olive relish

we've moved!

2010-12-20T04:53:00.000-08:00

hi there! it's obviously been quite a while since i posted anything, but i'm very excited to tell you about my new blog, two{wandering}. i do hope you'll stop by for a visit sometime!

welcome, baby jayden!

2009-06-30T18:24:00.000-07:00

i officially have a beautiful healthy new neice!
jayden nicole was born (three weeks early!) at 1:12 pm today. she is 19-and-a-half inches long and she weighs 7 pounds, 7 ounces.
she has a full head of hair and she smells like heaven!

may: spain!

2009-06-17T04:04:00.000-07:00

the last few days of april were spent preparing for our anniversary-moon trip to spain!

our trip began on the 30th. we were so excited that we got to the airport four hours early. we ate breakfast, did a crossword, people-watched, bought magazines, anything we could to pass the time. the people-watching part was pretty entertaining, actually, since we happened to be at the airport at the height of the swine flu hysteria (those masks do nothing, people!). of course that's not to say that i didn't bring some air-borne and lots of hand sanitizer with me...

we ate lunch at pop-eyes (it's a weird travel tradition we have) before boarding the plane for our first flight to atlanta. we had a long enough layover there to grab a snack and let our loved ones know we'd made it safely to our next leg of the journey.

the eight-ish hour flight from atlanta to barcelona went smoothly as it could have possibly gone; we both got a little bit of sleep, and we had those little tv screens in the back of the seats in front of us that let you choose what you want to watch and when you want to watch it (they actually had some pretty good movies!). the food was gross, but what can you do? we had to fill out lots of paperwork - the usual stuff with some added bonus materials due to the swine flu - before they would let us off the plane, and then they bused us from the plane BCN...

spain: day one (arrival in barcelona)

2009-06-17T03:54:00.000-07:00

when we arrived in barcelona, it was raining. after grabbing some cash from the atm, we took a cab to our hotel on the passieg de gracia...we were both a little sleep-deprived and foggy and i don't even think we had realized that we were actually in spain. we weren't able to check into the hotel when we got there, so we dropped off our bags, borrowed an umbrella, and set out to do a little exploring.

first stop: breakfast. we stopped in a little chain coffee shop for coffee and croissants (they made hearts out of our coffee foam!).

after breakfast we walked up the street past gaudi's famous casa mila (la pedrera) and wandered the streets of barcelona, marvelling at the beauty and history of nearly every building we saw. even the lamp posts were lovely! the rain cleared up and the sun came out, so the bright colors of the city could be seen the way they were meant to be seen. we made it all the way up to avinguda diagonal before we realized that (a) we really didn't have a clue where we were, and (b) we were pretty much delirious from fatigue and hunger. so we headed back more or less the way we had come, and found a quick bite to eat in a quiet cafe. we made our way back to the hotel just in time for a nice long siesta...

four-and-a-half hours later, we got cleaned up and went up to the rooftop of the hotel for the most magnificent view of the city you could possibly imagine -- la sagrada familia, against a mountain backdrop and surrounded by its perpetual cranes, was there to greet us when we got off of the elevator; we turned to the right to see the beautiful mediterranean sea, and one more turn to the right took us to a view of montjuic; in between was gaudi's casa battlo... i'm fairly certain i got a little teary-eyed (and i'm fairly certain also that this was not the only time i got a little teary-eyed) -- i was seeing these amazing things that i had read about, studied, wanted to see, in college but also in high school -- it was too much. i am so blessed.

once we had taken it all in, we headed down to the hotel lounge for a couple of before-dinner drinks (it was only 9:00 or so, and i'd heard that nobody ate dinner before 11). i had my first glass of cava (catalan champagne), and i fell in love. it was only cava for me after that!

we were feeling adventurous, so we decided to try out a restaurant that i'd read about in my guidebook, taverna basca irati. it was hard to find, and we had to some scary turns down some dark and narrow streets, but eventually we found it. the place was long, narrow, and crow. ded. as soon as we walked in the door we got yelled at in catalan (of which i understand nothing), but we figured out that they were warning us to keep our belongings close to us in the crowded place. waiters were continually bringing out serving platters of pinchos (bite-sized servings of different foods on top of bread held together by toothpicks) and setting them down on the long bar. a not-so-nice barmaid gave us a plate and explained to us that we would eat what we wanted and then pay at the end of the night based on how many toothpicks were left on our plate. (honor system? what??) so we pushed our way through the crowd of locals to get a sampling of pinchos -- we didn't always know what it was that we were eating, but more often than not it was pretty delicious. it was loud, hot, and more or less insane in there, but it was the most fun!

after dinner we made our way to las ramblas, the super-touristy main drag of barcelona. we watched all the different people doing their different things; tourists and locals, street performers and vendors. we walked all the way down to the port, and saw the christopher columbus statue all lit up in the center of the plaza. on our way back to the hotel, we got some yummy ice cream for dessert. we wanted to go back to the rooftop, but it was closed, so, exhausted, we climbed into bed for some much-needed slumber!

spain: day two (la rambla to the port)

2009-06-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

apparently, we needed lots of slumber, because we slept till 11 a.m. on day two of our anniversary-moon (oops!).

once we got up and running, we walked down towards placa catalunya for a breakfast (brunch?) of coffee and pastries. we stepped into el corte ingles (a popular department store chain with everything you could possibly imagine) and were immediately overwhelmed and overstimulated. the number of people and the number of things to look at was staggering. we made a mental note for later of where the grocery store was, and then we made a hasty retreat.

from the corte ingles we wandered down to la rambla, which is a completely different scene during the day than it is at night. one entire section of the rambla is lined with vendors selling the most beautiful and colorful flowers, of every imaginable variety, big and small. the colors and smells were so powerful and just absolutely enchanting. the next section of the rambla was filled with vendors selling all sorts of apartment-sized pets: birds, ferrets, bunnies, turtles, ducks, hamsters, etc. lots of them were babies, and they were so adorable and so much fun to watch.

a little farther down, we came to the mercat de sant josep de la boqueria, an open-air market with endless aisles of booths where you could buy just about any type of food you could ever even think of - fresh fruits and veggies, fresh fish and meats, nuts and candies and chocolates - and they were all arranged so artfully and thoughtfully. i could see why this place was packed with people - it was such a treat to just admire the displays, and to be surrounded by all of the different colors and smells. we paid a euro for a cup of fresh blended fruit juice (strawberry and some other fruit we'd never heard of) and it was delicious, of course.

we continued down the rambla, past our friend christopher columbus, to the port. we crossed the rambla del mar (a fancy pedestrian bridge that looks like waves) to get to the maremagnum mall. lunch was fish and chips (and cava and cerveza) out on the boardwalk, where we could sit in the sun and watch the boats out in the harbor for a little while. after we did a little shopping in the mall, we went to the aquarium, because we can never resist an aquarium. i have to say that the aquarium was a little...disappointing. there was not even one otter there! we did see a fish that we'd never seen or heard of before, but aside from that, i wasn't impressed (plus, the photo booth ate our euros!).

as we were leaving the aquarium, we saw a poster for an imax film that we had seen on our very first trip together (to new orleans)! guess they don't make new movies too often. we indulged in a little chocolate waffle action before heading back up the rambla towards placa catalunya. on the way, i stopped to take a drink from the fontana de canaletes - the legend says that he who drinks from this fountain will fall in love with the city and will one day return (i think it worked...).

once we'd made it back to placa catalunya, we braved the pandemonium that was el corte ingles. we needed groceries. snacks. provisions. it was beyond crowded in the supermarket, seeing as it was an hour to closing on a saturday night and the store was closed on sundays. and it was impossible to find anything. by the end of it i was sure we were going to kill somebody (or each other), but somehow we made it out alive, and with our groceries no less!

after that little adventure (and all of the day's adventures), we had no energy to speak of. we stopped at a tapas place close to our hotel and ordered some yummies to go. we spent a quiet evening in the hotel room - a delicious tapas dinner in bed, accompanied by some delightful bbc programming - and then we drifted off to dreamland...

spain: day three (sunday in the barri gotic)

2009-06-17T03:44:00.000-07:00

the thing about spain is that it didn't seem to understand my need for coffee first thing in the morning. there was no coffee maker in our hotel room, and as far as we could tell, no room service in our hotel. there was some sort of breakfast situation downstairs from six to seven a.m., but i was never awake early enough for that. so the morning of day three, alan was extra amazing and ran out for coffee from a nearby cafe. after we got dressed and ready, we picked up a light breakfast and headed back down toward the placa catalunya.

from the placa, we walked down avinguda portal d'angel, past lots of fancy shops and not-so-fancy stands selling little trinkets. we heard some music coming from one of the tiny side streets and decided to explore further, following the sounds down the narrow cobbled lane until we discovered some sort of procession... all sorts of people, young and old, were emerging from a gate in the stone wall, some playing music, some carrying a big shrine-type thing (it reminded me of a mardi-gras float with jesus on top), others were carrying banners or nothing at all. tiny older women wore black mantillas, and the musicians all wore green. they were all very serious-faced, and as they passed we followed some other onlookers through the gate into a lovely little hidden courtyard. there was a little flower shop on our left, and directly in front of us was a beautiful 15th century church. the cloister was charming and quiet, and we just couldn't believe our luck, that we had found this incredible little church, tucked away where we would never have expected to find such a thing.

we could still hear the music as we left the courtyard, although we could no longer see the procession. continuing down our original path, we came to a fork in the road. before we made our decision, we took a moment to admire a 17th-century fountain that once served as the last watering stop for horses on the way out of barcino (ancient barcelona). past the fountain, we came to a square where there were two towers, left over from the walls that surrounded the city in roman times.

