Snow Days and an old story

It's been snowing like crazy here in Ohio. We're semi-snowed in. We could probably leave if we wanted to, but we don't want to. I love being forced to stay home. It gives me an excuse to catch up on all the tv I have been missing lately. Can anyone say "Jersey Shore"? Actually, we watched a couple episodes when it first came out, but then we felt really bad about ourselves the next day, so we vowed never to watch it again. It's a good lesson in self preservation, I think. Staying home for days on end also makes me want to blog. It's been pretty quiet around here, I know. I don't have a good excuse. Only that living in Columbus presents us with far less opportunities to postulate on the ironies of living in a backwards country. Better for us, not so good for the blog. (Can I get a 'hells yeah' for using "postulate" in a sentence? I'm married to a PhD student.....)

My work at Pottery Barn hasn't been very exciting. Lots of slow days with all this snow. We've taken to hiding the fake eggs we sell all over the store, just to keep ourselves entertained. I am definitely going to be ready for the easter egg hunt this year. I hope Peter knows that's still expected, even if I'm the only one hunting.

Pete has been super busy cramming Ancient Greek into his noggin. He emerges from his cave in the evenings, eyes all bloodshot, babbling in gibberish, and I know it's time to just gently tuck him into bed, and let him sleep it off.

Due to the lack of bloggy content in our lives at them moment, I give the story (sort of) behind our Christmas cards.

My family had a zany idea to hunt down some inspiring nature tshirts and then take photos of ourselves wearing them. Then we had the audacity to put those photos on a Christmas card, and send it out to several people. In case you missed it, here are a couple of the winners. Please ignore the look on my brother’s face that says he may be missing a few crayons in his box. He was “in character”…… or so he says.




My mom was really worried that people wouldn’t quite get it. Why are they standing in front of some weird wall? Are those whales? Why yes, yes they are. That in fact is an original Wyland mural, found in our very own Tacoma, Washington. Corner of A & 9^th. But if you want to see it in person, go early in the morning, b/c it’s a parking lot. Classy.

It took us trips to 5 different Goodwill shoppes to track all our gear down. (Did you notice how I tried to make Goodwill fancy by spelling ‘shoppe’ fancy? It’s the little things in life). We finally assembled the perfect ensembles. After this hunt, I had a hard time letting go of the enthusiasm and desire for nature t-shirts.

A few days after we took our pictures, Pete and I were driving down good ol’ Bridgeport Way and I nearly caused an accident with my shriek of delight. There it was, walking down the street. The most beautiful and awesome shirt I had ever seen. It was a rusty color, with a stunning bald eagle practically bursting off the front of the shirt. The background was a gorgeous sunset scene, with mountains and pine trees. It was beautiful, and I wanted it bad. I can confidently say that I had lost site of life’s priorities at this point, but I didn’t care. The young man wearing the shirt was the only thing stopping me from jumping out and offering him large quantities of money for literally, the shirt off his back. He was a teen, and he looked like he read a lot of books with titles like “The Dragon Reborn” and “Enchanter’s Endgame.” He was also kinda sweaty, and not in an “I just got back from the gym” kind of way. Although, looking back, it may have had something to do with the leather jacket he had tied around his waist. I would’ve been hot too. Alas, we drove right by, and the fantasy bubble burst. Sometimes in a weak moment, I recall the shirt, and wonder if I paired it with a cute cardigan and some brightly colored ballet flats, would it be ironically chic?

All this is to say, it’s funny mom, I promise. And when she doesn’t believe me, I remind her that she’s wearing a grizzly bear that says Banff, Canada in writing so crooked, it looks like someone with two lazy eyes applied the text.

“If the whales go, we are certainly next”.
-Quote from my Orca t-shirt. And it’s so true isn’t it?