Radicchio salad with anchovy vinaigrette and crispy bread

Also, thoughts on Vermont, effort, and skiing

Hi, friends! 

I just returned to Brooklyn after a few days up north at my family’s hideaway in Vermont. My love of the state is well-documented on The Dish; one post is titled “Vermont is medicine!” and another “Vermont is always a good idea,” so I suppose you already know how I feel about my birth state. But sorry, that won’t stop me from telling you again how much I love Vermont, with its stately trees and misty mountains, covered bridges and creemee stands. I find Vermont to be a permissive place, where I don’t feel the need to STRIVE all the time, and where I’m more likely to do simpler things like read books and take walks. I’m sure that this perception of Vermont has much to do with the fact that I don’t live there full-time and never have, but I’m grateful for it nonetheless.

I just watched an interview of Greta Gerwig in which she exclaims that the way she operates is “ALL EFFORT,” with no ease, and lately I’ve been feeling that way, too. All effort and cold emails and pivoting, and not a whole lot of ease. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be effortful — I’d much rather be effortful than lazy — but it can be exhausting, especially when the effort’s results aren’t immediate. It was a relief to loosen my grip this past week, get out of the city, and spend time in the mountains.