November came in with a hurricane…

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Hannah

… which means that this and this,

… now look like this:

But given what could have been, I can’t complain. For me, Hurricane Sandy meant two days off of class, some wet shoes (must get rain boots), mornings/afternoons in a cozy pile of pillows, and lots of Star Wars and Avengers fruit snacks (James’ version of “nonperishable food”).

I found out today that I was on one of the last buses that left the New York Sunday night before they stopped transportation, so I am counting my blessings.  Watching the footage and seeing the photos, I can’t believe what the New York metro area looks like now.  I feel grateful that the storm spared our section of the coast, but every time that we joke here about the two “rain days” we got out of it, I am reminded to pray for those that have lost so much, and are facing the task of rebuilding their lives.  I can’t even begin to imagine how daunting it would be to be facing these weeks ahead.

New York friends — you all are in my thoughts so much!

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The basic quiche.

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Hannah

I recently learned that my beloved Mouffetarte in Paris closed down, which might account for the insane number of quiches I have made lately, you know, trying to keep the universe quiche quota in equilibrium. Or it might just be because I love them, they are easy, and you can make them with literally any combination of stuff you have.

Sometimes we associate quiche with more classy dining, but really it is the most simple of all meals, as you just layer veggies and cheese, then dump some egg stuff over it. Here is my recipe for basic quiche, with this one ending up as a sliced zucchini, feta,  and balsamic soaked garlicky tomato quiche, topped with some fresh basil (a combination I stole from Rachel after she made it on my trip to Nashville). But really, any combination of veggies and cheeses can work. You know how I feel about goat cheese and fig, but that Brie and bacon (not a veggie… but oh so good!) one was pretty tasty too, and that roasted vegetable frittata is the same concept. Sometimes I substitute peppers for zucchini, or add mushrooms — basically anything to use up the odds and ends of veggies left in the fridge towards the end of the week.

Yes, this a gratuitous number of quiche photos, and yes, it took exponentially longer to make it because I had to cart each step from my poorly lit kitchen to our pretty table to take these vscocam photos. And yes, I did stand on a chair to take them and almost fell on the quiche at one point. And yes, I instagrammed one of them so the world could know I was quiching. James hates quiche, maybe even as much as he hates Instagram, so I do my quichestagramming while he is at work.

Any great quiche variations at there that I should try? James is out of town for a while, so it is egg pie for me!

(Note: since putting this up, I have found two typos in the photos above, but it just takes too long to fix. Sorry. Wanted you to know that I know, and I am ashamed.)

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Autumn and Eden.

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Hannah

“Being deathless, Eden could never have an autumn. Somehow, a great beauty of the world was missing from Eden, and will, maybe, hopefully, someday be missing again. Autumn will only be our memory of it, as for eternity we remember the brief flicker of a world where there was tragedy, and it was beautiful.“

 — Lyman Stone (best little brother ever, and most poetic future economist there is)Some images from fall, both in DC and from this past weekend in New York. Pretty sure that Sandy is going to blow all those beautiful leaves into the gutters this week, and then we will have to wait a whole year until we get another one.

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12 Hours in Manhattan

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Hannah

 Twelve hours in Manhattan: Bryant Park, Flatiron Building, New York Public Library, Crumbs (thanks Suzy and Sharon for the recommendation! My only complaint is that they print the number of calories below each cupcake type. I realize this is a law but it kind of sucks some of the fun out of eating cupcakes when you know they are 600 calories), 5th Avenue, FAO Swartz (dream fulfilled), burgers at the Burger Joint, Central Park (in which there was one pretty impressive Dirty Dancing jump re-enactment), The Met, Times Square, and Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway  (followed by a chance encounter with Paige Davis Page! ).  Lots of walking with cherished friends and the best tour guides anyone could ask for.

Definitely going to be making it back to this city sometime soon.

Through it all, we accomplished an epic engagement photo shoot. Before I go to bed to the sound of FRANKENSTORM (which I am physically incapable of typing in anything other than all-caps) arriving, I had to leave you two of my favorite pics.

Don’t you just love people in love in New York in the fall?

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New York state of mind

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Hannah

Tomorrow I am going to New York.

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.

One time when I was little, my parents promised that we would go en route to somewhere up east and that I could go to FAO Swartz if I kept my room clean in the meantime, which I devotedly did (as much as any kid can). Then we never went. And I have never forgotten, though they certainly have.

