Mambo Italiano!

As I mentioned in the Dublin post last week, the four of us set out with nary a care in the world to tackle la bella italia in the summer of 2007.  We spent a couple of days in Roma at the start, and then took the train to Napoli, where we hopped aboard the Circumvesuviana and made our way to Pompei for a week of camping and boating and listening to Mike’s constant lectures about archaeology.

Giuseppe Verdi famously said “You may have the universe if I may have Italy.”  Now, I’m probably the biggest Francophile that ever was, but even I can see that Verdi had it right.  Italy is mighty fine – a veritable kingdom of phenomenal food, giant lemons, brilliant architecture, (Mike, avert your gaze) handsome men, stunning art, warmth (from the sun and the folks), and dramatic coastline.  I still like France more, but only just.  :)

Here’s a photographic meandering of our trip:

Mike mans the helm.

Oh, you know, just some awesome alleyway. No biggie.

The Spanish Steps.

The Holy See

Sometimes you just can’t eat another bite.  Ann calls this “the food stupids.”

The Forum, where we were not puked on by…someone.

Mike and Laurie wait.  A constant sight for the shorties in the group (Ann and myself). What? They have longer legs.

Tourism.

More Vatican.  We like to step on things.

Trevi Fountain

Red red wine, go to my head.

Pompeii scavi

Mike orders the meat plate, which contains nothing more than giant pieces of sixty kinds of meat.

647 plates, all of which are empty.

Bottoms up, limoncello lovers!

Sorrento

All aboard!

Babes in Boatland.

Oh, you don’t say?

And then a light from the heavens shone down upon all that is lovely and said “Positano be thy name.”

La plage. See how I interject with un peu de français?

And life was good!

Viva italia!

 

Tags: boat, food, friends, fun, Italy, photography, travel

Seven Super Shots

I’m a complete dunderhead and only just realized today that Erin of The World Wanderer tagged me to take part in HostelBookers 7 Super Shots.  This, folks, is the first time I’ve been “tagged” to do anything on here, so I’m feeling kind of excited.  Thanks, Erin, for thinking of me.  I apologize for my tardiness.

So, here they are!  My seven shots that…

1) …take my breath away

Sorrento, Italy

Mike and I had only been married for about 8 months or so when we  went to Italy together for the first time.  As a classical archaeologist, Italy was old hat to him.  He’d been there several times before.  For me, though, this was HUGE.  This was about me really becoming a part of his life – seeing the place he’s passionate about and sharing it with him.  He’d told me about this little restaurant in Sorrento where they had the best mussels on the planet, and that he couldn’t wait to take me there, too.  Well, this picture is of that restaurant.  We’d just finished an amazing meal overlooking the sea and were leaving when I turned around and snapped this photo.  It makes me think of endless possibilities.  Six years later, it takes my breath away.

2) …make me laugh or smile

London, England

London Town

I’m going to cheat and post two pictures for this one, but I figure that’s okay.  Let’s call them “companion” pictures, shall we?  My friend, Laurie, and I had spent a few days in what can only be described as the sketchiest hotel known to man in London in November of 2005.  The communal bathroom looked like the movie “Se7en” might have been filmed in it – flickering lights, cockroaches scurrying by – and as a result we basically refused to shower.  It was on this trip that we learned that the Tube shuts down at midnight, thereby stranding you on the other end of town, and that Edward Scissorhands: The Dancical is nowhere near as cool as it sounds.  It was all awesome, basically, but my favorite memories are the ones, here, of the two of us pretending to shove leaves in our purses “just because” and then, later, of Mike declaring all-out leaf war on me.  No matter what, they make me smile.

3) …make me dream

Middle of nowhere, Joshua Tree, California

I like this picture because, jeez, have you seen this picture!?  I think it’s dreamy for a few reasons, really: 1) I didn’t know it snowed in Joshua Tree.  I honestly didn’t.  Moral of the story: the world is huge and amazing and there are always ways to be surprised. 2) I didn’t know trees could look like this.  My friend Colleen said they looked like a Dr. Seuss illustration come to life.  It’s so true. 3) This road appears to go nowhere and everywhere all at the same time.  Where might it lead?  Who knows?

