Once Every Four Years

The Summer Olympics only happen every four years so why not take advantage and spend every possible second watching the best athletes in the world compete? At least that's what I told myself this weekend as I sat on the couch cheering on the Americans in swimming, basketball, volleyball, soccer and of course, gymnastics.

I know that I'm not alone in my passion for gymnastics.  For a few years in my youth, I actually dreamt that one day I could possibly be a 'late-bloomer' gymnast without having taken any tumbling classes.  And I may or may not have VHS tapes of the entire team competition and all-around competition from the 1996 Atlanta games, when the US women won team gold and Kerri Strug became a household name.  Yeah, you can call me a fan.

As an adult, I now fully appreciate the hours and hours of practice all of these athletes put in to perfect their sport.  I even find myself identifying more with the cringing parents in the bleachers.  It's a deep-down secret of so many people to compete in the Olympics; that's why so many people watch religiously.  I'm just excited to follow along at home, living vicariously through these inspiring individuals, unable to tear myself away from the television for ten straight days and tearing up everytime I hear an athlete's backstory or the National Anthem.

Cheese Love

Last Sunday, Anthony and I sat in the lofted, second floor dining area at Beecher's Handmade Cheese, the awesome Seattle store/cafe that now has a location in the Flatiron district.  We've been there before and loved their grilled sandwiches so we just couldn't pass up a chance to stop in for a cup of their delicious macaroni and cheese as we passed by mid-afternoon.  It's a really cozy place with wooden benches overlooking the street along with a huge window so that you can view the live cheddar-making show below.  It's a perfect place for an after-lunch snack.

And more cheese news: Murray's Cheese just opened a restaurant right by their Bleecker Street location.  I cannot wait to sample the menu, especially the Buffalo Cheese Curds and the Ch'Mores (photo above).  Cheese is my favorite food group, for real.



Photo courtesy of New York Magazine

A Starring Sidedish

How could it be that days after Anthony took me to Mesa Grill in New York for a belated birthday dinner, I'm still thinking about the yummy side dish that we had with our meal? The small bowl of roasted corn with chipotle aioli and cheese was doused in lime and became the star for me.  Bobby Flay, I hate your competition throw-down shows, but I loved your food.

Pinterest is My Friend

Usually when I'm planning something, I collect ideas from magazines and websites and put it all in a folder.  I like having everything handy at all times too, but that doesn't always work with a bulky file of glossy pages.  While in the early stages of planning a wedding, which is really just the ultimate party in my opinion, it's really hard for me not to get overwhelmed by all of the options the bridal industry is throwing out there.  People expect me to be losing my mind with worry about flower arrangements and shoe colors and limo rides, and I'm just really concerned about having a great time celebrating with my family and friends and my new husband. 

So I've decided to go about narrowing down my favorites in a new way: Pinterest.  I used to love scrolling through Pinterest looking for new dinner recipes or really lavish desserts.  A few months ago, I created a new board called "Wedding" and have been posting ideas and photos of things that I can definitely picture us having at our wedding, which means I'm selective.  Scratch that, I meant to say I'm very selective.  I don't want any pins of things that I only kind of like; this is THE inspiration file.   I love that all of the original sources are right there. And the best part is that I have the ability to access the board at any time on my phone so I can show people my ideal hairstyle instead of just describing it to them.

I never thought that I would ever enjoy having an electronic scrapbook of sorts (I'm still attached to my paper calendar), but sometimes I just scroll down and look at all of these tidbits I've put together over the last six months.  I can't believe how happy that makes me.  Even if I'm not sure about the DJ or the cake flavors, I am positive that we're going to have a beautiful wedding and a wonderful life together.

Check out some of my favorite pins:

All these pins plus more can be found here

Breathe

Someone reminded me today to breathe, to take the deepest breath that I could possibly take so that I feel my body open up, and then slowly, very slowly exhale.  When I did that, my ribs seemed to creak from the extra air, and when I let out my breath, I could feel my lungs empty, begging for another gulp of oxygen.  It made me remember that I'm human.  It made me remember that I need to remind myself to do that much more often.  xo



Photo via Light My Fire tumblr

Turning Thirty: The Aftermath

I've been thirty years old for almost one week.  No, I don't feel different, but yes, I kind of feel older.  It's weird, it's new, it'll wear off in another day or so.

But the last few days have been tumultuous.  My birthday was on Friday and we had a great time at dinner with family friends.  And then I spent the rest of the weekend with tonsils the size of tennis balls with a diet of cranberry juice and ginger ale.  We cancelled our plans, got comfortable watching re-runs on tv and Anthony made me soup for every meal.

Some highlights:

• I got my license renewed and I still look like I'm from the 1920's with a hair swoop in my picture.
• My birthday gift from Sephora is one of my favorite things ever: Fresh Sugar lip balms! How'd they know?
• Stratford fireworks are set off right across the street from where we live so we had a front row seat. 
• My wonderful extended family helped celebrate my birthday a few days early (three of us have birthdays within a week of one another).
• Last week, my car hit 200,000 miles (I took the photo while driving so excuse the poor picture quality).
• I finally finished State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.  I could tell from the beginning of the book what would happen at the end but I was still surprised. I love when that happens.

I had a great time with my Turning Thirty posts.  I may be thirty now, but there are plenty of new things to try everyday. Thanks to everyone who followed my posts.  Happy July!

Turning Thirty: Improving

I'm turning thirty years old on July 6th so for the next five weeks, I'm embracing life and trying to do at least one new and/or enjoyable and/or spectacular thing per day. Click here for more Turning Thirty posts.

This past Thursday night, I was watching tv with Anthony and telling him about the AltSummit class that was starting at 9:00pm, the one I had been looking at for weeks but never registered.  Then, I thought to myself (or maybe these were Anthony's words...), "Why don't I just sign up for it now?"  Literally four minutes before it started, I ran to my computer, punched in my info, and entered the online classroom.  Seize the moment, right?

This was the best AltSummit class that I've taken so far (my third one overall), and I really loved Victoria from A Subtle Revelry.  She was just as fun and sweet as I thought she'd be from reading her blog, and boy, is she impressive!  She juggles like 8 calendars, many different jobs and has 3-year old twins! Victoria also does something that I do not: she utilizes several online organizing tools in order to make sure she is in top of everything.  I'm kind of ashamed to admit this but I have hundreds and hundreds of bookmarks, which are totally unorganized, and every time I see something that I love, I copy the link and email it to myself.  Disaster.  There couldn't have been a better class for me to take at this point.

As a casual but dedicated blogger, I'm excited for the opportunities that AltSummit provides, and thanks to Bing, I have the opportunity to take a couple more classes free of charge this summer.   Now, excuse me while I go and make friends with Evernote and Thoughtbox, per Victoria's suggestions.

#thanksbing


The beautiful image above is courtesy of A Subtle Revelry (I love this idea!)