A Holiday Lately I'm Loving

I have a SERIOUSLY severe case of the Monday blues this morning after a totally weird weekend...Highs? Seeing the Minnesota Orchestra take on "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" on Saturday, Minnesota getting its first big dumping of snow all day yesterday, and a spontaneous Café Latté stop with Matt to end the weekend! Lows? Being sick as a dog with what I am convinced is a 21st-century version of the plague (aka the common cold and an accompanying fever, bleh). 

Minnesota's unseasonably warm temperatures and a busier-than-usual schedule have left me feeling a bit Grinchy this holiday season. I can't believe we're less than two weeks out! I have yet to get one single present actually ordered, let alone wrapped and under the tree (which Hal and I have yet to set up...EEK). That said, here's how I'm planning to get things feeling a bit more festive around here: 

-I just peeked through this gallery of New York City's holiday windows as I finished this morning's coffee - so pretty! Gotta say, Tiffany's are my favorites. So classic! 

-In lieu of sending traditional holiday cards (because, duh, no spouse/children/significant other/pets, hahaha), I went a little crazy in Emily McDowell's deliciously irreverent holiday shop online. Friends, expect some slightly off-color greetings from yours truly this year...and stay tuned for the Schwegfam Christmas card reveal, it's similarly irreverent and, I think, delightful. 

-The current soundtrack of the season is Leslie Odom's fantastic holiday album...I'm convinced he can do no wrong. Take a listen to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," then add the whole album to your holiday Spotify playlist - you won't regret it. If Christmas carols just aren't your jam, 1. BOO YOU SCROOGE! and 2. Take a listen to DJ Earworm's 2016 United States of Pop. Jury's still out for me, personally...

-As soon as I have a few free days/evenings, I'm hitting up Twin Cities holiday classics with everything I have in me. With Loring Park's Holidazzle right outside my front door, I have no excuse not to take a wander through the Christmas market...but I'll be making a special trip to the Como Conservatory on the nastiest day I can find to soak up the warmth and bask in the loveliness of the holiday sunken garden. 

-Kitchen-wise, I need to NOT go my usual route of "Bake all the Christmas cookies!!!!!" in the name of fitting into a gown on New Year's Eve...yikes. That said, there are a few festive events on my social calendar that require an offering, and I'm feeling shortbread this year for some reason. These pistachio butter cookies and these rosemary shortbread cookies both sound just different enough to be worth a try...stay tuned, and here's to hoping the great 2013 Christmas Oreo Balls Disaster isn't repeated. 

-Finally, tis the season, after all, to pay it forward. In a totally inspiring turn of affairs, my board's high schoolers decided to go to Feed My Starving Children this holiday season and spend some time giving back...I'll be joining them tomorrow for a morning of packing food and getting back to the reason for the season. So proud of them! Other worthy programs and initiatives I'm hoping to be able to share some time or money with this season: Wreaths Across America, which recognizes fallen veterans each holiday season...the Notre Dame Club of Minnesota's annual Centro Christmas party, which provides holiday cheer for over 1,000 attendees annually...and my office's Toys for Tots drive, which is looking a little sparse so far.

Lately I'm Loving

Things on my mind/making me smile/causing distraction lately: 

As a devoted and nerdy linguist and word-lover, this poem tickled my fancy for a solid twenty minutes. I read it at my desk at work, then read it out loud to myself a second time at home. If I'm being totally honest, I ended up looking up proper pronunciation of a few of the words on Webster's...some of them are pretty arcane! 

I am such a shameless Minnesota Orchestra fangirl, and have harbored a secret crush on conductor Osmo Vanska for years. This interview in The Guardian made me smile...especially when he claimed his dream job is to be a truck driver. Bonus? Links to new-to-me Leonard Bernstein and old favorite "Singin' in the Rain," which I would love to hear him do in his Finnish accent. 

Everyone knows I hate getting political around here, but even I will make an exception when Bad Lip Reading takes on the presidential debates. I know everyone in the WORLD has likely already seen this, but oh my gosh, if you haven't, WATCH IT NOW. I laughed out loud for real...repeatedly!

Little brother Jonathan got a job offer this week, which he accepted! In under a month, he'll be calling Detroit home. Not going to lie, my main associations with Detroit lean more toward its neighbor Ann Arbor (MUCK FICHIGAN), but my interest was piqued reading this Elite Daily article about how Detroit as a city embodies the Millennial spirit better than anywhere else. Looking forward to visiting him over there in the future...and to hitting the Big House for ND-Michigan in 2019 (I can plan ahead, whatever). 