eventually we came to the cathedral of barcelona, a 14th-century gothic cathedral dedicated to one of the patron saints of barcelona, santa eulalia. we toured the cloister, where thirteen geese are kept at all times, in honor of eulalia. i don't have good history with geese (they're mean!), but these ones were behind a gate, so i felt pretty safe. we left the cloister and made our way to the front of the cathedral, which sadly was under construction and hidden behind a giant picture of what it was supposed to look like. a large crowd had gathered out in the square in front of the church, and there was a group of musicians seated on the cathedral steps. it was time for the sardana dances! every sunday at noon, locals of all ages come together to celebrate catalan pride with this traditional circle dance - dancers put their belongings in the center of the circle and join hands, moving to the music made by the cobla band on the steps. we watched in awe as up to seven circles formed during each song. everyone seemed to know the dance, young and old, and anyone could join any circle at any time.

we ate a small lunch at a lovely little cafe (margherita focaccia) and wandered around the narrow cobbled streets of the gothic quarter for a bit. everywhere we turned, there were hidden plazas and sunday concerts - there was always soft music coming from somewhere. we found and toured the picasso museum, which housed an amazing collection of picasso's works from every stage in his artistic journey. it was fascinating to see it all laid out like that. and there was an entire room dedicated to his fifty-ish interpretations of velazques' famous las meninas. after the picasso museum, we ate a tortilla espanola (more like an omelet than a tortilla) at the museum's textil cafe, tucked away in a sweet little courtyard nearby.

we did a little more wandering and found ourselves in barcelona's ribera (el born) neighborhood. behind the church was a long narrow square that we learned was once used for jousting. there was also a monument with an eternal flame, dedicated to catalonia's own september 11th tragedy, a massacre of catalan patriots that happened almost three hundred years ago.

it was getting to be siesta time, so we looked for the metro (actually, got lost looking for the metro) and took it back to our hotel. after our nap, we took our cava and cerveza and hopped on the metro again, bound for the magic fountains! as it happened, our arrival at the national palace coincided with the end of a futbol game... celebrating fans were out in droves, cheering and making mischief. kids were playing in the mountain of foamy bubbles they had created in one of the small fountains. the magic fountain itself was pretty impressive - every twenty minutes or so there was a fantastic light and water show set to music. we sipped our bebidas and watched two or three different shows, and a few of the people too. this woman in particular was absolutely...mesmerized.

once we were back in the eixample, we ate a delicious tapas dinner at a table outside - seafood croquettes, patatas bravas, a bikini sandwich, and paella. they kicked us out at midnight because they were closing the outside seating area, so, satisfied with our meal and our day, we went home for some sleep!

spain: day four (gaudi and the beach)

2009-06-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

we attempted to get up early on day four of our trip in order to avoid the crazy lines at gaudi's casa mila.

we got some strong coffee to go and drank it as fast as we could while we stood in the short line. the atrium of casa mila was an exciting taste of what was to come on our tour of the building, which was gaudi's last major work before he began working on la sagrada familia. it's nicknamed la pedrera (the quarry) because, well, it looks like a quarry. it's a little hard to describe gaudi's style - it's like he took art nouveau and ran with it all the way to crazy town (in a good way). he was inspired by nature in everything he did. the inside of the building was interesting, with its parabolic archways and its complete lack of pointed corners, but the rooftop was the best part - it felt like a disney world ride, with undulating walkways, fairytale windows, and 30 chimneys that looked like menacing knights and/or white mosaic ice cream sundaes. we sat on the roof for a little while and recorded our adventures in our travel journal, all the while soaking up the incredible city views and the strange fantasy atmosphere.

it was time for lunch. we were both craving something light and green after four days of cheese, pastries, ham, pasta, fish, salt, butter, and rice. the only place we knew for sure that would have salad was macdonald's... we were pretty ashamed of ourselves, but i will say that that was the best salad i ever had in my whole life! i'm pretty sure my body threw a party at the introduction of leafy greens filled with fiber and nutrients. we sat on a bench in the shade and did a little people watching while we thoroughly enjoyed our macdonald's salads (btw, barcelonian pedestrians have some interesting habits).

after lunch, we began the hike to parc guell. we ended up getting there the back way, which required a scary climb through an area where the walls were covered with anti-tourist graffiti... we were slightly terrified, but we made it safely to our destination. and what a destination it was! it was ten times the fantasy wonderland that la pedrera was - perhaps because it was an entire park, and gaudi's creative expressions had not been limited to the space of just one building. parc guell had been designed as a sort of high end housing development, which was an idea a hundred years or so ahead of its time. apparently, people weren't ready for that particular idea, so it became a public park for the people of barcelona to enjoy. the front gates of the park are spectacular - two gingerbread houses mark the entryway, and walking through them brings you to the most magnificent stairway and the famous multicolored mosaic dragon fountain. as you go up the stairs you come to a hall of columns with a mosaic ceiling. the columns serve to support the main terrace above, an open space surrounded by a long winding bench that resembles a serpent. the bench is ergonomically designed to fit the natural curves of your back, and like nearly everything else in the park, its entire surface is covered in beautiful mosaic tile. the wall behind the terrace has lots of little "bird's nest" alcoves - we picked one to hide out in while we ate some ice cream and listened to a band play some happy music. the entire place was just... magical.
when we were exhausted from the park, we made our way to the closest metro station and went back to our hotel room. for whatever reason, we just couldn't fall asleep for siesta-time, so we finally gave up and got ready for the evening. we took the metro again, this time out towards the water, and walked the rest of the way to the beach. we drank our grocery store cava and cerveza as the sun was setting. we took our shoes off, drew a heart in the sand, and put our feet into the mediterranean sea. then we ate tapas at an open-air restaurant on the beach - classic catalonian paella and pa amb tomaquet. it was dark as we walked back to the metro station, past the gypsies building their intricate sand castle creations. having had no siesta, we passed out almost immediately when we got back to the hotel room. i think it was the first before-midnight bedtime we'd had for the whole trip (if you know me, you know i usually go to bed before 10pm at home)!

spain: day five (last day in barcelona)

2009-06-17T03:34:00.000-07:00

day five of our trip was our last full day in barcelona, and there was lots to do! we grabbed some coffee and breakfast pastries to go and hopped on the metro to go to la sagrada familia.

gaudi's famous church was breathtaking, to say the very least. nothing could have prepared me for it - not my high school spanish class, not my college art appreciation class or art history class - seeing it in person, right before my very eyes, was absolutely indescribable. we entered at the passion facade, a stunning portrayal of the last days of christ's life made to look stark and white and pointy, like bones and pain and sadness. we got the audio guide and learned about the symbolism and meaning that had been carefully built in to every single part of gaudi's church. the nave, a nonstop construction zone, was created to look like a forest. the supporting columns twist subtly and then branch out as they make their way up to the cieling, which looks like the forest canopy, and spaces between the leaves let the perfect amount of natural light in.
we took the elevator up to the top of the passion facade, which was an accomplishment for me, as i have an irrational and sometimes paralyzing fear of elevators, but how many times are you at the sagrada familia, right? so i took my chances, and it was more than worth it. incredible views of the city and of the rooftop details of the church were my rewards when we got to the top... and so as was a crazy winding staircase adventure to get back down. the first crazy winding staircase involved a narrow passageway and walls on either side of me, but the second one had only an outside wall and nothing to hold on to in the center; in fact you could see all the way down to the ground floor if you looked through the center (which alan told me not to do but i did anyway and immediately regretted afterward). i didn't have the guts to take a picture of that situation until i had my feet planted firmly on the bottom.

we continued our tour of the church, which took us around the nave and out to the nativity facade - if you've ever seen a picture of the sagrada familia, this is probably what you saw. it was the first and only part of the church that was finished before gaudi's death, in hopes of inspiring funding for its completion. the facade was designed to appear swollen and alive with the joy and love of christ's birth - again it was rife with religious symbolism and images from nature, and just absolutely awe-inspiring beyond words.

from the sagrada familia, we hopped on a tourist bus and headed towards montjuic (literally, "mountain of the jews"), a mountain that overlooks the port of barcelona. it is home to a joan miro museum, the '92 olympic stadium and an olympic sports museum, the catalan art museum, and an 18th-century castle. our destination was the castle at the top of montjuic. we accidentally got off at the wrong stop, so we to hike a bit to get to it. our mistake took us through a lovely botanical garden area, up an ivy-covered staircase and through secret garden pathways.

when we got to the castle, there was some sort of commotion, and we realized that a parks officer and a small group of people were trying to help a scared baby seagull who must have gotten separated from his mother. the officer finally caught the terrified little guy, and we all got to pet him! he was awkward and squawky, still in the fuzzy-baby stages, and so cute!

after that little adventure, we ate lunch in the cobble stoned inner courtyard of the castle, and then headed up to the roof to admire the view of the port below. it was a beautiful sunny day, a little windy up at the top of the mountain, but it was clear and perfect for looking out at theboats on the blue mediterranean. we were looking down at a garden on one side of the castle when we noticed a man with a few plastic shopping bags walking towards a big bush next to the garden wall. he banged something against the wall and then probably a dozen cats appeared from inside a few different bushes and ran over to him! he reached into his plastic bags and retrieved dry and wet cat food, which he then set out for the cats. i, of course, was really jealous (and missing my own cats) and decided that i wanted to go down and be loved by the kitties. when we got down there, we watched as another lady came bearing cat food and did the same thing. we got quite a show, although we learned that these were not the kind of cats that like to be petted so much.
on our way back down the mountain, we went through more garden areas and past a pretty fountain. since we didn't really know where we were going anyway, we took our chances and went exploring. we ended up finding a zip-line type swing in the garden and spent a few minutes swinging between platforms and acting like kids (who can resist a zip-line swing??).

we took the funicular from the middle of the mountain back to the metro station, and when we got back to the hotel we gathered up our dirty smelly clothes for a trip to the laundromat. the wash'n'dry was located off of the rambla, down the street from palau guell. of course, we had no clue what we were doing once we got there - you would have thought we'd never done a load of laundry in our entire lives (we have, i promise!). the man who worked there was very friendly and helpful, though, and fourteen euros later we had clean clothes!

on the way back to the hotel, we stopped at barcelona's h&m flagship store... it was incredible - ginormous and beautiful and full of fantastic clothes that i was really too tired to shop for.

in the end we were too tired for most anything. we grabbed salads to go and ate them in the hotel room while packing our bags for our next adventure: madrid!

spain: day five-and-a-half (drip...drip...drip...)

