I tried to cope and paste the entire post over here, but really, you should just go look at it over there. I am obviously too tired to figure it out!
So, in case you haven’t figured it out. There’s a lot of action over at Anchor&Key. My new business blog. Here’s the link.
Since I last blogged… That one time from Vassar… When I was going to blog once a week from Vassar… A lot has happened. I will catch you up quickly so that we may all move on.
I took two classes. Once was Gender and Race: At the Intersection. This was a life changing and humbling course. I was not the class favorite. I was not the teacher’s pet. I was not the most popular. I was gettin’ by on gettin’ by. I also took Modernism in the City which I did not expect to enjoy, and loved. My fellow classmates and myself (except for Harlow who was the class favorite and somehow managed to laugh his way peacefully through the program) worked our way through with tears, hard hard hard work and quit a bit of conflict. I can honestly say that nothing I did in Germany compares with the interpersonal trial or stress I experienced in this program. I was very thankful that my Aunt finished chemo and I finished the program on the same day. I will treasure talks on my bed with a wise and generous woman named Eddie, a dear counselor named Allison and my new brother from Syria – Hasko. Whom I would like to keep in my pocket. There were 29 students who went through this program and we will be forever linked by our experience. I am grateful for each one of their stories, their accomplishments, their tenacity and their spirits. Fighters. What a group.
We drove home to Lady A and Architect A’s going away party. Bum-mer. We had a sweet weekend with them laughing and visiting and remembering a year of fantastic memories and laughter and friendship. We helped them load their U-Haul. Enter Super-Morgan, another lifesaver from Vassar who generously loaded A&A on and then loaded J&me in. Saint Morgan. No man deserved such pain. You heard me. I came home Saturday. Said goodbye to A&A Sunday, started my math class Monday and moved that Thursday into their apartment. Shoot me. No seriously. It was months before I unpacked. I got my first B in the math class. Forsook my 4.0. NEVER. AGAIN.
I have started the fall semester with an Intro to Lit class that makes me giggle. Thank you Vassar for your generous contribution to my ability to maneuver a “Lit” class. Some Bio, some Psych, some Calculus. I am exhausted.
We had a trip planned to Texas, which fell through very unexpectedly at the loss of my Uncle Al. So we re-routed to Brooklyn and spent 4 days in a fancy Blue hotel room with a see through shower with AM&UK. I am pretty sure that they did it on purpose so that we would go to Brooklyn Bread everyday while they showered and pick up delicious sandwiches. “It doesn’t matter where I am, as long as I am with you.”
When we got back I finally took the final for that math class from the summer and got my weekends back, unpacked my house. Helped my dear friend with some shows while her husband Rico Schenck galavanted the globe making ships quieter. Having some major minor dental surgery and pondering why my CSA has so many effing root vegetables. Seriously. Why?
So there you have it. You’re all caught up. Now I am back. I am pissed about that damn post on facebook where the bratty girl is holding up her sign about no debt, no smart phone and no 99% – and taking responsibility for all of her own actions. I mean kuddos to her for all her hard work and for every single student like her. However, I am a student, with a smart phone, and a cheap apartment and a couple of jobs busting my $%&, not blaming anyone, but thinking, should it be this hard? I think I am part of the 99% – does that mean I am not taking responsibility for my finances or blaming people for my financial state? I don’t think so. And I am pretty sure that’s not what she meant to say either. So take the damn post down everybody, the tone is condescending and not helpful. We’re all poor. Be nice.
Also. We have started the Breaking Ground campaign so J and I are begging for money for the orphans again. Or at least we will be. We are developing a strategy. In between homework and cooking root vegetables. Oh and shopvac’ing our apartment. It’s true. I shop-vac’ed the apartment tonight. And people say I am OCD. Please. It’s normal.
Things we’ve loved lately:
The lovely world of Spotify
Speaking of music, at the beach AM would always play great peaceful Sunday morning music GM & RS introduced us to Antje Duvekot, whom we enjoy peacefully on Sunday mornings. I particularly love the song about Judas lately, it makes me cry.
