I love it when the sky is already light when I wake up.

This morning made me so excited for spring: sunglasses, sandals, loose tops without an undershirt tucked into my pants, walking my dog in daylight... I'm trying really hard not to think about fruit yet because it's too early for what is an annual obsession of mine. See, I don't buy much fruit besides bananas and citrus all winter, partly as a cost-effective measure, a little bit out of a concern for buying things more locally and reducing impact on the planet (because bananas grow in Maryland, duh), and mostly because you want me to pay $6 for something that is hard and doesn't hardly taste like anything? What?

But fruit is my favorite food, maybe even before cake and Ethiopian food, so every year when there are flowers starting to bloom on trees and the sun decides we can be friends again I start thinking HOLY SHIT cherries and peaches and strawberries --

Shit, I got to stop. It's only February.  Let's just talk about how amazing it is that my west facing bedroom isn't 100% dark when my alarm goes off. And how pretty the early morning light is, and how it makes me not hate my life so much when I wake up in the morning.

I'll leave you with this, the overall sound of which pretty much sums up how I feel about spring. When you listen to it, pretend you can feel the sun kissing the back of your neck and that you're wearing a t-shirt and that you don't have to go to work and sit on the grass instead and drink ICED coffee because it's warm enough that you don't necessarily want hot coffee. Yeah, think about that.

(Does anyone know if you can embed songs on Blogger?)

Still sad

I recently made a donation to the Washington Office on Latin America in honor of Alicia Emelina de Garcia, co-founder of CoMadres. Today I got an email from them asking if I would like them to send a note to Alicia telling her that I had made a gift in her name, and I had to explain that no, that wouldn't be necessary, because she passed away over the summer.




Link to my Haverford blog from one of the summers I went to El Salvador.

Throwitmomthrowitplease!

This morning on my walk with Raleigh, I found a sodden, flat, falling apart soccer ball on the street. I had a crummy old soccer ball at the Channing house, and Raleigh played with it until I threw it out because he had torn off all the leather and was tearing it up and leaving little bits of black rubber all over the yard.

Anyway, I dribbled this soccer ball I found onto the sidewalk and my dog FLIPPED OUT. He was so excited. "Mom are you going to throw it just throw it mom kick it my way are you going to please please please?" He carried that ball in his mouth the whole way home. This is a dog who will happily carry his frisbee for me... for about 10 feet, until he smells something interesting and nonchalantly drops it on the sidewalk mid stride for me to deal with. But this ball, he carried it the whole way, across streets and everything. He looked ridiculous. I didn't have my phone or camera on the walk, but I put him out in the yard with it when we got back because he was still so excited. See:

Sorry for the crappy quality, I was shooting through the window so that he wouldn't spend the whole time thrusting it against my legs in an attempt to get me to try to kick it away from him.

Also, here are a few things that make me happy about my house:

Raleigh's crate, where he will only voluntarily go when he knows I'm leaving (because then I give him a treat), is one of Chloe's favorite places in the house. And why not? It's soft and right next to the radiator. So what if it smells like dog.

We have a lot of bikes.

Chloe also really likes to sleep on top of the radiator. She'll frequently curl up in a ball with her face pressed against the wall or partially under the little shelves we've got there. I especially like this picture because she looks really stupid.

Travel!

Two trips coming up, one last minute and one has been planned since last summer.

Coming up first: BRAZIL. Colin's sister and brother-in-law live in Salvador de Bahia, so we are going to go hang out on the beach and look at architecture for a week. Plus, a kitten.

Picture stolen from Anna's blog, annaabroadabroad (dot) blogspot (dot) com

Then a couple weeks later I am FINALLY going to go meet this delicious little morsel:

I'm a little disappointed I waited this long to take this trip (and won't be going till April..) because it turns out I'm going to use up all my vacation on BRAZIL and will be going on unpaid leave to Costa Rica, which is what I was trying to avoid... but on the other hand, little Kaleb will have a lot more personality than he did 6 months ago! He'll be 9 months old in April! Oh man oh man. It's hard to decide what I'm more excited about: spending a week on the beach or spending a week eating baby toes. HolyshitBRAZIL. HolyshitBABY.