2009-06-17T03:32:00.000-07:00

we had been in bed for maybe an hour when the dripping started.
at first we tried to ignore it. maybe we could sleep through it. i took a pill to help me sleep.
but the drips got louder. and they came faster.
and finally, at midnight-thirty, we called the front desk.
maybe there was another room that we could just sleep in for a few hours?
nope. fully booked.
so the maintenance man came up to take a look.
there was something wrong with the air conditioner.
he fixed it, kind of.
we got three hours of sleep, kind of.

spain: day six (off to madrid)

2009-06-17T03:30:00.000-07:00

the cab came for us at 5am, when it was still dark outside. we ate a light breakfast at barcelona el prat and watched the sun come up as we waited for our plane. the flight was short - when we arrived in madrid an hour or so later we hopped on the metro and took it to the puerta del sol stop, which put us in the heart of madrid's central square. our first moments in this city were pretty overwhelming: the square was bustling with people and construction, it was noisy and disorienting, and we were running on three hours of sleep. we got our bearings fairly quickly, though, and started walking down calle mayor in the direction of our hotel.

naturally, we couldn't check in yet, so we left our bags with the friendly and energetic front desk guy and went exploring. the day was sunny and warm. we headed away from puerta del sol, towards the royal palace. we admired it from the outside, though, because (a) we were just too tired and (b) it was packed with locals that day (wednesdays are free for locals).

it was close to 9:30, and our tummies were growling, so we started looking around for some food... but to our surprise, there was almost nothing open (we were quickly learning that life in spain just doesn't start until 10am)! we happened upon a restaurant that was just opening for the day, and we went in. the menu posted outside listed 20 or so scrambled egg dishes, but when we tried to order one, the waitress looked at us like we were absolutely insane (scrambled eggs for breakfast?! preposterous!!!). apparently, those were lunch or dinner meals - i don't know. regardless of how offended spain might be, however, we ate our scrambled egg dish and went on our happy way.
on the way back, we stopped at a supermarket for a few little snacks. there was a room ready for us when we got back to our strange little hotel. it was a really cute room, and a good size... but it had... an interesting smell. it wasn't awful, but it wasn't pleasant, either. luckily we had open-able windows and a nice view of the city. we took a few hours to just relax, check our email, watch a little bit of tv, and take a siesta.

after siesta, we showered and headed over towards the prado. still a little groggy, we stopped at a starbucks (i know! i am disappointed in us too!) for some caffeine and a sandwich. we got to the museum at 6:00 (it's free from 6-8pm), and hit the highlights - goya, velazquez, rubens, titian... of course, las meninas stole the show, and it was everything i'd imagined it would be (even though i'd never really imagined i'd ever see it!).

we left the museum as it was closing and roamed around a bit until we found a lovely little tapas place nearby where we enjoyed a lovely little dinner and a lovely little drink. from there we took a little while finding our way back to calle mayor, wandering along little side streets and just looking at everything. i wanted to look at each and every street sign - they're all made of ceramic tile and painted with the street name and an illustration (from the days when most people couldn't read).
our hotel was right across the street from plaza mayor, so instead of going straight to our room, we stopped at the charming 17th-century square. it was getting dark outside, that perfect time of day when the sky is still just barely lit up by the last little bit of the day's sun. a lively combination of musicians and entertainers and tourists and locals gave the cobblestoned plaza a certain care-free energy. the statue in the center of the square and the buildings around it were lit beautifully... we got some gelato for dessert and soaked up the romantic atmosphere for a little while before heading up to our hotel room for some much-needed sleep.

april: birthday fun

2009-06-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

april is the best month, as we all know, because it is my birthday month. on april 11th, i turned 26 (in case you want to get me a belated birthday gift).

my birthday fell on a saturday this year. alan threw me a party on the friday before my bday, because we had plans on the 11th. two of my oldest and very best friends were in from out of town - carolyn was in town from boulder, and amanda came up from austin. they came over early and we had some time to catch up. other friends arrived early and we all got to hang out and talk before walking over to the restaurant for dinner and more drinks. i was so happy to have all my favorite people there with me! after dinner, everyone came back over to our apartment and we continued the celebration into the wee hours of the night. lots of laughing and talking and craziness (and thankfully no cops this time). there was hello kitty birthday cake even! carolyn and amanda stayed the night, so after the rest of the guests trickled out, we all stayed up talking even later. i think we went to bed around 3 a.m...
i hadn't had a birthday party in probably three years, so i know i'm out of practice, but i honestly can't think of a more perfect one than that.

the next day, on my actual birthday, we headed over to our family friends' (might as well be family) house for an almost-easter cookout with them and my parents. my mom and stepdad were leaving early the next morning for their new home in upstate new york... and everyone was just fine until it was time to go. then the tears started coming. and i cried the ugly cry. i just wasn't prepared for it, i guess. i'd always thought that i'd be the one to move away from them, not the other way around.
for the most part, i'm doing okay about the whole thing. i miss my parents, of course, but i know that they're happy and that's what really matters. i have to admit that i cried once in a barnes & noble because of their stupid mother's day display, but other than little moments like that, i'm good. i'm lucky enough to have all kinds of practically-family family in my life, not to mention wonderful in-laws. i wouldn't mind a hug from my mommy every once in a while though.

april: wedding fun

2009-06-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

i had the honor of co-hosting a bridal shower and a bachelorette party with good girlfriends for a good girlfriend.

the bridal shower was actually at the end of march, and it was just lovely; i'd never seen the bride-to-be so happy! we had a "bling bride" theme, with ring pops, tiaras, candy necklaces, etc. it was fun to meet and spend a little time with her family and friends (her mom was just adorable). we played silly games, we drank mimosas, and watched the bride blush as she opened her sexier gifts. then we ate that gorgeous cake (yum!). the whole thing made me remember that happy happy time in my life... seems like only yesterday - i can't believe it was two years ago!!!

the next weekend, we threw her bachelorette party. it was a slumber party - ten girls in our pjs (we got all-white bridal pjs for the bride-to-be), playing games, drinking champagne punch, giggling and talking about girl things... basically being super girly. and the "passion party" portion of the evening was incredibly entertaining. mostly, though, i just enjoyed the quality time with some of my favorite ladies.

the wedding was a few weeks later, and it was beautiful. the bride was beautiful. it was a small wedding and the reception was intimate - good food, good friends, and good wine. the father of the bride cried during his toast. what more could you ask for?

congratulations, jen and zack!

ta-da

2009-06-14T05:14:00.001-07:00

hi friends! i know, i've been m.i.a. for quite some time, and i apologize. i needed a break from the world of blogging - it's been hard to find the time to sit and be alone with my thoughts, much less to write something pretty about them... and then of course after a lengthy period of time, i found myself overwhelmed and incapacitated by the pressure to write the perfect post - as if i needed something really really wonderful to say to excuse myself for being gone for so very long. a grand entrance of sorts.

well, this is pretty much it: i've been gone, and now i'm back.

ta-da!!!

smarch

2009-03-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

in the last twenty days...

i had a mexican food-and-arts and crafts-and-girl scout cookie-infused slumber party night with my girlfriends. arts-and-crafts time is just the best!

i got to spend a whole day hanging out with my mommy, shopping, chatting, eating, coffee-ing. it was quality one-on-one time like we haven't had in a really long while.

alan and i went to our friend's thirtieth birthday party, and came to terms with the fact that we are probably going to be thirty at some point also. at least there were giant sombreros and stick-on moustaches there to ease the pain.

my team at work was recognized with a pretty-big-deal award. that was pretty nice.

i wasted two hours* of my life on the phone with travelocity trying to book a trip to spain after getting a "technical difficulties" message on their website on six different occasions. also, another twenty minutes on the phone with my credit card company trying to get them to remove the charges that travelocity pre-authorized on six different occasions without ever selling me a vacation package.

*i was actually on the phone for one hour. alan was on the phone for another hour. by the end of this adventure i'm pretty sure that we decided that we might not ever book a trip through travelocity again.

we booked our trip to spain! flight through delta.com, hotels through hotels.com, and another flight through orbitz.com. in six weeks we'll be eating delicious tapas, marvelling at the sagrada familia, and wandering the halls of the prado and the reina sofia!

alan got a bonus! we weren't expecting that at all, so it was a pretty fantastic surprise, really. and it's going to pay for a lot of tapas in spain...

i spent seven hours and way too much money shopping with my girlfriends for our friend's bridal shower and bachelorette party. after shopping we went to the bride-to-be's house to put together centerpieces and drink margaritas. it was a long day, but i got in some good girl time so it was totally worth it!

we finally found a great walking trail and went on lots and lots of long walks in the perfectly blissful weather we've been having lately. on one occasion we were charged by an angry goose, but other than that our walks have been lovely.

celebrations

2009-03-01T16:30:00.000-08:00

i've got lots of things to celebrate lately. lots of birthdays, of course, and then the fact that the craziness of birthday month is finally behind me now, too. one of our friend-couples got engaged in december and are getting married in april - which means i get to be all the wedding-crazy i want to be without any of the bride stress. i designed the invitations and i'm on the party-planning committee for the shower and bachelorette party and i'm going to make a hundred pretty little cupcakes for the reception and i love every minute of it! two of my girlfriends are pregnant, which means that when the wedding is over i get to plan at least one baby shower and buy at least two pairs of tiny baby socks. and my mom and stepdad bought a beautiful new house! unfortunately, it's in upstate new york, which is a little farther away than i ever thought i'd be from my mommy, but i know they'll be so happy there. and i know it will be a great place to visit!

alan's birthday

2009-02-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

alan's birthday is in february.

so is my mom's birthday, and my stepdad's. one of our out-of-town friends and six of my good girlfriends have february birthdays too. by the time you throw in valentine's day, february gets to be pretty exhausting. which is not really a good excuse, but inevitably what happens is that i never make a very big deal about alan's birthday. it's not his fault, and it's not fair, but for the most part he takes it like a champ.

but this year i wasn't having it. he's the most specialest person in the whole wide world and he deserves to be celebrated, especially on his birthday!

so i planned a surprise trip - i booked the flight and the hotel and i talked to his boss and got him a whole week off of work. i kept it a secret for as long as i could, but i ended up telling him about it on the tuesday before we left. i'm no good at keeping secrets anyway, but i also know that he likes to be able to look forward to a vacation.

we had a small birthday party for him at our apartment on friday night and on saturday morning we got on a plane to florida. we spent four nights visiting with my dad and my grandpa. we did nothing but relax and sleep in and go on walks and nap every day. we read a lot and didn't watch much television. the weather was blissful and the company was good.

after that we headed down to orlando and spent three nights at disney world. i had taken alan to disney world for the first time in his life the summer before we got married. we'd spent the day at epcot and it was the most fun ever. this time we had three whole days and two park-hopper passes and we went to all four of the parks. the lady at the ticket counter gave alan a "happy birthday" pin and we wrote his name on it with sharpie. i made him wear it every day, and every day at least one person wished him a happy birthday.

we spent the first day at epcot - we ate lunch in england and dinner in china and watched the fireworks that night. the next day we went on all the best rides at magic kingdom, and then we went back to epcot to eat dinner in france. on the third day, we went to animal kingdom in the morning for more rides and lots of animals and then spent the afternoon wandering around hollywood studios. by the end of that last day we were way overstimulated and beyond exhausted. we ate pop tarts in our hotel room for dinner that night. it was my favorite dinner of the trip.

i think we did a pretty good job of really celebrating alan's birthday. but most importantly, we got to spend an entire week just the two of us.

