on sharing a meal

g and i love to host dinners. it is a known fact by now. the menu planning, the shopping, prepping, cooking/baking, serving, and then feasting...it's a joy. dinner parties give us the chance to be creative, to envision flavors and colors and textures melding into a single dish.

but the greatest part of these dinners is opening our home and sharing a meal with good friends. it is over the dinner table that our souls are nourished as much as our bodies. conversation happens. laughter is unstoppable. bellies are filled. it's a good thing.

yesterday morning, g and i were planning what to eat for dinner. hmm...coconut curry chicken, perfect for a lazy sunday. but then we thought, hey, we should have a couple of people over. unlike our dinner parties, invitations were not sent in advance, multi-course menu-planning didn't happen, and our day was not entirely dedicated to prepping/cooking. it was just a humble, everyday meal, made with love.

my good friends shaddi and brent came over, not phased by the last-minutedness of the invitation. we set up the table, opened the wine, and enjoyed a lovely meal, just the four of us. it was a comfy night, a perfect sunday with friends.

last night was a great reminder that meals don't have to be "planned" extensively to be shared with friends. they don't have to be glamorous or intricate. they don't have to require a day of work to prepare. as long as there is wine to drink, food to eat, and conversation to be had, a meal can be shared any time.

back to reality

my reality is a good one. actually, i think it's pretty great. while g was in peru, i was made more aware of this, as my days felt incomplete with his absence. reality, skewed. before i moved in with g, i relished my time alone, doing whatever i wanted whenever i wanted. but of course, i always looked forward to spending time with him...when it was convenient for both of us. you could say it was the best of both worlds. "me" time, then "us" time. compromises, unnecessary.

now that i live with g, my reality has changed. it now involves compromise, communication, and a bit of dependence. no longer do i play by "my" rules, on "my" schedule. and to be frank, i'm okay with that. my life with g in our hole-in-a-wall of a home is far more fulfilling than my life alone. we are growing together, depending on one another for support, safety, and love.

all of this is to say: G IS BACK HOME! my two weeks of complete independence were fine, but boy oh boy, did i miss my partner. i picked him up from the airport yesterday, surprised him with a sign, cried like a fool, and embraced every last second of our reunion. and you better believe chase was ecstatic, as his playmate returned.

crafting in anticipation

the soon-to-be-filled passenger seat

HAPPY!

traffic has nothing on my excitement

the family, now complete

the toothbrush is back in the holder. the laptop is back on the desk. clothes are flung on the his side of the bed. yep, we are back to reality!

instagram addict

coffee shop confession: i am an instagram addict. a junkie, if you will. don't bother asking how often i check my feed, check what other people have "liked," or check out the photos of the people who i am following, follow. it's outright disgusting.

when i first added instagram to my phone, i did it for the sole purpose of using the filters. i didn't "follow" anyone and no one "followed" me. it was an innocent time, sans comments or likes.

then one day, i checked out the profile of one of my favorite bloggers, ashley rodriguez from not without salt. i thought hey, if her instagram is anything like her blog, i'm sure she will have oodles of lovely photos. and of course, she did. so i started following her.

as my list of people grew, so did my curiosity. who were these people and what were their daily lives like? where did they buy that amazing-looking chocolate croissant? and how did they take that picture from that angle? instagram became a storybook for me.

now i am one of those people who uses the word "instagram" as a verb. i take my phone everywhere i go just in case i come across an instagrammable moment. i even turned my non-smartphone, non-apple boyfriend into a believer, as he makes attempts at capturing the right shot.

i'd like to say that i will delete my account and use my time more wisely, like learning a new language or cleaning out my files. but that's just not going to happen. sure, i probably use instagram a bit much, but i love it. i love how simple, everyday things that i once walked passed, now catch my attention. i love how i have a desire to be more creative. i love how i am chronicling daily life, rather than just big trips or celebrations. and to have a glimpse into other people's journeys...it's great. no politics. no games. just great photos.

so in honor of my coming-out, i will post my latest instagrammed photo (which happens to be my favorite flower in all the land)...

happy times!

mama to the rescue

during college, mama always came to the rescue. actually, throughout my entire life, mama has always come to the rescue. but it was during those stressful weeks of studying for finals, writing papers, and gorging my eyes out that mama stopped everything to come visit me in la. she would pull me away from the source of my angst and remind me that life is bigger than my midterm. or paper. or fleeting sense of self-pity.

we would window-shop, (okay, we would shop), eat, walk and chat, eat some more, and do it again the next day. it was our "thing." and at the end of her visits, i always felt renewed, as if she replenished some void. i felt like i could move on and conquer anything.

these days, nothing has changed. although my days of studying for finals and building up school-related anxiety are long gone, mama continues to come to the rescue. with g in peru and my loneliness setting in, mama knew it was her time to pull me out of my own head. so she dropped everything and visited me this weekend.

we window-shopped.

and ate.

we people-watched and chatted.

and then we ate some more.

and just when we thought the weekend was coming to an end, we satisfied the good ol' sweet tooth.

