The Artichoke

i tend not to capitalize my typed words because a) i like the appearance of lower case letters better; and b) one of my shift keys is broken. but i will capitalize The Artichoke because it's one of my favorite foods.

so when i saw THIS in today's NY Times (again, respect), i thought, well, i'll pay homage to one of my all time favorite foods. the smell of a steaming Artichoke in my home continues to be one of the most comforting olfactory experiences in my life. the taste of the leaves and heart (it has a heart!) with melted butter, mayo, or a vinaigrette is so delicious i often have to do it in silence to bask in the joy.

my mother told me that her mother would serve artichokes when one of her children would bring home a date to see if they were sophisticated enough to know how to properly eat one. i hadn't realized, until then, that it was used as a weapon in class warfare. thanks, granny! 

now that spring is here, i see some of the tasty treats in our near future. i may even make 4 for me and my husband so i can really luxuriate in its wonder.

i'm in love with blue dawn.

this is what's happened to my life now.

i had a baby and now i'm in love with a toxic-looking dish soap. it probably tests on animals (haven't looked yet) and gives you cancer, but goddamn it cleans well.

tonight i had two bowls of chocolate organic o's and chocolate chips with peanut butter because it was an emergency. it was such a hard day. there are great days with my newborn son, great moments, great seconds, and long, hard, exhausting, challenging hours, minutes, seconds and days. today was a hard day. i went to bed too late - was up watching the debate and trying to have a few hours of "me time" - and paid for it today.

i long for 5 hours where i can fuck around on the internet aimlessly.

so today was a tough one. he was cranky, i was exhausted. didn't shower, barely ate, managed two walks and a couple phone calls and to not go officially crazy for one more day.

now i'm off to enjoy a tv program and a shower before heading to bed and doing it all over again beginning at 3 or 4 am.

Making my own life.

I have a lot of trouble motivating myself to do things. Once I get an idea in my head that something needs to happen - look out! I will stop at almost nothing to get it done and get it done very well. But getting myself to care about things - how clean my apt is (actually I always care, I just may not clean it), waxing my eyebrows, paying the bills, exercising, putting away laundry... these things are difficult for me to do. I know, I know... nobody likes to do these things but it is like walking through cement sometimes to get them done. I think this is related to the depression I've been battling since I was about 13. I'm finally on medication for it and it seems to really help.

But even so, I wake up a lot of mornings and have to force myself to do things. Once I clean or wax or work out or organize I feel SO GOOD! And that's what I keep reminding myself... this is for YOU, dummy.

Today is a gorgeous day in NYC and I am about to clean up and vacuum so we can start the week with an apt that is neat so when we come home exhausted from work we can say, "Aaaahhhh, we're home" instead of "Oh god, what a mess." It might have something to do with the fact that my husband has been down with the flu for the week, leaving me to do all the cleaning/cooking/maintenance, and that both of us work a lot and have almost no down time. Hmmm..

And then I'm going for a bike ride. Watch me.

Preparing to party.

My husband and I are having our housewarming party in 2 weeks (as we planned about 6 weeks in advance) and I'm starting to realize that even though we are MOSTLY unpacked, there is still crap everywhere that needs to be sorted. We have four perfectly good dining room chairs with slipcovers that have been trashed by our cats. So I have decided to sew new slipcovers and coordinating pillow case covers for the pillows on our couch in time to display them all at our party. We have a lot of white, gray, dark browns in our home and we want a "splash of color".

So I was shopping on Mood's website and found this garnet damask fabric that might work and I'm really excited about it.

I'm thinking simple slipcovers (I hope I can copy the ones we have now by dissecting them and recreating them exactly... ahem) and a couple of pillow cases that use some of this fabric in them as well. Our home is very modern looking and I like the idea of throwing in some vintage style fabric to offset the cool, sleek colors and lines of our furniture. I love cool and sleek, but I also like a bit of character and quirkiness. Luckily, my husband is really interested in the style of our home as well, so I always consult him and he also liked this fabric the best. Lucky me!

Now I'm off to clean and eat something and go to the nursery for a lemon tree and move more stuff into our storage space. SO. MUCH. STUFF. (And yes, we've weeded out like 5 times.)

Vamos!

Hallo. Vacation, dreams & life.

I am sad that the World Cup is almost over. I'm not a huge soccer (football) fan, but I like the countries of the world coming together to compete and being represented. It's fun to see who roots for what team and why.

My husband and I just bought a condo. In NYC. It has been a long process of being in contract and ignoring it because it wasn't time to do anything, and then doing a lot a lot a lot of paperwork and dealing with different personalities to get things done. It is FINALLY over and we are home owners. It's a great feeling, but I will be more excited about it once I have a feeling as to what our monthly finances will be. It still makes me very nervous. Our new place, however, is really great. It's light and we have views of trees and the sky which, especially in NYC, is rare and luxurious and soothing.

Next week we are going to MA and ME to visit some friends and go to a good friend's wedding. I'm excited to take a trip and also reluctant to leave our new place. We still have crap in boxes and I want to get it clutter-free so when we come home at night it is organized and relaxing. Such are the pressing issues of my life.

I am going vegan for a week. Except I might eat some seafood in New England. But besides that, I'm going to try going vegan to see if I feel better. I would like to try a mostly plant-based diet... everything I read tells me it's great for you, and I have never ever ever thought of myself as a vegetarian, nevermind a vegan. But, if it makes my body feel good then I'm all for it for a short amount of time to see if it works.

I am exhausted today. I had drinks last night with two good friends who came over for the 4th. We had cocktails and went up to our roof to watch the fireworks over Manhattan which was fun. Earlier in the day some other friends came over with their two kids, 4 and 7 months, and their baby took a nap on our bed. While he was napping our cat, Mo, played kitty nanny and watched over him. It was very sweet. As soon as the little one woke up, Mo got up and went about his business. Animals always amaze me with their instincts and emotional awareness.



Now it is the beginning of the week before vacation. And there are a list of important things to do before we leave. I am greatly looking forward to getting away with my man - NYC can be taxing and draining and it's great to get out and see some nature, eat fresh food and just have a different pace of life. Plus we get to see some good friends and celebrate with one of my closest friends and her family at her wedding! That is super exciting.

Someday I would like a vacation bungalow near the ocean. I miss going to ocean (this is the first summer I haven't gone with my family in decades) and listening to it as I fall asleep. There is nothing that relaxes me more and I can come back to my life refreshed and ready to once again tackle the every day puzzles that constitute my daily existence.

Plus, it's fun.

I would like this place. Thank you.