Learning to Relax

The journey to relaxation is a difficult one. I have come to learn that I am not good at relaxing. This can actually be a blessing in disguise. But once in a while, when I have a little too much time, when I have a short list of obligations, I actually start to go a little crazy. Sometimes I daydream about living on an island somewhere, or in the mountains, just spending days left to my own devices- spending time creating, reading, cooking, relaxing. I think how nice that would be.

But then I realize that I would quickly go insane. I need assignments, I need obligations, I need to be needed. I need to have chores, errands, homework, conflicts. Or else I can get cranky. Sure, I can spend a few days just reading what I want to read, sleeping in, being lazy, doing inconsequential things. But as I'm doing these things, there's always a little part of me that's worried about what I am going to do next. God forbid I run out of things to do!

At this point in the summer I'm in limbo. I've had a great summer and I've kept myself relatively busy most of the time with fun things and some work. But now I'm only a couple of weeks away from school and I'm anticipating a time that I am going to be so busy, and life is going to change as I know it now. I'm looking forward to it. But at the same time, I'm looking forward to it, and in the meantime I am a little panicked about the lack of activity in my life at present. It's just a tiny lull, but my mind is humming with activity, a little nervousness, and a lot of excitement. This combination can be a little bit crappy.

It's okay though. I am coming to grips with the fact that I will have tons to do in a few weeks, but there's not much I can really do about it right now. In the meantime, I am doing what I can to burn off my excess energy- working out, and reading A LOT, and generally keeping busy in the silly little ways that I can. I am trying to enjoy it, because I know I'll be missing it soon enough.

My Bike

This is me on my new bike that I asked for as a graduation gift. I was riding it around my neighborhood before work this morning and Melina happened to drive by just in time to almost run me over. I look relatively ridiculous, but isn't my bike cute?

Marination Station

So, what do you do when it's Sunday, you are 22 years old, a recent college graduate, moved back in with your parents in New Jersey, and it's raining outside?

Pickle, of course!

This project became a much bigger fiasco than I intended it to be. On my way home from work there is a farmer's market, and I finally stopped at it last Monday. They happened to have pickling cucumbers for 99 cents a pound. (99 cents a pound turned out to only be 3 pickles).
Then I had to find pickling spices, which I finally discovered at Chef Central, and I needed to find a jar, which I also found at Chef Central. And then I needed to find a good pickling recipe, which turned out to be relatively difficult. A lot of people put up pickling recipes online, and not all of these people are very good at giving concise instructions.

And then my friends found out I was starting a "Pickling Project" and they had nothing better to do, either, and so they helped me pickle and we took lots of pictures.

Anyway, I won't be giving a recipe, because chances are these pickles came out terrible. I couldn't find a great, easy-to-follow recipe for refrigerator pickles, so we kind of made things up as we went along. We did make two different varieties though, and I'm nervous to try out either, but also really excited, in case they did actually turn out to be delicious.

If anyone has a good recipe they can suggest, I would love it!

A Real Room Re-do

You may recall last summer when I "re-did" my bedroom. I still had the same paint color, same furniture, etc, that I had when we first moved into this house when I was in middle school. However, my one request for moving back home after graduating college was that I could turn my bedroom into more of a grown-up bedroom. There are some things I couldn't part with (such as my blue tube lights), but basically it's completely different!

I love the paint color because it makes my room so much brighter and it feels a lot bigger. And I love all of my new furniture, but I really love the bookshelf. If you click the pictures you will find evidence of my extensive Sylvia Plath collection.

Morning Ritual

As I've grown up, my mornings have always been really important to me. If I have a bad morning, chances are the rest of my day isn't going to go too well, either. As my routines change, so do my morning rituals. At school, for example, I would always try to wake up at least an hour and a half, or two hours before class so I could make myself breakfast, enjoy a cup of coffee, and take my time getting situated for the rest of the day.

Right now my morning weekday ritual involves the following:

Coffee, Oatmeal with peanut butter and granola, and today some blueberries. This is accompanied by a little book reading as I wait for my coworker friend Melina to arrive at my house for our daily carpool.

All the while, I must entertain these two creatures in order to prevent them from eating my breakfast if I need to walk away for a second. I am able to prevent this about 50% of the time.

ps. I hate that dog toy so much. It has these pointy bumps on it so Mickey tries to play tug of war with it and it hurts. And it weights like 5 pounds so he always drops it, and often he drops it on my foot. I avoid it at all costs, but it's also his favorite.

Why I Choose Coffee Over Water

During the week, I hate to say that it's quite possible I consume more coffee in a day than I do water. I wake up, get ready for work, pour myself a coffee, and quite possibly buy myself another coffee as soon as I get to the office. And some days, like today, a pot of coffee is readily available in the office. My eco friendly reusable coffee mug doesn't help the cause. Nor do my busy nights and weekends.

Yesterday, for example, my friends and I went to a free concert in Central Park. Taking the train to the city can be quite the trek, and it was super hot out yesterday. So once we got to Summerstage to see Victor Deme, Trevor Hall, and Jimmy Cliff, we mostly just layed down on the tapestries we brought along and drank wine that comes in a carton (Bandit- awesome) and bottles of water.

We may or may not have also attempted to use free beach balls as pillows...somewhat unsuccessfully.


By the end of the day we were all tired and sweaty, but we came back with a favorite new song:
Deen Wolo Mousso by Victor Deme.
We have no idea what the lyrics mean but we love them.

