AMA with AMA: My favorites!

Books, Movies, Colors and Meals.. plus... favorite restaurants in WA!

Pssst. As always, this post is far too long for e-mail, so click ‘read more’ at the bottom to see the whole thing!

Dearest Kula Diaries readers:

I had a few fun questions this week that were submitted through the Kula Diaries Google Form, so I thought I’d answer one of them and turn this week’s AMA into a fun post that has a lot less to do with the stuff I usually talk about (the meaning of life) … and a lot more to do with really fun things that I LOVE to share about. So, let’s get into the question.

Dear AMA:

Do you like or dislike being asked about favorites? If you like it, would be curious to know your favorite book, movie, color, and meal.

I love being asked about favorites — but, naturally, I’m going to dig a bit deeper into these favorites and probably share a bit about why they are my favorite. I’ve never been a person to provide one-word answers, as evidenced by my 25 minute long substack voiceovers that would probably have me roasted over the ‘things you shouldn’t do on Substack’ rotisserie fire.

Book:

I’m not going to be able to pick just one, so I’ll share a few books with you. If I had to pick one… I’d probably pick Moby Dick. I’ve read Moby Dick one time in paperback form, and I’ve listened to it on audiobook numerous times. True story: I was once pulled over for speeding going 45mph in a 25 mph zone because I was listening to the chapter in Moby Dick where Captain Ahab is nailing the gold doubloon to the mast of the Pequod:

“All ye mast-headers have before now heard me give orders about a white whale. Look ye! d’ye see this Spanish ounce of gold?”- holding up a broad bright coin to the sun- “it is a sixteen dollar piece, men. D’ye see it? Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon top-maul.”

While the mate was getting the hammer, Ahab, without speaking, was slowly rubbing the gold piece against the skirts of his jacket, as if to heighten its lustre, and without using any words was meanwhile lowly humming to himself, producing a sound so strangely muffled and inarticulate that it seemed the mechanical humming of the wheels of his vitality in him.

Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced towards the main-mast with the hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming: “Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke- look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!”

“Huzza! huzza!” cried the seamen, as with swinging tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing the gold to the mast.

“It’s a white whale, I say,” resumed Ahab, as he threw down the topmaul: “a white whale. Skin your eyes for him, men; look sharp for white water; if ye see but a bubble, sing out.”

For a moment, just imagine the look on the police officer’s face when he asked the question, “Was there any justification for why you were driving 45 mph in a 25mph zone?”, and I responded, “Well… you see… I was was listening to this chapter in Moby Dick…”.

In addition to being the most incredible work of literary art I’ve ever read, Moby Dick has also been a way that I’ve been able to connect with my father. My dad and I have had a difficult relationship throughout the years, but we both share a deep love and fondness for Moby Dick. In times when I struggled to find ways to communicate meaningfully with him — a shared Avast! was always a way that we could find common ground.

The design for a coaster I made my dad for Father’s Day.

There are passages in Moby Dick that are so beautiful that they take my breath away. That being said, it is a challenging book to read. I highly recommend listening to it on audiobook, specifically the version narrated by Frank Muller. The last page of the book and his particular reading of the story will give you goosebumps and make you feel things that you didn’t know you could feel while reading a story about a white whale. But maybe, just maybe, Moby Dick isn’t really about a whale at all.

Other books:

There are a few other books that stand out for me. Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now (which we are currently reading in our Kula Diaries Book Club!) is probably the most impactful book I’ve ever read in my life. I’ve read the book over 10 times now, and each time I read it, I discover more and more depth in his profound words. Without a doubt, in a sea of ‘personal development’ and ‘spiritual growth’ information, this book has made the most profound impact on my life. Eckart speaks not from a place of needing to ‘fix’ anything about how we are… but rather, from a place of true presence and acceptance. It’s a beautiful book that I find more and more stunningly beautiful. In particular, I cry every single time I read Chapter 9, which is called Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There is Peace:

Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures. But there are two sides to compassion, two sides to this bond. On the one hand, since you are still here as a physical body, you share the vulnerability and mortality of your physical form with every other human and with every living being. Next time you say "I have nothing in common with this person," remember that you have a great deal in common: A few years from now -- two years or seventy years, it doesn't make much difference -- both of you will have become rotting corpses, then piles of dust, then nothing at all. This is a sobering and humbling realization that leaves little room for pride. Is this a negative thought? No, it is a fact. Why close your eyes to it? In that sense, there is total equality between you and every other creature.

