Thanksgiving

This post is over a week late but I'm still thankful so Thanksgiving is still relevant.

This year, I hosted my very first Thanksgiving dinner. It had its moments but it wasn't nearly as stressful as I expected. I cooked the entire day Wednesday and Thursday. And I was only cooking for five people.

The recipe list. In order of cooking priority from left to right. It was mostly accurate.

Day 1 included Pomegranate Cranberry Jelly. [Have you ever cooked fresh cranberries? They pop and crack as they cook! It's so fun!]

And the rolls. Dough cooked in a stock pot? Yes. And it rose. There is little else that brings more joy to a baker than bread dough rising. Audible celebrations were had. Especially after the below-mentioned incident with the turkey. 

And I made this. It was beautiful. And delicious. I love that I was raised by Yankee parents but all these Thanksgivings sans PEcan pie... we never knew what we were missing.

 As mentioned above, my only noteworthy adventure of the whole experience was the turkey. Stupid bird.

I got this beautiful, happy turkey from Whole Foods. No preservatives or hormones or other junk. My plan for the tastiest bird ever on a newbie's first try at Thanksgiving dinner: brine!!

Ah lovely brine ingredients. It started out with so much potential.

A beautiful bath of salty goodness. My kitchen smelled fantastic.

This was the original plan. I read from numerous sources that this was an entirely acceptable, even recommended, way to brine your turkey. Doesn't it look so happy and cozy in its little bath?

It wasn't. After spilling brine all over the floor - twice - it got mad at me and sprung a leak once in the bag. The reason I chose to brine in a brining bag was because a) it's a "brining bag", that's what it does, and b) I lack ownership of anything large enough to hold a 12 pound turkey plus 2 gallons of liquid. Hence when it started leaking, I panicked and starting rapidly ticking off a list of everything in my house/garage that could hold all the goods. Coming up with nothing, I resorted to placing the leaking bag inside another non-leaking bag and hoisting it back in the cooler and filling it with 2 more bags of ice. And there it remained for 24 hours. I may or may not have sworn at the turkey. 

Then, after cooking, per instructions, for requisite time and temperature, all seemed well and good and we removed and got ready to slice. Unfortunately, due to either faulty instructions, faulty thermometer or faulty cook- the bird wasn't done. It's a good thing I didn't have those mini-pitchforks in my hands when we realized it wasn't done.

So then we did this for another 45 minutes or so and played "I'm thankful for..." but in alphabetical order. I.E. A- apples. B- bunny rabbits. C- children's laughter. D- dental floss. It proved to be a rather fun way to pass the remaining turkey-cooking time. 

I'm so glad my family was there with me. Aren't they cute? I love them. I wouldn't have finished everything without all hands on deck. My dad loves doing dishes. Don't let him tell you otherwise. 

All eventually turned out being delicious even though it was a little later than planned. 

And I only subjected my family to about 15 minutes of portrait attempts. I am thankful for S- self-timers and T- tripods.

Overall, my inaugural Thanksgiving hosting event was a success.
Lessons learned:
1) next year, explore deep-frying because the brined turkey tasted about the same as a less high-maintenance preparation, or pretty much any other option.
2) always have pecan pie. always.
3) roasting garlic is so yummy. How did I never do this until now?
4) you do NOT need more than 5 lbs of potatoes for 5 people
5) I feel I earned a merit badge in my culinary ambitions by successfully manning Thanksgiving dinner. But it was so much more fun for those couple hours my family was there to help cook than it was kickin it all by myself. Or maybe my family is just so much fun that anything is better with them around. Yeah, it could be that too...

Writing on the Wall

I have this wall. I hate blank walls. I had a plan for all other walls in this room except for this one. Every time I go in the study, the wall is challenging me: "Hey man, think you got a plan, huh? Well you don't! I'm big and empty and I like it that way. You lose. Sucka."

The wall did not speak to husband in the same way as it spoke to me. He didn't feel taunted and teased by the blank study wall. But I did. And I knew I needed to conquer it. So. I found a plan. It started with listening to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 4-5-1 [which, by the way, don't. It's read by Ray Bradbury and he's either 100 years old, extremely fat, extremely drunk or all of the above. Slurring and audible breath refills don't work for audio books].

