all good things: something new every day

All Good Things started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and my radio co-host Cassie. We both contribute things to the list, so I'll tell you who said what to avoid confusion.

So get cozy and get ready for this week's batch of good things!

1. Song of the week: And We Danced by Macklemore X Ryan Lewis. My officemate has been taking care of the music for the past couple of weeks, and every time this song came on I would ask her what it was. Finally figured it out this week before I had to ask her... And when I put a name to the song I realized that it makes me feel goofy and devilish and carefree... Which is just what I need at work a lot of times.

2. Irish soda bread. This has become sort of a tradition over the past 2 years: soda bread for St. Paddy's Day. It's got a quick prep time and it's dense and delicious. - Clara

3. Accountability. The women I swim with are a source of great inspiration to me. A lot of them are older than I am, and understand the importance of fitness on a much larger scale than I do. And this one woman in particular is so perceptive and thoughtful (without being overbearing) and humble, and says something to me every week that lifts me up and leaves me thinking. Last week she said, "I watch the people in the other lanes who are faster than me, and I learn from them. I learn something new every day and I get faster and faster." - Clara

4. FROZEN CAME OUT IN STORES THIS WEEK. I didn't get it yet, but just knowing it is now available to me is a constant source of excitement. - Clara

5. Getting our families together. Family is a big thing for both J and I, and this afternoon we got both of our families together for an engagement dinner at an Indian buffet we like. It turned out greater than I could have hoped - everybody got along great, and even the baby liked the food! We laughed and talked and ate for hours until (maybe even after) they closed for lunch, and my mom brought in ladoo (traditional celebratory sweets) and shared it with the whole restaurant! Definitely a highlight. - Clara

6. About Time. From the people who did Love Actually, I should have expected nothing less. It's billed as a "romantic drama" but it's really comedic and British and beautiful and it just says a lot about life, and family, and how we use our time, and what is important. Definitely recommend. - Clara

7. Well-deserved vacations. My parents headed off to a resort in Mexico this weekend. They never go on vacations (their last one was in 2004) so this is huge! They both work so hard, and it's so great to see them finally spend some time away to relax. - Cassie

8. Picking out paint colors. Luke and I are moving into a new apartment in a week or so. Our new landlords are painting the walls for us and are letting us choose the colors! After living for 2 and a half years in an apartment with all white walls I am so excited to be surrounded by color. Being able to choose our own colors is really going to make the new place feel like home so much more quickly. - Cassie

9. Membership at the local co-op. A couple years ago I became a member at the co-op in my neighborhood. Every time I go there to buy produce or organic products I leave feeling great! The people that work there are so friendly, and it feels like I'm part of the community. They also have amazing produce so that doesn't hurt. - Cassie

10. Going with the flow. I'm a planner by nature so sometimes when things suddenly crop up I have a hard time. However, when I'm forced to be more flexible things inevitably end up going well. Though it's hard for me I'm always grateful when things pop up that force me to be more easy-going. It's never good to have everything planned out all the time - even a planner can admit to that :) - Cassie



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Thank you, readers, for being with us tonight, and for giving me reasons to write, and things to write about.

And thanks for joining us every Sunday night! Join the Baby Steps on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for good things every day, and updates on new posts. Come back next week for another reminder of 10 more things to be thankful for!

Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile!

posted from Bloggeroid

all good things of earth and sky

All Good Things started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and my radio co-host Cassie. We both contribute things to the list, so I'll tell you who said what to avoid confusion.

So get cozy and get ready for this week's batch of good things!

1. Song of the week: Happy by Pharrell. This song is everywhere lately, and it just makes me want to dance! Clap along...

2. Cosmos. I didn't watch the original series, but I've been hearing about the new series in a lot of different places lately. The full-color back cover ad in the WSJ caught my attention, so we found Sunday's episode on Hulu and watched it on date night this week. The universe is so cool. - Clara

3. Chesapeake City. Yesterday my friend Marina and I drove down to Chesapeake City to check out a venue. We didn't realize they were about to have a St. Patrick's Day parade and pub crawl right when we arrived, so the whole town was covered in bright green and sparkles! Theweather was gorgeous, and everyone was in high spirits. The town is so cute too, you can see the whole thing from the bridge when you come in over the bay! - Clara


4. BuzzFeed Quizzes. I am obsessed with these lately (and the ones on Zimbio are pretty good too). What Hunger Games/Harry Potter/Princess Bride/Firefly character/mythological creature are you? Can't get enough!

(Also, if you were wondering, I'm Peeta, Dean Thomas, Inigo Montoya, Wash, and the Phoenix.) - Clara

5. Fresh baked granola. I usually take granola and yogurt for breakfast when I go to the gym in the morning, and my granola jar was getting empty this week. So I whipped up a new batch and it's so crispy and delicious... And it makes the whole house smell like honey and molasses and toasty oats! - Clara

6. Attilio's. This Italian restaurant is just a few blocks from my house, and it's legendary. Neither J nor I had been there, though, until this week, when we finally made it over there for some of the best Italian food I have ever had at a restaurant. Yummm! - Clara

7. Our radio show AGT! I was listening to MPR a lot this week at work, and I started browsing their DJ list. They have written bios of each DJ so I was reading each one. I miss AGT a lot, but I was so nostalgic after reading those bios! It reminded me of how much we got to share with our (small) audience. The songs we played and the good things we shared allowed me to start my week on such a high note. - Cassie

8. Bunnysitting. Luke and I are bunnysitting for my friends, Mitch & Kristy, this week. Noah, the bunny, can really drive me crazy sometimes--how does he always find a way under the loveseat?!?!?. But when he hops up to me and nudges at my hand letting me know he'd like some petting my heart melts like a Popsicle on a summer day. - Cassie

9. Thanks to our amazing friends and family members Luke and I were able to buy a cappuccino machine with some wedding money. We are HUGE coffee drinkers so though this was a large purchase we'll definitely get our money's worth. I was a barista in a former life, and it's been so fun to teach Luke how to tamp the grounds and froth the milk. We've been making lattes, cappuccinos, and miels every day! - Cassie

10. Double features. This Friday I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel at the Uptown theater at 9:30ish. It was a super funny and ridiculous movie. Also, the Uptown theater really did a great job remodeling over the summer/autumn, but I digress. Right after that the Lagoon had a midnight showing of The Royal Tennenbaums. It was so wonderful to enjoy 2 hilarious Wes Anderson movies on the big screen in one night. Also the midnight showing was nearly empty so I could put my feet put up and laugh as heartily as I needed to :) - Cassie

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Thank you, readers, for being with us tonight, and for giving me reasons to write, and things to write about.

And thanks for joining us every Sunday night! Join the Baby Steps on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for good things every day, and updates on new posts. Come back next week for another reminder of 10 more things to be thankful for!

Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile!

posted from Bloggeroid

all good things: keys to happiness

All Good Things started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week.

Sit back and enjoy!

1. Song of the week: Let Her Go by Passenger. This is the song that has been stuck in my head all week long... probably because it's playing on the radio almost every time I turn it on. After song of the week, I officially name it overplayed.

