Taylor Swift at Vegan Treats

Clearly the staff at Vegan Treats are Swifties and the TS cakes are some of their best.

BONUS!

Whispered Nights

The Alchemy - Taylor Swift

Venus - Frankie Avalon

Fascination - Nat King Cole

Back to the Old House - The Smiths

Woman - Matt Berry

Alaska - Maggie Rogers

Chattanooga Choo Choo - Andrews Sisters

Ordinary - Alex Warren

Perry Mason - Ozzy Osbourne

Dream a Little Dream of Me - Mamas & the Papas

La Mentira - Luis Miguel

Where the Boys Are - Connie Francis

No Good - Joint Operation

Kiss of Life - Sade

Moonlight Serenade - Glenn Miller Orchestra

Nights in White Satin - Moody Blues

The Giver - Chappell Roan

The Blob - The Five Blobs

- July 2025 Playlist

Splintered Woodrot

C'Mon Girl - RHCP

Blinding Lights - The Weeknd

Fool No. 1 - The Mavericks

Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush

Into Sands - Ley Soul

Lost - Jalen Ngonda

Non Photo-Blue - Pinback

End of Beginning - Djo

Some Day - Jackie Gleason

Working On Myself - Torture & the Desert Spiders

To Cause Your Own Death - Mon Rovîa 

Where Is My Mind - Maxence Cyrin

Since I Left You - The Avalanches

Pneuma - Tool

All I Need - Radiohead

Black Tears - Imelda May

Cry - Johnny Ray

Wake Up - Arcade Fire

Lovely Creature - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Stublin' In - Chris Norman & Suzi Quatro

us. - Gracie Abrams feat. Taylor Swift 

I Believe - Robert Plant

Space Truckin' - Deep Purple

Valerie - Steve Winwood

- December 2025 Playlist

Charlatan Dancer

Save It For Later - The Beat

Getaway Car - Taylor Swift

A Message to You Rudy - The Specials

The Path of Thorns - Sarah McLachlan

The First Taste - Fiona Apple

Tupelo - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

How Bad Do U Want Me - Lady Gaga

Tenderness - General Public

4 Ever 2 Gether - ABC

I Won't Close My Eyes - UB40

That's All - Nat King Cole

Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac

Man I Need - Olivia Dean

Hit the Ground Running - Jonny Lang

Can You Feel My Heart - Bring Me the Horizon

Your Love Is My Drug - Kesha

Mother - Charlie Puth

Painkiller* - Judas Priest

Je t'aime moi non plus - Jane Birkin

Groove Master - Arrow

- September 2025 Playlist

*Jackson played Painkiller for his September School of Rock concert and KILLED it!!

Quarter Past Nine

2080 - Yeasayer

World We Knew - Frank Sinatra

The Second One - Remy Shand

Pedestal - Portishead

Rootless Tree - Damien Rice 

Aperture - Harry Styles

Another - Richard Davis Quartet

I Wish I Knew How To Quit You - sombr

Violet - Keeton Coffman

Stay This Way - The Brand New Heavies

Here, There and Everywhere - The Beatles

Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey

Lavender Haze - Taylor Swift

So Easy (To Fall In Love) - Olivia Dean

Wristwatch - MJ Lenderman

One Step Beyond - Madness

Caravan - Duke Ellington

Easy Does It - GoldFord

Chorale - Nicholas Krolak

The Old Law - Father John Misty 

Tones for Joan's Bones - Christian McBride

Knowing - Tessa Violet

Mystical Magical - Benson Boone 

Driven to Tears - The Police 

Spirit Bones - Pioneer

Telephone Line - ELO

Dead Men Don't Rape - Delilah Bon

- January 2026 Playlist

Call Sign

I was so in love with this playlist from October. Still am. It's chock full of songs with fab female voices and a handful of tracks with Chad Smith on drums. I was seriously obsessed with watching YouTube vids of him drumming throughout Autumn of last year. It was a nice diversion from the hellhole shitstorm that is reality.  

