brought to you by the word seriously

So, it’s been nearly 2 weeks since I blogged.  Mea culpa.  Time flies when you’re traveling up and down the east coast, celebrating birthdays, finishing an old and starting a new job, going to concerts, and hanging out with your parents.  A few things to tide you over until I get back into a more regular blogging schedule:

• At the end of July and beginning of August, the awesome Matt Wertz tweeted something about buying some guy named Steve Moakler’s album, “All the Faint Lights” and I favorited it, thinking I’d go back and check the album out.  Then Wertz shared a video Jamie Clayton took of him singing “Run” with Moakler, which I watched and, after I picked myself up off the floor, I ran right over to iTunes and bought the entire album (the sound on the linked video isn’t great, but it definitely gets the hit you in the gut point across).  I love every song on the album. Seriously.  You should listen to/buy it ASAP.
• I wrapped up my old job 2 weeks ago today (w00t!) and am finishing up my first week at the new gig (fundraising for another think tank, still in DC).  Lots of changes and differences, but the biggest one out of the gate is that I’m working from home.  Which is probably both blessing and curse.  I’m still working out my routine, which seems to be a pattern of working from our dining room table in the morning, then finding a place with free wi-fi in the afternoons.  If you have a favorite Arlington/Alexandria place with free wi-fi where I can come camp for 3-5 hours in the afternoons, let me know.  Also, any tips about working from home are super helpful and very much welcomed.
• I took a week off between jobs and went to southwestern Virginia to hang out with my parents.  It was one of the hardest “vacations” I’ve ever had.  The worst thing about getting older, in my opinion, is that your parents are getting older, too.  More on that later. Maybe.
• I saw Sugarland and Keith Urban in concert last night.  Holy. Moses.  Sugarland’s “Love on the Inside” is one of my all time favorite overall albums.  Seriously, a great solid album, and this was my first time seeing them in concert. Love. Them.  I’ve seen Keith Urban 9 or 10 times in concert. They’re touring together off and on through October, see them, you won’t regret it.  Sugarland played for an hour and Keith played for 2 hours straight. He went into the audience! He played an LED light up guitar! He played his typical set from the back of the house!
• This morning, Jen and I saw “Julie & Julia.” My Twitter review: “Julie & Julia review: I cried (5 times), I laughed out loud (throughout), & I want to be Julia Child when I grow up. 5 stars.” There were so many awesome things about this movie that made it, in my opinion, a richer story than the book.  While the book only features some of Paul Child’s letters, the movie flushes out Julia and Paul Child’s lives much more fully, to my great delight.  I think it’s easy to see so many parallels between Julie and Julia’s lives and experiences and what me and many of my friends deal with in our daily lives.  Sitting right on the edge of something great, of that one thing we’re “supposed” to be doing, just waiting for that final piece to fall into place and make it happen.  While cooking and good food are central to the movie, they really play a supporting role to these two women who are just trying to find themselves.  Seriously, go see it.  I’m definitely going for a repeat viewing.  This time, I’ll remember the kleenex.

it’s so hard to say goodbye

Tomorrow is my last day at WLF.  My last day working in Dupont Circle.  My last day taking the 7C (or 22A, if I’m running late) to the Pentagon, then the Yellow Line to Chinatown, and the Red Line to Dupont.  My last day in probably the best office building, with the best personal office I may ever have.  I’m going to have to find new barristas who will have to memorize my coffee orders.  New places to hide out during lunch.  New favorite lunch spots.  A new list of places I want to go or things I want to do (which I may never make it to or actually accomplish).

It’s been an interesting 3 years, to put it mildly.  I’ve learned a lot, both professionally and personally.  I’ve found things I’m good at doing, that I’d never even considered as a possible interest, let alone as career molding skills.  I’ve learned about a whole ideological world that was just a mystery before I arrived in DC.  I’ve learned, again, that during times both good and bad, in the absence of biological family (and sometimes when they’re around), your friends and, sometimes even, your co-workers are the only ones who can really revel in your successes and thoroughly wallow with you in the bad times.  I’ve made friends who introduced me to more friends and somehow, without trying and without real purpose, I’ve built a life here.

