Cool Down for Fall

Friday, 23 September 2016 Starr1 Comment

Hello all!

Yesterday was the autumnal equinox, the first official day of my favorite season. I used to love winter the most, but after a day in such cold that I literally forgot what it felt like to not be cold… I realized I like the warm cozy feeling that comes with the holiday season and looking at snow moreso than winter itself. I’m a fan of hygge moreso than the uglier sides of winter, if you will.

You can only buy one or a dozen doughnuts, there is no in-between. I didn’t get any of my usual favorites so that I could get a box full o’ fall flavors.

With the cooler months here (in the Northern Hemisphere), I’ve been reflecting on how busy I’ve been keeping. You may have seen some think pieces about why we are always telling each other and ourselves that we’re just soooo busy and bragging about how busy we are keeping ourselves. I’m definitely very guilty of this, and I used to really love keeping myself busy because I am very extroverted, so many of my evenings are spent doing things with friends or meeting new people.

However…

Lately, I’ve been finding that I am home for the evening maybe once a week, if that. If I’m not at a movie screening or event or meeting up with friends, I am working late and still getting home after dark anyway. While I’m glad that my reinvestment of my time into my friends is helping me feel more socially fulfilled as well as to be a better friend, it is really starting to take a toll on me to only drag myself through my front door after 8PM every day of the week. I told Ben that I wanted us to cook dinner at home more, but I’m only home at dinnertime once a week? And I’ve been meaning to do a big cleanup of our place, but don’t spend enough time at home to do it. On top of that, I have been wanting to make some moves career-wise and build my skills more actively, but I am wiped out by the time I get home to the point where I don’t even take my computer out of my bag most nights I’m home. (Except when I have to write a blog post, of course!)

So I’m going to be consciously trying to dial it back a bit. Commit to my nights at home as much as I commit to my nights out. Schedule my time to be at home and cook and clean and run errands and just enjoy being at home. Relax. I’ve never been good at relaxing, but I hear practice makes perfect.

I’m really excited about the fall this year! I have a lot of great costume opportunities and some great costumes lined up. (You all know I’m a sucker for dressing up.) And October-November-December brings out the greatest festive season of the year. Before I know it, I’ll be writing up my 2017 resolutions post! (!!!!)

This is one of the best times of the year, and I am really looking forward to it. But I am also going to make sure to let myself pause and relax and soak it all in, as well.

What are you looking forward to this fall? (Or spring, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere!)

Goodbye Maryland

Friday, 12 August 2016Thursday, 11 August 2016 StarrLeave a comment

Ten years ago today, I moved from New Jersey to Maryland.
A few days ago, I walked out of my house in Maryland for the last time.
I’ve never been good at saying goodbye.

It’s strange to reflect on this move. I haven’t really lived in my house in Maryland in a long time. When I left home for college, I only lived in that house in Maryland for weeks or months at a time between semesters. I lived back home for a year after graduating before getting my own apartment, but even then it didn’t feel like my home anymore.

Did I ever let myself think of that Maryland house as home? I really fought it. When my parents told me in high school that we’d be leaving the Garden State, I was devastated. I had finally started feeling comfortable with myself socially, was making good friends, and was visualizing a future with those friends. The first time I saw my house was weeks after the rest of my family had seen it — because I was studying, typical — and I was not particularly comforted pulling up the driveway and seeing drought-induced yellowed grasses and shrubbery. Everything was dying. It was hard not to interpret the poetic meaning of that.

One of my college roommates who I attended high school with recalls seeing me on my first day at my new school. She was intimidated of me, both because I seemed very close to another girl (the first friend I made when I moved to Maryland who I had met at new student orientation; the three of us wound up living together in college) and because I just… looked… so scary. I don’t remember consciously trying to ward away friendly people on my first day, but I do remember feeling so much anger and sadness. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to make friends with anyone at my new school, I had my old friends!
I’ve never been good at saying goodbye.

Despite my best efforts to be curmudgeonly and not set roots down in Maryland, the people are aggressively kind and warm. My friends were generous with their friendship, even when I was not receptive to it, and I remain so grateful to them for it. I didn’t think I had much of an affinity for Ellicott City, but the recent flood reminded me that I do.

I always thought of my time in Maryland as very temporary, that it would be a small blip when my life flashed before my eyes. And yet, the longest I attended any single school was in Maryland. (The 4 years I spent in college.) And the longest I lived in any single dwelling was in that house, for 10 years.

The move still hasn’t really sunk in yet. My parents told me they were planning on moving to an empty nest house last year, so my brother and I have had all of our belongings at their house packed into boxes since last July. So mentally, I feel like I’m still in this limbo of thinking of that house as my home in Maryland.

It’s not anymore.

I went through a lot in that house. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe what memories took place in that house because I still have a hard time believing I spent so many years in that house. Regardless, I won’t spend any more time in that house. When I go home this weekend to help finish with unpacking, I won’t be going home to that house. It’s funny because I hated moving to that house so much. I really did. I didn’t want to like it. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to ever think of that house as my home.

