I find that the best way to stay on top of dates is to have homework, especially the good old-fashioned everyday kind. Only I don’t really get assigned homework anymore on account of not being in school. So how do I stay on top of the calendar then? Well, last month I found a little help from the photoaday (photo-a-day) challenge on Instagram!
The photoaday challenge is possibly the most fun homework you’ll ever have. For every day of the month, there’s a photo assignment. I loved doing it last month because it helped me be creative AND keep track of the month. (Landlord: I got your check right here!) I loved it so much I’m doing the new challenge this month!
But enough gushing already. Here’s what my January looked like in thirty-one pictures. Oh wait, before I forget, let’s be friends on Instagram! My username is, predictably, sensitivityandgrace.
day one: me.day two: breakfast.day three: something i adore (it's a triple! our engagement watches, my dress from 1959, & portland).day four: a letterbox.day five: something i wore.day six: something that makes me smile.day seven: favorite. my favorite trash can, of course.day eight: my sky.day nine: daily routine. whether with a straightener or hot rollers, i like doing my hair every day.day ten: childhood. guess who!day eleven: where i sleep (when i'm in chihuahua).day twelve: close-up.day thirteen: the contents of my handbag.day fourteen: something i was reading.day fifteen: happiness.day sixteen: morning.day seventeen: water. a whole sky full!day eighteen: something i bought.day nineteen: something sweet.day twenty: someone i love.day twenty-one: a reflection. two-way-mirror windows?!day twenty-two: shoes. (i couldn't reach the right shoe. my closet is taaaaaall.)day twenty-three: something old.day twenty-four: guilty pleasure. i can't kick my window-shopping habit!day twenty-five: something i made. day twenty-six: color.day twenty-seven: lunch. i was half-done with my sandwich when i remembered. sorry.day twenty-eight: light.day twenty-nine: the inside of my fridge.day thirty: nature.day thirty-one: me, again.
If you’ve been reading the blog for a while or know me in real life, you’ve heard of my partner Devin. I haven’t yet written a super lovey romantic post about him because ewww. Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to write a public love letter without simultaneously blushing and vomiting, but for now, let me just tell you one thing.
Once upon a summer of 2009, Devin came to Mexico to meet my family. One night while having dinner in the Copper Canyon, my mom asked him what his favorite food was. Without hesitation, he said, ‘Milkshake.’ My mother was aghast (milkshakes are not food!). Dev quickly corrected himself and claimed the Mexican burrito* as his favorite, but this was a shameless lie! His foremost loyalty is––and will always be––to the milkshake.
That’s why when we passed this sign in November, I interpreted it as a challenge for my favorite milkshake connoisseur.
Oh yeah?
It was thus decided that every time we pass a restaurant that boasts having ‘the best shake in NYC,’ Devin must attempt to verify that claim through a rigorous taste test! Below find Devin’s first review. (Note: Dev uses a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best.)
* Mexican burritos are not the size of a human baby and do not have rice or other weird toppings. Just beans on a reasonably-sized tortilla. Mmmm!
brgr
(A milkshake review by Devin)
After our Thanksgiving trip to Philadelphia, we stopped at brgr in Midtown near where the Megabus left us. We really had no choice; their window advertised that they were ‘Voted Best Shake.’ Granted their award was for some berry concoction, but no award in the world could affect my shake order. It’s chocolate every time. brgr calls it “the Black & White,” but don’t fear; this is a classic chocolate shake.
brgr’s Black & White shake
FLAVOR: 4 – Bonus points for leaving some marbled veins of chocolate sauce but mostly mixed. CONSISTENCY: 5 – Solid, solid, solid. 30 seconds upside down, and this shake doesn’t budge, yet it glides effortlessly up the straw; perfect. PRESENTATION: 2 – We dined in, but brgr only has plastic cups. Not glass, not compostable. Not styrofoam, but still, not classy. AMBIANCE: 4.5 – I like this place. Despite being new and a little fast food-y, the high ceiling has beautiful exposed beams and the single-person bathrooms are marked “vegetarian” and “carnivore.” ETHICS: 4 – local and grass-fed = fresh and tasty, but I’m not sure their chocolate is fair trade. OVERALL VALUE: 4 – At more than $5, brgr’s shakes are not cheap, but as I said, it’s a solid 16 oz, and I’d say that we got our money’s worth of chocolaty creamy goodness.
