Ice: 4, Innocent BiPeds: 0 (Day 6 was Sunday, I'm awful)

Who gives a damn about the Superbowl score when we're dropping like flies?

Friday Joy fell on the ice walking up our front steps.
Arms flailing above her head, she was down in a split second. Landed right on her thigh.
(In retrospect, it looked very very painful.)
Being the empathetic, compassionate and caring friend that I am, I replayed it in my head pretty much all night and could not stop laughing.
(I'm sorry I know, I'm horrible. It's just that falls are the funniest things ever!)
Eric had fallen in that exact spot like an hour earlier.

Sunday, I was miserably grumpy. (Side effect of the weather, I tell you.)
Eric was honestly a saint.
He made me a smoothie and let me split his egg sandwich because I woke up too late to make myself breakfast.
I was so mean and cranky.. it's like my subconscious knew that I didn't stand a chance against this day.
Well, walking around the front of the car (Eric was in it, patiently waiting for me so we could book it to church).. and, I slipped and fell miserably on the ice. E had a front row seat. As if I wasn't grumpy enough!
I just sort of.. laid there. So angry and so embarrassed and in pain. I landed right on my tailbone.

Naturally... I...CRIED!

I think my exact words were, "I'm going back to bed!" and I hobbled back up the stairs and fumbled with the keys, trying to get back in the house and hide my tears.

I need to just take a moment and say: My husband is the most amazing man in the world to me.
He treats me better than I know I ever deserve. He just let me cry and whine and mope and feel sorry for myself.. and then, when he felt I was ready for it, he re-enacted the fall for me, being sure to explain that all 4 limbs flew up into the air faster than he ever though possible, and I had a good long laugh/cry about it.. then we headed back out to the car, inching slowly across our foe, the ice patch.

When we got to church, we found Lyd there crying and holding an ice pack to her head.

That sneaky devil got her when she was walking out to her car, and she slipped and slammed her head really hard against it. Caught in a sort of fog, she ended up driving herself to church anyway, then sort of came back to reality and was overwhelmed by the pain of, you know, smashing your head against solid pavement coated in a sheet of solid ice.

Winter, you're not welcome here anymore.
I just want to be rid of you!

 

We spent the rest of the day holed up in our cozy apartment.. the ice victims with the most recent injuries let the other 2 make us soup. We napped on the futon: Lyd with her ice pack (oh, the irony) and me with my heating pad (I'm not sure if it's actually helpful, but it did make the pain stop). The 4 os us dined on French onion soup, melty cheese and fresh bread, then the girls retreated back to the futon where we kitten-piled, watched a bunch of my favorite Friends episodes (I'm a seriously hardcore Friends fan), then begged Eric and Shaun to venture out and fetch us our favorite comfort food: Ben & Jerry's.

To end the night, we rescheduled the weekly Hobbit reading since more than 1/2 the group was at Funky Murphy's watching the Superbowl and eating 10 cent wings (gross).. replacing the reading with the 5 of us piled onto the futon, wrapped in blankets, and our respective heating pads/ice packs, and watched another favorite: Ever After.

Best line of the movie: Yes, I shall go down in history as the man who opened a door!

Photo from yesterday:

{Muchachon napping on my MacBook while I updated my facebook.}

This little guy is my shadow and he absolutely melts my heart!!!

FYI: He's a rescue. I am actually really against caging birds at all, but I could not resist the opportunity to give him a safe home.

5 is cold and rainy

Friday night my friend Joy and I made paper chains all night while watching 2 of my favorite movies:
-The Secret Life of Bees (seriously in my Top 10!)
-13 Going On 30 (It never gets old.)

Interesting Story of the Week:
I was feeling all blue Thursday night.. feeling unmotivated and kind of antisocial. Eric was at practice and I just didn't feel like doing anything at all (I hate that). I was browsing the "Watch Instantly" on Netflix, and kind of embarassingly decided on what I already knew would be a terrible horrible awful romantic comedy. I was at least hoping for a good wardrobe since it was about a "fashion writer in NYC"..original. ANYWAY I watched it and it was exactly what i expected sans cute clothes (hello skintight dresses in every scene + nude heels that really didn't go with anything she wore. And I thought nude went with everything!)
Ffwd::: I'm in the car with Joy and Lyd (they took me out in hopes of lifting my bluesy meh feeling) and I confessed to them that I had just indulged in a horrible romantic comedy..and when I said what the movie was, Lydia screamed and said I JUST WATCHED THAT TOO AND FOR THE SAME REASON AND THOUGHT THE SAME THING ABOUT IT! Then, Jess gets in the car as we're still talking about it, asked what movie we were talking about and goes I JUST FINISHED WATCHING THAT LIKE 10 MINUTES AGO! (and for the same reason.. and thought the same thing.) Weird how these things happen. Winter blues brings out the worst taste in movies. We had a really good laugh about it. Man, I love my friends. Love them.


