Best Friends

It's funny. I started out with the intention to write about my passport. It was expired, and I renewed it. I got it expedited and it now reflects my legal, married name. I was nervous my paperwork would get rejected, but apparently there are some parts of the US government that still have the ability to function like well oiled machines.

I am traveling for work this fall. I am going to Eastern Europe. Twice. I may be going to more places than that in other parts of the globe. In the space of a year. I had a travel bug, and it's being satisfied. It's also taking me away from Mr. and Baby SevPrez. You get what you want and it's not always in the form you expected.

If you read Treehouse Chatter, like I asked you to, you would know that she just shared what she wants in life. What she really wants. And I am so inspired by that. She is my real friend, one on my best real friends, one of the only people in this whole wide world of 6 billion people that I am willing to share my whole story with. All the gorey details. When something ugly reveals itself in my life, I call her. Because I know she will listen to me, and be there for me, without any judgement. She's also hilarious and fun and smart and intuitive and wise. There is something about her soul that my soul has recognized as being A1. You don't let those people slip away.

She is also my blog friend. I love blogs. I love professional blogs written by professional bloggers. There is a blogroll on the right side of this page that I espouse. But I'm not that, even as much as I aspire to be. I think I'll never be willing to sacrifice my privacy. This blog exists as much as a personal journal as it does a vehicle to share my life with my friends and family and world at large. So Treehouse Chatter is my real network, and my blog network, and I want you to think about what she wrote.

What would you write?

Here's what I left as a comment, that totally trumped my post about going to Romania and Poland this fall. But just so you know, if you stay tuned you'll get fun travel photos.

I want people to know what they want, and get it. Thank you for sharing your hopes and your wishes. It takes courage to roll your eyes, then answer.
I want to be a free bird. I want us all to be free birds. Nothing’s wrong. We are alive for a second; we are playing the game we make up.
I want to have direct communication with the people in my life. No more beating around the bush, filters, or acting out of guilt, shame, and obligation. Let’s everyone stop being nice, and let’s be great. Let’s make a difference in each others lives. Let’s see each others’ blind spots and stab each other in the front. We are fucking geniuses, if we could just get out of our own ways.
What I really want, most above all, is inner peace.
Now vote me Miss America.

This One Goes Out To You --

And you know who you are...

It's light on text and heavy on photos but it's something! I have been seeing some interesting things around town lately and I want to share them with you.

I will also add that Baby SevPrez is full on walking around on her own like it's her job. She's probably grown 2 inches in 2 weeks and it feels like we've got a real-deal-Holyfield toddler on our hands. Yikes!

Back to the photos:

JFK bust in the park I walk through on the way to the office.

Restaurant hunting in Trenton.

Egret spotting in Matawan.

Look closely at the hundreds of white flecks -- egrets!!

Doyers Street in Chinatown.

One Year

Baby SevPrez is one! I feel like I really accomplished something. I'm awash with total satisfaction. Then, in the next moment, our lives flash before my eyes. She's one, that's what a year felt like... Soon she'll be two, then three, then seven, then 12, then off to college. It's as exciting as it is scary. I'm excited about who she will be, but scared of time passing too fast to really feel it.

But on to more frivilous things... Yesterday we had her party at our house. Just family, which for us is a gaggle of people. The weather cooperated, which is really something for New Jersey in late July. On the day she was born I enjoyed an amazing 5th floor view of a thunderstorm as I lay in bliss after finally getting an epidural. Yesterday thunder rumbled as the coffee brewed, and storm clouds were all around, but we had no more than a light spritz as we served cake inside.

The grandmas brought food (and the lion's share of everything from Costco), we grilled steaks, and I made the cake. The little one knew she was the star when we sang to her, but she was not too excited about cake. Maybe she could tell it was vegan chocolate cake (but it had full butter/full sugar icing, I'm not a monster). She did, however, go to town on some watermelon slices. If I hadn't taken it away from her she would have eaten the green part. What a charater.

As predicted, her favorite gift was a piece of wrapping paper. Ah, to be one.

Come On Knock On Our Door...

Because I finally painted it. After much hemming and hawing on what would be the most excellent color, I went with the same dark grey that we painted the floor in the back room. Which means we had the paint sitting in our garage the whole time. Which also means that I completed this project on a Monday night after work because it required zero trips to the store for supplies. Score.


I think the house looks $5000 nicer with just this little change. It creates a much richer, more loved entrance to the house. 


This is the summer of curb appeal improvements. I'll post more on all the landscaping Mr. SevPrez has been doing. Our house is radically nicer looking from the outside. I can hear the sighs of relief from our neighbors.

Dye-ry

Today my niece came over to make dip-dyed curtains with me. I've seen the trend here and there. Lots on pinterest and at Anthropologie, the bastian of overpriced bohemian style, a set of dip-dyed panels are on sale for $188.

I can honestly say that this project was proof perfect that bloggers are liars. Everything is easy, quick and neat. And edited. This project was a beast! Had we more experience with fabric dye the end product would have more clearly matched our vision, but we were happy with the end product. Still, it was a two-lady job that involed cleaning of buckets, boiling of large pots of water, stringing of make shift clotheslines, hosing down of bleeding drapes, dumping of dark pools of water in far corners of our lawn. We probably used 14 pairs of latex gloves. And still got drips of indigo dye all over our bodies. Still, it was fun. So fun that we dip-dyed one of Baby SevPrez's onesies, tie-dyed a set of old pillow cases, and threw in a bracelet just for fun.

Here's a photographic chronicle of our dyeing adventures.

Messy.


We rigged up quite the scenario.

The sagging clothesline.

 

This is more how I envisioned the curtains looking.

Pretty cool though, we really liked the tie-dyed effect.

Here there are hanging up in our newly "Dark Teal" foyer.