Road Trip Review Day 3: Mystic, Westerly, Boston

Our lovely stay in Mystic, Connecticut's Hampton Inn and Suites gave way to another great day that took us up to Boston, Massachusetts. We wandered the streets of Mystic in the morning. It's a beautiful port city containing the world's most famous pizza joint, Mystic Pizza, or at least that's what they say. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning so, even though the shops weren't open for the day and there were few breakfast offerings, we thoroughly enjoyed our stroll around the quaint streets and imagined a relaxing week-long Mystic vacation in the future.

Then we headed on the road toward Rhode Island. Since it is the Ocean State, we figured it'd be a good place to hit the beach. We went to the beaches in Westerly, one of the most Eastern towns in the state. It was such a refreshing ocean locale. I'm used to the crowded with people, over-developed and polluted shores of Ocean City, MD. Though I'm sure much of the lack of people could be attributed to the fact that it isn't quite beach season yet in early June, the Rhode Island beaches were still private, quiet, and gorgeous. There were plenty of lots you had to pay for to park in, so we just kept driving to see what we came to. The state park charged $12 for out-of-state vehicles to access the beach, so we zipped on past. As the road we were traveling turned into more of a residential area, we found a 30-minute-parking-limit area where you could stop for free and admire the coast. There was a beach of sorts but it was piled with boulders and was extremely narrow, which I imagine our earlier but more costly offerings were not. Nonetheless, as we clambered down the rocks to the shore we realized it was too cold to simply sit on the beach all day, but we could definitely take in this gorgeous view for free and feel fully satisfied. So Mike and I had a half hour of fun climbing on the rocks, taking picture and video, and attempting to dip our feet in the ice cold water. It was a nice little stop that invigorated us on our search for a lunch spot.

It's about time I started to utilize my camera's self-timer feature!

This search for lunch was an extremely disappointing one at that. We headed into nearby Providence to check out the city and hopefully find a nice healthy lunch option. We went with little planning or forethought, which maybe explains why we were so vastly disappointed, but nothing struck our fancy. We drove through East Providence, a cute area with nothing more than pizza joints and local businesses. Then we headed to the Main St through RISD but were a little underwhelmed by our options there, especially since so many of the store fronts seemed to be empty. So we continued on through and made it to Pawtucket, which was another disappointment. Finally we decided to just hop back on 95 and drive. It was nearly an hour and a half after we set out on our journey for the perfect lunch when we finally came to a shopping center with a Dunkin Donuts and an Italian fast food place called Papa Gino's. Gino's it was. We would have preferred a small town, an independently-owned restaurant, something with a little more personality. But we were hungry and tired and desperate. The food wasn't bad and at least they offered free lollipops!

When we hit the road again we decided to drive into Boston, another scary venture if you know a thing or two about the streets of Boston, to stay at a Howard Johnson just a block from Fenway Park. This HoJo was connected to a Chinese restaurant and made for an interesting night. The coupon we saw advertised $99 a night rooms, but add on the unadvertised $20 parking fee and tax and the room, the worst that we stayed in, cost more than any other at $139 total. It offered us plenty of laughs though from the mirrored wall in our room to the brownish-green color of the cloudy pool water that a staff member relentlessly and fruitlessly tried to clean of floating debris.

A glimpse of Fenway from the HoJo window.

Despite the glare in this photo, this HoJo pool would never in any context be an appealing place to swim. 

After our early check-in we roamed the streets of Fenway and Mike, loyal Orioles fan that he is, thought it'd be a good idea to buy a Red Sox's hat. We had dinner at a lovely and delicious Indian restaurant, then headed to Harvard Square with the intention of hitting a comedy show. Traffic had another plan in mind for us so we ended up strolling the grounds in and around the college, browsing through cavernous bookstores, and sipping tea in a cute coffee spot in town. It was a picturesque but strangely surreal place. Thoughts of my recent college days came to mind but any comparisons to Harvard's campus were shattered by the tourists (Mike and myself at times included) taking pictures of the buildings, statues, and the like. It was a gorgeous place and we really enjoyed the Harvard Square area, which only further escalated our already-high opinion of Boston, even if our accommodations weren't the best we had seen.

Crossing the Harvard Bridge on our way to Harvard Square.

The only photo on Harvard's campus that is good enough to share. I'll blame it on the dusk lighting. But it truly is a gorgeous and majestic university campus.