Anyway. There is a quote in the beginning that I loved. I thought:
Hm. I love that line.
I should do something with that.
How about I type it up in a cool font, frame it, and stick in on a wall.
Which wall?
How about the study wall? Ya know, books in the study, book quotes on the wall. It could work right?
It's too big for just one little quote.
How about a bunch of quotes in a photo collage?
That would take a lot of frames. That's expensive and I've already planned a photo frame collage for another wall. Don't want to go picture collage crazy...
What else could I do with this quote?

I could write it on the wall! 

By this point, I've missed about half of the slurring, breath-gasping first chapter of the book but am totally jazzed about my new idea and am already thinking of other books/authors/quotes that I want to use to fill up my wall and what kind of pen/art supplies I should use.

Problem step: convince husband.

His initial response was "I don't know how I feel about encouraging people to write on our walls." Because I had included my almost favorite part of my plan: have people who come to my house contribute and write their own personal favorites on the wall. I could see he needed more convincing.

I don't know about you but when I come up with an idea for something "creative", I'm not entirely sold on my own ability to come up with something cool. So I go to Google and search for validation that someone else on some cool decor blog has done something like it and therefore, I'm not completely off my rocker for wanting to do said creative project. Although, if I don't find a similar project, I just chalk it up to having a completely original cool idea. Either way, Google validates all creative endeavors.

Validation #1
Months ago on a wallpaper search, I found this wallpaper at Anthro. I love it. But don't love that it's $700 per roll. That's just insane. But I mentioned this to husband. See! Someone else did this in wallpaper form and is charging obscenely for it!

Validation #2
Extreme doodling. Granted this is actual artwork and not written word but I write much better than I draw. Plus the idea of drawing anything on the wall caters to that inner-rebellious child. And we're all supposed to listen to our inner-child right?

Validation #3
If you saw this movie, you know how totally rad this was. Perk: my wall won't have the inconvenience of chalk dust all over the place.

Validation #4
You. I know you can't see the vision I have in my head of this project but you get the general idea. Fill an entire wall with handwritten quotes from books. The font will not be too big or too small. Too tiny will look messy and too big will look unintentional. I'll start in the middle and balloon out. Use the same color throughout. What do we think?

Mulling Things Over: Part 3 (Holiday Edition)

Halloween

When I tell people I don't really like or even celebrate Halloween, you'd think I just cursed their firstborn child or spit on the American flag. I'm not going to go into all my reasons for why I don't care for it but they are very legit and I stand by them. But this year, I started to reconsider my aversion to the holiday. For reasons as follows: 

1) I love pumpkin. I made pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, and chocolate pumpkin pie this fall. I'm considering devoting the entire month of October next year to pumpkin recipes. 

2) The color orange makes me really happy. I think my house would look totally rad in orange decorations. 

3) A dozen or so costumed kids rang our doorbell Saturday night. They were so happy and excited and SO cute in their often ill-fitting costumes. I told Jericho that once we have kids, we'll become better Halloween people.  

Thus I have found that there are things about an otherwise annoying holiday to enjoy and celebrate and therefore save some face for all those that think it's offensively un-American to not like Halloween.

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Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving is at my house for the very first time ever. Our guest list is a whopping five people but I'm researching enough recipes to feed a football team. [Is four pies too many for five people?] I can't help myself. I feel intimidated and empowered by the challenge. Thanksgiving is the gold medal round for all cooks. A culinary walkabout. It's the culmination of all my cooking skills, all to be manifested in one glorious day full of sweat and tears and decadent fall fare. And, it's giving me an valid excuse to buy more fun kitchen gadgets. And I'm pre-ordering my never-frozen, organic turkey from Whole Foods. I do work in Chapel Hill, after all.

Anyone need a place to go for Thanksgiving? Our house seats up to 14...

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Christmas

I decided to send Christmas cards this year. I've finalized the list and ordered them from Pear Tree Greetings getting the early bird discount. I've even started my Christmas shopping. Every year, I always say I want to start my Christmas shopping earlier but it never happens. I end up planning but never actually doing. This Saturday, I may attempt do some more at the grand opening of the Tanger Outlet mall. It's going to be epic. This beauty occupies a piece of property directly across the interstate from my neighborhood. It's going to destroy traffic on our exit. But it'll be epic. Our neighborhood HOA is petitioning for the town to build a skywalk over I-40. 

