The Art in Life

5 Things I Love Today

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Hannah

I’m not supposed to be writing this post. In theory, I should be at the DC DMV car inspection center right now getting our new car inspected, as it was driven out from KY last Friday night by some good souls and we only have until Friday to get all the monstrous paperwork done. Unfortunately, when I went to drive it this morning, the security system freaked out and I awkwardly jumped around in front of a massive group of amused construction workers while the pesky car tooted its horribly obnoxious horn (think of an elephant farting) and refused to let me turn it on. Now I am back inside eating a second slice of this cake and trying to think of happier things. I think it’s a day in need of a love list, and as always, the title should be sung as outlined here.

The Washingtonian Magazine. If you are living in DC and not getting this magazine… WHY? I will send you a coupon for some dollars off. I’m pretty sure the Washingtonian was specifically designed to give me everything I want in a magazine. Schedules of all the fun things to do in DC every month? Check. Lists of all the best _______ (donuts, bakeries, shoe stores, fountains, etc.) in DC? Check. Personal interest stories that have a focus on DC residents? Check. I keep mine stacked in a special tray for easy reference and the other day I noticed that this year they are slowly printing a picture of the Capitol on the binding, with each magazine bearing a separate piece. I just about wrote the editor a love letter.
Revlon Colorburst Balm/Stain. Remember how excited I was about my Nars lipstick? I still am, but this weekend I discovered these lip balms and they last just as long, have awesome colors… and are under $10. Score. As a personal testimony, please know that I wore a hot pink one during an entire afternoon of biking, a picnic, and a shower, without re-applying. I plan on spending the rest of the summer in obscenely bright and disturbing shades of lipstick.
Pandora “Summer Hits of the 90’s” Station. I know that all the cool kids are using Spotify these days, but I am a fuddy-duddy stuck on Pandora, and after this station, my love is even more intense. Not only do I know almost every word to every song, the late 90’s being the climax of my need-to-be-cool fueled radio worship, but it is the perfect jam mix for summer. I am just one key ring full of various Lip Smackers flavors and some roll on body glitter away from sheer bliss.
Everlane cotton V-neck Tees. Recently I did a wardrobe purge in which I collected and donated all the clothes I hate. My closet now has a lot of empty hangers, as I have virtually no summer shirts I like, and we are officially past chambray season. I see people on blogs and in magazines wearing that adorable long sleeve button-up or sweater with shorts look and I love it… but do those people not live places where summer is actually hot? DC was built in a swamp and summer is a killer. Clothing has to be light and breathable. After hearing some friends sing the praises of Everlane, I finally ordered some of their luxury tees and I DON’T WANT TO EVER WEAR ANYTHING ELSE. I also invested in one of these awesome cotton dresses during an amazing sale and my summer wardrobe is now set.
James is home this week. And I love that more than 90’s music, eternal lipstick, breezy cotton clothes, and enlightening reading. I love it more than just about anything, and I’m trying to soak up as much of the summer as I can during these short days he is here.

What are 5 things you love today? Leave a comment below or, if you are of the blogging persuasion and have nothing else to write about today, share your own list and link back so I can read them until I figure out how to disable my fart-honking car.

PS: One of my friends pointed out that Everlane gives perks for referrals, so if I convinced you to buy one of these awesome tees, do feel free to use this link. This blog doesn’t make any money and I like it that way… but I also wouldn’t mind more shirts. https://www.everlane.com/n/zo4c5j

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 5 things I love today, daily life, DC, lists, love | 24 Comments

Whitney & Jason

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Hannah

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged DC, engagement, love, photography | Leave a comment

Convalescing.

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Hannah

I am not vain enough to assume that you, dear Internet, actually have a vested interest in my life and keep track of what happens in our little corner of DC. Most of you probably just check in from time to time to see if we have babies yet, because we all know that that is when blogs get really interesting, and I am a full 1-3 kids behind most of the people I graduated with, not to mention before. Sorry all, no babies.

But in case you have been on pins and needles since I announced my wisdom tooth plight a couple weeks ago, I wanted to provide an update on my operation and subsequent convalescence. Because what good is a blog if I can’t whine about the first world luxury of modern dental care and the miracle that is Jello?