2. The Princess Bride. My local Regal Cinema is playing classic movies on Sundays and Wednesdays this winter, and last night it was Princess Bride which is one of my all-time favorite movies and the first thing J and I really connected on when he was still just Coffeeshopcrush. So of course we went to see it for date night and it was really cool to see it on the big screen, surrounded by middle-aged couples who were quoting the movie and laughing hysterically the whole time.

3. New shoes. I signed up for the Spartan Sprint again this year, and I thought a new pair of running shoes would be a good way to kick off six months of training. I got some New Balance trail running shoes and took them for a spin around the neighborhood this afternoon. They are awesome.

4. Opus No. 1 by Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel. I turned on NPR this afternoon on the way back from DSW, and This American Life was on with a story about tracking down a song somebody had stuck in his head endlessly. The song ended up being some obscure hold music from Cisco, and it's super 80s and kind of haunting. I put it on repeat while I ran this afternoon and it has a nice feet-on-the-pavement beat to it... With plenty of synth over top.

5. This article from Slate about the "Do What You Love; Love What You Do" mantra. I rarely read an article and find myself or my perspectives immediately changed. But this article made me think, and while I'm not making any rash decisions about my professional life I suspect I will find myself approaching work, and the way I talk about it, differently.

6. Getting back on the horse. My workout routine came this close to extinction through the end of last year, but this week I went to three classes and ran a couple of times. It feels good to get moving again.

7. We got WiFi! Our friends and family have been very concerned about our lack of internet and cable, particularly since we moved. To be honest, I have really enjoyed not having it; but it does make a lot of things hard, and it makes our house less of a draw for friends to come and hang out. So now we have it, and it's been awesome. Now I just have to work on not letting it take over my life...

8. Cleaning. We're mostly moved in to the new place, but there are of course a few things still out of place. So today I did a bunch of actual cleaning, to make way for organizing and nesting that needed to be done. It's not quite finished yet, but I'm really satisfied with the progress I've made.

9. The New Castle Farmers' Market. This place is a local legend in New Castle County where I live, but I have only ever been there on Sundays 'til now, which means the Amish section has always been closed. This time we went on Saturday, and got some great stuff. This includes a couple of delicious New York strip steaks that J then cooked on the charcoal grill that came with our new house. Yummm.

10. Surprising conversations. I went to church this morning, and had a few surprising and really fulfilling conversations with people. I laughed with two people I haven't laughed with before, and talked about happiness and shared perspectives I never expected to share.



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Thank you, readers, for being with us tonight, and for giving me reasons to write, and things to write about.

And thanks for joining us every Sunday night! Join the Baby Steps on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for good things every day, and updates on new posts. Come back next week for another reminder of 10 more things to be thankful for!

Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile!

posted from Bloggeroid

all good things: brave little toaster oven

All Good Things is a weekly feature on the blog. It started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and my radio co-host Cassie. Sit back and enjoy!

1. Song of the week: The Twist by Chubby Checker. Went out with some friends this weekend (which I rarely do) and checked out the relatively new Jameson Whiskey Bar at Kelly's (the new upstairs venue at Kelly's Logan House in Trolley Square). They had a fun band playing and I finished out the night twisting like nothing else existed. Because it's important to let go every now and then and dance like nothing else exists.

2. Constant Comment. Constant Comment is a classic. Lately it's been the only tea I want to drink. It's warm with the perfect amount of spice for fall.

3. "WE STILL DEVELOP 35MM FILM." Every morning on my way to work I drive past Walgreen's, which has a huge digital sign out front about developing film that for some reason strikes me as hilarious.

4. Ciao. On Friday J. and I went for a walk/run in the park and afterward strolled around Trolley Square looking for houses for rent. We didn't find any rental signs, but we did walk past this tiny, acute-triangle-shaped pizza joint that inspired us to get slices. It was some of the best pizza I've had in awhile.

5. Much Ado About Nothing. We got Joss Whedon's latest from RedBox, mostly because Nathan Fillion is in it, but I don't always have super high expectations for film adaptations of Shakespeare. But I was pleasantly surprised at the whole thing. I had read that Whedon took the whole script as-is, only adding one scene at the very beginning that of course changed the entire tone of the plot... but I didn't hate it. It actually added an interesting spin. I didn't like the black-and-white at first, but by the end it had grown on me. Amy Acker was excellently cast as Beatrice, plus some other members of the Whedon universe. Overall I thought it was pretty great.

6. Toaster ovens. I can confidently name this as the most genius appliance ever invented. You can make toast in it, heat leftovers, bake frozen pizza, keep stuff warm, and make food from scratch (quesadillas, baked potatoes, and fish, to name a few). Just fantastic.

7. One of my Really Important People got married this weekend. I wasn't able to make it, unfortunately; but it's particularly cool because this marriage wouldn't have been legal this time last year. Thanks to Minnesota, the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriages.

8. Reunions. An old family friend from Upstate New York got a sponsorship to do some work this week at Winterthur, a beautiful facility just a few minutes up the road from us. So this week, my mom and I met up with her for dinner at Nirvana, a Fine Indian Restaurant in Independence Mall. It was so good to get to catch up with her, and have some grown-up girl time.

9. Federal Donuts. I was introduced this weekend by J.'s brother, his fiancee, and her best friend, who fondly refer to it as "Fed 'Nuts" and tout the virtues of the donuts, the coffee, the fried chicken. Really, everything was delicious. I ate three donuts total, six different flavors: some more predictable cinnamon-sugary ones, and some like vanilla lavender, blackberry anise, and mango coconut. Plus, the place itself is earthy-cute in a way that places in Minneapolis are earthy-cute, but not many places in Delaware are. I am its latest fan.


10. People like to help each other. I posted a picture of my "save the bottle caps" jar on Instagram this weekend and within a few minutes I had two offers to send bottle cap collections for my project. Pretty cool.


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Thanks for joining us this Sunday night! Stick with me on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for updates on new posts and other stuff about new adulthood. Come back next Sunday night for a reminder of 10 good things that haven't happened yet, and on Wednesday night for a more in-depth reflection on post-grad life. Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile.

posted from Bloggeroid

all good things: arts and culture and local pride!

All Good Things is a weekly feature on the blog. It started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and her radio co-host Cassie. Sit back and enjoy!

1. Song of the week: Glad You're Here by Macy Gray. This song has been on the BodyFlow playlist the past two weeks, and it makes me smile every time. I always feel like closing my eyes and swaying.

2. The Brandywine Festival of the Arts. This is an annual local arts festival with all manner of crafts: clothes, jewelry, home decor, gifts, yard embellishments, ceramics... Beautiful things and great culture. I went yesterday with a friend and the weather was perfect. We also discovered local duo Nalani & Sarina. Twins, my age, with voices like Joss Stone and a vibe like Andy Grammer.

3. Fresh mojitos and soul food. When J. got home in the afternoon I started cranking out mojitos with fresh mint from the backyard. So refreshing! And then we made cornbread, fried chicken and roasted okra from the CSA last week, and corn on the cob my mom got us from a local farmers' market. Yummm!