Road Trip Review Day 2: Hancock, New York City, Mystic

Our second day of the honeymoon was spent mostly in New York City after our wonderful breakfast at Hancock's friendly and cozy Circle E Diner. We had originally planned to catch a bus from New City into the Big Apple but realized that, given our plans, a direct trip into the city made much more sense. So we braved the New York drivers and found a parking garage with slightly-less-than-ridiculous rates. We decided to head to the city to see the Broadway play The Motherf**ker with the Hat starring Bobby Cannavale and Chris Rock (yes that Chris Rock). I saw Rock on one of Oprah's last episodes and really developed a great fondness for the man, his comedy, his wisdom, and his general outlook on life. I guess I'd been living in the dark because I really knew so little about him prior to this episode. Anyway he talked about the play on the show and I was intrigued. Mike's a bit of a theatre guy and a huge Chris Rock guy so he was also interested in seeing the foul-mouthed play. 

The show was held in the gorgeous Schoenfeld Theatre and was truly a joy to watch. Though the content was a bit more heavy than most Broadway patrons probably expect, it was extremely well-acted and, as always, came with some wonderful set design as well (I'm always pretty dazzled by the sets and their versatility!). The story is essentially one of two couples with a whole host of substance-abuse, communication, and relationship issues. Cannavale plays Jackie, a recovering addict in a volatile relationship with long-term cokehead girlfriend Veronica. Ralph D, portrayed by Chris Rock, is Jackie's AA sponsor who has his own load of problems with wife Victoria, though at first his life seems placid and smooth, especially in comparison to that of his sponsee. Jackie's cousin Julio rounds out this small cast and provides plenty of additional comic relief. It's definitely a heavy play but there are moments of levity all around (Rock isn't the only one with comedic timing in this bunch). I don't want to turn this post into a Broadway review so I'll end my commentary here, but it is definitely worth checking out if you're a theatre fan or an NYC dweller or visitor! And if you stick around after the show, you can meet the cast, including Mr. Rock, just like we did.

Following the play we ate at Mike's favorite, Five Napkin Burger. The restaurant has amazing burgers and spectacular food all around. Their burger selection isn't too vast but the burger menu items they offer have been absolutely perfected. Mike got a veggie burger that, to us both, may have even surpassed the real thing. I took a bit and almost forgot that it didn't contain a stitch of meat when I noticed the bright red color between the bun (which we think can be accounted to beets). We left full and satisfied and headed toward Connecticut. We ended the night in an affordable and luxurious (at least for our standards) Hampton Inn and Suites in Mystic, CT. The place offered a gym, an indoor pool, free hot breakfast, and white linens and towels (which plenty of motels fail to provide these days! I don't know why but black sheets and brown towels just sit funny with me). We felt like we were living in the lap of luxury for a mere $60 a night, so we enjoyed it for all it was worth. 

Excited about our stellar accommodations at Mystic's Hampton Inn!

Road Trip Review Day 1: Pine Creek Gorge, Corning, Hancock

Day One of our road trip started with a long drive up through Pine Creek Gorge, Pennsylvania, known as the Grand Canyon of the East. We took a route that primarily wove alongside the river at the base of this beautiful wooded valley, with a few stops in small towns and scenic overlooks along the way. It was a pretty gorgeous place and was quite reminiscent of mountain towns out west. Though we didn't go to either rim of the gorge for the more spectacular views, I imagine they're quite breathtaking, especially on clear fall days when the trees are dressed up in reds, oranges, and yellows.

One of our stops was to this interesting mini-golf course. It was a steaming hot day and we bypassed the first mini-golf place we came to, then decided to stop at this more shady and rustic option.

The Nature Center where we stopped had this huge rooftop succulent garden on one level of the vast building. It was visible to visitors out on the observation deck and offered a cool contrast to the lush evergreen scenery of the gorge.

Succulents up close.

Then we headed east through New York state. We stopped for dinner in Corning, one of the most adorable little historic Main St. districts we saw on this trip. There were tons of delicious restaurants, adorable coffee spots, and independent shops. We opted for Mexican and, though a little underwhelmed by our choice once we realized how many other options existed at the other end of the street, we were pleased nonetheless to have stopped in Corning.

The Mexican restaurant had these cool stained-glass partitions. I particularly enjoyed this martini-style one directly next to our table.

We ended our night in Hancock, a tiny town in New York state that Mike and I totally adored. The motel we stayed at advertised High-Speed Internet, on-site ATM, and two free movie tickets to the theater next door that, unfortunately, only showed films on the weekends and we were there on a Tuesday. The quaint and neat motel was definitely up to par but we decided to explore Hancock for the last few hours of daylight after our day's drive. There wasn't too much to see but what was there looked great. A historic inn, a few cute restaurants, and a great diner called the Circle E where we breakfasted the next morning. There was even a McDonalds whose parking lot we utilized in order to get free wi-fi because we couldn't access it at the motel (though it turns out you needed to use an ethernet cable). We really loved Hancock, small as it was. But I think that's a huge part of it's charm. Nestled in a gorgeous woody valley, this was the kind of place where everyone knew each other. At the diner where we had breakfast the next morning, talk was constantly running back and forth over the counter between patrons and employees, waves were being thrown at outdoor passersby. We were the only people in the place who weren't locals but it was still a friendly, welcoming, and delicious place to breakfast.

