oh, the flavor that you savor

I made fresh pesto for the first time this week. It's kind of turned into an obsession now. My mom's basil plant is on its last leg, and I'm slowly devouring the entire plant. When I made it the first time (lots of fresh basil leaves, garlic powder, fresh parmesan cheese and olive oil all blended in a food processor) I realized how easy it is and how it tastes just as good as store bought.

I love summertime and fresh ingredients. I love fresh fruit just as much. Especially watermelon. I love that it's naturally so sweet and delicious.

I might as well be that little kid with all of the watermelon I've eaten this week.

My goal for this semester (and I feel like I say this before every semester - but eventually that means it will turn into reality I hope) is to eat better. When I'm home, I eat a meal and then I'm satisfied. I don't go back and fill myself up with random food I find in the pantry, or the oh-so-common bowl of ice cream I fall back on at school. So I don't mean I want to eat less necessarily, just better. Like more fresh fruits and veggies. More variety of meals - aka: not every meal is pasta. I want to learn new recipes and not be intimidated by them.

I feel like I've thought and talked about food a lot this summer. It's such a fundamental part of our lives that it is easy to not think about it very much at all. Call me crazy for thinking about it as much as I am, but I think that it's something worth considering from time to time because, like anything else in this world, it can be used well or poorly. And why not use such a beautiful part of God's creation a little better and more gratefully from time to time? In its most basic sense, food nourishes us. But in its most glorious form it does even more - helps us be in community with one another, teaches us about different parts of the world, and wows us and our senses. It can be its own art form.

(Note: I'm going to see Food, Inc. tonight, so I may very well never look at food the same way again.)

What to say, what to say, what to say...

.Well for starters, I'm back home. NYC summer 2009 came to a close. I got really sentimental about New York City the last few days I was there wandering around (I was looking up at buildings rather than being consumed with getting to where I was going and only looking down). I'm going to miss it, I know it.

But it feels great to be home. I swam and was lazy in the pool today, relaxing with my parents and Tipton, eating pasta & mussels for lunch and a whole lot of fresh fruit. I was sun-kissed and tired from the sun and let my hair air dry... it was the parts of summer I have missed.

.Things I fell in love with this summer that I hope to bring with me into the school year:

-Goat cheese. Goat cheese, really? Yes, really. I love cheese of all kinds, but goat cheese and I had never formally gotten acquainted until this summer. Goat cheese, dried cranberries, walnuts, and a vinaigrette = a salad I never get tired of.

-Brunch. Get ready, Columbians, I vow to make brunch part of my school life. First stop will be Bleu.

-Reading magazines. Duh, right? It's my major, after all. But sad as it is, I have never been one to read many magazines during the school year. But they're a wonderful companion for those short moments that you find yourself free of obligations.

That's an odd short list, I know. But I was thinking about those things so I needed to spill them out sooner or later.

.I saw Julie & Julia tonight and it inspired me to do many things. 1) Have a blog that gets published as a book and picked up as a movie. Ok, maybe not so much. But I do want more direction in my blog. 2) I want to take cooking lessons. Or at least vow to try new recipes this year. I want to get a cookbook that forces me to expand my meal knowledge and start exploring. 3) Write at all costs. Whether it's for me, one person, or many. 

How's that for "more direction in my blog"? Possibly the most oddball post I've ever written. Go figure. 

it's such, it's such a perfect day

I don't really know how to start this post, because all I keep wondering is

Have you ever smelled mud? I mean really been surrounded by it, tromped in it, inhaled its smell with every breath? No? Well, it smells bad. I mean bad. Well now let me ask you, have you ever been surrounded by mud, inhaling its foul odor, but had a smile on your face, chills running up your spine and been on the verge of tears? No? That, my friends, is what I experienced at All Points West on Sunday.

