Last days of summer

I think the last few weeks of summer are some of my favorites. There usually tends to be a few chilly days of August where I think that's the last of it, so long its fall now and I morn a little. In the middle summer starts to feel like nothing but oppressive endless heat and dare I say kind of slow and dull. But when it just goes before you've even said goodbye, no warning just clouds and long sleeves and I find myself longing for one last day of shorts and sunshine.

I always forget that summer likes to tease its way out and I'm always thrilled when it comes back for at least one last week of blistering heat that I'm suddenly so grateful for. I know that school has started up again, which kills some of the summer spirit, but I'm not about to let that stop me from getting every last drop of summer that's left. Even if that does mean wearing slightly inappropriate sundresses to class. 

Exempt from Time

Like most people, I think I tend to exempt myself from petty plebeian concepts like age and time. It doesn't really matter how long I've been alive, I never feel old or young, I'm just normal.

It's very distressing when someone dares to do something, like age, that throws you out of your ageless bubble. I was talking with my family earlier today, and someone mentioned my littlest brother starting high school. I can't comprehend him as a teenager. I've only recently upgraded him from age 4 to age 9 in my head. Him being a teenager throws off my entire worldview. Damn kid.

Fortunately my 5 year old sister choose that moment of existential crisis to come bounding over to the webcam and show me her toy horse. When she was first born to my Dad and Stepmom right before I left for college I was initially freaked out and felt kind of replaced by this new girl. I'd rather enjoyed my unique femaleness. The older she gets the more advantages I see to having her around. She's actually fun and will interact with me in non-video game ways. Now I see another advantage. Not having grown up with her, her age has little jarring affect on my self image. But I can use non-logic to infer that if I have a little kid for a sibling, I can't be that old. Way to be use full kid.

Statues

I was looking through old photos the other day, and was reminded that when I lived in DC for the first time in Fall 07 (internship undergrad thing), I had this constant thing of posing in imitation of statues.

I know it's more than a little dorky, but I kind of love it. Thanks for the laughs, past me.

Also, am I the only one who thinks of past and future versions of myself as kind of being entirely separate people?

Not so much imitation, but I think I'm getting frisky with a bronze founding father. Yah.

I'm a psychotic food hoarder

Growing up I took a perverse delight in having a treat longer than my three brothers. I was a master at stretching out my Halloween candy until Easter came and replenished things. When we would get pizza I would take my allotted portion and slowly eat half pieces and laugh at my foolish brothers who scarfed everything the first night and now have to just have plain sandwiches for lunch. I felt so superior with my carefully kept reserves of yumminess. Sure, I never got to eat a lot, but I always had something tucked away.

It's been years since I lived with my horde of siblings, but I still like to make good food last. I'm one of those obnoxious people who will just have a nibble of chocolate and be done, not because I'm so disciplined (ha) but because I can't bear the thought of it being gone.

This crazy strategy works well with candy and other balls of edible chemicals. Which is fine, except lately we've been trying to eat actual honest to goodness fruits. Like from the ground and everything, not in roll up form.

It's been delicious, and while I still love my ice cream, crowning dinner with a bowl of strawberries is almost as awesome. Or, it would be if I wasn't a crazy person. See, I still like to save and stretch out good food. Especially good produce where there is no guarantee that there will be fresh replacements in the grocery store as fruit season is sadly coming to a close. Unfortunately the quality of fruit quickly diminishes the longer it's around, so I usually just end up with a stash of squishy sad berries. Even as I see them go bad, I still hate to eat the last ones. I hate throwing them away even more.

So now my craziness is stuck in an odd battle between trying to stretch them out, so I can always have fruit, while simultaneously getting the maximum enjoyment and avoiding waste.

It's not a pretty process. I'm one step away from making spreadsheets and formulas to determine the method for maximum fruit enjoyment. As it is, I now very carefully analyze every produce serving for maximum effectiveness and success as maintaining a perfect quality/quantity ratio.

I know that healthy eating is supposed to be good for you, but I just want to say that the fake stuff never activated my crazy this hard. I'm going to be the only victim of a strawberry related stress heart attack.

