thank you [for daily bread]

Some things that made me happy in May and June...

* working on resumes together til 1am
* big windows, 7pm sun
* licks from a golden retriever puppy
* reading a good book in a single afternoon
* pad thai (first time!)
* indie plays in tiny theaters on Monday nights
* phone call from Australia
* Dave making me a tuna melt when I want a tuna melt
* second interviews
* cherries straight off the tree
* talking about life with Melissa over bad Italian martinis
* bike rides through fields
* Dave writing a book
* raspberry and ricotta scones
* praying together
* salmon
* Friday nights alone
* Modern Family
* Sunday lunch at Luis's
* take out curry & Ocean's Eleven
* iced lattes at Kaffeine near Oxford Street
* "give us our daily bread"
* Skyping Alabama folk
* five-day-old pancake batter still makes good pancakes

Most nights since September, I've written down two or three things I'm grateful for. Too soon to tell, but this might be the best habit I ever develop.

mb

thank you [for springtime]

Some things that made me happy and grateful in March, 

as recorded in my little notebook...

* having parents who are happy, married, and adventurers

* organizing drinks with my coworkers, finally!

* the movie Hairspray being on TV

* my friend Olivia's engagement!

* good coffee when I'm sleepy

* a letter from Aunt Betty Lou

* London at 6am - crisp, pretty, hopeful

* Heidi wanting to get coffee and talk about deep God stuff

* funny unexpected emails from friends

* The Hunger Games

* snuggling

* sitting in the sun, five days in a row

* Shelley moving to Denver!

* travel plans with Melissa

* my parents' ideal Italian farmhouse

* strawberries 

Happy April Fool's!
mb

24 Things I Loved About My 24th Birthday Week

Black Keys concert, a few days before my birthday

Oh goodness, today felt like a Monday. I'm about to drink a big glass of water and go to bed. But before I do, here's some things I loved about my birthday week.

* cooking with fresh bay leaves

* mixing mojitos with fresh mint 

* red beans and rice simmering for three hours and looking like legit cajun food
* two good workouts
* wonderful, honest discussion about prayer at home group
* wonderful, honest prayer at home group
* yummy lasagna cooked by Anna at home group
* sleepy time blended herbal tea
* hearing the voices of my parents, Grandaddy, and briefly, Pop-Pop
* a pretty birthday card from Dave's mom, Caroline
* my new stick-free frying pan
* a postcard from Amy from the Australian outback, where she's smooshing cane toads and planning community gardens
* seeing my friend Heidi's band, Cloud Control, perform in Camden… they have fans who know all their lyrics... it's so cool!  Plus the band went to school with Amy's boyfriend, James, in the Blue Mountains... small world.

* bright red fingernail polish
* women's breakfast at church: pancakes!  bright yellow flowers! girls to talk to!
* emails from Hannah and Shelley
* sausage and mash and taco skillet cooked by Dave
* my flannel shirt that kept me warm
* cathartic crying
* Sunday morning breakfast club
* truly thoughtful gifts and cards from parents, grandparents, and friends
* a clean bedroom and kitchen
* hearing the London Symphony Orchestra perform Copland's Appalachian Spring 
* post-concert cinnamon toast with Dave


Happy Monday night,
mb
 

This weekend...

...was warm and sunny. Yay.

The fat life

A long time ago, a girl I knew always talked about loving "the fat life." In short, the fat life is the life that feels rich and perfect, even while it's imperfect.

Right now, life is rich and perfect. It's a wonderful feeling. Coming back to London after Christmas, I feel more settled and peaceful. I feel at home. I feel energized when I think about the future (read: job applications). Dan from Wyoming and Hannah from Australia have stopped by for week-long visits; we've had brunch at the Orangery and raspberry cocktails out of teapots and plenty of time for catch-up talks. I've joined a challenging choir. Dave and I are taking salsa lessons (thanks, Groupon). I'm solidifying friendships. I love our church and home group.

I love the fat life.

Fair words butter no parsnips

I like this little eighteenth century nugget of wisdom. Though I dislike parsnips.  Have you ever eaten parsnips?  Mashed, they look and feel like potatoes but they taste most certainly different.  It's like in Europe when you think you're about drink water but upon taking a sip you discover you're not drinking water at all, you're drinking something fizzy and bitter (also known as water with gas, or fizzy water).  That's what eating parsnips is like for me. I prefer potatoes.

This weekend I went home for a family funeral. It was a somber occasion but really good to see everyone. I returned to Auburn feeling much more purposeful and thankful.

