This Summer, So Far

And there went a month! This summer, more than others, I’ve really been appreciating how great summer is. I think doing it right has a lot to do it with, doing summer-specific things and not just living the same way in warmer weather. There have been a lot of highlights, but the quiet quality and enjoyment has been the best. In the past month of summer, I…

Drove up the Pacific Coast Highway in an orange Camero convertible.

Had a fire and drank wine at the ocean.

Walked bare-armed and sun-kissed home.

Ate tamales and fish tacos with a view of the Pacific.

Trained tomato plants into a trellis cage.

Walked dogs after work, enjoying the extended light.

Hung out by the lake in Michigan.

Read 5 paper back mysteries in a swing over 4 days.

Had two milkshakes one day, and then two rootbeer floats the next.

Drank hard Arnold Palmers at dusk.

Suntanned my legs.

Whacked weeds, watered raspberries, moved indoor plants outdoors.

Wore skirts and dresses to work, most days.

Drank drinks on a patio.

Shopped the farmer's market.

Stopped by, “just for gelato…”

Picked blueberries.

Watched a hula.

Celebrated national Hot Dog day.

Saw old friends, saw new friends, made even newer friends.

And probably a lot more. And still it seems, none of these things enough—but trying and succeeding in being present and thankful and enjoying life, are good things to do in any season.

Today is my 30th birthday! Crazy, right? Not so much because 30 is that old, but because it’s all starting to speed up just like they always say it will. Ten years ago was 20? How did that happen? This whole ride is likely (hopefully, knock on wood) a third over? Whoa. But kind of like turning 23 after the first year out of college, this birthday feels right. And I’m in a good place. I live in a house that I own with a terribly swell fellow. I have the two best dogs in the world. I have a job that I love in a career that I want. Over the last 30 years I’ve met and made many good people and good friends. I was even able to wrangle a decent showing at some birthday beers on Friday here in my newest life. Then Saturday I had more celebration and did shots of tequila with a 20 yr old. So, basically, a dream come true. Except Sunday morning, based on how many tequila shots were done. Oh, and weekend before last in Vegas I stayed up after 7am. So…being a rockstar is not as easy these days as it used to be… but I do, apparently, still have it in me.

So, on this culmination of 30 years of earth, I'm looking forward to the ones coming down the pike. I'm thankful for what I have and what I've done and who I know. I'm hopeful I can continue to work on myself, doing things better and being my best version of me. I'm excited that there is so much good ahead, as indicated by how much good there is behind.

Some Nice Things Happened in Arizona Over the Weekend, Too.

Dirty 30

So I am turning 30 in a little under 6 months. I want to do something special, something 30-worthy, but I am kind of drawing a blank. I'll be with many of my friends shortly after the big 3-0 at Julah/Nolia's wedding in June. And having a party in Flagstaff, while surely better attended than it would have last year, I am still afraid would be more depressing than exciting and maybe make me rewind back to 29 in protest.

So, I need ideas. Special experiences or trips. One idea is to plan a fun warm weather trip for next fall/winter and do something smaller in May. One idea for that is a spa weekend, maybe in Sedona or Phoenix. But I want more ideas.

In general, while also feeling a general sense of disbelief, I am pretty psyched about my 30s. My 20s were, on balance, wearing rose-colored glasses and totally in retrospect-- pretty rad. It's a little like I felt when I was turning 23. I turned 22 the weekend we graduated from college. By the time a year had gone by, I felt like so much had happened and so many changes had occurred I deserved some external marker-- like being a different age.

When I turned twenty I was in Japan with my dad and his wife, I was toasted by the Japanese Communist Party leader and ate a lot of sushi. Then I lived in Boston over the summer and ate ice cream every day and walked miles to the library to check my email twice a week. Then there was September 11 and we lived in the In-town and I lived in Minnesota for a couple of months and then I went abroad and then I turned 21 in Buenos Aires. I also ate a lot of sushi then. Anyway, that was a long time ago. I am still friends with basically all my friends from then. It makes all these background checks easier. Smiley face. But I am pretty different, but also not. I am ready for a new decade to recognize it.

Now, back to the challenge, how to commemorate it?!?

Chappy Cholidays!

In the interest of full disclosure, that Gus ornament made it one day before its inspiration knocked over the tree and shattered it into a million pieces. We got some new ornaments, tougher ornaments, though. So don't cry.
Anyway, I am so in the holiday spirit already, you guys!! We have a tree up, I am drinking from red cups, I've gotten and shipped presents for both my and Charlie's moms, our sisters, for baby Jesus, I mean, preschool kid Johan and his mom, my wife. And for another birthday, not naming any names but she's totally turning 30 on Friday and it rhymes with Talison Menge.
I like it because I usually always have good intentions, I just forget. And then I have all this crap that is either totally outdated and useless or super late and it seems like I didn't really care enough. I've got some more elving to do but also have a ton of time to do it in. And maybe this future me will follow through since new me is setting such a good example for her.

