watermelon park

we mountain women went camping last weekend, this was our kingdom.

after marking our territory by erecting a tent and throwing menacing looks at various campers coyotes as we drank pbr in the middle of the river, we feasted on hot dogs.

then we had a nap.

but when the flames of our camp fire made the stars flicker out, we knew it was growing dangerous at watermelon park...and also that it was s'more time.

if you crave more daring stories of our trip to almost West Virginia, well i'm sorry but the rest will have to stay in the park with the skins. only they know truly what happened that night.

i'm the birthday bear

well, i guess drew was the birthday bear.
this is essentially the only photo i took of my visit to orange for his birthday.
really this is a shame because it was a beautiful day and we went to a vineyard in the mountains and walked through ruins.
i think this moment will really stick with me though because in addition to locking myself out of his house while he was at work just so i could eat cereal on the porch swing, i spilled milk all over the porch.


i suppose i took one other photo of drew at dinner, but he's not making a good birthday boy face so i'm not going to post it.
we had dinner at a tapas place in charlottesville called mas. it was pretty amazing and i did my best not to think about the fact that i may have been surrounded by uva people. ew.

mario's

probably one of the best subs around. ask my dad, he's been driving out to arlington since 1971 to eat here. oh the bribes this man has offered his children to pick up a 12 inch sausage and cheese for him. i don't think i've ever seen him more disappointed in me as when i once brought back a 6 inch.

i got a full size philly steak and cheese that i'm guessing will last me 2-3 days considering it's 12 inches of steak, cheese and every topping imaginable. i'm only sorry i didn't get to see fudgie the whale cake.


the floor is probably one of my favorite things about the place.


i'd HIGHLY recommend it (especially late night as i truly believe the quality of the food and people that go there improves). i'm sure megan and alli would back me up as i can remember a few night-before recaps that have ended in a confession of ordering an entire hawaiian pizza.
aint nothing to be ashamed of.

camera: sandbridge

it's 12:41 on a friday night. my shirt smells like the best chicken nuggets you've ever had and here's a little bit of the summer with my family.

black and white section:

end of black and white section

if you can't tell i was really lazy about taking pictures and all these were taken on the same night, probably within 20 minutes of each other<-is that one word or two, i googled it and even google didn't know? please reference "about me" if you think that's a stupid question.

iphone: sandbridge

every day my uncle john would get down to the beach really early and set up an umbrella and a chair (this uncle also happens to make the best bloody marys)
i love getting to the beach before 9am when it's calm and the only other people out are walking their dogs.
the sun isn't blazing and you actually feel like you can concentrate on your book.
this is also one of the best times to see dolphins; my family has an obsession with dolphins. we are on 24/7 dolphin alert and whenever they are seen on the horizon you can bet someone is rushing to get the kyack into the ocean. my dad likes to mock this and send out false dolphin calls.
this summer was a little different because i couldn't take the whole week of vacation. luckily i was there long enough for pumpkin muffins, the annual delinquent oyster and beer lunch, a tan (suburn), a ping-pong whipping, and a visit to my grandparents house in virginia beach.

i'm going to put up the few pictures i took on my camera soon and i sincerely hope that this is the last of my posts that reflects the summer. (fallllll. where are you? i'm tired of turning the AC up and shutting myself in my room so i can wear sweaters and listen to iron & wine!)

made orzo stuffed zucchini and listened to the black keys all evening.

recipes here.