I have a bad case of the Januaries tonight. Do you ever get those? A case of the Januaries is like a case of the Mondays writ large. It’s cold; you can’t listen to Christmas carols to make up for it; and just when you are thinking about leaving the house, it gets dark. To top it off, you’re out of Swiss Miss. Ugh, January!
I just said to Tasha and Anda (hereafter T&A), ‘Sorry, I’m in a weird mood,’ and they replied, ‘Me, too!’ PROOF. The Januaries Are Real.
When the Januaries strike, I try to be productive and do things I can feel good about. This morning I woke up and made myself breakfast.
It was good but not good enough to ward off the Januaries. Blah. Anyway, then I tidied my room until I could tidy no more. It’s still not in good enough shape to photograph. Sorry. Maybe someday soon. (Don’t hold your breath.)
Seeing that I had done all I could in the physical realm, I moved on to the virtual and made some changes I had planned for this blog.
#1 The header now reads, ‘living every teenage girl’s idiotic dream (according to my uncle).’ About a week ago my uncle G suggested that I ‘start a webpage since [I am] living every teenage girl’s idiotic dream of moving to New York City and living in a tiny rodent-infested* apartment’. My cousins informed him that I already have a blog, and he was appalled that I am not charging for all this great content. (Teach me how?)
#2 There’s a bunch of stuff in the column to your left. Me! Archives! A subscribe button! Tags!
#3 My blog now provides quick access to the best Betty Boop clip art I could find. Would you kindly have a look at the top of this page? Right below the blog header is a link to Betty Boop clip art. Despite what this suggests, I am not an authority on the matter. I’m sadly not even a fan of Betty Boop clip art. The scoop is this: I mentioned B. Boop once, which led to many people finding my blog by searching for clip art of the aforementioned cartoon. It quickly became the number one way people find this blog, and I am all about giving the people what they want. Betty Boop-ers, I hope you’ll stick around! Though I don’t know much about Ms. Boop, I happen to share her most famous physical attribute (five feet tall, justlike her).
Those are all the changes for now, but I hope to spruce things up around here more often.
I got the coolest present ever for Christmas. Her name is Victoria Elena. She is my niece. Sometimes we call her ‘Veev’ for short.
This is our first picture together. Don’t mind our pajamas (especially my middle-aged pair).
Having a new niece, hanging out with her, and then having to leave her got me thinking about all this aunt business. What does it mean to be an aunt? What kind of aunt am I? I asked Veev, but she just made gurgly noises. So then, I thought I’d consult the internet and share my findings (I actually googled ‘How to be a good aunt’), but that seemed impersonal. After all, I’m not just anybody’s aunt. I’m Victoria’s aunt. Long story short, I decided to write her a letter, and the letter turned out to be a great introduction to my family and life with Victoria, so I decided to share it here (because I know you must be super curious).
Hi, everyone! I’m still visiting my family in Mexico. Today is Día de Reyes, the last day of the holiday season here, which means I absolutely have to post my year-in-review post and stop listening to Christmas carols riiiiight now.
January
The year started with my cousin Carol’s wedding!
I got to help teach kindergarteners about Martin Luther King, Jr. and social justice.
Devin and I dressed up as ‘American Gothic’ in sepia for a costume party.
February
My housemates and I took family pictures thanks to our fearless leader Hallie!
We’ve never been a Valentine’s Day couple, but this year Devin surprised me with my favorite cake! Here we are making a toast: Dev is holding my little glass of soymilk, and I’m holding his giant bottle of local organic cow’s milk. (We are a caricature. And how!)
