Life was fine in 2009

And now... my annual list of stuff that I am thankful for during this past year (in no particular order):

James, New England, Dr. megan anderson, Glee, Igor, Boston, my kids at the Y, Allie & Kate, cupcakes, Sam Adams, Cirque de Soleil, Santa Barbara, Pilot, Spray paint, French, Spectre, Nikon, guitar hero world tour, road trips, Harry Potter, being a beast, Real Simple recipes, squid ink dyed pasta, yankee candles, muppets singing Bohemian Rhapsody, Club Moorea, southwest airlines, Books books books, Pushing Daisies, wine, dishwashers, NPR, public transportation, JJ Abrams, free haircuts, homemade fish & chips, Harvard Square, yoga, therabands, not having cancer (woohoo), Red Sox disability seats, peppermint mochas, sleep (when I get it), the beautiful Bayer wedding, The Standard hotel, photo shoots, the Portland ME promenade, crutch dances, drugged up post surgery videos, the modesto nuts (namely their mascot), the train, HIMYM, Duck Tour, stealing lost guinea pig signs...

to be continued

friends, silly stories, pie, photography blogs, Totally Rad Actions, Photoshop, Amazon, gnomes, Rain, Coolidge Corner, adium,
fleece pullovers, cover songs, paid time off, MassHealth, 1 visitor per month, cover songs, student movie tickets, Moody st, being free from ridiculousness of the Y leadership, James dancing at his computer, amazing deals, forgiveness

Meatblob soup!

Ok... so it was supposed to be a meatball soup, but I have not quite perfected the perfectly shaped ball o' meat. Thankfully, the shape does not change the flavor! :) Tonight I made an Escarole & Meatball soup that I found when browsing through Martha Stewart Recipes. James and I each give it 2 thumbs up, and Igor gives it a tail wag and a hopeful whine (maybe next time buddy).

I followed the recipes pretty closely, just adding crushed red pepper to the broth. I enjoyed that it was such a light meal, seeing as most dishes with meatballs have piles of pasta, heavy sauces, or mounds of cheese. Not to knock any of that... mmmm... but it was a nice change. :) Another plus... the little bit of leftovers will taste amazing in burritos tomorrow!

when your own thoughts are typed out more eloquently through someone else's fingers...

This is what you get: (stolen from the blog of the awesome James Pierce ). I have been sorting through similar thoughts and feelings, but I never sat down to meditate upon them or put them into words, so they inevitably kept getting pushed down. I soaked in the frustrations from the events surrounding my last months in Orange County, as well as the physical pain of my early days here, and could not see anything else clearly. It is refreshing to read this and to come up for air.

I feel like this is just the beginning. The precursor to what is going to turn out to be the grandest of all adventures. And I'm okay with that, I always have been. It's just that I'm beginning, after being in a whole new place for the past two weeks, to realize that this is it. It's not the warm-up, it's not the stretches, it's game time. I can't be living as if this were just one more step before life truly begins. In a way that's how it's been. Ever since graduating college really.

In college it was simpler though. I had classes I needed to pass, and so that made the wondering how each day was supposed to pan out much easier. In those classes were people who lived in the dorm I was living in, ate in the caf I was eating in, and played the same intramural sports I was playing. Life and relationships just happened. There was always someone you could find who shared a common like or dislike, and as a result you became friends.

Video games kept us awake through ungodly hours of the night, late term papers had the same effect, and at times conversations in the prayer room lasted way too long. Did anyone ever actually pray in there? Maybe that's why they took it away. In any case, strong friendships were forged through these times, as well as broken I'm sure, but not as often.

Four years have passed since then though. Each of us having lived over a thousand days, over thirty-five thousand hours. At first we stayed close to the city we graduated in. Our friendships were more important than our living arrangements. But as time passed, and the realization that we needed to get our lives in order, we spread out. Cheaper housing was available anywhere over five hundred miles away. Jobs and families had stronger bonds than our desires to stay nearby to one another.

Maybe we finally started realizing that we needed to live our own lives. We couldn't live vicariously through each other, no matter how hard we tried. And maybe the only way we thought this possible was to move away from the friends we loved, the relationships we built over the past eight years. The closest "friend" I have from college lives 215 miles away, and we haven't even truly spoken since we graduated. The next closest is 900 miles away, and I don't even want to know what mileage category the others fall into.

I suppose what I'm saying is that we're now all out on our own. True life has hit us and we've decided to grab it by the horns and hope the ride ends somewhere enjoyable. We're ready to be held responsible for our actions, we're ready to build more relationships that will last longer than forever. We're ready to dig in our toes and our heels and plant ourselves in the soil that has been eagerly awaiting our arrival since birth.

Where will our roots go though? Will they only linger among the topsoil and weeds that have no nourishment and only sporadic water? Or will they penetrate deeply into the firmament that longs to be tilled its entire life? It's entirely up to us, but as I said in the beginning I feel like this is the time to do it. It's not up to us to worry about where we will find ourselves tomorrow or next year. It's not up to us to try and change the seasons in our lives or force change that might not be ready to happen.

Life, as complicated as it may be, is meant to be lived.
But not haphazardly, or lazily.
No.
Wholeheartedly.
Passionately.
Vigorously.
Excitedly.

Take today, for all it's worth, and live the best way you know how. Just try it. I dare you.

-James P.

The Apartment: the update

Sooooooo... our room is almost finished, and I thought I would share some photo with you all!

Here is the bedroom. There are a more knick knacks and small items (funky chandelier, etc) left to buy, and I need to rearrange the red frames above the desk, but overall, the room feels like home!












Here is the living room/kitchen. I was going to clean it before taking picture, but then figured I might as well show you the view I usually get when I venture out of my room. I clean this place every day, but just like everytime I cleaned our front porch as a child and came out later to find the damn chicken pooped all over it again... it is my destiny to find the counters crumbed/dished and living room cluttered! It is a normal curse right? I have sort of become a neat freak because of it. ha! The only other "clean" person is the other wifey of the house, and she works all day, so she understandably doesn't need to deal with it. I fear for the apartment when I am back at work and this place is left to the fellas. :) But despite that, it is cute, a mash up of all of our styles, and it has the most gorgeous gigantic windows that take up most of the space between the floor and our 10 foot celings. Love love love.


The kitchen (viewed from our room):



The kitchen/living room from the front door:




Kitchen/living room from the kitchen:



Living room from opposite side of room (by our fabulous windows):



and because a post of the home would never be complete without a picture of Igor... here he is in his cone!



(I took the cone off immediately after this. My room is a No Cone Zone. heehee)

It's a Soup-er tuesday!

That's right... it's time for another soup. Tonight I made a Mushroom Barley Soup. D-licious. Yum yum yum.






I'm starting to think Real Simple can do no wrong! For all my friends back in California... try this in about two more months when it drops below the 70's and you actually have soup weather ;) ha!