My house will also be host to some family over the Christmas holiday. I've never played hostess to house guests before so I'm a little excited. Husband doesn't understand why I plan so much for anticipated house guests. I guess it's a woman thing. At least now we have a mattress for the extra queen bed.

Who knew having a house would infuse so much domestic responsibility into my life?

Eighteen Months Old

Today, Jericho and I are eighteen months old. Eighteen months. We're definitely still newbies. [Keen Mary decided to count her marriage age in months until they reached the two year mark, much like you do with children. It makes sense so I shall do the same.] 

It seemed the first few months of marriage went by rather slowly. Not in a bad way. Lots of transitions and newness. Lots of excitement on our new adventures.

But newness and adventures wane a little and you get caught into the swing of life. Adventures still come along and you learn your lessons together instead of individually. You learn how to make things fun and not sweat the small stuff.

You learn that you're not just playing house. But it is comforting to have a house, a friend in that house every day to come home to, and a husband that provided that house. And mows the lawn and builds shelves and vacuums and plants bushes and yells at the construction people for oozing mud all over our beautiful grass.

No matter how busy we are, I'm still thankful every day that I'm married to Jericho. He is my constant.* He is my confidant and comedian. He is my cheerleader and tissue box. And he thinks I'm funny.

I'm glad I have someone that goes fun places with me and even some places that aren't fun. Well, maybe not fun for him but I think the bookstore is fantastically fun. To know you'll never be alone in anything is delightful and totally spoiling.

You're pretty stinking in love on the day you get married. But every day after tells you just how much you didn't know about love on that day. It's a pretty small day in comparison to everything else that you have from that day forward. I'm excited for many more months to come.

Happy eighteen months to my favorite person ever. 

*see Season 5 of LOST

Deep-Fried North Carolina

One of my favorite things about North Carolina is the State Fair. Just as most that are devoted to their home states, we all truly believe that everything from or in our home state is the best of its kind [i.e. for NC- Krispy Kreme donuts, Bojangles, beaches, fall foliage, pigs, cigarettes]. With most places, these superior claims could arguably be true. [Except for Texas and Canadia.] And thus it will be true for the NC State Fair. I didn't think it was all THAT special. I assumed that everyone's state fairs included ample deep-fried weird things, pig races, cow auctions, demolition derbies, mull-pulls and the like. This year, I noticed through Facebook just how many NC emigrants throughout the country voiced their longing for the happenings of the NC fair since their new respective state's fair didn't measure up.

When I first started taking pictures at the fair this year, I thought how cool it would be to do a photo journey of all that can be found at the fair. But alas, not only was it raining when we got there so the nice camera was left in the car, but there is no WAY I could capture everything in one trip. So here is a small snapshot of our fair experience this year.

First stop is the Methodist Church ham biscuits! And some pretty tasty onion rings. 

We didn't even come close to being tempted to try this. I think I got indigestion just getting close enough to take a picture. Ew.

We did, however, chow down on fried mac-n-cheese and PB&J. I know that mug looks like it should be frothing over with beer but it's just some tasty Pappy's soda.

The boy loves him some peanut butter.

Toured inside the buildings. Aside from the homemade contests people enter, the rest are like a giant collision of infomercials and a flea market.

Speaking of contests. Did you know you could win a blue ribbon for table decorating? I think I've found a competition to aspire to next year.

Joined up with mom and Krissy and Wade later in the evening and shared some cheese steaks and fried Snickers. Lesson learned- don't wear black when eating food covered in powdered sugar.

Stopped by the produce and cow display. The fair isn't ALL about eating...

These were some HUGE cows. All the cows/calves hanging out matched except for these two. She felt a little out of place since it was clear paternity was a surprise once the baby was born. 

$10 to ride the Ferris Wheel. I took a picture instead.

House Decor

Having a new house is exciting. Decorating a new house is exciting and daunting, if you're a girl, boys, however, don't seem to be affected by this. When you move from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 2300 square foot house, you run out of furniture and decor very quickly. And I unfortunately have a phobia of empty walls. I'm finding this to be an expensive phobia.