When I mentioned on here that I was concerned about who would take me to have my teeth pulled since James would be gone, I was so touched by the outpouring of support. So many people texted, emailed, called, Facebooked, etc. to offer to look after my drooling self. Even though I have only been James-less in DC for a week after being in Kentucky, I feel so blessed by the friends that have looked out for me. My procedure was on the easy end of the wisdom tooth spectrum, as my bottom ones were pulled in high school and the top ones had come all the way in and just needed to be extracted. Thus, I was only knocked out for about 20 minutes and the oral surgeon predicted a speedy recovery with no fear of dry sockets and no need for those squirty bottles that clean out the wound. Just me, a lot of bloody gauze, and some rocking pain pills- none of that noble silent suffering without meds for me.

Our sweet friends Laurie Anne and Taylor came with me and played babysitter throughout the morning. I am thankful to them for filling my meds, driving me home, setting me up with Netflix, yogurt, water, and generally making sure I made it. But I am most thankful to them for filming my drive home. Since I wasn’t out long, I wasn’t totally out in the car ride home. Instead, I was just ridiculous, opinionated, and very, very chatty. Admittedly, this isn’t very different than my usual state, only plus narcotics. I remember having pleasant conversation, but when Laurie Anne sent me the videos, I was astounded about the passionate opinions I shared under the influence of medication.

Were I a person with less self-respect, no plans for a career, or a desire to have a humiliating video go viral, I would share the videos here. If you are someone who actually knows me, feel free to text me if you want to see them. As for you, dear Internet, I will pass on some transcripts and spare you the truly unattractive gauze-swollen face and bad breakout I had going on.

The last thing I remember before I was knocked out was asking the nurse if I could keep the teeth and she informed me that they are considered biohazard material and must be tossed. When I “came too” I was still stuck on this and spent most of the car ride home bemoaning the injustice: “They’re gone… and they’re like… I wanted to keep them and they wouldn’t let me… I’m really upset because… it’s just not just and I just feel like they should have let me keep them. Because, I GREW THEM… they didn’t grow them… I GREW them… They are my property, you know? They will probably sell them on the black market for teeth implants…. I bet they were like MINING for teeth… I bet they are going to sell the other one [one had a cavity]… You could get top dollar…I bet you could get like four or five thousand dollars…. There are people that don’t have teeth… I met them in Kentucky. They don’t have no teeth…. That lady was very nice, but I feel like… I feel like I was robbed. I think we should break in and get them back…. I was thinking, it would be easier if we were in Harry Potter and we could be like EXPELLIARMUS TOOTH! … And then we could grab them and the dentist couldn’t have them… I just feel like… that would be easier.”(Obviously, non-drugged Hannah might have thought of a better spell, but there you have it.)
Laurie Anne and Taylor then proceeded to tell me about their sweet dog who was recently attacked by a black lab. I responded: “She’s just a victim… black labs are no good. When you see one . . . you have to climb a tree.”
They also mentioned that they are moving to AZ and I astutely noted: “The snow here… one time it was so cold that it snowed IN our apartment.”
For some inexplicable reason, I started talking about the Old Testament, offering sage spiritual advice: “That’s why you gotta do what God tells you…. or… he’ll just screw you over and open the ground and you’ll fall in… that happened… in the Bible… It was a long time ago… like over 50 years ago.”
And finally, as we were parking and Laurie Anne commented on the beautiful blue door on our neighbor’s house, I thought of a great plan: “I bet I could steal it [insert awesome arm flopping]… I could just… get it… off the hinges…. and then… I could hang it on my wall like Pinterest.”

Don’t worry – this amazing fruit smoothie was consumed without a straw. And made from three day-old fruit salad because that’s how we roll around here.

After a morning of snoozing and TV, I felt pretty good, and deeply amused by my earlier commentary. It appears that my drugged-up alter-ego is a tooth selling thief with a fear of God and black labs. Good to know.