Brookland, DC

We got a little bit of snow not too long ago, and I took some pictures on my walk to the Metro. I'm still cautious for my brain, since another blow to it during the 6 months after the first would be seriously bad news. So, unfortunately, that means no riding in the snow for me. Just to be safe.

Anyway, here's my neighborhood!

See how it's all dim? That's because the sun hasn't come up over the houses yet.  COME ON, sun! You can do it!

This is one of my favorite houses in the neighborhood. It's round!

And there's the sun! Almost up:

Why being a grown-up is awesome

Elise and I had Date Night on Wednesday. For the special occasion we had cake for dinner with Doritos as an appetizer.

Of course, we kind of made up for it later by making kale-spinach smoothies.

As far as smoothies go: so-so. As far as ways to eat kale go: up there with kale chips, as far as I'm concerned. (We learned that one from Stephen and Ranajoy.)

Christmas 2010 with the SteigerBussLings

I met up with my family in Rocky River, OH for Christmas - that's where my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins (on Ruby's side) live, as well as another aunt who lives nearby in Columbus. There were 13 of us for Christmas, and we all seem to be incapable of holding back when it comes to presents. This is the result:

As you can see, we take Christmas Very Seriously.

Very, very seriously.

I mean, Christmas is serious business. All those presents to open and enjoy. It's definitely not fun at all.

Oh, speaking of presents: my mom got a nerdy teacher present. Can you tell what's in that box? This is one of the presents she was most excited about:

It's an electric pencil sharpener. In the above picture you can see that she feels a little silly about it because none of us are teachers so we don't understand, but really, truly, she is VERY EXCITED about this pencil sharpener!

Also, my cousin is in college.

WTF, I remember when he was a little lump who sometimes cried.

Oh look, I'm going to make a guest appearance on my blog!

I got four mugs this Christmas. Which is cool because I really like mugs. Weird, I know, whatever. But people: I think I'm set for next Christmas, too.

Citrus in the winter

Every now and then I manage to get busy in the kitchen early enough to catch the really lovely light in our living room.

Zested oranges remind me of a book I had as a kid, which I think is why I am extremely fond of them.

A retrospective of 2010

2010 was a very full year for me. A lot of really great things happened and a number of really shitty things as well. I am very happy to say that I continue to feel like a better and more complete person, particularly post- college. DC has treated me well, and I feel my blessings keenly. Here is an incomplete view into the past year, (and if I get inspired I might do another one later, including pictures that didn't make it onto either of my blogs during the year).

I started the year with a trip to New Mexico. Holy goodness, New Mexico, you are stunning.

Also, my mama turned 50! Wowza.

February brought record snowfall in DC.

I was ill-equipped, having left most of my winter gear in Minnesota because I scoffed at what DC calls "winter." It came back to bite me when I was playing in 4 feet of snow wearing non-waterproof boots and jeans on rotation (Soak one pair through and hang it on the radiator to dry while wearing the other pair. Rinse, repeat.) Nevertheless, my dog's extreme joy about the snow was infectious, and helped me have a food time even though my housemates were both complete winter bums.

Obviously one of the best ways to deal with winter is by making and eating a whole lot of cake. This one is a boston cream pie (though it is actually a cake, I assure you).

Raleigh found a new buddy, and I found a new friend (of the extra special variety).

I made -- holy shit -- baklava:

I have to tell you: the crackle and amazing aroma that happens when you pour the syrup over the hot-from-the-oven baklava is pure magic.

Spring, probably the most miraculous of seasons, happened.

I also went through a mild cupcake obsession, complete with dinosaur sprinkles. I regret nothing.