25 random things {i love} about alan

2009-02-06T15:34:00.000-08:00

1. he learned to love cats. for me.

2. when we go out to eat, he always makes me a “perfect bite” of whatever he is eating.

3. he makes up ridiculous songs and sings them quite loudly all day long. these songs normally involve one or both of the cats or serve as some sort of strange musical narrative for whatever we happen to be doing at the moment.

4. he gets lost going to places we’ve never been before. and also going to places we’ve been a hundred times. he puts way to much faith into mapquest and google maps, but he tends to misinterpret or over analyze the directions they give us.

5. he gets incredibly hyper the second he gets home from work. as of yet i have never been able to explain this phenomenon, but it usually leads to bone-crushing hugs, loud noises, crazy cats, and above ridiculous songs.

6 he takes at least two showers a day. what sort of boy does this?

7 he. loves. statues. you should have seen him in paris. why was it that i didn’t even learn this about him until after we were already married? i’d thought i’d known everything about him.

8 he always puts others first. i mean always. sometimes i have to yell at him to make him be a little selfish. i, however, am very good at being selfish.

9 one time there was a plastic spider near him. he screamed like a five-year-old girl and hid under a desk.after that we started a game of hide-the-spider that continues (off and on) to this day.

10 you should see the way he loves his grandpa. it may be the sweetest thing in the world. he always says that grandpa taught him how to be a good man – a good son, a good brother, a good husband. and i must say that grandpa did a damn good job. (thanks!)

11. for some reason, he prefers fruity candy (starburst, skittles, gummy bears) to good candy (also known as chocolate). i love him anyway.

12. he’s my biggest fan (besides maybe my mom). he believes in me more than i do. he brags about me to anyone who’ll listen, but he never brags about himself. i don’t know if this is because he doesn’t know how amazing he is, or if he just doesn’t want to toot his own horn… but i hope that he knows how amazing he is.

13. one time in fredricksburg he drove a four-wheeler straight into a giant pit of the deepest, thickest mud you’ve ever seen. we were surrounded by giant man-eating spiders and we ruined our tennis shoes and we spent the entire afternoon trying to get that thing out of the mud. until then i don’t think i had ever once questioned his judgment.

14. he makes the best mashed potatoes in the world.

15. he doesn’t know anything about music. the only bands he can recognize every time are e.l.o. and boston. he once asked me if janis joplin's piece of my heart was a remake of a faith hill song.

16. he's never been able to say "lackadaisical" right. it bugs me a lot because i'm kinda weird about spelling and pronunciation but i think it's cute.

17. he likes roller coasters even less than i do.

18. he knows every single obscure random fact and rule about football in the entire history of football. he can tell you who won super bowl 22 and what the score was and what the most important play of the game was and which player made that play. and he will tell you all of these things as if he was there.

19. he loves the fact that i like to chase frogs and pick them up. one time i found a snake skin that had been molted and i thought it was fascinating. he looked at me like he wanted to marry me all over again.

20. he reads my blog.

21. when he's nervous or thinking really hard, he rubs his fingernails across his mouth. he doesn't even realize he's doing it until i tell him.

22. when we were in paris at luxembourg garden there was some art piece that he called a "big hairy tv." we sat in front of it and he put one ear bud in each of our ears and played les poissons (from the little mermaid) on the ipod and we drank a bottle of wine and sang along.

23. every time we travel he takes a picture of our tired feet next to each other.

24. he refuses to eat the last bite of a banana.

25. he loves me in spite of my flaws (and i've got a lot of them).

25 random things

2009-02-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

this thing is all over facebook - if you missed it you're probably under a facebook rock. anyway i'm going to post my list on my blog, because, why not?

1. by the time i was in third grade i had lived in four states. i don't understand it when i hear about people who have lived in the same house since they were born. the longest i ever lived in one house was like 6 years. i've been in texas for something like seventeen years and i like it but i certainly don't want to live here for the rest of forever.

2. i had a... feeling about alan the first time i met him. which wasn't actually the first time i met him, but that's a long story. anyway i knew he was something special way before we even went on our first date. i knew i loved him after probably two or three weeks, and i knew without even the tiniest shadow of a doubt that i was going to marry him by the time we had been together for four months. (don't worry, we didn't actually get married until we had been together for 4 years.)

3. i took nine years of spanish classes. i could have minored in spanish if i had just taken one or two more classes but i really wanted to learn french so i took a semester of that instead. i love... languages.

4. four days after i graduated from high school, my ex boyfriend (first love) passed away. i cried for weeks. the painful, body-shaking, deepest heart-aching, horrible kind of crying that leaves you weak and wasted for a long time.
that was the day i grew up.

5. as a kid some of my favorite books were jumanji, the phantom tollbooth, and cloudy with a chance of meatballs. i loved the stories and the intricately detailed illustrations. i wanted to grow up and write and illustrate children's books.

6. i want to travel. alan and i have made a pact to try and go to one new country a year. in 2007 we went to france. in 2008 we went to mexico and canada, and the plan for 2009 is spain.

7. when we first got gubs, scoop hated him. he made the scariest noises i had ever heard and hid most of the time. he looked at me like i had served him up with the worst betrayal in the history of cats. nothing felt right in my world for a month. i was pretty sure i had broken our family.

8. i think i could be a really good wedding planner. i'm really organized and detail-oriented and i love all things wedding-related. my only real issue would be the hours. and the brides.

9. i love writing lists.

10. i was 22 when i realized that my mom was a real person and not some super hero. to this day it amazes me the things she has done, the sacrifices she has made, all... for me. it boggles the mind.

11. i believe that disney world really is the happiest place on earth. and i believe that colorado is the promised land.

12. i've done some crazy stupid things in my life. i'm not necessarily proud of everything i've done, but i'm not ashamed of any of it. i can definitely say that i've learned from my experiences and my mistakes. they're all part of who i am.

13. i hear horror stories about my friends' in-laws and i thank my lucky stars for mine. they're just so... nice. i love them all so much. i really hit the jackpot with this boy.

14. i'm afraid of flying, and public speaking, and elevators. i'm a nervous passenger. i have control issues.

15. i am shy, but only when i first meet new people, or when i'm in a brand new situation. once i figure things out and get a little more comfortable, i will open up so much that you'll wish i hadn't.
16. i'm a hippie at heart. i like pretty things and the color pink and i work in the most shallow and wasteful industry there is, but i'm a hippie. i don't eat meat, not because i don't like it, but because it's better for animals and the environment. i do all the inconvenient-but-good-for-the-environment things i can: i unplug electronics and appliances when they're not being used, i buy recycled toilet paper, i use eco-friendly cleaning products, i eat organic everything, i conserve water, and i use nylon shopping bags.

17. i'm a perfectionist. my mom always tells this story about when i was little and she was worried because i was at the age when other kids were learning to walk and i just wasn't. apparently i never even tried to. and then one day i got up and walked across the room like it was nothing. even now i don't like to do anything unless i can do it right the first time.

18. in sixth grade, carolyn and i went to an x-files convention in plano. we painted our nails green and wore our x-files t-shirts and hoped that, even though they weren't supposed to be there, gillian anderson and david duchovny would show up.

19. i met some of the best friends i've ever had in girl scouts in third grade. one summer, though, i went to girl scout camp and i hated it. i didn't know anyone there and it was my first time to spend more than one night away from home and i got the worst case of homesickness ever and one night there was a wasp in my bed and it stung every single one of my fingers before i woke up and realized what was going on. plus i lived in constant fear of ticks and lime disease for an entire week.

20. i think too much. about everything.

21. every job i've ever had i got because of a friend of mine. my first job was at contempo casuals, thanks to my friend gretchen. after that, amanda (from third grade girl scouts) got me a job as a hostess at on the border. then gretchen convinced me to work at chili's instead for a dollar more per hour. when i went to college i transferred to the chili's in denton. after a year or so there, my friend sarah suggested that i wait tables with her at hooters. i worked there for three years until i couldn't stand it anymore, at which point my friend chelsea helped me get a job in retail. i got my first job out of college because one of my favorite professors recommended me to a friend of hers who was my first boss. and i got the job i'm in now thanks to my friend jenny. i guess it really is all about who you know.

22. i think i'm a good person in general. but i want to do good things with my life. i want to go on mission trips again, and i want to do volunteer work. i've been so blessed and all i want to do is spread the love.

23. i love buying gifts for people - i love looking for the perfect gift for someone and then finally finding it and giving it to them. i love surprising people (but i don't always like to be surprised). i love birthday parties and cupcakes and slumber parties, too.

24. i'm not very good at accepting complements.

