Vegas Vacation

Reunited and it feels so good! My two best friends from Boston texted me on Wednesday asking if I was on board for a quick Vegas vacation. Low and behold, I have exactly 3 days of vacation left! So at the end of October I will be drinking myself stupid while sunburning at the pool in Vegas with these two lovely ladies!

Goda & Caitlin. My favs.

Caitlin was my roommate for three years at Simmons College. We met in the Simmons Chorale freshman year and bonded over how normal we were compared to the other girls. Neither of us had roommates for the next year so we took a huge leap of faith and decided to room together. Best decision of my life. We've been BFF's ever since. Her last name is just as odd as mine: Surprise. It goes together with my body part last name famously.

Goda lived in my dorm freshman year. A native Lithuanian, she gave my group a spark. Although she may be little, she packs a punch. I haven't seen them in over a year since I was in Boston last autumn. It will be great to see old friends in my "neck" of the woods a.k.a. east of the Mississippi.

Oh. Emma. Glee.

My love for musical numbers, underdogs and high school peppiness has always been tried and true. So when a television show combined all of my nerd love like Glee did, I was hooked. Just like the rest of the world. I was a version of Rachel Berry. I played volleyball, basketball and track, wrote for the school newspaper, was a freshman class treasurer, ASB publicity manager, senior representative, Quill & Scroll vice president, Valentine’s queen, prom princess and showed up to every football game decked out from head to toe in Maroon & Gold. Go Tigers. I wish I could have been part of a glee club but we didn’t have one and I can’t sing for shit. C'est La Vie!

But now that I’ve matured (umm, yeah) and I pour myself a glass of wine and get ready to enjoy all things Glee, I have found myself eagerly waiting to watch not Rachel, but the fabulous Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays). And what I’m really interested in is Ms. Pillsbury’s clothes. Emma’s wardrobe is what mine aspires to be. Poking around blogtown this afternoon I found this gemstone: What Would Emma Pillsbury Wear? Oh happy day!  This wonderful blog breaks down Emma’s outfits and not only tells you what she’s wearing but where you can get her clothing.

My clothing style has always been a little eccentric. In high school my favorite outfit was a choice between red converse sneakers with Strawberry Shortcake laces, tan cords and a bright blue little league t-shirt I got at St. Vincent DePaul’s and a pair of American Eagle jeans that had holes in the butt that I was constantly re-patching (mother HATED those jeans), a turquoise top and a brown and pink cardigan from Urban Outfitters.

I’d like to think I’ve evolved. I still love cardigans and old lady jewelry (big earrings, statement necklaces, sparkly sweater pins, etc.) but I no longer look like a poor blind girl dressing herself in the dark. Emma and I are kindred spirits; red hair, pale skin and cardigans. So thank you Danielle and Teresa for creating a look book (and links to where I will be spending all of my paychecks!)

Had a minor freak-out moment when I saw that Emma and I own the SAME cardigan!

**A note to Ryan Murphy: Please, please, please devote an episode of Glee to Gene Kelly. It would be amazing beyond words.**

Lemonchell-OOOO.

My lovely boyfriend just got back from 12 days in Europe- without me. The bastard. His family went on an Italian cruise stopping all along the Italian coast, Tunisa, Barcelona, Nice and Monte Carlo. His mother is 100% Italian, but 3rd generation American. Growing up in said half Italian (half Norwegian) household, his wonderful mother taught him how to cook. This is a godsend for me because I don't. Not that I can't, I just don't. I bake. My WASPY family is all about white bread, meat and potatoes.

Boyfriend's family is totally different. They make homemade pasta and have a secret family recipe for red sauce. Their family cook book is amazing. So after his first trip to the homeland, BF and I got a great idea to make our own lemonchello.

So after work on Saturday, I picked him up and we booked it to Costco. We were stupid to think it would be an in and out trip. Why? Football. The great state of Oregon is serious about football. We don't have a professional team and we only have two NCAA Division I schools. Needless to say, Costco was swarming with green, orange, yellow and black. Boyfriend graduated from the University of Oregon (ducks) in Eugene and bleeds yellow and green.

Autzen Stadium  is known for its crowd noise. In 2007, when the Ducks beat USC, a record crowd of 59,277 fans was recorded at 127.2 decibels. Duck fans take their "Yell-O" very seriously.

My family has three generations at Oregon State University (beavers) in Corvallis. My grandparents met during a ballroom dancing class at OSU and were married for 55 years. Adorable. My grandmother got her degree in Home Economics. Super adorable. And me? I went to Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts 3,000 miles away. So I guess I'm a platypus because I really don't care who wins as long as the state of Oregon does well.

Back to Costco. We fought our way and bought a giant bag of lemons and made it home just in time for kick-off. During the Duck game (Yell-O), Boyfriend peeled all of the lemons. He only knocked them on the floor once when Oregon made scored a touch down (and beat Stanford- hells yes).

Lemonchell-O.

At half time we poured the Everclear in and gave it the "Italian Blessing." Here's to hoping that we have our own lemonchello in 4 weeks.

Oh, Everclear.

Oh, hey blogtown.

I've finally decided to start a blog. It's been a long time coming. Yet I can't believe it took me so long. Me, standing out on the technology highway with my thumb sticking out, waiting to be picked up by the blog bandwagon. Don't get me wrong- I am a writer. I have journals stacked up in all four corners of my old room at my parents house. My favorite time at school wasn't recess, it was "writing workshop." Kids picked a corner of the classroom to sit down and write stories. After you had 5 "drafts", an aide would publish one of the books by creating a cover for it, helping you type it on the computer and then you got to illustrate your own book. At the end of the month, each child who had a published book ready would read it to the class in a giant white rocking chair...ahh, those were the days.

The days when pure joy was reading a 10 page story to your classmates about a unicorn named Betty who had a best friend named James. James the Peach (Thanks Roald Dahl) and they picked flowers and built a tree house together. And Grammy Unicorn made them special non-threatening cookies that a fruit could eat.

hazelnuts in their shell before harvest.

This kind of imagination can only be that of a small child growing up on a 400 acre hazelnut ( or filberts) farm. No Internet, cell phone. Hell, we didn't have caller-ID until I was 15! Hence the ridiculous unicorn/peach stories. I am the oldest of three sisters. My paternal grandparents lived up the hill from me and my maternal grandparents lived 10 minutes away.


view from my front deck



We had no neighbors and my driveway was a mile long. We still have dial up Internet and no cable TV. No, I didn't walk to school in the snow, uphill, both ways....but it was pretty damn close. So you can see why filberts (or hazelnuts) are close to my heart.** You can see why hazelnuts would be in my blog title.

And Cardamom?

Cardamom is my favorite spice in the whole world. It makes everything delicious. Cookies, bread, cinnamon rolls, pie, and especially waffles. Norwegian sour cream waffles with cardamom and fresh jam is pretty much the most delicious meal ever.

So we'll see how blogtown treats me.

**Hazelnuts are high in heart-healthy oils and proteins. Each nut is encased in a flavorful, thin skin that is extremely high in antioxidants. They should be close to everyone's heart! Haha, nut joke.