It’s official – I’m crowning January as The Tightest Month.  My pants are tight, money’s tight – even my apartment feels tight.  That last one is something that happens after I spend a lot of time at home.  In a real house.  With real amounts of space.  Like the rest of American that doesn’t live in a crowded city like NYC.  I didn’t even bring back tons of stuff like I usually do!  I swear….

And speaking of Christmas presents, one of the wonderful gifts I received was a plane ticket to Nashville!  So in a few weeks, I will be boarding a plane and headed down to hang in Music City!  I’ve wanted to visit Nashville for years now; thought I was going to make it last year, but life happened and then the trip didn’t.  I’ll be down there for a whole week, which means I’ll be doing a cookie drop (or two) while I’m there – and I need your help!  Remember how I did Single Girl Cookies: Hometown Edition when I was in Penn Yan for August and I took a poll asking where I should go for my first drop?  I’ll need your help with this one too!   I Facebooked and tweeted about it and got back a few responses.  Right now Ryman Auditorium has the most votes, including one stipulation where I’m to make a recording while I’m there 🙂  I’ve looked into that and think I will do that anyway!  I’ve actually always wanted to sing Jeff Buckley’s Lilac Wine…maybe this is my chance?  If you know of a place in Nashville that deserves cookies, let me know!  I’m also taking recommendations of places I should visit and things I should see – help plan my trip!

While I’m looking forward to my trip, I’ve still got business to do here in Astoria!  Last week I made my first cookie drop of 2014 at Designer Optical on Steinway. For those of you familiar with the neighborhood, this is the eyeglasses store on the northern part of the Steinway block between 31st and 30th with the Blues Brothers in the window. Now you know which store I’m talking about.

I came in with my plate of cookies and was greeted by a woman named Tatiana.  As I stood there giving her my speech, I noticed that everyone that came in was greeted by name by the other woman working there, Melissa.  I thought, “This is a place I can get behind!” if they know everyone that comes in here.  I left with a feeling of friendly neighborhoodliness (yep, my first official made up word of the year) and went about my week.

I came back on Monday (they aren’t open on Sundays) and met the same two ladies.  They said my cookies were ‘really delicious’ and gave me back my plate.  You may recall I was in a motor vehicle accident last month, and as a result, I’ve been experiencing some vision problems in my right eye.  I figured while I was in there, and had waited for other real customers to be finished, I may as well try on some glasses if I had the need for some in the near future!  Spoiler alert: the blurriness I’m experiencing is NOT correctable with lenses, I will NOT get to get cute new glasses, and we STILL have no diagnoses on why my eye sucks.  That didn’t diminish the fun I had trying on lots of frames!

They have a huge selection and Tatiana really knows what she’s doing.  She picked out the perfect pair of beautiful Fendi frames that would look so good if I really ever need glasses, and they will be the first place I go.  And this week, tomorrow, really, I will be heading to Rosana’s Salon on Steinway between 30th and 28th Aves.  Perhaps a manicure will lift and loosen my spirits 🙂

I realize I might not be the only one experiencing this slump, be it from a holiday high, or feeling the affect of the winter weather.  When I feel this way, I have a couple of songs that lift my spirits no matter what kind of mood I’m in.  Try this one on for size.  It makes me smile to myself on the subway, grin like a fool as I walk down the street and put that spring in my step that I’ve been missing.  Welcome to 2014 everyone, we’ve got a great year ahead.