In the meantime, it's almost time to go to Phoenix to go to Minneapolis tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving, please enjoy this joke my client told me this morning in the psych unit:

Him: Want to to hear a joke?
Me: Sure.
Him: What do you get when you fill out all your paperwork?
Me: MMMmmm... I don't know, what?
Him: A thousand paychecks!
Me: Wow, that's a good deal!



I hope you fill out all your paperwork so your Thanksgiving is better than a thousand paychecks!

More Important: Many Good Things Also Happening

1. Long hikes. Last one was Thursday with another lawyer from my office that involved almost 3 hours of hiking and about 3 hours of drinking mimosas after. Perfect ratio, as far as I am concerned.

2. FREE regular-sized Aveda shit (shampoo/conditioner) for referring Charlie to my haircutting place. It was offered literally right after I was browsing all the product and telling myself something like, "Sarah, when you pay off your credit card, you can only use Aveda products." So, look for me to smell great all the time in, like, 10 years.

3. It's almost Thanksgiving! Which means a) delicious and b) another trip to Minnesota, which is usually always fun. Also reminds me of the kid in my math class senior year who was kind of slow and sometime in the first couple weeks of school in September said, "I can't wait for Thanksgiving, I'm so hungry!"

4. I'm getting sent to a class in Phoenix on Friday for work, which I believe is my first business trip and involves staying over Thursday night in a hotel. Look for me to make a lot of references to my business trip and to specify I am there for business, not pleasure.

5. I want a gas fireplace insert for Christmakkah. It would so improve our quality of life but is non-essential and costs multiple thousand of dollars. Santa, you're on notice. Any concern about becoming domesticated and old and lame is obviously now moot. I am including this in "good things happening" to demonstrate the power of positive thinking.

6. I came into work today to a thank you card from a client's family. I did good for him and getting thanked... is great. Good start to a new week.

Hey guys, remember... my last post? Well amazingly soon after that, I was offered a job. Excuse me, not, a job but a job doing exactly what I want to do. Like, I was in the interview and they asked what I wanted to do as my career and I stopped for a moment because I couldn't figure out how to say it without sounding like a total kissass. "This job, I want to do this." And I think it worked because it's totally true. I am so excited to start. Like... soooo excited. One reason I'm excited is because I feel like I don't really have to hide certain substantial aspects of my personality like I have for the past year. My dad referred to it as me "coming out." Except I'm still not gay. Just a lefty.
I feel incredibly fortunate. Because I am. Because I got this job by making myself completely qualified (oh yes, I worked very hard for 4 years now to do that) but also by hustling like hell and being really nice and reasonable to everyone for the past year. PS- once I heard all of the secretaries in the office liked me, I knew that was VERY good. Job seekers-- NEVER underestimate the administrative staff.
Anyway, the future starts on Monday, for a day. Then I go to New Orleans to hang out with friends and radical lawyers (there is much overlap between these categories to be sure) and then I start for real for real the following Monday. I have purchased things FOR MY OFFICE, like a lamp and ipod speakers. I got some new clothes, too. And I'll get a new day planner and pens before I really start, too. You know, back to school and all.
I'm kind of over the moon and have been for 2 weeks now. It's funny because a number of people have pointed out how additionally lucky it is that I hadn't gotten another job before this-- I wouldn't have been available or hustling like I was. Of course, this is impossible to really believe when you're in the thick of it, but they're right. Things worked out really well and really in the right way. The relief of working for/with people who a) guessed I was going to New Orleans for this convention and b) knew all about my dad's case (compared to perhaps where no one knows what a) is and about a month ago I was asked how my dad was doing in Rwanda...) is huge.
This is a lot of jumbled thoughts. Another jumbled thought is that I've been thinking about what to do with this blog. It's finding that comfortable middle where I am not just talking about the dogs, but am also not divulging private information and am also not compromising clients or my professional reputation by expressing opinions about more substantive things. Then again, I can no longer even find this blog when I google myself there are 6,670 hits. Wowza. So much for privacy.
Oh and one more time- YAY!