These are deep words. The entire book helped me focus and understand things that I had struggled to articulate for most of my life. It helped me redefine what was truly important and it helped me learn to accept and be with the only thing I ever have: this moment right now.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I started reading The Graveyard Book a few years ago on a backpacking trip, and I was struck so deeply by its sheer brilliance and beauty that I ended up reading the entire book out loud to my husband. I still remember sitting in the tent each night before we went to bed — snuggled into our sleeping bags, I’d struggle to hold my cell phone so that I could read the book out loud to Aaron while I simultaneously tried to turn the pages with the ''touchscreen compatible’ finger on my glove that never worked quite right.

The Graveyard Book is about a young boy whose entire family is murdered. The boy manages to escape the tragic incident by crawling into a nearby graveyard, where he is subsequently raised by ghosts. The main character, Bod, is lovable and precious… and the ghosts who raise him are witty and fun. The antics of a young boy living in a graveyard as he tries to navigate life as a living human are beautifully profound. While the book would be a perfect book for a young adult, it is full of universal concepts that all humans will relate to:

“It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean.”

I have read The Graveyard Book, and many other books by Neil Gaiman, many times and they are equally fantastic. I’ve also purchased this book and given it as gifts to people because every single person who reads this book falls in love with it. I hope if you are reading this Substack, you decide to read it too - I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did!

Movies:

Again, this is so hard to choose a favorite movie, so I’ll probably list a few. But, if I had to pick a movie, I’d probably choose Harvey, starring Jimmy Stewart. Harvey is a movie about a man and his imaginary 6-foot tall rabbit named Harvey:

Harvey is, without a doubt, one of the most delightful and wonderful films that I think has ever been made. It is innocent, beautiful and special — and it leaves so much open to interpretation. Is Harvey real? Is Harvey part of the imagination? Does it even matter? I have seen this movie more times than I can count, and every single time, it brings joy to my heart.

As a kid, my parents and grandmother (my dad’s mom specifically) loved watching classic films. Some of my other favorites are:

• It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

• High Anxiety (and pretty much anything by Mel Brooks)

• The Producers (the original with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder)

• The Great Race (with Tony Curtis)

• Psycho (and all Alfred Hitchcock films)

• Rear Window (another Alfred Hitchcock film)

• Arsenic and Old Lace (amazing, hilarious movie!)

While I prefer these classic films, I do have a few more recent-ish favorites:

• Apollo 13 (this movie has always been one of my favorites)

• JoJo Rabbit (deeply moving and surprisingly sad and also just a great movie)

• Marcel the Shell With Shoes on (shockingly profound and amazing - one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time)

Little known fact: I was actually in a movie when I was 7 years old! I was an extra in the movie Betsy’s Wedding. One of the girls in my 2nd grade class had a dad who worked in the movie industry and Wilmington, NC (where I lived at the time) was a hotbed for movie production. I was a student at St. Mary’s Catholic School, and there was a scene in the movie that called for school students to walk across a city street being led by nuns. I got to spend all day on a movie set — which included the most elaborate spread of cakes, cookies and candy bars that I had ever seen in my life. It was heaven on earth and I felt like a movie star. I got paid $28 for my ‘role’ in the movie, but since the movie was rated PG-13, my parents wouldn’t let me watch it since I was only 7 years old.

About 2 months ago, I realized that I had never watched the movie. I always told the story about my stint in the movie biz, but I had never even seen the movie that I was in. Well, Aaron and I watched the movie… and guess what? My scene was cut - ha! But still, that remains one of my favorite memories and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to be a part of it.

Color

It’s funny to be asked this question, because Musical Mountaineers pianist Rose asked me this question the other day while we were hiking down from the summit of Vesper Peak in the dark after our sunset concert. “Blue”, I responded without hesitation. Ironically, I am currently on a quest to purchase hiking shirts that are not blue, because I recently realized that every single article of hiking attire that I own is blue, which means that I look like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka when I hit the trails.

Specifically, Rose’s question was this: “Give me three reasons that blue is your favorite color… and go deep.”

