nine lives

my cousin robin (a fellow cat lover) sent me this link and OMG THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT ISTANBUL IS LIKE and i cannot wait to see this documentary.

in honor of that, i think you all need to see a slow-mo video of me loving on a stray cat in istanbul (yes, i know i got bitten by a stray cat this fall but i clearly cannot help myself):

a photo a day

after i finished reading 400 essays yesterday, my friends angela and tamasine and i drove into the mountains near salt lake city and went on a mini hike.  the temperature dropped as we got higher in elevation, so it was in the 50s at 7pm as we were walking around.  beautiful!  and we saw a moose!  afterward, we went into park city and had dinner (taking some crazy mountain roads to get there), then headed back to salt lake and to bed.  hooray for a little excursion away from civilization!

a ruby a day

i am a horrible blogger.  oops sorry.

i am going to turkey on friday!  hooray for exciting spring break plans!  boo for not being able to bring this sweetheart along:

but sweet girl took a nap on me this afternoon, so we got some high quality snuggles in and we will both be okay.

i hereby promise photos from turkey as often as possible (aka as often as i have wifi).

onward!

a photo a day

i'm a traveling girl…the weekend after my trip to florida, i went to DC to see my TIP friends…and took exactly zero pictures of my TIP friends.  i am bad at this whole documenting-the-fun business.  but suffice it to say that we wore yoga pants all day every day, played with a little kitten, played tons of board games, caught up on each others' lives, entertained an almost-two-year-old, and cooked and ate delicious food.  i have some really special groups of friends in my life, and this is another group that i wish lived closer together.

i did take some pictures one night while i was there - when my cousin sara and her baby nico came to dinner!  this baby has style (he also has a fedora!):

my TIP-friend eric's two year old, nora, loves babies.  and she insisted on holding nico.  i was like, "they are almost the same size.  how is she going to hold him?"  eric explained that this is what she meant - HA.  nico was happy to comply:

a photo a day

last weekend i went to florida with some of my duke friends!  it was awesome.  we ate and drank and sat on the beach and played games and caught up, and the weekend ended far too quickly.  i took exactly one picture - shortly after chauffeur Q picked me up at the airport and drove me back to our condo - and this is it:

i wish i lived close to these friends every day of the year!

i am…

…feeling sad about dropping ruby off at the boarding place for a few days while i go to a conference.  but the new lady there is persevering and making ruby be her friend even after ruby was a BITCH to her the first time they met.  i'm glad the new lady isn't holding it against her.  at least while i'm around.

…feeling victorious at beating my friend josh at fantasy football this week.  and though i do not care one lick about the NFL, i have found myself discussing recent events more than once in my government class.  my attempts at deep conversation ("why would a woman stay with a man who abuses her?" "what's the difference between punishing your child and child abuse?") have gone…okay…in my class.  even if they aren't thinking as critically as i want them to, i hope some of our conversations are sticking with them.

…feeling so excited to see two groups of fantastic friends in october, even though one of the plane tickets cost about $200 more than i wanted to pay.  pennies may need to be slightly pinched this month, but it will be totally worth it to spend two long weekends in a row with good good friends.

I love Chicago!

…when it is 75 degrees and sunny, and I am with good friends who plan fun things! So maybe I only love Chicago on August 9th.

[Not pictured: Melanie (the hostess with the mostess) and her husband Pat (who made me the best breakfast burrito of my life), Grant Park, live blues music at noon, live jazz music at 2am, beers, Chicago-style pizza, Garrett's Chicago mix popcorn (caramel and cheddar together in the same bag - genius!), my joy at the temperature and humidity levels.]

iowa wedding

my cousin nate got married in iowa last weekend!  there was eating and drinking and laughing and storytelling and just general happiness at getting the family together.  there was enough time to have quality conversations with almost everyone.  there was this new addition, whom i totally fell in love with:

and i didn't really take any pictures (oops), but my aunt took this one, which i love - cousins in the gardens for post-wedding brunch!

the next family wedding will be my sister's (yay!), where i plan to be the best maid of honor a sister could ask for!

a cat lady a day

today is my last day to snuggle with miss ruby before i leave her at the boarding place in houston for two and a half weeks (just writing that makes me feel like a bad mama) while i go to a conference in nashville and then to visit my parents and friends in north carolina.  sigh.  this cat lady is feeling lots of guilt at leaving her furry girl.

ruby volunteered to come along.

but i had to say no.

i know ruby will be safe and well fed and just fine at the boarding place…but still.  she'll be in a cage most of the day.  and i'll miss her…and i'd like to think that's she'll miss me.

though i WILL enjoy not being woken up in the middle of the night by a cat purring loudly and pawing my face in an attempt to be fed.  pawing someone's face until she gives up on falling back asleep, gets up, and feeds you?  a quite effective strategy, it turns out.

trip to charlotte

a few weekends ago i went to charlotte to spend the weekend with my atlanta friends, who are now spread all over.

on the plane i won 2048!  an auspicious sign for the weekend.

i took selfies with my two favorite 9 month olds - ryan, who cooperated nicely:

and emma, who did not (but i like her anyway):

we made a cake to celebrate Q's graduation (two layers, with chopped up reese's peanut butter eggs between the layers and making a "Q" on the top - so. good.):

mike and kelly's neighbors built a bonfire - so fun!

the group (minus anderson, who took the photo), waiting for the kentucky derby to start (note: mint juleps are gross):

this is such an important group of friends for me, and it was WONDERFUL to spend time with them!  i miss them every day!

