pacific coast highway.

a perfect afternoon is:

...a three hour drive up the pch...
...no particular destination...
...bff L in the passenger seat...
...views and waves and the sunset...

this is why you live in california.

temple lights.

Earlier this month Chad and I attended a Christmas concert at the DC temple and strolled around the winter wonderland there. Seeing the lights at the temple in LA was always one of my favorite Christmas activities as a kid--I was slightly distraught that I missed the LA lighting ceremony this year, but seeing the beautiful 500,000+ lights in DC with Chad more than made up for it...this year.

oh christmas tree!

3' tall {turquoise! tinsel!} christmas tree.

glittery snowflakes.

sparkling cider, pie, and cookies.

gifts and love.

mariah and elvis and ella and karen carpenter.
girlfriends. boyfriends. roommates. family.

i take my punishments like a champ.

A few weeks ago one of my favorite boys came into town for a whirlwind 24 hour visit, and we visited The National Museum of Crime & Punishment. This is officially the coolest museum ever and definitely my new favorite (non-art) museum--I highly recommend, if you've never been. Mikey and I put each other in the stocks as punishment for the various crimes we've committed together, but only one of us kept our cool.

roomies in december.

merry christmas from the girls of apt #1131!

love, milan, michelle, domineau, and corinne

p.s. corinne's faces are priceless.

this song on repeat.

Part pop, motown, and rock, I've literally been groovin' in my seat to it all morning.

Dance with me!

:: Artist: The Noisettes ::

:: Track: Never Forget You ::

"Don't you know that you're my joy?"

thanksgiving is...

my martha stewart table-setting attempts with candles, antique goblets, and foliage.

pumpkin pie that I try and fail to enjoy every year...too mushy! maybe next year?

marble fireplaces and crackling fires.

sisters, Brits, and cheers!
football in the hills.
impromptu sister photo shoots.

family and friends.

a reason to love the (L)east coast.

I'm generally a happy camper about the fact that I've been doin' my thang on the east coast for over four years, but after a wonderfully relaxing Thanksgiving weekend back home, I've been wondering why in the world I would EVER want to live anywhere but L.A.

This question sort of bounces around my brain for a few days following every L.A. trip (slash every day), and it's been particularly bouncy this time. I have pretty solid moping skills, so this is the kind of thing that can really take me out for a while if I let it, especially given my abnormally emotional attachment to L.A.

Since I'm starting to come to the realization that I might be on this side of the country for years/indefinitely, I should maybe try to focus on reasons to love the east coast rather than reasons to miss the best coast. It's almost physically painful (and nearly impossible) for me to acknowledge an L.A. deficit, but here it goes:

Autumn in D.C. is stunning. I literally stopped in my tracks when I saw this breathtakingly beautiful tree in front of the Smithsonian castle the other day, and I took about a zillion iPhone pics, a few of which are here in their gloriously un-photoshopped brilliance. This is a sight that can't be found in L.A., and as I'm always one to stop and smell the flowers (this is a lie--I have allergies--but I do stop and look), it's something that I can appreciate about this side of the country.

There, I said it. And if ever confronted about it, I'll deny deny deny.
(L.A., this doesn't change anything, I'm just trying to throw the least coast a bone here. I hope you understand. Your all around weather score is still higher, obvi, and at the first hint of snow here I'll be singing your praises.)

happy {music} monday!

Happy Monday, people! After a fabulous but too-short weekend visit from Mama Mel, this has been a particularly mopey Monday. I've listened to this relentlessly upbeat Patrick Wolf song more times than I can count today, as it always cures any Monday blues I encounter. Hope you like it!

:: Artist: Patrick Wolf ::
:: Track: The Magic Position ::

"as i take your hand and you take my kiss and we take the world..."

an engagement!

(not mine. gross. i'm 22.)

congratulations becca!!

becca and i were in the same ward a few years ago in new york, and weirdly, we never actually hung out that much or got to know each other very well...but we've somehow become better buddies since then through the wonders of gchat, blogging, and twitter. and i must confess that i have a slight girl/blog crush on her, which is why i was SO excited to hear her amazing news last week. even better is the proposal story, which i died over, being the art lover that i am. she tells it better than i can, but basically her lover-now-fiance josh sneakily hid her engagement ring in a piece of art at a gallery they visited on a saturday afternoon date.

future husbands of mine, please take note.

p.s. i promise i won't subject you all to the engagement stories of every newly engaged friend. but so few of my friends have gotten married, that it's still exciting to me.

plus i love becca.

plus this was a particularly perfect proposal.

tombstones and ghosts.

So if you know me at all, you know that I'm a little obsessed with cemeteries. I've loved them ever since I was a little girl, visiting old 17th century graveyards on my family's yearly Cape Cod vacations. I've gone on dates to cemeteries, and I always make it a point to find the coolest, oldest cemeteries when I go on vacation or visit a new town. Luckily, this bizarre fascination of mine hasn't creepily infiltrated other aspects of my life, but this Halloween was the perfect excuse to play it up a little. My roommates and I invited a few friends over to celebrate the holiday, and I volunteered to make dessert (because obviously the only things I can cook are grilled cheese and eggs, neither of which would be apropriate for a Halloween lunch). I'm clearly no Martha, but I was happy with how my little cemetery cake and cupcakes turned out.

bonus points if you know what "QEPD" means.