Social Honesty

Sometimes I wish it was socially acceptable to just tell someone, point plank and to their face that "I just don't like you." And then everyone would just move on.

Just that, nothing else. No statements of loathing, because it's not hate or anything remotely that emotionally powerful, just a simple dislike that surfaces when and only when you have to interact. No rationalizations for how they are a worthwhile human being, because of course they are, just not one that jives with me. Just a nice, simple, air clearing statement where everyone can acknowledge what was already obvious. 

Just generally, I wish we could be more straight with how we feel about others. Sure, there are some great reasons not to, but all the same there are sometimes it sounds so nice and simple.

First day of the Last year

It is officially the first day of my last year of school. Forever. Considering one of the main motivations behind going to law school was a desire to postpone being part of the real world, this kind of freaks me out a little. As one of my other reasons was a desire to earn money to support my life aspirations, now that the economy is what it is, that officially pushes my imminent departure into the real world to become more than just a little freakout.

For all I talk about how sick I am of student life and how excited I am to move on and be a real adult, the reality of actually doing so is terrifying. I understand being a student. I know how to take notes and pass tests. I enjoy my oodles of discretionary time. I like not wearing suits. Law school has been substantially less enjoyable than all the school before it, but as crazy as it can be, it's still school, and I know how to do school.

Most of all, right now I'm insulated from the real world. I worry about money, but honestly so long as we don't spend more than we get in student loans, we're ok. I don't like debt, but it's comforting to know that so long as we're students, we get a big check deposited in our account every semester.

Once I graduate, that all stops. I don't get a job, and not only can we not pay back all that magic money that's been keeping us afloat, but how to take care of more immediate and basic needs gets very tricky very fast.

I'm getting ahead of myself. It is scary, but it's also exciting, and it's all months away. For now I'm just going to try and get all I can out of one more year in the academic world, and start to prepare for the world after that. Complete with lots of deep breathes.

Facebook hates babies

Apparently everyone I know was busy having kids this summer. Which means I've been wasting time lately looking at baby pictures on facebook and trying to discern the tiny ways babies look different (hint, there aren't that many - it's pretty much just ears and whether they're more red or yellow).

I would just like to mention that every single time I flip though a baby album, the sidebar ad on facebook is for condoms. Every single time. Not just that, but I only see those ads when I'm looking at baby pictures.

I'm not sure if that's a rather mean spirited commentary on the babies, or some kind of creepy psychic warning for me. Either way, it's starting to weird me out.

Perks

One of the biggest perks of being married* is that when I don't feel well and the cupboards are bare, someone else will go out and bring back groceries (walking two miles, uphill both ways, of course).

An even better perk is that he'll offer to pickup a hamburger for me while he's out (one of my favorite foods that just can't be cooked right at home, and a food he despises so we don't usually go out for them).

And if that is declined, he'll come back with a little bunch of purple flowers and cherries, because damnit he's going to find something to make me smile no matter what.





* I suppose this is more a perk of being married to Zach or other people that show love by keeping people feed than an integral part of marriage, but whatever.

Legal Swag

I had forgotten how much swag 1Ls get to try and assure them that law school is an exciting and worthwhile choice that will lead them to innumerable rewards and riches (juries still out on that one).

Clinic orientation just happened to be happening during 1L orientation, and without even trying I've managed to pick up two free lunches, a muffin, a pocket constitution, various pens, a very fancy hardbound book full of various sizes and colors of post it notes, and best of all a flash drive that came in a semi-nice metal box.

Of course, the main difference between 1L me and 3L me, is that 1L me took this as sure sign that I was a valued future legal rockstar about to embark on a magical life of perks and privilege. 3L me is just thrilled that she managed to "steal" free stuff that wasn't intended for her. Make of that what you will.

Sayonara Summer

I'm in orientation for law clinic from 9-5 today. Classes start Monday. It's been rainy and cold the last few days.

I guess that means goodbye summer. It was nice while it lasted.

Le Creuset, Horray

Getting my hair cut wasn't the original reason we went out on Monday, the actual reason is even better.

About a month ago we went to the le creuset factory store in Bethesda, just to walk around and dream. While we were reverently looking at all the pretty colors, one of the nice sales ladies gave us a coupon for 40% off any one item in the month of August.