4) …make me think

Bloomington, Indiana

I don’t want this to turn into something more than what it is, which is one girl just trying to make herself happy.  So without agenda, I’m putting this out here.  Attending this rally in 2008 made me think.  I felt inspired and lucky and optimistic and a part of something huge.  I still feel that way.

5) …make my mouth water

Playa Cocles, Costa Rica

We’d just spent two hours snorkeling in the warm, crystal-clear waters of Playa Cocles in Costa Rica.  As we left the boat to start a two-hour hike back into town, our tour guides cut open the freshest, tastiest pineapple imaginable.  It was heaven.

6) …tell a story

Cusco, Peru

Palm Sunday in Cusco, Peru was, simply put, extraordinary (I can only imagine what Easter would have been like).  Christy bought me this cross made of reeds right before church service where we were welcomed and blessed along with everyone else.  Afterward, I left it at the door of the cathedral at the Plaza des Armas.  It meant a lot to me.

7) …I am most proud of

Nice, France

I actually did win an “award” for this one!  Several years ago I submitted this picture of a waterfall in Nice, France  to MSNBC’s “It’s a Snap!” online competition and it was voted that week’s favorite.  It’s not much, but it made me happy.

ETA: This photo also won us a $100 gift card from World Market several months ago in a FB photo competition. 

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And now I need to tag some folks.  I’d love to see your seven shots:

1) Amber at The Usual Bliss

2) Kate at 365til30

3) Meghan at Soulshine Traveler

4) Christie at Cookiemomma’s Blog

5) Jenn at The Cupcake of Life 

Feel free to take your time.  Lord knows I did.  :)

Tags: 7 super shots, California, Costa Rica, Cusco, England, food, France, Italy, London, Peru, photography, travel

Memorial Day weekend, pt. 3.

Here they are, the last of my pictures from this past weekend.  It should go without saying, but I’ll do it anyway: My dad is pretty great.  He sends cards for every occassion, is always on time (even when I’m not), answers his phone at 5 in the morning just because, and has 100% supported me in everything I’ve ever done, even the “scary” things like moving across country and getting engaged after only a few months.  He also went prom dress shopping with me.  I’m very lucky.

The Voyager, Redondo Beach

“Les poissons les poissons hee-hee-hee huh-huh-huh”

The arcade next to the old-fashioned “Tilt-a-Whirl.”

Oh, we’ll be eating here very soon.

Sea urchin.

Churro window? Sold!

Tags: boat, dad, family, food, Los Angeles, nature, ocean, pier, Redondo Beach, seafood

Memorial Day weekend, pt. 2

And more pictures:

Geocache

Making our entry

In the box it goes.

Grilled asparagus spears and Brussels sprouts with aged gouda.

 

 

Tags: family, food, hiking in Los Angeles, Malibu Creek State Park, Memorial weekend, nature, photography

Memorial Day weekend, pt. 1.

In pictures:

Primo’s.

Best donuts in L.A.

Dad and Gene Autry

Griffith Observatory

Sun dial.

SweetSalt

No beach balls. No weapons.

Baseline seats

Tags: donuts, family, food, Los Angeles, memorial day, sports

24 hours in Dublin…Go!

All the way back in 2007 a couple of friends and I went to Italy with Mike, who was on his annual dig.  We bummed around Rome for a few days sipping wine in piazzas, sharing gelato, and, ahem, not getting puked on in the Forum, and then we joined Mike in Pompeii where we did things like stare at lemons as big as your head, have lizards fall on us at dinner, and share even more gelato.  It was really pretty amazing.

But those are all stories for another post.  This is a story about our 24-hour layover in Dublin on the way back to the States.  Here’s how it all went down:

1) Upon arrival, immediately begin freezing to death.  Push through it, even in the rain, because we’re on a mission. Code name: “Operation Find Pub.”