4. Triple chocolate hill. We rescheduled date night for Friday this week, and made a reservation (which we never do) at Iron Hill Brewery on the Riverfront. The food and the beer are always good there. I had a really rich, delicious triple and J. had a toasty dunkel. But then we splurged on dessert: chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and peanut butter-caramel sauce. Plus, 75 cents of it goes to NCCF and 75 cents to each location's local charity of choice: in this case, the Be Positive Foundation. Feel good dessert all around.

5. The library. They have free internet, AND books, AND movies, AND full seasons of awesome TV shows I wouldn't otherwise get to watch. For example...

6. Parks and Rec. I caught an episode of this at someone's house, and found the first season at the library, and powered through five episodes on Wednesday night while vegging out HARD. Something I never let myself do... And it's so funny! (Plus, Aubrey Plaza, who plays April, is a native Delawarean!)

7. Figuring out football...bit by bit. It was on at J.'s parents' house today and I was miraculously able to stay focused on it, and it made some sense! It's still not something I would choose to watch, but I like sort of knowing what's going on at least.

8. Going the Distance. A chick flick that J. actually likes, but I hadn't seen in full until this week. Also very funny and feel-good. And Justin Long and Drew Barrymore are a lovely unlikely pairing.

9. Cleaning up the road. My dad's church has adopted the highway in their neighborhood, and we go out once a month or once every other month, and then we have church and breakfast and it's a really nice community event. And today, I got J. up and out and all the church ladies were telling me how handsome he is and how glad they were to see him at church. Which also made me happy.

10. Cassie's bridal festivities! Sadly I missed the parties yesterday but it sounded like there was a good time in store for that girl. And she definitely deserves it!

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Like second set of baby steps on Facebook at www.facebook.com/theBabyStepsSaga! New posts show up there first, plus other articles about post-grad life, plus teasers and other important information. Thanks for reading! Tune in next Sunday for more All Good Things, and come back Wednesday for my latest reflections on being a "new adult."

all good things: labor day edition

All Good Things is a weekly feature on the blog. It started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and her radio co-host Cassie. Sit back and enjoy!

1. Song of the week: Entertaining Angels by the Newsboys. This song was a standby back in my Christian rock days, but I got a hankering for it again yesterday after reading this in church: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing this some have entertained angels without knowing it." (Hebrews 13:2.) The thought of entertaining angels just struck me immediately. And then my dad said in the sermon, "Angel means a messenger of God," and went on to talk about a beggar he met once who, he is certain, was an angel and had a message from God to deliver to my father in his time of need. We could be "entertaining angels" at any time, and I for one am always open to important messages from the universe.

2. Days off. Today, for example. Of course they never end up being free and empty as planned, but it's still a day not spent in an office chair and business casual. I hope to go back to work tomorrow feeling recharged, and the four-day week doesn't hurt either...

3. BodyFlow. Our favorite Thursday night Zumba teacher left the Y last week, giving us the kick we've been waiting for to try out new classes on Thursday nights. So this week, I went to BodyFlow, another class offering from Les Mills (creators of the well-loved BodyCombat as well as BodyVibe, BodyPump, BodyStep, BodyAttack, etc.) BodyFlow seems to be the most zen of all of these, and felt like a slightly more fitness-focused version of yoga, with some Pilates, tai chi, and dance influences. Upon leaving, I felt so centered but also as though I had definitely worked my muscles. Plus it's taught by one of my favorite instructors, who kicks ass in Combat and is a zen master in Flow.

4. NJ 40. J. and I drove up to Atlantic City yesterday for his sister's birthday, and instead of taking the interstate we (half-intentionally, half-accidentally) ended up on highway 40 through rural New Jersey. I love this road. It's the same road we took to get to the drive-in movie theater for his birthday last year, and the road itself says America as much as a drive-in movie itself. The road is lined with farm stands, diners, old cemeteries, small-town main streets, yards full of old-school trucks and cars, gorgeous farmland and ponds and bridges. Not a strip mall in sight until we hopped over to the Atlantic City Expressway.

5. Phone dates with old friends. I have an old friend who graduated a year ahead of me at St. Olaf, who calls me a couple of times a year since he left The Hill. It's easily been a year since the last time we talked, but he finally got me on the phone on Friday afternoon and we always hang up feeling like we covered important ground. Because we did.

6. Atlantic City. This can't not make the list this week. I have wanted to visit AC since I saw Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken when I was 4 or 5 years old. And finally made it. J. and I just drove up and had dinner with friends in the main floor of Harrah's casino. I will admit that I was skeptical at first, of all the scantily clad women and rich, unhappy people I expected to see, and did -- but I was pleasantly surprised to see among them people of all stripes, from the most average to the most extreme on every spectrum. And, more importantly, the people we were with were so much fun.

7. R.I.P.D. OK, not a phenomenal specimen of the film industry. But thoroughly enjoyable. It reminds me a little of Ghostbusters, with a hint of those Indiana Jones spoof movies with a nerdy sleuth protagonist (i.e. The Librarian) and goofy cop flicks. The perfect thing to zone out to on a tired Saturday night.

8. Beermosas. The last of the summer beers are sitting in prime sales locations these days, so the liquor stores can clear out their stock and make way for the pumpkin ales and Oktoberfests. (Speaking of pumpkin ales, Southern Tier's famously delicious Pumking is out and the cases cost $100 at Frank's Wine, around the corner from us. Crazy... But so good!)

Anyway, among the late-blooming summer beers is a Yards limited edition saison, which is light and dry and a little hoppy-spicy, and tastes delicious in a 50-50 ratio with orange juice. Voila! The beermosa.

9. The dog next door. His name is King and he is the king of great. He is a mutt but he has beautiful long red hair and shiny eyes that will melt your heart. The neighbor says he recognizes our cars and he always gets to his feet and starts grinning when he sees us coming. "Gotta pay the toll!" his master always says when we stop to pet him before unlocking the front door.

10. Family. As we speak Jason is helping his cousin dig out the drains of the pool she is filling in. First of all, it has been great having a pool to hang out in, especially on the Fourth of July. But it's also great to have people you can call in a hurry to help you dig out your pool drains. It's also been great hanging with my sibs before the two middle ones go back to college tomorrow for fall semester. And of course the baby. And having double dinner invitations tonight... Also, our great group in Atlantic City was made up mostly of siblings, and of the kind of friends who become family after so long.

And without these kinds of people, the ones you're blood related to and the ones you've just decided are about as good as blood-related, well... what's the point?

* * * * * * *
Like second set of baby steps on Facebook at www.facebook.com/theBabyStepsSaga! New posts show up there first, plus other articles about post-grad life, plus teasers and other important information. Thanks for reading! Tune in next Sunday for more All Good Things, and come back Wednesday for my latest reflections on being a "new adult."

all good things: people and details

All Good Things is a weekly feature on the blog. It started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and her radio co-host Cassie.