1. The first reason that I love blue is because my eyes are blue, and because my sisters eyes are blue too. I’m one of three girls who were all born with blue eyes — and our parents have brown and hazel eyes, respectively. Growing up as one of the, ‘three girls with blue eyes’ it became a special part of my identity, and something that connected me to my sisters.

2. The second reason that I love blue is because it reminds me of the color of water in Tahiti. As a young girl, I saw the movie South Pacific and wondered if I would ever get to see water that was that blue. Growing up on the Atlantic Ocean in North Carolina, I hardly believed it was possible for water to be so clear and turquoise. When Aaron and I decided to get married in 2015, we opted to elope to Tahiti. We didn’t tell anybody except for our immediate family, and we hopped a plane and flew to Moorea. We were married on the beach by a Tahitian priest with the most vibrant turquoise water as the backdrop. To this day, the blue water in Tahiti feels like love to me.

   

3. The third reason that I love the color blue is because it reminds me of the sky in Maine. As a kid, my family went on several vacations to Maine, and when you visit Maine, you hear a lot of talk about the, ‘Maine Blue Sky’. For some reason, the sky really does seem more blue there. I actually Googled this as I was writing this post, and it turns out that there could be a scientific reason for this: two different types of light scattering phenomena actually contribute to the intense blue color of the sky. The blue sky in Maine reminds me of a time in my life when I felt very much at home. My parents pulled me out of school because I was being bullied severely, and my very first year of homeschooling started during a vacation in Maine. Climbing around on the boulders at Acadia National Park, I felt a sense of hope. I felt like I could finally be myself. I remember staring up at the deep, blue Maine sky and thinking, “I’m going to be OK.”

   

Meal:

This is an easy one. If I could pick a meal to eat for the rest of my life it would be, absolutely hands down, PIZZA and a giant chocolate chip cookie. I love really good pizza, and I love making it. Every single week my husband and I dedicate one night to ‘pizza and cookie night’ — which is a huge occasion in our household. I make pizza dough and cookie dough and freeze them… and they wait patiently in our freezer until the designated day arrives. Then, I bake my frozen cookie dough balls and thaw the pizza dough so that Aaron and I can spend an evening making pizza together. My pizza is the same almost every single time: bacon, mushrooms, peppers, pepperocinis and caramelized onions.

Aaron rolls out the dough into wonky circular-ish shaped pizzas and I add the sauce and the toppings. Then, we bake the pizza and eat it together. If it’s football season, we will sometimes eat it while watching a recording of the latest Seahawks Game (my husband is a Seahawks fan, not a football fan — his words, not mine — ha!). When we first started dating, I think I might have mentioned that I was in a phase in my life where I would panic if I didn’t have a hike planned, because I had an unhealthy addiction to escapism via the wilderness. When he first told me that he enjoyed watching Seahawks games, I actually freaked out a little bit and I thought that it might be a ‘dealbreaker’ for me. “I don’t think I’ll be able to do that,” I informed him.

Now, nearly 10 years later… and in a completely different place in my life… I have learned to accept and love all of the parts of our relationships together, and I no longer feel a compulsive need to get outside and hike frantically to escape from my life. In fact, I actually enjoy the time we spend eating pizza and watching football, even though I have no clue what is happening most of the time in the game. He’s enjoyed watching the Seahawks since he was a little kid, and seeing him interested in something is fun. If I don’t feel like actively paying attention to the game, I will often use the time to sit with him and paint a watercolor in my notebook. Either way — I love the simplicity of being able to enjoy our pizza and time together, no matter what that looks like.

After the pizza, we usually go for a walk and wait a couple of hours before we have our giant Kula Chocolate Chip Cookie of the week. I look forward to this cookie all week long, and it never gets old for me. As you might remember from another post I wrote about my nut butter influencing, I struggled with disordered eating for a good portion of my life. Chocolate chip cookies were, without question, in the ‘no go zone’. As I’ve continued to practice having a healthy relationship with my body and food, I’ve genuinely enjoyed eating my giant chocolate chip cookie every single week.

Favorite restaurants in WA

This question didn’t ask for restaurant recommendations, but I wanted to include a few of my favorite restaurants in WA. Aaron and I usually treat ourselves to a fancy restaurant every year for our anniversary and birthdays, and these are some of our favorites:

• Wa’Z - this is a Japanese restaurant in Seattle that serves a multi-course Kaiseki menu. It is, without a doubt, probably one of the most incredible meals I’ve ever eaten. We did this meal with the sake pairing and we split the sake. If I had consumed the entire sake pairing myself, I probably wouldn’t have been able to walk out of the restaurant.