Break My Heart - Dua Lipa

Come and Get It - Austin Giorgio

Youngblood - 5 Second of Summer

Bite My Tongue - Cassandra Coleman

Native New Yorker - Odyssey

Evil Shuffle - Ozzy Osbourne

Cry - Benson Boone

She Calls Me Back - Noah Kahan

Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing Ta Fuck Wit - Wu-Tang Clan

Baby I'm Yours - Barbara Lewis

I Know There's Something Going On - Frida

Father Figure - Taylor Swift 

Frenzy - Iggy Pop

Zombie - Yungblud

vampire - Olivia Rodrigo

Devil or Angel - The Clovers

Stab My Back - Le Butcherettes

She Dances - Diego Garcia

Run the Bath - Birthday Girl

Arlington Queen - Stellastarr*

Music for Spies - Snõõper

The Melting Moon - VHS or Beta

People Watching - Sam Fender

New Girls - Vum

Pull Me Under - Dream Theater

The Natural - Marnie Stern

The Dark Gift - Meanstreak

The Scratch - 7 Year Bitch

Mystery Title - Robert Plant

Time Bomb - Rancid

How It Ends - DeVotchKa

October 2025 Playlist

(Fave track: Cry by Benson Boone. It would end and I would hit the back button and turn the volume up even higher. Also, special thanks to Bishop for introducing me to Native New Yorker - such a fun tune!!)

Looking Back on 2025

January 

• 25th - Lucy looked so sweet and pensive staring out the window while Dave pulled up James Blunt's "Monsters" video on YouTube. I wanted to record this small moment of Lucy and every time I watch it I wonder what she was thinking. Was she listening to the lyrics, did she see a bird in Nana Irma's birdbath, or maybe a squirrel bopping around the grass? 

February

• The Eagles win the Super Bowl! I only saw a clip of it at Mum's because I am still bitter towards the NFL after the way they blacklisted Koepernick. Still, it's nice to know that the hometown boys done did it again!

Syd and Ciarán celebrating in Philly!

March

• Lucy embraces her blue-light glasses and loves the black ones most cause her Dad and I wear black framed glasses. She's so cuuuuute!!

April

• farewell to sweet little Roark and hello to Phineas Erik!! The joy of not being in a constant state of fear if my car will get me from A to B is an overwhelming relief. I miss Roark sometimes, but Finn is a great, great car and I love him.

• New York with Amy!

• Make plans for a road trip to Ohio!

May

• 17th - Jax's 60s R&B concert was tons of fun!!

June

• 6th - Getting used to Finn. Putting the Bluey and Bingo stickers helped make this plain black car of mine feel more me, but it was my purchasing a sticky hook that I stuck next to my push-start button so that it could hold my keys that made Phineas feel fun, weird, and mine all mine. (I mean of all the things to update on a car, is keyless ignition really all that important??)

• 22nd - Braved the heat to have lunch with Bishop:

• 29th - Brunch at Sabrina's Café with Mel and Lauryn!

July

• 9th: The creepy guy at work got fired!

August

• Taylor Swift goes on New Heights podcast and I watch it live while texting with mega Swiftie Melissa out in Oregon. Then in the following weeks I watched as the world went bananas over how openly supportive and adoring Travis is toward Taylor. Down with toxic masculinity and bring on the real men!!

• Ended August by meeting Bella for lunch and four hours of non-stop chit chat. We cannot wait for our vacay in the Spring so we can talk without interruption!

(My god, I need to see a physician about those bags under my eyes!! HORRIBLE!! I don't even look human.)

September

• Started the month out the best way possible - going to Goldie with Kayla and scoring a fantastic hug and mini photo shoot with Miss Janine!! Then car selfies with Kay (check it out - I'm finally able to wear Grandad's old watch since Dave fixed it!) to round out a perfect day.

• Went to Trader Joe’s a few towns away on the 30th and the young (maybe 19-20ish) employee at the next checkout complimented my hair. I thanked him and did my usual silly toss of non-existent hair over my shoulder or fluffed up the curl of a flip hairdo that I certainly don't have. He then said, "It's splendid." Cute! Then about twenty seconds later he realised he used a word that hasn't been in fashion since the turn of the last century and shaking his head ashamedly laughed at himself while saying "splendid???" I told him he sounded like my Grandad. On the way out I hollered over my shoulder, "Have a splendid night, mister!" Splendid! I need to help bring that word back in style.

October

• The Life of a Showgirl drops! Stay up til midnight October 3rd to hear the album from start to finish with zero interruptions. It's a god damn masterpiece.

• Later in the day of the 3rd I headed over to Mum's for a mini-gathering with Amy, her mother, Maggie, and family friend, Ivy. It was so great to make Amy laugh until she was in tears. I reminded her of the time her mother nearly strangled me when we were kids on a road trip and I got it into my head to ponder what the world would look like if it were hot pink. "What if pickles were hot pink? What if the zoo was hot pink? What if the pavement was hot pink? What if antelope were hot pink?"

