I love this part of summer. The breezy dresses. Sleeping sprawled beside the breeze of a lazy fan. Staying up late with friends. Drinking outside. Eating outside. Being sweaty. Long days. Slow walking. Ripe berries. Sweat peas. Reading too much. Music on the streets. Cute girls biking. Cute boys biking. Too hot to cook. White wine. Cool showers. Sitting on the porch. Let’s get ice cream.

Summer in early July is a freshly ripe vegetable.

What is this time of year like for you?

Feeling a bit slimed today after work. Just a little slime. I’m probably not getting enough alone time.
Here are things that I go to to brighten me on slimy days, these days:

1. This interview with Maya Angelou (click on Listen Now)

2. Roald Dahl’s official website. Particularly “Meet Roald Dahl” and “An Interview with Roald Dahl.”

3. Dancing around to The Cure. I’m reminded these days, of how much nicer life is with dancing in it.

4. Watching Pete and Pete. (or just watch the credits on YouTube)

5. Reading poems and the Bible.

6. Being with Adam.

7. Lying down, listening, and staring at the ceiling.

Hold onto what is good and true and what gives people dignity. I know these things exist because I see them in my friends

What do you look at on slime days?

Yesterday, before a smoothie meeting at work (there are worse things than working someplace where the meetings are about coffee smoothies), I walked to State Street and treated myself to the perfume I’ve been dreaming after for about a year. It’s linden blossom perfume, sweet and old-fashioned. I’m sure the scent is out of style, and I’m not sure if anyone will like it but myself, but as I was doing dishes, I caught a whiff of it now and again. And I wondered where it came from. If a breeze was carrying in a bouquet of fragrant trees. And then I remembered that it was me. It was such a pleasure. Do you have any small luxuries that make you glad like that?

I took a few minutes away from Friday cleaning to sit in the garden and drink coffee. I wrote a real, raw list there that went something like this:

God, here is a list of the ugly, stupid lies I believe about myself:

It might sound lame, but it was honest. And by the time I got to lie number three, I felt so free, I couldn’t even remember any more of that bullshit. It all was so small. Sometimes I turn my head away from the ugly stuff I should face head on. Like that will make it disappear. But the freedom is in carrying it out into the light.

If you feel so inclined, give it a shot.

May is such a beautiful time of year. It’s nice to just be able to enjoy it, again, without stressing over finals or pining for summer break. This suits me.

(note: more on my latest writings to come.)

Eight Things I’ve Learned so far in 2008:

1. How to spot Pinus Resinosa- Red/Norwegian Pines.

2. The basic concepts of how to make briar pipes.

3. Sometimes, I like 2% milk.

4. Making excuses for other people doesn’t deepen grace, it cheapens it. True fogiveness is in recognizing the broken bits, and knowing that all of that is totally pardoned. It’s saying, “Who cares? That isn’t who they are. That isn’t who I am.” Pretending there’s nothing to forgive just keeps me from so much sweeter things.

5. Once can make lovely, frothed milk in a french press.

6. Roald Dahl’s house was called Gipsy House.

7. The best lemon bars have a wheat flour crust..

8. How much we need each other.

How about you?

Four jobs I’ve had:
1) receptioninst
2) nanny
3) kitchen staff
4) barrista

Four movies I’ve watched more than once:
1)Little Women
2) Fiddler on the Roof
3) The Big Lebowski
4) You’ve Got Mail…

and just about every other movie I really liked. I enjoy repetition.

Four places I’ve lived:
1) Genesee, WI
2) Alvdal, Norway (5 months)
3) Constanta, Romania (3 months)
4) Madison, WI (2 years and counting)

Four TV shows I watch:
1) No Reservations
2) Gilmore Girls
3) Good Eats
4) Sponge Bob Square Pants. Usually with Adam on Saturday mornings. Because that’s the way we roll.

Four places I’ve been:
1) the grocery store
2) Sognefjord
3) the Black Sea
4) the world’s highest bungee jump site

Four people who email me regularly (doesn’t include blogging comments):
1) Garrett and the Homegirls (high school buddies)
2) Bri
3) Laurel
4) Mom

Four of my favorite foods:
1) apples
2) good cheese
3) olive oil
4) berries

Four places I would like to visit:
1) Morocco
2) Somalia (if it’s safe in my lifetime)
3) India
4) England

Four things I’m looking forward to in the coming year:
1) writing
2) summertime
3) making home of a new apartment
4) learning

tag to anyone! Thanks, Keely!