Even at 40% off those suckers are expensive, so it was one of those decisions where even though both people really wanted to just go for it, neither of us could bring ourselves to just go for it. Instead, we sat on that coupon, hemming and hawing for an appropriately long enough time so we could feel like we seriously deliberated and came to a rational decision, even though we both knew from the get go that we were going to go for it.

It wasn't a bad decision. I made some ok money this summer, it's a piece that will get used, will be durable and the price was fantastic. But really, the main reason we went for it was because every now and again it just feels fantastic to get something that lets us feel like we're getting a little bit of a glimpse at our non-student future.

If the future is half as exciting as getting this new piece of cookware, I'm way excited. The day of, I woke up with a big old smile. We had a special breakfast, and each got a little dolled up in anticipation. We made the most of the day and had fun looking around at some of the other shops (not to mention being caught up in a glorious spontaneous hair revival). But really, fun as that was, we both were eagerly awaiting the main event, and were ready to burst when we finally went in to the store.

We weren't 100% sure of the shape, size and color, but once we were looking around nothing felt as right as the 5.5gt round Caribbean blue beauty that we took home. I named her Celeste, a bright and happy french name. 

Opening her up at home felt a little bit like Christmas. She was so shiny and perfect.

After opening it up, I didn't want to let it go, so I sat it next to me on the couch, casually stroking it like a cat while I surfed the web. When I see that written down, it seems kind of pathetic/creepy, but I'm choosing to just think of it as eccentrically excited.

We didn't make our first meal until Tuesday. Just a simple beans and rice thing, but it cooked like a dream. Almost just as fantastic for two people without a dishwasher, it cleaned up in a snap. Even with some food burned on by our novice use of too high heat, all we had to do was nudge it, and it was gone.

I'm really excited to find some great recipes (any suggestions?) and get the best use I can out of this. As happy as just looking at it on the counter makes me, I'm even more excited to see what deliciousness we can whip up together.

Wedding Week - Honeymoon

Ok, last post on all the wedding stuff, I swear.

Zach and I just did an extended weekend honeymoon on the Oregon coast. While this decision was made mostly because we didn't have the money to go much farther, and with school starting soon we needed to move and get settled in DC quickly so a long trip would have been kind of silly.

Much as I would love to go someplace amazing and tropical someday together, I'm glad we kept things simple for our honeymoon. It was so so good to just relax. We each had been to the coast before, so there was no pressure to do too much, or anything at all. 

We stayed in a small B&B in Wheeler, OR. Which isn't actually right on the Oregon coast, it's more on a bay. But it was only a short drive away from Cannon Beach, and much cheaper. Like most B&B's it was a really sweet little place, but not too over the top, even if our room was very yellow.

We loved the huge bed, even if on the first night I would consistently cuddle up closer to Zach, he would scoot away from me and my heat, ad infinitum, until we woke up the next morning with Zach clinging to the very edge of the bed and me happily curled up next to him.

You can't see it, but there was also a little TV in there. I know I should say we were so busy having fun, but even on vacation we're homebodies. Let's just say that Comedy Central had a perpetual scrubs marathon that weekend, and we spent at least 20% of our honeymoon curled up watching Scrubs. Which I consider to be a perfectly good way of spending a honeymoon. Some may disagree.

I swear, we did get out and do things. We went up to Cannon Beach every day and walked around. As it usually is on the Oregon coast, the water was far too cold to even contemplate going in, but the beach and the town are so lovely that it didn't really matter. Cannon Beach is the perfect coastal town. They don't allow in any chains, and while there are plenty of touristy places, they manage top avoid the loud jarring feel of other places and just come across as quaint.

On our last night we went to one of the nicer restaurants and had some fantastic seafood. Well, Zach's halibut was amazing, my prawns were only ok. Being our honeymoon and full of lovey doveyness, Zach gave me most of his fish. This was a poor move on his part, as this set a precedent whereby I always steal his food. I can't help it, somehow it always looks better when it's his. As in once he was eating some leftovers, I came over with a fork for a few bites, Zach sensed what was about to happen, gave me the whole plate and went back to make more for himself. I promptly lost my desire to eat any of it, looked up at him with sad eyes, and proclaimed that I think I only wanted it because he had it, it just wasn't any good when it was mine. 

