Single no more.

Before I write a post about the end of 2010, the things I did and didn't do this year, and the things I want to do in 2011, I'm going to share some photos of Marieke and Curt's wedding. These photos will remind me of what's good in the world. Friends, family, love, and hope. These things are important to have in one's life each and every year, and are important to remember and experience not just at weddings or at times of New Year's resolutions, but always. Thanks for the reminder of this, Marieke and Curt! Your wedding was a great event - beautiful, meaningful, full of each of your personalities, and full of fun. A great time and a perfect way to bring you into this next phase of life. Thanks for having us there! Now for the photos.

The ceremony was great - the perfect amount of God/spirituality and humor. I shed a tear (I always shed a tear at weddings), but it was hard not to when you could see how happy the bride and groom were to be getting married. Here's Marieke getting her ring from Curt:

Here's a shot of the table centerpieces (the red and cream made for classy decor!):

And now let's move on to the dancing. There was dancing thanks to Doug, the wedding DJ. He did a great job. Perhaps a side career?

The bride sure knew how to get down - here she shows off her moves:

At first Curt was not really present on the dance floor, but Sarah got him out there:

And then, once he was out there, Marieke got him to stay:

Perhaps a metaphor for their relationship? Once Marieke got Curt hooked, there was no looking back. Good-bye single life, hello married life. Trust me - you didn't make a bad choice!

Another successful Christmas.

I'm not exactly sure what a successful Christmas is (one in which we get lots of presents that we don't have to immediately return? One in which we survive with all of our wits intact? One in which we don't eat so much we have to roll back home?), but I think we had another one this year. We gave each other gifts both practical and fun. We sat around Christmas trees and enjoyed the company of others. We ate a lot. And we survived both the busy-ness and the weather.

Let's talk about the weather first, since I'm sitting here under a blanket and in my robe and yet still feel a draft creeping in from somewhere. It's cold out. Very cold. I believe the outdoor temperature is somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Yay. To go along with that lovely coldness is about 16 inches of snow, with more in places. We had a blizzard the day after Christmas. This was the scene when Doug and I were driving back home from Connecticut: You can see that it made for really fun driving. When we woke up the next morning it was still snowing, but once it stopped we made our way outside to shovel. Doug was thrilled. Really. Seems that he likes shoveling. Well, good for him. The next time that we get a blizzard he can do all the shoveling and I'll stay inside and drink hot chocolate and read a book. I wouldn't want to get a snowblower and take away all his fun.

So okay, we survived the blizzard. We are shoveled out, Doug's still amped up about being alive and shoveling, and I'm trying to come down from my sugar high. I consumed more sugary sweets these past few days than I have in a long time; well, at least since Halloween. It all started with a few days before Christmas when I turned our house into Roz's Bakery and decided to bake all night. Here are the results, most of which are now in my belly (or, more appropriately, on my thighs): I know that those cookies and pie and cakes and peanut M&M's and whatever else I ate will cause me endless hours at the gym, but I can't say no. Not around Christmas when everything smells so good. Besides, I think my body tries to store fat at this time of year. It's a nature thing. I'm like a bear, preparing for hibernation.

Now that I have my healthy cookbook, though, I don't have to worry about getting too fat. The Bow-Tie and his team have finally made a healthy cookbook - there's even a section on vegetarian recipes! - and I cannot wait to try it out. I was so excited to see it in the store that I called up Doug immediately and told him to tell Santa to put it under my tree. I'm glad Doug listened to me on that one. Thanks, Doug and Santa! Now I can be healthy.

And Doug can be healthy, too. He got a yoga mat, which means he has no reason not to take up yoga this coming year. The true test of his excitement level will come when I try to get him into the basement to do some Yoga Body Burn with me. This has not gone over well in the past, but maybe if he has his own special mat he'll be more amenable to downward dog.

