Before I met Adam I never thought about golf unless I was making fun of it. I didn’t get it and thought it was incredibly boring. Since I’ve met Adam, I still think golf is pretty boring and I try not to think about it too much, but that’s difficult. Adam is a very big golfer and he’s pretty good too. He’s been playing his whole life. I dread warm weather because it means I lose him to golf on the weekends. But he enjoys playing, so I’m OK with it in the end. I’ve even learned what a birdie, bogey, and eagle are and I kind of understand how scoring works. I sometimes catch myself watching golf at the gym.
v. sexy
So anyway, in the almost three years we’ve been together, I’ve never seen Adam play. Last night was finally the night. Last night was also the night I saw my brother play golf for the first time.
frustrated brother
This was also the first time he’d played a real round of golf during which he was not wasted. He tried hard, listened to Adam, and I think did OK.
Adam coaches brother
And I even got to putt once! But I mostly took off my shoes, wiggled my feet in the nice grass, and worried about the salted chocolate and caramel ganache cupcake from The Flying Cupcake that may or may not have been melting in our cooler.
no shoes and cupcakes
In case you were wondering, the cupcake made it home safely and tasted damn good after two hours on the golf course. Ooooh I sound like a golfer. If golfers ate cupcakes….
New blog alert! One of my best friends Marnie has started a blog! Thoughts From a Displaced Indiana Girl She really did just start it, so only two posts as of now, but she’s smart and funny, I’ve known her since fifth grade, and she was part of the 717, so I’m sure lots of awesomeness will follow.
I wonder at what point in my life I’ll stop having no money. Will that time ever come? I honestly cannot see an end right now. And the thing is I do not spend excessively. I do not. Lunch out once a week, maybe dinner once a week, groceries from Farm Fresh Delivery once a week, the occasional extra trip to the regular grocery to get baking supplies, gas for my car, the occasional trip to Target to buy toilet paper and soap. That is literally all that is on my credit card statement for the past month. Gas. Food. Target. One J.Crew charge, items which were on sale, and one of which I returned. I bought a cardigan thing in June from Anthropologie, but I wear the thing once a week at least. In fact I’m wearing it today. I feel like all my money goes to bills, rent, and paying for the uber-expensive work that was done on my car last month. I also bought a swimsuit last month, which probably wasn’t completely necessary, but if I do ever come upon a chance to wear a swimsuit, it will not be a two-piece. Not anymore.
Seriously, does anyone have any tips on saving money? Because I am at a complete and nearly tearful loss. (Mom, if you read this, I WILL NOT take your money! Don’t offer :D)
OK, on to happier things. Much happier things. CAKE. CHOCOLATE. BEER. I realize I may have lost your attention as I spilled my money woes, but do I haven it back now?
bro and sis
My little brother turned 24 last Wednesday. Yikes, 24. I remember my 24th. It doesn’t seem that long ago, and in reality it wasn’t. Only three years ago. But it was in this Indianapolis-Adam-Jack and Jill lifetime. Last year when little brother turned 23, I fondly remembered my 23rd, in that faraway Raleigh lifetime. So, Last Monday my mom texted me (yes, she’s an expert texter!) asking to keep Wednesday open for birthday festivities. I, naturally, responded with “OK, want me to bake a cake?” Because 1. I have no money to buy birthday presents and 2. Baking is my middle name. Yes, she said. Problem. My brother is not a big fan of sweets. (OK, this causes more problems than just the birthday cake one, because I can’t feed him things that come out of my kitchen.) But he does love chocolate. He also loves good, dark beer. So when I found a chocolate stout cake on Smitten Kitchen, I knew I’d hit the jackpot.
This cake is rich and flavorful, but not so much that you feel sick after one piece. It’s moist and stays moist through the next day. And it doesn’t require any crazy ingredients.
Reasons I loved Adam this weekend (don’t worry, I haven’t gone over to the sickly romantic side, this involves farting):
He’s reached the point where he laughs about my grandfather’s storytelling and obsessions with certain things (i.e. Some Like It Hot and My Cousin Vinny) and imitates him
He eats my pie
He introduces me by saying “This is my Julia”
He’s weirdly proud of what I do…though I think he likes to tell people I’m the editor of a magazine just so he can tell them he’s been published in my magazine. Twice.
He won’t let me eat fast food in the car, but makes me wait until we get home. Wait, I hate him for that…
He scoots up next to me, butt on my leg, and says excitedly, “Guess what?!” and then lets out a huge fart. Right on my leg. (I do love him for that, honest to God.)
It’s the little things that make me smile. And the fart-y and laugh-together-about-Papa things that make me realize we may have slipped into a very comfortable place. How I’ve waited to be in that place!
This weekend my mom dropped off a few old photos she’d found at Papa’s house. I think I was probably five or six-ish and must have been at a birthday party.