1. Song of the Week: Listened to Faithfully by Journey today (an All Good Things classic!) It reminded me of our Journey paper in Senior Sem with Tom when he suggested we name our papers after Journey songs/lyrics. I named mine after the Faithfully lyric when Steve Perry sings "Ooo-whooaa-ooooooo-OOO" at the end. I thought it was the funniest thing ever :)

2. Visits from friends. One of my first friends from college, Lisa, came up from Baltimore this weekend and even just spending some really mundane time together recharged my heart and soul.

3. Sisters' night. On Friday night my two baby sisters (and by "baby" I mean they are not far from 20) spent the night. We ate Boston Market and watched Friends and then spent most of Saturday talking about important things and life. My family is really the coolest.

4. Perfect timing. On Wednesday night, after the great blogging fiasco of July 2013, Jason and I raced up to grab dinner before the 8:20 movie. We got to the restaurant at 7:50 and made it to the ticket booth at 8:30... And got decent seats in the theater halfway through the previews.

5. Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. Delicious smoky-tasting pizza and savory, salty wings. Also beer, interesting decor, good background music, and pleasant, quick service.

6. Making new connections. Saturday night Jason and Lisa and I were talking about going out when I got a text message from a girl I met a few weeks ago at the Electric Run, asking if we wanted to get drinks in Trolley Square. So we went, and met up with her and her crew, and I remembered how much I love getting to talk to new people and expand my horizons. So worth it.

7. Orange is the New Black. (Netflix television show). Luke and I started watching it this weekend, and I really enjoy the show! It's completely different from a lot of the things on television nowadays. I really love how woman who are normally cast as aberrations (lesbians, convicts, ethnicities other than Caucasian) are main characters in this show. We're only 2 episodes in, and the show has been intense, but I like it!

8. Co-cleaning. Luke and I had guests over this weekend and didn't realize how gross our apartment was until like 30 minutes before they were due to arrive. Turns out, when Luke and I put our minds to it we can clean like the wind! It's actually fun to clean with another person, and I think we'll start doing that more often!

9. Napping outside! Spent a lovely afternoon at Lake Harriet Rose Garden on Saturday. I fell asleep on a blanket under a tree and had the most blissful nap ever. Gentle breezes, slow-moving puffy clouds, and fluffy dogs walking past me. It was seriously the perfect afternoon!

10. Baked peaches with brown sugar. In the summer I love cutting peaches (or nectarines or plums) in half, removing the pit, sprinkling brown sugar on them, and baking them. They make the perfect summer dessert with a little fresh whipped cream!

Enjoy the first full week of August, dear readers! See you next time.

all good things: right in the feel-goods

1. Song of the week: Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. I had a Moment with this song on Saturday, when we walked into a bar and wove across a dance floor where every person was smiling giddy and singing along, word for word. Reason to love pop culture: it creates kinship in strange and beautiful ways such as this.

2. The Electric Run. My roommate and I went up to Philly on Saturday for the Electric Run, which was eventually called off because of lightning (talk about electric). I think our time was pretty good, but more importantly we got there in time to finish it without getting electrocuted. Also the lighting design of the run was really cool, the park was beautiful, and the whole thing was a lot of fun.

3. Reuniting with old friends, and making new ones. I joined the run on an old New York classmate's team - we used to live diagonally across the street from each other in Amsterdam, swam together in high school, and used to hang out all the time back in 5th grade. It was fun catching up. Plus, one of her college friends who also ran with us now lives in Newark, Delaware. So hopefully we can meet up in town down here in the near future. I also randomly saw a classmate from St. Olaf in the starting area... Small world.

4. The Delaware State Fair. J and I drove down to Harrington, Delaware, yesterday for the state fair! I love this kind of stuff. Fried food, sugary drinks and shaved ice, cute animals, plaid shirts, jeans, and cowboy boots... Highlights: picking up chicks (pictured), fried pickles, and a great display about environmental consciousness. I'm getting thermal curtains and changing all my lightbulbs to energy efficient ones. 

(On that note, there was an interesting story on NPR this morning about the energy efficiency of ceiling fans, which finished with a crack at hot air in the Capitol and is full of cheesy wordplay. Love it.)

5. Delaware Shakespeare Festival. A bunch of us went to see The Two Gentlemen of Verona on Wednesday night. Even though it was so hot we were dripping sweat just sitting on the lawn watching the show, the production was excellent as usual, plus Wawa sandwiches, wine, good company, and dogs from Faithful Friends! In the play!

6. Promised Land. J and I got this movie from RedBox on Friday night and watched it. It's a complicated film, but we both enjoyed it. More on that Wednesday (tune in!) Plus, John Krasinski is so cute.

7. Going to the zoo with friends. Luke and I went this afternoon to the zoo with some friends. Though seeing some animals in captivity (gorillas) makes me sad, the zoo is a great place to learn about animals and share a fun experience with friends!

8. Eating dinner outside. It's one of my favorite summertime activities! There is something so nice about sharing a meal on someone's patio, deck, or at a restaurant's outdoor area. Also, I love driving around my neighborhood and getting the whiff of someone grilling.

9. Taking a walk in the rain. It was raining when I woke up this morning, and I decided to walk to the gym in the rain. It was so refreshing and soothing! Of course, the smell is lovely too.

10. At my job (legal advocate working with victims of domestic violence) I see women who have been in a relationship with abusive and just all-around not nice guys. This makes me value my relationship with Luke even more than I normally do. It's a nice reminder to not take things for granted.

all good things reprise: episode 17

Another crazy week. This weekend's post is delayed for a number of reasons, mainly too much (good) stuff going on for both Cassie and I. I'll throw together a list now, though, since it's Monday Monday. And you can bet all our excuses will be on it!

1. Weddings! Cassie had a wedding to go to this weekend, which is super exciting.

2. Friends visiting! Also super exciting: my good friend Cat is visiting the East Coast from San Fransisco for a couple of weeks, and has come down here to visit me for a few days!

3. Milestone birthdays! J and his twin brother (weird, right?) turned 30 on Saturday! We threw them a big shindig and I think we can all agree that they were properly celebrated.

4. Trying anything once. We took the guys paintballing on Saturday, which most of us hadn't really done before. We have a lot of battle wounds, but had a great time.

5. Fake mustaches! On Saturday night we all went to a barcade where J bought a ton of stick-on mustaches from the quarter machines and passed them out. I kind of forgot that I had it on after awhile and couldn't figure out why no one could take me seriously.

6. Beautiful Creatures, new in RedBox this week. A captivating and mildly creepy movie with some profound statements about love, magic, beauty, and the good-and-bad-ness of life in general.

7. The beach! Cat and J and I took a day trip to Rehoboth Beach, left super early and spent the day on the beach. I always find sand and sea water and sunshine super therapeutic and healing. Remember how I've been calling for a healer?

8. Happy hour! This makes the list a lot, but this week we went to a new place: Brio at the mall. They have $5 drinks and small plates of food for $3.95!! And outdoor seating!

9. Man of Steel! Saw it on Wednesday and it was AWESOME! I won't say any more, but seriously, see it. Also Superman is way hot in this.

