5gts: in your ocean, ankle deep

It’s Friday before July 4th. Rebecca is here from London! So here are some good things floating around my lovely life:

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  1. We got kittens! Two cuties named Cosmo and Izzy. Izzy (above, left) is our little girl, and Cosmo (above, right) is our shy guy. They are very fun and we’re having a blast watching people (read: Becca and Ana’s) reactions to these fur balls.
  2. As I mentioned above, Becca is here and she’s staying with us – lucky people we are! I’ve missed her so I am glad to have her settling in for a long stay and can’t wait to celebrate the Fourth with her.
  3. My first podcast with Traci is up! It’s called “That’s Our Jam” and we talk about everything from holidays to hot dogs to history. It has been a super fun project to work on and I’m glad to finally share it with you guys.
  4. Three Day Weekend! Patio furniture is coming this weekend to lounge on for the holiday. And we have a new grill. How lucky are we? I can’t wait for hot dogs & watermelon salad & blended margs.
  5. My garden is coming along nicely, and we might have spaghetti squash by the end of the season if we’re good to the plants. What a great summer this already has been.

Happy July, kids!

we’re only hearts & bones & blood (but we are giants)

Slacking this early in the year – but here I am, getting back to it. Since this serendipitously ended up on Traci’s birthday, I will speak to her beautiful soul on her 30th birthday.

Traci, you’re one of the bests. The people that makes me laugh the loudest, the longest, the hardest. You can always make me smile, always have something to tell me that will make me cry tears of happiness, and you obsess about the weird shit I obsess about like Lin-Manuel and GG and Marc Broussard, etc. etc. I love you to the moon, and I am so glad that we became friends in a moderately-sized Kasteel in Nederland, only to live a mile from each other ten years later and more than 5,500 miles from where we started.  

I am so thankful for ten years of inappropriate hand-holding, adventuring around Europe and around Boston and around Los Angeles, and for your making every day an adventure – whether we’re going to Trader Joe’s, hiking with Ray, or just sitting in someone’s driveway listening to Justin Timberlake, you make life more fun to be living.

Here’s a smattering of photos of us over the years – and here’s to many, many more.

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You and these five other beauties have made my life so much richer over the past ten years, and I can’t think of a better way to start celebrating 10 years from this trip than with a celebration of YOU. Happy Birthday, and see ya tonight! XOXO

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and we disappeared into the groove

Tonight is our first concert night of the summer. I am thrilled to be going with Traci, one of my bests from my study abroad in 2006. (Pause for 5 years. Wow.)

This is us circa 2007, on our way to Marc Broussard’s concert in Boston, July 16, 2007. Ticket cost? $18.

This is Traci and I at Chilton (Greystone Mansion) recreating one of our favorite Gilmore Girls scenes.

Not to be confused with the episode with the first and only traffic light in Stars Hollow.

But I digress. The point is, I like Traci a whole lot, and I like Marc Broussard a whole lot, too. And I couldn’t be more excited to kick off the concert summer with them. Ticket cost? $30. Marc, you’re moving up in the world. I am glad you’re still around four years later, and running strong.

 

 

 

 

shower the people.

I’m feeling love, today, friends.

And so, I shower the people I love. with love.

Mary: Happy Birthday, lady! Happy 25. Happy done with 365. Happy new job where you get paid to do what you love. Happy summer. Happy memorial day. Happy I’m glad you’re alive and we’re friends.

Ellen: I am so proud of you in your new venture. You’re a champion of the world, and I know that getting the opportunity to get paid to write is the start of something big!

Katie: Happy belated b-day, lady. And happy back to the US, been to London, and holy crap! writing mag release is inching closer every second! I miss you every second of every day.

Nikki: Happy almost wedding. I promise to be more organized from here on out ;). Happy race weekend, and happy maybe running in clouds not pouring rain? You are awesome.

Marissa: I was thinking about you last night and sending you love vibes. It was when I was thinking to myself, “Man, I have such successful friends.”

Corelyn: I miss your face. But I have big things planned for GMS. Does that abbreviation work, by the way? I don’t know if it does. Anyways, I am excited. Hug Meg and Mary for me. Twice.

SS: I saw pregnant in heels the other day. It made me want to be rich and pregnant and live in New York. You could be my fabulous (although not uber gay) best friend and we could stroll around bossing people around looking hot. Thoughts? I miss your face and wish, poor and not pregnant, we could hang out more.

Megan, where have you been all my life? Let’s hang out soon. Rebecca, I loved seeing you two nights in a row. Let’s rinse and repeat soon. Melissa, good luck today. Jen, hope you’re feeling so excited as you leave SO SOON for such an adventure! Caitlin, thanks for bringing brie to book club. You rock my socks. Suzanne, welcome to book club and I hope we don’t scare you. Liz, thanks for always understanding that I need you to go with me on my errands because I need a second opinion, always. Courtney, Memorial Day plans worked to our favor, yesssss. Barbra, Fanboy Comics has been stellar lately. You are working so hard, and I hope we can have a girls night soon to celebrate. Traci, Marc Broussard. You, me. So excited. Jessica, can’t wait to see your new place! Cricket, I think you should reconsider joining book club, because we seem to talk about you every book club anyways. I’ll even consider reading another Nora Roberts. C’mon…. Ana, I am excited that you’re not going away this weekend because I’m selfish. There, I said it.

Shower your people with love, guys! Happy Thursday!!