mama is gone now, but the weekend spent with her has filled me up. i don't know what the next week will be like, but at least i know i have a mama who cares. and loves deeply. i am forever grateful.

making friends

making friends...it's a hard thing to do.

it has been a whopping 36 hours since g left for peru, and i have to admit, life is kinda lonely without him around. i didn't realize how much he is a part of my daily life, from our mornings spent drinking coffee and tea to our evenings spent cooking and feasting. granted not every day is spent together since we both work, but even when one of us is gone, there is a subtle presence lurking. an empty glass. a laptop on the bed. a wet towel hung in the bathroom. but in this past day-and-a-half, one piece is missing. my companion.

this got me thinking: if i had more friends, i wouldn't feel so lonely. i would just give them a call and we'd meet for lunch or go on a walk or heck, go to a museum. but the thing is, i DO have friends...everywhere else. my closest friends, the ones i would actually meet over lunch or do those "friend-type" of things with, live in other cities and states. and so instead of reaching out and trying to make friends with people who are within reach, i resort to being by myself.

making friends after college is hard. no longer do i have a community of people with a similar age, interests, and experience at my fingertips. the people i meet today have different agendas, priorities, work experience, etc. married with children. single and in med school. dating around and confused as hell. rather than get to know these people and make a possible connection, i convince myself that i'm perfectly okay with life as is, always looking forward to the next time i get to see one of my "close" friends.

this article in the new york times completely resonated with me. although the author focuses on people in their 30's, i was still intrigued by how this is an issue for many adults, not just me. i can't say i have an answer to how i'll make new friends, but i do know that i'll be counting down the days for my greatest companion of all to make his way back home.

you say trash, i say treasure

may i preface that i am not a hoarder. neither is g. we simply have no room to be hoarders. and the show freaks us out.

but we do believe in recycling and finding use for things that would otherwise be thrown out. a cigar box? nope, it's our new container for receipts. old wine bottles? with a little soaking, drying and the addition of a spout, they transform beautifully into olive oil bottles. and what about empty water bottles? if you have a large planter and a small plant, fill the bottom of the planter with the bottles and then top it with soil. easy fix!

the other day when taking out our recycling, g spotted a bag full of empty jars. and they were by no means run-of-the-mill jars. they were the former vessels of organic coconut oil, raw cultured vegetables,  raw kimchi, "coconut manna," and the like. first, we were dumbfounded at the thought of one of our neighbors eating such healthy things. it was, and still is, a mystery. then we were shocked by how clean the jars were. not a single remnant of product left. scrubbed clean, lid and all. this then led us back to the mystery neighbor quest...who would go through such lengths to only throw them in the recycling bin?

well you better believe we collected them. it was like a game-show giveaway...perfectly sturdy (and probably expensive, considering the type of product originally in them), useful jars! g and i had instant thought bubbles rise above our heads: these jars could be used for our granola, seeds, nuts, dried beans, and PICKLING! with spring and summer at our fingertips, what better way to play with spring veggies than pickling?!

soaked overnight, dried, and filled with our stock of nuts and things of the sort, our new jars are the happiest addition to the studio. now if only we could figure out who this neighbor is...

the bath

i never quite understood the power of the bath until i met g. don't get me wrong, i was totally that kid who would strip naked and run through the house in pure ecstasy at the mere sound of a tub being filled. and the bubbles! you better believe there were bubbles.

but the bath as an adult? it never really crossed my mind.

i would drool over footed bathtubs, the classy ones that you imagine yourself soaking in with candles and a glass of wine. and the modern tubs, the ones that overlook the deep blue sea in some tropical oasis...how heavenly would that be?! i always believed that a soak in the tub after a long day would be the answer for any kind of stress/pain/menstrual cramp...BUT not for me. nope, i just run if i'm stressed. i eat chocolate if Mother Flow is in the house. i am NOT one of those bath people.

and then i moved in with g.

g is my model for relaxation. if he has a tight muscle, he soaks in the bath. if he has a tough day, he soaks in the bath. can't sleep? he's taking a bath. it's like a math equation. x + y = bath.

every now and then, he'll draw a bath for me, and EVERY single time, i can't believe how i'm not incorporating it into my life. my anxious-type a-wannabe-structured life. let's just say this all changed as of yesterday. caught in the middle of Mother Flow and some major changes at work, i had nowhere else to go but to the bath. running wouldn't cut it, and i already met my chocolate quota for the day. so i took g's lead and lit some candles, turned on my ipod, and soaked. soaked. soaked. (there may or may not have been wine included...)

damn, it was amazing. it was unbelievably healing. my mind relaxed as easily as my muscles, my lungs cleared with every inhale of steam. when i finally stepped out and dried myself, i felt renewed and somehow, restored. someone even asked me this morning at work if i got a facial because my skin was "glowing." geez, why didn't i do this earlier?

so to make this revelation-of-a-story short, i just want to thank g for his peace and his methods for finding it. i am no longer a bathtub-soaking dreamer. i am a bathtub-soaking doer.