Encyclopedia La Vida Lista: Volume F

I'm back with the rest of my fall vacay. There's not much to see here, so I thought I'd break it down by sharing pictures brought to by the letter "F":

Dan and I went to the oh-so-charming town of Leesburg on our way home from the mountains. We saw...

Fun signs:





Ate fall food (like this pumpkin cupcake):


snapped pictures in front of this shop run by Redskin's tight-end Chris Cooley. He actually owns this pottery shop, and Dan is such a fan, he wore his favorite shirt:



And wonder of all wonders, the football player himself showed up! I guess Chris (we're on a first name basis now- ha ha) shows up to occasionally see how the store is doing and sign autographs. Dan could not have been more elated!

In the words of Dan, "Efffff yeahhhhhh!!!!"

Fall Vacay: Part One

It may be surprising to some people that these two teachers' favorite season is fall, but it is. Summer may mean time off and beach trips and sleeping in until noon and general debauchery, but there is something about pumpkin desserts, and that cold snap, and Halloween, and football (that's Dan only) that we can't get enough of.

For Christmas last year, Dan's sister Emily gave us a gift certificate to go to Big Meadows, a huge lodge with individual cabins in Appalacian Mountains. Thought I'd share some pictures from our overnight trip. What up, fall??

We snapped this on the drive up:

During our drive up, we stopped at this adorable place called The Apple House and indulged in cider, barbeque, and apple and pumpkin doughnuts. And samples of apple cake, too. And then may have licked the extra icing out of the bag.








Big Meadows was really rustic and pretty, with great views and those view finders that you can pay 25 cents to see landscapes better:


And this guy. Dan is looking elsewhere to make sure no one is watching him pose.

The view:


I guess blackberries grow wild up there because Big Meadows boasted four different blackberry desserts. Their cobbler was freakin' awesome.

Dan and I did two hikes, the first being a rather rocky trail to this gorgeous waterfall:

The other trail was four miles, but felt more like forty with the steep inclines and having to scamper up boulders. There was a lot of talk about "Why don't we go to the gym more??" Then, we stopped talking because we were gasping for air which made us tease each other mercilessly. Still, it was a pretty walk.

We were completely alone on this trail, except for these deer that we spotted:

I think this guy was as curious about us as we were about him because he walked right up to me. Sorry for the blurriness but I didn't want to use the flash for fear of scaring him away. He just blinked a couple times, casually munched on a few leaves, and then walked right in front of us down the path.

View from the top:

Another waterfall:

Last short walk to the summit:



Words can't even describe...

Be back with part 2 of our fall vacation soon! You know I can't get enough...

The Wedding Roast... err... toast

"I've got the microphone and you don't,
SO YOU WILL LISTEN TO EVERY DAMN WORD I HAVE TO SAY!"

- The Wedding Singer
My husband loves an audience. Loves. An. Audience. And he got one this past weekend when he gave the toast for his sister's wedding. Dan + microphone + captive yet drunk audience = his idea of the best day ever.
Oh yeah, and it was also nice for him to see his sister get married.

Emily and her hubby Dan looked so happy. Yep, her hubby has the same name as her brother. And, yep, my Dan worked that into his speech. He also worked in playful jibes about her being a vegetarian ("I wish you a long marriage filled with love and absolutely no... chicken, steak, or pork"). There was even a long-running joke about her obsession with the New Kids on the Block as a kid. He went so far as to read a fake congratulations e-mail from NKOTB's Jordan in a crazy Boston accent during his speech. Wicked funny. It brought down the house.

If Dan's the funny one in our relationship, I guess I'm more... detail oriented. I just have to share some of the sweet touches from this wedding.
First, the venue. They chose the Valentine Museum's courtyard. Here's where they said their vows. Dan and I got there an hour early, so I snapped a bunch of pictures before the guests arrived:




Emily had a welcome table with black and white wedding photos of all her family members.

