Category Archives: fall

fall, life, spring

Spring, glorious spring

Oh, hello there. Remember me? I don’t blame you if you don’t. It’s been awhile.

Fall and winter were a blur of commuting, working, more commuting, traveling, apartment hunting, and finally, moving. During the months that I was commuting from Oakland to Sonoma State everyday, I didn’t have much time left for anything else. It felt like everything dropped by the wayside: friends, cooking, crafting, reading, exercise…my life was nothing but my car, and work, an hour on the couch with my husband in the evening, and sleep.

The good thing about all of that is that I love my job. I work with great people, who are open minded, resourceful, thoughtful, and who want to do great and awesome things. And the work environment really suits me: I’ve learned about myself that I don’t thrive in hierarchical, top-heavy organizations (but I don’t really know anyone who does). At Sonoma State, I work on a team of true collaborators. We make the decisions about what we do, not some Director or manager. And I’m trusted to make the best decisions about my area of responsibility. My enthusiasm for my work is about 1000 times greater when I feel like I have control over it. So even though I’m working harder than I have in years, I feel engaged and excited and I really enjoy the time that I’m at work. It made the two-plus hours in the car every day bearable.

But just barely. And so finely, when the hubbub of the holidays and our various work travels settled down, we started planning a move up to Sonoma County. It was hard, really, really hard to leave Oakland. I don’t know if I’ve ever loved a city the way I love Oakland. But I hardly got to spend any time in it!

After more than a month of searching, we finally found a house to rent only a mile from the campus, in Rohnert Park. Rohnert Park isn’t the most exciting place to live. It’s pretty much the definition of suburbia, and when we buy a house, I hope we don’t buy here. But it’s livable, and I love that I can walk to work again. And our house is pretty awesome.

We’re still finishing up the two upstairs bedrooms, one of which will be an office/guest room and the other my craft room. The craft room is close to being done; I’ll share some updated photos soon. And the books are finally unpacked. I’m in the process of taking an inventory right now, because yes, I have too many books. And I’m a librarian, so I feel like I have to have an up-to-date catalog of my collection.

Living in the suburbs has been a big change for me, but I think Sean is loving it so far. We have a great backyard, which now has a fire pit and some patio furniture, thanks to my awesome husband. And I’m getting used to having my free time back, so I hope to be posting here more in the future. And making more things, and cooking more things, and reading more things, and generally having my life back. Yay!

Thanks for your patience during my prolonged absence!

fall, health, wedding

I’m back! And sick as a dog.

1 Comment

It has been a full month since I last visited my little web home, and I’ve missed it here. Our wedding was wonderful. The whole weekend was full of fun and so much love. It was like a happiness parade.

Sean and Laura on the wedding day.
Photo courtesy of Nicole Lewon

Then we went to Hawaii for two full weeks. Amazing. We did so much, but still had time to feel relaxed and to loaf around on the beach. We went for a helicopter ride, we went kayaking, we hiked the Na Pali coast and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We went horseback riding in the Waipio Valley. We took a snorkeling cruise. We got really tan. It was a really wonderful vacation, and yes, we’re still pulling our photos together to share.

Then we came back and I was ready to get to work. I was excited to get to work! And I immediately contracted the plague. Alright, it’s not the plague. At first I thought it was just a cold, but now a nurse thinks it might be strep, so I’m going for a strep screening today.

At least I have the perfect remedy for illness:

A bottle of bourbon and a bottle of honey sitting on a counter.

I especially love this honey for my hot toddies. It was a gift from my Aunt Cathie, and I think it has extra healing properties, with the ginger and the bee pollen. And it’s tasty.

I’m about to head to the doctor’s office. Then I think I will spend the rest of the day writing because, my friends, it’s NaNoWriMo.

Oh, and then I’m supposed to fly to Louisville, Kentucky on Wednesday to give a presentation at LITA Forum. One day, I will actually make it through a full week at work.

fall, wedding

In the thick of it

Sitting here to write this, I feel like I’m stepping into the eye of the storm. It’s a small moment of stillness in what has otherwise been a month of frenetic energy. Time is passing so unbelievably quickly: Our wedding is in less than two weeks! I’ve already been at my new job for a month! How the heck is it September 23rd already?

Right now the storm consists of a million tiny details, swirling around constantly in the back of my mind. I have lists floating around on every scrap of paper I can find, schedules and notes and calculations about how much wine we should buy and who still hasn’t RSVP’d and what photos we want to be sure are taken by the photographers. There are a few errands still to run, a few crafts still to finish, but despite the constant feeling of mild panic, everything is under control. Everything will get done. And I am lucky, lucky, lucky to have so many people contributing their time and energy and creativity.

The biggest struggle for me right now is the 2+ hours I’m spending in the car, commuting to and from work everyday. And the things that are being sacrificed are things I HATE to sacrifice: Yoga and exercise. Having the time to cook lovely meals. Sewing. I feel like I get home from work, eat dinner, and the next thing I know it’s time for bed.

The wedding will be here before we know it, and it will be awesome. The two weeks we’re spending in Hawaii afterwards will be much needed (and I feel like we might be looking forward to that more than the wedding itself, at this point). And then we’ll be back, and I’m sure a whole new storm of activities and projects will begin.

Yup, it’s a storm. But it’s a pretty great storm, and it will all be so, so worth it.

crafting, fall

Holiday Magic?

I took a bit of an extended leave of absence from blogging. It wasn’t entirely intentional, but it just wasn’t feeling right to me. I was starting to be stressed out by it, and that pretty much destroys any enjoyment that might come from an activity. I was putting all kinds of pressure on myself to churn out “content,” whatever the heck that means. And so one day, I just said, “That’s enough.” I wasn’t sure whether I’d ever come back to it (although deep in my heart I knew I would, because, come on, I’ve been blogging for 15 years).