Flauren 2k10

Wedding #4 of the summer was Fletcher and Lauren's in Luray, Va, in the Shenandoah valley. I skipped town Thursday morning and made it to Baltimore Thursday night where I had mediocre Mexican food with decidedly non-mediocre company. We high-tailed it (well, after having breakfast with the groom from wedding #3 and taking our time) out to Virginia Friday and spent the afternoon tasting Virginia wines and drinking shandys by the pool of the Days Inn. It was approximately 97-102 degrees all weekend, just for context.
Anyway, the wedding and all affiliated festivities were excellent. It was great to spend time with old friends and even meet some new friends (how is that for a novel concept, huh, Sarah?) The wedding itself was gorgeous and there was a lot of crying involved, wedding #4 takes the prize for most tears jerked. And then after some delicious dinner, quickly and appropriately devolved into a hot, sweaty, drunken dance-party mess. I mean "mess" in the good way.

May I present a pictorial representation of the transition from beautiful and classy to aforementioned mess:







I loved it. And somehow Lauren managed to still look awesome at the end of the night, good work!

Recuerdo

This is a small story about this ring. My dad's dad (who died when my dad was 23, long before I was born) gave it to my grandma when they were dating. Then my dad gave it to my mom as an engagement ring. Then my mom gave it to me, a number of years ago. I wore it regularly and then one day- pop- hit it against a wall or something while it was on my hand and took a chunk out of the moonstone. And then it sat in my mom's jewelery box for probably 10 years. When I was home weekend before last, I took it back and brought it into a jeweler here. The size of the stone was slightly irregular and so on, but I picked it up today. It looks lovely, it's back on my finger, all polished and looks better than I've ever seen it since it came to me after 60+ years of... love . The jeweler was confused that it was an engagement ring, "well, I've never seen a moonstone for an engagement before" but admired it's art deco style. I love it. I'm so glad to have it back and to have a little piece of grandma (and my parents) on my finger.

Jane & Elmer

An artist and neighbor of my grandparents made these prints for our family. My grandpa died in 2002 and my grandma this last fall- our family owned their house in Lakeside for over 55 years, they lived there full-time for as long as I can remember. They were pretty much institutions in the town. Anyway, my aunt recently sent me my copy of the print and it's hanging in the hall now. It's really very nice, both a thing to say about them and to look at.

Housewarming

We finally had a housewarming party last night-- and since we spent all day Saturday cleaning, I thought that would be a good time to take some pictures for more of a guided tour of the place. I like seeing pictures of other peoples' houses. Maybe you do, too. Also maybe it will encourage you to come visit to see it all for yourself. Glorious.

The far end of the house used to be a garage. Now it's a rec room and laundry room.
We scored this leather couch courtesy of the scratch & dent section of Ikea on Easter and Charlie's parents, who also delivered from Phoenix. That was really nice. The "rec" is highlighted by the treadmill/striped comforter dryer and the tv and Wii to the right.Then the often-pictured blue room where you'll stay when you come to visit.

This couch was our main couch when I was growing up, then it lived in the basement of my mom's house, then came to Madison with me, moved to a second place in Madison and then to Arizona. And then to this second place in Arizona. Nevertheless, I found my favorite barrette from age 5 in it this weekend while vacuuming. It needs more furniture, but we kind of can't figure out what else goes in a guest room. A dresser?
Living room! Did I ever mention we got that couch on craigslist for $60? It's awesome.

Here's a close-up of the Hopi pot pictured on the table-- it was made by the husband of Charlie's co-worker. We were gifted this one (they sell for quite a lot of money) because it has a hairline fracture. A conservator friend was at the housewarming, investigated and said she could fix it. So that's awesome, as well.
Still un-painted front door. The horseshoe that used to be above it is now hanging next to it, as is the "skeleton key" Kristen bought me in Jerome, AZ. It opens anything, I swear.





This is the lavender in the window of the upstairs bathroom. It is otherwise unremarkable but now smells kind of good because of the plant.These were a housewarming gift-- they're very cute and useful. The guests loved the bustier-topper wine bottle stoppers. I mentioned those were actually a housewarming from when we moved into Sterling Pl. in Brooklyn-- 5 years and 5 addresses ago. They are still really cute.

And, to boot, the free furnace we finally got to replace the one that hasn't been working well for months was installed last week! Yes, it's mid-May! Yes, it's in the 70s during the day (wait, I said the furnace was FREE, right?) But, we wanted to warm the house between the party and the furnace, better late then never!

Bars. Done.

Probably close to a month ago, when I'd taken both the Arizona and Navajo bars but hadn't gotten any results back yet, I said to Charlie, "Um, if I pass both of these bars, while working full time, I am going to be really proud of myself." And that's what happened and that's how I feel.

Not because it takes a genius, but it does take hard work and it was hard from December to March and just plain stressful since then. I was thinking about it on Friday, because sometimes I get frustrated and feel like the past 12 months have been stalled. Like I finally figured out working hard for something I cared about in law school and since have been derailed into working hard... just.... working hard. But I don't think I could have done this with a more demanding job, if I had been learning how to be a lawyer since August as well as studying. So I was thinking maybe I should cut myself a break and, you know, go back to being proud of myself. And relieved. And job-seeking, STAT.