Really, this convalescing thing is kind of awesome. I am eating all the foods I usually don’t permit myself (read: runny Kraft mac-n-cheese and lots of strawberry Jello) and I am burning through various TV series. I discovered just in time that season three of Call the Midwife was about to expire from PBS and so I have been blazing through all the episodes, cringing at the seemingly very real representations of 1950’s birth in London’s East end. Seriously people, I’m all about women having the freedom to give birth where they want, but every time someone tells me they don’t want a hospital birth because they are just “so sterile” I think…. isn’t that how they are supposed to be? Sterile. Clean. Shiny. Count me in.

Now then. Back to convalescing. In his absence, James hid a gift card to a local gelato shop in our bookcase for me to find. I’m planning a big outing today for some creamy goodness. I might even change from my pjs and wash my face.

Maybe. Wouldn’t want to push it. No sense in rushing recovery.

Anyone else have crazy wisdom teeth/ any other surgery stories?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged daily life, rants | 13 Comments

At the beach.

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Hannah

Summer2014-51 I cried a good chunk of my drive home from Kentucky on Friday, but now I am settling back into what promises to be a wonderful DC summer. A lot of this summer will find me outside of the District and I am trying to soak up all of the things I love about DC summers before the next trip away. Picnics. Cookouts. Bike rides around the city. Long dinners with friends. These are the simple joys of summer.

I took a little trip to the Chesapeake over the weekend with some family and friends, including my brother’s girlfriend, who is also my roomie for the summer and it is basically like a long slumber party around here. Picnicking at the beach with your favorite people is the perfect way to spend a summer Saturday. Even if that beach isn’t technically the ocean and is in fact more like 20 feet of debris-strewn sand. Laying on my back and listening to the water swish, it sounded like summer.

I’m hoping for more beach outings this summer, as well as all the things that DC has to offer during these months where it feels like we are living in a dishwasher. What are you most looking forward to this summer?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beach, friends, summer | 2 Comments

Car talk.

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Hannah

I am somewhat of a shopping beast. I think I was meant for a bartering economy, one where you could haggle prices and trade for goods. I can fight for a lower price even in countries where I don’t speak the language, but I don’t put those skills on the shelf when in the States. James and I went to Macy’s during our first year of marriage and he experienced a full range of emotions shifting from fear to shame to admiration to elation as I fought the price of his new suit and alteration tooth and nail. Sometimes I seek out clothing with defects just so I can fight for a lower price, and don’t even think of trying to tell me I can’t use multiple coupons. There will be blood.

But put me in a car lot and I become a simpering pile of fear willing to pay anything and believe whatever lies are offered.

Which is unfortunate, since I had to buy a car this week, helping me realize that car shopping is now at the top of my list for “Least Favorite Activities Ever.”

I’ve been in Kentucky for almost two weeks, during which James made his big work transition. There have been a lot of stressful moments over the past two weeks, moments where the enormity of all that is uncertain right now threatened to send me spiraling into the fetal position and a big bowl of ice cream. We realized over the course of last week that James absolutely has to have a car out where he is, and our 12 year old Honda just can’t make that journey. According to my mechanic, “We just need to make the patient comfortable.” For a week, James looked into buying a car where he is, only to realize that DC law would require he drive it the 20 hours to DC to register it before driving it back. Not cool. Furthermore, car shopping without a car is pretty difficult. Thus, we finally decided over the weekend that the best option was for me to buy a car in Kentucky.

This is probably the moment to admit that everything I know about car shopping I learned from that one episode of This American Life. I don’t even know what different types of cars look like. When I’m somewhere and someone asks me to grab something from their car and describes it as a [car make] [car model], it’s like they are speaking a foreign language. Color. Bumper stickers. Car decals. Major dents and scrapes. Those are things that identify cars to me.

But after four days of frantic car shopping, it’s like scales have fallen from my eyes and I am seeing the cars around me as actual entities differentiated by more than color. It is thrilling and terrifying. There are so many cars out there… and they are all so hard to buy.

Day 1 of car shopping was a failure, other than the fact that I learned about all the hidden fees they don’t tell you about until you are ready to close. My mom came along for moral support, and to cast withering stares to combat my puppy-like eagerness to be liked by the salespeople offering overpriced cars. I also learned they actually are serious about those prices they suggest. I, naively indoctrinated by lofty stories of swindling car salespeople beat out by thrifty shoppers, firmly believed that they would just whack off thousands of dollars from the price. No. Maybe if I was buying a new car, but when the amount you are trying to cut is a double-digit percentage of the price, they laugh at you and show you the door. By the end of first day I was genuinely insulted and disheartened: do they not want to sell me a car? Cue tears, despondency, and rash declarations.