But anyway, I am super excited to finally go to New York, even if it is only for approximately 28 hours.

And, it will be in the fall.

“Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies.” – Joe Fox

When I think of New York, I automatically think of Meg Ryan movies…is this a problem? 

What are the very best things about New York?

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A Wedding Story: It all ends in a party.

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Hannah

Unsolicited Wedding Advice #LAST:

  • Remember that serious ceremony stuff? Well now it is time for a PARTY. Throw the type of party you would want to attend.
  • Be inspired… but be realistic. After grand visions of barns draped in silk garlands and lighted by candelabras that were, of course, vintage — my mom and I realized there is a reason so many people just opt for mason jars. Draped barn was replaced with public park gazebo (remember it from here?) and no candles were in sight, not that they were missed. Because you know what, so many details will not be noticed by anyone. So have fun decorating, but don’t get too carried away. Do however, go through your house finding all the old stuff you can repurpose as “vintage decor.” Because my mother had all sorts of crazy stuff saved, and knew some guy who would cut us all those wood rounds, we paid for very few decorations. Yes, my daughter will someday scorn our generation’s taste and opt for the poofy bows and tulle draped columns of our foremothers.
  • Before you use an entire car-full of baby’s breath, check to see if your finacé is extremely allergic to said flower. If it is too late for that, keep lots of allergy meds on hand.
  • Feed the people well, it gives them more energy to dance like idiots. If you can find a man whose mother makes a cake with a buttercream frosting so sinful that it dissolves if you look at it too hard, you should probably marry him so that his mom will make your wedding cakes.
  • Make sure that you have put someone clearly in charge of the flow of the reception, and make sure you tell all the other people who might think it should be them who that person is. Otherwise people will come up to you throughout the evening and ask you if they should go on to the next thing (cake cutting, bouquet toss, etc.) and you will freak out and say things like “THIS DAY IS GOING TOO FAST AND CAN WE SLASH THE TIRES OF ALL OF OUR GUESTS SO THEY HAVE TO STAY ALL NIGHT.”
  • If your parents have secret dance moves never before shared with the world, like the “ham-bone,” find out and then form dancing circles around them whenever possible to encourage them to break them out.
  • Relish the fact that after all the work, after all the planning, after all the pressure, and after all the money, you are married and have succeeded in having everyone you love, have loved, or will come to love, under one roof dancing the cupid shuffle. Enjoy it. 

What’s that you say— are those snocones?????? Why yes. We had a couple loved ones with severe dietary restrictions, and let’s be honest — who doesn’t want a snocone in the middle of July? My friend Jeremy’s parents happened to own all the snocone stuff and they came and ran the booth the whole evening, which meant that my wedding and the 18th birthday party I threw for my friends in high school were on par with each other. And in looking through our photos, James and I were happy to see that our snocones were enjoyed by a number of people just passing through the park, having no connection to our wedding.  Also, those colorful mints above were handmade by my granny…. all 700 of them. Yes, James and I did the awkward middle school sway, but only because we realized that these might be the only moments we could talk uninterrupted. Dad and I however, broke out a super classy foxtrot, which had been carefully practiced while wearing my old prom dress for weeks before.
Enough of the classy dancing — now on to the crazy dance fest that was the rest of the reception.And so the night ended with those awesome ribbon sticks making their way onto the dance floor and everyone dancing until we were all disgustingly sweaty. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Most importantly, it ended with me leaving as James’ wife, and that, I certainly wouldn’t have had any other way. 

All photos by Whitney Neal Photography.

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James hates Instagram.

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Hannah

Today is our three-month anniversary.

I’m sure that some day we will struggle to remember our year anniversary, but for now every month marks a milestone that necessitates champagne and steak for dinner.

I have learned a lot about James in these past three months, and a lot of them have to do with how wonderfully hilariously different we are: I love anything covered in weird veined cheeses while James only consumes dairy products from cows. Sometimes I watch the Les Misérables trailer just so I can enjoy a good cry, and James mourns that this is the final season of 30 Rock. James can fall asleep just by standing still long enough, and I have a night-time ritual with so many steps and accessories that it is a wonder I ever make it to bed. James piles – I stack. (Yes, these are VERY different.)