 

For our main momento and first co-home decor decision we bought a photograph thing from one of the big gift stores. They had thousands of pictures to choose from, and we spent well over an hour trying to find the perfect thing. We finally decided we like the 3 photo display, but wanted slightly different pictures of the coast and Portland. We sheepishly asked if they would pretty please change things out, it was no big deal, and while it was a pain to bring that big thing back east, it's a fun reminder. (My picture of the picture is crooked, I promise, it is not.)

 

Almost as soon as it began our mini-honeymoon was over. A quick stop to say goodbye to my family and we were on our red eye flight over to our new home and our new life.

A few more gratuitous pictures

Wedding Week - Reception

All in all I was really thrilled with how the reception turned out. It was hardly magazine worthy aesthetics, but it was fun and colorful and full of love.

Less important overall, but still a big deal to me, it wasn't in the church gym like so many Mormon receptions.

Some people try some very creative things to try and disguise the fact that a formal event is taking place on a basketball court, complete with hoops and a marked floor. Some of them manage to be kind of cool on their own, but none of them actually succeed at disguising the place.

In an ideal world I would have loved to have a backyard reception. Done well they have such a perfect cozy, fun vibe. Plus you have a decent amount of freedom to customize without restraints set by the venue. Of course, the backyard reception only works if there is a decent sized backyard available, which there wasn't.

I looked around at a few other venues in the area, wasn't really impressed with any of the ones in my price range. We could have rented a community center, but while they were mercifully lacking the basketball court vibe, most of them more than made up for it with either incredibly stringent restrictions (such as no music that would be audible to anyone) or very forest green and tacky patterned carpet decor.

I was almost resigned to the free church gym, which had once been my one big important desire to avoid, when I was looking through wedding pictures of a friend. She had her reception still at the free church location, but instead of at the gym, she used the big picnic pavilion next to the big field that was behind the church. It looked kind of similar to the backyard weddings I'd admired, so I decided to check things out.

It wasn't the prettiest structure, just some big red steel poles and a roof over a concrete slab next to a big, empty field. But it was a decent blank slate. 

So that's what we ended up with. We did use the picnic pavilion, but we also set up a big white tent that we were able to borrow from the produce company my Stepfather works for. Well, the first tent they gave us had these giant dingy green stripes, kind of like the tent of a sad carnival complete with a toothless lion and diseased monkeys. Fortunately, we were able to switch.

We had food and tables under the tent in the grass, and dancing and a few more chairs set up on the concrete underneath the pavilion.

 One of the drawback to this location was the big chain link fences lining the field. They were reasonably far away, but still kind of an eyesore. There was no way we could cover them up, but what we could do was keep the focus away from them and on the main area. We have some family friends who own this great big nursery, and they were so wonderful to let us come and borrow whatever plants we wanted. The plants really added a lusher vibe to the whole tent and made it a much more defined space. Plus, they really did distract from the fence.

To keep away the bugs we had several citronella torches. Also, fire is pretty.

Otherwise, for decorations we just had an assortment of paper lanterns and paper umbrellas. We also had a few saris around the edges of the tent, but we could never get them to drape right. When putting these pictures up I realized that our wedding colors of blue and purple are also the colors of this blog. Apparently my tastes are consistent. I thought they worked really well at bringing some bright color to the wedding without overwhelming the slightly more natural vibe of the plants and the setting.

The flowers were all done by my Stepmom's aunt. Again, a very simple arrangement, but I liked letting the simple beauty of the flowers stand out. We also put wood fans at each table, partly for decor and partly to provide some relief in case of heat. The weather was actually pretty perfect, but they were still nice to have around.

We had the reception from 4-6 in the afternoon, so we just served light hors d'oeuvres. Specifically, meatballs in marinara, bruschetta, humus and pita, olives, anti pasta tray, chicken wrapped in bacon with cashews and a lot of fruits and veggies. The food was simple but very flavorful. My stepmom's mother ran the food show fabulously . She also provided the gorgeous antique silver platters that everything was displayed on.