Pied Piper

today while i was wasting a good part of my morning researching the lives of feral children i came across a reference to the Pied Piper. i realized though i had heard the phrase "pay the piper" serveral times, i didn't actually know the story.

now i love children's stories. i took a children's literature course in college (that time i was in college) and when i was in a creative writing course lots of peer reviews would come back as "sounds like a fairytale". still not sure how that is a bad thing dearest participants of the most uncomfortable course i ever took. obviously creative writing is not for everyone.

this, well, it's not really a children's story but it involves children.


it's Germany, it's the 13th century and the town of Hamelin has a rat problem. a man came to the town and said he could, for a price, lure the rats into the river with his lute where they would drown. when the town refused to pay him for services rendered, the piper took revenge by luring all the children away/into the river/up a mountain/into a cave where he had his "wicked way" with them.

terrifying terrifying terrifying.
fascinating.

antiquated stories of murder and crime always seem more sisnister. maybe it's because they hint at an evil has always been around and always will be around even if you ban your kids from playing video games and watching the simpsons. but i do know for a fact that watching seinfeld can poison children and turn them into the worst kind of snarky when they are in college.

sometimes you get caught in a thunderstorm without an umbrella.

but at least you didn't put mascara on that morning and know that an education is waiting for you at home.

a beautiful rainy day movie with pretty carey mulligan and a great soundtrack.

went thrifting, bought my old clothes.

once upon a time, underneath a big white tent, there was a lonely fake leg. oh the stubs this leg had seen, the greatest stubs of it's day. but now, tarnished and alone, it sat propped in an overpriced bathtub unsure if it was in virginia or tennessee.

one hot sunday a gentleman and a young lady ventured into this tent and took a particular interest in this leg. the girl's mind raced with thoughts of a future united with this leg, this wooden appendage, this whimsical prosthetic.

alas, it was $200 and she had already bought this trunk earlier to put in her room:

though life will assuredly be less than without that peg leg (and really you never know when you might need one), i'm sure the little birdies etched on the clasp of her trunk will keep this entirely fictional young lady happy for today.

maybe more fun than harper's ferry or lake anna. maybe.

annapolis

lunch on the water, ice cream and colored rowhouses that fall down to the chesapeake. oh god and the kunta kinte memorial.

YOUR NAME IS TOBY

meridian hill park

dogs dogs dogs, fountains, the golden hour.



dupont circle

kramerbooks annnnnd the fountain.

saturday.

i fucking love produce

sorry mom dad kathryn and kitty, sorry plum and grandpa, sorry all little cousins and aunts and uncles that are probably not reading this, but my love of produce cannot be censored.

easily my favorite thing to do this summer has been going to various farmers markets. i can't tell you how excited i am to eat that watermelon. there's also heirloom tomatoes and purple and blue potatoes from abingdon.

and though i will miss you summer produce, i cannot WAIT for butternut squash, pumpkin, grapes (wine) and apples. lots and lots of apples.

who misses sweaters?

i'm done with this heat.
i'm done walking to the metro and sweating among all the cool capitol hill interns as i try and fan myself with the Express, really only smudging ink all over my fingers.

i'm starting to think in earth tones and i almost lost it the other day when a breeze blew a crunchy leaf into my path. i litearlly teared up a bit in anticiaption of maybe my favorite thing in the world (besides you know who) (koa):

AUTUMN

mother earth, it is time. if you don't believe me, look at the anthropologie catalog:


if you still don't believe me, listen to the new Arcade Fire album.

so listen, here's the deal. you start crisping this weather up, keep the drear going, start firming all your branches for the back to school #2s and i'll start watching The Crucible and looking for a burnt-red sweater. done.

clambake.

last week my dad, kathryn, (maybe brian) and i stayed up late on a school night to watch clambake, an old pelvis movie. his movies are so cheesy but really entertaining. now that it's been well over 30 years and the retro look is in, everyone looks so stylish.

and here's a still from the movie of Shelley Fabares wearing what is undoubtedly the most fantastic swimsuit of all time.

at sandbridge we had our own clambake of sorts. tuesday was a dreary day so my dad, john and i left the beach early and went to bonny & sons to pick up clams, oysters and crabs. everything was caught in Back Bay and basically Caroline and I hoarded the crabs and ate as much as we could before everyone came back from the beach.

caroline and claude (i ate claude)

i realize there are no photos of clams or oysters for that matter. it is what it is, the crabs were amazing and i would put "chesapeake seasoning" on absolutely anything.

Dear Trees,

you have an addiction.

you are not a family, let alone two families.

kerry

ps. please water my basil plant while i'm gone.