And, notably, James hates Instagram. Hates it. Thinks it is an agent of destruction at every event, a tool of disruption at every party, a senseless delay to every meal.

I, on the other hand, am fascinated with it like every good I-recently-graduated-to-an-iphone owner. Life is just so much prettier through a variety of trendy filters.

The obvious tension between our two positions on Instagram leads to lots of pictures like this:

Of course, James himself just moved from a phone with  a broken screen that only showed the last word of a text to an iphone so who knows – maybe he will soon join the Instagrammers?

Maybe, but probably not. And deep down, I am glad. Because as long as he stays off, there is someone to remind me to put down my phone and enjoy life as it is happening, not after the fact, through a haze of artificial filters. There is someone to keep me in check and remind me that it is the living of life that matters, not the looking at it or showing it to others. For that – and for so much else – I love him. 

(Disclaimer: Yes, James is eating apple pie for breakfast in the photo above. Early months of marriage are high on love, low on nutritional value. Love and domestic bliss can be rough on healthy aspirations)

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A Wedding Story: The part that actually matters the most

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Hannah

After a week of fall and Proust, we are back to wedding photos, but I promise – only for a couple more times.

Isn’t it funny that we spend months – and thousands and thousands of dollars – on the part of the wedding that is actually less important? Don’t get me wrong – the reception is awesome, and it really does matter (in my opinion) that you throw down a good time (read: FOOD) for the people that took the time and money to come celebrate with you.

But the part that actually matters, in the transformational sense, is the ceremony, which I think we usually forget as we are caught up in selecting first dance music, flowers, and invitation fonts. Luckily, I married James, who takes all things pomp and circumstance very seriously, so we sat down one afternoon early on in our wedding planning and planned out the whole ceremony.

For us, planning the vows was pretty simple: we opened the prayer books and marked the pages with the wedding ceremonies. Some would call this cliché or uncreative, but I don’t actually feel that wedding vows are the best place to exercise creativity. The reception would be a party, but the ceremony is about entering into a sacred covenant. These words aren’t like other words. Other words tell how you feel, but these words change who you are. They speak into being something that was not there before: a marriage. James and I didn’t want to pick something that made sense now, on the day we wrote them, but rather something that has united couples before God for hundreds of years. By exchanging vows that have established a sacred bond throughout centuries, we, in some small sense, have them backing us up.

Plus, those are the vows that I butchered when Barbie married Ken when I was 8, so they really trigger that marriage thing in my mind.

Beyond the vows, James and I wanted the ceremony to be meaty. You know those weddings where you are in and out of the ceremony in under 20 minutes? I always feel jipped in those. (Unless they are outside in the scorching sun, and then THANK YOU.)  We wanted the ceremony to have depth and meaning, not just to us who were participating, but to all who had joined us. We had prayers from our fathers and my grandfather, a blessing involving our whole family, a special music number (see below), the best homily I have ever heard, and some really amazing music, thanks to our very talented friends.  And yes, the whole wedding party sat down for the ceremony, because I love them.

Despite the fact that we had already had that special first look, the moment when I walked down the aisle with my father was as I had always imagined it.  It was as I had imagined growing up, when I looked at the pictures of my mother walking down the same aisle in the same church.

But it was also so much better than I could have ever imagine, as I could never have imagined James waiting at the end.

Remember the students I would brag about when I taught in KY? Chances are, if you rode in my car anytime that year, you were forced to listen to one of their concert recordings until you praised them as I saw fit. When I insisted that I wanted them to sing at the wedding, I know there were scoffers. But, when these students opened their mouths and sang ee cummings’ poem “i carry your heart with me,” there were tears. My own in fact, and I tried to applaud, but no one joined in, not realizing that even at a wedding you can applaud amazing singers.  This is where I would give you a link to hear the song, but I am technologically deficient, so I will have to get back to you on that. Trust me, it was perfect. 

And after bustling up that dress (11 points, mind you) and exchanging the veil my granny made for a little birdcage one, it was off to the party!

Unsolicited Wedding Advice #who knows now:

  • Plan your ceremony as carefully as you plan your reception. Because it matters, it really does, and the day should feel weighty because IT IS.  I believe that marriage is not to be entered into lightly, despite what our culture says, and it is pretty hard to enter lightly into something that is full of old school language like “With this ring, I thee wed, with my body, I thee worship, with all my worldy goods, I thee endow.”
  • Have something special and personal in the ceremony. Yes, I am all about the old school vows, but through the song, through messages in our programs, and through so many other little ways, it was still something intimate and personal.
  • Get a dress with pockets so that when you cry the entire ceremony, you have tissues. 