I celebrated my birthday with brunch at The Nines.
March
March was a hard month because my grandmother passed away. I felt fortunate to be able to fly home and see my family, but it was hard.
When I was little my grandmother would take me to Mass and out for ice cream afterward. I told Devin about our tradition, and he took me to do just that in memory of my Abbita.
I had to spend Spring Break in the library working on my thesis.
…but I did get to go skiing on Mt. Hood!
I almost ruined Anda’s surprise birthday party. Thank goodness I didn’t! It was in our old dorm, and the pizza was delicious, and her sister baked a cake.
April
In April, I finished doing the fieldwork for my thesis. Doing fieldwork was fun and rewarding, but it meant I had to spend a lot of time waiting at bus stops in the rain (totally worth it).
When I wasn’t doing fieldwork, I was in the library. Devin was a dear. He brought me like a million library dinners.
This is my favorite picture from April. Nate’s glasses were foggy.
May
I finally finished my thesis!
My dream of sharing Portland with my mom (again) and my two aunts (for the first time) came true! Here are the mamis and me at my favorite coffee shop!
Dev & my mom got me a new computer for graduation!
Before we parted ways, Melissa & Anda & I gathered for one final brunch. It was yummy, but I am still baffled: why didn’t we go to our usual spot?
June
At my first grown-up job in downtown Portland, I discovered the joys of the grown-up lunch break!
The best show I saw all summer was the Rock ‘n Roll Camp For Girls Spring Showcase.
In Wisconsin I discovered a breathtakingly beautiful bakery. The walls were covered with vintage recipe cards!
July
July was a big month, so brace yourself for lots of pictures!
Fourth of July was so much fun! The weather finally turned summery, and I feel like I hung out with fifty-three friends the whole weekend! Also, my hair looks like Cocker Spaniel ears in this picture.
I got to live with my friend Nora all summer! Her birthday party was Kreayshawn-themed. This is one of my favorite pictures ever for the following reasons: a) Nora rules, b) it showcases our perfectly 90s kitchen, & c) you can see all our spices because the cabinet door fell off its hinges.
Dev & I had a going-away party where everything was local (we even made sure our guests were real-life, actual Portlanders!).
Devin & I gave each other watches to mark our engagement!
I had to say bye to Devin AND the kristy dreambike (they took a train to the East Coast).
August
Before I left Portland, I discovered what an artichoke in bloom looks like.
Then, I went to Texas to do fun Texas things, by which I mean I went to the mall with my mom. A lot.
I bid farewell to my summer hair at Shampoo before moving to New York.
September
This was our building in Park Slope. It was pretty, but Anda, Marika, & I had to share a one-bedroom with an enormous pitbull who only ate raw chicken.
When my mom made me evacuate New York for September 11th, I found a brunch place that matched my dress.
Seriously, it matched my dress perfectly!
October
I fell head-over-heels in love with my new Subway stop!
Grand Central & I started to feel like pals.
This was my favorite sign at Occupy Wall Street.
November
I spent most of the month taking care of my mom post-surgery. The best part of the day was sharing breakfast in her bed.
I also spent a lot of time with Laisha.
I was going to have to skip Thanksgiving, but thanks to the genius of Dev & the East Coast’s adequate train infrastructure (rest of the States, get with it!), I flew to Baltimore & reached Philadelphia by train just in time for dinner with Devin’s family. Here we are with Grandma Pat!
December
I marched for Voting Rights!
My first Christmastime in the cityyyyy! (You cannot imagine how many times I sang that one. Quietly. To myself. Alone. I’m not that annoying.)
Then, I spent Christmas with my whole family, where I had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures. This one of some wimyn, a girl, & THE baby in the family comes to us courtesy of my cousin.
2011, thank you for the lessons & good times. You are dismissed.