That’s me in the blue polka-dotted dress. The girl to my left in the pink dress is my friend Alix. We probably met when we were babies. To my right is Eric. I went to school with him through high school.
There we are again.
And that’s my little brother Ian (who’s tall and not chubby anymore!), and me and Alix with Mimi, my grandmother and Papa’s wife. She died when I was in seventh grade. I miss her so much. She was this kind of intimidating, really giving lady that held our family together in a matriarch sort of a way. She kept the kitchen stocked with Milanos and Veronas, and the candy jar in the den was always full of Jelly Bellies. Wasn’t she so beautiful?
This week, in honor of Arcade Fire releasing their new album (listen to it here), my song of the week is “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire (duuuh).
I don’t know why I love this song so much. I really fell for it when it was on the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are (which, by the way, is an awesome movie if you haven’t seen it). I played the trailer over and over again to listen to the song until I realized that I have it on my iTunes. The lyrics are kind of dark maybe, and they’re not the reason for my addiction to this song. I think it’s something about the big sound that explodes from your speakers when you play it, and the chorus of voices singing out. It feels full of hope and potential and flyingness. (Did you know I like to make up words?)
OK, so here’s the song.
In other news, Happy Friday!
In other, other news, the heat index in Indianapolis on Wednesday was 112°. Yes, you read that right. Heat that presses down on you and fills the air until you feel as though you can hardly breathe. Thankfully the weather broke last night and I was able to ride my new bike into work!
Fridays at work have become quiet days since summers hours started. By 3 pm most people have cleared out. Today, my side of the building is even quieter than the normal summer Friday. Both the other editors took yesterday and today off. My (I say “my” not in a possessive way, but in a I-love-this-girl-and-am-so-lucky-to-work-with-her sort of a way) art director works from home on Fridays with her sweet little boy Niko. The other kids magazine art director is on vacation this entire week.
So I’m sitting in my office, desperately trying to make a dent in my towering stack of manuscripts, with my music cranked up almost too loud for work. I follow this music blog called Some Velvet Blog (he works for WXPN radio in Philadelphia). He posted a review of an artist named Lissie and her upcoming album Catching a Tiger (out on August 18) a few days ago. I listened to the song in his post, listened to the the songs on her web site, and then to the NPR World Café show she played on. I have a new girl crush. She’s labeled as Americana and blues, but I think there’s a little rock in there. And maybe some Dixie Chicks?
Anyway, please do yourself a favor and at least listen to these two songs. I know this is the second girl with a strong voice I’ve posted about, but it’s so refreshing to hear girls stepping up and away from the coffeeshop/guitar/singer-songwriter genre. I can’t get enough.
This first song is called “Cuckoo.”
This one is “Oh Mississippi.” I got chills when I heard her sing it on that NPR World Café show I mentioned up there.
Last weekend I went to North Carolina. Oh yeah, I already told you that. I’m obsessed with North Carolina, particularly the mountains. Hm, told you that already too. Oh well, it’s good to reiterate the important things. I drove down to Tryon, NC, this magical little horsey community just almost tipping into South Carolina. Ivey, one of my best friends Bette’s mom, has a house there. The front porch looks west towards the mountains and sunsets. There’s a three stall barn next to the house where Bette’s retired horse Johnny, Ivey’s superstar Joseph, and her newest addition Gus, live.
Renée picks tomatoes for gazpacho
And this summer, Ivey’s planted a little garden filled with okra, tomatoes, basil, and marigolds, too.We spent many of our days off from camp at this house. It’s like my summer retreat. I love it. So I could hardly wait to spend four days there with Bette and Renée, a fellow Green Cove counselor, and Bette’s friend Jennifer. (There was a fifth girl, but I’d prefer not to mention her as she put a big fat blotch on the weekend.)
We rode ponies, went to Bele Chere, visited camp (where I got to hug Lee, the riding head, and my summer momma), and cooked so much good food.
I’ll go in the order we cooked these items.
blackberry peach pie
1. Porch Swings, our beverage of choice. Pimms (a tradition for us in Tryon), gin, cucumbers, 7Up, and lemons.
2. Gazpacho. Tomatoes from the garden, cucumbers, avocado, spices, jalapeños, green peppers.
3. Blackberry-Peach pie. Peaches and blackberries in a buttery crust. Oh and a little vodka.
1. I am now the proud owner of the domain name piebelly.com. Ooooh, right? Now can someone design me a little Buddah rubbing his belly and holding a piece of pie for a logo?
2. I took a trip to North Carolina to the mountains last Thursday through Sunday. Coming back is hard. The mountains are my home. They’re full of wonderful people (and one terrible person). I cooked so much amazing food with my friend Renée that I could cry happy food tears. Just need to upload my pictures off of my camera and then I’ll post all about pies, pastas, porch swings, and gazpachos.