Where's Waldo?

Beginner

Intermediate

Expert

Thanks to Chad for playing this real life game of Where's Waldo with me as we celebrated Halloween on Saturday night in Alexandria, VA.

knock knock. who's there? orange. orange who? orange you happy to see me?

north end boston pumpkins.

surprise fall flowers from a friend.

i know i'm a bit late -- the last three weeks have been a blur, with crazy work deadlines, a happy sad weekend trip to boston, a little bad news, minimal sleepage (all of which was made slightly better when i came home one evening to a surprise bouquet of flowers waiting for me...thank you, sir) -- but happy october!

boston commons with kelly.

for an afternoon

we visited the swans and ducks in boston commons,

fed them dark chocolate

(because we didn't have any bread),

and recounted one of our favorite children's books,

make way for ducklings.

it's a story about a little duck family

searching for a home

and finally settling in the boston commons pond.

we're no longer six and two years old,

and we're both out trying to find our own homes in the world,

but for those precious hours in the sunlight,

sitting under a willow tree,

we were the same little girls we used to be.

i love you, kelly.

you know this.

this is why we're friends.

me: "explain my crazy to me."
so he did.
and somehow all the insane thoughts flying around my head

calmed down

made sense

and didn't seem so crazy after all.

a weekend roadtrip with Chad.

Charlottesville, VA

:: Crosby, Stills, & Nash concert with Brandon & Jaclyn ::

Definitely the youngest ones at the concert, besides the grandchildren dragged along by their CSN grandparent fans. Met Brandon, Chad's bff since they were babies, and his lovely wife Jaclyn.

:: Toured the University of Virginia campus ::

LOVED this. Pretty sure Thomas Jefferson designed it with my tastes in mind--he even planted cute Southern boys around. Grad school, maybe?

:: Michie Tavern General Store ::

I died over the quaint goods and homemade pumpkin butter, but wasn't so interested in the history of the place--still not really sure why it's significant, but Chad can tell you.

:: Colonial dress up ::

Found a jackpot of Colonial hats and costumes at Michie Tavern--obviously had to stop our tour to try on every single hat, I giddily, Chad begrudgingly.

:: Saturday afternoon bar visit ::

Clearly Chad's reprisal for the earlier forced dress up. Pretty sure we spent about 10 hours or so in a freezing sports bar to watch BYU lose a football game.

:: Monticello ::

The house was meh--there, I said it--but the views and grounds were beautiful...and I would now like to be buried in the Jefferson family cemetery.

:: Appomattox Courthouse ::

Where Lee surrendered to Grant. Where I almost surrendered to the heat.

:: Wandering around the central VA countryside ::

Highlight of the trip was taking the long, scenic way home, enjoying the scenery, music, and company. Significant resources were contributed to looking for a quaint, small town restaurant for dinner, but apparently Southern restaurants observe the Sabbath. We settled instead for fine dining at Country Cookin' Restaurant, where the Vegetable of the Day was mac'n'cheese, unironically.

Special thanks to Chad, who planned the trip and somehow allowed me to play Only the Young on repeat a zillion times without throttling me.

things i learned over the weekend, ed. 2.

:: you will fall asleep if you watch general conference in bed ::

Though you will have every intention to watch all four sessions of General Conference (the semi-annual internationally televised broadcast from the leadership of your church), you will also be sleep-deprived from a week of late night Keeping Up With the Kardashians marathons. Unable to resist the lure of spending four daytime hours on a Saturday and a Sunday in bed, you will prop yourself up in bed, armed with Junior Mints and Peanut M&Ms, ready to watch Conference. ...You will instantly fall asleep at the beginning of every single session. But but! You may be sleepy, but you are also brilliant! Having anticipated the inevitable, you will have set your DVR to record a few of the sessions, and you can read/watch/listen to the others here. You will spend the next several days catching up on what you missed (because you really love the consistently uplifting, inspiring messages shared at General Conference), and you will reach the end of the week just as edified as everyone else, but with more sleep under your belt.

things i learned over the weekend, ed. 1.

:: you can injure yourself by standing too hard ::

Apparently, if you walk a mile to a party in five inch high heel boots, then stand around for five hours at a backyard fall soiree, you will strain a tendon in your right ankle. As you are probably twenty two and stupid, not only will you neglect to ice and elevate your ankle that night, but you will also wear the same boots to dinner the next day. You will then notice that the pain is getting worse, and you will begin to develop a limp. As you hobble around for the next three days, the pain will steadily increase, and your mom (who is a nurse) will suggest that you acquire crutches. (You will absolutely not acquire crutches. Too dorky, and require arm muscles that you do not possess.) You will become slightly concerned that you may have permanently damaged yourself, but you won't really know how to fix the situation, as hopping around on one foot was only awesome when you were three (okay, twelve), but you'll definitely blog about it. The overall experience will confirm what you suspected all along: Mormon parties can be hazardous--attend at your own risk.

protected pies for the pie eating contest

julia, me, grant, and ally