We joined the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, I’ve been twice this month and taken to calling the late Mrs. Gardner, “Izzy”
Speaking of things to enjoy in Boston, trying to enjoy the remnant of our tomato plants with Green Tomato Biscuits .
Not much to say about fashion right this minute, except that today, at TJ I found two of the most beautiful MJ (not even M for MJ) dresses for the most drastically reduced prices. They fit beautifully and were magical and I felt like a fairy in them, they were more than 90% off their original prices. I was ashamed at how disappointed I was to not have them. But J and I just re-centered about what’s important. And those beautiful dresses are not important. Education is important. And so we re-focus and get over it. There are plenty of seasons of lovely dresses to be had once I have a fancy pants job and he stays home and walks the dogs.
I’m including a picture from J&me at a recent free event that Shane hooked us up with. It was so fun. He danced like a mad man and we drank whiskey and ate cupcakes and I taught awkward dancing. Poor Shane for being associated with us. It’s not our most flattering picture, we obviously don’t really care
We are SERIOUSLY considering using it for our Christmas card.
Some things that have been on my mind lately…
Lent. J and I were talking about Lent yesterday and he quoted his Grandmother who encouraged them to always, “know why you are giving something up, don’t just give it up.” I love that woman. So I’ve been thinking a lot about why I am giving something up this Lenten season.
My family.
I was invited to apply for a program at Vassar this summer. It’s a five week intensive course. I am thinking about it, but the application is due tomorrow.
Spring break. It’s 5 days away, which feels like an eternity. We’re heading to New York for a couple of days. It’s accessible, it’s affordable and it’s not Boston.
Faith. It’s a journey.
Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Racial Profiling. Both, topics of papers in one of my English classes. It’s incredible to be in the North East talking about the subjects instead of the bible belt. It’s the other side of the argument here, and challenging to the accepted answer in the South. I am learning a lot. About logic and writing.
Privacy. I crave it in the midst of stress and change. I am a bit like a turtle, neck inside until I can get it all sorted out in my head and heart.
Love. I hope it is as healing as I always believed it was.
Sunday night Boo and I went to the ER because some back pain I had all day had elevated to a level that was threatening sleep. However, I’m pretty sure if I’d just stayed up until 3:30 when they let us leave the hospital I could have gone to sleep on my own. Monday I stayed in bed all day. Tuesday I went to class. More on that later, definitely some good stuff. Then today I woke up back to a sickening level of pain. So. Back to the Dr for me. Everyone keeps commenting on how “tense” my back is. Um. Yeah. It’s tense. That’s why I’m here. I don’t normally march to the Dr because my back is a little achey. I march to a massage. Anyway. DrC wanted some pictures because it sounded like spinal compression to him… Um no. I reject that. Then he asked about a knot somewhere else. Sent me to a specialist for that. Also sent me upstairs to PT and told me to start first thing in the morning. He said he should know by then if it was a spinal problem. He then prescribed another thing to relax my muscles. Which lead not to my back feeling better but to me sleeping for at least 5 hours. I woke up to eat and work on our taxes and now I’m going to sleep again. I have an appt at 7:30. Then class at 8:30. Eeeek.
OK. There’s your update. Thanks for the texts, calls and messages. It’s nothing serious. Just an inconvenience.
Sorry I’ve been missing. I went to Texas looking for a place to buy some Foxes & Coyote Faces for $5.99. No, no I didn’t. We ran to Texas for a wedding. We got in Saturday, drove to Waco for the wedding festivities. Left the wedding early Sunday so Boo could see the fam for a minute before he left. We had an entire morning free in Austin, our first and only, then we celebrated my Mom’s 60th Birthday at Lambert’s. Boo took the 4:00 flight out and I met some friends from high school for dinner… chips and salsa. 20 years of friendship is something I am valuing highly these days. I have to admit I felt a little guilty for bailing on my fam my first night in town, but it was so good to see these girls. I love them.
