moving on.

[i suppose this is second of all?  but really, if i only have two points to make here, would "all" just be misleading?  you could get to the end of this pair of thoughts, wondering if you've missed something, all because someone was careless with their idioms and tossing around "all"s like so many ... somethings.]

no, really now, moving on.

several years ago, presumably for my birthday, the boy gifted me this watch.

she was my dream watch, and i wore her nearly every day.

i got SO many compliments (and comments) when i wore this watch, the most frequent question being: “does it do anything else?”

besides keeping perpetual time, which i think is more than enough…no.  it does not.  sometimes i liked to pretend it had an intercom and the ability to launch my super powers ala wonder woman bracelets, but that’s another story.

sadly, while i was teaching my 1st hour english class, the elastic broke.  the dear boy sent my watch back to the company who made it, vestal, and they looked at it to see if they could fix it.

over the next 6 months, they corresponded back and forth, advising that they could not fix it (sad) but they would replace it for free….but not with the same watch, because they no longer made that particular model.  they could give me this one:

but purple is so very not my color.  alas, we thought all hope was lost and were beginning to poke around to see if i liked another watch just as much as my beatles-white-album-of-loveliness watch, when they said they found one in the way, way back of the warehouse (after pestering them for a few months to respond) and were sending it posthaste.

the watch arrived, it was lovely, and all was well with the world.

until.

i realized that my watch was perpetually several hours behind.

i changed the battery.

i fiddled with the knobs.

still, several hours behind.

so.

now, my watch sits in a bowl until i can figure out who to take it to to get my watch fixed, otherwise having to force the boy to get sucked back into the 6-month-for-service vestal black hole to get me a different watch.

and the worst part is, now the boy has the cooler watch of the two of us (gasp!) and gets compliments on it ALL THE TIME.  and each time he does, my angel-watch sheds a little tear.

you know who.

“THEY”.  the ubiquitous “they”, the experts all around you chiming in.

how tough it is.

how great it is.

how much you struggle to communicate (or, more simply, fight).

how easy it is because you are still in that “honeymoon phase” (side note: phrases talking about phases make me…hurl.  and wish that i could find a word that rhymes with “phases” that means “vomit”.)

the challenges unique to the first year of marriage: adjusting homes, habits, expectations, disappointments.

how important communication is.

how important communication is.

how important communication is.

are you sensing a pattern of advice here?

i’d have to say, after a year of this marriage thing, that on this multiple choice question about what marriage is like, i’d select answer (E).   All of the Above.

it’s all of these things, and then none of these things, because things feel palpably different with us now than it did a year ago and we feel as though it’s been a fairly unsteady year externally (choosing entirely diverging career paths from what one has intended for years can throw you (and the person tasked with unfurrowing your brow and peeling you off the bathroom floor) for a little loop.)

things are different.

and good.

and challenging.

and still exciting at times.

mundane at times.

all of the above.

and i do still like him on idle tuesdays, when it’s hot and i’m bored around 3pm and the dished have piled up and we can’t think of anything good to do.

that was important to me.

liking him on idle tuesdays.

but, i think the really REAL things in life, the priceless things, the sure things that become really just a part of our identity…they are the most difficult to describe in words.

we just don’t have the language to contain it.

(it’s partly how i know i’m so amazed by something; the word amazement doesn’t even cross my mind — i’m quite speechless.)

this is how it is with the boy, on our first anniversary.

so, there’ll be more wedding anniversary-related fun this week for you to read about, but i leave you with this for now:

this is an email i wrote to the boy exactly 3 years to the day before our wedding.  it’s as relevant now as it’s ever been, a wonderment about the exciting adventure before us:

What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon?  And the day after that, and the next thirty years?”

– F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

*    *    *    *    *

we still don’t know the answer to that, but i am quite certain of the person who’ll be beside me.

(images from our wonderful photographers: 1, 2, 3)

i don’t usually have to drive up and down the aisles, but can peruse the parking lot situation quickly once i turn into the location.  on these brilliant, sunny days we’ve been having lately, this skill is stored in the back of my closet with the winter coats and galoshes because i don’t mind a long walk from the far end of the lot; however, with the aforementioned puffyfoot not healing like i’ve told it to a thousand times (don’t ankles ever listen!?!) and in rainy/cold weather, this skill is sharpened, honed, and ready to go.

the boy i’m married to has no such skill.

he’s like a horse with blinders on, a tunnel-visioned champ that can focus with laser-like precision on his current mission: designing a logo, building a website, and, well, parking.

the first spot he sees open (which, mind you, is usually the ONLY spot he sees open) is the one he’s pulling into, happily, while i flail about in the passenger seat, all pointer fingers and missed parking spot opportunities.

he loves driving with me.

he especially loves it when, while tapping on the brakes to avoid colliding with the car in front of us or for stopping the car in general, i suck the air out of the car and shield my eyes for the impending doom that i’m positive will commence and then insist that i’m not doing anything.

i’ve been a bit scarred by a few rear-ends.

i’ve also been a bit scarred by accidentally rear-ending a few people.  in cars.

