Googley Eyes

It's like Kansas City never got winter this year.  We just skipped a season, and I never got to wear my red snowboots and nobody put me on a sled and I made zero angels and I had to eat real ice cream instead of snow cream.  But, I'm resilient and I'll accept an early spring if Momma Nature is gonna be a baby about the whole thing.  Which brings me to the next section of this post.

Recently, I've been getting a lot of fan mail asking this question:

"Lindz, do you share a private google doc with a boy where you store too many ideas for activities you want to do together, including real-life dreams?!"

Oh, you sweet, innocent, naive fan.  I do.  I do share a private google doc with a *man, and we intend on using this list to make the impossible, quite possible.  Let me just give you a quick peek into what has become a pro-spring, pro-living, pro-planning, pro-not planning archive of world-changing ideas.

1.  "Go to a lake house and do lake things like get a tan and start our own race called 'Honey Mocha Suede' (Race is a social construct anyway, world).”

2.  "Go on a trail-run on a trail."

3.  "Go to the top of something tall and look at the world with our eyeballs."

4.  "Look through D’s photo albums from his childhood if he even has any (still questionable)."

5.  "Stand in the epicenter of the US (Lebanon, KS)."

6.  "Make homemade hot chocolate and drink it and maybe even share some if everybody behaves, which, let’s be honest, they probably won’t. "

7.  "Get inside a cabin that has a furry rug in front of a tiny fire."

8.  "Go to Barnes and Nobles and sit on chairs and read the books and give each other googley eyes."

9.  "Convince D to take L to Leila’s Hair Museum (http://www.leilashairmuseum.com/index.html)."

10.  "Go to Hobby Lobby and buy some of those awesome, cheap kids' crafts/science projects.  Then, do them immediately.  Don’t share them ever."

Now, we'd prefer that nature just take its course so that we can start checking these items off our list like the couple of efficient, moment-catching, spring-embracing overachievers that we really are.

School Feels Like Overeating

Every day I'm shufflin'.  That's just something I do every day.

I'd like to return to 1992, please.  Year 24 is too full.

Celebrate Love

“I don’t want to hear about the endless struggles, or the work it takes to plan a date night.  I want to hear that you guys watch every episode of The Bachelorette together in secret shame, or that one got the other hooked on Breaking Bad and if either watches it without the other, they’re dead meat.  I want to see you guys high-five each other like teammates on a recreational softball team you both do for fun.  I want to hear about it because I know it’s possible, and because I want it for myself.

I guess I think happiness can come in a bunch of forms, and maybe a marriage with tons of work makes people feel happy.  But part of me still thinks...is it really so hard to make it work?  What happened to being pals?  In the Shakespearean comedies, the wedding is the end, and there isn’t much indication of what happily ever will look like day-to-day.  In real life, shouldn’t a wedding be an awesome party you throw with your great pal, in the presence of a bunch of your other friends?  A great day, for sure, but not the beginning and certainly not the end of your friendship with a person you can’t wait to talk about gardening with for the next forty years.”

-Mindy Kaling, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

V-Day

So, I made a Lindsay List in honor of St. Valentine.  I've been unnaturally honest with this list, and the items included tend to sit at the cornerstone (and core, really) of love.  But you-you hockey mom, you Call of Duty responder, you Tim Tebow fan, you 99% (all stereotypical, devout readers of The Loev Shack)-you deserve it.

1.  Pendleton Goblets

2.  J. Crew Camp Socks

3.  Pigeon Toe Stacking Vessels

4.  Virginia Is For Lovers Art

5.  Anthropologie Castle Key Bottle Opener

6.  Amrita Singh Aqua Ring

7.  Chobani Passion Fruit Greek Yogurt

8.  Urban Outfitters Dreamlight

9.  Ann Taylor Loft Wedges

10.  Boulevard Chocolate Ale¹ 

¹My Dream Catcher achieved number ten.  Yea.  I have a Dream Catcher.  Go ahead and try to find one as "in-the-know" and culturally relevant as mine.  Try.