I went into subsequent days armed with a page of research from James and a stiff resolve on my budget. I wasn’t going to even step into cars beyond our budget because now I was in the know about those sneaky fees. And also in the know about my own weakness for shiny less used cars that glide through the air like it was butter. James had also told me I should pop the hood and look under it… which I did, and squinted my eyes thoughtfully as if I knew what I was looking for. I test drove cars, asking important questions like, “If I have kids in the next couple years, how many car-seats can I get in here?” and “Um, I have a tape-deck Ipod adapter… will that work in here?” (The answer to that last one is obviously no, as tape decks are sadly a thing of the past.)

In the end, after many stressful conversations with James, one trip to a trusty mechanic, test drives on every car in the area that met our budget, mileage, and body requirements, one full out breakdown in the kitchen, and many complicated negotiation sessions where I fear-texted James under the table in all caps, we have a car. When I went to the bank to get the check, I considered just dashing away and telling James that this was too big a commitment and I was scared of the car industry, but I couldn’t do that. Sometimes you have to do things that you hate and aren’t good at because they have to get done and being an adult means no one else can, will, or should do them for you. Sometimes you have to pull up your courage pants, strap on your big girl shoes, and dig in until you come out with the keys to your [new to us but actually rather used] car.

Oh, and obviously those pictures are not of our new car, but rather a beautiful car I photographed in Paris when the alley beside my apartment was used as a movie set. Our new car is cute, but as I gleefully told James, the optional third row has us flirting dangerously close with soccer mom status.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged daily life | 18 Comments

Ahoy!

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Hannah

Summer2014-1 This past weekend I interrupted my week of lounging in Kentucky to go to Cincinnati to help throw a baby shower for my sister-in-law. As soon as Laura told me she was having a baby I was all about THE SHOWER. True, showers, like all baby things, tend towards the feminine side, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t have some big ideas for my nephew. A Le Petit Prince themed shower with foxes on everything! A Peter Rabbit themed shower where we pretended that everything was masculine because Peter is a boy! And finally the winner, a nautical shower, mostly because I wanted invitations that announced “Ahoy! It’s a boy!” As you can see in those photos, the ladies in charge of food and decorations (I held down the invites and games) outdid themselves. That cake? It is double layered with lemon curd filling and that is marshmallow fondant so you can actually enjoy eating the pretty decoration. The anchors on those cupcakes? Those are handmade dyed white chocolate edible anchors. From the saltwater taffy favors, to the convicting scriptural charge delivered by one of the ladies, everything about this shower was perfect.

After the shower, and after our cake and breakfast casserole-induced coma on the floor, I made Laura pose for some bump photos. Yes, I dragged a pregnant women down a muddy embankment and made her stand in a creek so I could take pictures. But really, she is so cute that you can’t blame me. Summer2014-21 Summer2014-23 Summer2014-30 Summer2014-31 Summer2014-42 Can’t wait till my little nephew makes his appearance in September!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baby, family, party, photography | 9 Comments

Rainy Day Ramblings

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Hannah

It’s a rainy day here in Kentucky, the kind that forces you lazily inside and makes you dig back out the sweater that you swore off until September. I don’t really mind. This week, despite constant threat of rainstorms, I have squeezed in a good chunk of pool time with my granny, resulting in bright pink shoulders, chest, and face…. and stubbornly white legs. Natural color blocking at its finest.

Earlier this week I went to a weekly outdoor jazz festival with friends and one of them brought his blue Great Dane puppy. BE STILL MY SOUL. I’m pretty sure I have never seen a cuter puppy, with huge feet, floppy ears, and the sweetest sad eyes ever. I MUST HAVE ONE. I am bent on convincing James that a 160-pound apartment dog is a good idea, even if he seems resistant. Then, I hit on perhaps my best idea ever: a blue Great Dane/ poodle crossbreed…. A GREAT DOODLE. I mean, if everything in the park is getting with a poodle these days to create an entire subset of delightfully curly pooches, why not? Who is with me on this one?

