HIATUS

This week, I started a new job. Between final exams, the new position and an upcoming vacation, I'm taking a brief hiatus from blogging. I'll be back in the beginning of June. Until then, feel free to take a walk down memory lane :)

Remember that time I went sailing and lost my pants...literally

Vivi was once a teensy tiny kitten and I had a stalker...

Very cool homes out of unusual building materials

Yes, we all know it, men are definitely from Mars

The 9/11 Memorial and the beginning of the Occupy Movement

That's all for now, I'll try to post some more of my favorites over the next several weeks. 

Adventures

Today, I can barely walk. We're going to the Bahamas for my birthday, and I made Chris promise to make me exercise this weekend. I sincerely regret my decision. I am NOT a runner. Saturday, we went on a long run and Sunday, we did a shorter run followed by climbing the steps on Federal Hill repeatedly. Needless to say, I'm in a bit of pain. I'm sure one day I'll appreciate it, but today is not that day.

Chris and I spent as much of the weekend outside as was possible. It was gorgeous out. We grilled, did projects around the house, ventured over to the Eastern Shore to visit my aunt's antique shop and visited a quaint little town, Rock Hall, where Chris' family used to keep their boat.

My sisters and I all got together for a photo shoot last week for my mom. My younger sister, Suzannie, left to spend the summer in England the day before Mother's Day, so we wanted to put together some pictures for my mom before she left. I think they turned out pretty well. Downtown Annapolis has lots of fun places for pictures. Next time I am going to avoid white pants though. I found myself hovering awkwardly to avoid sitting on dirty surfaces. Oh well! 

We all got our acts together, which is a feat in and of itself. My mom was thrilled when we gave her the framed pictures. She has no recent pictures of us and I think she really liked these. 

                

What did you do for Mother's Day? Did you get to enjoy any of this sunshiney weather?

I'm loving the fact that it feels like summer. Summer weekends are by far my favorite.

An Amazing Letter

My friend referred me to an amazing site: Letters of Note. "Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience". The most poignant I've seen so far was this one:

via

Firefly Hill

Port Maria

Jamaica B.W.I.

Oh, darling,

Your letter filled me with such a lot of emotions, the predominant one being rage that you should allow yourself to be so humiliated and made so unhappy by a situation that really isn't worthy of you. I loathe to think of you apologizing and begging forgiveness and humbling yourself. I don't care if you did behave badly for a brief moment, considering all the devotion and loving you have given out during the last five years, you had a perfect right to. The only mistake was not to have behaved a great deal worse a long time ago. The aeroplane journey sounds a nightmare to me.

It is difficult for me to wag my finger at you from so very far away particularly as my heart aches for you but really darling you must pack up this nonsensical situation once and for all. It is really beneath your dignity, not your dignity as a famous artist and a glamourous star, but your dignity as a human, only too human, being. Curly is attractive, beguiling, tender and fascinating, but he is not the only man in the world who merits those delightful adjectives...Do please try to work out for yourself a little personal philosophy and DO NOT, repeat DO NOT be so bloody vulnerable. To hell with God damned "L'Amour." It always causes far more trouble than it is worth. Don't run after it. Don't court it. Keep it waiting off stage until you're good and ready for it and even then treat it with the suspicious disdain that it deserves...I am sick to death of you waiting about in empty houses and apartments with your ears strained for the telephone to ring. Snap out of it, girl! A very brilliant writer once said (could it have been me?) "Life is for the living." Well that is all it is for, and living DOES NOT consist of staring in at other people's windows and waiting for crumbs to be thrown to you. You've carried on this hole in corner, overcharged, romantic, unrealistic nonsense long enough.

Stop it Stop it Stop it. Other people need you...Stop wasting your time on someone who only really says tender things to you when he's drunk...

Unpack your sense of humor, and get on with living and ENJOY IT.

Incidentally, there is one fairly strong-minded type who will never let you down and who loves you very much indeed. Just try to guess who it is. XXXX. Those are not romantic kisses. They are un-romantic. Loving "Goose-Es."

Your devoted "Fernando de Lamas"

How often have we seen this same scenario played out among girlfriend after girlfriend? I find myself running out of patience, yet so many of us fall into this trap. 

How do you help yourself when you find yourself in this position? 

How do you help your friends?

Tell Me About It: Week 6

Today, we have two stories from Sabryna and Melissa. Even though Sabryna got married in Bali and goes on exotic vacations on the regular, her most romantic moment is so simple, honest and real.


Melissa's story definitely resonated with me as well. I have had romantic moments, but I've also had plenty of what she discusses.


Let me know what you think about each! 

A most romantic moment...

When Rebecca asked me to write about my most romantic moment, I had a little panic. I couldn’t pinpoint one. My husband, Anthony, and I are semi-awkward people. He’s not very suave and I’m not exactly graceful. We try, but generally end up in a fit of laughter. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

To me, romance is that moment when you know without a doubt that he loves you with his whole heart. When you feel the butterflies and don’t always know what to say. Our most recent ‘most romantic moment’ happened this Christmas, involving an iPad, a father-in-law, and a piece of tape.