An Important Distinction

Truth:

A Gentle, Sexist Question

       “I have a serious question, and it is a sexist question.  But it is a pretty gentle and specific form of sexist question, so I think it’s okay.
       Why do all the men I know put their shoes on incredibly slowly?  When I tie my shoelaces I can do it standing, and I’m out the door in about ten seconds.  But with men, if they are putting on any kind of shoe (sneaker, Vans, dress shoe), it will take twenty times as long as when a woman does it.  It has come to the point where if I know I’m leaving a house with a man, I can factor in a bathroom visit or a phone call or both, and when I’m done, he’ll almost be done tying his shoes.
       There’s a certain meticulousness that I notice with all guys when they put their shoes on.  First of all, they sit down.  I mean, they need to sit down to do it.  Right there, it signals, 'I’m going to be here for a while.  Let’s get settled in.'  I can put on a pair of hiking boots that have not even been laced yet while talking on my cell phone, without even leaning on a wall.”

-Mindy Kaling, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Fine.  I'll wear these shoes every day for the rest of my life.

Then I Do

It's like sometimes, you just don't understand how I'm so happy.  And, I have to say, "Listen.  I love my friends and my family and my internship.  That's why I'm so smiley.  Leave me alone."  And, then you're all like, "Fine.  Then post some photos of places that appeal to you."  And, I have to say, "Ok.  Maybe I will."

Then I do.

Copper.  There's not enough copper in my life.  That's my way of telling you to buy me copper jewelry and copper vases and copper tubs.

 Swoon: Courtesy of that emerald green chair and black and white diagonally striped rug

 I don't know.  I kind of want to eat some chocolate chip pancakes by myself at that table.  Judge me.

There aren't fuchsia tiles in my bathroom, so I'm mad.

 A baby bathtub in the family room?  There's a 104% chance that there will be a baby bathtub in The Blue House family room next week.

  It's so verdant. 

I like the pot in the alcove, the book steps, and the punch of rose mystery flowers.  I just decided I'll only accept mystery flowers from this point on.

Firey As Everything

"We have lived in this apartment 11 years. Before that we lived on Ocean Parkway and Kings Highway for 4 years. We walk on the boardwalk 3 miles each day. At 2 o'clock we watch the news. I like to read books, and he reads newspapers and books. What is the secret to love? A secret is a secret and I don't reveal my secrets!"


Ykov Shapirshteyn and Mariya Gostsinnaya, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn

Lauren Fleischman is a genius, and this spotlight makes my heart get all swollen and magenta like a riboflavin deficiency that hates tongues.  Basically, I feel riboflavin deficient, and I like it.

Stuntin' Is A Habit

Some things that matter in my life:

1.   Crystal Light Mocktail Margarita mix.  It's like Spring Break '06 every day at the hospital. 

 2.  Parks and Recreation.  Like, this show might be the second best show in the world.  Don't watch the first season.  Drool on the next three seasons.

3.  Steve Madden Heaven Flats.  I wear them around the hospital, and sometimes little kids pet them because they're shiny and smooth.  Also, sometimes I pet them because they're shiny and smooth.

 4.  This video.  It makes me intensely happy.  Find me that man.  And, bring me a Sonic limeade while you're at it.

5.  Trader Joe's Chocolate-Covered Edamame.  Oh, you think I don't pack 10 of these little guys in my rainbow plaid lunchbox every day?  You never listen.

Now.  Get like me.

Both Napping and Admiration

First thing's first: I'm not apologizing for saving babies every day¹.  I am apologizing for letting all that baby saving (plus schoolwork) get in the way of a certain Shack.  It's unacceptable.  While I might try to do better at updating my blog, I can almost assure you that I will not.  At least for the next 15 weeks.  The posts might be short.  Or mediocre.  Or cute.  Or perfect.  Or disappointing.  No one knows what's gonna happen.  And, that's the beauty of this whole thing.

Wanna talk about some Native American- and non-Native American-inspired decorating?!  Good.  Me too.

Mainly, I want Felicity American Girl dolls strewn about this room.  I don't know why.  I just immediately thought about colonial Williamsburg and my childhood when I saw those oranges and rocks.  Give me a break, for once.

[insert President's Day gift idea here]

You think this room isn't Native American-inspired?  There are colors and stripes!  Maybe Native Americans love those things.  Maybe they don't.  Doesn't matter; I do.  And that's really all we care about here anyway, right?

If you thought I wouldn't lay on that chaise lounge and snuggle that dog to death, you thought wrong.  Stop assuming you know me.

Fine.  If you're gonna be so annoying about it, I'll just take this weekender bag.  For weekends.

¹Nope. I don't do anything that miraculous. I mainly focus on perfecting my baby voice. And helping kids eat.  It's amazeballs, in every sense of the word.