little black journal

Our bags are packed, our reservations are confirmed, our batteries are charged, and tomorrow we leave for Paris.  I’ve looked forward to this trip for the last 4 years, and so the thought that we are actually going still makes my head spin and my heart flutter.  Is it really possible that in less than 48 hours, I will be roaming the streets of the most beautiful city in the world?  This city is home to some of my fondest memories – it is where I fell in love with art, it is where I acquired a taste for espresso, it is where huge seeds of confidence and independence were planted in my soul.  I’ve been reading through some of the old journals I kept while I was in Paris 5 years ago, picking out names of my favorite cafes and art galleries, and tonight I came across this entry, written on July 4, 2004, my last day abroad:

“45 minutes before I leave for the airport.  Am wandering around in a bit of daze, not wanting to come to terms with the fact that my year in Paris is about to become a memory.  Am sipping a cafe creme, looking out over Place de la Bastille, trying to muster up some excitement about returning to the familiarity of home.  I’ve had to say good-bye to people I love before, but never really to a place.  Not sure how to do it.  Can’t very well give Paris a big hug, wave, and say, “I’ll call you when I get home”.  Can say, “see you later”, though.  Alors, a bientot et merci.  Tu vas me manquer…”

And so “later” has arrived!  The best part about it?  This time Shane comes with me.  As much as I cherished my time in Paris, the fact that we were apart often kept me from fully embracing my experiences abroad.  I can definitely be a bit of a loner, but I really do believe it’s so much better to share a place so beautiful with someone you love.  So cheers to a much-anticipated, well-deserved, totally romantic get-away.  Ciao.

Schizophrenic weather today – a cool drizzly morning, a quick but intense afternoon wind/rainstorm, followed by a glorious sunbreak, and now we’re back to a cold, rainy night.  I guess I’ll keep that wool coat at the front of the closet for awhile longer…  But I’m taking solace in the fact that Spring is just around corner, as proven by my quickly-sprouting daffodils.  I had forgotten that I’d popped these bulbs in the ground last fall, so it was a nice surprise to see these nice little chutes of green growing out front – can’t wait to see what color the flowers end up being!   I expect that when we get back from our trip in mid-April we’ll be greeted by a Seattle full of budding leaves and blooming floors.  I love the changing of seasons – although I wouldn’t dare to complain about the year-round sunshine that I often enjoyed down on California’s central coast, there was monotony in the perpetual warmth.  And so I’ll endure the rain for a couple more months and look forward to another one of those Seattle summers that makes it all worth it.

Departure in T minus 16 days, and the major stops on our European itinerary are set – plane tickets and hotels have been booked for the following:

Saturday to Saturday:  PARIS.  We’ve rented an apartment near the Marais for the week, just a few blocks from the Place des Vosges, which is about as Parisian as a place can get.  Can’t wait to spend an afternoon or two there sitting on the grass, munching on a baguette, sharing a bottle of wine, listening to the sounds of all the French-speaking passers-by.  We’re keeping our Paris itinerary pretty loose, just looking forward to waking up each morning and saying to each other, “What amazing thing do you want to go do today?”

Saturday to Wednesday:  Porto, Portugal.  Our good friends from Seattle, J and L, will be flying in on Sunday and we’ll be spending a few days with them as they begin their two-week tour of Portugal and Spain.  I still don’t know too much about Porto, other than:  1) It’s extremely old and unbelievably beautiful, and 2) There’s a lot of good Port wine there, ready for the drinking.  Really, what else do you need to know?  We might rent a car for a day and drive out into the wine country – a day in the Portuguese vineyards definitely sounds like something I could do.  Also really looking forward to seeing the Casa da Musica in Porto.  This is an iconic piece of contemporary architecture, designed by OMA/Rem Koolhaas (who also did the Seattle Public Library).

Wednesday to Friday:  Madrid, Spain.  We found super-cheap tickets via RyanAir, and J and L were already going, so we said, why not?  Madrid sounds cool.  Not sure yet what we’re going to do there (except that Shane just discovered there is going to be an awesome Francis Bacon exhibit at the Prado while we’re there – that’s definitely on the list).  And maybe a quick bus trip to Toledo?  Spain is our oyster (for 3 days, at least…).

