A Tribute to 2010

Last year I started off the New Year looking ahead. I distinctly remember feeling like January 1st, 2010 was a clean fresh start with endless possibilities for new and great things. After revisiting a blog post I wrote in honor of the new year, I couldn’t help but peruse other old blog posts to see how the year had turned out. I think reminiscing is a good and healthy practice that everyone should discipline themselves to do every now and then. And so. Here I write a tribute to the year 2010, in the form of “Things that Happened in the Year 2010:”

We got a motorcycle.

Turns out there’s nothing like owning an old Honda CB350 in LA. I think the thing I miss most about living in a place where the weather is always favorable is being able to go for late afternoon rides anytime of the year.

The World’s Fair Book and Supper Club was born.

Inspired by Matt Smith and dreamt up by my husband and Jonathan Charles Wright, the supper club was (and still is) a huge success. Jeremy and I hosted the first meeting. We made a six-course meal complete with wine pairings and Joseph Conrad’s favorite cocktail, the Singapore Sling.

Wes Anderson brought us The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The fact that my husband saw this movie in theaters twice is testimony enough that its a best film of 2010. If you still haven’t seen it, you’ve been foolish.

Stories Books and Cafe released the recipe for the worlds most fantastic veggie chili.

I still can’t believe the man behind the counter offered to write his very own self-perfected recipe on a piece of paper for me. Boy oh boy, we’ve reaped the benefits of this one more than once.

I read this book:

And what a great idea it was. Everyone should read George MacDonald’s fairy tales. I recommend reading this entire collection. I have yet to read his longer works. Better add this to my list of things to do in 2011.

We discovered Scoops.

Scoops: the place that made me believe in gelato. Once we found this gem, we went there all the time. What flavors! One of my personal favorites: pear white wine.

I ate artichokes for the first time.

When I lived in LA, I learned of the glory of fresh vegetables. I wish Abundant Harvest could have followed us to Chicago. It was thanks to our CSA these artichokes found their way into our hearts and bellies.

My husband got a masters.

All those long nights at LMU finally paid off. I was very proud.

Jeremy finished his last year at JCMS (Johnny Cochran Middle School) and was hired by Teach for America.

Getting hired by TFA in Chicago was a surprisingly new direction for our lives. We made the decision to leave LA and packed our bags to leave within the next two months.

We said goodbye to our first apartment.

I’m convinced there’s a very real possibility we may never again live in a place as wonderful as 1331 1/2 Laveta Terrace. I loved everything about it.

We drove across the country in a giant Penske truck.

We lost our AC in the middle of the dessert, blew a tire, busted our trailer and still managed to make it to Chicago in one piece.

Chicago became our new home.

Summertime was a great time to come to Chicago. We quickly grew fond of the place and settled right in.

I got a new job.

I was amazed to find a job in a CTICU so quickly after moving to a new city.

I finally convinced Jeremy it would be a good idea to get a dog. Enter William.

What a brilliant idea. We love this little guy.

I discovered Mumford and Sons, and also fell a little bit in love with the music of Sufjan Stevens.

I’m late, yes I know. But boy have these two discoveries added lots of good to my life.

Jeremy and I rode 50 miles on our bikes in Hancock county, Ohio.

My trusty steed made it the whole way in mint condition, but we suffered two bum tires on Jeremy’s bike.

I survived the dreaded GRE.

I never thought I’d have to take this test, but I made it through with no major casualties.

I took up knitting.

Here’s the beginnings of my first project: a scarf.

I became an aunt.

Thanks to two of our favorite people in the whole wide world, we have a baby niece named Mercy in Ethiopia. Josh and Becca finally received news of a baby girl waiting for them to become her legal parents in just over a month!

We dove into wintertime for the first time in seven years.

It’s been a long time since we’ve really known winter. I am now the proud owner of a down parka. My husband has started drinking coffee. Big changes, people.

So there you have it. It’s hard to believe 2010 started out on a motorcycle in sunny California and ended in a down parka on the streets of Chicago. What a great year! I’m so blessed. Here’s to another great year behind us, with high hopes for the year ahead! Happy new year, folks.

sans the internet

Jeremy and I have lived in this apartment in Echo Park for one year and seven months. We love our rent. We love that we needn’t always depend on our cars to get around. We love that someone else fixes our stuff when it breaks. And we love that we don’t have to pay for internet.

Or. We loved that we didn’t have to pay for internet. Past tense.

It was great. Someone’s unsecured internet had been streaming into our home hassle-free, fee-free since the day we moved in. We really appreciated appleE9-something-or-other for having non-password-protected internet and a decent router that offered us plenty of mooching ability. Well one fateful day in the beginning of March, our dear appleE9 disappeared and left us with no (free) place to turn.

This post is actually not about money. It’s more about living for three and a half weeks sans a home-based internet connection.

At first it was annoying. It was also a pretty major inconvenience, especially with Jeremy in grad school facing major project deadlines. We had to run extra errands to look up directions, recipes, weekend recreation. But having to go find the internet–as opposed to having it at our fingertips here–meant spending far less time in front of a computer screen.