So you can know him a little better... Anthony is an amazing man, my best friend, and my soul mate. While we have a lot in common, he is very much the yin to my yang. He works in investment banking, while I’m an elementary art teacher. He’s very organized, from his socks, to his computer, to our ‘important documents’ drawer. Anthony takes excellent care of his things, and takes great pride in people commenting on how his 8 year old kayaks look brand new! He likes everything to be just so. I, in contrast, seem to thrive in the land of disorganized procrastination. It seems the best outfits, school work, and trips come out of it (maybe because Anthony plans them... :)

Back to our romantic moment. We travel a lot and had really been wanting an iPad to watch movies on. We’re also down to one functioning laptop at home, which can be a big battle! So we thought iPad was definitely the way to go. When Anthony’s dad asked what we wanted for Christmas it seemed like the obvious answer. Then the iPad came! We were prepared, had bought the cover, already had the movies downloaded, all ready for our new toy! Then as we’re taking it out of the box and putting the cover on I see an engraving on the back, and engraving that says Anthony. Not Anthony and Sabryna. I’m generally not an emotional person, but I was so upset! It wasn’t the fact that my name was absent, it’s that I had been absent from my father-in-laws thoughts when he got the gift. I ended up leaving for class in tears, truly surprised by how hurt I was.

When I came home the iPad was sitting on the kitchen table face down, so I could see the engraving. Except it wasn’t there anymore. Now there is a piece of torn paper with Anthony and Sabryna’s iPad scrawled in man-handwriting, taped over where I was left out. It was the most beautiful gift Anthony could have given me, he loves me more than having everything just so. 

Women have an amazing capacity for creating drama. We use this drama to bring about one climactic, tension-relieving, emotion-flooded moment and then delude ourselves into believing these feelings mean love. 

Ok, maybe that is just me—I am not sure I can bring down my entire gender on that one.

The point is I am not sure that I have had my most romantic moment yet. Oh, believe me, I have tried. A product of Disney movies and Mariah Carey songs, I was raised with beacoup notions of true love and happily ever after. I therefore began to manipulate and forge my own romantic instances when I started dating: I hinted at flowers and then acted surprised when they came; I staged dances in the rain to no music; I convinced my first love to fly out to meet me in Italy freshman year for a final tearful goodbye in Cinque Terre.

I am not saying I have not felt love, but I am saying that there have been very few romantic moments in my life that were not calculated carefully before hand (consciously or otherwise.) As I age, my self-deception has at least become much more apparent to me—even if I still struggle with the urge to manipulate my situations. 

So, the most romantic moment in my life has not happened yet. When it comes it may or may not involve the elements I used to dream about—flowing white skirt, handsome boy, warm summer evening, Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade...

I can promise you, however, that when this moment happens I will NOT have seen it coming.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Tell Me About It stories! Melissa's new website, Salt Dream, has quickly become my favorite. She offers up ideas for simpler living almost every day. There are lots of DIY projects and really creative approaches to life in general. I hope you'll go check it out. 

If you are new to the series, you can find other stories here:

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5

If you're interested in sending me a story for the Tell Me About It series check out the details here!

Flea Market and Slumber Party

This weekend I made my way down to NoVA for a sleepover with some of my favorite girlfriends. We decided to surprise my friend Jori by bringing her sister in from Ohio for the occasion. Jori had no clue that her sister was coming. 

When Rachel and I got to Jori's condo, I stopped the car and Rachie got into the trunk. I proceeded to pick up Jori and drive her to the front office of her building for a parking permit. After getting the permit, we parked the car and I asked Jori if she wouldn't mind grabbing my bag from the trunk. 

She opened the trunk to find Rachie chilling there, 

shrieked,

 leapt backward at least 5 feet 

and 

THREW her phone at Rachie.

Surprised doesn't even begin to describe her reaction. 

I had planned to get a picture of the scene, but was laughing so hard I couldn't even breathe, let alone capture the moment. 

Needless to say, she was 100% shocked, and 100% thrilled.

Jori, Rachie, Loo, Cec, Mo

 After staying up WAY TOO LATE, we woke up bright and early for the Arlington Flea Market. Four stories of a parking garage full of junk hidden treasures? 

Yes, please! 

I had this exact art kit as a kid. 

You'll be proud to know that I kept my promise. Despite several adorable finds, I refrained from purchasing any clothing, shoes or accessories. It hurt my heart and took some serious self control, but I survived! I did end up with an orchid, an adorable pot for said orchid, and a screwdriver with a pretty floral handle.

Do you have any favorites you've found at flea markets?

Dance Party!

I hope your weekends are full of dance parties!!

Zaarly - Have you heard of it?

Okay, so I'm a pretty big nerd, but! I stumbled across something pretty cool because of a group project I'm doing at school.

 Have you guys heard of Zaarly? 

It's sort of like a Craigslist or Ebay only it's reversed. Say you want to have someone weed your garden, or pick up something from the liquor store for you, or you've been hunting for a sailboat, or you need someone to do your laundry or assemble that complicated Ikea wardrobe - Zaarly is your solution. You post your request and the amount of money you're willing to pay and then people in your area can choose to provide that service for you. Yeah...I may have gone a little bit Zaarly crazy. They should probably pay me for marketing for them because I've become their new biggest fan. We just need more people to use it so the results can move a bit more quickly! Tell people about this thing! 

