Honeycrisps are my go-to apples, but I'm happy with anything that's not the misnomered red or golden delicious.

The Renaissance market Saturday was fun, though the only things we actually bought were from the BBQ food truck. It was really nice listening to the university's flute ensemble playing old instrumentals. And Mom found some handcrafted "protection charm" rings that she liked, alas all too large to fit her fingers.

I attended a film fest showing of The Fetch which was pretty good, although not set in Ireland as I'd originally assumed. The director said it's being distributed as The Twin in the latter part of the year.

I did not purchase red delicious, but surprisingly the golden delicious was actually pretty darn good! We were shocked. The sugarbee was the other shocker—it was the first one we tried and we all went “bleh, what is this bland nonsense”.

Cosmic Crisp is now my go-to apple, since I can no longer trust Fuji or Gala to be consistently good.

Congrats to Dylan on going to Emerson! Can't really beat Boston for college shenanigans.

Have fun in Mexico, brenda!

I am facing second Monday morning (9am) Pilates session and I like it as a kickstarter on the week. Dauntingly grey and foggy this a.m. though.

EM's coming over today. Haven't seen her since January when she wintered in Montana with her partner, Captain Wayno.

Initially I went as far and as fast as I could for college (after two years I transferred closer for a program I wanted - though I had already firmly split from my podunk town), but my mother hadn't just died. That's the sort of thing that can alter the launch sequence a bit. I'm trying to think if any of my friends lost a parent at that stage and what they did.

One friend already in college left for a planned summer job overseas immediately after his father died rather than stay home with his mother. My impression was that he'd have stayed home had his father lingered. That was just for the summer, however. Come September he was back at school and close to mom/home.

Another friend had already been accepted to a fairly far school when her father died in the summer and she left in the autumn... but it was her dream school and her relationship with her mother was always pretty tortured.

I feel like all my other friends who lost a parent young were in middle school so it had less of an immediate effect on that particularly life transition 4/5 years later.

Bon voyage, brenda, and congrats/happy birthday to your sister!

Enjoy the margaritas, Brenda!

Emerson is a great choice. Well done, Dylan.

Here I tend to buy Granny Smith as my favorite. When in NY I generally get McIntosh because they are plentiful and also tasty.

Finishing my corporate tax return today. I did most of the number pushing yesterday and today is filling out too many schedules.

Congratulation, Dylan! What is he interested in majoring in.

Cosmic crisp has also been my go to apple lately but I surprisingly scored it very low in our test. I’m going to have to buy more and compare, just in case it wasn’t a great example? But I was shocked.

Man, I am counting the days until the apple vendor I discovered a couple of years ago comes back to farmers market. (They are only there from August to November). Their apples ruin you for anything else. Every week they have 8-10 varieties that you've never heard of, and then those change week to week. They are really good at steering you to what you might like. To no one's surprise I'm sure, I am a tart person. If you are lucky, something you discover you like sticks around for a couple of weeks. Now that I know what I like best from them (Wickson, King David, Sierra Beauty, Gold Rush, Pink Pearl, Belle de Boskoop...), I will be stocking up the week they arrive. One of the other vendors has Braeburns and I'll get those if I have to.

Re: Matilda. Do not underestimate the impact losing JZ might be having on this decision. I was absolutely crushed when my dad retired and moved shortly after my mom died. Even though we had only moved there a few years before, I had felt so connected to her in that space. And, with her gone, I did not really want to be that far from my dad. NYU was the closest place I could get the degree I wanted.

ETA:

I had all of the loneliness but none of the privacy or freedom that normally comes with that.

That said, this sucks.