Isn’t this what you think of when you think of Texas???? I took these in between appointments to renew my license and change my name on every official document known to man. This sucked hours of my time and days. It was not fun, and I am so glad it is done. I hated it. However. Before Meyers left for Africa she was nice enough to meet me at Guerro’s on Tuesday (it was my only chance, I had to go, it gave me strength for DPS) where we saw Lyle Lovett. That night, as I was getting ready to go to bed (at like 9) my fam came in and told me that the BIG SURPRISE (they told me NO PLANS ON WEDNESDAY) was that we were going to see LYLE AT THE PARAMOUNT. I def met my mom for lunch at The Dart Bowl in between bureaucratic appointments Wednesday, it was the perfect lunch in between government buildings. Also glad I saw my mom twice. I know that was a good thing. We had dinner at our special place and then walked over to the concert, where it was an almost perfect night. I cried when he played If I Had a Boat and I sat in between AM&UK and my heart felt so full. I was wishing for Boo to be there, but he went to Sufjan the next night for Architect A’s birthday without me and re-payed me in full.
I got really lucky that Thursday was Veteran’s Day and I got an ENTIRE DAY WITH KENNY!!!!!!!! I think I was in my twenties the last time we got to do this. We finished the day off at one of their favorite spots with their favorite bartenders, which as many of you know is A THURSDAY NIGHT RITUAL TRADITION. I love being there with them. They are like Rock Stars. Hotchkiss in a huge act of generosity came to me at the bar LATE and we had drinks and queso which gave us food poisoning and I still can’t really say queso or the name of that restaurant without feeling ick.
Needless to say Friday was rough. Saturday we managed to fit in a 9 mile hill run before the airport where I cried. ALL. THE. WAY. HOME. Hard to leave and know I am not coming back for the holidays and that I don’t know when I get to say hello again. So thankful to have a husband to come back to, his love eases some of the ache.
This is A&A’s daughter. EV. I love her. I needed LA & EV yesterday. It’s been a rough start back. The last few days have been worry and tear filled for various reasons. Boo and I have been doing a lot of talking and figuring, I know that it’s all going to be OK, but when the plans change sometimes it just takes a little time to cope.
I am not coping well – for example: Last night some wax was spilled on the grossest ugliest rug ever in our kitchen and I felt like someone ripped the ground out from under my feet. All I could think was, there is no money to replace that… WITH WHAT???? Something uglier?
Needless to say, until I can get a little better bearing and perspective I will probably not be doing much blogging from the heart. But I will post a couple of great recipes and keep you updated on the details, like this. Hopefully some more nights of good sleep and continued good weather will help me conquer this little hill. Until then, thanks for reading.
Soooo, I am realizing in the current schedule’s demands, that Monday might be blog day. I want to be more disciplines, but I am too busy right now to even think about it most days. No funny running stories today, I am till trying to gear myself up to go out in this weather.
So, my friend A and I have been on a tear. A Garth and Kat tear.
Here’s the deal, I have to give Occhiverdi (henceforth known as Occhi – like from Muskogee, but think Italy here) for the inspiration. When she, MG and DocT were in town we went to BraserieJo and did Garth and Kat at the table. I have to say that Boo didn’t think it was funny then, he thinks it’s less funny now. Let me start here:
Garth and Kat
I mean seriously. I think that is freaking hysterical. The thing about Occhi is that there is something in her genetic make up that enables her to do it PERFECTLY. Which only makes me laugh harder. We seriously thought about doing this at my reception, but there was something about the whole wedding thing being Justin and me focused… Anyway, one day I’ll have somewhere to do all my fantasy skits in front of my best audience, I am just not sure when.
So then, I became a G&K fan and I found this one on Hulu. Which sent me into tearful fits of laughter.
Then, one day when I was missing Occhi and fam, I looked up G&K and found out that they had done one more, which I think might be their most funny skit yet. No, seriously.