Earlier this week a friend texted me at 2am telling me how grateful she was for her good friends and amazing life experiences. Another friend is writing down one thing he is grateful for every day this year. My thunderstorm post last week was an exercise in thankfulness, too. I know people heaps smarter and more important than me have already noticed this, but being appreciative --- thankful, grateful, whatever you want to call it --- seems to be one of the essential keys to daily happiness.  You might like to check out the blog thx thx thx.  The author writes a thank you note every day. Sometimes it's about serious things, sometimes it's about heart-patterned toilet paper in the office restroom. It might inspire you to enjoy little things on days when gratitude isn't flowing freely.

Another essential key to daily happiness:  sunshine.  I'm very freckled and shouldn't get too much, but boy do I love it. I have a long not-so-fun April to-do list and next to it, a "healthy living" list: being outside whenever it's warm and sunny is priority number one.  I've started eating lunch outside rather than in front of a computer.  Try it.

Didn't intend to write a self-helpish post --- was just happy about the butter and parsnips adage and wanted to share. Enjoy your week!

Thank you

Thank you for big loud thunderstorms when I can't focus and when I can't sleep. Thank you for the rain that's cleaning my dusty yellow car and (hopefully) keeping me indoors tomorrow with my books. And thank you for the practice of prayer. 


Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/silent-shot/500251940/lightbox/

Things we did in Guatemala

Happy two thousand and eleven!


Surprise, surprise - I didn't blog at all during the Christmas holidays.  Too busy eating obscene amounts of food and being happy!  I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to this year.  I certainly am.  For the next seven days I'm having a "blog party" so to speak - one new blog post every day, maybe two or three!  Many posts will wrap up my Guatemala chapter, some will include lots of photos, and there'll be a few random posts as well.

First of all, straight out of my blog notebook: Things we did in Guatemala.  Hannah and I's trip had its ups and downs.  We didn't have the experience we had expected.  One day I was grumpy and dwelling on the things we didn't accomplish, and I decided to list our positive, memorable, and/or noteworthy experiences to remind myself that yes, we had indeed seen and learned a lot!

Things we did in Guatemala
October - December 2010

- successfully chicken bussed from Antigua from Reu, leaping off at the Esquintla McDonald's just in time.

- almost panicked (but didn't) when we couldn't find cheap hostels in Reu; settled on La Quinta in the central park; happily took cold showers and happily drank cold beers to escape the heat.


- the first camioneta to Nueva Alianza:  This bus is going to break down.  Why is everyone staring at me?  Oh my gosh, that woman has a plastic bag full of living adolescent chickens.

- eating dinner with Joel, Carlos, and Kevan during the first week at Nueva Alianza.  Broken Spanish conversations. How fun it was (initially).

- buying our Tigo internet stick in Antigua = a nightmare.  Realized how limited my Spanish skills were.

- first shopping trip in Reu = hot and overwhelming; unpleasant mercado; no idea how much to pay for produce (I was so paranoid about people ripping me off because I was a gringa); woman steals our chicken and pancake mix.

- ... how good our first macaroni and cheese dinner was, even if it was third choice after chicken and pancakes.

- freaked out after week one in Nueva Alianza; questioned my world view and life goals; received encouraging and practical thoughts from Dave on issues related to international development.

- learned to quickly - and without hesitation - light a gas stove (I'd struggled with this before, embarrassing but true).

- learned to wash my clothes in a pila.

- ate and loved cauliflower torta (cauliflower cooked in a fried egg), arroz con leche, and the camioneta's wife's homemade tamales.

- read Johnathan Franzen's "Freedom" and discussed it ALOT with Hannah (I recommend the book).

- impressed with Earth Lodge's tree houses and their work with local schools (more about this later in the week).
- saw sea turtles dig nests and swim out to sea.

- LOVED swimming in the Pacific Ocean; usually I hate oceans, so this was a nice change.

- cooked a substantial meal for thirteen people.

- volunteered at La Festival de la Tortuga, Monterrico and Hawaii's second annual turtle festival.

- riding in the back of pick-up trucks = fun and now my preferred method of transportation.

- rode a boat, truck, and three busses to Chichicastanango with Hannah and Amy and was really happy.

- climbed Volcán San Pedro and couldn't walk normally for days.

- dock at San Marcos = idyllic.  Prettiest spot I encountered in Guatemala.

- saw a murder victim in the streets of Monterrico.