Okay dudes, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this week is unusually blog-heavy! Typically I reserve Sunday as my day to blog and write once a week, but the holidays have filled my brain with things to share. Tomorrow I start preparing for my favorite kind of post: Year In Review!!!! The thought of sharing a year’s worth of pictures chronologically is one of the big reasons I decided to start a blog in the first place. Nostalgia! Organizing! Captions! What did I do this year, anyway?!
Before I get to that, I must reveal which cultural artifact inspired an outfit I wore a couple of weeks ago. Remember when I did my first outfit post and asked people to guess the inspiration behind the clothes? I realized afterward that it was a tough guess because usually outfits are inspired by other outfits worn by other people. I asked a lot of my friends in real life, and they just couldn’t move past that, no matter how many times I said, ‘No, no, it’s inspired by a thing. Not a celebrity or a movie. A thing. A physical object that you could hold in your hands.’ Blank stares were elicited and groans were grunted. No cigars.
The Outfit
The Inspiration
Does anyone other than Dated Technology even remember the iBook? I’m a little scared that you don’t!
Dear Internet Friends Alive Right Now,
The iBook and iMac are a crucial part of our shared history. Without them we would not have enjoyed the vibrant translucence so crucial to tween culture in the early ’00s.
Remember when everything--toothbrushes, backpacks, discmans, calculators, picture frames, everything--looked like this? We owe it all to the iBook and iMac.
It was a world where everything was brighter, rounder, cuter!
However, even if you did not love living in a slightly more Technicolor world and the aesthetics just aren’t your style, you might still want to revere the iMac/iBook for what they added to our linguistic landscape. The iMac/iBook heralded the arrival of the iConvention. One upon a time, putting an ‘i’ in front of a word was new. Everything from computers (duh) to pillows and lipgloss was made instantly cooler by adding an ‘i’ to the front of its name. Now we take our iLives for granted. But we don’t have to.
We can choose to remember and pay hommage with our outfits!
Merry Christmas, Christmas-celebrators! I hope you are all having a wonderful day. I was inspired by blogger Natalie Holbrook to write about my Christmas tree. You can read that short essay below.
After graduating from college, I packed my life into four suitcases, said goodbye to a lot of my shoes, and moved across the country to live with three of my favorite friends in New York City! I couldn’t wait to have my first adult apartment and decorate my first grown-up Christmas tree.
However, after six months of an unsuccessful search for a Real Job and two months of an unsuccessful search for a couch small enough to fit through our apartment’s tiny front door,* I decided it would be imprudent to buy one. I suppose a living room without a couch would have allowed the tree to be the center of attention, and I’m sure that stripped-down-modern-Christmas feeling appeals to some. But for me, a tree without a couch from which to contemplate it seemed sad and somehow symbolic of my lacking stable employment.
Besides, New York is practically the Official City of Christmas Trees. Being a resident, I reckoned I could pick a favorite and declare it mine. I thought of letting the Rockefeller Tree & the Madison Square Park Tree compete for my affection—although let’s be real, I’m an indoor gal. The Plaza would have probably won, no contest.
I was busy creating a mental tree scoresheet when, like all great things, my favorite tree found me.
Isn’t she a beaut?
She spotted me on my way to the Subway and declared, ‘Hey, I’m your New York tree!’
I like her because she is so New York. Not bright lights, big city New York, but my New York: a little neighborhood in Brooklyn where space is tight and you make do with what ya got. Scrappy New York! The proud feeling I get when I’m ducking and squeezing into a too-full Subway car or carrying fifteen pounds of groceries seven blocks to my two-story walk-up. When I look at my tree, she says, ‘You did it, girl. You’re here. Now quit lookin’. Don’t you have someplace you gotta be?’
* Seriously, if you know of any cheap, miniature, comfortable sofas, hit me up—the comfortable part is negotiable. We are desperate.
Last night a strange substance began to fall from the skies. It fell all night and left a strange residue on the ground. Being the brave soul that I am can be, I ventured out to inspect it this afternoon.
Upon close inspection the mystery substance was revealed to be...snow!
