all good things: on the bright side of life

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: The Fox by Ylvis. Two people sent me this song this week. It's sort of weird...but upbeat, and if you actually listen to the words and/or watch the video it's also kinda cute. A dance beat about animal noises.

2. This flash mob marriage proposal. I have always had a thing for that proposal video trend online; but this latest one is on a whole 'nother level. The fact that it's a same sex couple and that they're trending gives me a ray of hope for humanity.

3. El Toro. A little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place around the corner from us. It's easy to pass by, but it's been making Delaware's Best for 13 years. We got burritos and sangria soda to go and they definitely lived up to their reputation.

4. Water ice. Today I was feeling a little down and out, so J. and I walked to a water ice shop in the neighborhood and it was sunny and I got the tropical flavor and it was perfect. Just what the doctor ordered.

5. Getting stuff done. Yesterday I had plans that fell through, which was actually fine because then I had the whole day to frame the posters I've had lying around, plan out some DIY projects, and listen to my favorite weekend radio shows. Also, today I finally cut my hair after snipping off my individual split ends for at least a month now...

6. The ReStore. Another thing I did yesterday was go to the "new" Habitat for Humanity ReStore. This is a great resource for building and household items. Plus, I feel good about spending my money there because of the work they do.

7. Beautiful weather! On the plus side of everything this weekend, the weather has been gorgeous since Thursday night: sunny, warm but breezy enough to wear long pants or a sweater in the evening, and cool enough to add a blanket to the bed at night.

8. Crocs. So comfy. I don't care if anybody thinks they're ugly, it's all I want to wear lately.

9. Pumpkin. My roommate went to the beach this weekend and left a couple pieces of delicious rich pumpkin cake. Yummm... Also, scones, muffins, lattes, beer, so on and so forth. 'Tis the season.

10. Picking up each other's slack. We all get tired and cranky and worn out and defeated... But that's why we have support networks and communities to help us out. When one of us is tired, the other one makes dinner. Somebody cooks; somebody else cleans. The best is when you just know, without a lot of worry and negotiations, that it will all come out even in the end.

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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 young adult and "conquering the places we live."

all good things reprise: picking up where i left it...

I got called out on not posting All Good Things last night, which is silly because I've been collecting Things to list. To tell the truth, Sunday just isn't the best day to post. My sincerest apologies to those of you who have looked for it the past two weeks. I've got to figure out a way to not miss it.

I've been toying with the idea of posting on Monday, since Monday is a day a lot of us need reminders of the Good Things anyway. So I'm going to try it, starting tonight. Please bear with me! And thank you :)

1. Song of the week: Follow Your Arrow by Kacey Musgraves, who gets mad points for writing catchy cultural criticisms. This track has been inspiring me lately.


2. Guardian angel? I was leaving work in the midst of torrential downpour recently, bracing myself to get soaked on my way to the car... And as soon as I stepped out from under the overhang, the rain slowed to a drizzle! Everyday miracle.

3. Subject: Three Things I'm Grateful For. Recently I've had an email chain going with a couple of brothers from my high school crew. We cover everything from politics to pop culture to food and adventures... My favorite part of these emails, though, has been our round robin lists of "Three things I'm grateful for today." Like All Good Things, but every day.

4. Today's Google Doodle honoring the 66th anniversary of the reporting of the Roswell Incident. Take a stab first, and  if you can't figure it out fast enough (it took me several run-throughs over the course of five hours) read about it on PCmag.com.

5. Brazilian barbecue. A bunch of us went to Fogo de Chao up in Philly last night. I was terrified because everyone was talking about how much food it is... But it turns out you can choose how much you eat, which I happen to be good at, and every bite was in-cred-ib-le. Seriously, I am not a big meat-eater, but this stuff... Wow. That's all I can say. Plus, I had the best capirinha of my life. Yummm.

6. Talking to people with shared hobbies. I went to breakfast with some local writers on Saturday, just to chat. One thing we all have in common is that we are smart and passionate and it is so refreshing to talk about something we all care about. Also, I got to meet and get to know a few new people this time around, which is always a good time.