2) Busy ourselves walking around.  See such things as:

3) Officially freezing.  Break down and buy expensive touristy sweatshirts.

4) Hop aboard The Dublin Ghostbus, aka “The Night Bus.”  Take tour of haunted locales and learn about grave-robbers.  Participate in demonstration to determine if I’m a witch.  Turns out I am.  Decide afterward that it wasn’t worth it.

5) Swing by cafe for a snack.  Shoot L’s smooth jazz album cover:

6) Live it up.  Nearly get spewed on by random drunk girl.  Dance with locals.

“Did that girl just puke on us?”

7) For reasons that escape me today, decide to climb over a security fence to pose in front of…something?

No idea.

Tags: Dublin, friends, Ireland, tourists, travel, vacation

Monday and self-realization.

“Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you.” – Hafiz of Persia

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Several months ago at work we had a presentation by our health insurance reps wherein, as usual, they provided good, healthy things like brownies and Twizzlers and lots and lots of swag: pencils, erasers, hand sanitizer, bookmarks with tips on avoiding stress, and pedometers.  You know, things I never use but always greedily snatch up as if my life depended upon it.

They also gave us this magnet:

How do YOU feel today?

The first thing I noticed about this handy device is that there are eleventy-hundred “negative” emotions and, like, three “positive” ones (assuming “lovestruck” is positive).  I still slapped it up, though.  Full disclosure: most days I forget that this thing exists.  Sometimes, however, I look over at it and for whatever reason I decide to move the little box somewhere, usually to one of five emotions in particular: 1) frustrated 2) overwhelmed 3) exhausted 4) anxious and 5) cautious.

Cautious.

Honestly, 9 times out of 10 this is where my little emotional box lives (uh, that doesn’t sound right).

I realized today that even when I’m  truly happy – work is good, Mike bought me something pretty, the prospect of a taco dinner is looming ahead – I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop somehow.  It’s stupid, but I have had days since I got that stupid magnet where I genuinely feel happy and still wind up settling my feelings on “cautious.”

But what if I allowed myself to land on, say, “content?”   I’m obviously not just talking about the magnet anymore.

Anyway, I think there’s something in here for me to work on with myself.  Maybe someday I’ll say to myself “Loni, right now you are positively ECSTATIC.”  And then I’ll finally throw “caution” to the wind.

 

Tags: happiness, emotions, self-realization, growth, learning, mental-health

Sunday Snapshots

“A Sunday well-spent brings a week of content.” – Proverbs

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Sundays are almost always kind to me, probably because I rarely have set plans for them.  Sleep in a bit, make good food, read a little, tend the garden, tidy the apartment, fiddle with my hair, rearrange my teapot collection, listen to music, and throw open the windows?  What could be better?

So, while listening to stuff like this:

Bop!

I did this:

Simple pinned bun.

Afterward I rearranged these:

My favorite teapot next to my newest llama, purchased in Lima.

My recycled, fair-trade llama and hand-painted lotus teapot.

The teapot I use the most with my first llama, aptly named Llarry the Llama.

And then I looked over at our kitchen herbs and hatched a scheme:

Mint, and lots of it.

Lavender Mint Sun Tea?  Oh, this is happening.

All that lavender from last weekend.

Starting to steep.

So yummy.

Here’s how I made it:

Crush a handful or two of fresh mint leaves and place in the bottom of a pitcher.  Clip some fresh lavender stems, both leaves and flowers, and add to the bottom of a pitcher.  Fill with cold water and add a couple of teabags.  Set in a sunny spot for at least an hour.  Add lemon juice or honey (if desired), strain, and serve over ice.

Happy Sunday, chums!

 

Tags: collecting, happiness, kitchen herbs, llamas, projects, recipes, style, sun tea, Sundays, tea, teapots

Peru, without you.

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain

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Here it is, the last of my Peru-related posts.  Sniff.

