The difference a year makes

I have not posted an update in almost a year, and that year has been quite tumultuous. So, very quick run down. I was pregnant and gave birth to my son this past spring. We moved from DC to State College, PA, sold our house, and I kept my full-time job, now working it remotely. We're currently in the process of buying a new home, and I can't wait for that to happen. It has been a period of unrest and change, and I am ready to settle back down again. I love our new area. I can pitch the hell out of State College as a Penn Stater. It is every alum's dream to come back and stay for good. I am living it. I get to do a job I love in a place I love with my even bigger family. I am ready to make this work.

So! If you follow me on Instagram, you know I have still been keeping busy with cooking and parenting. I am nearing the end of my maternity leave, hopefully around the same time we will be closing on our new home. Things will someday speed back up, but for right now, I am holding my son as he sleeps and considering how a year can change a person.

I am not sure what the direction of this blog will be now. It has always been about me and my ideas, so that will naturally stay the same - probably just less urban. State College is like a suburb with no city, unless you count the university. It really is more rural than anything, but it doesn't feel that way. There is a lack of rushing that is refreshing, especially as summer rolls along. The sky is blue and sunny today with a few clouds, it is warm without being oppressive yet, and I have the space to breathe. I battle internally with wanting to do more, but I am used to the feeling.

Some topics I may write about in future posts: tandem nursing and nursing aversion; my picky-eater Angel Pie, and the issues she's been having with her promotion to big sister; and how I took to the baby blues and changing hormones this time around. It will be helpful for me to hash these things out, and it may be helpful for you to read them. I am a different person lately, and who knows how much of that is due to lack of sleep. I want to live the best life I can, and writing may help me do that.

So for now, let's embrace summer and not try to rush it for cooler months, as I am wont to do. I want to live my life and enjoy my time, the right now time, and not keep looking for someday. What I am doing right now is not good enough - it is just plain good.

Frivolity: My First Mani-Pedi

     Dupont Circle is nicely decorated for Pride Week, and I had the pleasure of taking a late lunch hour to redeem a Groupon certificate for a mani-pedi at Spalon at the corner of 17th and Q, NW. I am pretty sure that I bought it for $25 back in November. I just know it was a while ago, and way before I became pregnant. I'd never had a pedicure before, and I'd only had a manicure insofar as applying artificial nails, and that's still not the same as a real manicure with one's natural nails. While cost is often a reason for skipping such services, my real reason is that, up until about two weeks ago, I was a nail-biter. Nail length could not survive more than a day, and it would have been laughable to have my stubby, rough nails l looked at by a professional. In fact, general embarrassment and booking this Groupon were my biggest inspirations for quitting. So I did, and almost cold turkey. (I did slip once and bite my right thumb nail a day into the commitment, but I stopped right after that.) My nails had never been longer than they were pre-manicure, and that still wasn't very long, but oh well--I'm two weeks in to quitting a nasty habit, and that's good enough for me.


     I had a very nice time at Spalon. Miss Diane was my nail specialist, I was happy with her work, and she was very polite to contend with my inexperience. I was intimidated to climb into the pedicure chair (being short and preggers), I didn't think to wear sandals, and I generally had to wait for instruction. The other customer next to me didn't really talk to or even look at her specialist, which made me feel a little uncomfortable, but I soon found a friendly conversational tone with Miss Diane, and that felt much better. I picked a dark color of polish, but I liked it, and it turned out nicely. I think if I try again this summer, I'll pick something lighter. Overall, though, it was a success.

Fall-ified!

     We are two days into September, and my blog has been fall-ified. My desk has been mostly fall-ified, my candles at home are switched to the autumn scents, and my hand soaps at my sinks are of the new Bath and Body Works Autumn variety. I've made sure that my bathrooms are stocked with the limited edition fall-scented Febreze sprays. I've switched the scent theme of my hand sanitizers at work from beachy to Halloween-y (because those are the ones I have right now). My desk also holds a Renuzit Aroma cone in Apple & Cinnamon. Ladies and gentlemen, I am ready for fall.


