Rating: 💋 💋 😘
Oh my gosh! We have a guest star this week! Everybody, please put your hands together and welcome back the crowd-favorite: Rebecca.
Now, this is a very exciting post for me. This marks my first time seeing any of my friends in any capacity since the first weekend of October 2020. I know this is a necessary consequence of staying safe and following proper COVID procedures, but oh man. That is a long time without a friend. Thank God for cell phones. I was really starting to wilt.
Rebecca was the last friend I saw, so it was nice to have her welcome me back into socialization.
The drive through Philadelphia made me so happy. I saw the city skyline from the Schuykill and my heart was like, "omg stop! you're too cute!"
We went to Chestnut Hill, which is an adorable area on the outskirts of Philadelphia. I think the word 'quaint' applies here. You walk down the street and all the little shops and the polite people absolutely charm you. I loved it. Rebecca knew of an Irish pub that was doing outside dining, so we decided to grab lunch from there.
McNally's has such a friendly atmosphere. The hostess hopped right up, gave us our choice of table, let us take our time to peruse before asking for our order, and did double-duty as not only hostess but also waitress. And on a Saturday lunch service, at that. Of course, with COVID being what it is, it is not like the place was packed, but she remained cool and kind through it all.
Rebecca and I approach the drink menu from very different angles. What I am really saying is, she likes beer. I am always impressed by people who like beer. That is just so cool of them. It is hard for me though. I cannot even say that I don't like it, it's just difficult for me. It takes a lot of work to find what I like, and normally I don't really feel like putting that work in. Wine or a cocktail is a much easier choice. To that end, Rebecca got a lager and she really liked it, so that's great. I absolutely wanted nothing to do with it. Way too bitter. Having the sweet tooth that I do, I got a Down East Cider, which was absolutely perfect. Not too sweet, but having a nice warm flavor, cool temperature and crisp finish. It would have worked well with anything on the menu. They really did have a nice drink selection.
The food menu was pretty concise. They offered a few salads, a couple burgers, and a lot of different sandwich options. Pub food, but not the Shepherd's Pie kind. This makes this spot the perfect place for lunch. Grab a quick sandwich, enjoy a drink, and get lost in the conversation. Rebecca was very happy with her Roast Beef sandwich, which checked all the boxes. It had a good flavor without being totally soaked in gravy. It was filling and simple and true to tradition. I was between a couple items and wound up ordering the George Bernard Shaw. Half of the appeal came from the name. The GBS features green peppers, tomato, lettuce, mushrooms, and three different kinds of cheese. Oh my gosh. It was a mess. A delicious mess, but you have to eat this accepting that the sandwich will explode vegetables. Peppers will fly out of the bread. Not every mushroom will land in your mouth. A fork only makes the situation worse, so you've just got to grip the sandwich in your hands and power through. I loved this take on a veggie sandwich, and the three-cheese situation tasted as decadent as it sounds. It was so gooey and delicious, and I loved the spicy sauce that came with it. McNally's really offers a good amount of food for low prices. We could not finish. I ate all my sandwich but left the chips, Rebecca ate her chips but some of her sandwich just had to take the L.
It was really tasty, but also quite salty. It did not taste too salty so it was fine, but I walked away and realized I was pretty dried out. I suppose I should have considered that when I ordered a three-cheese sandwich, but I did not realize the extent of Mojave Desert that it would reduce me to. I spent the rest of the day focused on obtaining water. So please go, just make sure you are hydrated.
I wish I could encapsulate the joy of seeing Rebecca again into words, but it really is an ineffable thing. Still, I am sure many of you have experiences that can relate, considering we are all in this pandemic together.
We finally got to exchange Christmas gifts! She had a birthday present for me too, and she gifted me an experience so you will get to hear all about that shortly. We are very good gift-givers, if I do say so myself. It was so fun and thoughtful.
We talked a lot about work and our future plans. Another hot topic was social media and making sure your feed is bringing you joy and not stressing you out or draining you because, otherwise, what is it even for? I have no desire to hop on Instagram to feel miserable, so I surround myself with accounts that create content that interests me, educates me and makes me feel positive. Rebecca agrees and we think it is really important to maintain that and not get caught up in the hype. You could call it a form of self-care. We both feel very strongly about authenticity. Nothing good comes from selling out your identity for the sake of others. Get to know yourself and be true to who you are. We don't need to agree with everyone, we just need to accept who they are. I think that really starts with accepting yourself. Wearing what you want, reading what you want, eating what you want, whatever. My main goal in life is to always be kind and to be unapologetically myself. Rebecca's on that wavelength, and we are great support for each other. I really don't know what I would do without her, and I just want to say thank you.
We also discussed Irish literature. Mainly, why is it that when talking about Irish lit, it's all Joyce, Wilde or Irish diaspora?
Look, we love James Joyce, it's been mentioned. Oscar Wilde is delightful. I totally see why the potato famine is important and I basically spent my childhood learning all about what happened in Ireland and how we all came here. Much respect for the history of it all. In my family, it was a required rite of passage to read Trinity by Leon Uris before starting high school. That is a great book, by the way, and it is how my parents named my brother.
Rebecca and I were just like, what came after? There is more to Ireland than the potato famine. There are modern Irish writers and they deserve more attention! Joyce, Wilde, and McCourt don't deserve less, but Ireland is alive. It's modern culture and present-day artists have voices that matter. I, for one, would like to read them. To that end, I just finished reading Normal People by Sally Rooney, and I loved it. I know she is pretty popular, so I haven't discovered anything here. Rebecca and I are very happy for her and her success. I loved Conversations with Friends, and Normal People meant a lot to me. The characters were very strong and true and it had a great impact. I highly recommend the novel. Also, Rooney has a new book, so I'll have to snag a copy of that as soon as it hits the shelves.
I just started watching the Normal People Hulu adaptation. I heard that some people were upset because it cut out some of the details in the book. I think we need to understand that time restraints are one of the biggest struggles of film, and that is why good films are so impressive. Of course, writers might have page count goals and such, but there does seem to be a bit more flexibility between a book's page count versus a movie or television shows running time. The creators might have really wanted to include another scene, a deeper explanation, or an interesting side plot, but audiences are less forgiving of shows that run over sixty minutes. Unless your name is Scorsese or Tarantino, it is highly unlikely that any production company will let you make a three hour film. Filmmakers have to be very discerning and, unfortunately, while still trying to maintain the integrity of the story, the cutting floor gets littered with content. I understand why, and I do not really need to watch a book adaptation film that clocks in at four hours, so I have to accept that a favorite passage from that book might not make it to the screen. That is just the way it goes. I love when they make movie adaptations, but I also tend to prefer the books. I might write a screenplay based off a novel one day, but so far I have stuck to originals. It is a very large undertaking to pick a book people love and adapt it for the screen. Somebody will be angry about it no matter what. I think people should do it, they're worthwhile films, but I am not ready to go there. I have to say, so far (only two episodes in) Hulu has done very well with Normal People. I will let you know if that changes.
I hope you are watching great shows, reading great books and getting to chill out a bit!
XX,
MK