Compost and Shit

Here I will quote myself, to my mother on the phone last night, in honor of Earth Day:

Composting is like flossing your teeth; once you start doing it, you realize how gross it is not to do it.

I am so right. Once you see the crap you pull out of your teeth, it becomes horrifying no to do it. But back to compost, we've been doing it since right around the time we moved/Januaryish and have reduced our garbage output dramatically. It also really reduces the guilt of letting fruits and veggie go bad. Plus we have a plastic storage bin full of rotting food in the backyard-- win-win!

Dallas

It hardly needs to be said, but this weekend in Dallas was phenomenal and epic and necessary and wonderful. It was truly excessive in every way, except perhaps fun-- because there is never too much of that. I don't know when we're too old to sleep 6 to a room... but I kind of hope it never happens.
The wedding was so lovely, so nice, so them. The newly-married friends got together our junior year and have been engaged for 5 years, so to say there has been some, um, anticipation is something of an understatement. And it was well-deserved. The days leading up to the wedding were packed with fun and packed with friends, it was just completely... wonderful.
With a couple of exceptions of friends going through hard times, it's great to see people I love doing so well. To quote Erin, "risping." For the most part (and even the hard stuff not withstanding) friends are pursuing interesting careers and have found partners who make them happy. It's great to see. It's hard not to be nostalgic for an earlier time (say 2003-2005 or so) when most of us were closer together geographically (or, like 1999-2003 when we were in the same place.) But there was a lot more struggle, by and large, the struggle of the early and mid twenties trying to find our places. And we've come a long way toward those places. It's nice to see. And really something that these doctors and lawyers and scholars and grant-writers and editors and conservators and planning and policy wonks-in-training can still get together, laugh our heads off, drink like we got into someone's parents' liquor cabinet and stay up all night like we're still 18.


And also something to actually be close to 30 and need days to get sleep and stomach back in line with regular life. Still, so worth it.

Eggs!

Recently we decided eggs are something we're willing to spend more money on. Charlie and I can both taste a difference in grass-fed/free range eggs and now that I'm eating some eggs again (thanks, Simvastatin!), we want the good ones. Also, eggs are one of the only foods I've heard of where the organic or natural version is actually substantially more nutritious and healthy than the regular version. For example, 1⁄3 less cholesterol, 1⁄4 less saturated fat, 2⁄3 more vitamin A, 2 times more omega-3s, 3 times more vitamin E, 7 times more beta carotene than typical eggs. We've even casually discussed getting our own chickens... but I put the kabash on that until we live in the same place... all of the time. Anyway, soon after we decided to pony up more for eggs, a woman who works in my building began selling some grass-fed eggs from her local friend's chickens.
They came today, aren't they gorgeous? It's like an Easter Basket for lazy people!

Jolly Roger

Have I mentioned our family crest? Whenever we see skull & crossbones out in the world (which happens more and more often, the world is getting creepier?) we say "he's in our family!" "she's in our family!" It's just a little thing we do...

Dog collars and keychain from here, dog tags from here.

Roasted Chickpeas

I first had these when I was home for Thanksgiving, my mom had made them. I made them the other night and they are too good not to share. Take some canned chickpeas (they shrink when they're roasted, I wouldn't go through the hassle with fewer than 2 cans-worth.) Rinse them well and put in a pan with just enough olive oil to keep them from sticking.

Seasoning is up to you, I used garlic powder, sea salt, cumin and garam masala and was pretty pleased with the result-- a little zesty but not overwhelming.

Put the pan of seasoned chickpeas in a 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes, every ten minutes or so shaking the pan around to keep them from burning.

The chickpeas end up a little crunchy and almost like snack nuts or something. Delicious!

Bathroom

Because the bar prep precludes me from spending my time doing fun things. At all. There has been no painting and very little is on the walls. However, we solved a situation in the bathroom and I'm not talking about abs from Jersey Shore. The upstairs bathroom, "master bath" if you're on HGTV, looked like this:




How does one shower in that shower? Where does the shower curtain go? These are legitimate questions. You may think of one of those old-fashioned circular shower curtain rods like I did. If you do, you can google it and see they start at, like, $200. Too much. So I found this D-shaped one from Home Depot.com for $29 with shipping and we just now finished installing it. Because it involved drilling into TILE. And using special screws for hollow walls. But it turned out the ones we got first were too big (even though they said 3/8" but whatever) and then it turned out part of the wall wasn't hollow and then that ceiling rod was too long. But, we did it.








High five!

Next step is doing something about those horrible fixtures...