- caught a ride in the back of a truck with two heavily armed soldiers.  They were among the friendliest Guatemalans we met.  One of them earnestly described (in Spanish) his efforts to learn English in his spare time, and his earnestness warmed my heart.

- avoided being stranded in Reu by the grace of the old woman selling snacks at the cuatro caminos intersection in Reu and Nueva Alianza's agua pura truck driver.  This experience, too, warmed my heart.

Happy New Year, and see you tomorrow!

My favorite people

I wondered how much it costs to be rich in friends and how many years and stories and scenes it takes to make a rich life happen.

- Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

My Australian friend Amy is here!

Earlier this year when Hannah and I decided to spend two months in Guatemala, I immediately sent word to Australia and within a month Amy and her boyfriend James began planning a Central America backpacking trip. Amy and I had casually discussed a potential South America trip when I was studying in Canberra, and I'm happy we made it happen so quickly.

I don't want to gush, but seriously - I have the greatest friends in the world. I've moved around a lot, written a lot of good-bye letters, grown up and apart from a lot of people. But a handful of friendships haven't changed at all - actually, they've deepened over time and across continents. My family and this handful of friendships are my real roots. I could morph into a full time homeless free lancing world nomad and still feel secure and at home with these people.

And my friends are cool. They are passionate and witty, well-read and sensible, and they take risks and live big. It's fun being jealous of their jobs, their degrees, their houses, their travels. It's fun getting excited about things, getting inspired, together.

You become like the people you interact with. And if your friends are living boring stories, you probably will too.

One of my favorite things is traveling with these friends. Strange lands, foods, and languages create great stories for us to live and retell. During high school Hannah and I got lost in a sketchy London suburb and paid over a hundred pounds for a taxi home so my parents wouldn't know where we'd gone; we jumped fences to escape angry cows in Yorkshire.

2005: London's West Inn

Four years later we were on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia listening to Lebanese tour guide Karim lecture about the local counsel's opinion on feral cats and the breeding habits of koalas.

2009: riding camels at Sydney's Aroma Festival

2010: Grand Teton National Park

My friend Shelley introduced herself to me at a sorority rush party (!) and drove me around Auburn for a year before I got my driver's license; three years later she was driving us around New Zealand's south island where we played with wallabies and climbed glaciers.

2007: on the Gulf of Mexico

2009: the Franz Josef glacier

This past spring break she returned to London with me on an expensive but delightful whim.

2010: Tower Bridge, my favorite bridge of all time

During my year in Canberra, Amy and I bonded over our love of teapots and local markets, got terribly lost in Melbourne at 2am, and consumed large amounts of her hometown's sun dried tomato cheese.

2009: Melbourne

2009: Floriade in Canberra

Now we're drinking Guatemalan tea, eating Guatemalan cheese (not as good as Tilba cheese - go to Australia and try Tilba cheese), wandering through Guatemalan markets, and of course, planning our future adventures. (Organic farms in Eastern Europe or a road trip up Australia's west coast?)

2009: autumn photo shoot on The Australian National University campus

And then there's Dave...

2007: Argentina

... who convinced me to bike down the world's most dangerous road in Bolivia, who got terribly sick after instigating and winning a llama eating contest, and who discovered and consumed the world's best chicken sandwich with me after we spent the morning in funky Peruvian jewelry and musical instrument shops. Two years later in Bristol there was an amazing Album Leaf concert in an old wooden boat.

http://www.matthewsphotos.co.uk/view_photo.php?set_albumName=aliens06&id=aaa

And this summer in Wyoming there was cliff jumping into a freezing lake.

And in three weeks Dave will be in Alabama for Christmas! (I may or may not have been looking forward to this particular act of international travel for years.)

2007: hiking to the waterfall outside Cafayette, Argentina

In short, traveling enriches my relationships, and my favorite people - including many individuals I've not mentioned in this post - add extra meaning and fun to my travels. I love it. Consider this a belated second Thanksgiving post. (And thanks for putting up with the cheesy!)

'And today, may you hold those in your house close to your body and feel them breathe and take in their remarkable scent and give them your love.'

Happy list

6 things that have recently made me happy:

• Blue skies and low humidity
• Honey on toast
• "I Want To Break Free" by Queen at an inter-finca soccer game
• International texts that say nice things
• The Auburn Tigers kicking ass
• Discovering James Bond, Juno, and other English-language DVDs in la sala

Happy Halloween! (And can I hear some more war damn eagles?)