PLUS - think how awesome this would have been in college. It's hard to juggle a consistent part time job with classes. This would allow people to earn their spending money on a task by task basis. 

I think this platform has SERIOUS potential. 

Tell Me About It: Week 5

Just because everyone needs a little love in their lives...

This week's Tell Me About It series really illustrates how everyone's love story is truly their own. We have one story of a first and only love and one of finding something real and true the second time around. 

Finding your person and making that commitment can really alter the path you thought you were following. 

Enjoy their stories, and be sure to visit

Jen and Emma!

Kenny and I met in 3rd grade, 

him in his gold rimmed aviator glasses, me in my frizzy permed hair. 

I'm sure throughout the years we had little romantic moments, perhaps a cookie shared from a lunchbox or a pencil borrowed and subsequently stolen for a keepsake, but nothing much comes to mind. 

We didn't start dating until about, well, 12 years later when I graduated from college. 

We liked each other on and off again throughout those many many years, but we never said a word about it to each other. 

Never. 

Our friends did most of the talking for us. 

So when it came time for me to start living my unplanned life after college, Kenny saw it as a good time to talk to my dad. 

We had road tripped home from college with his sisters and the night we got home, he talked to my dad, unbeknownst to me. 

I, meanwhile, cried to my mom, 

"It's never gonna happen! He's never going to do anything!!!!" 

My dad kept his mouth shut until the next morning when he broke the news to me and my life turned upside down. 

Fast forward a few hours. I went down to the dock in Annapolis to hang out with a friend, and mainly calm my nerves, as Kenny talked the details over with my dad. 

At last, I got a text asking where I was and he said that he'd see me in a few. 

My friend left and I sat down on one of the benches looking out over the water and just waited for what seemed like a decade, constantly checking over my shoulder to see if he was there.

 Then I saw his shoes come into view from behind a tree. Then his bright green shirt. Then his huge smile. I bolted up and we sprinted towards each other. We nearly tackled each other in our long awaited hug and just held each other there in the middle of the dock. It literally felt like the world had stopped spinning. 

I looked up and said, "Kenny, I love you." And he said, "I love you too." 

We've been married for almost a year now and are waiting on the arrival of a little baby boy in June. The romance just doesn't end:)

~Jennifer

anteancorr.blogspot.com

I was so honored when Rebecca approached me about writing for her new series. I must admit, I have given this post an extreme amount of thought... 
maybe too much thought because paralysis via analysis set in. 


You see, the notion of romance in my thirties and forties is very different from the romance of my twenties.

via

In my twenties and in my first marriage, romance was a grand gesture. 

I was proposed to in front of 325 people. 

In my thirties, with Doc H, there really was no proposal. 

This was "Marriage- Take 2" for each of us. 

We both had children we had to put first and our relationship was second behind their well-being. Instead of a proposal, in the office bedroom of his house with the door closed and our children screaming like monkeys at the zoo just outside the closed door, we made an agreement. 

We agreed to marry, to create a stable environment for our young children, to build a life together, to build a relationship which would withstand life's hardships, to care for each other, nurture each other, forgive each other, support one another, appreciate each other, love each other, and be each other's best friend... and indeed, 

Doc H IS MY BEST FRIEND.

Having both experienced the feeling of a disintegrating marital relationship, we recognize the easy pitfalls spouses fall into. Even though he's never said as much, he realizes he spends much more of his time on the job than the majority of husbands and he actively works to make up for his absence. Simply put, he spoils me rotten.

I can't name any of my friends who receive weekly flowers, dinners out, and the same level of support from their husbands as I do. Very rarely, do I get any grief from Doc H for any of my decisions.  Who else receives such gorgeous gifts for every gifting occasion? And my ultimate favorite... who else writes such wonderful cards, expressing his love for me, our children, our family, and displays such a sense of gratitude for any and all my efforts? 

I don't think I will ever find a husband who would send his M-I-L a card on Mother's Day expressing his gratitude to her for birthing his wife and raising her to be the perfect fit for him.

I suppose I could write of the romantic trips we've experienced together, trips to the beach, concerts, breakfasts in bed, or other events in our life, but I really think it's the little things which he does for me time and time again... the cup of coffee he brings up to me while I'm just getting up or in the shower, laughing at my stupid jokes, allowing me to laugh at him, allowing me the freedom to just be me.

While I sometimes wrinkle my nose at the hours Doc H works, or the phone calls and emails he fields in our presence, 

I honor and support his work. 

It is his passion, and makes him happy and I want him to be happy, I want him to laugh. I can only hope Doc H feels my love, just as much as I feel his.

~Emma from Your Doctor's Wife

If you enjoyed my story, I invite you to stop by my blog and poke around. I hope you'll stay and follow!

If you are new to the series, you can find other stories here:

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4

More info on participating in the Tell Me About It series can be found here!