But as I drove away on Sunday for the last time, I realized I was crying.
I’ve never been good at saying goodbye.

Old Ellicott City

Tuesday, 2 August 2016Monday, 1 August 2016 StarrLeave a comment

Over the weekend, I went back to my parents’ home to prepare them to move away from the Ellicott City house we’ve called home for the past decade. We were hit with an unexpectedly strong storm, watching our windows and doors struggle to shield us from the torrential downpour and trees losing their grip on their branches that littered our yard.

But we got off easy.

A picture of flooding on Main Street Ellicott City. #HoCoMD pic.twitter.com/3AYg3MJNit

— Allan H. Kittleman (@HoCoGovExec) July 31, 2016

When I woke up Sunday morning to birds chirping and sun shining, I learned that the historic district of our town, just a five minute drive from my house, had been devastated by historic flooding.

That is footage from the window of a restaurant I’ve eaten at with my family, of a road that I’ve walked down and driven down hundreds of times. Saturday evening, when 6 inches of rain fell in less than 2 hours, cars were swept along Main Street like leaves on a river. The historic and iconic clock was also washed away.

Lives were lost. Homes were destroyed. Businesses were wrecked.

If you are able, please help rebuild this community however you can. Community members are looking for others who can provide meals, provide housing for displaced residents, volunteer to clean up, donate goods/supplies for the clean up efforts, and donate funds, but are of course welcoming any other forms of help as well.

Yes, Ellicott City has a history of flooding. It’s well-documented, both on Wikipedia and physically in the historic district itself. But it doesn’t make this latest, which meteorologists have called a once-in-a-millenia-scale flood, any less devastating.

Governor Hogan has declared a state of emergency while Ellicott City and the surrounding area try to rebuild. Any help would be appreciated.

Salads: An Update

Friday, 29 July 2016Friday, 29 July 2016 Starr4 Comments

It feels a little weird to just toss out a salad post (see what I did there) when I have a backlog of recaps I still owe. There’s my friend’s wedding I attended at the beginning of the month (waiting on photos from the official photographer, so waiting for the couple to return from their honeymoon) and my annual trip to New York (which I just want to wait because, chronologically, it happened after the wedding).

So I want to talk a little bit about salads real quick.

Yep, I, too, can sometimes be a woman laughing alone with salad.

Back on my old blog (RIP Xanga), I wrote an entire post about how I construct salads and what my favorite restaurant salads were. I don’t think that ever made it here, but in light of how many salads I’ve been eating during DC’s recent heat bubble, I figured it was a good time to revisit salads.

While some people may think of summer as cookout time, a time to eat copious fried foods and barbecued meats, I always think about the fresh, raw foods I crave in the summer. It gets to the point where I am almost offended when someone invites me to eat salad or sushi in the winter. (Are you saying my winter coat of blubber doesn’t look good???) On days when you get covered in a layer of sweat or the moisture in the air or both within seconds of walking outside, a beautiful, crisp salad really hits the spot. The things I look for when I am glancing over salad menus are textures, flavors, and colors. I also take into consideration heaviness/freshness, which is hard to describe but I think you probably understand it? Citrus adds freshness. Avocado and bacon add heaviness.

Here’s my process, in order, of when I construct my own salads…Read More »

Coming soon: Disneyland recaps!

Tuesday, 28 June 2016Monday, 27 June 2016 Starr2 Comments

Isn’t it nuts that I have stayed on schedule since Lent began but I still don’t have all my Spring Break 2016 posts up yet? I just can’t help myself with being late with those.

In all seriousness, I am currently working on Disneyland recaps for you all and really rushing to finish because I have some travel coming up. It is not ready today HOWEVER I would rather increase posting frequency to have these up so that the recap posts for my upcoming travel don’t have to be too delayed, so if I am able to get these done in a few quick bursts of writing + uploading, that would be ideal! I don’t want to promise anything, but basically I should be set for the next few weeks of content because I’ve booked myself so thoroughly and still have yet to finish these Spring Break 2016 recaps. We just had so much fun, and breaking up the days into multiple posts has helped keep them from getting too cumbersome but also means a little more time to agonize over each one.

For your patience, here’s some bonus photos of our bachelorette crew:

13072789_627626351059_3276326592931304621_o

And, as I don’t think I’ll see the photos in time, some shots from the IGDC Instameet I attended this past weekend!

13534345_1743238985939517_873249210_n — Another #fromwhereistand / #ihavethisthingwithfloors of this incredible floor mural I saw

Taken by my new friend Albert (@pootie_ting) in front of a club I last visited when I was 18

There were a lot of photos taken, so maybe I will also hustle for a recap here, especially since my yellow skirt attracted a lot of attraction from the many talented photographers!

In the meantime, thanks so much for your patience over the past few weeks! I hope to have all that I promise for you and more out soon.