The lovely Capra Inn Motel

Flying by the Circle E Diner as we explored Hancock.

Enjoying a delicious diner-style breakfast.

Road Tripping & Wedding Highlights

Road trips are a most unique sort of vacation. They offer both the opportunity to see a wide variety of sights and landscapes, but also provide vacationers with a multitude of appealing attractions that are purely unaffordable in terms of time. Every small little town that crosses your path looks delightfully adorable, but stopping to explore even half of them means that those main attractions planned for further down the road will need be considerably shortened if not altogether done away with.

While this little traveling conundrum is not entirely unique to the road tripper, it is much more prevalent when driving through town after town. But on the other hand, these sorts of vacations lend themselves to random, quirky, unusual, and spontaneous stops that any trip with structure or restrictions, in terms of location, transportation, and otherwise, would never allow.

And that is why Mike and I love to travel by car. Even though each stop comes with an opportunity cost, the most fond and clear memories we made on our first road trip, a two-week cross-country adventure, are those we could never have planned for. In fact, we made so many spontaneous little stops on our journey to California from Baltimore that we made a spontaneous decision to bypass the Grand Canyon. Part of this was encouraged by fellow travelers we met at smaller canyon overlooks and welcome centers, people who had seen a lot and knew that, amazing as the Grand Canyon may be, there are also plenty of breathtaking canyon vistas in National Forest lands throughout the Southwest that are much less crowded, less expensive, and that allow you to take photos. And so Mike and I were able to see the stunning Sunview overlook in Dixie National Forest, a canyon painted in bright reds and bold oranges beneath a cloudless blue sky, all because we opted out of seeing the tourist-laden Grand Canyon. I'd still love to see the Grand Canyon at some point in my life, but the places we went on our first cross-country trip completely make up for what we missed on our re-route and neither of us have a single regret (though I do wish we had stopped at a roadside store with a sign advertising "garlic ice cream" and I'm still not sure if these were two separate items or one interesting culinary delight!)

Our road trip up to New England for our honeymoon was much of what we've come to love and expect out of car travel. There were a few re-routes, some things missed in lieu of spontaneous decisions, and a little less relaxation than your standard vacation. But lying on a beach somewhere and getting a sunburn just wouldn't fit my personality or Mike's. We love to go out and see things, explore small towns and capture the feel of different people in a different place through film. And so we decided to go a slightly more stressful, at times tense, but ultimately more rich and diverse route by traveling around via Toyota Corolla for our honeymoon.

I'll be sure to share all the highlights of our trip in upcoming posts, but for now here are some of our favorite wedding photos to share and some pictures of the newest addition to our family!

Our short, sweet, and beautiful ceremony atop Federal Hill Park in Baltimore. The Inner Harbor served as a unique and special backdrop for us.

Having fun with our photo session. This was taken in jest but is one of my favorite photos from the wedding.

Mike and I catching up post-ceremony. I love this picture because it allows me to show off my hot blue shoes!

Our favors were simply mason jars full of Reese's Cups.

We did have a small cake so we could do the ceremonial cutting, but pies were the dessert star of this event!

Meet Louie (short for Louise) our new puppy! She's a 6 month old pit mix we found at the SPCA and the sweetest dog that Mike or I have ever known! She's also a bit hard to photograph given her high energy... hopefully I'll snap a good shot of her napping sometime soon! 

Name Changes

It's official - my marriage-induced name change is complete!

As a feminist, I've had friends question my desire to change my name after getting married. I used to imagine that I wouldn't mind keeping my last name, of preserving the identity I had always known, but once it came time to make the decision in real life, I chose to do the ol' switcharoo. What happened?

Well there are a few factors. First of all, I love the idea that Mike (my husband) and I share a last name. He and I have lived together for about a year and a half now. Though our relationship is still relatively young, our staunch personal commitment to one another has been solidified for a vast majority of our time together. Getting married was just one more step in making that commitment more public, not just by making it socially acceptable, but by allowing our family and friends to celebrate in it with us.

I consider sharing a last name as one more method of cementing our relationship, of forging an impenetrable bond that identifies us as two individuals who have become family by choice, who made a binding personal commitment to spend their lives together. Our relationship has had a transformative effective on both of our lives - getting married and sharing a last name serves to reflect that transformation more fully.

Then there's the issue of which name to take. Mike is the last of the Finazzo line. If we didn't take the Finazzo name, that would be the end of their family's nominal lineage, while the Keller's would surely live on for years to come as my dad is one of 11 children - the Keller name is doing just fine amongst my 20-odd cousins and their kin.

Plus, I've never been a huge fan of my middle name, Beth. So I'm ditching Beth in order to give my maiden name the coveted middle name spot and taking Mike's last name. It's all much more to my liking!

