this is it

So a week from today is the last day of me being single; or, really, unmarried. I haven't been "single" in a long time. But I was single for a long time--or, I feel like I was until I met Lev. It's funny when you finally meet that one person...it's like everyone else that you had ever dated never existed. Because there was nobody like this person. Everything in my life was leading up to that moment that I met Lev, and everything in my life has been leading up to this moment, here I am, now.

Ten years ago this month, my best friend (and maid of honor) was gearing up for her wedding. I remember it so clearly--I remember how wonderful it was that these two fantastic people had met, fallen in love, and were about to embark on a life together. And I remember wondering if that would ever happen to me. I was breaking up with a boyfriend that I'd been together with for about two years (when you are 21, two years seems like a lifetime), and just thinking that perhaps I'd never find *it.*

Ten years is a long time but it is also a blink of an eye, you know? I can still feel the energy of August, 2001. It seemed like the whole world was just opening up to me. I was new. I was applying for a publishing internship in New York (which didn't happen for obvious reasons). My best friend was getting married on September 7. We were so very young. And now, ten years later, my best friend and her wonderful husband of ten years have two beautiful children, a great house, and the same cat. And I'm getting ready for my marriage to Lev. 

...on granola

So everyone who knows me knows that I'm kind of crunchy, kind of a granola. An extremely uptight granola, but a granola nonetheless. Well, now I make granola. This is my first batch, and I'm figuring out that it is impossible to screw up granola! This was made with flaxseeds, honey, raw sesame seeds, peanut butter, and old fashioned oats. Put it in the oven for a bit to toast and there you go! Lev approves, too.

Speaking of Levy, OMG we are getting married in 12 days! Twelve days! I am so excited! You know who is taking this very much in stride? Lev. He's calm, cool, collected, and happily looking forward to the wedding. I'm those things too--but sometimes in the middle of the night I wake up very much the latter but not at all the former. I mean, I guess "cool" never really described me anyway so why try to fake it? 

Today Lev's wonderful sister sent me scanned photos of him when he was little. I can't even--he is so cute. Augh! This little boy! I just want to hug him and kiss him until he won't let me. Which is what I do to Lev on the daily, anyway. If we have a son he had better love smooches.

you don't know heat until...

There is a brutal heatwave in the midwest right now. The air conditioner and I celebrated by watching Levy cook dinner. 

our feet, the heat.

majick

Yesterday a tornado blew through town and knocked out the power in the suburb where I work. This morning I woke up at six and called to see if the power was back on. It sounded like it was--the organization's outgoing message said that the office would be open (and the message ended with the open-ended "today," as in, "Today we'll be open"). I got dressed, hopped on the train, and got off at my stop...and when I got off the train, nobody else did. Normally, 2-3 people from my work get off the train with me. I noticed that the people waiting at the station for trains into Chicago had wet hair--a sign of no blow-dryers, but even more, a sign of no electricity. After calling the office again, the message had been changed--day off! For sure!

To celebrate, I baked this mango-apricot custard-ish tart thing that I used a recipe for and faked (a combination of the two). It goes a little something like this:

Lev's report: "It combines flavors that I wouldn't think go well together, but that are actually delicious." Nuff said!

How to do it:

Make a basic crust--I combined 1 1/4 cups flour with some salt, sugar and 8 tbsp butter. I pressed it into a glass tart pan and stuck that in the freezer while I made the filling (it seemed like the right thing to do).

The filling I kind of took from this article in the New York Times...except Levy's allergic to les cerises...AND I had a heap of apricots and a mango that needed to be eaten. Therefore:
1 cup of Greek yogurt
6 tbsp sugar
3 eggs
1 vanilla bean
3 apricots
1 mango
Cut up the fruit and pull the crust out of the freezer. Fill the tart pan with the fruit. Slit the vanilla bean and push the seeds into a bowl. Mix the other ingredients into the bowl; when you've mixed it all, pour over the fruit that's already in the pan. Put into a preheated 375º oven for 35 mins...take it out and let it cool.

And YUM. I promise. xoxo

apples, peaches, pumpkin pie...

Lev and I are tripping out on how good these plums and peaches from Stanley's fruit market are. SO GOOD. SO SO SO SO SO GOOD. It's crazy that artificial-anything even exists when there is stuff that tastes this good. That grows on trees!

This is just to say--William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

lazy monday

we BBQ'ed. we came home. relaxation nation...

seoul patch/ seouled out/ seoul music

I uploaded our trip photos. But this is all you really need to know about Finland...

Marimekko pillowcases, OMG

Yes, I purchased much Marimekko while in Finland. And the stores are everything that you'd dream they would be--light, bright, full of great stuff, and of course so very Finnish. I watched a woman pay for her bolts of fabric with a Marimekko credit card. Concentric dots all over it. *Sigh.*

And on that note, I'm apparently posting photos from Korea due to the fact that it is taking forEVER to upload anything right now.

Me on the bullet train from Daejon to Seoul. 3 hours by bus = 1 hour by train 

The fam, train station, Seoul

Coming back to Daejon on the train

 Lev took these photos. I love looking at his photographs--it's what he sees. He's napping in the other room right now (the one with the air conditioning). He came in and said, "I'm grumpy! And tired!" and fell onto the bed, into a deep sleep. 

july...

It's here, the mid-stroke of summer. Although Independence Day is only 14 days into actual summer it always feels like summer's experienced older sister. Like, ok, we are almost done with this phase.

I've been getting somewhat aggressive calls for more Helsinki photos (hi mom), so I'll post em later today. Lev's camera is dead and that's where most of the pics are. I'll ask him where the charger is when he gets up.

xoxo