7. Drinks in jars. I poured a bunch of gin and lemonade and raspberries together into a giant pickle jar last week and we drank it on the Fourth of July. It was delicious. Also, J found an insulated plastic smoothie cup with a straw... shaped like a Mason jar. I am SMITTEN with it.

8. Figs and peaches and crepe myrtle. (This Good Thing courtesy of my mom.) They're just coming into season right now, which means my backyard is about to burst into fruit! Plus, on the Fourth, we were passing around fig spread and goat cheese on crackers, which is my new favorite snack, and I found out that one of J's aunts has a fig tree in her backyard and makes fig spread from scratch and gives it away, because she doesn't like it. So I got on the list. Now the only question is, what will I do with the figs on MY tree??

9. Summer shandy has suddenly come to the East Coast in full force. Which is odd, since I could only find Leinie's shandy at one local liquor store last summer, and now? It's gone up $3 for a 12-pack, and it's prominently displayed in every liquor store I visit (which is a lot) and a bunch of East Coast craft breweries are making it, and you can buy "fresh" shandy at bars and there are ads everywhere, on billboards and on TV. Why the sudden explosion in popularity? J says, "Because you love it and the universe heard that." I know, gross. (But secretly I love it.)

10. Air conditioners! I'm not generally big on AC, but when it's as humid and hot as it's been for the past week, I can tell you I really appreciate it. It's so hard to sleep when the air is a blanket you can't take off. So yesterday I moved into a new room in the house that has an air conditioner, and actually managed to sleep for once. And I didn't even wake up in a pool of my own sweat. Nice.

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.

a conversation about the weather

Conversations about the weather have a bad rap.

Related conversations with a bad rap include: "How 'bout them Yankees?" which I will never be able to replace in my mind no matter how irrelevant it is in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Delaware, Ohio, or any other place I've lived or -ites I've lived among. There will be no "How 'bout them Twins?" or "Go Packs!" or "Da Bears!" for me, no sirree. Not that any of these openers would really whip me into a verbal frenzy. I can't really carry a conversation about sports.

But I can talk about the weather for quite some time. When I was a hall receptionist back at St. Olaf, our collegiate habitat formed the basis for my conversations with most passersby: "Little cold?" "Is it nice out? I might go lay out in the Quad later."

Now, as a young adult (new adult?), it still provides fodder for conversation, even with people I see and talk to on a daily basis and people I have a deeper relationship with. And as it turns out, the weather is actually central to a lot of facets of my life as a young adult. Thus its rampant appearances in small talk, and its centrality in conversation in general. Observe.

***

For the past few days in Delaware we've had temperatures in the mid-80s. That's right. I remember last week leaving for work in 29-degree weather. To me this kind of weather turnaround is somewhat alarming, but according to my Maryland-native coworker this is normal in these parts.

When I ran those 4 miles on Saturday morning, it was probably around 40° when we started running and maybe had reached 50° by the end; yesterday, I did about 3.5 miles around the Newark Reservoir after work at 85° and I will tell you that I felt the difference. It worries me a little to think about the Spartan race in July... But as Jason constantly reminds me, "The mud will help!" I sure hope so! 5 miles in the heat of summer sounds pretty daunting right about now.

Meanwhile, while I'm stealing moments to slip out of my sweater at work, my friends and relatives in Minnesota are wading through several inches of snow. Typical. A friend of mine who now lives in D.C. posted on Facebook this morning: "My facebook feed is alternating pictures of snow in MN and cherry blossoms in DC. Glad I am on the warmer side of things." Hear, hear.