Pretty soaps, all in a row.
     We have finally reached Labor Day weekend, and for this, I am glad. (1) Yay for the three day weekend! As my husband pointed out yesterday, summer, for some reason, is filled with straight working days and few holidays. So when you most want a holiday, there are none to be found. Autumn, however, is loaded with holidays. There are months of three- or even four-day weekends ahead of us. My husband works for the government, so he will eventually hit a point where he won't have to work a full pay period (two weeks) without a day off for the rest of the year. Holidays are so lovely. (2) Good riddance, summer! Cooler weather is bound to be around soon! I know, I know, the DC area is still predicted to hit 89 degrees this weekend, but so what! We will eventually cool off, and I have hoodies and sweaters in the eaves, just waiting for some action.

     So what are your plans for the holiday weekend? If I know my husband, we are going to bake. Remember the mixer I plugged a few scant entries ago? If you don't remember, don't worry--I'll plug it here:

LOOK AT THAT PRICE. In case it doesn't stay that way, please note that today, the price on this item, new, reads $225.99. You can see why we bought it--you can't beat that price! Especially when my husband and I pay for Amazon Prime. The price hit that low on Monday, and by Wednesday, we had a mixer. It's given my husband good reason to crack open the book my mom got him last Christmas:

All day today, he's been asking me all sorts of possibly yummy questions. For example, "Do we have cooling racks?", "Do we have Crisco?", and "Do we have heavy cream?" My husband learned the art of pie crusts from his mother, much to my mother's delight. How can you dislike a son-in-law that makes you apple pie? You really can't, especially when he's my husband.

     If we don't jump straight into baking tomorrow, I imagine we'll visit Williams-Sonoma or Sur la Table, just to stock up on the last few hardware supplies we don't have, and possibly a trip to everyone's favorite grocery store, Wegmans, to get the best quality ingredients.

     In all honesty, I just can't wait to get home--it's going to be a delicious weekend!

     Please note that this post contains product links using Amazon Associates. Should enough people click the links and make purchases, I would get paid. Amazon Associates pays once your clicks equal $10; in my entire history with the program, I currently have about $3, so I have never been paid yet, lol. The biggest reason I use Amazon Associates is so that I don't have to use my own personal server space for image hosting when I refer to products, and to ensure proper and unbroken links for archiving purposes.

A whole lotta shakin' goin' on!

     How many earthquake puns are you going to hear today? A lot. I'm going to blog my experience--the earthquake will be blogged. Also, disclaimer, this image is an extreme exaggeration.

     I'd like to post some of the news sources that were either sent to me or that I found. My personal story of the quake can be found below the links.

MSNBC's Coverage of the Quake

Virginia Earthquake: Washington National Cathedral Damaged, to speak as to the scope of damaage. This link is the worst I've heard so far.

[Edit at 5:13pm] WMATA's Post-Earthquake Service Updates. WMATA is still operating at 15mph system-wide while all of the tracks are checked.

[Edit at 4:57pm] Did you feel it? Tell the U.S. Geological Survey your story.

[Edit at 5:09pm] FEMA: What to do after an earthquake, in case we're not yet out of the woods.

    A little before 2pm, OSA Headquarters. I'm at my desk, publishing today's Optics Express papers, when suddenly, I'm moving, and my very large and easy to see computer monitor appears like I'm looking through water at it. The whole thing lasted under 10 seconds, I'm sure. I went to the entrance of my cube and see the head of my department running down the hall and saying, "Get out of here now!" Thanks to her immediate leadership, I grab my purse and phone and leave. To note, this was right in front of my face, and it didn't waste any time at all. I work on the third floor of our six-floored building, so we are hastily making our way to the basement exit, as our emergency plan instructs. I think our general evacuation went off without a hitch. Out of the building and on the sidewalk, I can see that other buildings are doing the same--evacuating. I grab my phone and call my husband once. Twice. Thrice. No service. I think I said to no one in particular, "This is big."

