Friday Felicities

Things that made me happy this week:

• the new Anthropologie catalog and a big mug of Tazo Passion tea

• car insurance that provides you with a rental car

{Scored the free upgrade, plus this ride reminds me of a favorite jam from high school}

• mainstream rap of the late nineties that was somehow accessible to Catholic school girls in Vermont, specifically the Lil' Troy classic "Wanna Be a Baller" {For those who might not immediately get the reference, the chorus starts off with, "Wanna be a baller, shot caller/twenty inch blades on the Impala..." Mr. Troy then goes on to talk about a "diamond rottweila' " and how he is "not a leader, not a followa." It might not be lyrical genius, but it's catchy as hell.}

• Puppies! Puppies are happiness clichés for a reason. They are pure awesome. I joined my parents for a potential puppy meeting this week, and I think I giggled like an idiot for twenty minutes as I watched them tumble around their little puppy playpen. All of my photos are craptastic because the little guys were in constant motion and I am still working on mastering the still life, but here ya go...

 My parents want a black lab. I tried to get them to reconsider as the yellow labs are much easier  to photograph, but I think I'm just going to have to work on my metering... Either way, they were all perfectly adorable, and one little black girl seemed particularly smitten with my camera. Check her out - she's transfixed.

 

Seriously, it does not matter what is happening; she will not be distracted.

I think I'm in love.

RIP, Jetta

 

"It's not as bad as it looks," people always say. In poor Jetta's case, it was exactly the opposite. 

A week ago today I got into an accident in the middle of a busy intersection. Other than a skinned knee and a new skittishness behind the wheel, I escaped unscathed. The same cannot be said of the Jetta. What looked like a relatively minor dent concealed a broken axle and various other ailments that are apparently quite costly to repair. Bottom line - it's totaled. 

On Tuesday, I went to the body shop to pick up all of the stuff that had accumulated in my car over the years, and I was sadder than I had expected to be to say goodbye to the old gal. Despite my frequent complaints about tricky German engineering, I really did like my little Jetta. It was the first car that was just mine, a college graduation gift from my very generous parents, and it served me well for eight-plus years. 

During my senior year, it delivered my friends and I to Narragansett when we needed to avoid the reality of our impending release into the real world by spending an afternoon at the beach. It ferried me around Burlington for seven months after college as I tried to figure out what to do with my life (too bad it'll never get to see how that turns out!). Then, in a great show of endurance and commitment to adventure, the Jetta took me from Shelburne, Vermont to San Diego, California by way of Tupelo, Mississipi; Juarez, Mexico; and Yuma, Arizona. It received its first major scratch the first time that I pulled into the too-small parking spot at my first apartment. The Jetta served me faithfully in the daily commute to three different places of employment and assisted in eight more moves after that first cross-country jump. Perhaps most significantly, the Jetta tirelessly covered the 130 miles between San Diego and Los Angeles as I was falling in love with my husband. Less romantically, but more practically - it helped me to race said husband to the emergency room when he sliced his thumb open on a can of beans.

It's just a car, but it was a good little car, and I'm sad to see it go. It feels a little bit like the end of an era, but I'm grateful to the Jetta for safely delivering me to this point in my life. On the bright side, the next era is looking a bit greener; we're going hybrid shopping this weekend.

Friday Felicities - Belated

This post is belated because on Friday, I was too busy enjoying some of the things that make me happy to blog about them.

First things first though. Things to be happy about from last week:

• Lincoln and Washington - These guys made me happy on Monday because the observation of their birthdays meant no school. 

{Not sure what these two are up to, but this is the first image that came up when I googled Lincoln and Washington. Apparently it is Apotheosis of Washington and Lincoln by S. J. Ferris circa 1865.}

• Art Stores - I walked into Artist and Craftsman Supply and spent a good half hour wandering around imagining all of the crafty magic I could whip up with the plethora of pretty paper, glitter, paints, and clay on the shelves.

 

• Window Seats - Normally, I am an aisle seat girl. However, on short flights like the 54 minute one from San Diego to San Francisco, when I don't have to worry about climbing over people to use the bathroom, I am all about the window seat.

{Landing at SFO}

• San Francisco - I love visiting this city so much that I can even overlook the fact that the thermometer struggled to rise above forty-five degrees.

 

{Alhambra and Mallorca}

• College Friends Who Easily Make the Transition to Lifelong Friends - The best part of San Francisco is, of course, that it is home to one of my favorite people in the world. 

• Surprises - When I decided to make the journey to San Francisco for Kelsey's 30th, this is the moment I was most looking forward to:

Kelsey's husband Chris picked me up at the airport and brought me to their apartment   where Kelsey was very surprised to see me when she returned home from her hair appointment. After a delicious dinner, we delivered Kelsey to her sister Annie's apartment for the second surprise of the evening - a surprise part complete with birthday banner, cupcakes, and cocktails.

 

• Cover Bands - After the evening's second surprise, we continued Kelsey's birthday celebration at the Red Devil Lounge where we got our swerve on to the sweet sounds of Pop Rocks. It's possible that this is the multiple Greyhounds talking, but I'm pretty sure that these guys were awesome. Anyone who can convincingly rock Jesse's Girl and then seamlessly transition California Girls (singing Katy Perry's part and Snoop's part) all while wearing a pirate costume is alright in my book.

•  Saffron Risotto with Seared Diver Scallops - I have no picture of this as I was too busy stuffing my face to stop and get my camera out. Suffice it to say that the food was wonderful and the company even better at the birthday dinner in which Kelsey's family was kind enough to include me.