25. i've found my soul mate. it was an accident. i wasn't looking for him at all and i just... found him. and now all i want for everyone i know is for them to have what i have.

tapas

2009-01-31T06:46:00.000-08:00

i seem to be on a bit of a tapas kick lately.

last weekend we had brunch with my parents at a lovely little peruvian tapas restaurant in dallas. everything was good, from the little fried corn appetizer to the subtle salad dressing to the grilled veggies. everything had its own unique flavor, and, just as important, the decor was absolutely beautiful. even the bathroom was gorgeous.

last night alan took me on one of our surprise dates to a barcelonian tapas place (we're planning on taking a trip to barcelona sometime this year). it was completely different of course, but it was amazing. the decor was distinctly european looking. i could have eaten everything on the menu (i feel like we got pretty close to doing that, actually)! we had vegetarian paella and pan tomate and grilled asparagus and some sort of ridiculous cheese croquette, and we topped it off with cappucino and a traditional barcelonian dessert. after dinner, we went home and watched l'auberge espagnole, a french movie about a young parisian man who goes to live in barcelona for a year and how the city and the people he meets change his life. and all of it just made me want to go to barcelona that much more.

inauguration day

2009-01-20T17:44:00.000-08:00

praise song for the day.
each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. all about us is noise. all about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.
someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
a woman and her son wait for the bus.
a farmer considers the changing sky; a teacher says, "take out your pencils. begin."
we encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.
we cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "i need to see what's on the other side; i know there's something better down the road."
we need to find a place where we are safe; we walk into that which we cannot yet see.
say it plain, that many have died for this day. sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.
praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. praise song for every hand-lettered sign; the figuring it out at kitchen tables.
some live by "love thy neighbor as thy self."
others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.
what if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. love that casts a widening pool of light. love with no need to preempt grievance.
in today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
on the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

inaugural poem recited by elizabeth alexander

a study in cat personalities

2009-01-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

the big cat is a big chunk of tummy and fur. he lives for meal times, and you'd better believe that he will let you know when meal time is. he has been known to chew through a bag of cat food. as much as he loves to eat, he doesn't care much for human food (with the exception of strawberry yogurt). he has a curious fascination with empty carrot bags but no use for actual carrots. he will take any opportunity to jump into an open box or drawer. he sleeps most of the day and only plays with the occasional sock or ice cube. he only seeks out attention first thing in the morning and first thing when his parents get home from work (although he will happily accept a good brushing any time of day). other than that, he can be found napping somewhere in the closet. he is very quiet with a soft meow that he uses very rarely and a big purr that he uses liberally. he can open drawers and cabinets and he likes heights. he will happily spend the entire night curled up at his parents' feet.

the little cat is all awkward skin and bones (and ears). he likes cat food and all, but what he really wants is human food. he has been known to steal cheese straight out of his dad's hand. he recognizes the milk carton and whines until he gets what he wants. he eats things off of the ground that aren't necessarily even food. he could care less about boxes and drawers and prefers to spend his time following people around and "helping". he has a curious fascination with toes and chap stick. he plays with everything all day long. he wants attention all day long. he is the definition of a lap cat. he has a very loud and very strange meow and he knows how to use it. when he isn't talking he's purring. he loves to cuddle but he gets unusually {obnoxiously} hyper at bed time.

they are polar opposites, and we love them both with all our hearts.

what i've been up to...

2009-01-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

so here's the update on what's been going on in my life so far in 2009...

i spent new year's eve with my hubby and two of my best girlfriends, eating sushi and drinking champagne. they came by afterwards to see my new apartment and take pictures and drink more {pink!} champagne. i was in my pj's by eleven and asleep by midnight-thirty. it may sound tame but it was one of the best new year's eves i've had in a long time!

new year's day was a good lazy day, spent on the couch mostly, watching football and reading the second book in the twilight series. i must say that if there was any doubt in anyone's mind that i am a fourteen-year-old girl trapped in a twenty-five-year-old's body, it's definitely gone now. oh well.

alan and i went to canton for first monday trade days. there's no way to explain canton to people who have never been to canton. it's like a giant flea market with a whole bunch of crap to buy and food and maybe the best people-watching outside of the state fair. plus dogs. lots and lots of dogs. i fell in love with a blue-eyed dachshund and a beautiful husky, but alan reminded me that our cats would break up with us if we came home with a dog. in the end i came home with a vintage sugar sack and a tummy full of roasted corn and salsa samples.

i found out that my new car gets 32 miles to the gallon!

we had the seventh edition of our girls' slumber party, which was more fun than you can possibly believe. we went shopping, we ate sushi, we exchanged five-dollar christmas gifts, we baked cookies. we watched a movie about girlfriends that should have been good but definitely wasn't, and then to erase the bad-ness of that movie we watched three happy episodes of sex and the city. we went to bed at two and in the morning (well, okay, at noon) alan and i made vegan pancakes for everyone. yum yum! elysa can tell you more...

alan and i got to go to pappadeaux (best food this side of new orleans) with his family to celebrate his brother's 24th birthday. i cannot tell a lie: i ate some crawfish. and birthday cake. the vegan police are on their way.

other than that, i went back to work for the first five-day week in what seems like forever. two three-day weeks will do that to a person, i suppose. it's good to get back into a normal routine, and it's good to have my whole team back too. plus, i got to reward myself with a "fancy friday" soy chai latte at work yesterday morning and a super-fun girls' happy hour last night after work. i would say that this week was a success!

and so far, i can't really say that i have any complaints about 2009, either.

resolutions

2009-01-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

at the start of 2008 i made a new year's resolution to acknowledge every day the things in my life that i am thankful for... three hundred and sixty-eight entries in my gratitude journal later, i am more aware of the beauty of the big picture, but i am also more aware of all the little things that bring me joy each day. this may be the only new year's resolution i've ever carried out through an entire year - i've learned so much in the process; it's been an amazing journey for sure.

i will say that writing every single day got to be a little difficult, especially since i started my new job, which keeps me busy pretty much all the time. i definitely needed a blogging holiday, which is why i've been missing for the past week or so. i haven't quite figured out what i'm going to do with olive relish going forward, so bear with me while i figure it out... i'm still going to try and post at least once or twice a week, at the request of my mommy and my husband and all five of my other readers (shout-out to southeast asia!)... i don't know if it will continue to be just a gratitude journal or if it will involve random musings about sushi and bad chick-flicks or if i will move on to a new set of new year's resolutions...

this year

2008-12-31T16:24:00.000-08:00

i can't believe this year is already almost over. so much has happened and it's all gone by so fast i can hardly believe it.
it's been a year that has been defined by change, both on a global level and a personal level.
the economy is changing before our eyes - the housing market crisis, the global recession, an unprecedented multi-million dollar bail-out plan. the political landscape is changing all over the world, including the united states, where we've elected our first african-american president. peoples' lives are changing every day - affected by the changing economy, unpredictable weather patterns, and political unrest. but they are also being changed by more beautiful things: the birth of a child, a wedding, the election of an inspirational new leader. love. hope.
2008 has been a year of change for me, too. new job, new apartment, new car, new cat. new tv, new vacuum, new phone. i'm blessed, because while these may have caused a little bit of stress in my life, they are all changes for the better. but the best things in my life haven't changed at all - my husband, my family, my friends. the special days and the not-so-special days that are still special because of them. i'm looking forward to 2009, to see what it holds for me and the people i love. i'm sure there will be even more changes, but the one thing that i resolve not to change, the one thing i refuse to give up, is my attitude of gratitude.

happy new year to you and yours!

lunch at work

2008-12-30T17:33:00.000-08:00

today my parents came up to visit me at work and have lunch. i got to show them my fancy office building, with its fancy fountain and its fancy starbucks. and we had a fancy lunch in the fancy cafeteria and then we went to the fancy museum. well, maybe it wasn't that fancy, but it was fun.

lunch at home

2008-12-29T17:27:00.000-08:00

i came home for lunch today, and it was nice. it was nice to walk out in the sunshine, nice to drive the five minutes from work to home, nice to cuddle with the kitties for a few minutes in the middle of a work day. and afterward, it made going back to work a little nicer too.

old friends

2008-12-28T19:15:00.000-08:00

it takes a long time to grow an old friend.

john leonard

last night i spent the evening with one of my oldest and dearest friends, talking, drinking, catching up. she lives in colorado and i don't see her nearly as often as i wish i could (of course, i don't see any of my friends as often as i wish i could), but when i do see her we always manage to pick up right where we left off. we went to dinner and then afterwards we came back to my apartment and read through every stupid little note that we had ever passed in middle school and high school, fraught with inside jokes and nonsense words. i laughed till i cried, and then some. we've been through a lot together - stupid jokes, ridiculous mistakes, good times, not so good times - and i've been so blessed to have a friend like her.

new car!

2008-12-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

holy crap alan and i bought a car today.

i still can't get over it. i've never made a purchase that large in my life. not even close.

but i needed a car. so we bought one.

whoa.

cosmic cafe

2008-12-26T22:52:00.000-08:00

cosmic cafe is a little indian vegetarian restaurant in dallas that has delicious food and yummy chai and a charming atmosphere... i think the first time i ever went there was my freshman year of college with a friend of mine and i've been hooked ever since. now a new mini-tradition has evolved, in which alan and i meet there with my best friends from high school at christmas time for our little gift exchange. we eat hummus and nan and drink chai or imported beer and talk and laugh and just enjoy each others' company. not a bad little tradition, really.

merry christmas!