Still, I can't help wondering if these strange weather events have been happening throughout my lifetime or if they are happening more and more as I get older; and if it is the latter, I can't help but worry a little that climate change is happening a lot faster than they told me it would when I learned about it in science class back in fifth grade. I swear I remember having gorgeous spring days, weeks on end, in fact, in March, right in between winter and summer. Am I hallucinating? At this rate, I predict that by the time I have kids, hurricanes will be hitting the eastern seaboard, as far north as Nova Scotia, every fall; most of the U.S. won't get any snow until about March, when we will all get dumped on -- repeatedly; most waterfront towns (rivers and oceans, mostly, but potentially also lakes) will have been chased to higher ground; and Manhattan will be underwater. Not quite The Day After Tomorrow; maybe more like The Decade After This One. Or The Year After Next.

On a personal level, the greatest immediate effect of the sudden weather change is on my mood. I am much, much happier lately. I can attribute this state of mind to a few factors, but I know for a fact a lot of it has to do with the amount of sunshine I have seen in the past few weeks, and the amount of fresh air I breathe on our lunchtime walks at work. Seasonal affect disorder has been on my list of things to blog about for a few weeks now, and now that I feel more steady on my proverbial feet I would like to make a resolution, my readers as witness: next year I will find a way to keep the cold and the shortness of the days from affecting the people around me. I can get through the winter, because I am aware of what's happening throughout the dark months, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel; but it upset me this year how much my cold, dark mood affected my interpersonal relationships. So my resolution for next winter is to raise my mood for the sake of the people I love.

So I am in a much better mood now, but I know the heat gets a lot less fun when summer really gets rolling. For a few reasons.

You remember that summer in St. Croix Falls and the naked days at Sunny V? Well, my house in Wilmington also isn't the most optimal as far as temperature goes. Lots of cracks and drafts. Poorly ventilated. Incredibly inefficient at holding or circulating any ideal temperature. (This also means that the weather has a pretty substantial impact on my utility bill. Now tell me the weather has no impact on our lives.) And, because of the cats, we keep all the doors closed in the house, which cuts off the air circulation even more. My room was already stifling this morning after 3 days of heat. I'm debating whether it would be worse to not be able to breathe when I'm sleeping because of the heat, or because my respiratory tract is full of cat hair. The answer still isn't clear.

And neither are my bronchioles.

Speaking of naked days, I have already realized that my professional wardrobe is not hot weather-optimized. I have about two dresses that are appropriate for work, and one of them is black and has 3/4 sleeves. The other one requires me to wear a sweater, and I wore that yesterday. I'm now stretching my remaining sundresses to their professional limit, by covering them up with sweaters and blazers, and wearing camis underneath them, and wearing flats to make it look like there is less leg sticking out the bottom. This is not sustainable. There is also the dilemma presented by air conditioning, and the fact that I will no doubt contract hypothermia at some point this summer, since there is a vent right under my desk and certain decision makers like to keep the office at least 30 degrees in the opposite direction from the outside temperature. SO, do I dress for the weather outside and freeze to death during the day? Or do I die of heat stroke on my way to and from work and then achieve some semblance of comfort while I work.

There is no end to heat-related dilemmas in my life.

Arguably the most serious of heat-related dilemmas was brought up at a neighborhood association meeting I attended the other night: crime. A few of our local legislators spoke at the meeting and warned us of the correlation between poverty and crime; and I know there is also a strong direct correlation between ice cream sales and crime -- sorry, heat and crime. So if poverty is rising, and the mercury is rising, then crime is likely to rise as well. I'm expecting this to affect me on some level, since I live in the city, just a block off the "bad part of town."

***

Now that I've graced all of your web browsers with some solid weather-related conversation topics, I'd better go soak up what is left of this lovely warm day. For my readers in climes not yet in the throes of spring/summer, I'll enjoy it for you ;)

making plays and kicking ass: a collective biography

Yep.  Seasonal affect order (SAO) is kicking in.  I'm gonna be totally honest here: I hate--hate hate hate!--that my mood is so heavily affected by the weather, but I think my life will be better if I just acknowledge that fact.  Now the key is to remember that next time it gets dark at 4:00pm.

Speaking of getting dark at 4:00pm, happy equinox!  And first day of spring!  (I appreciate the pagan holidays because it never makes sense that winter starts on December 21, and this is the first year that spring has actually beat the equinox to me.  So nail a pizza to a tree, or something, in honor of the equinox.)