     While my phone calling and texting abilities were limited, I still had 3G coverage (which, to date, is the best excuse for a smart phone I can come up with). I sign on to Google Chat and am able to stay in contact with my husband. He was telecommuting in Fairfax, VA. At 1:57pm, he said, "We just had an earthquake." Although the word was in my mind, I had not officially labeled this incident an earthquake yet. My husband was the first to confirm it. At 1:59pm, he sent that there was a system wide alert that he area was hit with an earthquake. I'm not sure if this alert came from the television or the emergency weather radio that we have. He also told me that his parents felt something too--up in State College, Pa, over 200 miles away. With a computer at his fingertips, he sent me updates as he could find them. I got the first number from him--5.8. Later, he sent me the epicenter, which is currently believed to be in southern VA. As he sent these things to me, I updated my surrounding coworkers. We were gathered in the green space beside PNC Bank in Dupont Circle. We had to wait for the Fire Department to inspect and ensure the security and stability of our building, post-quake. By my emailing history, I can see that we did not return to the building for roughly 37 minutes.

As of 4:24pm, my place of work, OSA, is officially closed. I received an email at 4:07pm from OPM that an early dismissal is in place. It remains to be seen what the operating status will be tomorrow.

     Back in the building, I checked the usual social media suspects--Facebook, Twitter. Both were abuzz.

     At my work, we had a practice evacuation planned for Thursday, August 25th. Post-quake and once we were all back in the building, our building manager sent around an email that began, "Can I plan an evacuation drill, or what?"

Getting a jump on things, stamps.

     Haven't updated since autumn. I'm not going to try to fill in all of that blank time, so instead, I'm getting a jump on summer. I changed the backgrounds around to the summer theme today, although it is not yet officially summer. I'm not waiting until June 21st to make the change. Summer to me is in months--June, July, August. Although in metro DC land, it's June through October, really. I shouldn't complain--Spring 2011 hasn't been too bad at all. More rain than usual, but we don't nearly have the tumultuous weather that much of the rest of the country is experiencing. I did watch a special on NOVA about tornadoes a few weeks ago, though (you can probably catch it on Hulu if you were so inclined), and they reported about an F4 tornado that hit the town of La Plata, Maryland in 2002. La Plata is about 35 miles south of DC. The expert on NOVA said that if the storm were about 50 miles north, it would have wrecked DC beltway to beltway. I hope that, in this year of increasingly violent weather, we do not approach anything like that scenario. Storms aside, the temperatures haven't really passed the mid 70's. As I type, my computer reports a temperature of 66 degrees, which is comfortably cool to me. I just looked up the forecast for next week, and I saw the temperature 85 coming up--I knew the heat wouldn't stay away for long.

     I decided to pick up posting today because I wanted to write about my experience buying stamps online, and I figured it would be too long to tweet or post on Facebook. I went to the USPS Stamp Store Online, and the variety of forever stamp designs was very tempting. I added a few to my online cart, and before I knew it, I was up to $65. In stamps! The most I usually mail are my holiday cards, and I'll probably purchase holiday stamps for that time. I'm sure in my life, I'll probably use that many stamps, but did I really need to buy that many right now? No. I did enjoy the designs, though. Jazz, American Scientists, Flora and Fauna, Green Living Tips, The Year of the Rabbit. I did buy the Green Living and Year of the Rabbit ones. I also bought 10 of the Comics collection and 10 of the Adopt-A-Pet collection. I should be set on stamps. I was disappointed that the Simpsons collection is no longer being sold, though. I did enjoy mailing in expensive bills with Bart Simpson's outward-sticking tongue on the front.

     In other news, have you ever bought something that you just absolutely loved? I just did on Thursday:


Calvin Klein Sheer Ribbed Drapefront Cardigan
Seriously, I love it fiercely. I'm pretty sure it doesn't "do anything" for me--it doesn't accent my silhouette or my shape and it doesn't make me look slim. I don't intend to hide in it, though, either. I look at myself in a mirror and hear the chastisements of What Not to Wear hosts in my head, but I can't bring myself to care. I feel like I've been looking for this cardigan for a long time, and now that I have it, I'm satisfied. And I'm okay with that!