2008-12-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

i'll be spending the day with lots of great friends and family today - it's going to be a magical day, and i hope yours will be too. give lots of hugs, get lots of hugs, and celebrate all the different kinds of love in your life!

for some random holiday fun: check out these christmas trees from around the world!

happy holidays to you and yours!

christmas eve

2008-12-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

i got a fancy drink at starbucks this morning, and after being completely un-productive for a few hours i got to leave work early this afternoon. i found some great bargains at the craft store, and then i spent a couple of hours curled up on the couch with a kitty and a good book. after that we went car shopping and then to dinner, where i ate a big bowl of yummy cozy tomato basil soup. when it got dark we drove around a local neighborhood looking at christmas lights - one of the houses' light displays was set to music! we cuddled and watched as the christmas lights danced along to mariah carey's all i want for christmas is you (probably my favorite christmas song of all time).

it was a relaxing sort of day, one that i am truly thankful for.

merry christmas eve!

gloves

2008-12-23T18:29:00.000-08:00

i don't know what it is about gloves, but i just love them. well, i love buying them anyway. i've bought three or four pairs over the last year or so but for some reason i always wear the grey cashmere ones that i got for christmas like six years ago that have a hole in the left palm. but i still love gloves.

secret santa

2008-12-22T22:08:00.000-08:00

i posted earlier about our alternative christmas gift giving this year, and i think it was a huge success. we got to spend time with our loved ones and buy presents for children who will get little else this christmas.

that said, it was difficult to get alan's mother to come to terms with the fact that we wouldn't be buying anything for each other, so we compromised and agreed to a secret santa gift exchange. we got together for a christmas eve-eve-eve dinner tonight - each person received a gift costing no more than $30 from one other person. i like secret santa-ing because it allows you to buy one thoughtful gift for one person instead of ten gifts for ten people. it's fun, it saves money, and no one ends up with a whole bunch of stuff they don't need. i think everyone had a good time - mostly because we were together.

cookie dough

2008-12-21T20:44:00.000-08:00

alan and i have bad luck with christmas cookie baking. two years ago i got overly ambitious with my icing and i nearly broke my back. last year we burned them. this year we made our dough using vegan egg substitute. it was looking a bit dry, and when we tried to roll it out to cut it into shapes, it got crumbly. so we had to make boring round cookies (which aren't really christmas cookies at all). but i will say that the cookie dough tasted delicious...

love actually

2008-12-20T20:25:00.000-08:00

if there is one movie that you absolutely must watch at christmas time, it is love actually. it may in fact be the most heart-warming, warm-fuzzy-inducing movie of all time. i must have seen it a million times but it never fails to make me laugh and cry and i just don't ever get tired of it...

"whenever i get gloomy with the state of the world, i think about the arrivals gate at heathrow airport. general opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but i don't see that. it seems to me that love is everywhere. often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. when the planes hit the twin towers, as far as i know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. if you look for it, i've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around."

anthropologie

2008-12-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

i think if i had to live in a store, it would be anthropologie. actually, i would pay to live in that store. it's just so... beautiful. and whimsical. the colors, the textures, the patterns, the smells - i find myself looking at and touching everything there. they have cozy beds and lovely clothes and fantastic little books and all kinds of delightful little things.

a quiet day at the office

2008-12-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

today at work we had our group christmas luncheon and then our group happy hour... tomorrow is the friday before the holiday, and i'm looking forward to a fairly quiet day at work (fingers crossed, of course). lots of people have already left town, and lots more will be taking a half day tomorrow. here's to an early start to a happy holiday weekend!

spiritual wealth

2008-12-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

"happiness comes from spiritual wealth, not material wealth... happiness comes from giving, not getting. if we try hard to bring happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also. to get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it."

- john templeton

texas winter

2008-12-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

today was the first ice of this year's texas winter for me. i accidentally parked outside last night instead of in the garage, and as a result i had a considerably thick layer of frozenness on my windshields, mirrors, and windows this morning. i warmed my car up for about 10 minutes and then scraped for another 20 minutes (with a credit card, as i do not own an ice scraper because i live in texas)... it sucked, but it usually only happens once or twice a year so i could deal with it (although i sure did park in the garage when i got home from work today). and in the next couple of days the temperature will be back up to 70 degrees. gotta love those texas winters.

toys for tots

2008-12-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

we decided to invite people to bring new unwrapped toys to our christmas party this year so we could donate them to toys for tots... our party was so much fun, but the best part is knowing that now there will be almost thirty children out there who will get christmas presents who wouldn't have otherwise. plus, our christmas tree looks extra christmas-y!

lazy lazy lazy

2008-12-14T20:04:00.000-08:00

after the insanity of yesterday and the stress of the last month, alan and i took a lazy day today. and when i say lazy, i mean lazy. i slept till almost ten, he slept till noon. we sat on the couch, watched tv, played with the kitties, and didn't leave the apartment even once to do anything. i think we earned it.

happy birthday, tonya!

someone i can count on

2008-12-13T21:52:00.000-08:00

i take for granted sometimes just how blessed i am to have a husband like alan. he is the definition of a stand-up man; he is loyal, and loving, and i know that i can always always count on him in any situation.

today has been a hard day. we had to run about a billion errands this morning in a town that we don't know to prepare for a holiday party that we're having tonight (two weeks after moving in). this afternoon, unfortunately, i had to go to a funeral for a good friend's little brother. when i was halfway to dallas, my car overheated and i had to pull over. i called my husband and he came right away - he took me the rest of the way to dallas (i wasn't even late) and then went back to my car and drove it to a shop in plano. he took a cab from the shop to his truck and as soon as he got home, he had to come right back out to dallas to pick me up. he never made me feel guilty about any of it, even though the timing couldn't have been worse and i know we were both beyond stressed.

life gets scary. you can plan as much as you want, but you can't predict anything. it can be stressful, and terrible, and wonderful, and magical - it's just nice to know that i have someone i can count on the whole way through.

reminders

2008-12-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

"the foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet."
- james oppenheim

"slow down and enjoy life. it's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."
- eddie cantor

"cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age."
- christopher morley

"if you want to be happy, be."
- leo tolstoy

"happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place. but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around."
- e.l. konigsburg

"man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. if he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it."
- fyodor dostoevsky

massage lunch

2008-12-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

today at lunch i went with two of my coworkers to get a twenty-minute chair massage at the mall... it's not the same as a real massage, but it was definitely nice. i felt all gooey and massage-y for the rest of the day!

counter space

2008-12-10T18:54:00.000-08:00

seems like we've been living in a disaster area for a month now - boxes all over the place, not knowing where anything was, mess and clutter everywhere (especially on the kitchen counter)! but as of today there is only one box left, and it is full of art and photos that go on the walls. the office is unpacked and put away. the bedroom clutter is no more. and best of all, the kitchen counter has only kitchen-related items on it. hooray!

lots of little things

2008-12-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

today i am thankful for:

quality morning cuddle time with scoop;

a good workout, and having the whole workout room to myself;

the shortest drive to work ever;

hot earl grey with honey, because it warms me up and smells so good and tastes just sweet enough;

the kind of restaurant bread that is hot and doughy and perfectly soft;

cinnamon gum;

sample sweatshirts, because i didn't wear a jacket to prepare for this crazy cold front;
cardboard boxes that used to be full of stuff but are now empty because they have been unpacked;

the curious little kitten who is purring while he watches me blog;

the good good sleep that i plan on getting tonight...

spaghetti squash

2008-12-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

spaghetti squash is fun to eat. yum yum yum.
:)

life

2008-12-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

today i am thankful for my tired bones, my exhausted brain, my twitching eye, my lengthy to-do list, my whiny cat, my struggling football team, my creaky car, my pouty husband, and my yucky cough... because today i know at least one thing: that it is a blessing just to be alive. and that as hard as life can be sometimes, it's never a guarantee.

little by little

2008-12-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

little by little, our new apartment is starting to feel more like home. we've been busy all day every day, unpacking boxes and putting together ikea furniture and buying new toys and just enjoying the process.

holiday parties

2008-12-05T19:01:00.000-08:00

alan and i both had our respective office holiday parties today. at my party, there were lots of yummy snacks and desserts, three different musical groups (including pete's dueling pianos), and big seminar rooms set up with giant screens and video games like rock band and mario kart (i am ashamed to say that my wii boxing skills need a lot of work). there were also black jack tables set up, and some sort of green screen make-your-own music video situation. a good time was had by all, and of course it's always fun to get out of work a little early...

fortune cookies

2008-12-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

i love fortune cookies! they are fun and little and yummy and cute, and of course they hold the key to your future inside. i always read my fortune before i eat my cookie, but alan won't ever read his fortune until after he's eaten his cookie. perhaps he's just worried that i will eat his fortune cookie...

sample sales

2008-12-03T23:41:00.000-08:00

at work, every so often, there will be a sample sale. sometimes they're selling clothing, sometimes it's shoes, sometimes it's home goods, and sometimes it's a combination - but the prices are always ridiculously low, so there are always fantastic deals to be found. and all the money goes to the united way, so there's no feeling guilty about it, either!

happy birthday, hollie!

good gifts

2008-12-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

well, it's officially december, which means it's officially gift-giving season. alan and i just finished up our alternative christmas gift shopping last night, and all we have left to buy now are a couple of secret santa gifts. i just came across this article on great gifts that are easy and eco-friendly (and not gift cards), and i think i'm getting some good ideas...

monday, monday

2008-12-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

in the past seven days, alan and i have dealt with apartment office stress, paint problems, cell phone service issues, moving drama, car trouble, cat health crises, and more than our fair share of emotional distress. needless to say, i was more than happy to see monday morning roll around. monday morning means routine, it means getting out of the apartment, it means not thinking about boxes or cleaning or unpacking for at least eight hours.

christmas time is here!

2008-11-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

alan and i just got finished decorating our christmas tree and listening to christmas songs in our new apartment, and i'm feeling awfully christmas-y at the moment...

christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

~norman vincent peale

he who has not christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.

~roy l. smith

i have always thought of christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time i know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

~charles dickens

the best of all gifts around any christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

~burton hillis

christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

~washington irving

for centuries men have kept an appointment with christmas. christmas means fellowship, feasting, giving and receiving, a time of good cheer, home.

