Put on Your Party Hats

Today is the big day. The day I leave 32 behind and turn ... gulp ... 33.

In honor of it ALSO being National Trivia Day, and I since I love trivia, I thought it would be fitting to provide some interesting bits of trivia about me, my birth, and my birthdays. On this, my 33rd birthday.

• I am a Saturday's Child and thus work hard for a living. (This isn't the same thing as being a Saturday's Warrior, just in case you were wondering.)
• I was the first of my parent's seven children to be born on their due date. If I hadn't been born on my due date I would have been either "loving and giving" or "bonny and blithe". Both would have been more rewarding than having to work hard for a living, I'm sure.
• I am the first of my parent's seven children that my dad saw born. That's why I'm his favorite.
• My dad almost missed my birth because he wasn't expecting me to arrive on my due date, and had gone on Ski Patrol. But I waited around for him. I've always been accommodating that way.
• I was born at 9:30 at night. Obviously, a Night Owl from the very beginning.
• The last time I was in a hospital was when I was born.
• I share a birthday with Michael Stipe of R.E.M, Patty Loveless, Dave Foley, and Julia Ormond.
• The first American Ice-Skating club was formed today in 1850. In consequence, Michael Stipe, Patty Loveless, Dave Foley, Julia Ormond and I all LOVE ice skating.
• In third grade I got a pair of ice skates, two porcelain unicorns with golden horns, and a sweater which had a key-hole opening (I thought it was really risque, and almost never wore it).
• I have had only ONE birthday party with a piñata. A sad deficiency, I think.
• I had one birthday party at the Skate Castle Roller Skating Rink. I got a baton.
• When I was 12 my parents let me choose between having a party or a fancy dinner. I chose the fancy dinner. We went to Red Lobster. I had the lobster. In retrospect, it was not fancy.
  
• I turned 23 and 24 in Chile. On my 23rd I spent the day bawling my eyes out and scratching flea bites. My 24th was marginally better and included cake.
• Angle Food cake (with confetti) was my birthday cake of choice until I learned about cream cheese frosting. Then it was Angle Food Cake (with confetti) and cream cheese frosting.
  
• My birthday presents were usually presented in the bag of the store from which they were bought. I didn't mind. It made unwrapping them go much faster.
• I wore a Cookie Monster Sugar Cookie recipe shirt to my 3rd birthday party. This is the only childhood birthday party I have any pictures of.
  
• I have a lot more pictures of my birthday parties now that I'm an adult and much less blond. I'll even take some tonight when we go to the one restaurant in DC that might have good Mexican food. They make the guac right at the table, and if that's not a step in the right direction, I don't know what is.

I'm sad to not be 32 anymore. But I think 33 might turn out all right.

Happy Birthday to Moi!

Wherein I Deck My Halls With Caffeinated Cheer

Ain't this the cutest Holiday Cheer you've ever seen?

Rainy Sunday

I woke up this morning and I couldn't see a THING outside of my window. We appeared to be socked in under a blanket of rain and fog.

Have you ever noticed that fog seems to be a weather condition that was much more prevalent during the 1800s? We almost never get fog anymore. At least not as far as I've noticed. I'm reading this book about Poe right now (The Poe Shadow) and I think the entire thing is set in the fog. It's really weird.

Anyway, I looked out of the window and said to myself. "My my, this sure is a stay at home kind of day. Makes me feel like baking." So I lit some lamps (since it's pretty dark when it's all foggy and rainy), popped in my Rilo Kiley CD and started making Swedish Pancakes.

Swedish Pancakes were a staple in my house growing up, and we'd beg Mom to make them for us every Sunday. They are a lot like crepes, only a bit thicker, and are best served rolled up with butter and powdered sugar (both inside and on top). They are made one at a time, and so as kids we'd always fight over who'd get the 2nd one. The first one was always burned or ripped or otherwise deformed, while Mom got the temperature right and perfected her flipping. They are my ultimate comfort food.

This morning as I made them and danced around in the kitchen in my pajamas and apron, I thought to myself, "This right here? This is a good time." And I considered that if I had a husband sitting on the couch reading the paper, and a couple of kids fighting over getting the second one, well, that would be a good time too. But not having that didn't make this morning's Swedish Pancakes any less wonderful. AND I got to pick the music, AND no one was making fun of me for singing along into my spatula-microphone. Which I always appreciate.

Suffering For My Art

I'm sort of an expert at shopping. Like I do it all of the time. So I'm a little bit devastated to find out that when it comes to Christmas shopping I totally suck!

I tried really, REALLY hard to buy Christmas presents on Saturday .... and while I had a blast ... alas, I was a total failure.