Of Cabbages and Kings.

dreams:
i've tried to make a point of not writing about my dreams here because they are really only interesting to one person: me. but waking up this morning and realizing magic isn't real was absolutely terrible.

in my dream last night i went to an old castle somewhere out in the hills of virginia where they set up a harry potter tour. as it turned out, the whole tour was a front for an actual magical community. brian, lauren and i were on the tour and the castle started filling up with water really fast. the "tour guide" told us to follow him and we climbed over the roof and into a secret courtyard where a tired looking hagrid sat at a long wooden table. he was sick of having to be so careful about hiding his magical powers and was asking to us about helping him. then my mom called us for dinner and we had to hide this from our parents but my dad suspected brian was involved with magic and called the police on him. the dream ended with me running through my court to try and warn brian and then i woke up. there were a few exciting seconds when i woke up thinking i had an important mission, and then i realized everything was a dream. damn.


flowers:
last night i hosted book club. alli put the idea in my head of getting fresh flowers because we saw pretty hydrangeas at trader joe's. so, i stopped by the foggy bottom farmer's market and picked out flowers from the LynnVale Studios stand. all of the flowers are grown in Virginia and they put together the most beautiful boquets that look like wildflowers. i picked some deep purple lisianthus', a fuscia zinnia and a cute sunflower.

budget aside, i think i'd like to get them every once and a while. some of the vegetables are just as pretty as the flowers and i couldn't even imagine actually eating purple heirloom carrots.

the beach:
i'm going to the Sandbridge with my mom's side of the family this weekend and i am EXCITED. Sandbridge is great because it's not very popular so the beaches aren't packed and there are still shells and wildlife. you can find the occasional sandollar and once a manatee swam right by us on the far side of the pier. you can see dolphins early in the morning and there's not much competition running after the ice cream truck. seeing all my cousins is great and i can finally put aside some time to read the omnivore's dilemma (drew, you can stop nagging me now).

Virgin Mobile Fest

it's free.
who wants to go? tickets go on sale saturday.

finally we can be together clifford, just like it was always meant to be.

other highlights include: lcd soundsystem, ludacris, sleigh bells and hot and heavy pumkin pie.

update: ALiRuLeS182: hoe please. you know tip drill is mine hes my chocolate vanilla swirl bear

nunca es lupus and my limp.

i'm turning into house minus his hightened intellecutal genius. i am thinking about investing in a cane.

sometimes i think: house, how do you think about anything other than the constant pain in your leg, let alone solve obscure and seemingly impossible diagnoses? then i think: house, you are not real. then i get nervous because what if i have an obscure disease and there is no house to cure me? what if this pain in my hammy is actually a rare disease and the only way to cure it is to find a revelation in a turkey sandwich? i'm screwed, we're all screwed.

anyways, despite the fact that i hobble around like quasimoto and complain constantly, kathryn put up with me and spent friday night in georgetown. we went shopping, had pizza paradiso and georgetown cupcakes and saw inception at midnight without yawning. heather also came over to wait in an insanely long line for free GTCC and watch the premier of DC Cupcakes (pretty awful, but still entertaining). i really should have taken some photos friday night, but this picture of greg will have to suffice.

i was thinking if i got to the point where i needed a cane i'd probably just use a giant rainstick. it would really speak to my american indian roots and people would probably think i'm wise.

inception was really good. so is pancetta.

Current Interests Include:

lattes in chilly coffee shops
dogs
big sur
the perfect sangria recipe
and percocet.

july 14th: what to do with your (sick) day off part two.

celebrating bastille day yesterday by experiencing how terrible the health care system can be. at least mom took me to the vienna inn for hot dogs afterwards. how do people live away from their parents? i wouldn't get enough red meat, i now think of sundays as red meat day.

heyyy catholicism, how do you like me now?

and my finger even makes an apperance!

pressing up to a storefront, hiding from a quick but angry rainstorm. summer storms are alright.

virginia.