Well, she did all of the food except the fruit. My stepfather works in produce, so we got the best stuff he could direct from the warehouse and beautifully chopped and arranged it into things like this watermelon basket. The fruit was so so good.

The cake was made by a friend of my Mom. It was just a white cake with strawberry filling, mostly because my Mom called me saying she needed a cake flavor decision right now! and that's all I could think of. We also had a carrot cake sheet cake from Costco because Zach loves carrot cake. It tasted way better than the main cake, but wasn't nearly as pretty.

 We thankfully didn't try to do any type of a line, at least not formally. There was no way I was going to spend my time stuck in a line, nor was I going to make anyone else do so. We kind of naturally ended up hanging out by the entrance and greeting people as they came, which worked really well. It was so wonderful to see how many people came to celebrate with us. I don't think of myself as a social butterfly, and I was honestly very concerned that almost no one would show up. Instead I found myself constantly overwhelmed by the love and support people gave.

We had family who traveled from as far as Virginia, even many people for whom traveling is hard. I had a wonderful surprise from my aunt who lives in Missouri, who showed up unexpectedly to the rehearsal dinner the night before. Mindy flew in from California. Even of the more local guests, it meant so much that they would be willing to take the time from there weekend to be there for us.

Everytime I turned around and saw a new face, the day got exponentially better.

I felt so incredibly, almost overwhelmingly loved.

We also had an amazing number of family, friends, and even people I didn't know from church or friends of my parents who volunteered huge amounts of time to set things up and keep them running.

After about an hour of happily trying to say hello to everyone, we decided to get things started with the cake. No smooshing for us, thank you. I really don't get that tradition, it seems kind of mean and overly aggressive. We just laughed, like we had been for most of the day and tried to keep my veil from attacking us in the wind.

After cake, we had our first dance. We never really had a song naturally become ours, so we used Michael Buble's "Everything" Zach would often call me his everything, and it had a nice classic feel. Also, Zach's suggestion was the waltz from the Godfather, because it was nice and called a waltz or something. So when he agreed to a song not associated with the mafia, I jumped on it. It was a sweet, fun moment.

Honestly, nice as my dance with Zach was, the one with my Dad is what got me all emotional. I love all of my family, but my Dad and I have always been especially close, and it was so touching to have that one moment together where he could let it all out and express just how happy and proud he was. We danced to the "Unforgettable" duet between Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole, a song I can remember dancing to with him when I was a little girl.

 And then there was much rejoicing, dancing and generally having a blast. I picked out  each and every song carefully, organized into a great playlist, and it was super fun to see everyone grooving to my tunes. And fun to groove along, of course.

Of course, said having a blast also included people very non-subtly decorating the getaway car. Which, while kind of cheesy, I loved.

It was a wonderful day. Each and every little thing wasn't always how I had planned and stressed over, but all the important things were there in greater quantities than I ever could have hoped. I'm so grateful we were able to start our lives together with so much fun, love and support.

Wedding Week - Photography Extravaganza

Since getting married I've seen and heard about some budget wedding photography disasters. It was only through sheer luck that didn't happen to us.

When I started Wedding planning I knew next to nothing about photography. I knew it required a fancy camera and some sort of an "eye." I knew that some photographs looked better than others, but I wasn't sure of why.

What I did know was that I had a budget of about $3,000, and there was no way I could afford to spend over 1/3 of the budget on photography. Which ruled out almost every photographer I found. So I started trolling craigslist. Even unknowledgeable me could see that most of the cheap photographers were that cheap for a reason, as even their example photos seemed off to me.

And then I saw this wonderful ad from a new photographer to the area offering Wedding coverage for free (minus $200 for expenses and $100 for the disk). She barely had a website at the time, and only had a few images from one wedding and a host of landscape shots. Those few images were gorgeous and $300 was just to good to pass up, so I took the risk.

I'm so glad I did. Melissa Tomeoni, now of Soul Mates Photography was fantastic. She was fun and easy to work with. Neither Zach and I are naturally comfortable in front of cameras, but she gave us just enough direction . She also had some great creative ideas. Especially considering we were one of her first weddings, she was a dream. I still wander over to her blog from time to time, and it's really fun to see . Of course, as much fun as she was to work with, the end pictures are what matter most. I'll just let those speak for themselves.*

Equally fantastic were my bridesmaids, Jennifer (Jen) and Mindy. We lived together for almost three years in college, they were there when Zach and I met, when we got engaged and for all sorts of other wonderful times with just us. They were and are fabulous people who I am lucky to have as friends. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have there that day.