If I wrote one small story today, it would contain:

-worn paths
-little birds
-the smell of potting soil
-skirts threatened by wild winds
-dancing curtains
-friendly ducks
-homemade jam
-jars of crocuses on weathered porch steps
-the library
-dandelion wine
-dusty books
-open windows
-chirping sounds

If you wrote one small story today, what would it contain?

My friends, spring has sprung. Birdsong is drifting through the open windows, while Eliot stares out, mystified, cackling back to them (I think he’s trying to chirp, but he sounds more like a raccoon than a blackbird). It’s so lovely.

With spring, of course, comes change, and a lot of things have been going on, here, in our little apartment. Small things, perhaps, but they’re big, too, in a way.

1. We signed a lease for a different apartment next year. Moving is a normal part of a renter’s existence in Madison, but it’s still exciting to me. This particular apartment will be the priciest place I’ve lived, but there are two things I am really thrilled about: a wood-burning fireplace and a second bedroom. I love being able to be generous in that way, to let people stay a while or live with us. And if it doesn’t get used that way? I’m quite happy to have an office.

2. I’ve taken to reading the Chronicles of Narnia again. It’s wonderful food for the imagination, and I find myself wondering things like what that crocus is thinking.

3. Spring cleaning is under way. Because as much as excited as I am to be moving, I want to appreciate our last months in our apartment to the fullest.

4. I’m reminded that I am, in many ways a country girl at heart, so I’ve taken to learning and enjoying nature every way I can in this city. Taking a cue from Linnea’s Almanac (a gift from an aunt many years ago) I am identifying birds and trees and planting any small thing I can find. It turns out, feeling connected to nature isn’t as hard in an urban existence as I thought. In fact, it’s really fun. More on this later, to be sure.

There are many more things than these, I am sure. Quieter things. But for now, I just want to get off the computer and watch the birds with Eliot.

How has spring sprung for you?

1. Remembering the delight of wine and conversation last night with Hannah.

2. Knowing we have a double sushi date tonight.

3. This music video, which I secretly like as much as I did in Middle School.

4. Hanging out and eating fantastic Indian food with Adam’s family.

5. Eating leftover cake for breakfast.

Oh, and 6. A phonecall from Janelle.

Oh, and 7. Nice thoughts in my head.

Feel free to leave your 5 (or six) (or seven)

Today I am thankful that sometimes what we are given is more wonderful than what we would want for ourselves. I’m thankful for surprise snowy nightime walks to buy sweet potatoes and that wet leaves on the ground look so pretty. I am thankful for Guitar Hero and how the sun comes out from behind the clouds on a slightly snowy morning. I am thankful for old pie recipes and a woman that makes them so well and speaks the sweetest things. I am thankful for Anne of Green Gables on PBS on a sweet potato baking morning and the aunts and grandma that enjoy her as much as I do.

I am thankful for spinach salad, purple potatoes as I cut them, and bourbon in pecan pie.

I am thankful for good stories on the radio. For people who call random phone booths just to learn about people. I am thankful to sit at the “kids table” with a bunch of young men and women and drink sparkling grape juice and laugh big hearty laughs with big hearty plates of food. I am thankful my cousins are so vibrant and such good story tellers. I am thankful to be a lot like my aunts. I am thankful to have such great uncles and a great, funny grandfather.

I am thankful for the heaps of wonderful people around me. I am thankful for my job. I am thankful I don’t have to work this weekend. I am thankful for Norwegian class. I am thankful for language and the power of words on the tongue and on paper.

I am thankful for the words “sassafras” and “succotash” and “ristretto macchiato in a mug.” I am thankful for whisky and the night sky in the country. I am thankful for my husband who is making me laugh right now, for his warm eyes, kind hands and heart.

I am thankful that we have the capacity for gratitude.

I am thankful for you.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope your day is full of joy and your pecan pie is full of bourbon.

Today was thick with foggy air, clouds, and milky earl grey tea- the best of autumn weather.  It was one of those days I was forced to eat the heavy bitter medicine of my humility, but I ate it with poems, wine, and homemade zucchini pizza.

Today I like misty weather, men with nice hats in the morning, yellow ties, my cat in a bow-tie, big envelopes for stories, Joni Mitchell, and music that gives me courage.

Today I like kind hugs, husbands that make me happy, and stacks and stacks of books.

You?