OK. So FF (fast forward) to A&A. Now LadyA is not like ArchitectA. I think I told you this, she says she always dated the Band guy (insert air guitar impression) but she married the band guy (insert marching band trumpet player impression.) This, of course, incites laughter from all around. However, both Boo and ArchitectA probably always pictured themselves marrying waif like artist types who were both reverent and nice, instead they married non-conforming anarchist who only become louder and, might I add, a bit funnier in each other’s presence. Eeek. Anyway, I started telling LadyA about G&K and she kept thinking I was talking about the Don’t Make Me Sing Lady (same actress, different hysterical skit.) Then we both got tickled, thinking about Justin Timberlake – OH MY GOSH, did everyone see this??? OK, well, I’ll refrain from a why I love Justin Timberlake diatribe and move forward to one of my favorite SNL skits of all time, Justin Timberlake and the Target lady (how’s that for product placement.) So LadyA and I are dying laughing about all our favorite skits by this same SNL actress and never get around to Garth and Kat until they came over last weekend and we watched them together, while we were supposed to watching the Arkansas game, ArchitectA and Boo were not amused. Might I add that they were even LESS amused this weekend, at the Parish Retreat when RevB was talking about our need to move from irreverence to reverence, passivity to intentionality etc and we are making notes about a G&K tour on our papers. The point of highest hysteria was when we started day dreaming about doing G&K to songs we knew, like Hard Candy Christmas or Islands in the Stream and suddenly realized that G&K with the Boston Pops at 4th of July on the Charles would be INCREDIBLE. We literally had such fits of laughter that our husbands began threatening to separate us (not for the first time.)
I then had this genius idea that we could combine the ideas, like the movie Wedding Crashers, we could be church crashers and visit various churches around the city dresses as G&K, feign, “Don’t make us lead worship… Don’t make us lead.” and then go into a skit of ridiculously worded songs to old familiar tunes, dressed in polyester and perhaps with pocket tambourines? It all seemed like a good idea to us yesterday when we were obviously not moving from irreverence to reverence as we snickered, picturing it in our heads, through the Nicene Creed. Keep in mind ArchitectA was the worship team’s pianist yesterday and Boo was running sound. There might be a reason that LadyA and myself don’t get asked to lead anything at church and the boys always do.
In other news, we’re embarking upon the second half of week 2 of our 6 week health challenge. I am currently avoiding a 5 mile run in the rain. I am such a baby. However, I did try Zumba for the first time Friday night after a nightmare three hour session in the school’s math lab (you know you’re old when you’re incensed that two girls are in the lab NOT WORKING ON MATH, TALKING AND ON FACEBOOK.) I definitely got some internal math stress out while I gyrated to latin music and spun around thrusting to Zumba in the chorus of any song. I also felt an odd sense of familiarity to my marathons when the 70 year old woman next to me was definitely better at the “booty roll” than me. Back off Granny, those probably aren’t even your original hips.
Soooo. This week is like Boot Camp. I am literally scheduled to the minute (though I am currently 14 minutes off schedule and a run behind) and have hours of studying for my math mid-term in front of me. But I feel thankful. What an opportunity. I love learning. My Dad texted me this week and said he is the same way, that he has always loved learning. I don’t really know if my Mom is the same way, but I do know that both of my parents always tried to foster a love for learning in me. I feel like by the time my family got me I was a little averse to it. I realize my aversion is born (shocking) from a fear of failure. Yesterday I definitely started crying for the second time in a math related situation. In those moments I realize I just have to back up, breathe deep and start again. Speaking of which. It’s time to hit the books.
Check back in on Mondays. If you like what you’re reading, spread the word. I’d love to gain some readers and see where we can take this bad boy. I’ll try to take one more day a week (maybe Wednesdays) to post the highlights from school that week, and one day on the weekend to post about food. So that we’re caught up, here are this weeks posts about each.