Let's see. What else. I got some very cool onion goggles that should block out all the nasty fumes from burning my eyes (but if nothing else they will make me look like Bono while wearing them, so maybe I'll belt out some Irish rock ballads while cooking), and Doug got himself a couple of really nice books, the one below about Les Paul. Doug has been a Fender man, but reading about Les Paul has made him consider adding one of those to his musical tool box. This may mean another post with him holding a guitar in pieces - the results of another year-long quest for the perfect axe to hang on the wall next to all the others that rarely get played.

The family seemed happy with their Christmas, too. Doug's parents seemed to really like the cat scratching post that we got for their cat colony and I'm sure my sister can't wait to put her witty nurse calendar on the wall. She's a nurse now, you know. She just had her pinning ceremony a couple of weeks ago, and once she takes her big test she's all set to get out there and start nursing. Her three beautiful children are very excited about that (or could it be that they are excited about the chocolate cream pie they just ate?), and I for one cannot wait to start asking my sister for medical advice. Just wait until she has to start inspecting my scabs and moles. She'll wish she had stuck to librarianship!

Anyway, I think I've run out of steam. I'm tired, I'm cold, and I have to get ready for the pre-wedding party that we're going to for our friends Marieke and Curt. They're getting married tomorrow. Yay! I'm happy for them. Doug and I like being married. As long as you overlook the piles of dirty socks and underwear that seem to spontaneously generate and the half-filled glasses of juice left on every available surface (and I'm sure Doug would have a word or two of married wisdom, too), married life is great. I hope you read this, Marieke and Curt! Those are sound words of advice.

And we're off!

This past weekend marked the beginning of the whirlwind that's become the holiday season. It begins each year with Doug's birthday celebration (though it's unfortunate that his birthday has become lumped in with the holidays) and it ends with the trip back from Connecticut and the unpacking of all the stuff that we acquire while there.

To kick things off, Doug celebrated his 34th birthday in true adult style - working and eating take-out from PF Chang's. He had to work on a release until about 10pm (you'll see that in the background in the photo below), but we managed to squeeze in some excitement with a quirky animal card. This year it was squirrels (the cat cards took a break this year). Squirrels scream excitement.

Then I continued the celebration with a chocolate bachelorette brunch on Saturday in honor of the very near end of Marieke's single status. In only nine days Marieke and Curt will be married, and we marked this occasion in style at Cafe Fleuri, stuffing ourselves silly with chocolate. This was my (first) plate of sweetness. Isn't it just beautiful? Marieke topped hers off with a giant cotton candy drumstick, and as the bride she was allowed to do that, but I stuck with the chocolate. I told Marieke that we should celebrate the anniversary of her bachelorette each year at the chocolate brunch - I'd just need a week's notice so that I could fast appropriately before all that indulging.

So, sweetness on Saturday and then sweetness on Sunday, but of a different variety. On Sunday we went up to Maine to celebrate birthdays and Christmas with all of our favorite Mainers. We saw our new Falmouth contingent, Julie and Brian, and got to see their great house (I can definitely see why they chose to rent there). We also saw our Portland contingent. Ruby was a jolly little elf that day, full of smiles and babbles. She enjoyed the blocks that Santa Doug and Rosanne brought to her, at first giving them careful study but then quickly realizing that it's more fun to eat them. If that block were chocolate I would have been right there with you, Miss Ruby!

And now all we have to do is get through this week. Tonight I'm sewing Christmas presents, and then tomorrow I'm wrapping, Wednesday I'm wrapping, Thursday I'm packing and baking cookies, and then early Friday morning we're off for forty-eight hours of Connecticut Christmas. Ah, the holidays - the most crazy (but wonderful) time of year.

Bon-Bon watching: round three

First, let me say that I really like my new job. A lot. Granted I'm now in the thick of a pretty major story coming out of my library (for the record, the urine was actually spilled, and if you are a stickler for language like me you will understand that there's a pretty big - really big - difference between pouring and spilling; we are going to lengths to have this corrected both in the media and in the official incident report), but that only seems to somehow add to the excitement of each day. The people are great, the work is interesting, I really like being around the books and the learning, and I have to admit that I really like being in Harvard Square and actually having a sane-enough schedule where I can go out to one of the many great little places to eat for lunch each day. Who knew there could be a life like this?