But I guess my prior issues with post-marital name changes were more focused upon the compulsory nature of female name changes, rather than the mere name change in itself. I'm all about sharing an identity with your partner through a shared last name, but why does it always have to be the woman who changes her identity? How come men are so unwilling to give up their surnames? I don't blame it on men at large, but more on society and how ingrained this tradition has become. Sharing a name I totally understand, but subjecting women to the pain and misery of legally changing her name through the Social Security Administration - why does it always have to fall to the wife? Why is this marriage rite, ground in principles of ownership and possession, still so firmly ingrained in our minds?

On the one hand, I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill. But on the other, I'm not sure this is truly just a molehill. I love being a Finazzo (although people find it mysteriously hard to pronounce even if it's said just like it's spelled!) but was it so out of the question that Mike could become a Keller? Why would people find it so repulsive, unseemly, and inappropriate for the man to change his name?

I remember being thoroughly impressed when reading Kristin Kimball's memoir The Dirty Life as her husband, Mark, decided to take Kimball's last name without question. The discussion was short as Kristin wanted to keep her name and Mark, an extremely unique male figure as is, quickly suggested that he take on the Kimball surname without a single complaint.

If only people were more accepting of Mark's attitude. If only all the marriage traditions that harken back to the days of giving away daughters, wife ownership, and the like weren't so romanticized. I don't regret becoming a Finazzo one bit - I simply wish there had been a few men in line at Social Security, marriage certificates in hand, with a new last name on the way!

Another Round of Bloggers I Love

Just a small sampling of some of my current favorite bloggers. These blogs are all being brought to the world by talented, inspiring, and generous women that deserve a little recognition! And if you're interested in seeing what bloggers I profiled in my last Favorite Bloggers Post, check them out here.


Atlantic Atlantis

Sarah over at Atlantic Atlantis has quickly established herself as one of my favorite bloggers. She writes about anything and everything in her day to day life and beyond, supplemented by beautiful photos of the everyday. Just a quick look at Sarah's Birthday Goals or About Me reminds me of why I love to make connections with bloggers - it's refreshing to find people with whom you have so much in common but from whom you can also learn so much!


The Merry Way

The girl behind The Merry Way, Stephanie, is one of those people you just wish you could hate - adorable, infectiously happy, talented, and leading her dream life. You really can't help, however, but fall victim to her charm as soon as you arrive at The Merry Way. She couldn't have chosen a more apt title for her blog. Though her content ranges from book reviews to fashion posts to tidbits from her life to sustainable living, her sunny personality permeates each and every post.


Talks to Tofu

Felicia from Talks to Tofu quotes Denis Waitley in her About section. "Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." Her blog is a joyous, clean, and beautiful space full of gorgeous photos from her life and cheerful posts. I'm crazy about blogs that are photo-heavy, quirky, and/or full of optimism. I think Felicia gets points on all three counts!


The Mad to Live

I think of The Mad to Live as this sort of over-the-top motivational kick in the butt. The blogger behind the whole site, Lauren, infuses each and every post with her inspiring "just do it" attitude. But she takes it to a whole new level of intensity, encouragement, and madness. Reading her posts gives me that forceful reminder I desperately need every now and then to not get so bogged down in the stuff of life and to go after whatever I want to do. Lauren constantly pushes the limits and motivates her readers to expand their conceptions of just what is possible. This is definitely the kind of blog that will turn around a bad day or give you that final push in the right direction of taking control of your own life!


I hope you've found a new blog to love from among these four. What are some of your favorite blogs?

Small is Beautiful

I arrived at E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful through a excitedly convoluted route. Olivia of Everyday Musings recently posted about her trip to an Arkansas farm owned by her friend Hailey's family. Last summer, Hailey and four other friends set out to do a social experiment of sorts in growing their own food on the farm. They spent the summer raising produce, weeding, selling their harvest at local farmer's markets, and getting back to the pastoral life. I've fallen in love with this whole project and cannot wait to see Hailey's completed documentary of the whole experience. To learn more about this endeavor, I highly recommend checking out her blog The Garden Summer.

So many of the principles that guided Hailey's project are ones that I hold very dear. She values minimal, sustainable and integrated agricultural technologies, building interpersonal connections, alternative notions of progress and pre-industrial simplicity. Her blog posts really speak to me and the philosophy I take on so many of these issues. And she sited Schumacher's Small is Beautiful as her bible of sorts in the whole process. Which is how I came to figure I must get my hands on this book.

"A Study of Economics as if People Mattered" is the tagline for Small is Beautiful but don't think this is a boring book on supply and demand. Schumacher doesn't focus on economics as we traditionally think of the subject, but rather, on how we think about economics, business, and what is right. He challenges the assumption that bigger is always better on a multitude of levels and has made such logical and persuasive arguments as to propel this work to the status of a classic.