This week Prof Reviah has been in rare form. The guy is the member (and proudly the head bartendah) at the North Shore Yacht Club. He basically refers back to this so many times in class that even the people who sleep through class are getting annoyed. I think I am going to start something like a line on it and do a Tue/Thur poll on how many times he mentioned the NSYC and bar in his lectures. Since my readership is at about 2 people, I am not really sure how to award prizes if you guess the #, but how about I promise that if we ever go crash ol’ Prof Reviah’s party out at the NSYC, I’ll get him to buy you a drink. So his highlights from the last couple of weeks are, in talking about insider trading, he definitely referred to it as, “Wicked illegal.” and asked all of us if we had entrepreneurial “idears” the other day. I just lower my head and laugh. Our highlight as a team was when I was asking him about the literal definition of recession (2 or more quarters of recessed GDP) and the more widely accepted definition of recession (Consumer confidence, unemployment, GDP, housing market), he looked at me, winked, and answered, “The answer to that is only relevant to someone who has any clue about the current economy.” Meanwhile, it flew over the classes head as they continued to sleep or diligently take notes of what the thought they were hearing in English, that might offend them later when they got around to translating them.
Professor Cambridge had a pretty big moment the other day when she asked one of the more vocal Haitian guys in the class what a new album out on the market was and he answered, “Eminem”, she then asked, “What’s the title?” he then answered, what sounded to me like, “Referee.” She asked quizzically, “Coffee free?” he repeated, “RE FER EE” she says, “Really, Coffee Free, is he mormon?” The entire class laughs and Troll says, “No, he’s saying Revery” to which Cambridge, in great form, died laughing and admitted her embarrassing lack of awareness of pop culture. I also have to say that somehow, the Troll has gotten my number. At the beginning of every class she asks about my husband (the class is fascinated that I am married) and at the end of class she waits for me to give me a hug. i have to admit, it’s pretty endearing, though it does not make her outbursts any less hysterical to me. She is also ambiguously pregnant or not pregnant and definitely came to class dressed like Brittany Spears during the bad season the other day in this WAYTOSHORT purple plaid skirt, with a white shirt and matching purple plaid suspenders. Her troll hair in a poofy pony and these over the knee white socks with her saucony tennies. It was something else, I so wanted to take a picture for you guys, but it seemed wrong. I got a B+ on my last paper in that class, however Cambridge wrote on the front, “You should submit this to the Boston Globe or the New York Times.” Uhhhh, ok?
As far as food. I have to admit that Boo and I have been regularing this place on Chestnut Hill Ave that serves $1 Busch beer, hoagies and provides board games. We spent Friday night playing Yahtzee and drinking $1 beer. It was awesome, until I had to put all those damn calories in the stupid calorie tracker.
Go in peace friends. And find a friend to do Garth and Kat with, teach it to your children, bring laughter into the world. And next time you see Boo, tell him how funny you think it is, even if you don’t. I’ll buy you a $1 beer on Chestnut Hill Ave if you do.
It’s been perfect weather in New England. It’s as if God is rewarding me for fighting my way out of the moody blues last week. The mother in law arrived in style Friday. It was fun to show her the house, it doesn’t look quite the same as it did the last time she left Justin in it. Victory. I affectionately refer to her as Shorty. If you know her, you know it’s right. Anyway, Shorty is up in New Hampshire (the Granite State) for a conference. Speaking of the Granite State, if you’ve got some time google Granite State of Mind and watch a hysterical parody of Empire State of Mind. Back on point, we decided to drive up yesterday afternoon in the glorious sun through the White Mountains to spend a night with Shorty at her conference. Last minute trips are the best. We threw some stuff in a bag, Boo made a great playlist and three hours later we were nestled here in the foot hills. Gorgeous. Today we’re headed up to the peak of the mountain. Famous for the, use your worst weather man voice, WORST WEATHER IN THE WORLD!!!! But today is breathtaking and I’m pretty sure that the top of the mountain will be nothing short of magic. Thanks Shorty for the surprise mini-cation, it is exactly what we had no idea we needed.
Trivialities 