thanksgiving

my grandma's fruit cobbler recipe is DELISH.  blueberry cobbler is the best kind of cobbler (do not argue with me), and becky's boyfriend really likes cobbler, so we made some for thanksgiving alongside a pecan pie.  the dish was scraped clean, but thankfully not before i woke up from my nap (whew).  do yourself a favor and make this ASAP!

action shot on thanksgiving day: becky's making mashed potatoes (her specialty - secret ingredient: cream cheese) and i'm assembling the cobbler!  (thanks to laura for this great sisters picture.)

a photo a day

My cousin Kate, the ballerina! I saw her perform in The Nutcracker yesterday - she's a new corps member at the San Antonio ballet. I'd never seen The Nutcracker live before, but it was fantastic and she's such a beautiful dancer.

I also got a chance to have lunch and see the Alamo with my aunt and uncle before the performance.  (It was my first trip to San Antonio.)  Such a fun day!

The drive home was a little nuts…it was sprinkling rain and then the temperature dropped from 35 to 29 degrees…and there were no fewer than 6 accidents (caused by ice, i guess) that I passed, including two (one in both directions) that SHUT DOWN I-10 FOR MILES.  I called Becky to tell her that the zombie apocalypse was happening…it's bizarre to be on a highway with no traffic at all coming towards you.

What have we learned?  When it gets below freezing all hell breaks loose in Texas.

a photo a day

more pictures from our time in DC for my cousin sara's wedding!

the washington monument is undergoing restoration, but that did not stop us from taking a mini group picture in front of it.

sisters at the wedding!

family picture before the wedding - loving the fall colors in the background!  it was a gorgeous weekend in DC and it was so fun to spend time with all 28 members of my dad's side of the family who made the trip - everyone was there!

a photo a day

from my cousin sara's wedding on friday night - my dad and uncle loved on baby molly for much of the night while molly's parents danced.  this may have been from the portion of the night where my dad covered one of molly's ears because he decided the music was too loud for her.  love it!

me: there is nothing my dad and uncle matt love more than a baby to hang out with.

my cousin laura: they are also eating cake!

me: okay, this could not be more perfect.

people, you are not guessing about my halloween costume.  this is a guessing game!  get on it.

in other news…

it is almost (well, not really, but let's pretend) the weekend and that means it is almost time for my cousin sara's wedding in DC!  huzzah!  family and visiting monuments and good food and celebration and lots and lots of hugs and brunch with some DC friends before i leave.  i can't wait!  work is going well - i'm not behind on anything at the moment, and the mid semester meetings i'm having with my students about their grades are going well (i love talking to them!) - but nothing beats a weekend away with family/friends.  and there will be four baby girls born this year who will be there who i can't wait to meet!  so let us just say that i am excited.

come on weekend.  get here.

i am back from a very fun weekend in boston with some good friends and an 11 month old.  guess what?  playing with an 11 month old will make you want your own 11 month old.  little nora took several steps on her own this weekend, including a few in a row towards me as i lured her with a cracker.  11 month olds, it turns out, like food a lot...especially when someone else is holding it.  i wish every weekend could be spent with this great group of people, but we will have to settle for what we can get - one fantastic weekend a year.

i'm back in houston, where the weather is still in the 80s, but promises me some 70s starting tomorrow. miss ruby has been picked up from the catnip inn and is currently snoozing on the table next to me.  an 11 month old is pretty awesome, but a kitten named ruby is much more manageable and pretty awesome herself.

i've been neglecting the blog recently, so i hope to be better about that going forward.  i love blogging, but it's easy to allot that time to other things.  i resolve to keep on trying to document my goings on here!

back from toronto - um, this city is so EUROPEAN and clean and the people are nice and the food is delicious and the airport was so fancy.  i learned lots of things and go to see some other college counselor friends (i miss you already, erin!)

and i laughed a LOT with my coworkers, who are pretty fantastic people.  waking up at 4:40 on thursday morning and then 5:40 this morning wasn't fun, but i was very brave.

now ruby and i are snuggling and watching some tv before i have to go BACK to work - the homecoming dance is tonight.  ugh.

don't worry, i'll also be at work tomorrow for an hour to open up the school for an SAT prep program.  double ugh.

in other news, sometimes a certain kitty gets thirsty and a normal water dish won't suffice.

she hasn't fallen in.  yet.

i'm off to austin for two days with the rest of my office to tour UT-austin, meet the admissions staff, schmooze, etc.  my first college visit of what i'm sure will be many as my dean/college counselor role takes shape...i've already got a visit to rice on my calendar for next week.  my grandpa worked in private schools and was a college counselor for some of his career, and my dad says he knew something about every imaginable college.  i may become that person, too...

i'm heading to charleston for the weekend to visit two friends who i worked with in oxford this summer.  our plan:

eat
drink
watch basketball
get pedicures
go to the beach, if only to dip our toes in the water
repeat

it's going to be in the 60s there, and i can't wait to get away from this dumb 40s-and-grey weather and relax with friends!  bring it on, spring.  happy easter weekend, everyone!

a photo a day

when i was in baltimore on friday the whole town was decked out in purple to support the home team.  the administrative assistant of the head of school we interviewed gave dominique and i each a bag of pro-ravens m&ms.  this was before she drove us the bus station (did i mention that she is awesome?).

done.  i will be cheering for the ravens tonight!