Friday to Sunday:  Back in Paris, to drink a couple more glasses of wine, to savor a little more beauty, to eat one last pain au chocolat, and to make any last memories that will have to tide us over until our next trip back.

Clearly, we’re still working out the details, though trying not to go overboard with our planning (any good vacation has room for relaxation and spontaneity).  All I know is, in a little over two weeks, I could be walking along the Seine, one hand holding Shane’s hand, the other hand holding a crepe filled with Nutella.  A glorious thought…

Today marked the end of another intense cram session and test-taking adventure, so Shane and I headed out to Quinn’s on Capitol Hill this evening to celebrate with dinner and a drink.  I’ve been wanting to visit this place for awhile (see number 6 on the list), and was immediately taken with the urban vibe and the rough-yet-refined interiors.  Deciding what to order was easy – one of their notorious burgers and a glass of red wine, please.  The burger was good, the wine was fantastic, and the chance to sit and leisurely enjoy a meal with my husband was priceless.  I’ve been a bit of a stress mess lately, and so we haven’t had the chance to catch up with each other in awhile.  It was nice to chat, to talk about our upcoming trip, and to just relax.  It also felt good to pull my camera off the shelf and blow the dust off the lens – I’m trying to get back into a picture-taking routine.

I spent last weekend down in Portland and realized that my blog was due for an Elise update.My precious little baby niece is becoming more and more of a little girl each time I see her.Smiling more, laughing more, babbling more, and taking more of an interest in whatever it is that’s going on around her. She loves to look at books (future book club member-in-training!) and is so content to sit on her blanket and flip through one of her stories.  She is a snuggler, too, which I am quick to take advantage of.  On Sunday morning before I left, I spent a good thirty minutes on the couch with her in my lap, while she studied my face and played with my hair.  The silver charm bracelet I was wearing was a big hit with her as well, so I shamelessly used that as a distraction to hold on to her for just a little bit longer.  The minute we left town, I was immediately wondering when I will see her again – a single weekend every couple of months feels far too infrequent during this period when she’s growing and changing so rapidly, but I’m thankful, nonetheless, for whatever time I do get to spend with her.  I’m becoming more and more attached to this little person who is developing and demonstrating her own personality and likes and dislikes. And it’s exciting to know that in the not-too-distant future, she’ll truly know me as “Auntie Kelly” and will begin to recognize me when I walk in the door. Can’t wait to see what lies around the corner with this little girl…

Shane and I were in need of a date, and the weather today lent itself perfectly to an outdoor rendez-vous.  Yes, that’s right, the sun shone in Seattle today!  A January miracle…  We thought the west-facing view from Lincoln Park in West Seattle would be ideal for sunset-watching, and so we hopped in the car and made the quick drive over there.  Man, it felt good to be enjoying the outdoors after so many days of being cooped up inside.  Rejuvenating.

Our prayers were answered and the weather cleared up enough on Christmas Eve afternoon for us to make the trek down to Portland.  We have spent the past two days taking refuge from the cold winter weather in my brother and sister-in-law’s warm, welcoming home; indulging in all kinds of baked goodies; and enjoying the blessing of family.  Good memories have been made of watching Elise experience her first Christmas, sharing an un-traditional holiday meal of fajitas, and simply sitting around together in the living room, relaxing and chatting and watching the snow fall outside.

Thanks be to God for the blessings he has lavished upon us, the foremost of these being his Son.  May you carry the peace and hope offered by the birth of Jesus Christ into the year to come.

Strange weather in Seattle these days.  We awoke to the sound of hail on Thursday at 4:30 am, thunder shook our house around 5:30, and snow fell throughout almost the entire day.  I debated about whether or not to brave the elements and head into work, but as the snow continued to pile up, and as I watched buses spin their tires and then just sit by the side of the road near our house, I decided to declare Thursday a snow day.  I bundled up (in my totally insufficient snow gear, aka jeans and rubber rain boots), and we spent some time playing in the snow with the neighbor kids.  I wimped out after only a few minutes and headed inside to thaw out, but Shane spent most of the morning throwing snowballs.  Around noon we were ready for another adventure and so we gathered up the neighbors, called up some friends, and embarked on a 20-minute trek to the bakery.  The chilly walk there was totally worth it.  Not just for the creamy latte and buttery scone, but because it was so much fun to sit around a table in this cozy neighborhood bakery and share this snow day with some of our closest friends.  And the fact that it was a Thursday, and we all really should have been working, made it that much sweeter.  I felt like I was back in Junior High, cutting school to go hang out at a friend’s house and eat ice cream.  The rest of the afternoon was spent at home, drinking hot tea and enjoying the sight of the final flakes of snow falling outside.  We had weathered the storm and had a lot of fun doing it.