3. To make up for serious slacking in the Song of the Week area, I’m going to post three today.
Firstly, there’s Guster. Last week I got the most wonderful and much-anticipated e-mail in my inbox. Guster announcing their new album – title, release date, and first … single I suppose. Also TOUR DATES! October 10 at the Egyptian Room right here in Indianapolis. This will be Guster concert number 11 for me. So after much very restrained squealing (I was still at work when this e-mail arrived), I listened to the first song. Then I downloaded the song. Then I listened to the song 10 more times. Then I memorized all the words. It’s called “Bad Bad World.” The album is called Easy Wonderful and is due out October 5. Here’s the track listing
1. Architects & Engineersv 2. Do You Love Me
3. On the Ocean
4. This Could All Be Yours
5. Stay with Me Jesus
6. Bad Bad World
7. This Is How It Feels to Have a Broken Heart
8. What You Call Love
9. That’s No Way to Get to Heaven
10. Jesus and Mary
11. Hercules
12. Do What You Want
And here’s that first song.
I would like to dedicate this song to the amazing women who I hung out with this past weekend. Bette, Renée, and Jennifer, this song is for you girls. And maybe also Officer Jesse Durham, as a thank you? Heh.
Secondly, U.S. Royalty. I discovered this band last year at the Forecastle Festival in Louisville.
U.S. Royalty, Forecastle Festival 2009
I guess you could call them Americana, or folk-rocky. I like them either way. This song is called Raincoats.
I heard of this band sometime over the summer, but now I’m not sure how it was. Either way, I saw that they were playing at Bele Chere, this big street festival in Asheville that we went to this past weekend, and I was determined to see them. And holy awesome they did not disappoint at all. In fact they were incredibly amazing and I left the show with two of their albums. One of my friends described them as a sort of throwback to the 70s and the lead singer as a Stevie Nicks. I like that description and I’m going with it. They’re a nice blend of blues-y goodness and rock.
This is Goodbye Kiss from their self-titled album that just came out this year.
And this one is called Paris (Oh La La) on the same album.
I found this picture on Etsy’s Tumblr and it kind of made my day. (well so did a certain announcement from my favorite band ever Guster, but more on that later…) I like the word “cozy” in reference to a knitted item that you put over an object. I think it describes a cozy’s purpose exactly. How cute and cozy and awesome does that car look? I would like to ride in it. (photo credit here)
Smart car cozy
Also, a few weeks ago, Etsy posted this photo on their Tumblr. I can’t stop thinking about it for some reason.
Woodsy wedding
They just look happy and with the dogs and in the woods and so un-wedding-y. She’s sitting on a log in her wedding dress for God’s sakes! I love it. Photo by Leah Verwey.
No, I did not make out with someone in the ocean. I would never. I did however almost vomit up everything I’d eaten yesterday while watching Ali and Roberto make out in the ocean on the Bachelorette.
Yep, I’ve gotten sucked into watching the Bachelorette. Mostly because one Monday night during last season’s the Bachelor, I got bored. I flipped on ABC and there was Jake. Suddenly I found myself inexplicably drawn to the T.V. every Monday night. Why I don’t know. Jake wasn’t that cute or interesting. Maybe it was simply the fact that the season was called “On the Wings of Love.” Gag me.
So of course I fell for sweet, freckled Ali, who had the chance to find love snatched so rudely away from her thanks to her job. When ABC announced that she would be the next bachelorette, I knew I was in for trouble. I’ve been watching off and on all season. I’ve wondered a few things.
1. How do you fall in love with someone and know you want to marry him within, what, two months? Especially when you’re surrounded by not just The One, but 25 other “The Ones.”
2. How do you fall in love while traveling the world? These people go on dates in Iceland, Portugal, and Tahiti. They dine in castles, they travel in helicopters, they ride horses in the mountains. Maybe it’s just me, but I think the real falling in love happens while you’re cooking dinner together, walking the dog, crying hysterically over the phone, taking naps together, sharing “how was your day” stories, and hanging out with each other’s families. Just the regular, every day stuff.
3. This show is obviously incredibly put on. It’s a wonder any of the couples have survived into a real relationship and marriage.
4. Frank is a creepy douchebag. Frank cries like a little girl on national T.V. Frank breaks someone’s heart. Ew Frank. I’m glad Frank has found happiness with his lady in Chicago. Couldn’t Frank have found his happiness before he was in the final three? Frank just wanted a free trip to Tahiti.
5. Why do the producers of this show think that all we want to see is Ali and her date making out in the ocean?! I would say we got at least ten minutes of footage of Ali and Roberto lying or standing in the water while kissing. Did they do anything else on this date? We’ll never know.
6. If I ever mention wanting to watch another season of the Bachelor/Bachelorette, please shake me.
Piebelly 