~w.j. ronald tucker

the love fern

2008-11-29T19:27:00.000-08:00

when alan and i moved in together for the first time, we bought a lucky bamboo plant that we have since always referred to as the "love fern." (if you're confused, please see how to lose a guy in ten days. you won't regret it.)

it moved with us from apartment number one, where we lived for about 6 months, to apartment number two. at apartment number two, the love fern started turning brown and some of the leaves started falling off. we were pretty sure it was dead, actually, but being lazy college students (and hopeless romantics?) we postponed any sort of proper burial. after a while, the love fern turned green once again and regrew all of its leaves! it grew and grew and hasn't stopped growing since. we've now had the love fern for five-plus years and three apartments... it may seem silly but that love fern is a part of us, a part of our story, and we love it.

the old apartment

2008-11-28T18:19:00.000-08:00

alan and i went over to our old apartment today, because we still needed to pack up a few things and bring them back with us to the new apartment. we've been looking forward to this move for such a long time that i guess i wasn't really expecting the flood of emotions that swept over me when i walked in the door and saw our place, looking so empty and naked despite the handful of boxes and trinkets in various rooms.
this was our first real apartment together, with both of our names on the lease. this was where we lived when we got scoop, when we graduated college; this was where alan proposed to me, with a pathway of little notes that led from the front door to the back balcony; this was where we were living when we got our first real jobs, when we got married, when we celebrated our first year of marriage and our fifth year of couple-dom. this was where we lived for four out of five-and-a-half years of our relationship.
there are so many beautiful memories that it's hard not to get a little teary-eyed to see it looking so sad and lonely. but i know that memories live inside of us, not in places or things. we will always have those memories, and we will create more memories in our new apartment. and i'm so very thankful for that.

thanksgiving

2008-11-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

today, i am thankful for...

my family, which is ginormous and comprised of many many people, connected to me by blood or marriage or friendship or otherwise;

a random phone call from a cousin whom i have not seen in at least ten years;

a yummy recipe for vegan green bean casserole;

two loving kitties and one amazing husband;

football all day long on a non-sunday;

sitting around the table telling crazy stories and laughing till we cry;

mashed potatoes and tofurky and delicious casseroles and pumpkin pie and lots and lots of leftovers!

happy thanksgiving!

all moved in

2008-11-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

it's been a long crazy day, but we're officially all moved in to our new apartment! we haven't unpacked every single box, and there are still a few little things left at the old apartment, but we're here, we're exhausted, and we're about to go to sleep in our brand new bedroom with our cuddly (and super confused) kitties!

happy thanksgiving eve!
and,
welcome to your new home, baby barnsley!

fraggle rock

2008-11-25T16:24:00.000-08:00

i don't know very many cool people who didn't watch fraggle rock when they were little. because fraggle rock was awesome. they went on crazy adventures like every day and they taught me all kinds of important life lessons along the way.

i like to move it move it

2008-11-24T11:04:00.000-08:00

finally went to see madagascar 2 yesterday... yes i loved it and yes i am a sucker for kids' movies and yes i love the lemurs and yes i love the stupid lemur song!

and speaking of moving it, we get the keys to our new place today! the official move is happening on wednesday and we're in a packing and painting frenzy so wish us luck!

the angel tree

2008-11-23T15:19:00.001-08:00

when i was little, my mommy and i used to adopt an angel from the salvation army angel tree at northpark every year. we would have so much fun shopping for our angel - it was quality time spent with each other doing something good for someone less fortunate. it's one of my favorite memories.

this year, we're carrying on the tradition. instead of buying normal christmas gifts, we're spending quality time with the people we love and shopping for angels from the angel tree. we all agree that none of us needs anything, and if there is anything that we truly need or want, we all have the means to buy it for ourselves. but there are plenty of people who don't, and they are the ones we should be buying gifts for. that's the real meaning of christmas - doing good deeds, spending time with loved ones, and being thankful for all of life's gifts.

today we went angel shopping with my parents for a family of four brothers and sisters, all under the age of ten. it was so much fun looking at toys and clothes and picking out the very best ones for our children. when we went to drop off our goodies, alan and i picked up two more angels - an elderly woman and another little girl - who we can shop for with his parents.

i know i can't fix everything that's wrong with the world, but it's nice to know that i can help make a few peoples' christmas a little bit brighter.

i'm going to be an aunt

2008-11-22T17:08:00.000-08:00

that's right folks. my husband's brother's girlfriend is going to be a mommy, which means that i'm going to be an auntie. crazy! exciting, but crazy!

...ooh, now i'll have someone else to buy tiny socks for!!!

it's a wonderful life

2008-11-21T23:39:00.000-08:00

"remember, george, no man is a failure who has friends."

- clarence

playing dress up

2008-11-20T17:38:00.000-08:00

tomorrow night i'm going to a friend's birthday party, and she specifically requested on the evite that we all dress "sparkly." i decided that rather than go and buy a brand new outfit i would work with what i have in my closet already. so when i got home from work i raided my own closet for anything and everything with sparkles, channelled my inner five-year-old, and played dress-up until i found the perfect sparkly outfit. can't wait to sparkle it up tomorrow night!

fuzzy brown socks

2008-11-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

one year (last year maybe?) for christmas alan's parents gave me three pairs of soft and fuzzy and super warm socks that i wear to bed almost every night when it's cold outside. i think i may have lost the other two pairs - one was pink and one was stripey - but for whatever reason i always know exactly where the brown ones are. i'm wearing them right now, as a matter of fact, because i'm about to go to bed. early.

...i've been blogging about socks a lot lately, eh?

this guy

2008-11-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

he's a pygmy tarsier from indonesia, and he might be the cutest most terrifying creature on the planet. i like him.

laziness

2008-11-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

after a long crazy productive weekend, alan and i felt that we had earned an evening of couch potato-ness. we sat on the couch, ate dinner, and watched five episodes of weeds one after the other. bliss.

garage sale-ness

2008-11-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

garage sales are the best! thanks to the lovely miss andrea, who invited us to participate in her garage sale yesterday, alan and i were able to sell a whole bunch of crap (not that it was crap...but...well yeah it was mostly crap) that had been hiding in our small apartment for who knows how long. it was a bitterly cold morning, but the company was good and we ended up making over a hundred dollars for stuff that we were going to just drop off at the dumpster! we donated what we didn't sell, and we both feel like a giant weight has been lifted. the purging-and-packing process continues, and we just keep getting more and more excited as we get closer to the moving date!

thanks, andrea (and family)!

mini socks

2008-11-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

okay so i know i already posted about baby shoes, and just thinking about them makes me swoon, but it turns out that i am so not alone! i went to a baby shower today for a friend that i went to college with and also worked with and when we went shower-gift-shopping last night the baby section at target was enough to make me cry from cuteness... i couldn't resist buying a pair of little giraffe bootie-socks along with the much more practical (but much less adorable) baby monitor. and today at the shower i found out that pretty much every other woman there had done the same thing... present plus ridiculously cute socks equals perfect shower gift! brilliant!

congratulations, tracie!

mini wine

2008-11-14T20:14:00.000-08:00

i like the tiny little single-serving bottles of wine they sell at the grocery store. sometimes i just want a glass of wine, not four glasses of wine. they may be cheesy looking, but they involve no crazy cork adventures, no hangovers. just a glass of wine.

moccasins

2008-11-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

so i have these moccasin boots with three layers of fringe and whenever i walk in them i can hear and feel the fringe hitting my ankles as it swings back and forth... for whatever silly reason it just makes me happy. :)

the balance

2008-11-12T19:11:00.000-08:00

sometimes life gets in the way of the important stuff... deadlines and meetings and bills and the ten million other things that you have to keep track of in a given day have a way of making you forget to take time out for the good stuff - dinner with a good friend, a purring cat in your lap, a quiet daydream, catching up with a loved one. it's things like these that make life worth living, but it's these same things that often get pushed aside when life gets hectic. it's important to find the balance - i'm still working on it, and i probably will be for a long time. but i'm genuinely thankful for all of the aspects of my life that require balancing: i have amazing friends, an extensive and loving family, a fantastic job, the most incredible husband, two crazy cats (one of which is purring on my lap at this very moment)... i could go on and on.

thunderstorms

2008-11-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

last night i fell asleep to the soothing lullaby of an endless thunderstorm... the rains rolled overhead in waves, some stronger than others; powerful claps of thunder resonated in the sky, near and far and in between; silent flashes of bright white lightning punctuated the darkness at indiscriminate intervals. the cats and the husband were cuddled up close, and we all slept peacefully.

puppy-vision

2008-11-10T18:58:00.000-08:00

next time you are bored at work, take a look at this 24-hour cuteness party:

http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016

non-stop streaming video of some seriously adorable puppies, guaranteed to brighten your day. :)

the filing cabinet

2008-11-09T19:04:00.000-08:00

a few months ago, i went on a super-crazy-organization kick. in the midst of this kick, i purchased a filing cabinet from ikea that was on sale for like $25, with the intention of finally sorting through and organizing our mountain of "important documents" - the ones that you know you should keep because they look pretty official but you don't always really know what they say so they just end up stashed away in some random place and when the day comes that you might actually need one of them you can't find them... because they're so important that you stuck them in an old purse with a bunch of empty cd cases and an old discman. or something like that.

well, however many months later, i finally took the time to deal with the filing cabinet. the top drawer has all of our important papers - insurance stuff, benefits, 401(k), taxes - all of the boring papers. it wasn't fun but at least it's done. and i got to buy fun new office supplies, so i was happy.

and i used the bottom drawer to hold all of our memories. i've been a pack rat most of my life (i consider myself a recovering pack rat now), so over the years of my relationship with alan i've accumulated quite a collection of ticket stubs and love notes and photographs and cards. of course, the intention here was to create a scrapbook (or ten)... but that's for another weekend maybe. i did take all of my alan-and-olivia memorabilia and organize it into file folders, which makes me happy on so many levels. five and a half years' worth of memories had been living in haphazard order (i think that's an oxymoron) amongst two or three different shoe boxes in my craft room for quite some time (close to five and a half years, i would guess). now it's all so pretty and organized into pink file folders that are arranged in chronological order with labels and subfolders. and the very best part of all was sorting through everything - examining all the little pieces of our history and putting them in the correct order so they would all add up to tell the best story there ever was.

why can't i just eat my waffle? -or- good words from a good man

2008-11-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

"focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. it asks too little of yourself. because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."

"if the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost."

"if you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."

"we need to internalize this idea of excellence. not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent."