Friday was business as usual for the most part.  I headed into work in the morning, grateful for a chance to be productive, but a little disappointed to see our pretty white blanket of snow slowly disappearing.  Ah well, it was fun while it lasted…  But tonight, the snow came back in full force.  The tracks in and out of our driveway from our 5 pm grocery run have already been buried.  Shane, feeling antsy at the sight of so much fresh powder, headed out 30 minutes ago to attempt to build a snowman (yes, at 11:00 at night), but he found the snow too dry to be proper snowman material, so he had to content himself with helping push stuck cars up the hill near our house (this has come to be his new favorite pastime).  Seems I married a man with the heart of a big kid and the muscles of a huge stud.  Score.  I’m looking forward to getting up tomorrow and seeing how much fresh snow has accumulated.  I wonder how much longer I have until the novelty of this winter wonderland wears off?

_

Winter has arrived in Seattle, snow and below-freezing temperatures and all.  Around 8:00 last night, what started as a light “drizzle” of snow turned into more of a snow “shower”  – Shane and I came home from a Christmas party around 11 to find our neighborhood covered with a puffy white blanket.  It was lovely.  We stood for a minute on the sidewalk and noted that it was so calm, serene, quiet.  I snuggled into bed last night, looking forward to a Sunday morning with a hot cup of coffee and a chair by the window where I could fully enjoy this winter wonderland.  But our morning turned out to be a little less peaceful than planned, as we woke to the screeching of spinning tires.  A car had gotten stuck on the ice on the hill in front of our house.  Shane, being the good neighbor that he is, threw on jeans and a coat and headed out to help push the car up the road.  Whew.  But then another car got stuck.  And another.  One more.  Shane was quite the stud, coming to the rescue left and right.  I, on the other hand, stayed in my pajamas all day, venturing out of the house just for a moment to snap a couple of quick photos.

Shane and I embarked on our third annual Christmas tree hunt yesterday.  We stayed true to tradition and went to the same tree farm out in the North Bend that we’ve enjoyed so much the past two years.  We bundled up, grabbed a saw, and spent nearly an hour wandering around the farm, in search of that perfect tree.  After examining all of the possibilities and asking each other, “Is that one too tall?  Too short?  Is it full enough?  Too full?  Are all of these starting to look the same to you?”, we settled on a 7-foot tall Douglas Fir.  Shane hacked it down with a few swift strokes of the saw, we paid our bill (while helping ourselves to some complimentary apple cider – mmm…), and the tree was ours.  The next task at hand was getting this thing home – in previous years, we’ve put down the back seats of our Civic and jammed our poor little tree inside the car.  This year, we were bold enough to strap it to the roof of our Honda Civic, despite the fact we don’t have a roof rack.  Twenty minutes later, we had it all tied up, but since neither one of us have our knot-tying badges, we were a little anxious about just how secure the tree actually was.  The parking lot attendant’s last words to us as we left were, “You’ll be ok, if you don’t drive fast.”  Ummm… we had thirty miles of freeway separating us from our house.  To the chagrin of all the other cars on I-90, we drove 50 mph the whole way home.  But we made it, with tree still in tow.

Then came the fun of stringing lights and decorating the tree.  My mom and dad have been giving me a Christmas ornament every year since I was a kid, so opening up the ornament box unlocks all sorts of fond memories.  It’s fun to think that I have been unwrapping and hanging some of these same ornaments for over 20 years.  I will sacrifice a perfectly decorated, color-coordinated tree any day for a tree with meaning.  And all of of my varied little angels, and glass kittens, and plastic snowflakes are quite lovely, actually…