Concerts Coming Up

Though I'm pretty bummed that most of my summer vacations have come and gone so quickly, one of my favorite times of the year is still to come: The Newport Folk Festival! Last year I went it was absolutely amazing and I loved every second of it.

A couple of my friends are coming this year, too, which should be fun! I have only ever been with my family so I can't wait for my friends to experience the magic that is Newport Folk Fest.

This morning, while wallowing in my misery about the fact that I have already been to Bahamas, Italy, and the Jersey Shore, and having all of it behind me, I I realized I am actually going to A LOT of concerts in the next couple months:

Sunday: free Trevor Hall show in Central Park
Tuesday: Jack Johnson and GLove at PNC
last weeked in August: Newport Folk Fest
August 13: Ben Kweller and Barenaked Ladies
September 30th: Fun at Bell House in Brooklyn.

I went to zero concerts during the year (very weird for me) so I am happy to make all of it up now. Time to leave work now! More later :)

Grumpy

I just got back from a fabulous weekend on Long Beach Island, but I can't help but be a little grumpy for the following reasons:
1. ear infection relapse
2. spilling water all over my phone this morning and breaking it.
3. it's 105 degrees outside right now and I'm wearing a scarf and wool sweater at work.

I never even got the chance to tell you the story of my ear, and there certainly is a story to it. But I guess that's a good thing because apparently the story isn't even over...
(Long story short: In Italy I got a TERRIBLE ear infection which resulted in a ruptured ear drum and a visit from an Italian doctor in Positano.)

I really want to be in a good mood, I really do, but its been over a month and my ear is still not back to normal. I know I was born with messed up ears and am prone to ear infections, but this is ridiculous. I want to be able to swim, and shower without covering my ears like a normal person does. It's been over a month, already! I'm going to the doctor after work today, and getting new phone tomorrow hopefully. And then we'll see where I'm at.
But for now I'm just going to try and think happy thoughts...

One Year Ago

It was one year ago yesterday that I returned from my 6 week stay in London.
I still miss it, still want to go back.
It's my favorite city in the world, and those 6 weeks were some of the best of my life.
I will make it back there some day, for an extended period of time.

Positano

I can safely say that Positano is the most beautiful place I have ever been to my whole life. It was really surreal being somewhere that gorgeous. While I was there, though, I had the worst ear infection ever. I even got to meet with an Italian doctor who prescribed me Italian medications. So while I was on this beach trip for 2 days in the middle of my stay in Italy, I was told no swimming and no alcohol. I listened to the swimming thing, but after a while I had to ignore the no alcohol rule. After all, I was in Italy. I was going to drink wine.

I tried not to ask myself why I had to get sick on my once-in-a-lifetime vacation with something that I hadn't experienced since I was about 7 or 8 years old, but I guess if I had to be anywhere when I was sick it might as well be somewhere awesome. I remember saying to my mom, "I don't even feel like I'm here right now," which probably can be chalked up to the fact that my messed up ears were really screwing with my equilibrium and I was in the steepest, hilliest place I've ever been to. Not exactly a good combination, but I am happy I went, and I would like to go back someday when I can feel at my best.

If you ever go, make sure you go to this restaurance called La Tagliata. It's way way up in the hills, and it's a family run restaurant with no menu. They just feed you and feed you all the delicious things they make that day and its the best meal I've ever had.
The hotel we stayed at, Eden Roc, was really nice, too, and the best things about it was the location (most of the pictures I took were from my balcony) and the hotel staff who were so nice and kept asking me if I was feeling better! The picture on their main page was actually from my balcony too. I think next time, if I have the financial freedom, I will definitely stay at Le Sirenuse. It's super nice but also super expensive. We went there a couple times for snacks and drinks and dessert.

I'm Back?

No, I didn't inform anyone of any sort of hiatus.
It just sort of happened.
I got really busy really fast, but now that things are calmed down a bit, here's a bit of what you're in store for:

My College Graduation!

My trip to the Bahamas with Mel and her family:
My trip to Florence, Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast with my family:


Not to mention a variety of other things, including a John Butler Trio concert in Central Park, a brand new bicycle, and unfortunately, a severe ear infection.

But let's spread it all out, shall we? And hopefully I'll start back up with the Quotes of the Week soon. Sorry for sucking :(

London Files- Hyde Park

Hyde Park is the most amazing park I have ever been to.
When I was there, the weather was perfect every day.
Everyone is happy.
It's extremely clean.
There's beautiful sculptures and statues everywhere.
People are having picnics left and right.
Kensington Palace is there.
On one side you have Kensington High Street
and on the other you have Notting Hill.
Doesn't get much better than that.

plus there's a lake and the hugest swans I've ever seen.

Missing summer, and it's hardly gone yet!

I finally finally uploaded these pictures I took of my cousin, Alex, from about a month ago.
He wanted some good action shots so I took a million pictures, but I'll post my favorites.
My aunt and uncle adopted him from Russia a little over a year ago I believe, and he's adjusted to the US lifestyle quite easily I'd say! He loves pools and ice cream, just like any 8 year old boy would.






As beautiful as autumn can be, summer is just so wonderful. These pictures of my backyard and pool are making me a little sad to say goodbye to my favorite season of the year.

I really miss these people.

Im still getting used to being in Boston, and it's really making me miss everyone back home.
I thought about driving back for the next couple of days, but I think it's more important right now for me to stay here and get settled in.