• The Kro Bar - Bothell - this tiny restaurant is one of the most surprisingly amazing places that we’ve ever discovered. We like it so much that we’ve been there 4 times. The drinks are absolutely incredible and the food is scrumptious.

  

• Larch - Leavenworth, WA - we discovered this restaurant last weekend on our trip to Leavenworth on the motorcycles. It is a mostly pasta-focused restaurant and our meals were spectacular. We were riding the motorcycles, so I can’t speak for any of the cocktails, but the pasta was semi life-changing.

• Mana - Leavenworth, WA - this is another restaurant in Leavenworth that serves a multi-course tasting menu. We went here for my birthday a few years ago and we shared one wine pairing and one non-alcoholic elixir pairing to accompany the dinner. Both were fantastic. The food was fresh and incredible and the entire restaurant and dinner was a beautiful experience.

• The Pines - Lake Stevens, WA - The Pines looks like a strange ‘hole in the wall’ in front of a Safeway in Lake Stevens… but I assure you, it’s really good. On the last day of Aaron’s job at BNSF, I drove him to work so that I could pick him up on his last day because I wanted to take him to the Pines for French Fries. Yes, friends, that is how we celebrated his retirement of 16 years with the railroad: eating French Fries at the Pines. In my defense, their French Fries are REALLY good. According to the hostess at the restaurant, it takes them 4 days to make them because they do an extensive process of blanching and brining them. Did I mention that the fries are good?

• Butcher and Baker Provisions - Port Gamble, WA - this is, without a doubt, the number one reason that I love riding my motorcycle on the Kingston-Edmonds ferry to the Olympic Peninsula. Because it means that we get to drive by Butcher and Baker and stop for lunch. Their crispy chicken sandwich is other worldly … and their breakfast burrito is top notch. I literally cannot drive past this place without stopping. I even made them some custom Kula Cloths… so great is my love for their establishment.

  

• Hook & Fork - Union, WA - This little open air cafe is tucked away behind a marina on the Hood Canal. We went there for the first time when we were on a motorcycle trip around the canal. This place is worth the trip. The breakfast sandwich with the crispy, cheesy egg and jam was unique, satisfying and perfect in every single solitary way. I am a breakfast sandwich connoisseur and this breakfast sandwich was almost as good as the one I make every single morning.

• Choux Choux - Everett, WA - Another personal motorcycling mission of mine has been to discover the perfect almond croissant. In my opinion, there is no better pastry than an almond croissant, but I am not an easy croissant aficionado to please. It needs to be flaky and buttery and a little bit doughy and very almondy. There is nothing more disturbing than eating a dry almond croissant that has less than a teaspoon of almond filling inside of it. Last year for my birthday, we rode our motorcycles in 43 degrees weather on a foggy day to Choux Choux bakery in Everett, where we discovered what I believe to be the perfect almond croissant. It is absolutely buttery and decadent in every single way, and I have yet to discover another croissant as perfect. If you know of another place that makes a good almond croissant - let me know.

Well, Kula Diaries folks, this has been a random… fun… and enjoyable post to write, and I hope that my answers have prompted ideas or thoughts in your life about your favorite things… and most importantly why they are your favorite. Isn’t it an incredible world that we live in where we can experience colors… and delicious tastes… and touching films… and read beautiful words from other humans? Isn’t it wonderful to experience the best that each of us has to offer in our own unique expression of who we are? There is nothing that excites me more than watching another human who is excited about what they are doing and creating something that is important to them. It doesn’t matter if it is a Hollywood movie, or a best selling novel, or the world’s most buttery croissant — you can just tell when something has been created from the heart, and ultimately that is what we are feeling and experiencing in those moments when we truly enjoy the beautiful creations of our fellow humans.

If you have any favorite books, movies, restaurants or meals - I’d love to hear about them too. Feel free to share in the comments… or send me a message using the Kula Diaries Google Form. I am just so truly grateful to be able to share such fun things with all of you and I hope that all of you have a beautiful day, wherever you are and that you do something today that brings you joy.

Love,

Anastasia