Then the farmer's market happened and I discovered strawberries and cream. Strawberries and cream are such a simple, such an obvious, such a delicious pairing that they should probably be illegal. Luckily they're not.

My dog practiced his hand-eye coordination. Er, his TEETH-eye coordination.

My dear Elise graduated from Cornell, and I went to celebrate both her graduation and her move to DC! (And, you know, help drive her shit down.)

It got hot and I ate way too many freeze pops. All the time. If one is going to live in Washington DC, one must learn how to cope with summer. So what if my method involves consuming copious amounts of frozen sugar with alarming colors and artificial flavors?

This guy and I decided we would try to move in together after the FCNL internship:

The flicking-you-off is accidental! I promise!

My Costa Rica-sister Iliana had a beautiful baby boy, Kaleb Arroyo Mena.

Around the same time we also learned that both of these women (Patricia on the left and Alicia on the right) were struggling with uterine cancer, which seems to be linked to the atrocious things they endured during their capturas during the civil war.

Madre Alicia, the last surviving founder of COMADRES, passed away on August 11, 2011, due to complications from her cancer and the treatments. She was an incredible woman: brave, loving, devoted, faithful, and committed to her beliefs and the work of the organization she helped start. Her loss is nothing short of devastating.

I don't have pictures for these, but they must be mentioned:
One of my classmates from Haverford died, unexpectedly and far too soon: Dylan Ravenfox, on August 8.
Becca's grandfather passed away, in the fall.
Elise's dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, which has also spread to his brain.

Elise and I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive. A lot of people went to the Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive:

Oh yeah, I moved in with Stephen and Ranajoy (see the boston cream pie picture, above) and Elise, my friend since 7th grade and co-blogger on Beautiful/Delicious. We like our pets.

My family came to visit at the end of October, including Fernando, the SteigerBuss household's exchange student from Germany.

We took DC by storm.

Oh, and suddenly my sisters are both way too cool for school.

In November I crashed my bike.

My face came out of it okay, but I suffered a severe concussion accompanied by a minor brain contusion. I've said it before, but I need to say it again - thank you: to Colin, for going to the hospital with me and then taking sick leave to stay with me while I was so loopy I struggled to complete sentences without forgetting words; to Elise, for picking up where Colin left off; to my parents, for calling every day (if not more) to check on me and talk me down from my alarming levels of anxiety (caused in part, I think, by the anti-seizure medication I was on); and to Alex's dad, Larry, for giving me long-distance medical advice since I don't have a primary care provider at the moment and consequently had absolutely no way to receive follow-up care after being discharged from the hospital.

Another one of my classmates from Haverford, Scott Muller, died on (if I'm not mistaken) November 12. I'm a little fuzzy about the date because I found out after I'd beat up my brain, but that should not be seen in any way as diminishing the alarm and sadness I feel about his passing.

And once again it is winter. After cake, the best way to deal with winter is soup. Lots of soup.

I went to New York to ring in the new year with these lovely ladies:

They are, as you can see, serious about everything, all the time.

I feel kind of odd about not having a neat way to tie this up, but the fact is that life doesn't pause just because it's the end of a year. More to come in 2011.

Pick your jaw off the floor and wipe the drool off your chin. Turn off that video.

I'm not sure how it happened, I think I was looking for a Phoenix video on youtube, but I just found myself watching EllesGlitterGossip. Next thing I know I'm staring at the screen, my jaw slack and my eyes glazed over. Because she talks like this: "Ijustlovethistimeofyear!IloveeverythingaboutitIlovethemusic!andthefood!andthedecorations!andthelights!andthetraditionsandeverything"
and periodically she adds and upward-toned query sound for variety: "Ijustreallylike?tags?thatareholidaythemed" while tilting her head and looking to the corner of the screen for a studied quizzical/cute effect.

I probably just lost some crucial part of my brain because it seeped out my ear.