And then let me say that part of me hopes that my niece, Maria, does not dance in Albano's Nutcracker next year - the snobby part of me that doesn't like going to ballets in sports arenas and watching the kids in the audience wave around their fiber-optic souvenir swords. Of course, there's also the loving aunt in me who finds it a great way to spend my afternoon, watching my niece dance around stage during the Bon Bon scene. Just don't ask me which Bon Bon she is. I was convinced she was one of the Bon Bons on the left, but turns out she was one of the ones on the right. Minus one for Aunt Rosanne!

But not minus one for everyone in the family celebrating a December birthday. After the Nutcracker we all headed back to my sister's family's house for some (amazingly delicious) dinner and cake to celebrate Maria's performance and also her birthday, my sister's mother-in-law's birthday, Doug's birthday, and Rose's birthday. Rose is the dog, and even she was in the group photo. Everyone seems to call the dog Rosie and that's what my parents used to call me as a kid (my father still does). I am still not able to not react when someone calls out, "Rosie!" I even somehow snap to attention when someone says, "Rosie, bad dog!" I don't know what this means.

I do know what it means for Doug to be in the above photo, though. It means that his birthday is coming up. In about a few hours, actually. Tomorrow Doug turns 34. Does he look 34? Hardly. Even though the mustache makes him look to me more adult and sophisticated than his beard did (In his beard he looked to me like a cuddly grizzly, especially when it got bushy. But with his mustache he's much more used-car-salesman, and don't ask me why this is an image of sophistication for me.), I still don't think of my husband as 34. I think of us as ageless, actually. I see photos of us when we were younger, like when we first met (We met twelve years ago! Can you believe that?), and it seems like yesterday. I believe those lines about age being a state of mind only. If you don't think about how old you are, you won't feel old. I hope Doug doesn't feel old. To me he's still the guy who sticks carrots up his nose at dinner. Happy birthday, Stinker!

The arctic freeze.

When I agreed to start my new job on December 6th, I had no idea that I'd be starting in the middle of an Arctic freeze. The indoor/outdoor thermometer has been reading some incredible temperatures. 23 degrees in the morning (that's outside, but it doesn't feel much warmer in here!) when I leave for work and a balmy 28 degrees when I come home. On Monday, my first day, I stood at the train for a little under an hour in the wind and the cold (train issues - of all days!). I was wearing a skirt, and even though I had my boots on and my long down coat, my hat, scarf and gloves, I still was freezing. Today I broke down and jacked up the heat. I set my thermostat to 62 when we're not in the house (no need for the kitties to freeze, too!) and 65 when we're in it. Somehow that 2-degree jump doesn't seem to make much difference, though. I'm still wrapped in my downy bag and wearing my hat and scarf.

Santa is cheering me up, or at least warming me up a little. We got him at the cut-throat Santa brunch we went to on Saturday (let me know if you want more info on cut-throat Santa. I found it to be great fun, and a great way to get rid of stuff you don't want, but a very risky game.) We also got a fondue pot (but without the fondue forks, I just realized - how can we use the pot without the forks??), which I suppose was only fair, since someone got the nested mixing bowls that my sister gave to us way back when we moved into our Allston apartment. Seems like we got a taste of our own medicine.

