Showing posts with label roommates. Show all posts

friends, wed

This spring, two of my favorite former roommates (and people, generally) got married. Both wedding days were the happiest, despite snow for Little e, and an unfortunately timed accident for Jess. Age came into town for Jess's wedding, so we romped around with a full social calendar just like old times. I love Elizabeth and Jess dearly and wanted to share some favorite photos from each of their wedding days and receptions. <3


^^I told Age and Candace that if they ever start a girl band, this needs to be their album cover.
Seeing my friends so happy makes me so happy. 

Bath House Book Club


The Bath House Book Club was founded in January 2014 and has been going steady(ish) ever since. Originally the book club was made up of several of my roommates in the Bath House: Age, Jess, Hil, me, and our friend Vanessa. With the ever shifting composition of the book club, we keep things up these days on a Facebook group and meet up with everyone who lives locally. The format, however, remains unchanged—we rotate choosing the book and hosting the accompanying discussion, so over the two years we've read a wide breadth of things!

Below is a chronological list of the selections of the BHBC, with a couple quotes thrown in for good measure:

Cheryl Strayed | Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

"It struck me that distant cities are designed precisely so you can know where you came from. We bring home with us when we leave."   Colum McCann | Let the Great World Spin  also quoted here

Brian Doyle | The Wet Engine  quoted here

Jeannette Walls | The Glass Castle

Kim Edwards | The Memory Keeper's Daughter (full disclosure: I read about the first 30 pages and wasn't a huge fan so I didn't actually finish this book)

Katie Heaney | Never Have I Ever

"There are so many people. It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined. I feel like this is an important idea, one of those ideas that your brain must wrap itself around slowly, the way pythons eat."   John Green | Paper Towns

Sue Monk Kidd | The Secret Life of Bees

C.S. Lewis | Till We Have Faces  quoted here

David James Brown | The Boys in the Boat

"In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments—which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it has a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. . . . Unlike your experiencing self—which is absorbed in the moment—your remembering self is attempting to recognize not only the peaks of joy and valley of misery but also how the story works out as a whole."   Atul Gawande | Being Mortal

Susannah Cahalan | Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness

currently reading: Malcolm Gladwell | David and Goliath
 . . . . 

Have you ever been in a book club or are you in one? What have been your favorite things to read with a group? I think there is definitely an art to choosing a good book club book, and I always love to hear more ideas!

a real conversation that took place last night in my kitchen

e: "I am the tree-hugging hippie roommate who pulls cardboard out of the trash and recycles it."
a: "Sometimes I just hope you won't see."

Portland / the outdoors

We spent the 4th of July enjoying our beautiful country out of doors. America the Beautiful, truly.

Sitting on a log by a river reading "Dandelion Wine" made me so nostalgic for childhood summers in upstate New York, day after day spent exploring the creek behind my cousins' house and playing down by the river.

We also spent an afternoon at the Oregon Coast at Cannon Beach—Oregon's Pacific water is bone-chillingly cold but I loved every second.
(Age's dancer footsteps, as she called them)

And what is a trip to the beach without salt water taffy? They had classic flavors and some signature originals like "Cannon Beach Sea Salt," mmm.

One of the funniest moments of the trip occurred on the beach. We had spread our blankets out for beachy lounging and reading and such, when Adrienne began yelling, "JESS JESS JESS JESS!" We all looked up in shock to see waves reaching our blanketed territory before we could do anything about it. We reacted as quickly as we could and picked up electronics and books in the nick of time, with only the blankets getting wet. We laughed about this the rest of the time, one of those "I love life" moments that end up being some of my favorites.

giardino

(I think the beets are the prettiest of our baby plants with their red stems).

Jess, Adrienne, and I invested in some seed packets of Heirloom varieties, trowels, gardening gloves, and potting soil and spent a Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago tilling and removing rocks from our backyard garden plots. We had a frost scare this week and lost a few tomato plants, but I am happy to say most of them made it through, along with our strawberries thanks to makeshift grocery bag tarps. And our vegetable seeds are sprouting! (so far: lettuce, kale, peas, carrots, beets, basil, and cilantro; we are waiting on several other things)

I can't begin to convey my excitement for a summer of gardening and eating.

housewarming

Earlier in September we threw a housewarming party so our friends could warm our house with their presence and so we could give tours of our bomb shelter. Yes, we have a bomb shelter. It's more of a root cellar, but "bomb shelter" is much more exciting and it's the name that stuck. Pre-party, Lar and I ventured down a few steps but a fear of what was perhaps living in it prevented us from getting farther. At the party I was made to go all in by some of our more adventurous guests. We have big plans for Halloween, but until then I will leave you guessing as to what specifically we have in store.

I love Elizabeth appearing from behind the fence just as I took this photo. I love her.

Because the pineapple is a colonial symbol of hospitality (interior design student anyone?), Dole whips were again a party necessity. Adrienne made Greek seven-layer dip (!) and we had a delicious watermelon drink courtesy of Emily's de-seeding skills.



PS Emily has posted a lot of photos from her European art history study abroad which was at the beginning of the summer. While it will not do anything to help any wanderlust you're currently experiencing, if you feel so inclined, take a look! I love the way she has captured these beautiful cities through photos and the sharing of her experiences.

A + B

I went to Seattle a few weekends ago where Amy & Brian were married in the Seattle Temple! I love them so much and that weekend was really the happiest. Amy was radiant, Brian was handsome, their families so happy, our friends ecstatic.
I love these girls so very much.

these cupcakes were every bit as delicious as they look. (maybe we tried all the kinds)


during the wedding weekend we:
• told secrets in our hotel room
• struggled to turn off the AC in our hotel room [and almost called the front desk to ask how to do so. we figured it out before making fools of ourselves]
• went swimming at the hotel
• took naps at the hotel [and were apprehended by the bride and groom themselves]
• accompanied the bride to nail & hair appointments [the best.]
• waited outside of the temple and pinned on boutonnieres and gave lots of hugs
• took lots of photos
• took off our shoes
• babysat Amy's darling niece
• ate fortune cookies and several delicious meals
• waited out the rain
• played our playlists
• danced our hearts out [unofficially; there was not official dancing]
• ate lots of cupcakes
• jumped on the trampoline [yes, in our bridesmaids dresses]
• climbed into the treehouse [also in our bridesmaids dresses]
• told Amy "go long!" when she threw the bouquet but were happier when Julie caught it
• were appalled with Brian's choice of departure outfit... the Hawaiian shorts? really? [they were in fact going to Hawaii, so we will give him that much]


The reception was magical and it was simply the best way to celebrate the day. Larsens, I love you.
Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )