The Dirty Life.

Currently, I'm reading The Dirty Life. It's a story about a woman who suddenly finds herself uprooting everything she has been her whole life, falling in love with a rustic farmer and starting a farm from scratch with him.

Now, I've found myself, more often then not, totally relating to her, the situations she finds herself in and the path she chooses to take. I'm not exactly on a path like hers, I'm actually following that path in an arcing fashion.

Source.

I was raised more on a farm then not (meaning I did farm-esque chores and had more of a farm life then any other kid I was friends with. I know how to clean out animal pens, identify types of chickens by their egg color and clip wings while I don't know how to play Super Mario, I couldn't name more then two cartoon shows and I wouldn't be able to name all the charms in Lucky Charms). Some of the stories the author tells remind me of times on my parents land, the ridiculous things I've done in the name of 'farming' and what I plan to do with my life.

As much as I've tried to fight the farmers life, it's buried deep inside my soul. I have come to terms with the fact that I will spend the rest of my life somewhere within the vicinity of farming. Lucky girl I am, in my attempts to push myself further into urban life, I've found myself smack dab in the middle of a (really good) relationship with a guy who, at some point, wants to join the over-all wearing, straw hat totin', hoin' kind.

Fresh from my parents garden.

But I must say, reading this book has made me miss Oregon. I was walking to work this morning and I had some crazy deja vu about walking down the garden at my parents house, the familiar crunchy-squelch of the wet, muddy grass covered in half frozen leaves. The dogs running on ahead, occasionally barking at a squirrel who thought it was safe to exit the apple tree. I thought about opening the chicken coop, shooing squawking hens off the nests and carefully putting warm eggs in a tub. 

As I sit here, remembering the feel of the air, the smell of the grass and the sounds surrounding me, I can also imagine the scoffing my parents just be doing right now. It's hard growing up doing different things then all your friends. Of course, when I was 12 the last thing I wanted to do on a Saturday morning was clean out the rabbit run, shovel chicken crap or help stack wood, but as I'm getting older and moving to all these different, mostly more urban places, I miss those days.

The garden after my sister's wedding.

Maybe it's the time of year, with winter coming and the holidays close behind. I think I miss the warmth of the wood stove in my parents' kitchen, the smell of baking bread, the familiar puddles of warmth in bed as the hot water bottle heats the covers. I miss the tinkling of the front gate bell and the twinkle of the lights from the house shining through the holly tree out front. I miss my dog, Chasey, sleeping on her strangely over-stuffed yet too small for her dog bed and the silky soft cat who I swear will probably never die sneaking into the kitchen unnoticed by the dog to curl up on the chair by the wood stove.

It's so weird the things you miss as you get older.

Looking In.

Sometimes I feel like God. No, seriously I do! Don't laugh. I feel like God...just without the life-altering powers, all seeing-ness and, well, the old age. 

I spend half my morning observing those in another world. I look into their lives, see what they're up to, what they did yesterday, what they're having for breakfast, what they're doing this weekend. I am able to look into lives that I do not influence on the daily but are connected to in ways. I am God, you see, I am able to be with these people, to touch their lives so subtly that they don't realize I'm here. I am looking in.

Looking In

By being God, of course, I mean that I spend 2 hours in Facebook stalking my friends who live back in the United States. I am physically nothing like God. Way hotter. But it's because of Facebook that I can be so far away and still feel like I'm 2 blocks away from my familiar. I'm constantly looking in. It's like I'm outside and peeking in. It's weird.

I talked with my mom last night about how I feel like I've been forgotten. Now, I'm not looking for pity or anything, it's not like that. I feel like I've been forgotten in the way that nobody contacts me, not really. Again, not pitying myself, it's just an observation from the other side.

Yes, I moved out of the country but that doesn't mean I'm in some twilight zone and I don't have internet or e-mail. [To quote my mother last night: "Do they have Craigslist there?" "Mom, it's not Neptune of course they have Craigslist."] It's just so interesting to observe these lives that I used to be a part of, to look into their day to day and it just seems like it was a dream, ya know?

Honestly, this just motivates me to create a world here of my own. It certainly doesn't feel like a vacation anymore. I'm working on making friends and getting a big girl job. I'm growing to like this invisible wall surrounding me. I feel like I'm in another world and it's all mine. I feel like an exotic explorer that can only be contacted my letter. I need to return home with stories of lands conquered, languages mastered and spirits freed. 

Look out, USA, soon they'll make a move about me! 

Stepping Back In: DC

Happy Monday everyone!!

It's a great Monday for me because for the first

time in a long time, I am not opening the bar!

I'm sorry but there's nothing worse then a Monday at a bar.

I thought I'd step back into reality for a little while

and share some high lights from my weekend in DC!

Crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge. 

We arrived in DC about 9pm on Friday night.

After catching up a bit with friends, we headed to a bar

called the H Street Country Club.

As we got off the Metro and into a cab, DC was hit by

the most intense thunderstorm.

As we drove, street signs were being torn off poles.

Scaffolding was flying through the air like paper.

Trees were being thrown around like dolls and we watched

many power outages.

But we made it to the bar!

This picture is of my friend Lizzie and I after out 4 second run from

the cab to the bar.

It was raining THAT hard.

Playing mini golf at the bar.

One of the holes was themed Zombie Presidents!

I <3 Teddy :)

Saturday, as my friends slept in, I got up and navigated my way to

Open City in DC to meet up with Brandi from Not Your Average Ordinary.