OK.  Let's get down to business.  I am in a really good mood if you couldn't tell, in large part due to the awesome holiday weekend that just happened.  (Was St. Pat a pagan? I hope so.)  Here's why: I was house- and cat-sitting for my fam while they hit up Ohio and Indiana for some college visits, so instead of resigning myself to loneliness I decided to fill the house with good people.

My mom suggested I get a keg, but I chickened out.  Jameson tastes wayyy better anyway.

So.  I spent Friday on the edge of my seat waiting for the day to be done so I could meet up with my girls.  Ellen, one of my beloved Olaf Kansans, drove up from D.C.  She, Kristy, and I snagged Audrey off the bus around 8:00, and we headed over to Cosmo's Diner on Maryland Ave.

First off, I was very proud of myself for finding it with very little direction, aside from checking out the map on Kristy's phone before we left home.  Makes me feel like a local.

And speaking of locals, let me add to my list of reasons it rocks dating local boys.  Awhile back I was seriously craving baklava, so J took me to Ali Baba's for $1 baklava.  We also talked about someday trying to make it, which I've heard is quite a feat, and would therefore most likely involve me constantly refilling our wine glasses and him doing most of the work.  Anyway, I took the following picture of a sign on the table and sent it to him:

"Also look what i found!"

And he IMMEDIATELY responded: "COsmos!!!!"

Too great.

Anyway, Cosmo's was awesome.  The bread and the salad alone kicked some serious ass, and my spanakopita definitely did not disappoint (even though I still can't pronounce it).  While we were sitting there, not surprisingly being the most raucous booth in the whole place, the lights flickered on and off, and on and off again, and went out for a second before what we assumed was the generator kicked on.  Meanwhile, a series of dramatic flashes of electricity lit up the skyline outside, vaguely in the direction of my house.  It wasn't really in the direction of my house, but close enough that I set a world record in short-course heart racing.


But we all know I overreact.

After dinner we headed over to W. 4th Street to an 80s-themed arcade bar I saw in Out & About last month: 1984.  It seemed pretty legit, but since I wasn't around in 1984 I can't say for sure.  It seemed like everyone else in there was around in 1984, though.  Unclear in some cases whether they were going to bars in 1984, but still.  One guy watched us all open tabs with the bartender and leaned over to Ellen: "Remember when you had to pay in cash at bars?"

Actually none of  us remember that, because we've only been going to bars for a year or so.  We balanced our pride in being four of the last/best things to come out of the 80s by feeling a little out of place, but nobody made us feel unwelcome.  The bartenders were pretty cool, actually, gave us recommendations and helped us make tough decisions like what our next beer would be.  Among them: Abita Purple Haze, which was the best raspberry wheat I've had since hitting the 75th Street Brewery in Kansas; Evolution Lucky 7 Porter, which kinda stole my heart; Angry Orchard Apple Ginger hard cider, which was by far my favorite cider ever; and the ever-popular Old Dominion Oak Barrel Stout, touted enthusiastically by Audrey as her all-time most favorite beer ever that she can never find but it's here!

Love at first pour

Note that 1984 does not have a full bar, just a killer selection of hipster beers (I could say craft but they're pretty proud of their PBR so I'll widen the net for that) and the Mike's Hard/Twisted Tea varieties.  This threw an interesting wrench in Kristy's beer-weaning, which wasn't scheduled to start until laying-out weather.  She kind of had to jump out of the nest after two cheer beers, and discovered to my shock and awe that she likes hoppy beers, and hates wheat.  Huh.

I'm also fascinated by the fact that their Facebook page ranks way higher than the actual website, which I found on Yelp.  It just opened in early December, and it feels like real-people, on-the-ground management.  Everyone was friendly and familiar and there was a DJ who was spinning actual records, which is awesome.  And I think we secured our street cred from leading a rousing chorus of "TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT! I DON'T WANNA LET YOU GO 'TIL YOU SEE THE LIGHT!"

