A few daily delights.

I’ve noticed lately that I can be incredibly negative when talking with others, much worse, about others. That’s out of character for me—I’ve always taken pride in my positive attitude and general sunny-side-up outlook on life. With that in mind, I’m trying to notice the little, happy things in life more. And with THAT goal foremost in my day-to-day, I’ll probably end up spewing more of them out than usual here.

Yesterday was a day rich with little happinesses and delights, including:

--farmers’ market dahlias over the lunch hour across the street from my building

--Pumpkin Spice K-cup coffee that I miraculously didn’t chug down in the first 20 minutes of the workday

--A fun little lunch break anecdote: the woman at D’Brian’s, where I go for soup constantly as soon as it gets chilly, was talking with the guy in front of me about her affinity for and bad reaction to tequila. We all kept laughing as she continually spun out fun one liners like “I love Mexican food, but tequila for me is a Mexican’t!” and “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor!”

--Devouring a new biography courtesy of Mike with a fall candle lit at the end of the day

--The kindest, most effusive emails from a few people who were impressed by a tabletop exercise I’ve been working on designing for months. I won’t go into the nerdy nitty-gritty here, but it’s been a huge, laborious process to coordinate, and I’m so pleased to hear positive feedback in the first phase.

--Fall leaves starting to change outside the Xcel Center

--Claire and I email back and forth all day every day pretty much, and we tend to write incredibly lengthy emails. Yesterday, our approach to keep everything on track was to color-code it all…each time we responded, we did so under each other’s previous responses in a new color. By the time we were done/too confused to keep writing, we had red, orange, blue, pink, purple, teal, and green. For our dignity’s sake, I won’t share the image, but suffice it to say it made me smile.

--My fantasy football team is undefeated by the skin of its (my?) teeth, and in the most delightful way! I really wanted to win this week’s game for personal and professional reasons, but it wasn’t looking good for me at the end of the day Sunday. I had nobody left, and my opponent was within three points of me and still had a player left. That player? Davante Adams, who went down on the second play of Monday night’s game. I couldn’t have been more delighted (from a fantasy perspective). Victory is sweet.

Best of all, today is my Friday, as we head off to South Bend tomorrow! Here’s to happiness, friends. 

A road trip playlist and other essentials.

I’m getting really good at the whole road-trip thing this year. With weddings and travel scattered all over Minnesota and the greater Midwest, my trusty car(s) and I have racked up thousands of miles since last October, and I’m (mostly) loving it. The keys to a successful road trip, in my books? Tunes, snacks, and plenty of distractions!

After back-to-back road trips to Kansas City and Chicago early this summer, I realized how quickly I get tired of the same-old, same-old music, even more so when on the road. Luckily Kels makes a fantastic road-trip DJ and kept things fresh the entire way to KC and back. Inspired by her eclectic picks, I made myself a crazy-diverse mix for road travel. You can find the playlist on Spotify here…follow along! A few of my favorites:

-Epic inclusion of Disney. Nothing like shrieking along to “Let It Go” to revitalize yours truly.

-Nineties throwbacks. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Two Princes,” “Roll to Me,” “Crazy For This Girl,” all the classics…and perfect for sing-alongs.

-Country. I’m turning into more and more of a country “lite” fan these days, and something about country just seems perfect for the open road.

-BOY BANDS. What could top N*Sync, Backstreet Boys, One Direction, and Jonas Brothers? Except maybe Five’s “When The Lights Go Out”…the scandalous hit that rocked the third grade back in the day? (You know you love it.)

-Chart-toppers. Current favorites that I’m (still) not sick of: “Want to Want Me” by Jason Derulo, “Fun” by Chris Brown, “Shut up and Dance” by Walk the Moon, EVERYTHING by Taylor Swift, of course “Uptown Funk” and “Sugar,” and even a little Bieber...oops. Upbeat, fun, dance-in-your-driver’s-seat kind of tunes!

