On Turning Twenty Eight

On Monday, we went on a wine tasting cruise on the Hudson River - so fun! 

I’ve been making a ridiculous number of lists lately. What we need to buy for the apartment. Recipes I want to try. Movies/books/music I want to see/read/listen to. And that’s in addition to my boring every morning “Things I seriously need to get accomplished today” list.

So it’s only fitting that when I turned 28 on Monday, I started to make a list of what I was looking forward to for the year and, since I am always all sorts of nostalgic, what the past year was like.

I’d have to say that 27 was a bit all over the place, although maybe that’s every year. But there were lots of upsides. The getting married part, most of all. And the moving in together. The having of our family from Italy, Canada and friends from California here. The visiting of new places—Punta Cana last November, Miami in March, Spain in July, Dallas in September. The learning that what’s right for some people, isn’t always right for me. (And that that’s ok.)

But there’s been lots of adjusting to different situations. And lots of time wasted with worrying. (Weddings will SERIOUSLY do that to you. I was watching an episode of Dina’s Party on HGTV the other day and she was throwing a wedding re-do for this couple where the husband got salmonella poisoning and missed the reception. And I was all, OMG that was my worst fear realized. I think I ate nothing but pizza the two days leading up to the wedding. Why pizza? My dad, a former pizza man, says nothing can live in a 400-plus degree oven. If he’s lying, PLEASE don’t tell me.)

All in all, though, I’d like to think that on the first year of my late 20’s, things came together quite nicely.

And now, on to 28. I thought about making a “29 before 29” list, but I stopped at 20 and didn’t feel like forcing it. So we’re going to title this To Do at 28, instead.

Here are a few:

- Make donuts 

- Go to Iceland

- Win that godforsaken radio contest already

- Finish my professional website

- Take a photography class

- Do a juice fast

- Have a tapas party

- Volunteer, preferably with something that has to do with reading

- Learn to make tomato sauce from Nonna

- Forget the “shoulds”

I’m hoping that having these here will actually remind me to finish them. That, and the fact that I’m going to print the list out and scotch tape it to my desk. (Better add bulletin board to that list of things to buy for the apartment.)

What about you? Do you have a running list of things you want to accomplish in any given year?

Summer in Spain

It’s only a few hours into fall, but I’m still wearing flip flops (albeit in the rain…) and though I’m as excited as the next girl for pumpkin spice lattes, I’m not totally ready to give up on the fact that summer is, in fact, over. So, to keep that feeling going, I thought I’d (finally) share a few pics from our July honeymoon in Spain.

I’m in the midst of creating a photo book on Shutterfly—thank you, Groupon—and have been picking out some of my faves. Here are a few:

After a bumpy ride to Malaga, in southern Spain, we picked up our lovely blue rental car, and drove to Marbella to start our 13-day trip.

We had a gift certificate to the spa and a bottle of Cava waiting for us (thanks Carmine, Chris and Karen!). And with a view of the ocean, it gave those first four days a decidedly “honeymoon-ish” feel.

After lots of beaching and pooling and mid-day napping, we made the two-hour drive to Sevilla—my favorite of all the cities, actually. (This photo was actually from the Granada leg of the trip, but we made a similar stop at some randomly packed roadside restaurant on the Sevilla side.)

Road trip food!

I don’t know if it was because it felt like a small town in Italy (although that could have just been the ridiculous amount of tourists) or that the little streets lend themselves perfectly to fun walks, but from our hotel, which used to be a palace, (picture below on the left) to the gardens of the Reales Alcazar to the awesome restaurants we found courtesy of an English language Lonely Planet we picked up, it was seriously amazing.

From Sevilla, we made our way to Granada, where this photo below was the view from the hotel café. We got up early to wait in line for Alhambra tickets, wanted to try all the tea in town and put our blue car to good use driving up the mountains of the Sierra Nevada until we found no guardrails and lots of mountain goats.

After dropping our rental car off with the gas station attendant next to the airport, (who kindly left his post and drove us to our gate.), we boarded our flight to Barcelona. We spent three days walking for hours, dodging people and street performers on Las Ramblas, shopping—oh, how I love you red-ish pants from Zara—stuffing our faces with (even more) tapas and loving all things Gaudi.

Overall, it was amazing, honestly. And I know you’re supposed to say that about your honeymoon and all, but it really was. There were times when we wondered whether we should have gone on a more beachy or exotic trip, but I think this suited us much better—the wine was cheap, the roads were perfect for getting lost and the company couldn’t have been better.

