"So we drove upstate and the plan was to go to the restaurant Lil’ Deb’s Oasis to celebrate my book. Ariele knows the people who run it, and we’ve been there a lot before. The space reminds me of the book. It’s really colorful and everyone there is queer and it’s a really fun place."

"We met some folks and then we went into this very bougie kind of expensive grocery store that we always go to when we’re in Hudson. I think it’s called Olde Hudson. We got a baguette and hummus and pesto and a drink called switchel. It was like a lime-and-ginger apple-cider-vinegar drink that was really good."

"We had been planning to go to Garden Cafe in Woodstock, which is actually the place where I realized I could become a vegan. I had been thinking about it, but I wasn’t sure because of eggs. I was like, I’m cutting out cheese but I like eggs. Then I had a tofu scramble there that was so delicious, and that sealed it."

"Ariele was bartending at this place Nowadays, which has a Sunday day and night party, so we dropped her off. That’s so not my lifestyle right now, like Sunday I’m like doing my laundry, but there was a line all the way down the street of people waiting to get in."

"By the time I got home, I was hungry and didn’t really have groceries, so I ordered from this place Gold Sounds, which I hadn’t heard of but is a music venue that has a vegan food menu. I got an oyster-mushroom “chicken” sandwich that was good, but they literally had the best tater tots I’ve ever had in my life."

"For dinner, I met my friend Naima who is also a writer, at Speedy Romeo. My friend isn’t vegan but she was cool with splitting a pizza with me, so we had this artichoke pizza with “tofu cream peas.” I’m still not really sure what that means, but it was artichoke with a creamy element and herbs. Then we split a salad."