My boss, wise as she is, gave me some good advice about buying wall art. "Buy what you like, THEN figure out where you're going to put it. You'll eventually find you've covered your house in pieces you love without ever really planning it." Granted she has a collection of real art and I have a hodge podge of art and little things I made myself, but the idea is still the same.

One thing that I like that will eventually end up in my house, is from this site:

I love these!! And I can pick any color to match any room and they're really reasonably priced. I'm super excited. I've decided I want to get the "Oh Happy Day" poster. I have mixed feelings on the cutesy boards/decals that people get for their wedding date. You know, the "Established on Jan 1, 2010" in pretty letters over their last name. I like the concept but felt like it was starting to get cliche and I hate cliche. Another [expensive] phobia of mine. But I love the poster on this site. So be looking for it on my wall in the near future, or at least propped up against a potential wall until I decide where it should go....

Sweeps Week

When did I become this person? I used to follow 2, maybe 3, television shows. Now I need a schedule for premier week and I don't even have cable or a DVR. It simplify things a little that our digital tuner doesn't pick up NBC [necessitating frequent use of Hulu]. It does, however, get an evangelical channel, 4 Spanish channels and doubles of the CW and CBS.

The following are my contenders for the fall season. 

New shows I'm interested in:

Hawaii Five-0- The production value alone on this show looks pretty impressive. And I like Scott Caan and Jin from LOST and I have no competing shows for the 10:00 time slot on Monday nights. I'll at least watch the pilot.

My Generation- Ya know what's depressing, this show could be about me. It's about people that graduated high school in the year 2000 and picking up their stories in present day. This is a huge check in the column of life signs that I am getting older.

Running Wilde- Love Will Arnett. Love Felicity. This could potentially be awesome. 

Outsourced- Slightly interested. Again, I don't get NBC so this would take extra effort to watch it online.

Shows I've watched in the past but am I'm not entirely on board for this season:

The Biggest Loser- Reality shows run their course about 5 seasons before they actually get canceled. This one might be one of them. Plus, I'm getting tired of crying every week.

Parenthood- Watched most of last season but tampered off towards the end. I don't know what happened at the finale so I'm not as hooked to start up on it this season. And, I don't have NBC.

Grey's Anatomy- While I'm glad Izzy is finally gone, I spent the entire season finale from last year saying "Seriously?" over and over. If that wasn't a jump the shark season finale, I don't know what is. I've watched almost the entire series of this one but it's getting a little tired and stale.

Favorites that will remain as my must-see TV:

Bones- Formula crime dramas are as common as Silly Bands these days but Bones will always stand out as superior to them all, in my opinion. I sense that the series is starting to run a little dry but it still delivers plenty of intrigue and dark laughs.

How I Met Your Mother- Love it. Will watch until the very end.

Fringe- Fan-freakin-tastic. We were late to the game on this one and have been watching the past seasons on Netflix. Unfortunately, the most recent season (#2) was JUST released. We are catching up but will try to jump into this season as soon as we can.

Modern Family- Truly deserving of it's Emmy. I will be sticking around to see if Season 2 delivers.

Glee- Since FOX is one of the only stations that has reruns over the summer instead of creating short seasons of really lame dramas, I was able to catch up on Season 1 of Glee. I absolutely love it. Jericho even likes it [his favorite character is Sue Silvester].

Dancing with the Stars- I almost put this in the "maybe" category but it's the final season and lest we forget, David Hasselhoff is among the "stars". How can you pass up The Hoff?

The Office- This was also a tough call, mainly because once I start watching Fringe, there will be a conflict. And, I'll be honest, I'm starting to lose interest.

So what do we think? Am I missing any? Any I should absolutely take off my list and simplify my life? What shows are you looking forward to this season?

Mental Freedom

I love the beach. Not just "I love vacations and relaxing and getting a tan." I love, love, LOVE the beach. I love the ocean. I love the wind and the smells and the food and the warmth. I often fantasize about having a boat or a beach house and finding some cheesy name for it. Like "Island Fantaseas" or "Waves of my heart".

I could live at the beach. I know a lot of people say that but I really think I could.  A slower paced lifestyle is in my nature. No big cities or hustle and bustle. Living a life that allows life to happen instead of being worked away. 