I've been considering eating a bean.

     Garbanzo beans, to be exact. I don't like beans as a rule of thumb. I try to, but the texture kind of grosses me out. I can take it for a few spoonfuls, but I usually end up not liking bean-made things before I get halfway through. This is a terrible sin, though! Lots of amazing-sounding things are made with beans. Like chili! Chili sounds awesome in theory, but I just can't do it. I've had a bean breakthrough recently, however. Hummus. Local to DC, Whole Foods carries the Cava Mezze brand of Hummus, and their regular and roasted garlic versions are delicious. It's considerably better than the Whole Foods house brand, and tastier than versions I've ordered in restaurants. It's the best, and I eat it every day while I'm making dinner. I figure there are worst dips to frequent.

So, hummus is made from garbanzo beans. Could I like garbanzo beans? I recently watched Giada make a frito misto, and she included deep-fried garbanzo beans, and to listen to she and her guest, they were an extra special treat. Are garbanzos the magic bean that I've been looking for? (Side bar, my spell checker says garbanzos is "garbanzos" and not "garbanzoes". But isn't potatoes "potatoes" and not "potatos"? Does the consonant-vowel-ES rule not apply here? If so, why not? Pronunciation issues? Do we fear that people will start calling them "garbanz-ZOOEYS"? Like Zooey Deschanel? End side bar.)

Last night, I had a dream, possibly a nightmare. I ate garbanzo beans, and they were just as distasteful to me as other legumes. This morning, I woke with my continued prejudices against all beans including garbanzo. I thought, "Remember that time I ate them and didn't like them?" and then I realized that I dreamt that and it NEVER HAPPENED.

Conclusions? (1) I worry about silly things too much that they break into my subconscious. (2) Dream tastes are not the same as real tastes, and I should go out and try garbanzos. (3) Hummus is still awesome.

Wait a minute, it's still August, right?

     I think I've made it pretty clear that I love the fall holidays just as much as the next guy. Probably more than the next guy, even, but fall has a feeling that I mostly attribute to the cooler weather. My friends, the temperature in DC is still in the 90s, so it is driving some very conflicting emotions within me to walk into one of my favorite stores, World Market, and see this:



World Market's Fall Theme, "Harvest Market."

and this:


A display of fall-themed leaves and owls.

and this:


Fall wreathes and tins of various candy barks.

and especially this!:


Bags of already-roasted pumpkin seeds.
Why do you tease me so, stores? Do you think I want it to be summer still, hot and sticky? Do you think that I do not long to turn my oven back on, to start making soups and stews again, to start baking spicy things to warm my apartment? I can't even buy a pumpkin for making jack-o-lanturns yet, let alone roast the pumpkin's byproducts into tasty treats. Seriously, I still have a watermelon on my kitchen table at home.

     Yankee Candle and Bath and Body Works have also already begun to taunt me by releasing products aimed at the Halloween season. Yankee Candle has fully released the new pieces in their usual "Boney Bunch" collection. Although I'm not particular to those pieces, I do really like their "Haunted House" collection.


The "Yankee Manor" Haunted Mansion Multi Tea Light Holder and "Dreadful Drip" 12-inch Taper Candles
Although I don't own either of them, I really like both of these products. The "Dreadful Drip" 12-inch candles are a Yankee Candle classic. When you start to burn them, the wax below is red, and as the candle burns, the red wax drips, giving the candle a bleeding effect. It's really cool and kind of creepy. I like the Haunted Mansion tea light holder, because it looks like it could cast some really great shadows.

     Bath and Body Works's too-early contribution to the Halloween celebration is a little smaller.