Doug's at practice tonight (here's a photo from his most recent show - a good one, too (both the show and the photo)) and I am trying to figure out if I want to read or watch a movie. Regardless of which I do I'll be asleep in 15 minutes, max. My first few days at work have been great - really great, actually. Everyone is nice, everyone is very eager to show me around, show me the ropes, and I've actually been enjoying both the people I've met and the things that I've learned I'll be doing (who would have thought that I would ever say that I am enjoying what I do at work?), but I'm exhausted. Lord only knows the state I'll be in by Friday. I've been getting to work at 7:40am, which is not all that unusual for me, considering that I used to get to Bain at 7:45/7:50am, and I haven't been doing a whole lot of actual work yet, but it's so true what people say about transitions taking a toll on your energy levels. On the one hand I'm psyched about being at Harvard, but on the other hand all I want to do is sleep. I'm definitely not used to all this excitement, and admittedly I got a little used to going to bed late and waking up well past when my alarm goes off these days. I'll get into a routine, but until then you'll probably see more photos like this posted here (this one's courtesy of my loving husband): I'm the lump under the mop of hair just above Sasha's ears. Flattering, no? As long as I don't end up like this (which I just may when I work the overnight shift), I'll happily assume that position on the couch.

Christmastime in New Orleans.

NOLA! We just came back from four days in the Big Easy, our second time there in a six-month span. How lucky can we get? You may recall that the last time Doug and I were in New Orleans, I was at a conference and Doug flew in on a red eye to spend less than 48 hours exploring the city while I was learning about copyright, contract negotiation, and other special library kind of things. This time we explored the city together, and neither of us spent any time inside the convention center. Again, how lucky can we get?

Pretty lucky, apparently. Look at all that we were able to do! We spent lots of time in the green spaces of New Orleans, like the Botanical Garden, and we walked around the some of the fascinatingly creepy above-ground cemeteries (like this one, Lafayette Cemetery No 1, in the Garden District, where some of Interview with a Vampire was filmed). We walked through Uptown, the Garden District, Audubon Park, and through a little of Mid-City. We spent a lot of time in the French Quarter, looking at the buildings and the people (there is no better city than New Orleans for people-watching, I've decided). We spent some time listening to music at Preservation Hall and Balcony Music Club, and went into some antiques stores along Magazine Street. We also took a tour of Oak Alley Plantation, probably one of the most photographed plantations around New Orleans, mainly due to the incredibly picturesque "alley" of live oaks leading up the long walkway to the front of the plantation. Like so: Not only are these trees visually stunning, but they don't shed leaves, either. These are my kind of tree.

Of course, when we weren't doing all these other fun things we were eating. Eating a lot. Doug ate this whole po' boy for lunch one day and then a few hours later enjoyed some oysters and some kind of shrimp dish for dinner. (That sandwich with the fried egg on top was my Croque Madame. And that was one of the healthier meals I had on the trip!) Desserts often went a little like this: We may have done a lot of walking on our trip, and our feet may have hurt, but my belly was hurting after a while, too. I'm just not used to that much food, or that much meat. Don't expect to stick to your diet when you're in New Orleans.

And now we're back, back home, back to reality, back to work (almost for me! I'm counting down the hours until I start my new job, and am getting a bit nervous about it. Get ready for me to be preoccupied and overly anxious for the next couple of months while I get my footing in this new situation...), and back to our normal routines. But one good thing that's keeping our vacation adrenaline still high is that it's Christmastime, and nothing seems hum-drum during the Christmas season. We put our tree up the night before Thanksgiving so that we'd be able to jump right into the spirit of things when we came back from NOLA. Here's our tree: And here's what we got to see in New Orleans while we were there: I've been blaring the Christmas music in our house all day every day, and plan to put some on my iPod later today so that I can have it to listen to while I'm on the train. A good part of my Christmas shopping is done and I've spent some time this weekend making some Christmas gifts for the kitties in my life (while listening to Christmas music and thinking about what kind of Christmas cookies to make next weekend). There's really nothing like Christmas to put you in good spirits.

Just a few (!) things.

A few things. A few things! Since when have I ever had "just a few things" to say. But in the interest of time, I'll keep to my rule of three.