This weekend, I spend four great days with my family at Carolina Beach. I spent a morning on the oceanfront porch, book in hand, yogurt and muesli breakfast and a bottle of water, knowing that I could spend many, many days of my life doing that very thing. Perhaps one day the reading would instead be writing. Or editing pictures. Or talking to my husband and kids.

everyone's happier at the beach. it just happens that way

Life is too complicated. There are too many lists. Too many emails. Too many definitions of success. Too many electronics for when we get tired of thinking for ourselves. Life is meant to be absorbed, not washed quickly away and merely tolerated.

My first day back at work and in front of a computer after four days at the beach, my mind became instantly foggy, like I'd just woken up from a too-long nap. Never really focusing on anything and definitely not really caring about anything. And for what? A job? A paycheck? Being a productive member of society? Maybe it is all relative. Maybe appreciating the dynamic sensory experience of something like the ocean goes away if you live in it long enough. Maybe your senses become dull and in turn yearn for meetings and to-do lists and complicated schedules. Maybe. I'm sure happy to test that theory. 

Sad, Sad August

Wow. How lame am I? I'll tell you. Two posts in August! [This makes three]. That's super lame. My Analytics is even telling me how lame I am. My numbers are falling. It sent me an email that said "Your readership is falling at a rate of .47% per day. You're not posting. Your blog is entering lameness. If you continue in this sucky blogness and to tarnish the reputation of bloggers around the world, Blogger will hereby remove your blog from existence. This is your first warning."

I blame my lack of blogging on a few things... other than my own lameness.

1) I gave a talk in church last week. I had the entire month of August to prepare and thus spent most of my evenings and weekends researching and writing, time that otherwise would have been spent blogging. Maybe. Plus it was on a crazy huge topic: Grace and Works. I can now teach you an entire lesson on the gift of grace, which is something I couldn't do before last week. Success!

2) I spend all day at work on the computer. But don't you blog on a computer? This would normally be helpful but lately the 8 hours a day of computering has really started to take its mental toll on me. I've been avoiding the at-home computer whenever possible. Also, my at-home computer is slow as spit. Once Obama sends us our 8 Gs for buying a house, we can solve this problem.

3) I've been reading.

4) I haven't been taking very many pictures. What!? I know. Foolishness! This falls into the bigger excuse of plain ol laziness. I have a picture of Jericho and me from my birthday dinner. That's it. It's it lovely?

I also have this one from one of my quiet mornings with tea and a book in my fabulous new kitchen. Other than pictures of food, this is all I got.

5) I keep avoiding doing a post about the house. I have three draft posts started that have something to do with my new house. There's just so much I don't know where to start. And when it starts coming into blog form, it all seems so boring. Plus I posted all those pictures on Facebook. That was a cop-out though. I sometimes would like to think that this blog is my virtual journal and that I'll one day get it printed into a book. Therefore I get angry with myself when I neglect to post in detail about big things. Like the house. And my anniversary! Hello! I know I was in the Caribbean, but still. I should have written something on May 2. But alas, I didn't. 

6) I am officially in a funk. Not a blog-funk. An all-encompassing funk. The last few months have been showing signs of an impending funk and I think it's officially here. And I think I know why. But I'm not sharing [part of it has to do with #2, kind of]. It requires more explanation that the #6 bullet point allows.

Happy Kelley-Day

Today is my birthday.

Today, I am 28 years old. Twenty-eight! I'm officially in my late-twenties. I'm 2 years from 30. I'm half-way to 56. I'm the month of February [in a non-leap year]. 

My mother and father made me dinner on Saturday night. I had pre-birthday dessert last night. I had lunch out with my buddy coworkers. Tonight, I will be going out to eat with my dear husband and good friends to Firebirds. [Yummy yummy steaks without spending half a pay-check.]

More birthday posting after today since I don't have pictures yet to capture all that is my birthday. I just wanted to pop in and declare to the blog-world that it is my birthday. And having a birthday on a Monday is way weird.

Advocates for the Preservation of the Newly Married

Married Person 1: "...Kelley's still a newlywed. She doesn't know yet what it's like to hate her husband."

Me: "I don't like to rush through my mornings. I like to take my time, eat some breakfast, actually talk to my husband for a little while before rushing out the door."

Married Person 2: "Oh you'll get past that phase."