By now it’s likely become obvious that, due to unforeseen circumstances, the trip originally meant for four of us wound up being a trip for  just two of us.  I’m still sad it worked out that way, but life happened and it couldn’t have been helped.  R and L, know that we missed you terribly.  I quoted Twain because it made me laugh and not at all because I think traveling with the two of you would have been anything other than awesome.

It’s cheesy, but it’s such a Me thing to do.  We had to bring you with us somehow:

Whoa. Machu Picchu, man. Whoa.

R classes up the joint.

Not to be outdone, Mike made a special “fancy tie” appearance, as he is often wont to do.

Yep, wildly overdressed. As usual.

Tags: friends, Machu Picchu, Mark Twain, Peru, photography, travel

Mother’s Day and remembering a mom who’s gone.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. – Dalai Lama

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I lost my mother to cancer when I was 12 or 13.  It was a hard time, and proof of that is in the fact that I can never remember how old I was for sure or even what year it was for sure.  It was a blur of awful things and it breaks my heart to think of it.

But don’t mistake me.  It doesn’t break my heart to think of her.  She was very young when she died, I think only 33 or 34, but she still had a life before she got sick.  I remember her as joyful and beautiful.  She had a million friends.  In my little kid mind she was like the sun and we all just spun around her.  Of all the things that make me sad about her death, I think the biggest one, the most hurtful one, is how just about everyone remembers her only for being sick and then dying.  And since being sick and dying is something we never talk about, well, we should never talk about her.

I bought into that for a while, but no longer.  Mother’s Day, for me, used to be about trying to forget and fighting through a whole lot of tears.  I believe grief is non-linear, so perhaps it will be that again.  And that’ll be okay.  In the words of my very, very good friend, Margaret: I have permission to grieve every single day if I want to.  When she looked me in the eye and told me that it was like a huge weight was gone.  It was something I really needed to hear I guess.

But at this stage in my life I’m ready to try something new.  I’m ready to celebrate Mother’s Day.

My approach to this is two-fold: Do something that makes me feel happy and then do something that would have made her happy.  Easy enough, right?  She’s my mom and I’m sure that whatever makes me happy would have made her happy, too.

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I have a pretty great husband.  When I woke up yesterday he’d made me a giant brunch of blueberry pancakes, hash browns, bacon, and peach bellinis (champagne with peach puree).  It’s one of my favorites.  He’d also brought me one of these:

Mom’s spider plant is doing so well!

After we ate we headed to Home Depot to buy a ton of stuff for our garden – tomatoes, herbs, pepper plants (hot and Bell), and marigolds.  After a midday screening of “The Hunger Games,” we came home and spent a couple of hours in the garden.

I’m so happy with our little plot now!  Isn’t it bee-you-ti-ful?

So with garden tended, it was time to tackle something awesome.  It was time to make the traditional Filipino dish Mom would make for us every now and then (if we were lucky) as kids: Lumpia.

The cookbook called for us to make it with shrimp and green beans. We omitted those things because Mom did, too.

Prepping the ingredients: carrots, green onions, white onions, garlic, and green cabbage.

The ground pork and veggie filling.

Mike takes his first bite of filling and makes this face, complete with a fist pump. He’d later accuse me of holding out on one of the best things he’d ever eaten…

Rolling.

Looking dodgy.

Frying the rolls.

All that’s left to do is whip up a sweet chili sauce for dipping and c’est fini!

I don’t believe I’ve had this dish since before Mom died.  I loved how my kitchen smelled the same.  I loved how it tasted just the same.  I think I did her proud with this one.

Somewhere in the middle of all this cooking I got a call from my sister.  I was so happy to hear her voice, and I think we ended up talking for close to an hour.  She asked me what my favorite memory of Mom was and I told her this:

One time we were driving through those country roads near South Whitley, probably on our way to pick you up.  She had just come home from work, and she looked beautiful in a business skirt suit and heels.  We were on a narrow road in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden a herd of cows were standing there, right in the way.  She jumped out of the car and shooed and pushed them until we could get through.

I like this memory because it’s so her.  And this memory led to lots more…

Tags: family, food, garden, grief, mom, Mother's Day