We cooked more. We cleaned more. We talked more. We ran more errands for the fun of hopping on the bike and spending time together. We read at least an hour before bed each night. Life in general just got a little more simple, pleasant, purposeful.

I’m not anti the internet. But how carefully do we consider the time we spend on it? And how often are we not doing other things that will help us become the kind of people we should be because we’re clicking and typing away on our laptops?

This guy thinks TV is kind of a waste of time. Not because it’s terrible on its own, but because of all the other great things it keeps us from. It’s true, and it’s true about the internet too. But let me tell you, it’s real easy to get sucked into the internet without noticing much.

Well thanks to Time Warner Cable, our internet is back up and running. But the past three weeks have been a little sobering. I think we should be careful about how much time we spend on the world wide web. I also think we should all read before bed. That’s what I plan to do.

Neighborliness in the Neighborhood

Everyone loves a good chili. And goodness knows there are about three billion different kinds of chili out there. I love a spicy chili with plenty of beans. My husband’s friend–my friend, really–Zach once told me that the first batches of chili never had beans, because chili simmered all day over heat in wait for hungry cowboys passing through.

Some like it hot. Some like it meaty. We made a chili recently that called for Red Tale Hawk Red Tail Ale as a base ingredient. My dad makes a famously delicious chili with a bit of a hodge-podge of ingredients (one of my favorites of which is brown sugar). Most chili recipes require a lot of mixing, maybe even some chopping, and a decent amount of “throw this and that in at the end to taste.”

I happen to be a big fan of chili of most sorts, and I have found the best vegetarian chili out there (I’m pretty confident). It comes from Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park on Sunset. Jeremy and I are abstaining from meat for Lent. So, tonight, after being offered a holiday from work (and so not needing to go in for my night shift), we hopped on the motorcycle headed for Stories to procure some chili for a satisfying mid-week meal.

The most glorious thing happened as we ordered our chili tonight. Every time I eat Stories’ chili, I think to myself, “I wonder if they would give me the recipe for this if I asked.” And then of course I decide, no, they would definitely not flippantly give away such a clearly incredible recipe. Well tonight, I casually asked the man at the counter, “Do you guys ever give away the recipe?” and–to my surprise–he answered, “Well, I’m the chef. I could write it down for you. I put together a few other great recipes to make this one.” And he did it! He served us our chili and wrote down his recipe on a guest check for me! What a guy. What a place, this Echo Park. What a neighbor.

Some of This and That

Another beautiful morning in this fair city we call Los Angeles. Jeremy is having a large group of man friends over today, so after waking at a nearly leisurely pace and helping him clean a bit, I skeedadled over here to Chango for some breakfast burrito and wake up time. It’s really quite pleasant to be doing all this at 10:30am on a Saturday.

A lot of small dogs without leashes keep walking into this coffee shop sniffing peoples’ pant legs until their owners peek their heads in to retrieve them. I’d like one of those. I’m working on Jeremy already because I’ve decided that we will own a Yorkie within the next ten years. I mean who in their right mind DOESN’T want one of these?:

Two days ago I found a pet rescue website with a little Yorkie named Dickens who had been hit by a car. He had a cone on his head in the picture and was going to be available to be adopted once all his broken bones were healed. I think I actually could have gotten Jeremy to get the little guy. Unfortunately, this pet rescue requires their adopters to be 25 or older, homeowners, and people planning not to have children during the entire lifetime of the dog. Whoa.

We’re redecorating our living room, which I have to say is quite an enjoyable endeavor. We both love variety, exercising our creativity, perusing craigslist, and taking trips to the fabric district downtown. Last weekend we headed down to Michael Levine’s on the motorcycle in search of new fabric for different curtains. We’re planning on going more of a blue direction, although our red curtains still do match nicely. What do you think?

We’re also looking for an old upright piano to take the place of our desk, which is sort of where the camera is shooting from.

I suppose it’s of note that I got my six month promotion at work last week. It’s nothing huge, basically a promotion you get as long as you don’t get fired before six months. It is kind of exciting though, because I am officially a “CN-II,” which means no more probationary period: I’m just a little bit more legit.

Jeremy and I still don’t have much of an idea what our next few years will look like. It’s exciting sometimes to feel like we’re still young and a little bit flying by the seat of our pants. Other times, it would just be nice to know how to plan for what’s next. I’m sure as time passes we’ll have more of that, and that peace and patience are things we’re learning to have in the face of the uncertainties of life.

As always, we hope you are well, and we hope that you always feel welcome to come see us and stay with us. I’m off to pick up the produce and listen to one of my favorite NPR programs, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.

a most agreeable morning

We just had the most delightful morning, jaunting about the neighborhood. We made our way by residential streets to The Coffee Pot, a local coffee stop on Sunset (new to us). The sun was out, the air was clear, and shaded areas were pleasant enough for a light sweater. Meandering through the hills of Echo Park, we found these friends:

After stopping at The Coffee Pot for a Strawberry smoothie and some good conversation, we made our way down to the lake for a nice walk amongst the local wildlife.

To finish the trek, we stopped at Chango for my favorite breakfast burrito in town. Jeremy found the LA times and I found a flier about someone who teaches piano lessons in the neighborhood.