Married Person 3: "Let's not tell too many real stories about our husbands in front of Kelley. She'll never want to get married." [said while I was engaged]

They are right about one thing. I still consider myself newly married. I have only been married for 15 months. But newly married doesn't equal newly stupid.

I have heard all my life that marriage is work. You will have fights. You will have disagreements. It will be tough. It will take sacrifice. I have never been a butterflies and rainbows and candles and romance kind of girl. I don't go skipping through the house at the sound of the my husband's voice at the end of the day because I can't wait to hug him and smell him and tell him how much I love him [okay, at least not everyday]. We don't sit around for hours looking into each others' eyes because there is nothing else we'd rather do with our time. We both have a very real and grounded approach to love and relationships.

And I am happy. I love my husband. He loves me. We are respectful to each other. We get along. We hang out. We talk about things. Nothing is always perfect but I'm happy. Why is that so wrong for me to be happy? Why do people that are married for a while feel that it is their duty to rain bitterness on young marriages? Is it because you are unhappy and misery loves company? Are you envious of new love? Is your husband not even close to mine in fabulousness and you hate me for it [this one is very believable, btw]?

The above are just a few examples of things I've been told over the past year and the list is much longer. I often get asked how I'm enjoying married life and when I respond with something positive [which is every time], I frequently receive a negative comment back like "Oh, well you're still a newlywed," or "Yeah, wait a few more years and you won't be saying that." According to the masses, once I pass say, 3-4 years, all bets are off. I stop taking my husband's phone calls. I stop enjoying the time I spend with him. The way he does everything from brushing his teeth to tying his shoes makes me hate his everliving guts. Why is it so expected and normal to allow this disintegration of marriages? And more importantly, why is it so normal that it be made public knowledge? [Don't even get me started on TV sitcoms that use insults and arguments in family settings are basis for their comedy. URG!]

I'm not saying that a marriage can only be great if it is always perfect bliss and harmony. Marriages change over the years. Problems and crises are inevitable. I'm not newly-stupid to the point where I don't recognize this. My biggest problem with the way people treat their marriages is they let their experiences, heart-aches, problems, etc, become other people's business. A marriage is two people. Not two people, plus your bridge club and bowling team. If you have a negative attitude towards marriage because of something in your life, that's your problem, not mine. Don't try to make others think that just because certain things happened in your marriage means that you need to warn all those that have happy marriages that it's gonna hit a crap-hole here in a few years.

It's one thing to have a problem that you confide in a friend for counsel and advice. It's entirely another to use your spouse's faults as fodder for the lunchroom table conversation. I really don't care to know the details of your latest fight or other intimate details of your spouse. Now next time I see said husband, I'm all awkward because all I'll be able to think is: "You got unnecessarily crazy-mad at your wife for that time she didn't park her car in the garage properly. Stupid jerk." And I don't want to be that person. I don't do band-wagon hatred.

This rant is becoming much longer than I anticipated. I know I'm not perfect but I try to at least be aware. I have felt strongly about this for some time, ever since I started getting the light-hearted "warnings" about marriage when I was engaged.  I recently read in the Ensign a tip on marriage that said something to the effect of: Keep your marriage in your marriage. You owe your spouse a level of respect to not let the petty, and sometimes not so petty, issues become trivial topics of conversation with your friends. I would be mortified if I found out that my husband was sharing stories with his buddies about a recent fight or venting about something I do that makes him postal [we all know this isn't possible because I don't do anything that annoys him, right]. It has become so common place to vent about marriages that people don't think it odd or in poor taste anymore to gossip about your spouses. Your spouse should take a place far above all others when it comes to the level of respect and loyalty that you give them.

Rant over.

Mulling things over- Part 2

I have an obsessive desire to do projects. It's why I love to cook. It's why I love to read books. Starting and finishing something gives me an indescribable sense of empowerment. This grand empowerment is due to the fact that I don't always finish projects. So when I do, it's gold star time. Ever since I was a kid, this was always something I wished I could change. I can design and create artistic decorations for my house that take hours upon hours to complete. But I still can't manage to fold my clean laundry in a timely fashion. It's very paradoxical in my world. I should be studied. 