So what exactly does Schumacher have to say about our economic, social, and political systems? First of all, he believes that size is everything because, the larger the size of any private enterprise, the greater impersonality, insensitivity to human needs, and reach for even greater power. As an alternative, small systems allow for freedom, creativity, sustainability, and even morality. The modern world measures progress by a simplistic and unrealistic one-dimensional meter. Profit is the only factor used to gauge success, without any attention paid to human and environmental costs, morality, truth, social factors, and more. His main belief is that "[man] is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful. To go for giantism is to go for self-destruction." This pattern of self-destruction on the road to what appears bigger and better repeats itself over and over in Schumacher's discussion of everything from business to the environment to international aid.

Schumacher directs plenty of attention to our consumption of non-renewable resources. We fail to wisely categorize capital into two sets of camps: natural vs. man-made and renewable vs. non-renewable. In failing to do so, we mistakenly assign profit value to natural resources instead of capital value. We treat these resources, particularly fossil fuels, as though they were a limitless creation at the hands of man. Schumacher argues that, were we to conceptualize these as the natural capital items they are, we would do everything in our power to conserve them, irreplaceable as they are. Instead, we rely on them more and more with each coming year and have set ourselves on a collision course for disaster, as there will inevitably come the day when we have sucked all of our non-renewables completely dry and we're unable to maintain our methods of feeding ourselves, housing ourselves, and simply living our lives. Schumacher argues that we need to recognize the dangers of this future now but, more importantly, we have to stop talking and start acting now. We can't afford to start employing sustainable lifestyles once our fossil fuels are eliminated - we need to change our lifestyles today.

Small is Beautiful also looks at our conceptions of peace, its origins and its attainability. Greed and envy drive men today in such a way as to make peace virtually impossible. Vice blinds us to the most essential of human problems, while driving up those one-dimensional measures of success, like Gross National Product (GNP). We think that simply increasing government involvement, doing more research, and employing more complicated technologies will all, eventually, cure social ills. Schumacher argues that greed, envy, an the expansion of needs are all destructive to the very foundations of peace, namely happiness, intelligence, and serenity. Universal prosperity will not yield peace as so many of us like to believe. Peace will only be discovered when man decides to search for wisdom, to seek goodness and virtue. And this is where Schumacher's argument against one-dimensional economics really shines. Without an eye to wisdom, spirituality, and truth, economics, science, and technology will fail to create fruitful, appropriate, and lasting solutions to the reality of our world's very human problems. "Systems are never more or less than incarnations of man's most basic attitudes." Without changing our attitudes, ending our idolization of material goods, avoiding greed and envy, and valuing peace, charity, and kindness, we cannot hope to create a peaceful and fair system, economic or otherwise.

I could draft dozens of posts on Schumacher's work and still not cover all the wise, innovative, and inspiring arguments that he brings to the table in favor of downsizing. Instead, I'll offer a brief listing of all the topics touched upon in this dense 3128-page volume.

• The benefits of small-scale enterprise 
• Buddhist economics
• The irreconcilability of infinite material progress within a finite world 
• The limitations of science as a producer of ideas by which to live
• The essential differences between agriculture and industry that make the two incompatible
• The need to move away from mass production in lieu of production by the (currently unemployed) masses
• The need to direct aid toward education, knowledge, experience, and other sustainable, intellectual goods  
• How to combat the disintegration of rural life and mass migration to poverty-stricken metropolitan districts

Even though Schumacher recognizes that final solutions do not exist to curing the ills of our economic system. We need to find balance in our day to day life between our need for material goods and the immobility of life completely absent consumption. A compromise involving our desire for progress and our narrow profit-driven definitions of it must be reached. The problems which face our society, in terms of our economic structure, are vast and varied. But they are also rooted in a few sole principles and values that need be challenged. Schumacher lays out the framework that allows us to envision a new economy, one that values truth and wisdom, that takes account of the human factor, that believes small is beautiful.

Strawberry Salsa & Mango Guacamole

Holy guacamole! I love guacamole and I love salsa. When you can combine fresh ingredients over a background of tomatoes to create the perfect dip for tortilla chips - well there's really nothing better in my book, especially come summertime when all I want are low-maintenance, garden-fresh, whole food meals.

These two recipes are great alongside some salty tortilla chips, as an added topping for tacos, to top a simple grilled chicken breast, or to mix in salads. They are versatile, easy, and delicious - perfect go-to summer dishes!

For the strawberry salsa, I simple chopped up about a quarter of a red onion, one cup of strawberries, and one tomato. A little lemon juice, a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar, and a pinch of salt did wonders to bring this salsa together. It was sweet without being too much so and fresh enough to eat all by itself. I love the subtle flavor of balsamic in the background and the overwhelming strawberry flavor which is a delicious departure from standard tomato salsas. Plus, this took just minutes to whip up and tastes great with chips, over fish or chicken, or atop a green salad. I ate mine with blue corn tortilla chips which made for a very patriotic color scheme - great for a Fourth of July get-together!