(Photos, as always, by Whitney Neal Photography.)

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Anguish, suffering, deception, separation: This is Proust.

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Hannah

I am supposed to be studying for my Proust midterm that starts in 45 minutes, but I was instead wasting time on Pinterest (totally legitimate precursor to studying). I came across this and I love it:

However, I am skeptical that it actually came from Proust. It is kind of the big thing these days to take quotes, rewrite them until they don’t resemble the original (think, The Message) and then cite them with the original author (see here, for more rants on this issue). Add to that the problem of Proust writing in super convoluted French and it is a wonder any quotes made it through.

The real problem is that this quote is so…. happy.  Well, I guess not exactly happy, but positive. And Proust just isn’t.  To prove it, and because I am supposed to be studying, here is a smattering of quotes taken directly from my notes (and thus, from my Proust-loving prof) and translated for your enjoyment.

  • “There is no hope, nor beauty, except that which we find in art.”
  • “This then is Proust’s Thesis: all relationships with reality are actually in our minds.”
  • “Love is a disease that kills its host slowly.”
  • “All human anguish comes down to separation from that which we love.”
  • “Life goes on… this is the greatest sadness.”
  • “Lying is part of being human—love is born of jealousy.”
  • “The human experience is one of anguish.”
  • “This then is Proust’s Thesis: we will lose all we possess. Loss is inevitable.”
  • “We must live so we can continue to suffer.”
  • “Proust is writing the death of the novel.”
  • “Why did he marry her – she’s a dumb ugly prostitute?”
  • “This then is Proust’s Thesis: reality will always deceive us…. We will always say ‘is this really all there is?’”
  • “Nothing has meaning.”
  • “Proust creates a character…. And then he kills them. Slowly.”
  • “To suffer, or not to suffer?”
  • “LOVE NEVER LASTS!”
  • “Art must begin in nothingness, only art can surge forward from forgetfulness.”
  • “Since the beginning of modernity, the poet is alone against the world. We have replaced God with men.”
  • “Man is despicable…. But he is still human, just like you and I.”

If, after reading these, you still think that the above optimistic quote is by Proust, I invite you to plunge into the 3000 pages of anguish, sadness, frustration and deception that is In Search of Lost Time, and let me know when you find it. It may indeed be there, but I can pretty much guarantee that it is followed by a phrase that – after taking up 6 pages and using 18 commas, 4 semi-colons, 12 dashes and 3 colons – goes something like this: “Unfortunately I could never go to new lands because I was a paranoid invalid who stayed home and pined for love I would never had.”

(Image credit: http://onwander.com/)

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We interrupt the onslaught of wedding photos….

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Hannah

… to announce that FALL HAS ARRIVED. And because you were probably needing a break from wedding stories and photos. I promise people, they are almost over.

Don’t you just breathe a collective sigh of relief every year on October 1st? I mean, I love summer – love it. But by the end of September I am cooked to a crisp, tired of reapplying deodorant all day, and have almost forgotten what my hair looks like without the added bonus of 100% humidity.

And then fall rolls with its cool promise of blustery evenings, steaming cider, and golden colors, and all I want to do is wear chunky sweaters and drink salted caramel hot chocolate. I want to break out my awesome cozy black cat socks (James might have judged them) and eat nothing but crisp apples (read: PIE) and these ridiculously easy pumpkin muffins. I want to watch The Village over and over and go around in this, my new fall coat that makes me look like a female version of Sherlock Holmes.  

It goes without saying that I think “Indian Summers” are a horribly dirty trick of Nature that makes me irrationally angry. Nothing perturbs me more than seasons that refuse to respect their boundaries and try to show up in months where they weren’t invited. Summer, let’s give it up gracefully and go hibernate in southern California for the next nine months.

Disclaimer: I can take no credit for the amazing artistic masterpiece above, that is, the Ron Swanson Jack-o-lantern. Our friend Richard carved it at our friends’ Oktoberfest party last night. Disclaimer #2: Yes, I did pick my pumpkin from the local pumpkin patch at Whole Foods. City life.

What are you most excited about for fall?

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