Despite my complaining, I’m going to miss having to commute to work.  At least once a week, I’d ride up the escalator at the Dupont station, thinking “Look at me!” or “If only Mi-Maw could see me now!”  Somehow, for some reason, there was something about that commute that made me feel so very independent and so far removed from my roots.  I’m going to miss Saxby’s, where they know my name, how I like my coffee, and were so very happy to tell me that somehow, a picture of me ended up on their google maps page.  I’m going to miss wandering in and out of the shops that occupy a good part of Connecticut Avenue between N and S Streets (I’m sure my bank account will not miss them nearly so much) – though I’m certain the clerks at LouLou had deemed me a potential shoplifter.  Even though I didn’t take full advantage of it, I’m going to miss being able to eat my way around the world by walking in a 4 block radius from the office.  I’m going to miss impromtu trips for frozen yogurt and cupcakes and coffee with coworkers who became some of the best friends I could have ever imagined.  I’m going to miss the rotating cast of college students who answered our phones and the interns who would show up with little advance notice and somehow fit into this strange crazy world and find it, as one of this summer’s crop put it “a joyful experience.”  I’m going to miss phone calls with book and blog and website recommendations.  I’m going to miss chats with my staff in the mornings.  All the oddities that annoyed me for the better part of 3 years are rapidly becoming quaint quirks.

This isn’t to say it’s all been sunshine and roses and my moving on is, I believe, a good thing for both me and WLF.  I’m excited about the challenges my new job holds and the ways it’s going to let me grow professionally.  But for tonight (and probably tomorrow), I’m a bit sad about what I’m leaving behind.

those people

I’m becoming one of *those* people.  I guess there are endless varieties of *those* people, but the *those* people I’m becoming is the type that insists on baking or cooking for every occasion.  The kind who would rather cook her own birthday dinner than have someone else do it.  The kind that will (hopefully) one day end up baking her own wedding cake.  It starts small, I’m sure.  Which is happening with me.  Instead of letting my lovely co-workers pool their money and buy an ice cream cake from Ben and Jerry’s or a cake made at any of the local bakeries or, God forbid, letting one of my co-workers bake something, I have my own going away party cake in the oven right now.  Of course, I offered to bake it under the guise of wanting to thank my co-workers, which is partially true.  But I’ve made this cake before (Simply Recipe’s Carrot Cake) and I know the reaction it gets and I feel like I need to leave one lasting mark in the Gwen column for when they write the book on the Washington Legal Foundation and attempt to name WLF’s supreme baker/fundraiser.

In a move full of infinite wisdom, I’ve abandoned Infinite Jest and have been reading Julie and Julia, which has only accelerated my transformation into one of *those* people.  Julie Powell talks about the pleasure she gets from cooking, both the act itself and sharing it with friends, family, loved ones.  She talks about stalker food (guilty), tells tales that have me wanting to eat calf’s liver and cook live lobsters.  With my new job giving me more freedom, I’m thinking of starting some sort of Julie/Julia-esque project.  My cousin, Emily, suggested I cook through the Joy of Cooking. I could never be as ambitious or dedicated as Ms. Powell was, but I think a project where I cooked one out of the ordinary meal each week might help put some structure into what promises to be (at least at the onset) a chaotic and exciting new adventure.

crushed

The subject of crushes came up earlier this week when I was talking to my mom.  She’d asked about one of my friends and when I replied that the friend had a crush on a guy she’d recently met, Mom chuckled and said it just seemed odd that a girl/women who is nearly 30 would have a crush.  Which got me to thinking, is it really that odd?  Almost all of my single friends have a crush or two at any given time.  I seemed to have unintentionally caught a crush on a boy I met earlier in the summer – it’s innocent and going no where, but sometimes, it’s just nice to like someone without all the complications that seem to come with being seriously interested in someone.