It was a beautiful stormy Sunday, complete with thunder and strong gusts of wind. I was in Long Island staying with my brother's girlfriend's family for the weekend. We had gone to the beach on Saturday. Enter blissful day #1. It was my first day all summer where I closed my eyes and felt summer. I mean, felt it. Felt the sun slowly color my skin a darker shade (eh, burn it a tad), felt the chill from water splashing up on me from an agitated shore, felt sand in my toes (and all up in my clothes the rest of the day). I felt the air blowing through a car window and back out the sunroof and watched the sun bid us farewell beyond the horizon. Summer. A perfect day of summer.

Enter Sunday. Wet, stormy Sunday. All Points West is a music and arts festival (the 2nd year of it) at Liberty State Park. I lucked out (understatement of the year) and was invited by my brother's girlfriend because her family had an extra ticket. The skies magically cleared as we drove into the city, loaded up with parkas and towels and ready for the worst. We took the ferry from Battery Park over to the park. Enter mud. Mud mud mud mud mud. The poor grass didn't know what it had coming. Enter my brother being inventive and sporting this look the rest of the day. 

Enter laughter, lots and lots of laughter.

We lucked out and weaseled our way into the VIP bleacher seats by the main stage since the parents had VIP tickets, the other six of us did not. Prime seats for admiring people embracing the mud. We caught the end of Silversun Pickups, followed by Elbow (if you don't know of them, you should. They were quite lovely, in the easy to love British kind of way. Check out One Day Like This but don't judge the song from the blah video).

Then we patiently sat for the 45 minutes that it took an impressive number of stagehands to transform the stage for Coldplay. And then I noticed this guy

Who I then noticed was sitting next to this girl

Who I really wanted to talk to, but she decided to go watch MGMT.

Cue Life in Technicolor. Cue chills and me being on the verge of tears. I don't think that's ever happened to me at a concert before. But Coldplay, you have the power. And I want to meet the genius who designs their shows. I always am awestruck by the lights at concerts. Really great music can become that much more powerful with effective special effects and lights. I just love it. Go you, Coldplay stage designer extraordinaire. 

It doesn't do it justice, but here's Yellow and several yellow balloons full of confetti being tossed around in the crowd.

Just Mr. Martin, doing his thing.

"When your feet got wet at a Coldplay show"--improv Fix You lyrics

What a view.

I didn't really understand the random structures, but they made me think of the carnival scene in Across the Universe. Bizarre and lovable.

that's the way this wheel keeps working now

Since I have 10 days left of my New York City summer, it has come time to reminisce. While I was on the subway on my home from work today I was thinking about some things that have made me laugh time and again this summer. Which got me thinking about all things...

Things that have made me laugh: (too many to count, but here are highlights)

*"Welcome to Ikea! Look at all these beautiful faces" The woman who welcomed us off of the Ikea ferry (+ Ashley's exceptional imitation of her)

*Conversations with my roommates over dinner (+ Persas) at Vento

*"Your ass is on my arm" A lady I accidentally brushed my bottom against one second too long on the subway

*Inappropriate PDA on the subway, in an "I don't want to look but can't tear my eyes away" kind of way (Sarah and Abby can attest to this)

Things that I've questioned:

*Do I want to be a magazine writer?

*Or do I want to own an art gallery?

*Or do I want to get a masters degree in something useless but totally art-related?

*Where do I want to live post-graduation?

*How the heck do you go about getting a real-world job?

*Why can't I let go and not worry about it?

Things that I missed:

*Having a summer tan

*Swimming in a pool

*Family, friends and loved ones :)

*Singing along with my music

*Bible study

Things that I didn't cherish nearly enough:

*Living in the same city as my brother for possibly the last time

*Having so much art at my fingertips

Things I can't get enough of:

*the High Line

*Brooklyn

*New York brunch

*unexpectedly seeing celebrities (current list: Gayle, Barefoot Contessa, girl from Confessions of the American Teenager, Josh Hartnett, Diane Keaton, Tony Bennett, Molly Shannon)

*being able to get anywhere via public transportation

Things I could have done without:

*All. The. Rain.