First up - the change in my employment, which really is more of a career re-set and not just a change in jobs. I haven't spent too much time on this blog talking about my job (hardly any, actually, at least not directly), and that's because I couldn't really speak of it. Bound to secrecy in a way (or more like signed away my life in a confidentiality agreement). Anyway, for the past five years I have worked at Bain Capital. I started as an information intern, working in the research library, worked my way into a full-time job as a research analyst in the research library, and spent my last two years as director of the research library. I could go on for days about that job, but let me be brief and say that it wasn't the best fit for me. I knew that the moment I walked in and saw the lobby on the top floor of the building, and heard Pat, the receptionist, answer the phone in that movie-star kind of way. But I plodded through, quite successfully, actually, probably because I thought it was easier to go through with it all then to stop and try to find something different. And now I have found something different. Something more suited to me - my personality, my interests, my goals (there will be another post on that soon, I'm sure), and I have left behind all of this: My name on glass, a corner office, and my little library. It's okay, though. It really is. I couldn't be more sure that it's my time to leave corporate libraries, and I happily wave goodbye to the past and hello to the future.

Okay, next up - Doug's mustache. Yes, Doug has a mustache. He's had it for a couple of weeks now. I'd like to think he changed things up in honor of my new job and all of our exciting adventures yet to come, or that he shaved the beard in honor of Movember and a good cause. While the push for the mustache - which came from me, by the way, and was met with every bit of resistance Doug could muster - was originally in honor of Movember, it turned into something else. It turned into a challenge. I wanted to see if Doug would alter his facial hair just because I was asking him to. And to my surprise he did. And to his surprise he actually likes his mustache and will keep it until he grows tired of having to shave around it on a bi-weekly/weekly basis. That works for me, since I was getting a little tired of the beard and actually like being able to see more of Doug's face. Plus, it's like waking up next to someone different - I still barely recognize him.

And lastly, at least for today - redecorating! One of the very first things that I did (after our trip to Sturbridge, which was the first thing) after leaving my job was redecorate the house. Definitely trying to start afresh. The first thing I did was move the cookbooks into the kitchen. I did that because I moved the bookcase from the living room into the sun room, and it didn't make sense for the cookbooks to be all the way out there. Along with the bookcase went the armchair, and now the sun room is its own little library, complete with guitars, cat, and man with mustache.

But you might be asking yourself about the table that was out there in the sun room. Where's that? Well, it's now where the bookcase was in the living room, behind the couch in the back corner. Like so: Now we can craft there, work on the computer there, or even eat at that table and watch TV instead of breaking our backs by trying to eat at the coffee table. The room is a great space for doing all the things we most love to do - all while watching TV.

And, we made a change to the dining room, too. New dining table! We ordered this table from the Darn Good Barn Wood guys in late September and didn't get it until the Monday before Thanksgiving. I almost forgot we had it coming. We saw the DGBW guys at Brimfield back on this trip and contacted them this past May to see if they were going to be at Brimfield again. The answer was no, so we thought all summer long about going to see them at the South End market that they were participating in to pick out a table. We took until the end of September to decide that indeed we did want one of their handmade-out-of-old-barn-wood tables for our dining room, in the spirit of saying goodbye to college and our youth and hello to more "adult" furniture, and so just called them up, gave them the dimensions we were looking for and the color stain we'd like, and here it is. And we can't wait to save up money for DGBW to start making us some more stuff out of barn wood. Benches for the table, maybe? Or maybe some chairs? A coffee table? A console table? A bookcase? We've got a lot more IKEA furniture to replace; our list is almost endless.

So. Those were my three things. There is so much more to write about, to tell you about, but I have to go and get the car inspected (Whoops! I noticed that our inspection sticker expired in November when I saw the ticket sitting on the window of the car this morning (can you believe that someone patrols the parking lot at Target looking for violations? That's where I got the ticket! In a parking spot at the Watertown Target while I was inside getting my niece Maria her birthday gift!)) and then pick Doug up from work, so I can't. I have to exercise restraint, and also save some of my stories for another time. Bet you can't wait! :)