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I often wonder what we're supposed to be in this life. Our faith shapes our character. Our family shapes our character. Our experiences shape our character. But what is the ultimate person that we are supposed to be? Are we variables? Or is the person we are when we're 21 the foundational character of who we will always be? I heard somewhere once that we have lost most of our ability for change by the time we're 30, or something like that. That's frightening to me. I hope to change and grow every day for the rest of my life. Not that I'm not happy with who I am and what my life is now, but the idea that anything could remain in a relatively similar spectrum of definition makes me wary of the future. I recently read in a novel an exchange between a boss and an employee he was firing. He attempted to encourage her by saying that she had her whole future ahead of her. She responded, "Everyone's whole future is a head of them. It's why it's called the future." I guess it's what we do with that future that is supposed to be encouraging.

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Also, in reading this recent book, I realized how easy it must be to get a book published. My heart, there are some poorly written books out there. Why shouldn't I be a writer? How would I do it? Where would I start? Clearly I don't have to start with much if all these people with rambling prose and run-on sentences are getting published. Every time I read one of these books, I'm further inspired to take a stab at it. Conversely, if I don't succeed, then I'm reminded of how horrible the books are of authors that have succeeded and therefore mine is actually below them. I'd rather have my book sell only 50 copies [most likely all purchased by my parents] and end up in the bargain bin. At least that is a more acceptable form of semi-failure.

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I watched most of the World Cup last month. One thing that baffled me in every game was the fouls. Not the amount of fouls or the nature of those that were committed but the reaction of the offender whenever the whistle was blown against them. These professional soccer players have been playing soccer for a while. Some probably twenty years. And yet, whenever they commit a foul, they are ALWAYS surprised when the whistle is blown. Come on, like you didn't know? Not even a little hint in that conscious of yours that maybe, just maybe, by taking that guy out at the ankles was going to draw a whistle? I thought this was strange but then I began to see similar behavior off of the soccer field. Apparently it is in our nature to defend and rationalize. I recently witnessed a juvenile at his first appearance in court for breaking and entering in a car with the intent for larceny. He was crying and physically upset about the situation. I really couldn't feel sorry for him. I thought the same thing as with the soccer players, are you really that surprised? You bust out some windows in a car, get caught, and you're little 15 year old heart is surprised? People can't help themselves. Passion and emotions somehow override our voices of common sense and logic. It seems that logic is what should prevail amongst such rampant irrational behaviors. But then again, no one would ever fall in love either...

Allegations of Neglect

I feel that I've been neglecting this blog. Sometimes I feel this huge push to write a post a day but lately, my blogness has been a little weak. Jericho and I do have numerous house projects in the works and those will most likely be turned into blog posts. But even those I'll have to space out or else this'll turn into a DIY crafty, home projects blog. And I don't know how I feel about that. 

In the meantime, I have been blogging a little on my foodie blog. Last night, we celebrated my dad's birthday with dinner and dessert. Since I normally would have blogged on that here, I feel I should at least reference it on this blog. 

You can read about the food we had last night here. It makes me hungry to look at it.

Winston Antiquing

This weekend, Jericho's BFF was in Winston-Salem to work on his BMW and asked Jericho to come help. I tagged along because I didn't really have any interest in staying in Mebane all by myself but I wasn't really sure what I was going to do. Since the boys were doing boy things with the cars, I decided to do girl things and go shopping. More specifically, I looked up local thrift/antique/consignment shops in the area. Well wasn't I pleasantly surprised when I saw just how many were within a 15 minute radius of each other.

I have never really been an antiquing kind of girl. I've done some yard sales and flea markets. But having a house has awaken this inner passion to buy things for the house. I went with specific items in mind and had SO. MUCH. FUN. I think I've found a new hobby.

Not only did I have a blast finding fun, unique things for my house, I also discovered just how cool Winston-Salem is. Jericho grew up there but my exposure to the city has mainly been to his mom's house and the mall. I am determined to go back and explore more of the downtown area and eat at some of the funky restaurants.

This is Cookies. I went in there twice. Cookie was an interesting lady.

Inside Cookies. It's what I always imagined the inside of my head to look like. I would have bought more had I been able to get to it.

This block of Reynolda Road was so quaint. I was able to walk to three of the stores. It was blazing hot and if I was eating carbs right now, this is where I would have stopped to eat Gelato while I shopped.

A sampling of a few of things I bought. I'm psyched. I can't wait to find new places to buy cool, used stuff.