Sometime this semester, when things got rough and winter destroyed my hair and skin, I decided that lipstick and fingernail polish make me pretty. Yes, I realize true beauty is an inner quality and confidence or whatever, and yes, James ironically hates both, but logic didn’t enter into my feelings. When I was slaving over German and looked down and saw pretty nails, I couldn’t help but think Hello gorgeous! You may have no clue what case that adjective is but your hands are perfection. And when I just didn’t have energy to care about my usually styled mane and resigned myself to yet another messy bun day, some bold lips had me puckering up in the mirror and thinking You, coral lips, are majestic. You are unstoppable. You can do anything. Though I am toying with the idea of mint or orange nails for the summer, my go-to was and still is this one, a [cheap] perfect pinky tan that doesn’t stand out, yet still looks pretty. As for lips, I loved a bright coral gloss from Mary Kay for awhile, but this summer I wanted to invest in something new and longer lasting. After an hour in Sephora and a very convincing beauty specialist, I walked out the proud wearer of this red beauty, Nars Golshan, and I just want to kiss everything in sight, a real possibility, since it lasts forever.

With James gone, I am thinking about how my cooking and eating will change. I love this post by Bethany about cooking for one, and I will definitely see more of the foods James hates (weird cheeses, strangle piles of runny eggs and veggies, endless mounds of eggplant). I am intrigued by this eggplant dish and this quinoa bake, and I absolutely cannot get enough of this cake. It’s so healthy that I have had it for breakfast several times recently. Don’t judge. Anything grain-free and refined sugar-free is automatically good for you, right? Even if I smother it in fresh whipped cream and berries????

Summer lets me catch up on some of the cool articles around the Internet. For instance, I am now ready to strengthen my core while washing dishes, a good thing since James was the dish doer in our home. I also came across this article, and wanted to share it with everyone I have ever met. Maybe you’ve noticed the slew of “enlightened” Christian bloggers and writers who are all into attacking the church’s modesty message and push. When I read there articles, I always get uneasy. Yes, maybe some churches go too far, and yes, you are not responsible for someone else’s weaknesses. But still… I think that they all miss some key points. Firstly that the Christian life is one of developed consideration of others, and second (and more importantly) modesty isn’t first and foremost a spiritual thing, but a refined knowledge of the appropriate dress and comportment in different situations. That’s why I LOVED this hilarious article about workplace fashion crimes. She manages to talk – in a totally nonspiritual way since it is not at all a religious blog – about the importance of presenting yourself well. Her about page is also awesome, and her fashion posts make me want to use all of my stipend on Diane von Furstenberg dresses.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ramblings | 7 Comments

Coming home means…

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Hannah

Piles of shoes by the back door because I will never ever ever be considered adult enough to be allowed to keep my shoes on in my mother’s house.

Stolen moments practicing piano when no one is home because I love playing but I am so bad and out of practice that I only do it in an empty house.

Not making my bed because I am reveling in being in a house bigger than our tiny apartment, where an unmade bed makes the whole place look messy.

Trying to get my mom to make all my favorite foods, like Swedish meatballs, cabbage slaw, and everlasting sweet tea.

Taking time to play with the cats, Scarlett and Ivan the Terrible, who do not get along at all and must be doted on separately.

Swimming with my granny and dashing into her house to avoid those wonderful freak summer storms that rain down big raindrops where sun shone moments before.

Central air. Satellite TV. First world bliss.

Family. Porch swings. Horse pastures. Fireflies that make the fields look like they are alive. That smell of freshly mowed grass and honeysuckle bushes.

All the perfect things that make up early Kentucky summers.

Image via this tumblr.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged home, kentucky, summer | 9 Comments

Goodbyes.

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Hannah

Today I am loading up the car and headed to Kentucky to spend two weeks with my family. I love going home, but this goodbye to James packs a greater punch because when I get back, he’ll be gone. On Sunday morning he moves several states away. For the next five or six months, he will be traveling, and the only times I see him will be visits with suitcases in tow.

More on that in a minute, but first some photos from our last full day together last Saturday, when we tried to squeeze as much city fun into one day as possible before family came to town and the work week started.