We stayed there as long as we could, waiting for Karin to report on the status of her late bus from New York.  She got in around 1:30 and since Wilmington is in a metropolitan no-man's land the only two places open at that time of night are IHOP (but only on Main Street Newark) and Denny's on 273.  So we went there, to eat ill-timed breakfast food with all the other drunk people in the state, and catch up a little before Ellen had to head back to D.C. at 6 in the morning.  Far shot from our New York nights of leaving the bar before everyone else at 3:30am...

Saturday, despite Ellen's absence, was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We picked up Anne from the train station at noon and the five of us headed out to Old New Castle to meet Jess.

The most beautiful women in Delaware. I'm sure of it.

As you may have noticed, Old New Castle is pretty much my favorite place ever.  It's that history-romance-cobblestone thing.  (Those are pretty much synonyms, by the way.)  Also the fact that the courthouse steeple is the center of the Delaware circle.

Turns out we were starving by the time we got there, so we stopped for lunch at Trader's Cove, a super cute cafe in an old colonial building with a gorgeous little beer & wine garden out back.  (We deduce it is a popular hangout for theater people, theater people in this case possibly being reenactors...?  Who knows.)  We got grown-up PBJ sandwiches and falafel sandwiches and I got a curry chicken sandwich.  All were very good, and come with adorably sliced fresh fruit, or homemade sweet potato chips.  Noms.

Actually, the colonial building is called Penn's Place--allegedly the place where William Penn slept his first night in New Castle.  (See what they did there? Eh? Eh?)  We think he was 22 at the time, and we postulate that he also ate grown-up PBJ's in his beer & wine garden.  Before he became a Quaker.

Mostly we spent the afternoon in the sun, chatting.  But Jess made us go inside this antique bookstore, a place called Between the Covers, where we all got lost for awhile.  We found some gems in there, like a British first edition Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was going for $250.  Other books were worth tens of thousands of dollars.  Nuts.  For the literary crowd we are.

Old Town shuts down right around 5:00, so after the bookstore closed we meandered back to the house for the night.  J and some of his friends eventually came over and I could not have been happier at how the night went down.  Good number of good people, good drinks, good food, good times.  Just so satisfied.  Also, I love my friends.

And Jameson.

On Sunday I got up and made this gorgeous brunch, with the help of my gorgeous friends.  I love, love, LOVE hostessing.  Seriously.  And we were about to linger over brunch for a half hour or so, since Karin's bus left at "noonish."

Ha.

We were going around the table, stating our goals for the day, and Karin said, "My goal for today is to get to my bus with 30 seconds to spare."  We all laughed, and I said, "I'd like to give you a little more time," and Anne said, "Wait, what time does your bus leave?"

Karin looked at her watch, cooly, and said, "8 minutes from now?"

All five of us exploded from the table.  I just grabbed my keys, even though I was still in my PJs, and Karin and I zoomed off to the bus station (which is at least 10 minutes away--that usually seems close, but not under the circumstances).  I actually made very good time, without making any highly unsafe traffic decisions.

And the bus was still parked in front of the station when we got there.  Sigh of relief.

Turns out, they had severely overbooked the bus, so I waited in the car while Karin rescheduled her ticket for 2 hours later.  None of us were complaining at all about the extra hours with our girl.  And we all voted to just sit around and chat.  So we really lingered over brunch.  And chatting.  And grilled cheese sandwiches.

The thesis and theme of the weekend is, as usual, love.  A weekend with any and all of these girls never fails to leave each of us refreshed, encouraged, invigorated.  Content.  And contentedness has not been a particularly common feeling in any of our adult lives.

These friendships are so important, and what I have come to appreciate this weekend is that they are developing adult friendships, relationships that have moved beyond the bounds of our student status, Cage raging and research projects.  We have continued to support and affirm each other in very real ways in a very real world, and I have no words to express how valuable these grownup friendships have been to me so far this year.  They have surprised me, pleasantly, and given me the strength I've needed to come as far as I have since graduation.