10. Local beer and local beer-related activities! We went to the Dogfish Head restaurant at the beach for lunch and it was a lonnnggg walk from the Boardwalk, but the food and beer was delicious. J's spare rib sloppy joe won food-wise; all three of our beers were phenomenal. Midas Touch, Bratty Swagger, and Tweason'ale. Check 'em out!

Good things in store this week for you? I hope so! Live it up, enjoy what you can, and make the most of whatever else you are dealt.

<3

keep calm and dot dot dot

A couple of weeks go I read a blog post comparing blogs to different kinds of beer. At the time, I thought that baby steps was a stout; now, though, re-reading the post, I think it might actually be more of an IPA: Ales have flavor. Sometimes they’re so hoppy they make your face pucker. You feel them as much as you taste them. These are blogs that make you feel something, too. They have an opinion. They’re not shy. They have passion and a natural voice. They know who they are, and they take a stand. Sometimes they’re negative. Sometimes they’re personal. I think I'm OK with that description, even though the classification is a bit ironic seeing as I am not IPAs' biggest fan. My posts are always personal. I'm tackling the Heavy Seas on a regular basis -- imagine living in my head all the time!

I think the post might have missed some categories, though. Like my classmate Caroline's blog, which I would call light but by no means insubstantial. This blog is easy to "drink," but it still has its own distinct flavor. Every once in awhile you get a hit of something heavier, like homesickness or current events or spirituality, but it highlights the beautiful things in life. We all need a little of that.

This is why I publish All Good Things on Sunday nights now. I admit the weeks get a little heavy sometimes. This week, I've had stress nightmares and anxiety taking up residence in the pit of my stomach. Makes me extra glad I started BodyCombat -- I obviously can't tell you enough how it sends anxiety packing.

I'm also really excited that summer is kicking off hard lately. Two weekends ago, my parents took J and I up to New York to see Rock of Ages on Broadway. We unfortunately couldn't get tickets together, so we saw Mamma Mia! instead. Which did not disappoint.

Plus, Rock of Ages was coming to Philly the next weekend, so I decided that in this case I could have my cake and eat it too. Please note, this is generally the biggest problem in my life right now: trying to take advantage of too many things.

In this case, though, I couldn't have made a better decision. One of my coworkers lives in West Philly, and we were both trying to find someone to go with us to the show on Saturday, without success. So, unashamedly, we became backup friends for Rock of Ages at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, rushed tickets and ended up with front row seats for only $22, and had the time of our lives.

There are a lot of parts of this story that are important: being open and spontaneous, going with the flow, doing something simply because I so badly want it. Even the theme of Rock of Ages is follow your dreams.

Maybe this is what has for so long been compelling to me about the eighties and rock music and dancing. It is antiestablishment, personal, true and a little wild. It is about dreaming and going your own way. (Thanks, Fleetwood Mac!)

And it's just plain old fun.

J and his brother donated an old PS3 guitar to my brother's secondhand Rock Band last weekend. So on Monday, at the weekly dinner, my sister and I got decked out in badass hot pink purple sparkly makeup and rocked out.

I used to dress up all the time. I used to play a lot more. I guess I'm growing up, but there are some things I hope I never forget. I hope there is always something I want so badly it doesnt make sense. I hope I go out of my way for them. I hope I still try new things even if it's not comfortable. I hope I never lose the ability to get lost in dreams and music and dancing (and Shake Shack) for a few hours, and that the real world continues to accommodate magic when I return to it.

P.S. Yesterday, another coworker invited everyone to join him at happy hour at the mall, and in line with this whole post, I thought, sure! I'll finish my post by phone, later.

And here I am, 24 hours and change later, writing something I didn't know I was going to say, but probably really needed to.

all good things reprise: episode 16

Happy Father's Day! Spoiler alert: dads will make the list! But these guys are accompanied this week by a series of other really great things, so hit play and read on...



1. <i>Rock of Ages.</i> I drove up to Philly this weekend to meet up with one of my coworkers for the show. We rushed tickets <i>$22</i> at the Kimmel Center, first row! And the show itself was mind-blowingly, face-meltingly excellent. Everyone around us agreed it was the most fun we've ever had at a show.

2. Philadelphia in general was a great time. Sara tweeted that she was going to convince me to move up there... And I gotta say, I don't hate it!

3. Meanwhile, back in Wilmington, in my neighborhood, in fact, St. Anthony's annual Italian Festival has been in full swing all week (except for the two days it was called off because of extreme weather). The festival features carnival rides and games, Italian food, carnival food (deep fried Oreos, anyone?!), pizza, beer, music, alcoholic water ice, gelato... So many good things all in one place!

4. Speaking of extreme weather, we worked from home Thursday in anticipation of hail and lightning strikes, etc... Which is always weird (particularly since I don't have internet at my house, and my job is social media) but in this case turned out to be a very good thing as our server got obliterated at the office and was out nearly 24 hours! Plus, I got <i>so much work</i> done...

5. Minor league baseball. We got some free tickets from work to go to the Wilmington Blue Rocks game on Friday night. This is great because beer and corndogs cost approximately half as much, on average, as they do at the big league games I've been to. And, after the game, there are fireworks!

6. <i>Cloud Atlas.</i> This movie was not so excellently rated, but J and I RedBoxed it last night and actually really enjoyed it! For a three hour movie, I was actually quite enthralled throughout... That is, after we turned on subtitles. (They tried to use a lot of different dialects and accents, some of which are fabricated, and it was really hard to follow.) I like the theme, though.

7. Alarm songs that make you smile when they go off in the morning. I for one need all the help I can get getting out of bed in the morning!

8. Family. Some of my dad's cousins swung through town on Friday, and came up to where I work to take my lunch break with me! I also got to spend some time with my sister this afternoon; she helped me wash my car and we talked. Also, my grandma sent me a note about healing, in reference to my last post... And J's family is also pretty great. It's always a good time when we spend our afternoons over there :)

9. ...But ESPECIALLY fathers, and grandfathers, and godfathers, and all the other men in our lives! My dad is great and I am lucky to have him. It's nice being around now, too. I'm also lucky to have a lot of other great dads in my life: two living grandfathers, J's dad, his brother-in-law who is celebrating his first ever Father's Day! And more than a few of my friends' dads scattered all over the country and the world. Thanks, guys!

<i>Cassie is taking a break from All Good Things this week because she is spending time with her dad. Totally acceptable!</i>

10. Sunsets like this one can really bring closure to the day.

my life be like

Whirlwind as usual.  There are some interesting progressions going on these days, as my lifestyle continues to be shaped and to shape itself like wet sand, or something like that, something that has a mind of its own.

Let me follow up on my promises from last time.


Wanderlust was hilarious.  One, because I love Paul Rudd, and his awkward super-deadpan.  Also because the wild hippie parties remind me of certain parts of my life, or of a mishmash of different parts of my life.  Like a combination of our family Christmases in the Canadian wilderness when I was little and my sophomore year of college, which involved a lot of pink lights and guitars and spinning and people suddenly becoming vegetarian.  (The vegan thing didn't really pick up steam 'til junior year.)  I also can't knock the whole "enjoy your life, roll with the punches, and don't take the people you love for granted" overtones.