i think it’s that second one that is responsible for the gasping for air.

poor guy.

this is the background information for what i’m about to tell you.

the boy and i were preparing a most nutritious lunch of hot dogs (mine without bun not for health reasons like i try to pretend, but just because we can’t seem to get the same amount of hot dogs and buns at the store (except in our case, we always have more hot dogs than buns).  i prefer cheese on my hot dogs, so while i laid several slices of tillamook extra sharp cheddar (i know the full names of my cheese, folks.  i’m not messing around) the boy requested that i cut him off a hunk.

i obliged and set the piece of cheese on his plate, about 6 inches from where we were standing, then switched places with him (he standing by the fridge/microwave) because our kitchen is barely a two-butt kitchen, so we have to constantly reposition ourselves if we both insist on being in there at the same time.  he immediately went to cut himself off a slice, not noticing the slice i cut for him RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS FACE, waving and holding up a neon sign, like cheese tends to do.

laughing, i put my hot dogs in the microwave above our fridge to melt the cheese, all while going into a humorous diatribe about his lack of observancy and how comical it is to me, the overly-observant.

mid-rant, i take my hot dogs out of the microwave and the cheese is gone.

as in, no sign of it on the hot dogs or plate.

we peer into the microwave.

no sign of cheese.

our next thought, which should have been that the cheese somehow fell off of my plate onto the floor, was not that.   it was this:

the microwave magically made the cheese disappear.

we’re two grown adults with two combined college degrees, owned businesses and we can tie our shoes perfectly EACH AND EVERY TIME for years, yet our brains were seriously contemplating the magic of the kitchen appliances.

it took us a few good seconds to roll around our magic microwave scenario (how did it do that?  will a rabbit appear next?  can a microwave also vaporize humans?  can we take this on the road?) before we noticed the pile of cheese on the floor, having unceremoniously tumbled off my plate while i was busy telling my dear husband how unobservant he is; the cheese, mocking me and my puffed-up observant badge of honor.   that’s how i like my irony served, friends.  with snacks.

the food got cold before we could stop laughing hard enough to eat it.

*     *     *     *     *

in other news, this time a year ago, we were practicing walking down the aisle, surrounded by friends.

tomorrow’s a good day already, i feel it.

(images via here and me, respectively)

today was the inaugural event of Fixer Design Fun Treat Fridays, wherein the employees of Fixer Design (which is, of course, just the lovely boy and i) check out for a bit mid-afternoon on fridays to get a tasty treat before we finish the work week.

today’s tasty treat came courtesy of the colorado springs cupcake truck
(currently in competition for the four best words EVER to appear together)
which travels about the city delivering its sugary magic wherever it goes.  it made a last-minute stop downtown with my favorite special – birthday cake – and we got a buy 3 get 1 free special in care of the auspicious date (friday 13th).

our loot:
2 birthday cake with sprinkles (yellow cake with chocolate frosting)
1 peak pistachio (for the boy)
1 chocolate overload (for my friend meg who i am seeing tonight)
1 carrot cake (with cranberries on top, also for the boy)

we bounced a few streets over to give one to my brother and to pick up some milk,
and then finished the afternoon in tasty, tasty style.

the glass, which is my new favorite, is courtesy of the local goodwill when i decided this week that i had had enough of matched dishes and instead just wanted to get all the glasses i like instead.

i just posted about food two days in a row.  what does this say about me?

don’t answer that.

bon weekend!

I came home last night to find this little sussy* at my desk.

That boy sure knows the way to charm me.

*surprise. When we were kids, my parents brought us home ‘sussies’ from the grocery store. It didn’t occur to me that this was a silly non-word until middle school. Awkward conversation, that was.

I love writing, but I hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, “You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I’m not your agent and I’m not your mommy; I’m a white piece of paper — you wanna dance with me?” and I really, really don’t.”

– Aaron Sorkin [writer of only my favorite tv show ever
and many, many other fantastic things.]

*      *      *      *      *

the man speaks the truth.

blinking cursor.

blinking cursor.

blink.

blink.

argh.

*      *       *      *      *

addendum: after reading the above to the boy and remarking at how accurately mr. sorkin is reading my freaking mail right now, the boy remarks:

“so what you are telling me is that instead of just freaking writing these articles already, you are instead looking up quotes about not writing by aaron sorkin?”

score: boy, 1, procrastinating girl, 0.

so, the wondrous meg squeezed me in to her schedule and chopped my locks into a lovely new do.

which i wanted to share with you.

[i did not intend for that to rhyme].

exhibit a:

but the boy is very curious, and wanted to see what i was up to in my office.

[this is also a picture of my office, you see.
i'm all about the multi-tasking picture].

i got suspicious.

but he just wanted to kiss me.

which is always welcome.

except that then he tickled me.

and took a picture of it.

of course.

.

sneaky, that one.