And finally, a PSA. Like I said, not getting personally political up in here, but I think it's critical that, in this circus of an election cycle, as many people as possible actually vote. To check your registration status and find your polling place, check out HeadCount. I get to vote legit across the street from my apartment. Where will you be? DO IT CAMPERS. DO IT FOR AMERICA. (Can I write in "Lin Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton" for President?)

Lately I'm Loving

Things making me smile/on my mind/causing distraction lately:

--Travelers' former CEO and executive chairman, Jay Fishman, passed away last Friday after putting one of the best public faces on ALS in the twenty-first century. I have SO much respect for him and how hard he and his wife Randy worked to raise the profile of the disease...from basically funding the Boston Children's Hospital "voice banking" project, to raising millions through the annual Travelers Championship, he engaged so hard. This fantastic piece from the Hartford Courant brought tears to my eyes - yet another testament to a truly remarkable and courageous leader.  

--Another famous leader I've brushed with? Charlie Weis, infamous ex-coach of Notre Dame. ESPN's brutally honest and revealing profile of Weis in semi-retirement fascinated me. The way they peeled back his character, family, and current mental state layer by layer, interspersed with major names in football and pop culture and snippets of utterly compelling stories, really humanized him for me. I don't know. Having existed on campus with him for my first three years of college, and having suffered through a myriad of painful ND losses, I was never a big Weis fan, and I don't know that I am now. That said, I feel sorry for him, I'm thinking a bit more about the man than the coach. I'm kind of rooting for him, I guess (and also want to be able to text Bon Jovi, so there's that). 

--Closer to home, I'm trying to spend my spare time doing more writing as I come off an insane summer into an equally frenetic fall. Hal and I camped out at Spyhouse, by the MIA, all afternoon last Sunday - he worked on essays while I wrote blogs, emails, and a few other things. It was a day that was simultaneously peaceful and productive, and I need more of those - so I'll be working my way through the spots on this list of top St. Paul coffee spots all fall, I've decided. It'll get me to spend a little more of my leisure time across the river, and with an extra caffeine jolt and far away from the distractions of the apartment, I get so much more done. Anyone in? 

--I love words, and I loved this list of words in foreign languages for emotions that can't be easily explained in English. Things like this never fail to tickle my fancy. Favorites off this list: "énouement," the feeling of arriving in the future and wishing you could tell your past self how something will work out... "liberosis," the desire to care less about things... "vellichor," the smell of a used bookstore (ahhhh I live for the scent of lignin on old book pages!)... and "rucckehrunruhe," the feeling of returning home from a trip and quickly losing that expanded sense of self travel brings. I need to learn a new language...or at least keep up on my French better. 

--Finally, and deliciously irreverently: OLYMPICS, guys. Or should I say Olympic guys? Go Fug Yourself does roundups of the toned body parts and tiny uniforms of all the hot male Olympic athletes every year...see swimming here, track here, and men's gymnastics here. You can thank me for making your entire week later. I'm probably hideously shallow for admitting it, but I'd catch myself pausing the men's gymnastics just to marvel at their biceps. And the divers' tiny, tiny Speedos? Um, yeah. If commentators can talk about female beauty, uniforms, and appearances all Games with impunity, then you better bet I'm going to visually objectify the shit out of every six-pack and toned tricep in Rio. It's probably a good thing the Summer Games only take place every four years...my eyes and heart couldn't take much more.  

Lately I'm Loving

Things making me smile/on my mind/causing distraction these days: 

I'm a passionate reader - if you've EVER popped in to check out one of my monthly reading lists, it's kind of hard to miss. That said, this blog post broke my heart when I saw it shared on Facebook. I was a crazy devotee of my school libraries from kindergarten all the way through high school, and have used and abused my Hennepin County library card for the last three years with zero shame. To imagine a rural library with no books was devastating to me...so I sent a set of Eva Ibbotson's novels, which I love, and was thrilled to check back in and see that supply had outstripped demand. So cool. 

Around town, I'm also a passionate devotee of the Minnesota Orchestra, and love spending my summers enjoying the annual Sommerfest programming by guest conductor-in-residence, Andrew Litton. This interview with him digs deep into his thirteen-year tenure as the director of Sommerfest, highlighting programming decisions, rehearsal challenges, and of course, what's next. I attended the transcendent Brahms Double Concerto with the Jodester on the 14th, and deeply appreciated this glowing review as well...Nichola Benedetti and Leonard Elschenbroich were both incredible. 