My friend Carly (the first person my age I met in Delaware) regularly uses the hashtag #iworkinanoffice, which I love for the same reason I love meeting Kristy after our 9-5 jobs to do grown-up evening things like working up a sweat at the Y, checking out a new happy hour, or looking at home decor and beachwear at Burlington Coat Factory.  (Foreshadowing!)  It makes me feel capable, independent, successful, and mainstream--satisfying my thinly-veiled inner meta-hipster.

ANYWAY.  One thing that I kept forgetting to use the #iworkinanoffice hashtag on this week was our new office percolator!  We used to use one of those single-cup pod coffeemakers but recently decided to backtrack out of the space age in favor of a more economical, if retro, coffeepot, and this week it has been the hub of activity and excitement in the office.  So here I am, once again coerced into a minor coffee addiction for social reasons.  My mom tells me the proverbial water cooler plays more of a social role in the life of an organization than a hydrating role.  Ours has a stimulant infusion, sometimes pushing OD-levels of caffeine sludge, and I'm told this is bringing me more officially into the World of PR.

All of the numerous "you-know-you're-in-PR-when" lists feature some version of the "caffeine-alcohol-repeat" mantra (it's #20 on this list), so in the spirit of fully experiencing my career path I also experienced my first-ever happy hour this week.  The only reason I planned to go out on Monday (usually my designated Night In) was because it was Jess' birthday and she told me on Friday she wasn't doing anything to celebrate.  Naturally I couldn't let this happen so I invited her and Kristy out to happy hour at Shellhammer's, where J. goes a lot with the guys he works with.  As it turns out, Jess had a date with her boyfriend, but Kristy and I decided it couldn't hurt to go anyway and check out the venue.

Note that the specials board I linked to boasts $3 Captain Morgan drinks, but they're now $4.  No big deal, really, but we went for Absolut, bartender's choice, since like good girls we usually go for the fruity stuff when we go out together.  This will change come summer, when I wean Kristy onto beer, but for now she is encouraging me to ask bartenders for recommendations and suggestions.  Next step is asking them what exactly they've made us, because we had to play a guessing game this time, which I won with the peach Absolut in grapefruit juice combo.  Surprisingly delicious, and light.

Definitely not light, but still delicious, are Tuesday night nachos.  Klondike Kate's on Main Street has half-price nachos every Tuesday, so every other week the That's-What-She-Saiders get together there, thanks to Craig, O Great Organizer.  The in-between weeks are yoga nights.  I'll bet you can guess which kind of Tuesday makes me feel less like I need to go to detox.  I might have to go for a salad next time, even though the BBQ-Ranch pile of chips and whatnot is delicious.  Plus, even the small takes care of my lunch the next day.

I eat out all the time these days.  It's getting out of hand.  After eating leftover nachos for lunch on Wednesday, I dropped Maria off at band practice and met up with J. at the co-op, which featured half-price organic chocolate bars through the month of February--and Wednesday was the last day in Februrary.  As if by divine intervention.

Unfortunately they had run out of the kind I wanted so instead we got all-vegan sandwiches from the cooler for supper.  Only because there weren't any non-vegan options.  Jason got a falafel wrap which I think he quite enjoyed, and I got an avocado "chickn" wrap.  The quotes were included on the label, fyi.  There was no chicken in the wrap.

I know I'm supposed to be a hippie, and I will pretty much inhale several giant vegan chocolate chip cookies, but I straight-up distrust things that claim to be something other than they are.  At least the wrap was up-front about lying about its identity, but still.  Why couldn't it just say, right out, "avocado soy product wrap?"  By all means.

After reluctantly enjoying our well-balanced, earth-friendly sandwiches (OK, OK, after I reluctantly enjoyed mine; J. wasn't that reluctant about it) we headed out to Maryland to State Line Liquors, which is the most giant and heavenly place I have ever been.  It's kind of like my beloved Firehouse in Northfield, but bigger and with a warehouse-level selection of wines and beers.  Plus it's family-owned, which is cool, and everybody there knows their shit.  I found my fave, Old Dominion Oak Barrel Stout, and found that it has the COOLEST caps: they look like Harry's Patronus.  They will make some baller earrings.  Jason also helped me pick out a few good options for Kristy's beer-weaning.  More to come on that.

Also, it's weird how close we are to Maryland.  And Philly, and Jersey.  Small state.

Takeaway messages from this week:

• It's good to have good girlfriends.
• Also good to have traditions, like Zumba & Applebee's Thursday nights, 1/2 price nacho Tuesdays, and watching ABC on Monday nights with the fam.
• I do pretty much everything for social reasons: I drink coffee when it suits me socially.  I like drinking certain drinks because they remind me of someone.  I think of the Sunny V Summer every time I get BBQ-Ranch nachos because Ann and I ate ranch dressing on EVERYTHING.  It's easier to work out with a buddy.  Easier, and more pleasant, to do almost everything with somebody else.
• BUT I really need to remind myself that I desperately need to take time for myself.  DO THIS CLARA.  GO.

Pumped now to go out tonight, and when I get back my brother will be home for the week!  Look for more fun to come.

damn, girl

I am tired.  This is mostly because I am a woman about town.  I'm struggling to frame this post as more than just a sort of dazed review of what I've been up to lately.

Thursday nights have turned into Zumba-and-Applebee's nights with my girl Kristy.  We get our dance on, and then cart our sweaty selves up Kirkwood for half-price drinks and appetizers after 9pm.  It's great.

This week, though, Kristy was in Ohio, so I went to Zumba solo and then went to the late show of This Means War with J.  The movie was pretty much exactly what I was looking for: sexy, funny, mind-numbing enough but with some satisfying original twists and well-placed explosions.  The relationships and character motivations could have been more satisfyingly developed but the movie pretty much did its job so I can't really complain.  Here's the trailer, if you're interested.

Friday night the youth group at church had a lock-in.  (For legal purposes I must clarify that we were not actually locked inside the church; it was pretty much just a sleepover.)  It was actually a lot of fun.  Strange, though, that I am now officially a youth chaperon rather than a youth group member.

(Also... is chaperon really spelled without an 'e' at the end?  I never knew...)

I was really tired from being out so late on Thursday and working all day Friday, and dinner took forever to cook...  So I kept trying to get everyone to sit down and watch a movie so I could casually pass out.  But everyone wanted to play games, which ended up being way cooler and a riotous amount of fun.  One of the best games of Cranium I have ever played.  Also, C for Cool was the best team.  Way to go Chris!

Finally we staked out our sleeping spots (everyone, of course, trying to claim the couches hours in advance) and put in Secondhand Lions, which is a great movie.  Unfortunately our copy is a little scratched and the DVD player is old and missing a remote, so it was tough to get it going; finally I managed it (who put me in charge of running any kind of technology, I don't know) and promptly passed out.

An hour or so later, 15-20 minutes from the end, I got up from my slumber, turned off the TV power, and immediately fell back asleep -- leaving my dad, Andy and Roberto sitting in the dark saying, "Um... I guess we're not going to see the end of the movie..."  I didn't remember this in the morning, but I won't be forgetting it any time soon seeing as they will never let me hear the end of it.