The walk back was as pleasant as it all began. What a lovely thing it is to live in Los Angeles.

In other news, Jeremy is now the owner of a 1971 Honda CB 350. It’s red and black. Well, see for yourself:

We love it. I mean how could you not? We’re dying to tool around town on it together, but Jeremy is still in his permit stage of motorcycle licensure (which means no riding with a passenger) and I still need a helmet. For now, it’s a great way to get Jeremy to run a quick errand.

breaking in the spring

Yes, that’s right. I’m talking about Spring Break. I’ve had a lot of good Spring Breaks in my life, but this one was especially eventful and well-spent, so I’m going to tell you about it.

Well it really all started with Easter. When I woke up, Jeremy told me there may be something hiding in our apartment. And there was. Oh, there was. Hiding under the desk, I found this:

An Easter basket! And what an Easter basket, indeed! I grew up getting hidden Easter baskets on Easter Sunday, but THIS one had my FAVORITE kind of Jelly Beans… AND a stuffed duck! Clearly I have an incredible husband. After a great Easter service and celebration of what Easter is really all about (J to the ESUS), Jeremy and I had the pleasure of hosting an Easter Brunch. here’s a little “before” action of the table (notice the china!):

And here’s our spread, which included fruit, juice, turkey bacon, Dad’s famous coffee cake, a broccoli cheddar quiche with bacon, and an asparagus and mushroom quiche for the vegetarian folks:

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of our actual guests because I’m awkward about taking pictures of actual people. Moving on.

Monday I worked, but Tuesday, Kristin came!!! Kristin is my best friend from since I was two. She’s been meaning to come visit me in California ever since I moved here for school. I was pumped. We spent the afternoon at Venice Beach, where the weather was a bit brisk… and windy.

We had lunch at Baby Blue’s BBQ in Venice, and then headed home for an exciting evening at the Grove in LA. The Grove is a crazy sweet, kind of upscale outdoor shopping center. While we were there, we happened upon a concert, a bunch of the dancers from Dancing With the Stars, and Lance Bass.

Wednesday we walked to Chango for some coffee and breakfast before heading to the Fashion District downtown. We shopped for a while and I bought a scarf. Later, by Kristin’s request, we went to Chipoltle (there are none in Montana… SAD.) and then Biola. It was great.

Our next day was maybe our most exciting. We got ourselves up bright and early to hike up to the Hollywood sign. A few yards after we headed up the Hollyridge Trail, we were confronted by this sign:

We kept walking. I told Kristin I bet mountain lions were probably scared of people and so the liklihood of seeing them was probably really small. She told me that in Montana, mountain lions are used to people, and that when they attack a human they usually kill them really quickly. Fortunately, the only wildlife we saw were some lizards chasing each other. Well the hike was fun, and we kept getting glimpses of the sign on our way up.

Fortunately, we made it to the top safe and sound, without any encounters with mountain lions.

The view was neat, and the sign was BIG.

‘Twas a lovely hike.

The whole thing was a great success.

After climbing to the Hollywood sign, we went home for some lunch. After Mac and Cheese and some car trouble, we were off to Rodeo Drive to check out rediculously priced material goods and people watch.

On our way home, we stopped by the Burbank Animal Shleter to pick up some foster kittens. They’re eight-week old girl kittens who are borderline ferrel. We’re in charge of trying to domesticate them (the shelter thinks they’re still young and impressionable enough to domesticate). They love to hiss and spit and hide from us all day long. We’ve named them Sophie and New Mexico.

We ordered in (TG express: our favorite Thai place) for dinner and I took Kristin to the airport the next morning. What a great visit. Kind of makes you want to come here, doesn’t it?

Today Jeremy and I went to the Flower District downtown and made ourselves a nice little spring arrangement:

And that brings us to about now. Tonight we’re having dinner at the beach with Uncle Doug, who happens to be in town, and tomorrow I’m going to bridal showers and getting myself back into school mode. Hope you enjoyed the synopsis of my break. There’s video footage of most of these happenings and others that were too minor too include here. Feel free to check it out. Peace.

peppers and tomatoes

Jeremy and I love living in the city. We do. Believe it or not, Los Angeles has snuck into our hearts and stolen many of our affections. For those of you without close relations to this city, it has nothing to do with famous people or paparazzi. Maybe some of my love for LA stems from other peoples’ disgust with the place. (you know… “Uh, I hate LA. It’s disgusting. Have you SEEN the smog?! And the driving! I don’t know how people LIVE there.”) Generally, I’m a lover of the underdog.

Anyways, our love for the city has not made us strictly cityfolk. We’ve been working toward self-sufficiency in our little urban homestead. Someday we’ll get fresh eggs from chickens we keep in a small backyard; for now, Jeremy’s putting together a vegetable garden.

He fashioned two self-watering planters with a few 5-gallon buckets, some PC piping, and our new drill:

Now we’ve got tomatoes, green peppers, and lemon thyme happily growing on our bottom steps.

We’re hoping these little guys will allow us to fashion our own salsa and pasta sauce. Until then, we’re eagerly awaiting the veggies of our labors (well, mostly my husband’s labor.)