While my appreciation for gin takes second place to my love of champagne, I couldn't help but laugh and think twice about switching it up more often upon reading this unintentionally hilarious article on the surprise health benefits of gin. Who's up for a wrinkle-fighting, detoxifying, malaria-preventing G&T on my roof sometime soon?!

On Instagram lately, I'm cracking up at the dual accounts "That J.Crew Jacket" and "That J.Crew Gingham Shirt." Totally guilty of wearing my Downtown field jacket everywhere, including all over Europe in June...and who doesn't have a weakness for a hot guy in the perfect blue gingham button-down? As documented here, I totally do and feel zero shame. 

Several friends have taken and shared the results of this "Online English Vocabulary Test" lately, so naturally I had to throw my hat in the ring...especially as I've been providing synonyms for David's thesis here and there for weeks now. Results? 

Boom, bitches. I blame my latent addiction to playing vocab games on www.freerice.com, but also the fact that this quiz was absurdly easy. Totally going to adopt the alter ego of Shakespeare and start creating words now, though. 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I have a major thing for guys who read, and my bibliophile heart utterly melted at this literary love story. Fun fact: I used to shop in the bookstore in the article all the time when I studied in London...although I rarely purchased, being on a stringent student budget. Now I'm thinking I should've been flirting with their media consultants...fail! Oh well, I'll find my Joe Fox someday. 

Ending on the highest of high notes: Happy third birthday Prince George! William and Kate released four adorable photos of everyone's favorite cheeby-cheeked toddler prince in honor of the occasion - see them here. I'm maybe a bit too into his tiny striped whale sweater, and also I now need a cocker spaniel to feed ice cream to in my downtime. Slightly offended I didn't get invited to the tea party birthday party though...sounds like a fabulous hat opportunity and also, now that Pippa's off the market, Harry's obviously going to fall madly in love with me and get me in the tiara STAT.  

Happy Friday! Off to spend the day working on case reviews with hundreds of high schoolers at Gopher Business Day, then hopefully enjoying a beverage or two with friends. Have a great weekend! 

Lately I'm Loving

Things making me smile/on my mind/causing distraction these days:

DJ Earworm’s United State of Pop 2015 is out, and I can’t stop looping it. It’s lush but EDM-y in such a fresh, interesting way…and definitely threw me back to some of my favorites from this year’s Top 40. Loving the combination of “Shut up and Dance,” “Sugar,” and “Sorry” in the first minute, and the combo of the violin arpeggio from “Love Me Like You Do” and the trumpet from Omi’s “Cheerleader” in the last minute or so.

I have a weird, completely nerdy sense of humor. Random, arcane, literature-and-history things like last month’s “How to tell if you are in a Jane Austen novel” reduce me to tears of laughter on the regular. This week it was “If George Washington Paintings Could Talk,” which, at first, made me smile quietly, then do that little silent laugh thing, then eventually laugh so loudly and uncontrollably that my bitchy neighbors banged on the wall to quiet me down. Oops. Check them out for yourself, Martha’s apparently quite the saucy minx. 

I will always and forever stick to my Sunday morning fall tradition of cereal and the Notre Dame Band’s halftime show, specifically because it ensures I never miss total wins like the halftime against Wake Forest on November 14th. Um, hi, “Frozen?!” Excuse me while I jump up and down shrieking with excitement like a four year old in an Elsa costume. They also did “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” and my poor Backer-deprived heart almost exploded in nostalgia and happiness. 

The vast majority of my friends are just as into small, local breweries as I am, and finding the newest has become an ongoing adventure for some of us. Thanks to Thrillist's updated list of best new breweries in the Twin Cities, I've got a few more on my agenda in the next several months. I'm particularly excited about Lakes and Legends, which is less than 100 yards from my apartment's front door and apparently is serving a cranberry saison...yes please! 

Last but absolutely not least, Humans of New York is absolutely blowing my mind with their coverage of the Syrian-American refugee situation. I refresh my Facebook way more often than is respectable hoping to see updates on the stories that suck me in from the beginning with so much hardship and hope. What a beautiful and heartbreaking way to humanize a situation that, to many, is simply a reactionary numbers game.