Astrodonuts

When I look at these pictures, I can’t help but feel sad all over again that he is leaving. This isn’t a decision we entered into lightly, but rather one that came with so much prayer and thought, so many late night conversations and assessing every angle. And in the end, it was just the right thing. The scary, hard, uncertain, daring right thing. Leaving the job that he has held for the past four years is a pretty bold thing, but if we can’t take risks in the childless, mortgage-less, overall commitment-less stage that we are in now, when can we take them?

Plus, I really can’t be too dramatic and complain, as I have watched friends walk through much longer and more painful separations. I think of Susannah and Josue, and the long months they waited countries apart, working through the paperwork nightmare that comes with marrying someone from another country. I think of a friend at work who is spending two years getting her MA while her husband is in med school elsewhere. I think of the friends who have waved goodbye on military bases, sending spouses into the uncertainty of war. I really have it easy. No one will be shooting at him, I know this time is finite, and I will get to see him occasionally.

But still. I will miss him.

We haven’t gotten over that newlywed stage where I call him in the middle of the day just because I miss him and I still get excited when I hear him coming up the stairs after work. He is the first person I call with news, the person who can make me laugh the most, and the person who makes our little place home. I will miss Netflix marathons, countless walks to get milkshakes (though his absence will certainly mean healthier meals – KALE ALL THE TIME!), and staying up late talking about everything and nothing at all. Marriage means that we’ve spent the past two years learning everyday what it means to do daily life together, and now we have to pull that apart.

I don’t doubt that good things will come of this. Other than the great professional step he is taking, him being gone means I don’t feel bad about all the traveling I am doing this summer. It means lots of girl nights and hosting new friends for dinner. It means sleeping in the dead center of the bed and watching the Bachelorette without judgment and heckling. It means cultivating consideration of others, as I will be reminded that walking into church without a husband is a daunting task and being the one forgotten on a Saturday night kind of sucks. It means growth.

But still. I will miss him. And a whole lot of tears happened in our house over the last 24 hours.

(On a less emotional note, I’m getting my wisdom teeth out while he’s gone… which means I am accepting offers for someone to take me and babysit my drugged up self afterwards. When I informed the oral surgeon that I would just metro home, he laughed at me. And as those photos show, the fact that I pre-game brunch with donuts means that the dentist and I have spent lots of time together lately. I should probably work on that while James is away too.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged daily life, donuts, husband, love, marriage | 29 Comments

These are my people.

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Hannah

This past weekend, in a totally random perfect alignment of everything, we had a mini family reunion in city. My people came to town. My aunt and uncle took the train up from texas to meet their children and grandchildren down from New York, my cousin came up from Georgia to celebrate her graduation from medical school, and we convinced Zach to come up from Charlottesville, totaling in almost half of my mother’s side of the family being in town. I haven’t seen these a lot of these people since my own wedding, and even then I missed a lot of the awesome family time because I was distracted getting married. Having them in town, getting to catch up, and letting them get to know James made me so happy. Here are a couple snapshots from the weekend. Spring-150 // My life over the past couple years has been a never-ending saga of getting bangs and then growing them out. I just can’t decide how I feel about them, which leads to this, the state of perpetual shaggy bang that I hate, but can’t seem to shake. // //Donuts are taken very seriously in this family. // //My boys, minus Zach who got suckered into carrying the camera and taking pictures. Having my grown-up baby brother in town never ceases to make my day, and convincing big brother to come up makes it all the better. They just grew into such good ones and I love how they welcomed James into our family.//// THE DOCTOR IS IN! I said that probably nine hundred times last weekend. My cousin Juliana has been talking about being a doctor since we were 5 and I am so proud of her. The full force of her medical degree came into use while entertaining the younger cousins through a long family dinner at Founding Farmers. //// These cuties, my little second-cousins, turning a public fountain into a splash pad.// Spring-165 The wonderful thing about being my family is that they are my people, and we understand each other. We can complain about all the things about our clan that drive us crazy, while still recognizing all the things they gave us of value. I wish I had more pictures from this weekend to show you all these precious faces and momenbs. These are my people, and I love them.