Last night was girls' night.  Kristy survived the trip back from Ohio and Carly managed to make it up from Dover to go out with us.  We are the perfect trio since all of us are perpetually late for everything.  So no pressure.  After our divine classic Charlie's pizza, we rock-paper-scissorsed to see who would drive blindly toward Trolley Square, which none of us had ever successfully visited before.

After a bit of aimless weaving through dark downtown Wilmo streets, we managed to find Trolley Square, and, more specifically, Catherine Rooney's, an Irish pub apparently featuring two dance floors.  And we'd been told there is no real dancing in the entire state of Delaware.  I mean, it wasn't a rave, but it was a lot of fun.  None of us have gone dancing in forever, but we've definitely still got it...*

*See title...

The weird reality check was that we got 3 rounds of drinks for about $60.  We're not in Northfield/Newark anymore, Toto.  (So hold the line -- because like Kristy, Carly, and myself, love is almost never on time.)  We're in a city, at a grown-up bar.  And this grown-up bar featured a startlingly wide range of ages.  A middle-aged couple pretty much gettin' it on on the dance floor, for example.  Lots of meticulously curled hair, too.  I think our trio was pretty well-matched as far as badass, down-to-earth, really cute and fun girls go.

Ever since Audrey's and my encounter with the Santa Crawl back in December, I have been wanting to do the Wilmington "Loop" -- where school buses are provided to take patrons to bars all over downtown Wilmington.  Somehow I have managed to never do a pub crawl, and our Rooney's adventure only reinforced my desire to do one.  Even if the drinks are $8 apiece.  Shamrock Shuttle, here I come!

Maybe.

Back at Kristy's we decided to make some Ghirardelli chocolate chip brownies to go with our G&Ts that only got strong down at the bottom.  I guess I didn't stir them well enough.

We slept well enough, though, and in the morning discussed our different family structures, passed around the cats, and conceptualized a few memes all before breakfast.

Breakfast, just the way I like it at the Marsh Road Diner.  A classic diner for a classic Sunday brunch, classically decorated with posters of Italy, Italian art, and other proud specimens of Italian heritage.  Delicious omelet, peanut butter/chocolate chip pancakes, home fries, scrapple, tea, endless coffee refills...  I love my Sunday mornings.  Love my diners.  Love my girls.

Coming up: Wanderlust tonight at People's Plaza (another first-time venue for me), Jess' birthday tomorrow (not getting out of that one, girlfriend), and nachos on Tuesday.  We'll see if I can keep my head.

minutiae*

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Wilmington!  It's 50 degrees and sunny today.  The moon is at a fingernail stage (not sure waxing or waning), but it was beautifully centered right above a very bright star last night in a clear navy sky.  And Mercury is causing astrological unrest, which means only one thing: Mischief.

Thanks to the cat, we've pretty much got that one covered around here.

Today is the first day in weeks that I have nothing planned, except to hang out with Asha while Mutti and Papa accompany Maria to her audition in D.C.  (Break a leg, babe!)  First, I can't believe that girl is going off to college already.  I just flipped through our baby books while I was agonizing over what to write about here today, and she was just the cutest baby.  Actually, my brother's baby book is my favorite out of the three (sadly, Asha's is at best a work in progress).  They come in 2-year increments and each one documents the first two years of each of my parents' increasingly adorable children.  Together, they trace the development of our little, bright-eyed family.  We still are bright-eyed, relative to the general population, but not so little anymore.

Anyway, Thomas' album is my favorite.  I think I was the cutest I've ever been during the first two years of his life, and also we were just the best of friends.  There is so much wide-eyed, drooly laughter in that book, as well as costumery and camraderie and a slew of other heartwarming (and often mischievous) incidents.  For example, a four-page spread of a date my parents went on in the mountains of Ecuador c.1993.  They are so young and skinny and pink in the cheeks.  My favorite shot is a rare photo-capture of my mom making an adorable flirtatious face.

I just discovered, though, a spread in the very beginning of my own baby book that for some reason never struck me before.  It features two cards, the kind that come with flower arrangements, addressed in my dad's handwriting, one to me and one to my mom.  (My dad loves buying me flowers, and I love that he loves it, and I'm ecstatic to discover that this adorable gesture dates back to Day One.)  The surrounding photographs suspend me in a moment when I was not even able to hold up my own head, propped in the corner of an armchair that was probably not as big as it looks, making a suspicious face at a bouquet propped in the opposite corner.  As if we are engaged in a deadly game of "Queen of the Armchair."

Judging by the lifespan of your average bouquet, I'll just go ahead and claim the medal on that one.

SO.  Back to the unplanned day.

I decided to celebrate by lying around literally all morning, instead of penning replies to all the letters that are stacking up higher and higher on my bedside trunk, or starting on my taxes.  (Pumped for that, by the way.  Not.)  Then I thought, Look at that gorgeous sunshine!  I will go to bed cranky tonight if I let it slip away.  I went for my first outdoor run since September, and it was almost as warm today as it was back then!

Not really, but it was very warm, and it would be nice if I got a little sun on my face and arms.  I got up the guts to leave my little 'hood on foot, finally, which felt good.  Liberating.  I crossed a bridge over a lovely glittering creek, and circumnavigated a sun-glazed park where cops and other sketchy characters hang out after dark.  Also, my sister and her friends.  Not that I didn't hang out in sketchy parks when I was in high school, but my parents know about her going there and kind of roll their eyes, but don't do anything about it?  I find that weird.

I guess she'd probably go either way, so it's better that they know about it.  (Resisting the urge to hashtag "future parenting dilemmas.")  Also, back in '05 I never would have been allowed to meet up with my friends literally every night this week and stay out 'til everyone else in the house was asleep.  Things change.

This week's features:

• Bowling, and I'm still as bad at it as I've always been.  Although I did get two strikes in a row.  Total fluke, I'm sure.
• Sushi from a cute little shop in a strip mall, followed by froyo in the less anime-ish froyo shop on the block.
• Tried on some assless leather chaps (OVER my jeans!) at Goodwill in said strip mall.
• Nora Lee's French Quarter Bistro in Historic New Castle, which actually did the NOLA thing really well.  I could have been off Bourbon Street the whole time.
• Saw the new movie Contraband, which was not as fast-paced or explosion-happy as I'd hoped.  Fortunately Mark Wahlberg is really nice to look at.
• Some really great raspberry wheat beer at Iron Hill, much better than Shock Top but not quite as good as 75th Street Brewery's raspberry wheat, which was the second beer I had when we went out for my 21st in Kansas City.  That might be an emotional flavor influence though.
• Walking around a ton on the UD campus, mostly.  I am actually getting oriented in that part of town, but I still SUCK at parking.  It helps to have a guide, I guess...  Even if my "guide" did get TWO parking tickets in the span of hours while we wandered.

Now I am VERY SLOWLY defrosting a tub of frozen-solid chicken noodle soup on the stove so Asha and I will have something to eat for "lunch."  Or at least something to complement our slightly stale artisan bread toasted with gouda cheese.  Since when do we eat gouda?