It wasn't that there weren't things to buy. There were. Nor was it that I didn't know what to get for people. I did. The problem was that I couldn't resist buying things for myself at the same time. I do not understand those women who say that whenever they go shopping they never end up getting anything for themselves. WHO ARE THESE WOMEN? And where do they get such discipline? I clearly do not have it.

I started out ok while at the craft store. In retrospect, it's not too surprising that I didn't lose control there ... the siren song of puffy paint is pretty easy to ignore. But then I hit Anthropologie. Experience should have told me that there really wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of me getting out of there without at least a little something for myself. But what can I say, I'm an eternal optimist. (Or delusional, whichever). Here's a peek into my brain while browsing around. FYI, I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I veiled the names and presents, I'm sure you understand.

"This great little knickknack is SO PERFECT for my friend, and ohh-la-la this little treasure will be superglam for my sister. Ooooh! Look at this little guy. This is quite cute. Crap. Now I've done it, I'm seriously in love with this chinoiserie tea light thingy. But No! NO! I'm supposed to be getting things for others. Think, woman, think! Who would like this? hhhmmmm. It isn't really anyone's style. Well, except for mine, of course. It's only $10. You can't even get a coaster at Anthropologie for $10, it'd be a shame not to get it. And I'm already getting this other stuff, so its not like I'm making a special trip to the register for it. Why don't I just get a gift receipt for it, and I'll think of someone to give it to later."

Like how I rationalized that one? I do, cuz it really is SO cute. Doncha think? (don't mind my craptastic photography. My real Christmas present to myself will be a new non-sucky camera.)



This is now displayed attractively on my television, waiting for me to think of a recipient for it. Or not.

Later I was shopping for jewelry for my sister and it was literally a "One for you, two for me" scenario. But here's my FAVORITE thing I ended up getting at Banana Republic (on sale of course!)



Bracelets are hard for me because I've got crazy small wrists and they usually slide right off. But this little cutie is perfect! I didn't really mind being so selfish where there was this much cuteness on the line. (Besides, who knows if others would even like such a bracelet? It's a fairly bold piece and just too risky to risk losing this to the unappreciative.)

I've still got one more week to get my act together. And I promise here and now. If I have to buy something for myself every single time I need to get a gift for someone else in order to get my Christmas shopping completed, well then, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Mixing Up Your Holiday Mixers

It's the time of year in which Holiday parties are running rampant. If you find yourself with multiple parties to go to in one weekend I recommend that they be as different as possible. You don't want to stagnate halfway through and thereby deprive yourself of your share of swedish meatballs and mini quiches. The key to avoiding Holiday Burn Out is mixing it up. Its the same principle I use when creating seating arrangments at a dinner party. Just as a simple shallow-deep-shallow-moody-shallow-deep pattern works best for encouraging conversation, you should mix your party types to stave off a crushing sense of pointlessness. You shouldn't pool your shallow people or your shallow parties. Just a tip I've picked up over the years.

Take this weekend, for example.

Friday night was a sweet and innocent affair as I took my Young Women for pizza and to see Enchanted. Then we came back to my apartment where we gossiped and read fashion magazines. (I love pretending I'm a teenage girl!)

Saturday night's house party, on the other hand, was not exactly sweet and innocent. The Diet Coke was flowing, my hair was in excellent Farrah Fawcett-flipping condition, the music was just how I like it (loud, danceable, old-school), and the flirting was in high gear. I was lucky to be home by 4AM. It was a little bit crazy. And by crazy, I mean Crazy FUN!

And then on Sunday, as befits a holy day, I attended an intimate dinner party. You know those dinner parties that you see on romantic shows like Notting Hill where the table is immaculate and there are several courses of food, all of which is amazing? And everyone is clever and stunningly funny? And you think, "Oh my gosh, that looks like it would be so much fun! Why aren't the dinner parties I go to that much fun? And why isn't Hugh Grant at any of them? This is so unfair." Well, friends, that was the dinner party I went to on Sunday (complete with the role of Hugh Grant as performed by my adorable friend Joseph). I sort of couldn't believe I was at such an amazing event. Everything was perfect! Especially the company. I have some damn funny friends, just so you know. And I could really wax lyrical about the food. It was all so beautifully prepared! And even more beautifully tasty. I practically made myself ill with all of that eating and laughing and eating and laughing. That can't be good for the digestive tract.

Three parties in three days, each as different as could be, but each one super fun. See how that works? Without mixing the formats up I would have been bored half way through, I guarantee it. I may not know much about some things, but by golly, I know how to get through the gauntlet of Holiday parties.

A Christmas Miracle

Today's special thing wasn't so much something that I did on purpose, as it was something miraculous that happened.

To truly understand the miraculous miracleness of this you need to know two things.