Much as I love salsa, however, guacamole is my one true love. I'm not a fan of the creamy, texture-less stuff you buy in a package at the grocery store or get alongside your meal in American restaurants. I'm talking about chunky and authentic guacamole with hunks of avocado and a more salsa-like consistency. Though this particular recipe isn't necessarily the most authentic, it is a delicious take on guacamole!

All I used was one shallot, three cloves of garlic, two tomatoes, one cup of diced mango (I used frozen mango that I thawed in the fridge), one avocado, the juice of one lime, a touch of cilantro, and some salt and pepper. I chopped up the first five ingredients and threw them together in a bowl. Then I added some salt to really bring out the avocado flavor and a whole lot of lime juice to brighten up the mix. The mango added a bit more sweetness and color while the cilantro adds a bit more freshness along with its flavor-enhancing properties. The result is a delicious, refreshing, and surprising guacamole full of fresh chunky goodness.

Even if you opt to stick to tradition and pass on the mango, the rest of these ingredients are absolutely key to making any type of guacamole. And for a little kick, you can always add some chopped jalapeno pepper. I do recommend adding the pepper little by little and tasting along the way so as not to overly-spice your guacamole.

What are some of your favorite salsa and guacamole recipes? How do you like to eat these delicious and versatile dishes? I'm also a fan of topping grilled fish with the guac!

The Quirk Project

Today I am so excited to be featured over on Roxanne's blog Simplicities and Serendipities.

Roxanne has this great little feature known as The Quirk Project whereby bloggers list several of their own personal quirks to share with the rest of the blogging world. It's a cute little project that highlights some of the things that make us all such unique individuals. At the same time, while reading through past submissions to The Quirk Project, it won't take very long for you to recognize that we are all pretty similar in having so many strange and varied personal quirks (though a few of my quirks are probably more accurately a mild case of OCD!).

So please, stop by Simplicities and Serendipities and take a look around Roxanne's awesome blog - it's one of my favorites and I'm so excited to be included in this fun project today!

A Road Tripping Soundtrack

Mike and I are off to New England for our road trip honeymoon today! We'll be back mid-June, but I have plenty of posts primed and ready to go while I'm gone. And I cannot wait to share all the stories, photos, and memories made when we return to Baltimore! In the meantime, here's a collection of some of our favorite road tripping tunes. Enjoy!

This Time Tomorrow by The Kinks - A classic that I really grew to love (especially as a traveling tune) while watching The Darjeeling Limited.



At the Beach by The Avett Brothers - The perfect song for a drive with the windows down on a sunny summer's day.



Santa Monica by Everclear - Simply a classic.



Lost Coastlines by Okkervil River - A great song for both beginnings or ends. In fact, this was the song I listened to as I drove back to Baltimore after my last college final.



Life is Beautiful by Vega4 - I couldn't resist using this YouTube clip with video from African Cats to supplement the audio! Mike and I have always loved this song, and after he used it as soundtrack for some of the most beautiful video highlights from our last road trip, it has forever since been a road trip tune to me.



Road Trippin' by Red Hot Chili Peppers - The title says it all. Though this isn't the most infectious tune, it's the perfect one to listen to at the end of a long day of driving on the West Coast as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean... or something along those lines.



What are your favorite road trip and driving tunes?

Snapshots from the Week

The adventures in gardening never cease over here! I've noticed plenty of new progress in the vegetable garden this week. My blueberry bush is looking particularly great!

I never knew that string bean plants flowered. These sweet and delicate little white blooms are flowering on all my string beans! 

Broccoli is quite the flowerer too! These cute yellow flowers are rampant all over my broccoli plant. I just don't know from where exactly on the plant the broccoli will sprout!

I've got a handful of herbs already going strong in the garden, but I decided to grow a second round. These potted guys are finally starting to show some life!

I can probably attribute all the activity in the garden to the warm sunny days following up last week's rainy drizzle. Unfortunately, summer-like temperatures are not extremely pleasant in a row-house sans central air conditioning. Poor Digby is on a hunt to find the coolest spots in the house. The high heat brings out the laziness in him!

Playing around with my camera and an agave plant that I brought back to life after an old coworker thought she had killed it beyond all hope. Love this wooden planter!

I like to have a little Christmas in my life all year long. My mom was kind enough to buy me these lovely star ornaments from a fair-trade store last holiday season. Now they bring a little touch of festivity to my kitchen all year round!

As much as I love to cook and love eggs, for some reason I have always had trouble mastering the art of the omelet. I finally got it down this week and was so proud of myself, I had to take some pictures! This delicious egg breakfast contained arugula, roasted red peppers, Parmesan cheese, and garden-fresh herbs. Delicious! 