This is not unusual for us.

Anne also mentioned laughter.  We laughed this weekend.  We laughed reminiscing about laughing in Buntrock, at Cage tables, at inopportune moments, in our weird but contagious choir, echoing and magnifying in the huge atrium student center.  She told us about a mutual friend, Hannah, who has started doing smiling meditation, and all the awkward moments that have come from her smiling outwardly for 5 minutes straight, for no apparent reason.  It struck me that I spend most of my days pursing my lips, squinting at my computer screen, hunching over in my supposedly ergonomic office chair, my right hand stiffening in its grip on the mouse.  So I started smiling for five minutes on my drive home everyday.

It's distracting, but it's evidence of how powerful and important these connections and conversations are in our lives if we are to be happy and successful.  And they are like a yeast starter: They build on themselves and spread to other people.  It gets easier and easier to reconnect with these women every time we meet up and say goodbye again.  Also, these relationships brought a new light and depth to some of my important local relationships, and I am ecstatic to have been able to share all these incredible people with each other.

Not to mention, the house was cleaner when they left than when they showed up.

My next goal is to make everyone move to Wilmington...

stream of sunshine consciousness

A few things.

I've noticed the past few days, driving down my street at around 5:00pm, a middle-aged couple walking together in the blinding late afternoon sunshine.  Single file to let me and other cars pass.  I hope that, 30 or 40 years down the line, or 50 or 60, for that matter, I am doing this.

After I passed them I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw the man reach out and take the woman's hand.

I really hope I am doing this in my future.

Asha has gone out rollerblading.  I'm sitting on the back steps photosynthesizing the last warm rays of the day, basking in the alchemy of sunbeams into smiles beaming across my face.  I can't help it.  I almost definitely have some seasonal affect disorder (disorder? I think the disorder is that we trap ourselves inside all winter, live in cold climates, cover our skin) but now that the sun is out I can't stop grinning.

Today, though, I busted out the bug spray, because I have literally 10 bug bites from the other night.  Ha.

Unfortunately the wasps are starting to unfreeze and find themselves drawn to my room.  I am not particularly drawn there since it's colder inside than out these days, and downstairs than up.  But we run into each other from time to time, their lethargic presence eliciting obligatory shrieks and a thorough smashing on my end.

Fortunately it is almost beach-bikini-babe beer season.  I have never been so excited for summer to come.  At least it seems that way.  I am determined this summer to start Kristy drinking beer.  We'll start with my favorite classic, summer shandy.  First Leinie's, then the house version that I mix up by hand.  Pumped.

For today I am drinking this:
A "vanilla pale ale" with a slightly burnt caramel flavor.  (I didn't come up with that myself--it was on the bottle.  But when it comes to tea, I tend to like vanilla-caramel concoctions.  When it comes to anything, really, vanilla and caramel are pretty winning flavors.  Like flan, when it is almost burnt.

See the Peruvian Chicken House.)


Also I am excited about small skirts, dresses, and shorts.  And flashy shades.  And purple polka-dot bikinis, a la Jess at this weekend's Hilltop Superstars sports tourney.

It's supposed to hover in the 70s for the next few days.  I have been soaking up the sun via sunroof and parking lot lunch breaks so far this week.  My mood has skyrocketed from relative February levels.  All of these factors are key in the upcoming weekend shenans, when a few of my college girlfriends will be flocking to the illustrious city of Wilmington for St. Patty's Day.  That timing was mostly unplanned, but fortuitous nonetheless.

Gwen at the Y starts the Tuesday night yoga practice always with a drawn-out sun salutation, the core element of which is intention, focus, grounding.  She tells us to ground each of the four corners of our feet, first separately, then simultaneously, into our mat.  Feet hip-width apart, sink the inside of your heel into the mat, then the outside.  Dig in your big toe, then your little toe.  Hip-width apart.  Now all four corners at the same time.  It feels like roots shoot out of my soles at that point and hold me immovably to the shiny floor of the Western Room.  (Ironic, isn't it, that yoga is held in the Western Room.)