1. I am the QUEEN of parking tickets. If I'm even a minute late back to my meter I can pretty much guarantee that I'll have a ticket waiting for me.
2. The meter maids of Bethesda will be reincarnated as vultures. Vicious and unrelenting vultures. From hell.
   

So now that you know these things, you will of course jump to the same conclusion I did when I was sitting in my boss' office at 3PM and realized with a jolt that I was supposed to go out and feed my meter at 2PM. And I had TOTALLY FORGOTTEN. And worse yet, I was stuck in her office for like 20 more minutes, just sure that there was no way on this earth that I would get away without owing the county $35.

As soon as I got out of her office, I sprinted down 6 flights, said, "Hi! What are you doing here? Sorry, can't talk now!" to a friend in the lobby who as far as I knew was A) in Columbia and B) going blind (both topics that really needed some immediate discussion) before I darting out into traffic to get to the parking lot, noting that the meter maid was at that very moment giving some poor guy a ticket. I had hoped that since it is so snowy and cold they wouldn't be working ... but clearly they were. It was my last scrap of hope. And now it was gone.

So I walked defeatedly to my car. And looked at the windshield, where my ticket would be waiting for me. Ready to grab it and curse and cry out, "WHY ME?? WHYYYY??" But lo ... there was no ticket! I'd been expired for at least an hour and a half and had somehow eluded getting a ticket.

Like I said, It was a Christmas Miracle. Perhaps the most miracally miracle EVAH!

Beat this Courier and Ives

Yesterday I found myself driving through Rock Creek Park at dusk. Here's the thing about Rock Creek Park: It's this huge wooded park that runs through DC. But even though there's a MASSIVE metropolis all around it, once you get into the park you would not have a clue. You're totally isolated.

This abrupt move from urban to rural is kind of popular around here. One second it is wall to wall buildings and asphalt, but turn a corner and all you can see is hardwood. It never fails to surprise me, and I'm always like, "Holy crap! I'm in the COUNTRY! Everywhere I look there's NATURE! I gotta get the hell outta here!" You'd think that growing up in Colorado I'd be more comfortable with nature, and I am when I'm expecting it, like when I deliberately leave the city and go to the Mountains. Here there is no gradual transition. It just springs up on you when you least expect it. And you just can't throw that on a person and not expect them to freak out a little bit.

So anyway, I've been through this particular section of Rock Creek Park before so I was prepared to be transported to the wilds of the Yukon. But even if I hadn't been prepared, the line of cars in front of me would have been a comforting reminder that I was still very much within the city limits. I have not, however, been in RCP when it is under a blanket of new snow. And I have to tell you, seeing the park like this was beautiful! I was completely charmed! And I wasn't even annoyed to be going at a snail's pace, since it just provided more time to enjoy the beauty. (I mentioned the line of cars in front of me right? And I mentioned the snow, right? Round these parts they call that Peas and Carrots. Peas and Carrots.)

Wanna know how beautiful it was?

Well, just picture your favorite snowy forest scene ... Got it? Now throw in some stone bridges, a cardinal or two, and some gently falling snow in the pearly evening light. If your imagination wants a little more action, you could add some kids sledding down a hill. And then if you're feeling a bit chilled because it's really cold out there and those kids sure look chilly with their pink cheeks, just imagine that you are sitting snug in your little MINI with your seat warmers going. And imagine you are singing along heartily with Christmas carols.

And if you've imagined all of that, then your little heart is probably near to bursting at the coziness of it all. Or else with envy. It can be hard to tell which.


(Do I need to mention that this was the "special" thing I did yesterday? This countdown is going to get tedious if I have to keep mentioning that. What do you think? Did you get it?)

One Battle Does Not a War Win

This was the view from my apartment two weeks ago:


This is the view today:


Winter, that cold and calculating season, has successfully broken through Fall's defenses and won it's first significant battle. Even though this is the first snow -- and so it's kinda exciting and beautiful and all that crap -- this is no time to embrace snow angels and sledding!!

We must go to Anti-Winter Defense Level DefCon 4.

Deploy the Chili and Cornbread!

Load Ratatouille, and snuggle in your down comforters ON THE DOUBLE!!

And Pray, men, PRAY like you've never prayed before for a Snow Day! Otherwise none of us might ever see Spring again.

It's up to all of us. This war can't be won single handedly. Over and out.

One Month From Today ...

It will be my Birthday!!!!!!!!

Aren't you totally STOKED? I am. 32 is the age I have always wanted to be ... and while it has been an OK year it hasn't completely lived up to the hype. There are only 30 more days for 32 to show me what it is made of.

So, readers, this is what sporty types call a Hail Mary. For the next 30 days I'm going to try to do something special each day to make 32 the year I always hoped it would be.

If you have suggestions I would appreciate them! Or if you have birthday presents I would appreciate them too!