-My latest and greatest indie obsessions. To flesh things out, I threw in plenty of BORNS, Sheppard, Lord Huron, and Hozier (even though Hozier continues to become more and more popular and that makes me selfishly sad).

As for snacks…a mix of salty and sweet is essential. I’m partial to Goldfish because they’re not messy, and “the snack that smiles back” makes a great mid-trip pick me up. Sweet snacks MUST include licorice…since I’m driving, I usually go with the basic Twizzlers even though Pull’n’Peel is way more fun. To round out options, I like banana chips, trail mix, or Chex Mix Muddie Buddies…basically puppy chow.

And finally, distractions: dumb road trip games are a must. With passengers, I love the alphabet game (fine a word that starts with each letter of the alphabet in order, winner is the first through). Kels taught me this totally stupid but addictive one halfway through Iowa en route to KC. It's called the Cow Game: if you see cows, you say “MY COWS!” If you see a graveyard, you can “kill” everyone else’s cows. If you see a church, you can “save” your (killed) cows. There’s no way to keep track of who has how many cows, it’s just a fun distraction in the land of endless dairy farms. Not going to lie, I’ve come close to starting up a “Slug Bug NO BACKS” war in the thick of traffic…anything to pass the time!

Like I said, I've become a bit of a pro. Between Kansas City, Chicago, a few different cabin weekends, and upcoming trips for weddings and football and friends on the East Coast, I've got plenty of road hours logged for the year. Here's to the open road, speeding just a little, and loving the journey as much as the destination!

Bookworm: September 2015

"She read all such works as heroines must read to supply their memories with those quotations which are so serviceable and so soothing in the vicissitudes of their eventful lives." Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey 

Leave it to me to decide to really dive into serious reading right as the rest of my life explodes with activity. I picked up a few great classics this month and a few big-time biographies, too, leaving me heavy on the quality and low on the quantity this month. I did love it though...here's to the nerdiest fall ever. 

Loved: 

Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer: This well-known exposée and tell-all of the history of Mormonism and Mormon fundamentalism kept me riveted from start to finish. A totally engrossing tale of manipulation and political maneuvering, religious extremism, and the dark side of politics and religion that I couldn't put down.

House of Mirth, Edith Wharton: I love Wharton for her critical and acerbic takes on old money, new money, and no money in the Gilded Age, and House of Mirth did not disappoint. Fabulous, lush prose and subtle examinations on beauty, fortune, manipulation and double standards all over the place. (#4 of 25 in my 101 in 1001 item #70!)

The Gilded Age, Claire McMillan: A modern-day retelling of House of Mirth set in pre-crash Cleveland, of all places. Incisive social commentary on class stratification and moral hypocrisy...a fitting and appropriate take on the original. 

Enjoyed: 

n/a this month. Things were very polarizing. 

Tolerated:

The Lucky One, Nicholas Sparks: I picked this up at a car service appointment and it lived up to all my lack of Sparks-y expectations. I will say it was moderately less overblown than The Notebook but I still just can't get into the contrived, overly dramatic artificial romance-y crap he writes.  

Re-reads: 

Juliet, Anne Fortier: A split-narrative romantic mystery set partly in the Middle Ages and partly in present-day Siena, attempting to trace the roots of the real Romeo and Juliet in time to stop a mass-murderer. Far-fetched, but so engrossing I couldn't put it down...even the second time.

Elizabeth The Queen, Sally Bedell Smith: In honor of QEII becoming the longest-reigning British monarch in history, I re-read this stunningly rich, detailed biography of her life and reign. It paints a fantastic picture of her as both a public figure and private persona--I loved it even more the second time around. 

