of those days when you accidentally catch a glimpse of your reflection in a store window and you look surprisingly way better than you expected. I was wearing a stripey knit dress and a peacoat. My hair was up in a jaw clip. Yup! A jaw clip. That's a thing I do, for work sometimes. Normally it's more of a "Life's too short to care very much about anything" sort of deal, but on Monday it put forward the illusion of a chignon. 

I walked to Banh Mi Boys because I wanted to eat something I'd never eaten before. I'd literally never eaten a Banh Mi in my life. Which is weird. I'm usually pretty up on "cool food trends," I guess. I've eaten a taco, for instance. I've eaten wood-fired pizza. Etc. I think I missed the boat on Banh Mi because I have a preference for eating food out of bowls. I don't like Pho, though- it's too much work. I don't know why I capitalized Pho just there. Once I was on a Pho, pho, date, and the dude made such a big deal over saying it "fuh," like twenty times per sentence. I know that's the proper way to say it and all, but it's just such an ugly sound to hear a man say. 

People shit-talk Banh Mi Boys a lot, I guess because it's a hipster co-opting of a food item that you can get for better and cheaper at someplace more legitimate. But I don't know of any of those places. And now I don't care, because on Monday I fell in love with my pork belly Banh Mi and my jicama papaya salad and I just want to eat that perfect, perfect meal over and over again every day forever and if a Banh Mi Boys doesn't open up next door to my house soon I'm probably going to kill myself. Or die of natural causes. It was one of those insane eating experiences that probably has less to do with the actual food than it does with the Universe lining up to gift you with the right thing at the right time, which is true of just about anything. I was just grinning my face off in that damn Banh Mi restaurant. I wanted to shake my Banh Mi's hand. Punch it in the shoulder. Show it what pals we were. 

After I ate my beautiful Banh Mi I started commuting to work and then got a text from my manager saying my shift got cut. I was stoked rather than bummed. I had to buy some groceries. I was going to buy them on my way home from work- at, like, midnight- which I was really dreading. I decided to go to the big new Loblaws on Queen Street. (I went insane there. I bought every flavor of mini-quiche, and cinnamon tea biscuits. It was adorable) Afterward, I stopped into Joe Fresh, where I went on a "pyjamas shopping spree," which I learned is one of the best things a person can ever do. Pyjamas are hella cheap. 

I bought two pairs of pyjama pants, one pair of pyjama shorts, and one pyjama DRESS. As you can see, these are some solidly George Harrison-y jammers we are talking about here. The other day at work I delivered this weird impassioned monologue about how much I love pyjamas. I was like "YOU MIGHT NOT THINK I LOVE PYJAMAS AS MUCH AS I ACTUALLY LOVE PYJAMAS" and then did not shut up until I'd externalized every single detail of my relationship with pyjamas. "I USED TO GET SO MAD AT MY EX-BOYFRIEND FOR NOT LIKING PYJAMAS AS MUCH AS I THINK A PERSON SHOULD LIKE PYJAMAS." 

The pyjamas dress is super-cute and I have made the choice to wear it as real clothes. The big secret of my personal style is that almost everything I wear is either pyjamas or as close to pyjamas as real clothes can possibly get. That's why I'm such a chill and happy person.  Life is really easy once you get the hang of it. 

LIZ'S THING OF THE WEEK: Emily Blunt in Your Sister's Sister & My Magic Marshmallows

I watched Your Sister's Sister last Saturday morning. It's a really sweet movie, sweet in a totally non-cloying way, and I very much appreciate its smallness. Movies and books and stories and records that are small in scope are my thing lately; I like to curl up inside their tiny worlds. And I was always pretty much pro-Emily Blunt but, holy cow, her performance in Your Sister's Sister is so goddamn endearing. Iris is just so super-lovable: I love when she sneaks into bed with her dehydrated-banana-eating pill of a sister, I love how she wears her little winter hat to sleep, I love that her name's Iris. She's cute without being cutesy and there's so much warmth to her and to the whole movie in general. I watched it in bed and then I got up and had a big tea and a cinnamon-sugar pancake and listened to Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., on the porch couch, in the sun.

My other fave thing this week is the mini-marshmallow portion of my new Swiss Miss "Marshmallow Madness" hot chocolate mix. My mini-marshmallows are for dreamers only.

JEN'S THING OF THE WEEK: Laura Dern

 

I'm really into Laura Dern in general. She's great. I've been extra feeling her this week. I watched a few episodes Enlightened, which I don't have a strong feeling about yet. Probably I like it a lot. Two weeks ago or whatever she let it slip that she & David Lynch are "cooking up something". Awesome. Thanks guys!! I'm hugely looking forward to their next movie(or not movie, whatever they do) even if it's absolutely terrifying. If I could retroactively give big movie awards I'd give her all of them for her performance in INLAND EMPIRE. I mean, oh my god. Last night I watched her in Citizen Ruth. I feel dumb for not seeing this earlier because I loved it. She is an immense talent and her face is cool. She goes there. She also meditates. I like how her mom always plays her mom. Finally, Jeff Goldblum dropped water on the back of her hand that one time!! That must have been so enjoyable for her (maybe?). Laura Dern, I love you. Done.