Anyway,
Saturday morning I slept later than I wanted to, then was grumpy, then ate and felt better and productive.
Eric lost his house keys last week, so I took a walk down to this little locksmith and had some extras made.

{I love how busy the walls are.}

Saturday was also E's sister's birthday so the whole family + a ton of friends went out to dinner to celebrate.
She asked us to print & frame the following picture for her birthday (she's so cute).

{This was on our camping trip for my friend Erin's birthday.}

After that, I went out for a couple drinks with Lydia who just got off work.

We slipped and slid over to Beetnick's which is like a block away from the restaurant she works at. The sidewalks had turned to ice because of all the rain, and the streets inbetween the sidewalks were like giant lakes! It has never been more difficult to walk one block!

All in all it was a good day and also.. I can't wait for spring.

Day 4 (At a reasonable hour)

Wheeee Happy Friday! ! !

{I had Ben puddle jump several times 'til I got a shot I was happy with.}

Last night at the Vernon, some guy came up to me and said,

"You're cute. You look like Fival from An American Tail..."

Iz like, "um. Thanks?"

One must always take it as a compliment when compared to a mouse (with big ears and teeth).

After careful thought, I have come to the conclusion that there is probably no good way to segway soooo..

Jury duty today was just great.

I mean, sat in a big room for hours and hours with nothing to do and nowhere to go,

but I made a friend. We talked nonstop for 3 hours! I love people. I love meeting people and hearing their stories and their opinions and views and goals, learning their quirks, stuff like that. Today my new friend shared her story with me. She was surprisingly but refreshingly honest with me, so I was with her.

It was like insta-connection. Truly rare. I can't even describe it really.

Anyway I was juror #1 and got put in the panel but then got taken out.

(Here's how it went down. Man vs. Used Car Co. Said Man is a minority. That would be irrelevant except that when it came time for Used Car Co's lawyer to approve the panel, he had me (dreads) and one other girl (minority) swapped out. We were replaced with the next 2 in line who happened to be middle aged white males (just like the lawyer and Mr Used Car Co). As a whole, the jury was made up of middle-aged white people. Also, I totally called it. I 100% predicted that he would make that move. Maybe it's all in my head, but I still called it.

I hate that shit.

Moving on, at first I was really mad to have been this close to some action and then have to leave, but leaving allowed me to meet and converse with my new friend.

All in all, it was the best jury duty experience I could have ever hoped for.

Tonight, I'm making paper chains and decorating my whole kitchen ceiling with them.

It's true. It's gonna be awesome.

I really need something to brighten up the place since it's dark by 5,

and I was hugely inspired by this:

Source

Oh ingenious outstandingly creative and resourseful Anthropologie window displays,

I'm yours forever.

Day 3 and some Winter Bluesin'

Today I felt really overwhelmed with the winter blues.

I love the snow, I just miss sunshine and warmth and being outdoors. 

After work, I decided to walk home and try and snap some pictures on the way.

(Sidenote: sketchy 'hood = probably not the best idea to walk home alone at dusk.. with my camera out.)

Anyway

I do feel like it was just what I needed. A few people who saw me with my camera asked if I wanted to take their picture, so I said yes! It was such a good experience. I mean, ultimately the photos didn't come out that great, but I was so happy to have the practice. 

I'm realizing more and more how drawn I am to portraits. I think that's going to be my main focus in refining my skills.. skiiillz. 

Moving on, E's sister had eye surgery yesterday for a problem she's had since she was little. (I'm talking shots in her eye like every other week, medication with horrible side effects non-stop, and a pretty much non-functioning right eye.) Anyway, today I received the following text,

"I can't believe how bright colors are!" 

I'm pretty sure I teared up. She has been waiting, hoping, praying for this day for what must have felt like forever. So amazing right?

Here are a couple quick shots from my day:

{Say it with me:}

Manooooooog

hilarious.

{I swear those are park benches.}

On the Common at City Hall.

My walk home from work.

Tonight turned out to be better than I'd expected.

My friends whisked me away to our favorite dive for some dollah drafts and peanuts. Mhmm.

It turned out to be really fun.. also weird, but that sort of comes with the "dive bar" territory.