"why can't i just eat my waffle?"

today

2008-11-07T18:51:00.000-08:00

today, i woke up with the exact amount of time needed to drink my coffee, feed the cats, clean their litter, and get showered and dressed to go to work, where we had our second huge-important-meeting in two weeks (which went really well actually), and it was "fancy friday" (which means tall-soy-chai-latte for me), after which we took a long lunch (sushi!) and an afternoon shopping trip (for research of course), followed by dinner and drinks with girlfriends (aka too many margaritas and too many chips), after which i came home to kiss and hug my honey who just got back from a two-night (too long) business trip!

guilty pleasures

2008-11-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

i have a confession. i love gossip girl. and 90210. and the hills. and lipstick jungle. and all of those stupid shows made for thirteen-year-old girls that are full of pretty people and even prettier clothes and all kinds of drama and ridiculous plot lines. love them all, each and every one.

...wow. it feels really good to come clean.

obama day

2008-11-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

today i am still grinning from ear to ear, amazed and inspired by the results of last night's election.

i have always always felt incredibly blessed to be an american, to live a life of so much freedom and opportunity, but it wasn't until yesterday that i truly felt proud to be an american. i'm proud of the citizens of this country and i'm proud of the man we have elected to be the 44th president of the united states of america. he represents the best of what this nation is about and he inspires me on so many levels that it is difficult to put it into words. this election is not about race, or age, or gender; it's about a new generation of politics and politicians. it's about doing what is right, and just, for americans and for the global community.

i know we have a long and arduous journey ahead of us - an economic crisis, an environmental crisis, a broken political system - but i have faith. i have hope. this is something that we can do. yes we can.

election day

2008-11-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

today, i can honestly say that i am proud to be an american...

"the only way to make sure people you agree with can speak

is to support the rights of people you don't agree with."

- eleanor holmes norton

"as long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences."

- eugene mccarthy

"as mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. i hope ever to see america among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."

- george washington

daylight savings

2008-11-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

i love it when we fall back... there's the extra hour of sleep, which is always nice - although i missed out on mine due to the early morning attack of the sinus infection... and it gets lighter earlier, which makes it easier for me to get out of bed and maybe even exercise... not to mention that falling back means it is officially fall and shorter days lead to holidays and all the warm fuzzies that come along with!

candy coating

2008-11-02T16:04:00.000-08:00

i've been taking a lot of medicine today (thank you very much, mr. sinus infection) and i would just like to say that i am super duper appreciative of the candy coating on my target-brand cold and sinus headache pills. also, my honey-lemon cough drops. and my neti pot.

moving

2008-11-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

alan and i signed a lease on a new apartment this morning, and we're getting pretty excited about moving at the end of the month.

no, i don't like the process of moving, but i will admit it has its advantages. it allows you to really take stock of everything you own and get rid of a whole lot of stuff that you don't need/want/even remember buying. and it's exciting to start over in a whole new place - decorating and organizing and figuring out where you'll shop for groceries and where you'll go to eat sushi.

so, yes, when it comes down to it, i suppose i am thankful for moving.

happy halloween!

2008-10-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

i love halloween - costumes, parties, candy, pumpkins - all of it!

this morning at work there was a parade of halloween cuteness - all the kids from the day care got dressed up in their costumes and "trick-or-treated" through the main hall with their parents. there were princesses and fairies and monkeys and super heroes and they were all so precious i thought i would die! i felt a little weird taking pictures of other peoples' babies, but i just couldn't help myself.

after work, we went to my high school's football game. on our way from the car to the stadium, we could see a million little trick-or-treaters and all of the fun halloween decorations in the neighborhood. and at halftime, the band members were all dressed up in costumes and playing songs like ghostbusters and thriller. i love it when people get into the "spirit" of the holidays...

sorry. that was lame.

but i guess the best part of halloween is that it is the official kickoff of the holiday season - in less than a month, we'll be celebrating thanksgiving, and a month after that, christmas! things are just...better during the holidays. people are nicer, places are warmer, and you get to spend lots of time with those who mean the most to you.

happy halloween!

pumpkin carving, II

2008-10-30T19:06:00.001-07:00

last night i spent the evening carving two and a half pumpkins with my three teammates from work in the hopes that our creation would win the pumpkin-carving contest at our halloween party. it was a pretty ambitious undertaking, but four hours and two bottles of wine after we started, our spider-eating jack-o-lanterns were complete! our team won "best presentation," but not "best overall"(we got robbed!!!)... even so, we had a lot of fun carving our pumpkins and eating yummy halloween treats...

happy halloween eve!

baby shoes

2008-10-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

nothing could possibly be as smile-inducing as baby shoes. they're so tiny, and adorable, and they always have something precious on them, like itty bitty flowers or hearts or a picture of hello kitty.

random sillies

2008-10-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

i stumbled across vozamer's etsy shop and i have to say... i want everything! these little monster guys are so silly and crazy and cute!

a good walk

2008-10-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

alan and i just got in from a good long after-work walk. it was just chilly enough outside to justify wearing pants and a sweatshirt instead of shorts and a tee shirt. there were ducks quacking and playing in the lake, the sun was slowly setting, and the streets were quiet. the air felt crisp and cool in our lungs. we held hands and looked up at the sky and talked about our days and our cats and our upcoming move and it was just the perfect way to end a monday!

pumpkin carving

2008-10-26T16:59:00.001-07:00

with less than a week till halloween, we decided to go ahead and carve our pumpkin today! i drew the face, alan cut, we both scooped out the pumpkin guts, and i separated the seeds from the goo so we could roast them. they just came out of the oven and they are super duper yummy! now we're going to watch netflix movies by the light of our cat-o-lantern.

smell memory #497: high tea

2008-10-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

when i was younger, my dad and i used to have high tea every afternoon at 3 or 4 o'clock. we would drink our earl grey or english breakfast and snack on tiny toasts with honey and speak with fake british accents. the smell of hot tea always makes me think of our silly afternoon tea parties.

friday

2008-10-24T18:19:00.000-07:00

i know i've blogged about fridays before, but it's been another super-long week and i'm glad to bid this one adieu. i'm off to drinks now to celebrate a friend's birthday, and tomorrow we're going to a halloween party, so i'm wishing everyone a happy friday and a fantabulous weekend!

honest abe

2008-10-23T18:19:00.000-07:00

"most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

- abraham lincoln

sauce

2008-10-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

my husband had an epiphany about me yesterday - he realized, during dinner, that i love sauce. and it's absolutely true! i do love sauce! spaghetti sauce, a-1 sauce, peanut sauce, hot sauce, chocolate sauce - you name it, if it's on my plate, i'll be licking it off. because i love sauce.

pink links

2008-10-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

as if you needed another reason to love pink, right? pink is already the very best color there is, but it is also the color of breast cancer awareness, and october is breast cancer awareness month.

for your pink pleasure, please enjoy these pink links:

fantastically girly kitchen toys from kitchenaid.

a pink gift for a fighter who is close to my heart at genpink.

show your support in style with ralph lauren's pink pony collection.

everything you need to know about breast cancer from the susan g. komen foundation.

one click to donate for free at the breast cancer site.

free e-cards from feel your boobies.

voting

2008-10-20T18:37:00.001-07:00

"come, come my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles and see the world is moving."

— elizabeth cady stanton

i voted today - stood in line for an hour and a half to exercise my rights as an american citizen, my right to express my opinion and my right to have my voice heard.

i have friends who don't vote, and while it makes me sad, i suppose that if people have the right to vote then they also have the right to not vote. are they taking their rights for granted? maybe. but it's easy to take something for granted when it's been a reality all your life. i don't know anyone who was there in 1920 when the 19th amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote, and i don't know anyone who was there seventy years earlier at the seneca falls convention that started the women's suffrage movement. none of my friends were alive in 1870, when the fifteenth amendment was passed to eliminate discrimination based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." it's all just a bunch of stuff we read about in our high school history books, i guess. but i have a feeling that this election is something that our children are going to be reading about in their high school history books. and i, for one, am proud to be a part of it.

to learn about the candidates and where they stand on the issues that matter to you, go here or here.

or, to take an issues-only quiz that will match you up with your ideal candidate, go here.

to find your polling place, go here.

but don't just stand there.

adventures in waffle house

2008-10-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

friday night, after the gallery opening in corsicana, we all went to waffle house. i probably haven't been to a waffle house since i was eight. it's exactly the same as i remember it - a little dirty, and maybe a little creepy, but with really good food. anyway, after waffles and hash browns were scarfed down by all, we learned that the credit card machine was broken. there were seven of us, and not one of us had any cash.

and so began the wild goose chase.

three of our friends stayed behind (as collateral?), and the rest of us got directions and headed out to find the nearest atm machine - there were supposedly two at the gas stations a couple of minutes down the road. at the first gas station, the machine didn't work. so we went across the street to the other gas station, where the atm wasn't even on. so we got directions to yet another gas station, one which sold every possible color of clip-on hair extension, a twelve-person stick-on sparkly nail set, and a complete assortment of other dusty dollar-store-type finds. the atm, while it may have smelled strongly of gasoline, was miraculously functional. we got our cash and rescued our friends from the crazy yellow restaurant. all this, for what must have been a $23 total tab.

but, it's a good story. one for the grandkids, surely.

cat surgery (for real this time)

2008-10-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

we picked the baby up from the vet this morning - we dropped him off on friday morning so he could have his big boy surgeries, and even though the doctor said he did really well, we've been worried about him ever since. he seemed pretty good when we picked him up; a little scared, but mostly happy to see us.

...his first act after getting home was to pee on our bed. we're really hoping that was a one-time thing. he's been sleepy all day but he's been eating well and purring just like old times. so far no peeing incidents since lunchtime, though. so, that's something to be thankful for. and also for the extra comforter.

celebrations

2008-10-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

i'm off to corsicana texas to a gallery opening where one of my [many] talented friends is showing a whole bunch of her amazing artwork. hooray!

happy hour

2008-10-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

happy hour is both fabulous and dangerous.

that's all i really have to say on that topic. other than 80s music is awesome.