Things I loved:

*Busy days at work

*The Brooklyn Art Museum

*The Renegade Arts and Crafts Fair

*Visiting Jonathan in Colorado

*Having visitors here! Abby, Sarah and Jonathan made the city feel more like home

*Reading magazines during my commute

*The cooler weather compared to the blistering heat most of the country was getting

*Trying out living in a city for a few months...I want to do it in a lot of other cities now: Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Denver

--I'll keep adding to this as the days dwindle down. But I want to make this point: I usually worry before I start something new that I won't get out of it everything that I wanted. And maybe I did or maybe I didn't, but I feel like my time here is coming to its rightful end and the thought of being home is lovely and perfect. I'm not feeling anxiety about not checking everything off of my list, I'm feeling blessed with all that 11 short weeks have held.

dear blog,

i will update you soon. i promise.

with love,

a lazy writer

telephones, they can't replace me with you, face to face

{There I go stealing lyrics again. Thank you, Matt Wertz, With You Tonight}

This weekend I was lucky enough to spend the 4th of July with Jonathan in beautiful Colorado. After a tiring & delayed day of travel on Friday evening, I made it to Denver. Saturday night we ate breakfast at Boulder's great farmer's market and walked along Pearl Street (think downtown Columbia...with mountains in the distance). We headed to Estes Park in the afternoon with hopes of finding a campsite in Rocky Mountain National Park. The tour guide information lady laughed when we asked what the chances were of finding a campsite (on the 4th of July)...but we got one of the last ones (so ha, lady!) After setting up camp (in the rain...) we drove to one of the nearby lakes and caught a beautiful rainbow and tranquil beauty surrounding this lake. It was so calming and just lovely. Then we headed back to Estes Park to catch the fireworks show along the lake. We saw some elk hanging out on the golf course along the way. No big. 

Woke up to beautiful sunny weather on Sunday and drove all through RMNP. We stopped at so many lookouts that the beauty of it all has kind of blurred in my mind. Hopefully the pictures that follow can do this weekend more justice than my words. Simply said, it was a wonderful break that was much needed. A break in all kinds of ways: a break from city life, a break from getting dressed up (and wearing makeup or doing my hair...ah camping:)) & a break from a long-distance relationship. 

rainbow: check. bench: check. mountains, lake, trees & perfection: check.

Jonathan's internship local

fireworks (Jonathan and his digital SLR took this one)
to me it kind of looks like the background is too perfect and we're photoshopped in (also jonathan's)
looky there, leave no trace!
"I could really go for an elk today" said Jonathan as we left the campsite. I think these will do the trick. I kind of wanted to take one home with me.

Big Colorado sky that Leigh Anne loves (and I clearly see why).

Shameless plug: For more pictures, check out Jonathan's new flickr account.

(One last thing that I do not have a picture for: Josh Hartnett was seated first class on my return flight to New York City. My 7th grade self was freaking out--I used to pull out pictures of him and put them on my door. Ahh celebrity crushes)

hoping I would see the world with both my eyes

{I notoriously overuse favorite quotes, lyrics, songs...I'm guilty of it, and I admit it. So here again, in this blog title,  I am stealing the words of John Mayer's 3X5. When other people say what you're thinking, why not say it again?}

Not to contradict myself (and the previous post) but rather to shine some new found joy to my life here in New York City: I have had a great past two WEEKdays (and today it even rained!) God answered my prayers to help me see His purpose for me throughout the week. Work has picked up and I feel like I'm doing substantial things that help the magazine. And that feels GREAT. 

Now to be perfectly honest, maybe my good mood has a little something to do with the fact that... Friday I get to see Jonathan. After 6+ weeks apart (longest time yet) we're spending the 4th of July weekend together in Boulder where he's interning. Yeah, ok, so that has a huge impact on my cheeriness. But the first reason does as well!

Tonight after work I was literally craving a good read. But I have yet to finish the book I started at the beginning of the summer (David Sedaris' Naked---which is not a testament to the book's quality, I just have rare instances of being in the reading mood). So I bought New York Magazine at Borders and can't wait to curl up with it after dinner. I need to learn more about this summer home of mine if I'm going to label myself a temporary non-tourist. 

(But speaking of tourist: Sunday night I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with my two roommates and a friend. It was absolutely perfect weather for it and a very memorable "touristy" thing to do while here.)