It was also Mike's birthday yesterday so we had a nice little birthday celebration complete with Barbecue Pulled Pork Pie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, and a comedy show. And after Memorial Day weekend wraps up, we're off to New England for our road trip honeymoon! How was your week? What are you looking forward to soon?

The Good Body

Eve Ensler, the woman behind the highly successful and prolific The Vagina Monologues, has compiled another collection of inspiring, heartbreaking, and insightful women-centered monologues in 2004's The Good Body. Similar to The Vagina Monologues in structure and form, this piece focuses on women's often torturous relationships with their bodies. Ensler turns an eye to women of all shapes, sizes, colors, and locales as they deal with their feelings about their bodies, corrective and enhancement surgeries, how familial attitudes have shaped their understanding of their bodies, exercise, and more.

Though it's a rather concise volume, The Good Body speaks to a much larger issue that Ensler does a great job of bringing into focus. Instead of spending time dwelling on each and every issue related to female body image, we are offered a sampling of experiences that are both universal and specific, an overview of sorts that helps round out the state of body image today. Ensler locates some of the sources of these issues while insightfully putting preoccupation with the female body into perspective.

"When a group of ethnically diverse, economically disadvantaged women in the United States were asked about the one thing they would change in their lives if they could, the majority of these women said they would lose weight." Such is our obsession with how we look. But beyond this, we are fed the notion that looking a certain way will bring us greater happiness. How often have you kidded yourself into thinking 'if only my stomach was flatter, I would be satisfied' or 'if only I lost 20 pounds, then I'd be happy with myself.' Ensler doesn't attack women for these attitudes, but rather, attempts to unshackle women from them and places the whole notion of the body within a much larger context.

As Eve lets us know from the very first pages of the preface, "[this play] is an expression of my hope, my desire, that we will all refuse to be Barbie, that we will say no to the loss of the particular, whether it be to a voluptuous woman in a silk sari, or a woman with defining lines of character in her face, or a distinguishing nose, or olive-toned skin, or wild curly hair. I am stepping off the capitalist treadmill. I am going to take a deep breath and find a way to survive not being flat or perfect. I am inviting you to join me, to stop trying to be anything, anyone other than who you are."

The conclusion of the play offers an eloquent summation of how Ensler mentally tackles hateful messages about what makes for a good body. "Maybe being good isn't about getting rid of anything. Maybe good has to do with living in the mess... Maybe what I tried to get rid of is the goodest part of me... Maybe good is about developing the capacity to live fully inside everything... Our body is the carrier of stories, of the world, of the earth, of the mother."

Whether you have a great relationship with your body or one that could use some work, I think Ensler's short little consideration of the good body is worth flipping through. Rather than buying into outside ideas about what makes for a good body, Eve encourages us all to love our bodies for the good they are, rather than what they aren't. Though it may not be the first time you've come across this particular message, The Good Body may well help you understand it more than ever before.

Happy 70th Mr. Dylan!

The great Bob Dylan turns the big 7-0 today! In honor of this momentous event in the life of the world's greatest songwriter, I've decided to share some of my favorite covers of Dylan tunes since the originals are so hard to come by on the internet. The trouble with searching for these songs on YouTube is that everyone wants to be Bob Dylan so there are so many, many amateur covers to sort through... but I've searched long and hard to find the best of the best for you all. Enjoy and Happy Dylan Day!

The Fleet Foxes cover of "It Ain't Me Babe" has that trademark Fleet Foxes sound while retaining the song's integrity. Just what all covers should attain to do.



I'm slightly obsessed with Jimi Hendrix's cover of "Like a Rolling Stone" live from Monterey Pop. There are less healthy obsessions I could have musical and otherwise, right?



I wish I could hate this cover because it has gained such popularity with far too many listeners failing to realize from whom it first came. But I just can't deny Adele's talent or the fact that Dylan's voice in the original version of this song is just a bit too grating for my tastes. So here she is performing "Make You Feel My Love," one of Dylan's best love songs.



And to wrap this post up, the great Johnny Cash covers the great Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright." A pretty perfect combination of two major talents, if you ask me.

A Week or Two In Review

Last Sunday (May 15th) was Mike's and my wonderful wedding day! We couldn't be happier with how everything turned out and are thoroughly enjoying our first week of newlywed life! I don't have any of the professional photos yet but here is a shot taken by one of my lovely wedding guests. The backdrop for our ceremony was just too beautiful and I couldn't wait to share it! We were married at Federal Hill Park in Baltimore which overlooks the harbor. And the sun decided to shine on us that afternoon, making for quite the scenic ceremony. More flattering and detailed photos to come!

My gorgeous bouquet hanging from the ceiling to dry out.

Cat naps. Much as I love to play with him when he's wide awake, there is nothing cuter than a sleepy Digby.