A Halloween assortment of Pocketbac Deep Cleansing Hand Gels
Scents from left to right: Zombie Squad (White, Marshmallow); Bat Bite (Green, Green Apple);
Vampire Blood (Red, Plum); Spider's Web (Black, Licorice); and Candy Corn (Orange, Caramel)
I'm going to pick up one or more of these this weekend. Probably Candy Corn. BUT! I'm going to save it until at least mid-September, and probably longer. Autumn does not begin until September 23rd this year, and in DC, it is going to be warm up to and probably past that date. As much as I'd like to pull out my sweaters, I probably couldn't bear it. Until the weather cools, unfortunately, my excitement over autumn must cool as well.

All Days are Night: A Concert Review

     On Saturday, August 7, 2010, I had the pleasure of attending a concert held by Rufus Wainwright at the Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda, MD. Many of my friends know that I am a long time fan of Rufus Wainwright. I discovered him on the soundtrack to the film Shrek. One of the sadder moments of the film features Leonard Cohen singing his amazing song, "Hallelujah." The soundtrack of Shrek features Rufus Wainwright's cover of that song. Shrek came out in 2001, which would have placed it right in the middle of my grand love affair with the piano, and there was "Hallelujah," a gorgeous and artistic piano ballad. I fell in love, used the music-finding software of the time to find Rufus's second album, Poses, and the rest is history. I am going on a ten-year relationship with Rufus Wainwright.

     A very good friend of mine attended the concert with me. Parking at Strathmore was a dream, which eased my nerves. Parking in DC has the potential to be a wreck waiting to happen, but Strathmore uses the Metro parking lot, so everything went smoothly. I must mention this--the auditorium of the music center is very pretty. Everything is made out of a light wood stain, the seats are comfortable--any concert is a pleasure to see in that auditorium.

     A big disappointment was the starting time. The tickets said that the show started at 8pm, so I assumed that is when I should aim for arriving. However, although we arrived about ten minutes prior to 8pm, we found the opening act already in progress. Rufus Wainwright's sister, Martha Wainwright, was the opening act. She is a shining example of what is wrong with music today. The woman is so freaking talented. She has a lovely voice and creativity to spare, and she's not famous. She should be, and it is a sin that she isn't. I especially appreciate what she brings to the background vocals of Rufus's studio albums. She is his go-to female accompaniment, and I can't accuse it of being sheer nepotism. When Rufus performs some songs alone, I often wish Martha's voice was there too. She adds so much to a song with so little effort. Anywho, Martha had started way before 8pm, so we only caught the tail end of her act. I wish I would have known that she was starting earlier, because I would have loved to see more of her.

     Rufus's part of the show began with his latest album, All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu (above), being played straight through as a piece of performance art. To accompany the lone musician and his piano, the stage was dark with the exception of a projection screen behind him. Artistic depictions similar to the cover art of the latest album played on the screen while he played, and he requested no applause between songs. It was a requiem for his mother, the exceptionally talented Kate McGarrigle, who was ill during the making of this album, and who passed away shortly after the album's release. The performance was dark, sad, beautiful, and touching.

     After a brief intermission, he returned to a more positively lit stage to perform songs from his other albums. During this portion of the show, I really felt like he was playing just for me, because he chose a few of my very favorites, including "Beauty Mark," "La Complainte de la Butte" (which he recorded for the soundtrack of Moulin Rouge!), "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk," "The Art Teacher," "Poses," and of course, his ever famous cover of "Hallelujah." It was nice to see him, bright and smiling in an orange and coral colored suit on a stage of candles, playing these songs that made me so happy over the last decade. It made remember a person I used to be, who was very different than who I am now. It made me remember feeling like I had art inside of me to share, and it made me remember being desperate for love. It was quite a nostalgic experience. Rufus's performance is so precise and superb lately, too, that, paying attention to technicality, you can hardly tell differences from his recordings to his live performances.

     Rufus ended the show by covering a song of his mother's called "The Walking Song." It was a pretty and simple folk love song, and he performed it with such sensitivity--I'm sure everyone was moved. I left that night feeling sad and sweet, for my past and for Rufus and Martha. Unbeknown-st to them, we've been through a lot together.