P.S. If you'd like to see some photos from the wedding, click here.

wedding task wonders: photographer

My friend Anish took this photo at Laura's wedding...maybe he should be my wedding photographer? 

In the first month or so after we got engaged, there was a flurry of lists and plans and emails. I set aside a notebook especially for all my half-thought out notes, most of which can be found written sideways and in a scribbled handwriting that thankfully my journalism experience has taught me to decipher. 

There was the buying of bridal books and magazines, the adding of new blogs to my Reader (under a new category and everything!), and there might have even been a Google Wave titled "Wedding Research" created. I had friends pass on Excel spreadsheets full of venue details and dutifully, John and I took all the 360-degree tours their websites offered.  

And then, in mid-February, we booked the venue. 

And then, the next day rolled around and we stopped thinking about the wedding. 

I mean, ok, I stopped thinking about the wedding. And our wedding, I should italicize, since I had no problem checking out Erica's invitations and helping other friends with their own venue selections—oh, and reading a million articles this one. 

Lots of people have asked for updates, sure, and I just keep feeding the line that we're in the process of looking for photographers and DJs. 

But now it's not just a line anymore. Since we have quite the popular wedding date, I think we need to get on this whole photographer thing, especially since it's pretty much at the top of our list of "Important Wedding Priorities," as determined by that random list we filled out in that wedding planning book. 

Which brings me to my problem: How does one go about finding a good (read: amazing, artsy, absolutely fabulous) East Coast photographer? 

Every blog I read has me falling in love with photographers that are either on the West Coast or in some other part of the country. I know lots of people who have their photographers fly in from somewhere else, but my anxiety has me wondering how it'll be to meet them at the wedding (what if we don't have that much-talked about click?) and what if, as Sabina mentioned, NY lighting isn't nearly as amazing as Southern California lighting? 

We're in the process of putting together a list now, and while we do have some good leads, I figured better to throw it out there and see if anyone else did, too, before I come up with some other wedding-related thing to distract me. 

By the way, have you seen this wedding dress made of cake? 

and, she's back...

...although barely. 

We haven't had power at the house since Saturday afternoon. And just in case you were wondering, I'm typing this on Thursday  morning. And more than likely, we won't get it back until tomorrow. Le sigh. 

At first it was actually kind of fun: reading by candlelight, camping out at my grandmother's, exchanging those "No, you can't believe the tree I SAW fall down" stories ... but then... well, then it just got kind of old. My clothes—and our food— are spread across three different houses, I'm charging my phone in my car and I haven't slept in my own bed since last Thursday night. (Friday we had a slight re-do of New Year's in Joyce's living room.) And, trust me, I know it could be a lot worse. 

But, on the bright side, if I had to make a list of "Things I Won't Take for Granted Again, I Promise" electricity is definitely at the top. 

No one's crossing this street....

Power lines plus trees equals not the best idea. 

So at 12:30 on Sunday night, as we're finishing dinner at Melissa and Cheri's, Joyce gets an email saying a tree fell on her parents house. Since they're in Florida, we went to check it out. 

The tree uprooted and skimmed the side of the house. After some friendly firefighters told us that no, in fact, the tree won't fall through the attic and into the living room, Joyce called her Dad, who remembered the name of his insurance person IN HIS SLEEP. Here, she's looking at the bright side as well. 

three amazing things

1. Short haircuts 

I've had short hair since the end of April 2008, right after Sherry got married. I wanted it long for her wedding so that I'd be able to put it up, but once the weekend was over, that was it. I chopped it into a short bob, slightly longer in front. And I loved it. Like, loved it to the point where I spent the first week hoping it wouldn't grow too fast, just in case I went back to the salon and my hairdresser somehow couldn't remember how he'd cut it the last time I was there. 

I kept it short, going from bob to cropped and layered and choppy, until this past October, when I had my last haircut. Because in December, I got engaged. And as soon as you get engaged people start asking if you're planning on growing your hair so that it will be long enough to curl or pull up or back for the wedding. I thought about it and since I couldn't really make up my mind, I let it grow. Eventually, it hit my shoulders and was much easier to keep out of my face at the gym.  

Until Tuesday. I couldn't handle it anymore. It was weighing me down, to basically be literal about it. So I went and chopped it short once again, and immediately, right as I was sitting in the chair reading some old copy of Allure, I felt like myself again. 

2. New ways to wear almost-abandoned clothes 

Pretty much any time you walk into the Gap, you're guaranteed to get something on sale. In fact, I can probably count the number of times, I've bought something for full price—a super cute clutch that was stolen one summer in Italy and a t-shirt dress from at least 4 years ago that has become my default bridal shower outfit. So when I found a cute, long green tank for about $10 last summer, I figured there would be some way I could wear it. Turns out, there wasn't. It was too long to wear with jeans and when it was hot out, too short to wear with leggings. 