It's 2am. I have jury duty in the morning. At 8. 

So, for now we'll just leave it at that.

Ode to Summer

My hair was blonder,
the days were longer.

Excercising didn't feel like a chore.

Every window in the house was opened as far as it would go,
sometimes the breeze would knock things over
(but I never minded).

True, the cats wouldn't come near us,
but they could perch in the open window-
what could be better?

Two words:
flip flops.
Two more:
no socks.

& more:
farmer's market
sun tea
(my birthday)
fresh air
warm breeze
beach trips

le sigh.
Summer, I've got it bad for you.

I want to be at the beach getting a sunburn.

R2 Day 2

Some times I get it in my head that I'm not a good enough match for E.
How come opposites attract, anyway?
I mean, we're fine. Everything's fine. We're best friends and the 2 most stubborn people in the world, and tonight we sort of had a bad night involving a recurring argument having to do with extroverts (me) and introverts (him. duh). Let me tell you, after 4 years of being married we have most definitely made a lot of progress, and I know we'll make lots more.

Anyway, we talked stuff out and ultimately made up..
it just feels good to write about it a little bit.
While we talked, Eric made an unbelievable pizza (he's the cook, people),
and have since devoured it.
Carbs, you own me.

I'm trying to keep up with my photo & post a day and that would be terrible to have failed on only the second day!

{the aforementioned pizza:}

homemade dough

homemade sauce

fresh mozzarella

100% deeelicious! 

Last night at like midnight we took a spontaneous trip to this crazy castle on top of a hill:

{Eric and Ben wore camo shorts..suspenders..and sweatbands. 

They shoveled our whole driveway out like that, too..insisting that it wasn't cold.

John looks epic.}

{Not even close to the biggest icicles around..

today on our snowventures we saw ones that covered a house's entire doorway!}

Today was fun. 

I got up early (lie. not early, just early for a snow day) and my friend John and I went to a friend's house to shovel them out. In the freezing rain. 

Then, we went to get Lyd and Ben (and Starbucks) and went out to our friend's farm to shovel her out! Usually Nate does it for her since he lives close by, but today he got some help. And then she bought us pizza and we hung out with her and her dogs (4 boxers!) and talked about future plans for the farm. 

I think this would be an appropriate time to mention Tuesdays at the Farm:

Basically, every Tuesday night, we'd leave the sweltering suffocating city and drive out to our friend's farm where we would work in the garden or fields or chicken coop or stables, then when the sun went down we'd eat the potluck meal together and spend time together on her porch in the cool country air, under the vast starry night sky, then pile in our cars and caravan back to Worcester. 

That farm was so much to so many people last summer.

It was an oasis, a vacation, a breath of fresh air, and a source of peace and community. 

& so much more. 

I'm counting the days until we're back there again. 

Ahem. End of tangent. Back to reality. My city is buried in snow, currently. 

Hilary, it is the dead of winter, stop torturing yourself with thoughts & memories of Tuesdays at the Farm! 

Here we go. Much better.

{stranger snowblowing on Vernon Hill}

{Pretty hallway window in my friend's apartment building.}

Man. I just got struck with the sudden realization that there is so much of my life that I'd like to share with all of you. 

Roo is curled up next to me, head leaning on the edge of the laptop & she's snoring.

Next to her is Eric. Also snoring. 

Time to hit publish. Shut the book and..and.. (yawn)...

Happy February

I love snow days.


Today is Day 1 of my Project 365.
Today it is snowing like the dickens outside.
My broski-in-law (lives upstairs from us) invited me up for breakfast since I didn't have to go in to work.
Our washing machine is back in action (after the pipes burst last week) and I've been doing laundry all day.
Roo is currently curled up and purring on my lap. (Why is she purring for no reason?)
Eric is at work, though hopefully he'll be home soon.
We're like 100 pages away from the end of the Harry Potter series and it's killing us.
I've got a small group tonight at a friend's house.. we're a fan of small groups at our church.
Anyway, the group is going to be going through C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia.
We're going to share one book, take turns reading aloud to eachother, then discuss what we just read.
(Seems to be a common theme this winter.. getting together and reading fantastical stories to one another..)

Here are 3 photos from my day:

{Hamilton telling me she loves me.}

{Two views from the safe, cozy, warmth of indoors.}

To-Do Tonight:

dinner (curry tofu with rice. easy, peasy.)

laundry (x3 !)

make salsa for small group (is it bad that my favorite salsa is my own?!)

finish Harry Potter with Eric (priority #1)

shovel (yes)