Best of all, I think having them there made the whole wedding feel fun. With Zach and my family, it was a big important emotional day. With Jen and Mindy, things were certainly meaningful, but we were also laughing and goofing off and just generally having a great time.

Their smiles and wonderful selves were the most important part, but I also thought they looked great. Since they were the ones wearing it, I just asked them to choose whatever they wanted that they thought would go with everything. I think the bright blue dresses were perfect for the day, even though they may not be as re-wearable as I tried to delude myself into thinking. I also find it kind of amusing that without talking to one another, they each choose the same shoes, which were very similar to the ones I choose.

Speaking of looking fantastic, I was also really pleased with how my look came together. My hair wasn't quite the loose, sophisticated updo with a hint of curl I had envisioned, but the tight curls weren't too promesque and I think it worked for me. I just did my own makeup with just a little more than I normally wear. I'm glad I did, it's nice to look at the pictures and see my face smiling back at me.

I've already discussed my love for the dress. I probably wouldn't have gone amiss from tucking some spanx under the dress, but even without it was still perfection. I know tiaras and other big sparkly head gear are kind of passe, but I loved the little touch of sparkle mine added. I now keep it on my desk, wrapped around a lamp. I still occasionally slip it on when I'm cleaning, or feeling particularly sad or silly. It still never fails to make me feel entirely pretty and ridiculous in the best way.

Other than the sparkly headband, I tried to keep jewelry low key. My earrings are actually the same earrings I wore to my High School prom. I had a hard time finding new earrings that weren't too huge or too simple. I randomly tried on these old ones, and surprisingly they looked great. My dress was so heavily embroidered that I felt like any necklace would be too much. I'm also glad I went with a simple, traditional veil. It added just the right finishing touch to everything.

And of course, I loved my shoes. I could only walk in them because my dress was so tight and had such a full train that I had to take teeny-tiny steps. I still loved them though, even through the pain. (The flip flops I changed into during the reception may have helped that love.)

We took most of the pictures right around the Temple we were married in. The grounds were lovely, full of flowers, and a fantastic fountain and reflecting pool.

Still, the me that wanted something a little more than standard. I loved some of the more urban shoots I'd seen from other weddings, and would have loved to swing into downtown Portland for a few. We tried and tried to see how we could manipulate the schedule to make it work, but it just wouldn't have been doable.

Even so, I made sure to mention my desire to our photographer. She had the unique idea to go to Washington Square, a mall on the way between the Ceremony and Reception site. I was skeptical, but didn't have any better ideas, so we gave it a shot.

Who knew that the best place for a variety of completely different and utterly unique backdrops would be a mall?

I loved the looks and well wishes from complete strangers. Best of all was the little girl who poked her head out of a car window and yelled "Did you just get mawwied?'

But the pictures, oh the pictures.

These were taken next to the giant pillars outside of Nordstroms. I love the texture and neutral color of the brick, but those grand pillars are still what get me.

For a more modern feel, these were next to Sephora.

But best of all, was this shot right in front of Williams and Sonoma. I think even if all the rest of our pictures has been rubish it would almost have been worth it for this shot.

All in all, I had a blast taking pictures. Running around, being silly and sweet with my Zach and my girls, well wishes from strangers. At some point during the hour plus of pictures in between the laughing and the kissing i started to feel all the joy and reality of being married. And once it started, that wonderful feeling kept building until I wondered how one personal could possibly keep all that in.

As much fun as pictures were, the more I kept going, the more excited I became, and the more I couldn't wait to get to the reception and really start celebrating with everyone.

I loved taking pictures, but when the time came I was more than ready to move on to the next part.



*The files I received from the photographer, and uploaded here are huge. Which means that some of them look a little off and fuzzy from being compressed this much. I just don't have the time right now to resize every image. So any fuzz and the like is due to that, not Melissa's work.