I wonder if it’s just a sign of the times – that girls/women now delay serious relationships and marriage so having a crush when you’re pushing 30 is now normal, while to my mom, who was engaged at 19 and married at 22, it seems childish and immature and not nearly serious enough for us to have a crush on a boy.

Thoughts? Opinions?

blame Don Draper

I had every intention of telling y’all about my 4th of July weekend.  How we ended up on a boat one night.  How I ended up picking crabs in Annapolis one day.  How we watched fireworks at Quantico and how I finally made it to see the Nats (against the Braves).  Or to tell you about K-Box’s 30th birthday extravaganza and our trip to Sandy Point Beach (and another trip to Cantler’s).  I have big news and little news and have had a week full of surprises – not big gifts in boxes, but behavior that has taken me aback in the best way possible.  All these things have been rolling around in my head and a couple have even made it to the screen. But all have been abandoned.

And all the blame falls squarely on Don Draper’s shoulders.  Or maybe on Maureen’s shoulders, since she’s the one who sent me home from dinner on Sunday night with season one of Mad Men, which I have literally been devouring at the rate of 3 episodes per night.  At this rate I’ll be all good and caught up and ready for season three to kick off on August 16.  In the meantime, I’m pretty sure this is as good of reason as any to have abandoned the blogginess.

In the meantime, I did update my 101/1001 list.  And try as I might, I can’t figure out how to add my Google Reader shared items in the sidebar.  Until I do, you can find them here.

bake your cares away – Heritage Bundt Cake

As I’ve mentioned a time or twenty, Abby got me a beautiful bundt pan for my birthday (probably just to save me the shame of going to stare at the pan every time I walked by Williams-Sonoma).  I hadn’t had a chance to bake anything in it yet (see: South Beach diet), until last week, when we were celebrating my intern’s birthday.  I headed home from work on Wednesday, planning to make my Mi-Maw’s pound cake recipe, but when I pulled the cake pan out, I noticed the really tasty looking bundt cake recipe that was with it.  I’m pretty sure it was a hit all the way around.

Heritage Bundt Cake

2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salk
16 Tbsp (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1.5 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Have all ingredients at room temperature.  Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 325.  Grease and flour pan, tap out excess flour.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy and smooth, about 30 seconds.  Add the granulated sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the dies of the bowl.  Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla just until incorporated, about 1 minue.  Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour.  Beat each addition until just incorporated, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, spreading the batter so the sides are higher than the center.  Bake until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 55-60 minutes.  Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes.

I’m not sure if this is just a Williams-Sonoma recipe, or if it came from somewhere else.  Regardless, delicious!

do-over?

I promise I don’t work for Southern Living.  If I did, I’d be floating around on a cloud all day.  Today, I was checking their Tales from the Road blog and came across a post for a Southern Bucket List.  Which made me realize a couple of things.  First, for a proud Southerner, I’ve apparently been no where and done nothing (made even more obvious after reading the list of 40 Things Every Southerner Ought to Do).  Second, I feel as though I should heavily edit my 101/1001 list.  Or start a new sub-list.  Third, I need to be independently wealthy so I can just drive or jet around doing all these wonderfully Southern things.  Or get a job at Southern Living where I could do all these wonderfully Southern things while getting paid.  I’m open to whichever option will have me sitting on a screened-in porch drinking sweet tea sooner rather than later.

and the world turned

Since we last talked I’ve done a lot of stuff.  There were boats and crabs and fireworks and baseball and I need a vacation from my 3-day 4th of July holiday.  And hopefully, I’ll get my stuff together to actually post some stuff about all the independence day revelry that went on, but in the meantime, I had to (once again), sing the praises of the Gabe Dixon Band.  I just realized I’d actually mentioned this song before, but each time it comes up on my iPod, I literally have to stop and catch my breathe.  Take 3 minutes to listen to it: And the World Turned. I just love every single thing about it.  Hope you do, too.