Pretty shot of one of the tables and, of course, the cake:

I loved the wild flowers in the mason jars. Dan and I were the "take the gifts to the car people" and when we were packing, my MIL said I could keep a few of the jars. I'll be "pinteresting" mason jars soon to see what I can do with all of them.





Emily came up with her purple and green color scheme because most of the flowers growing in the garden were those colors. Practical and pretty, no?





Okay, enough details! Time to meet the happy couple:

Em didn't really like the idea of having a troupe of matching bridesmaids, so instead she let her two closest friends pick their own dresses. She's pretty much the opposite of a Bridezilla, and you know these girls love her for it. One of the bridesmaids even joked about her laidback attitude by making her a shirt for the bachelorette party that with these words on the front:

Please stop calling it "my special day".

The back of the shirt? It said, "No, I haven't been dreaming of this day all my life." It was freaking hilarious, given that we know Emily is pretty low key about this whole thing.

Dan walking his mom down the aisle. I love this picture of her so happy.


Not a dry eye in the house:

Afterwards, we had crabcakes, pecan chicken, and squash ravioli while sitting around the courtyard. The wedding planner packed a few boxes of leftovers in our car afterwards, and since the bride and groom left immediately on their honeymoon, we got to keep it. All of that food made for a rock ass lunch the next day :)

This is the last picture I took before it got too dark and we started drinking /dancing in a giant circle. (Sidenote: I think it's so fun and cheesy and great when people make a dance circle at weddings and then people jump in the center one at a time and cheer on each other like they're on Soul Train. It's awesome.)

Do they look happy or what?

Equally as happy as a certain other Dan I know, who retorically asked me after the wedding, "Everyone thought my speech was funny, huh??"

It was his special day, after all.

Just a nice September Saturday

Thank for all of your amazing comments on my last post. I can't tell you how oddly liberating it was to write about what was going on after weeks of feeling sad. Your support means so much. Truly.

I thought I'd share a few pictures from one of the actual happy days this month. During a recent Saturday, Dan and I went to Williamsburg again to bike ride and have lunch. Yes, that's two trips during the course of a few weeks. Maybe there's something soothing about a recreation of a bygone era?

I guess there's not much to see in these pictures. It was just a nice day.

We lunched outside the Cheese Shop, the specialty shop famous for fancy sides and gormet sandwiches. I like the pimiento cheese and roast beef one.

and their chocolate chip cookies:

Then, we walked around and just enjoyed the sunny day, herb and flower boxes, and cute outdoor garden shops:


I reminded myself for the millionth time that I want to plant an herb garden someday. I'm thinking it's a summer project.

Not pictured: The garden shop owners. They were sweltering in their colonial garb (bonnets, britches, full hooped dresses). It would just be mean to snap a photo while they're dripping with sweat. Poor things.

Cute beehive baskets:

Prettiness that makes me want to landscape our backyard:

Pictures before getting helmet head from biking:

I love vines. Sooo garden party.

We tooled around the College of William and Mary and kissed on this bridge 'cause the story is the person you smooch on here is the one you will marry.

Yes, we're already married, but any excuse for romance works.

Like I said, not too much to see. But it was a great day in the midst of a tough month, and I'm thankful for it. :)

Thanks again to all of you

Hitting publish

Sometimes after writing, it's hard for me to actually hit "publish".

Let's call it what it is... my blog's identity crises. La Vida Lista has no problem with lists, to do's, and cutesy restaurant reviews. It likes to document happy times, like Dan wearing an apron with The David's junk on display from our Italy trip. It's even okay displaying snarky posts about life's hilarious hassles, like about our creepy neighbor telling us we have bats in our attic. But venting about work? People? A really shitty week? It isn't going there.

There's a half dozen posts that have never seen the light of the interweb. It makes perfect sense. I made a decision early on that I wouldn't vent about my job since people have been fired for a lot less, so you'll never see a rant about a student on here.

I knew that my blog wouldn't be a place where I would air my grievances Festivus-style about someone because I'm paranoid about causing hurt feelings. What if he or she just happened to be one of my seven readers??

