POV: Pursuits.

I met my fiance, Rob, on a blind date—or, I suppose, as close to blind as you can get these days. Leading up to our meeting, my sister-in-law, the one responsible for our meeting, filled me in on a few key details: “He’s tall,” she said. “He’s funny. And he has a clean apartment.” Aside from that, I also knew that he was a violinist and that he loved wine. My sister-in-law had written an article that revealed the lengths he’d gone to properly store it in his apartment, including taping down the lights in his refrigerator, and investing in a device outfitted with a surgical-grade needle that allows wine drinkers to taste sips from an aging bottle without removing the cork.

“I hear you like wine,” I said at some point on our date, prepared to confess how little I knew on the subject, and that whenever I’d ordered a glass in the past, I’d made my choice based on which had the easiest name to pronounce.

“We don’t have to talk about stupid wine,” he said. It’s a line we repeat often—usually just before talking about wine—and laugh.

Cirera + Espinet on Clever.

I recently had the pleasure of writing about this 540 square-foot bachelor pad in Barcelona, which features red marble countertops, dark green micro-cement floors, and terracotta velvet curtains instead of doors. Designed by local firm Cirera + Espinet, the apartment is full of unique solutions to a host of common small-space conundrums: cramped corners, lack of light, inadequate storage. What I love most about it, though, is that despite its bright colors (and all that luxurious velvet), it's a space that somehow still manages to feel minimal. “We wanted to create a multifunctional apartment,” the designers say, “that was daring and simple at the same time.”

Read more on Clever. Photos by Enric Badrinas.

Recommended Reading / 64.

From the New York Times: a 2016 interview with Jenny Slate, who talks about her love of tiny wooden animals, which she keeps around her house (and occasionally in her purse). This caught my attention, as someone who has a few of the very same wooden creatures scattered around my apartment: a cat on the bookshelf, an orange fox near the sugar bowl, a moose in the closet. Says the comedian, "I love having a little secret that doesn’t hurt anybody and that’s a reassertion of myself. I tend to be calm and happy when I’m looking at things like this rabbit, which remind me of when I was younger and only knew how to be myself." Read the interview in its entirety, here.

Three more, just because: 
-In Sweden: real homes become museums for a day.
-"I hate slick and pretty things."
-While not technically a "read," this episode of the podcast Song Exploder—which features the story behind a song by the South African singer Nakhane—is full of beautiful words. I've listened to the episode twice, and have had the song, "New Brighton," on repeat for days.

More recommended reads, here. Wishing you a wonderful Monday.