Sonic trip this week! Nothing beats their Peanut Butter Fudge Milkshake!

Finally made it back onto my bike. I cannot wait to commute to my new summer job! Here are a few shots of my beloved fixed gear Cycle Pro.

So next week Mike and I will be off for our honeymoon! We're roadtripping to New England for two weeks. Does anyone have restaurant recommendations or know of must-see attractions in the area?

Lies We're Fed, Peace, and TV Sets

I've been doing lots of thinking about the world lately. What is wrong with it and what needs to be done to improve our lot? The scope of modern day injustice is vast and seemingly insurmountable. International conflicts, terrorism, environmental catastrophe, human rights crises, economic downturn. Rape, hunger, poverty, homelessness, pollution, unemployment, sex trafficking, cancer, global warming, an increased cost of living. All of these things pose threats to the happiness, health, and safety of people the whole world over. And trying to rectify this multitude of ills, international in scope, is daunting enough to discourage even the most well-intentioned of individuals.

I don't claim to have all the answers. But I've come to a few small conclusions about the way we think about our world, our own stake in it, and our happiness. These few little fleeting seeds of ideas have taken hold and grown as certain conversations, literature, and the like have reinforced my position. And it was while reading the preface to Eve Ensler's The Good Body that I finally realized that these thoughts need be shared.

For me, a lot of these problems come down to the lies we're fed. Modern-day culture is saturated with the delivery of messages from more sources than ever in more forms of media than ever previously known. But the vast majority of these messages are sent with the same thing in mind: profit. Women are commonly afflicted with an ideal body image that is unattainable. And while Hollywood tells women that a good body requires starvation, inordinate amounts of exercise, and unhealthy standards, industrial agriculture feeds us more than we could possibly need in the form of food-like-substances lacking any nutritional value. But if we buy into both camps, we find ourselves failing. And in come the exercise gurus, diet pills, and miracle weight-loss plans. I'm not saying that there aren't other motives, some of them pure and good, that figure into any of these industries. Rather, I am hoping to turn a critical eye to the system at large and to reconfigure how we conceptualize happiness and satisfaction.

Buy buy buy. It's thrown at us when we watch TV, drive our cars, check our email, run our errands, and so much more. In fact, it never really stops. Americans are especially subject to this constant barrage of advertisements fueled by the notion that to buy is to be an American. Consumerism is constructed as a prime duty of any well-intentioned citizen. But once you've got the basics - food, clothing, shelter, furnishings, and a bit of entertainment - what more do you really need to buy? According to US culture, a whole lot. I'm not saying a nice shopping spree or trip to the mall can't be a source of satisfaction, a great way to cheer up after a rough week, or even a necessity at times. But the feeling that we have to buy, that we need to accumulate more goods in order to be happy, is one of the biggest lies we are being fed and I, once again, challenge you to think about what you buy and why.

I'm not saying that renouncing goods or opting out of the mindset that a tiny waistline makes you beautiful will solve the world's ills. But as documentaries like I Am and literature like that provided us by Eve Ensler elucidate, our preoccupation with consumption, our strident adherence to capitalism, and our individualistic value system make it increasingly difficult to tackle issues of supreme importance for human beings less blessed than our Westernized selves.

Just imagine how different our world would be if, rather than buying processed snack foods composed of nothing but empty calories, we directed our spending money towards fighting hunger? There is more than enough food being produced to feed the entire world's population. The real struggle comes in redistributing it effectively. If we focused on changing how we eat to the benefit of eaters the whole world over, the impact would be nearly immeasurable.

How about if the money we spent on a coffee once a week was put towards a charitable international organization? Though I fear I sound like those "For a dollar a day..." commercials, please hear me out. Think about how much those small little luxuries cost in the space of a single year. And think about how far a single American dollar could go in a third world nation.

Being cognizant of the messages we're being fed and how they influence our decisions and our happiness is important, both for us as individuals and as a human race. I don't expect everyone to abandon their dreams and the comfort they've worked to attain in their lives over a measly blog post. I do hope, however, to encourage people to think about the messages they buy into, about how much outside factors influence their happiness, about how much they have that they don't need. And maybe those thoughts will lead to action. Whether you put aside money in a charity fund to donate to the organization of your choice at year's end, take part in a microloan program to increase third world sustainability, participate in a volunteer travel experience, spare some change for a homeless person on the street corner, or simply challenge the notions that have become so ingrained in our heads that we rarely question them, I hope you take some time to think about why you feel how you do about your body, why you spend your money as you do, and how you can make the world just a slightly better place by refusing to accept all the lies we are fed day in and day out.

I'll leave you with this little token of wisdom from John Lennon. I think it's a pretty apt way to wrap up what I hope I've said through this post.

"If everyone demanded peace

instead of another television set,

then there'd be peace."