Yes, friends, it snowed in Mexico!!!!
Actually, snow is not uncommon here in Northern Mexico.
Another thing that is quite common is having Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. This year my family did a white-elephant gift exchange, and I got the Best Present Ever.
The day before Thanksgiving I found myself doing something I swore I’d never do: watching Twilight in a movie theater. I did it because I was with two of my little cousins (15 and 17, respectively), and I love my family. I have slept through like all of the Lord of the Rings movies for them, so when my cousins wanted to see Breaking Dawn, I gulped, shrugged, and pulled out my phone to record observations for this blog.
I don't know why this came up when I searched 'Twilight' on Google Images, but look at the feminist symbol pasta!
Breaking Down, Pun Intended
1. Her mom always wears American Eagle shorts.
2. Alice has Pixar Animated Movie mom hair.
3. Ikea lamps in her bedroom, holla!
4. Totally flat delivery: ‘I’ve been waiting a century to marry you, Miss Swan.’ I don’t buy it.
5. A, my 17 year-old cousin, would like me to note that Edward is way more attractive in this one.
6. What’s that weird puppy painting by her bed? Are we supposed to buy that she has interests aside from Edward?
7. Bella. Still with the overtweezed eyebrows. What’s the symbolism of this, do you think?
8. Here comes the (hyperventilating) bride!
9. Man, the giveaway scene is so literal in this movie.
10. URINA?! BEST NAME EVER!
11. Vampire-werewolf dramz at weddings is the worst!
12. Alice’s gender policing gives femmes a bad name! Bella, you should wear whatever shoes you want.
13. She’s always more excited to see Jacob! They’re being so inappropriate.
14. If you’re crying at your wedding, that’s not cool. Especially if it’s over some other dude.
15. OKAY, BOYS, NOBODY MAN-HANDLE BELLA. Bella, stand up for yrself.
16. Says Edward, ‘I’m nothing if not traditional.’ Gag me with a spooooooon!
17. Says Edward, ‘Bella, I can’t tell you how sorry I am.’ …Because I’m obviously not capable of emotion.
18. Really don’t get the concept of ‘imprinting.’ Someone explain it to me steb by step. It’s way different than what I learned from Fly Away Home.
19. The poor housekepers! Edward & Bella don’t even apologize for their mess. Classism, ugh.
20. Why on earth wouldn’t they use protection?!?!? A 100 year-old man isn’t considerate or wise enough to use a condom. COME OOOOON!
21. No abortions even in the event of accidental impregnation by a demon (this law coming soon to a legislative body near you!).
22. G, my 15-yo cousin says, ‘Yeah, her baby bump’s freaking disgusting!’
23. Bella’s pregnancy look: heroin chic.
24. The werewolves really DO sound like Power Rangers. Thank you for this tiny gift, Hollywood.
25. Someone’s always after Bella, & 2 dudes are always watching out for her, & I’m always being a Twilight downer. (Sorry, blogreaders.)
26. ALT ENDING: Sam’s ex & Jacob imprint on each other, effectively preventing Jacob from becoming a sick pedophile. : (
27. Says Bella, ‘It feels complete when you’re here, Jake.’ BELLA TOTALLY WANTS TO BE POLY WITH JACOB. WOAH.
28. Why the styrofoam cup full o’ blood. Not environmentally responsible. Minus ten points.
29. Just wash the bloody baby already!
30. Jacob (about the love of his life who is a NEWBORN BABY, GROSS): ‘You would be anything that she needs: a friend, a brother, a protector.’ What about a partner instead? I am firmly of the belief that no one needs a protector. Except babies & kids. They need protectors…from pedophiles. So…
31. G turns to me and says, ‘Look she’s gonna get boobs!’ And she did.
THE END!
Now that we are done with Twilight, can you guess what cultural artifact inspired my outfit today? Hint: it has nothing to do with Twilight and everything to do with the early ’00s.
smoothliminal 