Weekend Recovery

This past (four day!) weekend was exactly what I needed. {Although now it's Wednesday already and I'm just getting around to writing about the weekend.} With four days instead of the usual, miserly two, I didn't have to choose between relaxation and responsibility; there was plenty of time to be both industrious and indolent. I graded papers, cleaned bathrooms, washed sheets, bought groceries, and scrubbed floors, but I also watched movies, shared meals, took naps, drank Greyhounds, walked aimlessly, and photographed randomly. The end result was that by the end of the weekend, I felt good. Of course, there was more that could have been done, but I felt like I had struck a good balance. Bottom line-I would like to make four day weekends a regular occurrence.

One of the weekend's highlights was getting to watch Tom play some music.  I love watching him play, so was happy to brave the rain on Saturday night to watch he and Devin perform with a couple of other local musicians. Thanks to my sisters, my mom, and my friend Jaime for also battling the elements to show their support.

I have yet to figure out the best way to take pictures in the super low light that is apparently requisite for all live music performances. Sadly, what follows are the best shots of the night. Tom and Devin played first...

They were followed by brothers Billy and Bobby Shaddox whose father joined them at the end of their set.

Tom and Devin returned to the (now very crowded) stage for a few more songs with the Shaddox gentlemen at the end of the evening.

{Apologies to Papa Shaddox for hiding him in the shadows}

It was an evening of great music. I may be biased (after all, I am a pseudo celebrity now that a song bearing my name has become a fan favorite), but I thought the Riders killed it. The Shaddox brothers (and father) were a treat to watch as well.

Friday Felicities

felicity (fə lis′i tē)

noun pl. felicities -·ties

1. happiness; bliss
2. anything producing happiness; good fortune
3. a quality or knack of appropriate and pleasing expression in writing, speaking, painting, etc.
4. an apt expression or thought

Origin: ME felicite < OFr felicité < L felicitas, happiness < felix (gen. felicis), happy, orig., fertile, fruitful, nourishing


Obvioulsy, I have slacked off in the blog-writing department as of late. I have been busy and tired and uninspired and excuse and excuse... I am attempting to refocus, and I thought it would help to have some sort of routine. Back at the height of my middle school awkwardness, I discovered this book.

Being the joyful little dorks that we were, my friend Jessica and I set about making out own list. We got to a thousand, one thousand things that made us happy. We printed our list out, and I stuck my copy (a thick stack of that old school printer paper that had that weird perforated edge with the holes in it) in a desk drawer. I think. I have absolutely no idea what happened to it, but I would love to be able read it today. I wonder if the same things that made me happy at thirteen still make me happy at thirty. My guess is that a lot of them probably do. 

In any event, I am going to try out a weekly routine that is a throwback to that old school list. Friday Felicities (alliterative and apt) will be a list of things that made me happy over the past week. 

Things that filled me with felicitous feelings this week (or, more accurately, today, since this just occurred to me and I haven't been keeping a photographic record of my happiness this week): 

• Swimming piglets* and silly wordplay. {Someone commented on this photo that the little guys were probably training for the Olympigs}

                          Source: dailycute.net via Gaby on Pinterest

• Feeling loved by the Hubs on Valentine's Day (and every day for that matter)

• Growing a salad on the railing of our bedroom balcony

• Freshly washed sheets and Barbara Kingsolver

• Dinner with the fam

• These words of wisdom - I'm going to make my own poster and put it up in my classroom

                                                                               Source: etsy.com via Kate on Pinterest

*Disclaimer: Pictures of adorable baby animals (is there any other kind?) doing  silly things and/or just looking adorable almost always make me happy and will likely make frequent appearances.

Happy Valentine's Day

We decided on a low key, homemade Valentine's celebration. So, inspired by this, I made this while Tom was out last night:

{I'm still cleaning glitter out of my hair, but it was an all around good time}

{Look at me, I even bought a glue gun.}

 

And inspired by my sister, I also made these:

{Red velvet cookies, cream cheese frosting, pink sprinkles} 

 

 

 

I strung up my glittery, sparkling Valentine's greeting before I left for school.

Lest you think that I swept Valentine's Day, I must say that Tom did pretty well himself...  I received a lovely bouquet at school which in addition to brightening my day and my desk, served as a teachable moment...I used it as an opportunity to remind the young men in the room that you can never go wrong sending flowers to a woman at work. After work, I was treated to a delicious dinner which I was too busy enjoying to photograph.

Sure, it's a commercialized, Hallmark holiday, but a day devoted to love can't be a bad thing.

Happy Birthday, Dr. King

I have spent the past 45 minutes reading the words of Martin Luther King, unable to choose a favorite passage. As someone who treasures a well-crafted sentence and an elegant turn of phrase, I have long appreciated King's oratorical skills. Today, as I read some of his most famous words, I marveled as always at his mastery of language, but what really struck me is how relevant his words remain today.

We have certainly come a long way in fifty years (I wonder if King himself could have imagined that an African American family would reside in the White House during his children's lifetimes), and yet we still have so very far to go before we live up to the dream that Dr. King laid out for us.

There were too many wonderful words of wisdom to pick just one, so I'll probably be back later with more.

Tide Poolin'

My brother and his lovely fiancée Erin are in town, which means that we get to do all of the fun, touristy San Diego things that we never seem to make time to enjoy unless we have visitors in town.

First stop, Cabrillo National Park at low tide.

We looked long and hard, but no one spotted the elusive octopi.

 

photo courtesy of Erin

I don't know why I don't come here more often. It is one of my favorite places in San Diego.

Upward Facing Dog

I miss yoga.

via on Pinterest