But now I'm shooting roots outside.  And I couldn't be more stoked about it.

she's only happy in the sun

a series of reviews

OK, it's officially cold.  I've enjoyed rocking my leather jacket straight into the new year, but after shivering visibly and audibly for at least one full day, I gave in and switched to the black cherry fleece-lined coat I begged for last year.  A word to any future professionals out there: When investing in clothes, outerwear, and footwear, go for black, sleek and simple.  It should transition smoothly among whatever personas you might need to have over the item's lifespan.

Or maybe I'm the only one who compartmentalizes.

This sudden temperature change also means that my basement tfoL is FREEZING.  Granpa told me back in November that I would need some insulation down there, but it wasn't cold enough yet for me to flag it as a priority.  So it stayed as-is.  And now I'm regretting it.  I might have to go back to wearing hats when I sleep, because I think my sinuses froze overnight.  It is bitter.

I could go for a little snow, and I could stand if it stuck for a few days.  It would be romantic.

Speaking of -- kind of -- not really -- I have not been doing my blogger duty in the venue-review vein.  So here it goes.

Ann eating honey stix
outside the farmer's market

Today I took my frigid, frigid lunch break at the Back Burner To Go, right around the corner from the office.  I go there for the pumpkin-mushroom soup, which is delicious although I'm suspecting I might be mildly allergic to it.  I also go there for the accents: It's a haunt for the local Hockessin stay-at-home ladies with foreign accents and sometimes cute foreign babies.  They talk about books and vacations and, at least, today, my soup.  This afternoon I also found honey stix there, something Ann and I have been hunting fiendishly since Day One in Sunny V.

Review #2 is overdue.  On Saturday morning I went to the Perfect Cup looking for a simple breakfast sandwich, but when I saw sweet potato pancakes (with walnuts) on the menu I didn't really have a choice.  De-lish!  Especially since I love all things sweet potato: Fries, fried, baked, mashed, mashed and baked, scalloped, smothered in other delicious things like black beans and salsa and cheddar cheese...  You name it.  Pancakes was a new one for me though.  Also, the vibe was so perfect for a Saturday morning: Bustling, buzzing, pleasant.

I had brought my book (Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore) and sat at the wall right next to the door, scoping like I do.  Then this ADORABLE curly-headed baby and her family set up shop right next door.  She was VERY friendly and her dad put his full attention to trying, sheepishly and unsuccessfully, to distract her from distracting me from my (obviously very private) moment.  But I smiled as she waved her own palm-sized board book at me, and assured her that I was reading too.  Dad leaned over his baby girl, still looking nervous, and said, "See, she has her grown-up book and you have your baby book!  See?"

My GROWN-UP BOOK.  I'm old.  Little kids point up at me and say, "Mommy, why is that lady so tall!"  Or whatever little kids say about ladies.

Speaking of my "grown-up book," I am not typically into vampires, despite the fact that Bram Stoker's classic was maybe the only book I enjoyed reading in 12th grade English.  And I did get a kick out of Twilight & Co., at least until the movie came out.  (A horrible-awful piece of cinema.)  But I really did enjoy Bloodsucking Fiends.  It was fun, and funny of course, but what I really liked about it was Christopher Moore's intricate attention to detail, his careful study of human interactions, motivations, and relationships.  Leave it to me to pull that out of a comedic vampire novel with a lime green cover.  Leave it to me to like it for its realism.  Of all things.

It's the first in a trio, the second installment of which (entitled You Suck) I now have in my possession.  But I've already started reading Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead.  A delightful title, I know, but the introduction framed it as a scholarly report, an ethnography, if you will, about the Vikings.  Like a dark, undead version of St. Olaf.  I'm kind of excited about it.

Go ahead.  Call me a nerd.  I'll own it.

On a totally different note, I just got home from work and we now have a cat.

She found the warm spot between the couch and the radiator. Smart Stellaluna.