• Became obsessed with watching Drumeo videos on YouTube, especially Chad Smith (talk about dreamy...) and Mike Portnoy. I even got Bella into it!

11th

11/04

• 20th - After not seeing or hearing from Jackson for five months, I looked at my phone at 6:17pm and freaked the fuck out when his face flashed on the screen, alerting me that Jackson was calling. Since May, as I watched the weeks go by and receiving radio silence, I came to the conclusion that the day had finally arrived - Jackson was over me. He was thirteen and was no longer interested in hanging out with some old spinster who was weird and boring. I'd lost him like Nicole, Ashlee, Syd, and Zach. He'd outgrown me at last. When I answered the phone I was like the pathetic girl taking a call from the cool guy in school. "Hi!! Ohmigod I am so happy you called!!" I was on the verge of tears. Then he said, "So y'know how you are always saying that one day I'll be sick of you and I'll stop talking to you? And how I always tell you that will never happen? Well, I just realised, it happened. I'm really sorry." That's when the tears came a-flowin'. I told him that I was seriously crushed because since he was four years old, I've thought of him as one of my bestest friends and I love hanging out with him. So we chatted til 6:30 and set a day to reunite and get lunch together. The day after I would get back from Ohio, I'd pick him up and we'd hit Doylestown for the day. I couldn't wait!!!

• 22nd - Fulfilled a dream since childhood and went to Amy's farm to hold newly hatched baby chicks (and quails, too!). Ever since seeing Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale holding a wee lil' chicken in The Wizard of Oz I have wanted to hold a fuzzy yellow chickie. They hatched the morning of October 22nd and I left work early, drove two and a half hours and fell in love with every baby birdie I got to hold. (But especially Eyeliner.) BEST DAY EVER!

•  Spent Halloween week in Ohio, visiting with some of my favourite people in the galaxy. I'm so, so grateful that I got to say goodbye to Maureen. 

November

•  Spent all day with Jackson!! I tried to reach Jax through my mother-in-law the night before and, not surprisingly, he had her phone.

...

• Amy’s to deliver cookies and see their latest Squishmallows. These kids are obsessed. The fireplace one is my fave.

• Elf with Isabella 

December

• Learn that I'll soon have to say goodbye to Goldie in Fishtown. Honestly, if I like something, it is a guarantee that it will disappear into oblivion. My fave Philly eatery joins the graveyard with Waterloo Coconut, LesbiVeggies, Healthy Garden in Cwood, So Delicious chocolate coconut milk, Hampden Junque, Blackbird Pizza, Govinda's, Blazing Salads and Vish in Dublin, Arcadi in Brussels, and Murphy's Loft, among others. But thankfully I got Morgan and Janine's addresses and phone numbers so we can continue to stay in touch.

 

3rd - IG text from Morgan:

• Autumn's lovely family (minus Mariah who lives out-of-state. But there in proverbial spirit!) looking picture perfect as always!

• Lucy being all sorts of cute!

• 28th - Princeton with Bishop!

• 30th - Finally booking the flights to Europe with Bella. We originally were looking to do ten days spread across Positano, Collepino, and Antwerp. Well....it got so god damn complicated and hella expensive so I came up with Plan B, which would involve aborting Italy altogether and just going to Antwerp via Dublin. I always wanted to rent a car and drive around Tuscany, ever since I was seventeen/eighteen years old, but the stress of setting it all up and all the road blocks we hit - the cost for the flight just to Rome, one way, was almost a grand, then there were no flights out of PEG airport to Brussels, so we would have to take a three hour train back down to fly out of Rome - it became overwhelming and not worth the mental and physical exhaustion. So Bella and I will get ten hours (if there is no delay flying out of Philly) in Dublin, which really amounts to seven, which is more than enough time to catch a bus downtown, hit up Kingfisher's for chips with salt and vinegar, Retro for fun clothes shopping, take pix of Love Lane and Temple Bar's street art, and maybe even dash in to the Chester Beatty, before hopping in a cab back to the airport to head over to Brussels. 

• 31st - Picked up Janine and her adorable brother Noah, then popped in to say farewell to Goldie Fishtown and Morgan. She was so upset about this branch closing and losing all her coworkers, but I just know that great things are in store for her and for Janine. The highlight, aside from hugs!, was when Noah referred to me as his "regular-in-law". Too cute!

Noah, Janine, moi, and Morgan!

• Squigs is ready to ring in the new year. We are both hoping that 2026 is the polar opposite of the shitshow that was 2025.