*I dedicate this post to my dear friend Steve, for reasons that should become clear if he can ever get his act together and write a blog post.  Luvz boo.  </3

the 22 review

My personal special edition weekend paper, featuring traffic and sports reports, dining and entertainment reviews, and editorial.

Black Friday morning was stunning, shot through with rays of sunshine like sheets of muscovite.  I got up and out of the house before anyone else even woke up.  Apparently everyone in the mid-Atlantic region was also either still asleep, or being trampled at WalMart, because the roads were so clear, which made the drive very pleasant.  I won't tell you how fast I got to Amsterdam, but I'll just say Mike didn't believe me when I called to say I was half an hour out.

The whole point of leaving so early, if you recall, was to make it to the Annual Turkey Bowl ultimate frisbee game.  The Four Diamonds were covered in mud--foreshadowing for our state a few hours later?  It was so warm people were stripping down all the layers they usually needed to play outside on Black Friday, but a few people refused to shed their traditional Underarmor.  Not that it probably mattered much; everybody looked and smelled just about the same by the end of the day regardless of what we were wearing.

I love AUL, mostly because I love playing anything with that crew; but I might have to learn how to play football by next year because I really miss the tackling that used to be a lot more common before anybody actually knew how to play ultimate.

Maybe I should just learn how to play ultimate.

I hate rules.  And strategy.

As Rich aptly pointed out at dinner, those of us who grew up in Amsterdam (whatever growing up I didn't do there I made up for in passion--I insist!) tended to perceive the Raindancer as this untouchably fancy restaurant, "a five-star joint, like if you went out to eat there, you would probably run into Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z, they go there all the time."

This is not true.  The chances of Jay-Z or Snoop Dogg having even heard of the town of Amsterdam are pretty much zero, even though Jay-Z did grow up in New York.  The chances of any of you, dear readers, having heard of the town of Amsterdam, is nearly as negligible.  Oh, wait--did I mention my hometown to you once?  What's that?  You don't remember?

That being said, the Raindancer historically does hold the position of Amsterdam's "time-tested local 5-star restaurant."  One of the only places in town you ever make reservations for.  It sort of feels like Applebee's, covered in a vinyl cucina-style vodka penne sauce, and garnished with Rainforest Café light strings and plastic ivy.

The food was delicious, although of course there was too much of it, and there were too many people there to focus on eating anyway, and my mojito margarita was too delicious.  I was delighted to see and catch up with a few people I hadn't seen literally in years.

Rich later complained that there was too much reminiscing throughout the evening, a mostly harmless statement I latched onto the same way my parents latch onto my passing comments about persistent absenteeism and feel horribly guilty about it.  The dilemma is, I come back to Amsterdam once a year or so, and usually miss out on seeing half the people I want to see.  When I do run into them, they ask me what I'm up to now and I really can't think of anything I desperately want to share with them about my incredibly mundane life.  So I boomerang the question, hoping they'll tell me what has made them laugh and cry lately, their drinks of choice, who they're constantly checking their text messages for these days, and the latest developments in their life trajectory.  You know, the important stuff.  I just don't quite know how to ask.

Also, there are too many skeletons and too much dirty laundry hanging around after 10+ years together for us to stage a non-awkward dance party, and I have very little interest in drinking games.

Although, come to think of it, my birthday this year has involved what seems like an inordinate amount of icing.  Yes, there was a lot of it on my various cakes...  But I meant the other kind of icing:

A St. Croix Falls friend wisely thought twice about sending this package.
"I like my bread like you like your men: ICED!"
...Or was it coffee?  I forget.

All I wanted was to split a few bottles of wine with a few close friends and sit around and talk!  But instead, predictably, we ended up with a house full of good friends, a mysterious amount of beer, wine, and Ice, and a collective headache for most of Saturday.

It was completely worth it.  As we have found, I refuse to go uncelebrated.

Saturday at the G.W.I.B. (which is on the market! How badly do I want it?!) we decided to go see the movie Hugo in 3D.  I was skeptical, because 3D movies usually give me a splitting headache--as if I needed a headache on my headache!  But it was actually very well-done.  The cinematography and imagery was really beautiful, and despite a few moments of really awkward/unsuccessful dialogue, we all enjoyed ourselves quite a lot.  Rich and I, at least, were laughing, and I'm pretty sure I cried at some point.  Not that that is unusual at all these days.  (I also cried at Ramona and Beezus last week, and yesterday at The Muppets.  Just to put things in perspective.)

On the topic of 3D, Titanic is coming out in 3D and I have never been so excited in my life.

Full circle, back to traffic.  Back to traffic circles?  I took a route sans traffic circles back from Amsterdam, and ended up getting stuck in traffic on the north end of the Jersey Turnpike.  Both Bizz III and I tend to get cranky in stop-and-go traffic, once I get sick of my solo sunroof dance party and eat all my snacks, I start noticing all the weird things her 10-year-old engine does, and freaking out about it, and then she freaks out and stops shifting gears properly.  So I pull off frantically to a rest stop and make a phone call, and by the time I get back on the road traffic has mostly dissipated and the transmission is back in action.  Can we apply this to real life relationships?  Couldn't hurt.

It took me a little longer to get home to Wilmington than it took me to get home to Amsterdam.  (Ha, confused yet?  Welcome to my life.)  But my family was waiting for me and we all went to see The Muppets, which I'd been waiting for with bated breath for WEEKS.  It fulfilled all my wildest dreams.  I laughed so hard, and for so long, especially at all the 80s jokes and the 21st-century celeb cameos (Neil Patrick Harris, John Krasinski, and Zach Galifianakis, to name a few).  It's hard to say whether my tears were a side effect of intense hilarity or of the touching moments interspersed throughout the script.  Lots of real issues addressed in this film.  I definitely recommend this movie to any diehards, and anyone who knows the song "Rainbow Connection," and anyone who watched Sesame Street back when it was still good, and anyone who likes puppets or Jason Segal or Amy Adams or basically any hip young celebrity out there--except Justin Bieber.  Sorry Beliebers, no sightings in this flick.  But you should still see the movie.

I'm feeling a little dazed still, but my feeling after this weekend is that 23 is going to be a good year.  Emotional detox is going well and I could be ready to get back on the horse.  But greater than this is less than three, my mantra/amulet/lucky charm.  I am SO amazed and thankful and just completely blown away by all the wonderful people that make my life what it is, interesting and agonizing and rich and hilarious and drunk and soft, in the case of my brand-new birthday flannel sheets!  This sounds cheesy, but I really mean it.  Everyone was teasing me on Friday night (and every other day of my life) because I kept walking into rooms full of these people and just laughing.  And they would all stop and look at me, because I obviously had no idea what was going on in there before I stepped in.  But all I could say is, "I am so. happy."

The 22 Review brought to you today by my parents, my grandparents, and all my other ancestors, without whom I would not exist; also my homeboys and -girls in the Dirty, especially Mike, who planned everything; and just a general thanks to everyone who made 22 what it was.  I'm investing in 23.  You in?