rachel/rachael

Yesterday morning I got a call from my good friend Rachael from high school. She was in town from NYC for two days to hang the show she curated and to attend the opening. She has turned into an "art snob" in front of my very eyes and it's so cool to see some of the opportunities that have come her way. First working for the design department at MOMA and being the assistant curator for their SAFE show. And now at PS1 in Manhatten, an offshoot of MOMA that features contemporary art.

She still cracks me up. It's quite funny because I was just telling my mom a classic Rachael story on Friday afternoon. She and her mom were shopping at Smith and Hawken (a ritzy, upscale garden shop) and Rachael decided to ask one of the employees if they had any plastic blue and white Virgen Mary statues for her garden. She went on and on trying to convince the employee that she had gotten her previous statue at the store a few years back, but that it had been damaged by the wind. Rachael's retelling of the story was absolutely hilarious and I was in tears trying to relay it to my mom. She's always got a great story to tell!

Rachael and I have twin families, because she has a sister, Rebecca and a mother, Ruth. And I have two sisters, Ruth and Rachel.

In other news, my little sister turned 17 today! She's growing up so fast. Somehow, I still think of her as a little eight year old. I remember being so shocked to come home from school on winter break and discover that she knew how to read - where did that come from?!? Rachel loved her cotton candy ice cream cake - bright pink goodness.

argh...

Jon and I started house-hunting a couple of weeks ago. Since then we've looked at lots of houses and learned lots of mortgage and real estate jargon. Silly us for sensationalizing the whole process and thinking that we'd find a house quickly and be moved in by the beginning of November! We placed an offer on a house last week but ended up pulling our offer after a few days of negotiation with the sellers - the price just wasn't right. If only we could buy a house like you can customize and buy a Mac! Everything would be so much easier...just type in the square footage, neighborhood, number of bedrooms, architecture, and voila - the perfect house in 7-10 business days.

We've taken this week off from obsessing about houses and are getting caught up on freelance projects and housework. It's nice to finally get some things done and feel productive again. And we're back into our normal evening routine...reading in bed and resting with the kitties...

In other news, my first quilt was featured on the fabric designer's blog yesterday! I'm definitely looking forward to sewing more once the house mania dies down.

little update

Jon treated me to 6 roses for our six month anniversary last week. It's funny that now that we're married, he buys me flowers and then hands me the credit card receipt to record his purchase - just not the same as when we were single. But the flowers were a great surprise anyways. We celebrated by going to IKEA to buy recycling bins and then going to our favorite restaurant for sushi and udon noodles.

I can already see that remembering our wedding anniversary is going to be a tough one for us...is it the 17th, the 18th or the 19th? We both have to stop and think really hard to remember the right day. Last week September 17th was the one year anniversary of our engagement. September 18th was our 6 month wedding anniversary. And September 19th was our three dating anniversary (does that make sense?)

• • •

Well, it seems that I have abandoned blogging (and guitar) to take up my new hobby - quilting. I finished this quilt last week. It's a tiny one (40"x60") made from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy fabric line. It loosely resembles the "Day at the Beach" quilt in her new book. I just used different fabric and spiced it up with some aqua ric rac. My favorite part of it is the fabric on the back!

Shinji was not a very good model for me. First he wrinkled it by sleeping on it too much and then he wouldn't sit still or look at the camera while I was taking his picture (and I was just beginning to think that he liked me!)

repeat one

I just realized why I like being home alone so much...I can play songs on repeat and no one has to get annoyed with me or badger me for my song choices.

Tonight, I've been listening to "Multiply" by James Lidell for the last few hours (from the good old Grey's Anatomy soundtrack).

Back in the day, I may or may not have made an entire mix tape of the song "Umm Bop" by Hansen. My family may or may not have wanted to disown me.

Or then there was the time I listened to "It ain't over til it's over" by Lenny Kravitz during my entire 6 hour drive to Chicago.

I'm pretty sure Kate has never wanted to share a room with me since our long summer together of me playing "Never My Love" by Etta James over and over and over and over again.

Jon turned me onto the wonderful iTunes feature of "Repeat One." Only after he had a Jon-style laughing fit when he saw that I made an iTunes playlist of one song listed 30 times. I guess I'm just not as tech savvy as I originally thought I was.

Jon has almost broken me of my repeat one habit by forcing me to listen to entire albums at a time. But I'll always enjoy my repeat one habit when he's not around.

•••

Poor me, Jon just came home and changed the song. "I think it's about time to switch songs..."

happy birthday jon!

I'm happy to say that I successfully made Jon's cake this year. No small feat considering last year's "birthday mound" (Jon's term, not mine : ).

(yes, I tried really hard to make it look this good!)

Just waiting for Jon to get home and then we're off to dinner at Nobana and then browsing at the Apple Store. I picked up Grey's Anatomy Season 2 today and we'll probably watch an episode or two after dinner.

new york city

Thought today would be an appropriate day to post this picture. Five years ago this morning I was in my car listening to NPR on the way to my morning class - sitting in my car and listening in unbelief at the news I heard. My roommates and I spent the rest of that day glued to our tv soaking in all the news.

I decided to download Jon's trip pictures to my computer and post some of them here for you all to see. He was in NYC last Thursday through Saturday on a business trip to see how his company's New York office sets everything up to get ideas for his new office building that should be finished in March next year. He got to view a couple of offices and see their systems and he also got to do a little bit of sightseeing and visiting with his friend, Michelle, from high school.

The rest of the album is here.

sick

I never thought I'd be able to say that I injured myself from coughing too much...until yesterday. The bronchitis that I've been sick with for the past two weeks has caused me to get costochondritis. The doctor told me that it basically feels like the equivalent of breaking a rib. Now, all I can do is lie around like an invalid because it hurts to breathe, cough, move, laugh, or lift anything. Luckily, I am well stocked with pain killers, inhalers, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and cough syrups with strong narcotics. I've never been on 5 prescriptions at once before! They're starting to learn my name at the drug store because I'm in there so often.

Jon is out renting the next disc of House and we've been catching up on episodes we haven't seen before. I'm so glad he's back home so that he can open and lift things for me and keep me company while I sit in agony. He's very good with appropriately placed, sympathetic "awws."