.:.one, two, three, JUMP.:. April 8, 2009

I HAVE TAKEN THE PLUNGE

GONE WITH MY GUT

LEAPT WITH FAITH

MADE THE DECISION

and would like to tell you, that i moved blogs.

to here.

it is a more simple layout, it’s easy, i can choose the colors, AND, if i change my mind again, blogger lets you move your blogs around to wordpress and others really easily.

i’ve been wanting to post more pictures of projects, lessons learned, and all kinds of things lately, but i just wasn’t excited with what this blog looked like, and couldn’t find anything i liked.

i would love for you to join me there, and visit often!  especially you, who i can not WAIT to get home!

i would also like to say thanks, for reading my funny little thoughts and scattered ideas and various lofty goals and aspirations.  i find it so fun, and i think it helps me, by “putting myself out there”. = )

see you around!

lovingly and excitedly,

el

back April 2, 2009

i am home with nat, where i belong.  but it was wonderful to be in california, where part of me also belongs, with those beautiful girls, who feel like home, too.

Nat met me at the bottom of the escalator, in the airport and we drove home and were there for five minutes before heading downtown to pick up Bryan and his friend Dan at the train station.  They spent the night on our couch/floor.  Nat made banana/chocolate chip/cinnamon pancakes this morning and left for work.  I dropped them back off at the station and then drove around for an hour trying to find the place where we pick up our PPA packets for the election next tuesday.  No luck, bad parts of town, so I came back home.

There was a surprise waiting for me in the living room when we got home the first time, but i’ll wait until i upload the  pictures to show you what it is.  it is VERY random, VERY fun, and funny.

i made dinner tonight, and afterwards we planted seeds in tiny terra cotta pots – basil, oregano and sweet pepper.  they look very cute and small on the window sill.  our home is filling up with green plants again.

opening at starbucks tomorrow, saturday, and sunday.  i keep forgetting to write down that i am not available on sunday mornings.

back to the “daily grind” i could say, but i wouldn’t really mean it.

what i mean is: back to early mornings, my friends and coworkers, dinners with candles, active-ness, runs, bike rides, shopping at our secret places, making this apartment presentable every day, and a husband who i never wish to leave for so long again.

March 26, 2009

have i mentioned i’m going to california on friday? Tomorrow!!?

i’m going to see THE GIRLS!  I’m pretty sure you’ve heard me mention them:

this is Liz and Kristine on a spare mattress I kept in my room for this exact purpose.

at the beach towards the end of the year

getting ready for a wedding in Mexico:

Probably during a murderer or mouse scare during which we crammed into one twin bed, for safety:

Liz and Juls

At Cafe Tomas, hardly working:

I will see three of the four, at any rate, and I don’t anticipate liking not having Liz around.

BUT IT WILL BE SO GOOD!!!!!!

and this poor soul will be left to his own devices:

or maybe he feels more like this…?

:: i want to marry you :: March 23, 2009

every so often i find myself still at the computer, and it’s been 2 hours since i sat down.   i am full of visual stimulation for great ideas in decorating, cooking and crafting so i jump up with a start and try to keep going with the day.  it’s one of the downsides of my schedule, because sometimes free time is not a good thing.

but i want to remember how last night i was playing the piano after ebeth and nikki left and nat came over and we pulled out the words to Unplayed Piano and decided to try a little duet.

It didn’t necessarily sound very good – Nat hardly knew the song at all – but after a few times he left and got the computer and put it on top of the piano and we recorded it, twice and listened and smiled at the rough patches and complimented each other on the good parts.

i remember when we were dating having these moments where i  thought fiercely,

I WANT TO MARRY YOU.

it was the biggest thought i had, and the greatest thing i could think of.

last night i thought it again as i watched him sing.  i want to marry him every day!!

.:. the eatery .:. March 20, 2009

if i ever started a food blog of food photography and recipes, maybe that’s what i’d call it. 

at the moment, on my left are two homemade chocolate chip cookies, made with the recipe from the Dawson Covenant Church cookbook to which I added peanut butter and oatmeal.  They are especially delicious and gooey after being in the microwave for 20 seconds.

I made them days ago, but thankfully Nat stuck them in the fridge in a tupperware and I forgot about them until today as I was rummaging for a snack.  They are a healthier option to the bag of Starbucks pastries in the backseat of our car waiting to be donated.  Healthier because of the oatmeal, obviously.  Additionally, I say no to those vile pastries every day, and these were like a cheerful surprise hello from a friend.

Furthermore, this is my blog, and I will say what I want to and believe what I say and enjoy my cookies sans explanation.

…

in the oven is a small bundle of garlic, peeled here and there, a few whole, a few random cloves, on a piece of tinfoil on a cookie sheet, sprinkled with olive oil, salt, and pepper, alongside a piece of oatmeal bread also sprinkled with olive oil and thyme, which i can not wait to eat, and which is my REAL snack. 

…

things i eat/drink almost every day:

fresh spinach (i have to limit myself, because i’m afraid i’ll be sick of it one day)

a red bell pepper

a mcintosh apple

a slice of oatmeal bread with vegan/non-dairy butter (so that if can be unabashedly ‘slathered.’

coffee

at least one pre-made baggie of either celery or green beans that i keep in the fridge as a ‘grab and go’ snack, if you will.  

garlic, in some form, on some thing.

and for dinner, usually some kind of pasta, our recent favorite being a spinach linguine with pesto sauce that we could eat for days and days and days.

…

It has been fun lately to learn more about cooking and nutrition.   I fear that I am also coffee-addicted.  I spent Nat’s lunch hour with him today talking in the car  and we both realized mid-morning that we were feeling really blah and tired and lazy – and then realized we hadn’t had any coffee yet, and once we had, all was well.