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare: I'm a hopeless, helpless nerd and found that I enjoy treadmill interval workouts more with iambic pentameter alongside. What started off as streaming "Shakespeare in Love" and Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" on my iPad at the gym just turned into reading and reciting Shakespeare in my head, going slower during the romance scenes and faster during the battles. ON THAT NOTE, I'd like to claim my official "She's going to die alone with half a dozen cats" card any day now...

thoughts from the iPhone, 2am

After a terribly fitful night of sleep last week, I woke up to the following saved in the Notes app of my phone:

I’m a terrible sleeper, or at least I have been since around heading off to college. I wake and doze in weird cycles, up and about randomly through the night. I don’t know why it is…my apartment is cool, dark, and quiet, and there’s something to be said for sleeping alone.

It’s liberating and lonely to sleep alone, to reach out to the other side of the bed and feel nothing there but cool, crisp sheets, the other pillow vacant and waiting to be cuddled in lieu of a body that isn’t there. Without another person to worry about, I’ve grown increasingly inconsiderate at night. I’ll wake up spread across the bed like DaVinci’s Vitruvian man, rendered three-dimensional at three in the morning. I claim my space with every toe and finger, mimicking a starfish, a compass rose, finally at the point where my subconscious doesn’t keep me adhered to the left side of the bed to keep from disturbing another.

I sleep violently, almost aggressively active in my oblivion. Every night before bed the sheets are tucked under the mattress, with perfect hospital corners and the quilt centered exactly right. I wake up in a tangle, the quilt and sheets pulled entirely over my head with a perfect window around my face. Like some kind of a broken marionette, my feet have twisted into pockets of blankets and my hands are crushed into the nest of pillows I create without ever knowing I do it. The word “akimbo” couldn’t apply more accurately to whatever unconscious ballet I conduct, pirouetting and thrashing through dreams.

I even converse with my dreams, to the point where I’ve woken myself and others mid-conversation well past midnight. I suppose it’s endemic to a mind that never really rests entirely, and sometimes I think it would be so nice to be able to make everything go quiet in the stupor of sleep. Other times I think it’s nice that even in the silence and solitude of my apartment after dark, I still find a way to chat. 

And so with a post that's as disjointed and rambling as my nights of sleep in general, goodnight, goodnight, a thousand times goodnight, friends. And if you have tips on how to become a better sleeper...send'em my way. 

Sunday Brunch: Sun Street Breads

I don’t even know if you can really call this one a brunch, but I like breakfast and I like cute little local places, so here goes!

A few weeks back my parents and I met up to take a lengthy morning walk around the Chain of Lakes…it’s one of our favorite summer activities. Afterward, we usually swing over to Isles Bun & Coffee for giant cinnamon rolls and fresh-squeezed orange juice, but we weren’t in the mood for pastries on that day. I suggested Sun Street Breads, just south of Lake Harriet, and we headed over that way for a quick al fresco breakfast!

Location/Ambiance

It’s kind of funny…Sun Street is located in a strip mall, so on first glance you sort of assume you’re not in for anything special. They’ve done some really cute things with the interior, though…I love the daily riddle, for example:

Add to that the ample opportunity to admire the bakery case while waiting in line, and you’ve made me a happy camper.

In the summer, their outdoor patio is as charming as can be, too, which helps.

Score: 6/10

Beverage:

N/A. We all stuck with water because it was crazy-humid and we had sweat out approx. a gallon.

Food:

Sun Street is, above all, a bread bakery…so each of us went with a breakfast biscuit sandwich. My mom and I got turkey sausage, aged cheddar, and scrambled egg, and my dad went with a barbecue pulled pork offering. We also split a blueberry-peach turnover and ordered these really weird matzoh-ball gordita things. The turnover was delicious, but we each threw in the towel after one bite of the matzoh. Just not our thing. The biscuit sandwiches were delicious…fluffy eggs, flaky, buttery biscuits and the sausage was super good. All in all though, a bit disjointed. Good for a super quick breakfast or grabbing something on the go, but I would never treat it as a destination, per se.

Score: 6/10 (the matzoh was so bad it subtracted like…2 points!)