Tagged: daily, life, picture pages, the boy ]]> http://thesaradarling.com/2010/07/15/scenes-from-a-thursday-afternoon/feed/ 1 sara, darling new hair. boy sneaky. boy kiss. boy tickle. http://thesaradarling.com/2010/06/21/things-charming-me-this-summer-installment-one/ http://thesaradarling.com/2010/06/21/things-charming-me-this-summer-installment-one/#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:41:00 +0000 sara http://thesaradarling.com/?p=1538 ]]> so.

there are things to be said about things.  jobs and trips and weddings and locations and books and sights and people.

but for now?

let’s talk about more charming things.  because it’s summer, and today it’s the longest day of the year, which provides ample time and sunlight to take in the things that charm the pants right off me.

*     *     *     *     *

milk [with dessert, of course] + the striped straws left over from the wedding.

beverages taste so much better to me out of straws.  i may or may not have purchased what can only be described as an adult “sippy cup”.  it’s plastic, with a plastic lid and plastic straw in the shape of the plastic starbucks cups, but reusable.  i may or may not insist on drinking every beverage out of it, and may or may not actually pout when i can’t.

my lucky husband.

on the dresser in my office sits mr. bunjamin franklin derose, a porcelain rabbit given to us by our good friend ryan and his wife courtney for our wedding.  [seriously, a great wedding present.]  mr. bunjamin gets rather warm in this heat, so he sits in front of the antique (yet working!) fan we snagged at the antique store warehouse planet the other day for $12.  seriously, have you seen the antique store on the corner of academy and constitution?  i think i got lost in there for a few weeks, and reinforcements had to be sent.

mr. bunjamin did need something to remind him of home, though, and the terrariums my mother and i built for the wedding centerpieces suit him just fine.  i’m hoping that our little love terrarium will fare better than most of the other plants i’ve systematically killed.

seeing this guy every day certainly charms me to my feet these days.  he’s cute!  and he builds things!  i said one day that we needed to have a cabinet for stuff in the bathroom, and several days, two doors procured from a yard sale and a short discussion later, do you know what i have?  a custom-built bathroom cabinet painted white, with shelves measured to fit all of my stuff.

i’ve called him the boy for years now, and i abhor every brevity-influenced version of the word husband, so i was pondering what i should call the boy now.  husboy?  YIKES.  my friend audrey suggested “boyband”.

hilarious.

this little lovely thing sits on our mantle.  i swear i was this close to putting “sponsored by etsy” on our wedding programs, for all the cute things i got for our wedding from there.  my cutetastic nephew carried our “fake” rings down the aisle on this.  did you have someone remember to buy fake rings to give to the ring bearer?  if you didn’t, i feel bad for you, because people like that RULE.  they really do.  well done, ashlee.

another awesome wedding present.  these owls guard the “currently reading” section of our vast library.  a Very Important Job.

you’ll forgive me that many of the things currently charming me are wedding/marriage-related, right?  i mean, i’ve been mrs. for about 2 weeks, so it makes sense.  forging right ahead then.  one of the questions i got asked the most at the wedding were about these spright little flowers.  where did they come from?  how peculiar?  what are their names?

for the record:

they are called craspedia or billy buttons or billy balls.

they came from ecuador.

i procured them from the internet machine for cheap.

they don’t smell the greatest, but they don’t smell the worst either.

they dry amazingly, thus my simple wedding bouquet lives on, guarded by the owls.

our friend sam, upon seeing them sitting in the bucket at my parent’s house before the wedding advised that “god must have invented these flowers exactly for your wedding.”

we love sam. and these flowers.  equally.  almost.

have i mentioned that our apartment has no drawers?  NO DRAWERS.  drawers? nyet.  as you can imagine, this presents a creative challenge regarding where to store things.  our spice rack was taking up valuable real estate on the counter, so my trusty handy boyband (yep, i went there) constructed this magnetic wall for our spicy storage.

on a piece of paper is the key for what spice is what until we can procure some labels.  if i lose that piece of paper, feel free to decline any dinner invitation at my house in the near future.

here’s another solution to our aforementioned kitchen sans drawers situation.  sebastian carefully looks over our new silverware in ceramic egg jars from ikea.  we went to seattle for our honeymoon, and since the boy had never experienced the wonderment of ikea (and we couldn’t wait until it comes to denver next year), we spent an afternoon wandering around the scandinavian superstore.  we snagged a few great treasures that we carefully packed to avoid an overweight luggage fee or shattered treasures.

the mustard peg board was inspired from mrs. julia child, who had this large pegboard with outlines of various pots and pans on it.  i’m trying to absorb her cooking prowess and spirit by association with her kitchen design.  i’ll let you know how it goes.

*     *     *     *    *

literally.

they looked white online, but when they arrived, it turns out that they are rose-colored.

the idiom “rose-colored glasses” means that you see things as more pleasant than they actually are.

these are my new sunglasses for the summer, but i have this funny feeling that between getting married, a honeymoon and spending all summer without having to work and being able to spend time with my bff the french boyfriend, friends, and family…

i can’t see how they have a chance of living up to their name.

things are going to look just as lovely as they are.

i tend to forget things going out the door.  do you think he’s trying to tell me something?