     Please note that this post contains product links using Amazon Associates. Should enough people click the links and make purchases, I would get paid. Amazon Associates pays once your clicks equal $10; in my entire history with the program, I currently have about $3, so I have never been paid yet, lol. The biggest reason I use Amazon Associates is so that I don't have to use my own personal server space for image hosting when I refer to products, and to ensure proper and unbroken links for archiving purposes.

Rain, rain, rain.

     It's getting warm lately, and humid. With the summer months come thunderstorms, and they surely appear to be getting close and soon.






Photo One is a picture of ducks in my in-laws' back yard in State College. Photo Two is a stormy afternoon in DC.
To quote my mother, it is weather for the ducks. I'm glad I found rain boots.

Spring is here!

     And I must admit, I really have been enjoying it. Summers can be incredibly stifling in DC, to the point where I forget that other seasons can be quite pleasant. Ask me again in two or three months, and I shall tell you that I hate this city irreparably. Right now, though, when the cherry blossom trees are blooming and there's a breeze through the streets, things are just lovely. I could live here forever if only it would always be this temperature.


That sky--talk about blue!
     I also just spent a nice and rainy weekend in NYC. My birthday was last week--26 years old!--and my husband took me to see a great new Broadway show to celebrate! It was a really fun trip, despite the rain.


Madison Square Garden in the rain--waiting for a taxi.


We saw a preview showing of The Addams Family, starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. They were amazing!


There are gargoyles outside of our room on the top floor of the Radisson Lex.
     A short summary of my trip in photos is above. Omitted are photos of the largest martini I've ever consumed, along with photos of restaurants, hotels, and all of the indoor fun that can be managed in NYC.

     Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Think warmer thoughts.

     Rain makes snow look icky. That's the state of DC lately. Yesterday, I wore regular shoes, but I found that to be a mistake, what with all of the melty, rainy snow, so I'm back to my Uggs. Super office-appropriate, I know.


     Some quick things that I saw and loved today:


Zipper Cups


Williams-Sonoma Steiff Bunny

As an avid tea drinker, those mugs are really charming. As the wife of a deutschophile, I really appreciate the Steiff brand of toys. Hand-made quality always gets me. I used to collect bunnies as a child, too, so I find this really adorable.

     For those not enjoying the cold, think warmer thoughts! March is less than a week away, and although the weather might not care, it just sounds like a warmer and more springy month!

Weather gone wild!

     Although it is essentially old news at this point, I tried to thoroughly photo-document the blizzard of 2010 that struck DC and the Eastern seaboard in this album:





2010 January and February: Snowbound!
     A series of photographs featuring me, my husband, and some stir-crazy cats during the biggest snowfall some people have ever seen. My husband and I were stuck in our apartment for ten straight days (although some of those days were spent teleworking on my end), which is unprecedented. We really had a lot of fun, though, being the cold- and snow-loving people that we are. I don't mind saying that I miss it and wouldn't mind another go, weather-permitting. Psst...don't tell anyone in DC that I said this, or else they may come after me with pitchforks.

     Yay for snow!

Autumn in DC?

     It could finally be, but it's difficult to tell with all the rain the East Coast has been receiving. In my beloved State College, Pa, they received almost nine inches. The city is most likely in the height of the autumn foliage, but I imagine it will be difficult to see under all of that snow.

     I apologize for being so delinquent posting! I have been very busy lately. Last weekend was my bridal shower, and my girls know me so well. It was decorated so beautifully in a--you guessed it--fall theme! I had to travel to Pittsburgh, Pa from Washington DC, and along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I picked this up:



     As you can see, I have already pinned it up in my cubicle. The post card is not an exaggeration, either--the leaves of the Pennsylvania mountains are spectacular. If you've ever seen the miniature train set at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh (and if you haven't, I recommend that you visit it if you get the chance), it really looks just like the fall section. I love it!

     Today, I've spent the day making a bolognese sauce. I really wish I had one of these to finish off the meal:



     This is one of my future mother-in-law's apple pies. It's amazing.