 Neither of us believes in being ‘addicted’ to, or dependent on anything, even little things like sleeping with a fan or having something be just-so, or a ‘not being able to function until and i’ve had my morning caffeine’ mentality, and we both thought “uh-oh.” 

everything in moderation!

 

with cheese,

ellen

 

.:. sunshiny pretty day .:. march 16th .:. March 17, 2009

 sitting on the loveseat in my new free people dress that makes me look like a butter churning, cow milking, missionary wife in the 19th century – and of course i love it.  my legs are in the sun and neko case is playing.

soon i’ll put on the pair of rollerblades i found at the thrift store and glide on over to get Nat and we’ll skate/bike through the park, to home.  then, he to tutoring, and me to the gym to run a torturous 4 miles.  i sort of… took a break, from running, last week.  and this will be interesting.

oh well, because last night we went on a long slow walk around the neighborhood. smoked cigars and talked about this and that.  held hands, he taught me how to flick the ashes.   it was the highlight of a long time.  

we’re just figuring it out, you know?  we go forward and then a little backward (it feels) and go through the ups and downs of every day. a little deeper each time, we hope.  

i have many pictures to share, but they are all still on the camera.  soon.  maybe at night time, so i’m not missing the sunshine. 

.:. tasha .:. March 13, 2009

I heard Diane say something something…”Tasha”… and I whipped around from the coffee brewers and said, “Tasha?! Tasha’s here?”  She was hidden from view behind the pastry case.  I hadn’t seen her all week, and was starting to get a little worried.  I said, “WHERE have you been??”

She wears a brown knitted hat with FUCK CANCER across it in pink stitching, and she is one of my two very very favorite customers.  I am 90% certain that she herself has/had cancer but she has never mentioned it.

We chatted a bit and then she came over to the bar while i made drinks.

I started telling her about a woman (miserable wretch ahem) who had come in the day before and accused me of ruining her day because we weren’t serving Verona as our morning pick this week, but Ethiopian.  Blah blah blah, nast nast nast, and then she stormed out.

Tasha was shaking her head with a serious look and said, “Sometimes I wish just one bad thing would happen to people like that.”  “I know,” I said. And at the same time we said grimly, “They need some perspective…”

nat just set a plate down in front of me with the most delicious looking pepper jack grilled cheese sandwich on oatmeal bread, with the ketchup bottle and pepper grinder next to it.

you know i want to take a picture of it.

i wonder if i’m missing a calling here, with all the photos i have of our meals…. it has to be in the hundreds by now.

i’m just going to eat it.

goodnight!

here’s to you, natty: March 12, 2009

My sweet, strong and very handsome husband has recently started a blog for the purpose of remembering and writing  stories of his life, and of his time working at the hospital.  He has some really beautiful ones, and some hilarious ones, and I love reading them, and hearing them.   Here’s the link:

http://natfondell.wordpress.com/

leave him a little love, if you’d like.

i’ll save mine for when he comes home.

[    = )   ]

.:. on the first of march .:. March 1, 2009

a grande hot chocolate with 3-pumps of mocha and one pump each of vanilla, hazelnut, toffee nut, and cinnamon dolce, topped with a little whipped cream, caramel syrup, and lots of sea salt.  Oh, with soy milk.

EQUALS

A Sunday-during-Lent HEAVENLY delight.  

[one thing i gave up is soy.]

 

Another thing we added is running together, every day.  For a few reasons – but the main one being that sometimes running together puts me in a really bad mood, because I face all these insecurity issues, thinking that he is so much faster than me, we should be going faster, he is so athletic and doesn’t even try, I haven’t been running as much as I should, I hate setting the pace, I know it’s so slow… on and on, and I get cranky.    So we’re just going to face it, and run together and run far and see what comes of 40 days of running side by side.  

 

in three weeks, i am going to the land where these live!

…:…

THANK YOU, LORD.  I feel as though my soul is literally dying for lack of sunshine.

have a wonderful first week of March!

.:.that local coffeehouse vibe, and that homey feeling.:. February 20, 2009

we had a fun staff meeting today.  we tasted, learned and talked about the new Via QuickBrew coffee that Starbucks has… honestly, I was REALLY impressed.  It is far better than your typical instant coffee… FAR.  And, I don’t know, it comes in these little packets, and dissolves so well you don’t even need a spoon – – for hot OR cold water.  great for camping, road trips, airplanes….  there’s my plug.

i’m sitting here by the window with coffee.  diane – one of my fellow baristas – is strumming her guitar and singing tracy chapman, and all of the comfy chairs and tables are full of people… it is a really cool vibe in here right now, and I love it.  

we talked about developing a ‘vision’ statement… and how we want it to be themed around words like ‘local’ and ‘neighborhood’… because it feels like that to us, just under the huge corporate title of Starbucks.  That we can just sit here and pass the guitar back and forth and look at the children’s artwork on the walls, and one of our regulars can play a little too… and that woman can sit with her baby and feed him his bottle by the fireplace.  it is so nice and cozy.

 

the other day when i was feeling so creative, i sat down with this shadowbox frame my mom gave me a year ago, and then wandered around collecting things from boxes and envelopes scattered around our apartment for small things to put in it…

 

 

here is the finished product:  

i sewed our names onto that card with the Emerson quote on it.  That ring is a ring my grandma gave me that I wore constantly that Nat used as an example for my engagement ring.  The pennies are squished from those machines.  We collect them everywhere we go – Grand Canyon, White Sands, The City Museum in St. Louis, etc… Patagonia sticker because if we had to pick one brand, that would be it.  Our save-the-date cards, the piano “iou” he gave me for Christmas, and a seashell from Mexico… just, trinkets, you know.  i like it.  

and a few more photos of lately from a museum date, drive downtown, valentines day, and my newly organized jewelry box…

 

bye!