And I didn't want to write about things that made me really sad because... well... I'm not sure. There's always someone who has it worse out there so it makes me kind of uncomfortable to whine. And I guess I don't really know most of you and you all don't know me. Maybe I was scared that people might make assumptions of me being sulky or a Debbie Downer or would (gasp) hit unsubscribe. Who wants to read about someone feeling blah? So instead of hitting submit, I wrote them for me, hit save, and moved on.

But I'm thinking now that this is my blog and that it's okay to write about the bad as well as the good. And you all seem so nice. So I've decided to be brave and real and write. No cutesy conclusion that ties everything together and no disclaimers. Okay, maybe one disclaimer: I'm feeling much better now, so no need to worry about me. There. Old habits die hard.

Here it goes. I've felt sad these past few weeks because:

I got pregnant in July. I wasn't by late August.

Of course, the real story is longer. How I peed on the test at 5:00 a.m. and then couldn't stop smiling after that and had to lie through my teeth to Dan to sneak out at 10:00 to go to the mall and buy a Redskins bib. How I gave him the bib and the test and his eyes bugged out because I think he'd been worried after more than a year and a half of trying and then he whooped and bear hugged me and kept repeating, "Oh, hon, I'm so happy!" How I bought two pregnancy books and felt uncharacteristically calm even when I read about side effects and labor. I can do this, I thought. Billions of women have! How I was so excited I even blurted the news to the lady at Jiffy Lube who changed my car's air filter since I figured it was safe she would not pass the story on to family or friends. (For the record, her response was so satisfying, whooping and saying something in regards to, "You go, girl!" Then, she gave me advice on how I shouldn't eat for two that people don't know that but if you eat for two you will look like a mutant of your former self so, girl, don't become a chowhound. Priceless advice from the Jiffy Lube lady.) How Dan and I Googled ways to reveal the news to our family and imagined surprising them Punked style.

It was barely seven weeks, but Dan and I already called that tiny cluster of cells our "Lovey".

Then, I started to miscarry and immediately called and sobbed to my mom, who hadn't even known I was pregnant yet. How I felt stupid for allowing myself to become so ecstatic, rather than my usual "cautiously optimistic". I'm a professional worrier with almost a superstitious tendency of looking out for Murphey's Law to take effect. How did I miss worrying about this? Later, I was shocked to go on the web and read about how absolutely common this very sad event is. Many of you reading have probably been there too, in perhaps even worse situations where you were pregnant for much longer. I'm sorry for anyone who has ever been in this club.

Afterwards, I realized three things. First, I have amazing people in my life, like a sister who will drop everything and drive two hours just to hug me, parents who really got how sad I felt, friends who will e-mail and commiserate over greasy Mexican and say the right things, and Dan who prayed, held, and was there for me every moment. Second, I realized later that I'm glad I let myself feel happy when I first found out. Joy is now, in the moment. It was wonderful giddily waking up each morning and feeling like it was a whole new world already. Even if I had crossed my fingers and "prepared" myself by reading miscarriage stories on the web and tempered my excitement, I still would have been crying to my mom that night. And I'm not sure lowing my expectations would have made it any less sad.

Oh, and third, that we're ready to be parents.

Since I'm being honest here, I'll admit that this isn't the only thing making me feel kind of low this September.

Beyong the usual chaos and stress of school, there have been other things that have been bringing me down. A family member is going through some shit that's been making her sad; it's her business so I won't go into it here, but I feel for her so much.

Like a bad country song, our family dog died last week.

And lastly, I haven't been able to stop thinking about a family who is suffering through the worst loss that anyone can go through. You know who I'm talking about if you happen to read this person's blog too. It's her story to tell, so I won't post anything about it here, but I will say that I can't stop reading her posts and feeling so helpless of what to write. Their loss is unimaginable. I can't help but to tear up when I read about all of the love in this heartbroken family. It certainly puts what's going on in my life in perspective.

As promised, no cutesy conclusion. Okay, hitting "publish" before I change my mind. Sorry for the heavy post. But I know you all will understand.