It was probably one of the best ideas of my life.

i'm at a cross roads and really needed to meet with a fellow blogger,

and not just any blogger!

I feel like Brandi and I really connected on different levels.

Go check her out!!

This is a picture of just one of the horrendously long

escalators taking me to the Metro platform.

Wanna hear the worst thing ever?

When I was on my way to meet Brandi, 

I had to CLIMB one of these bad boys....

I was slightly hung over...

and I was about 90 degrees.

No. Bueno.

The rest of Saturday was spent seeking refuge at the Smithsonian's 

Natural History Museum.

It was amazing!

I can't believe how many museums there ARE there!

While I could spend weeks wandering around,

I wasn't feeling it too much on Saturday.

It was hot, I was dehydrated and really tired.

I so not used to staying up late.

After a late lunch at a local Irish pub and a short nap

watching Ocean's 12, we headed to the east side of DC to see

Gareth Emery at Club Fur.

Man. It was probably one of the most amazing shows I've seen.

This is my life.

And I love it so.

After sleeping till 11:30, we pulled ourselves together

and braved the heat again to refuel.

We went to a little place called Blue 44,

and every single time someone said "Blue 44" 

all I wanted to say was "HIKE!"

or whatever they say in football...

I had Eastern Eggs Benedict which was a normal benedict

with a crab cake and fresh tomato.

It was incredible. And reasonably priced!!

We spent the rest of the day eating FroYo by the Zoo and watching America's Funniest Home Videos.

Jake and I braved the long 6 hour drive home and had a realy great time.

Sadly, this morning I had the hardest time getting up.

I really need to stop being so adventurous. 

It's exhausting.

9 days till TORONTO!

Stepping Out.

Happy Friday, all!

I hope you got some great Summer Salad ideas from earlier

for this weekend!

I'm just here to say that I'll be stepping out for the weekend.

Jacob and I are heading to DC to visit some friends

so I won't be posting for a few days!!

But when I get back,

you'll have stories from mini-golfing and 

a rave!!!

Rave.

[Note: This is a good time to tell you that I love raves or EDM (electronic dance music.) I love lights, loud music, crazy dancing, people wearing strange clothing and heart stopping, body moving, out of this world bass. It's a way I like to let go, to dance till your all sweaty and hot. I think it's fun. No, I don't do weird drugs or get black out drunk, it's just a way of expressing myself. Please, don't judge.]

What do you have planned this weekend?

Have a great one!!

Weekend in Photos: SoHo Art Crawl

Happy Sunday, everyone!

I wish this morning had started out this beautiful and sunny,

but it didn't.

It started out late and grey...

because I woke up late in result of a hard core Saturday!

(And I'm still nursing a headache!)

Yesterday, Jacob and I took NYC by storm! 

We started out at PeelsNYC.

It was so friggin yummy!

Thank you so much, Natalie for your wonderful suggestion!

The food was delicious, the atmosphere was buzzing, the cocktails were...strong...

All in all, that was some of the best brunch I've had in a while!

Perfect portions and SUCH a cute place!

From there we wandered around, hitting up local coffee shops and book stores.

Then we wondered down Broadway in SoHo and hung out at local galleries with the awesome folks at ArtLog, who put together art gallery crawls in different neighborhoods.

Out of all the galleries, I like the Gottfried Salzmann exhibit the best.

After a long day of walking around, drinking wine and doing as the locals do, we're spending a much needed day relaxing at home.

How was your Saturday???

Beautiful flowers.

Rainy Weekend: NYC

A few months back we (Jacob and I) planned a trip to Ohio

to catch up with friends and spend a weekend like we were back in college.

But because of work, we couldn't go.

Bummer.

So instead, I planned a really nice weekend in the city!!

I'm ok with that :)

As I write this post, Jacob is getting ready to hop

on the train with me, coffee's and bagels in hand.

We will trek to the city come rain or some shine.

I mean we're from Oregon so it's really all the same thing.

We have a gallery walk and brunch planned followed by

an open bar after party.

This could mean trouble!

Pictures will follow tomorrow as well as a creative post!

What plans do you have this weekend??

Weekend in Pictures

This weekend past, I had one of the best weekends I've had in a while.

Usually, I spend most of Saturday on the couch, watching bad Netflix and drinking tea.

But we decided it was time to go out and about for the weekend.

Saturday we spent a good portion of the afternoon wandering around New Haven, drinking bubble tea and getting new books at The Book Trader.

Sunday was a home cooking day. Soft pretzels,  chili, homemade pizza. So many yummy things! Here are what photographs I took.

(Listen to this, too.)

Fried Chicken dumplings and coconut bubble tea at York Street Noodle House.

Wall of fiction at The Book Trader, Chapel Street.

The 2nd book in The Hunger Games and my favorite pilsner, Bavik, at Rudy's.

Jake looking at a display at Ikea. I love the HUGE wine rack on the right.

Love this display.

Sunday morning, first time using the new coffee press! Delicious. 

Onions caramelizing in butter for BBQ Chicken Pizza!

Pot roast cooking away in the crock pot. 

Shredded BBQ chicken. Oh. Man.

Homemade soft pretzels! So easy and worth doing. Find the recipe HERE.

Alright my lovelies, have a great Monday!! I'm going to find a new craft this week, I'm feeling a little bit neglected creatively. It's time to feed the craft monster! So keep your eyes out!