And I almost forgot about it, poor thing, until earlier this week, when I rescued it from the murky bottom of my dresser drawer.  I tried it on over leggings, pairing it with a long grey sweater, which balanced out the shortness. And look at that— it turns out the whole "shopping your closet" thing might actually work. 

3. Individual hummus packs 

I'm obsessed, obsessed with hummus. The problem though, is that the damn small print on the packaging says you have to use it within a week of opening. And since no one else in my house shares my love, it ends up going bad because, as hard as I try and as much as I'd like, I CANNOT eat an entire package in a week. 

So on Sunday, when I was food shopping with John, I was lamenting this very fact when he handed me this 4-pack of Sabra individually-wrapped hummus containers. AMAZING. 

I knew there was a reason I was marrying this boy. 

[photo courtesy of Sabra] 

lost observations, episode 6

Well, this week went by pretty quickly, didn't it? I swear I feel like I just posted about our favorite island/alternative universe dwelling friends and then look at that, here we are again. 

In much the same way that I'm feeling slightly lazy about writing this post, we were also too lazy to cook last night. Instead, we ordered in soggy sweet potato fries, turkey burgers, mussels (One of these things is not like the other...) and french onion soup. Internet, have you ever ordered takeout french onion soup? No? Good for you. We learned our lesson the hard way. 

Here’s what we thought throughout:

- Sayid goes to visit Nadia. She’s married and Sayid calls her husband “brother.” As in, literally? We Lostpedia it and find out that yes, in fact, it is his actual brother.

- Sayid's carrying a picture of Nadia, says the little girl. Well, little girl, that didn't just make Mommy and Uncle Sayid incredibly awkward.  

- Dogen's baseball drops to the floor and John asks, "What does the baseball represent?" Probably his childhood, we speculate. Maybe we’ll find out in the last episode. You know, when they actually answer some questions. 

 - Claire looks tan in this episode, which gets us thinking: Shouldn’t they all be a little more tan? Or at this point, perpetually sunburned? Maybe it’s the jungle, wonders Dorna.

 - During commercials, we talk about the ridiculousness that is the possibility of Cablevision subscribers losing ABC. Ugh, Cablevision, come on, you want to possibly take away Lost? And Oprah? And the Oscars? Major fail. 

- Back to the show: Omer basically tells Sayid to beat up the guys who loaned him money for  Nadia. We say: Don’t do it, Sayid!

 - Claire tells Dogen to speak English. He’s very obliging with the language changing, says Dorna.

 - Evil incarnate? Oh, right, that’s who smoke-monster Locke (SML) is. 

 - Mid-way, we’re thinking: In both realities, Sayid is being tempted/tested. Even though he's predominantly good (at least, we think so), both Omer and Dogen (and later, SML), want him to focus on and use the bad he has in him. Devil tempting, much? 

 - At least Miles still thinks Claire looks hot. 

 - Did Dogen set Sayid up? Because he knew that if he tried to kill SML that SML would just kill Sayid?

 - SML proves our point. 

 - Sayid can have anything in the entire world: Awww, the only thing he ever wanted died in his arms! Dorna and I swoon.

 - Claire is down in a ditch, singing to herself. Claire = Crazy. Point taken, Lost writers. 

- Side note: Every time I see an egg crack on TV, I automatically think of that old “This is your brain on drugs” commercial. 

- Military guy, or Keamy, forgives the debt just like that? Put it in writing, says Dorna.

 - Woah, Dogen just told Sayid his whole sad life story and then Sayid kills him! But at least now the baseball thing makes sense. ONE question answered! 

 - Where do the burning crosses come from?

 - Previews for next week: So Ben is gonna die? Well, at least they didn’t say that “Questions will be answered!” Because clearly, they weren’t.

 

Thoughts: The content of each episode is pointing more and more towards faith, which leads John to come up with this theory: In their original lives, it seems as if all the principal characters have lost faith somehow, whether it's in their families (Kate, Jack), their marriages (Sun/Jin), or the world around them (Locke), so maybe the island is a test towards regaining that faith somehow. We're not sure, but it's a thought. 

So, what did you think? 

welcome, march

There's something very clean slate about a new month beginning on a Monday, no?

During March last year, I was here:

Lying on a beach in the Bahamas.

And honestly, after a weekend full of this:

I'd take a cloudy day in the Bahamas at this point. Here's hoping that March warms up, even just a little.

What are you hoping for?