December has been busy, but mostly in the very best ways. I decided to make at least half of my holiday gifts this year, so our apartment is basically a little crafting workshop. Sean has been in Boston since Sunday night, and that means our apartment has become my sewing studio. The kitchen table has been covered in fabric, thread, scissors, measuring tape, and pattern pieces the entire time. There are bits of thread littering the floor and scraps of fabric and batting all over the place. Tiny beads have managed to make their way into all the corners. I’m hoping to have time to clean up most of the disaster zone before he gets home tonight, but there is still much making to be done.

I am LOVING it. And I’ve seen my sewing skills improve over the last month, which is deeply satisfying. I also picked up a new hobby: jewelry making. Because I don’t have enough interests already. I love jewelry making because it’s faster than sewing, so I have a finished product after one sitting. And so shiny!

I haven’t even started to holiday baking, so I think this Sunday the oven will be cranked up and the mixer will get a serious workout. I had a lot of holiday cookie ideas this year, but the truth is, my interest in things culinary isn’t as strong right now as my interest in things textile. So when I’m trying to decide what to do in my free time, the sewing machine generally wins. But I do want to have cookies to bring in for colleagues next week, so I should probably get cracking.

You’d think this feeling of obligation would be unpleasant, and I’ll admit to feeling tiny twinges of stress, but for the most part, it is really satisfying and fun. I wish I had more hours in the day, it’s true. I wish I could take next week off work and just create create create, but I can’t. I’m actually supposed to be finishing up a book manuscript that is due in early January, and perhaps I’ve been in a bit of denial about how much work should be dedicated to that project right now. What, me? Denial? What are you talking about? I don’t even know what that word means.

I want to blog again, because I miss it, I do. But there are only so many hours in the day, and at the end of it, I need to know that I’m spending them doing the things that make me feel the most fulfilled. Balance isn’t always easy to achieve, but I keep striving.

I hope the weeks leading up the holiday are fulfilling for you, and not overly stressful. Are you making things? Baking things? What does December look like in your world?

fall, Right Now

Right Now, November

A picture of me with a smiling baby Julia in a blue oneside

working on analyzing loads and loads of MARC serials records

reading many books at once, including The Parable of the Sower, Mosses from the Old Manse, a book on altering and creating sewing patterns, and a book on drawing.

reveling in old issues of Sassy Magazine, recently acquired from eBay

cooking recipes from Everyday Food

studying the newly released BIBFRAME document on library cataloging standards

planning all the things I want to make for people for Christmas (and all the cookies I want to make, too)

sewing a handbag that I LOVE, and giving a failed skirt another try

writing a novel! Yes, I participated in NaNoWriMo this year.

also writing a book on data management for librarians, manuscript due early January

missing my girls, after a weekend of cuddling and playing with them over Thanksgiving (I’m missing the rest of my family, too)

obsessing over vintage hairstyles, vintage clothing, vintage shoes

learning about clothing construction, patterns, jewelry making, drawing. Perhaps I have too many hobbies

dreaming of what 2013 will hold

fall, recipes

Albacore Tuna with Citrus and Chiles

A few weeks ago, the guys over at The Bitten Word proposed a challenge: They requested volunteers from their readers to try to cook every recipe in six different food magazines, to be pulled together and featured on their blog mid-October. I always mean to cook recipes from my food magazines, and rarely actually do, so I decided to sign up for the challenge. They put me on Team Food Network, one of the few food magazines I don’t actually subscribe to or read. Thankfully, the recipe is online. I was assigned to make Banana Leaf Mahi Mahi with Citrus and Chiles.

Continue reading Albacore Tuna with Citrus and Chiles →

fall, recipes, Suggested Servings

Suggested Servings: Fried Eggplant

Tonight, Sean is out of town. It’s warm in Oakland: We’re having our typical October summer. I decided to skip the gym after work, and ran a few errands instead. Good errands, the kind I love: crafting supplies and groceries. I stopped by A Verb for Keeping Warm to buy a zipper for a skirt I’m making, and then visited the big, overwhelming, farther away grocery store, the one that makes Sean anxious with its crowded aisles and huge, pushy carts. The one that makes me swoon with the possibilities of all that it contains. I browsed and binged on peaches and apples and pasta and avocados, and on my drive home, even the traffic on the 580 couldn’t irritate me.

Continue reading Suggested Servings: Fried Eggplant →

fall, recipes

Braised Chicken with Capers and Green Beans

Tomorrow I’m having my wisdom teeth removed, and resigning myself to a few days of liquid lunches. And not the fun, Mad-Men-martinis-at-lunch kind of liquid lunches, either. I have planned to make a bunch of juices and smoothies for these coming days, but before the pain begins, I wanted to make something very delicious for dinner, a kind of tasty send-off for my taste buds. This piquant, slow cooked chicken fit the bill perfectly.

Continue reading Braised Chicken with Capers and Green Beans →

fall, Friday Favorites

Friday Fall Favorites

It’s official. My favorite season has begun. And to commemorate, I’d like to share with you some of my favorite Fall recipes. These are all recipes originally shared on Kitchen Illiterate, my other blog.

I’m definitely a cold-weather cook. I’d much rather serve up hearty stews, hot casseroles, and roasts than light and crisp summery salads. I think it’s the midwesterner in me. When I think of the coziest thing I can imagine, it’s being in a warm house while the rain drips outside, a baked good and a cup of tea at my side. Preferably, a pot of something delicious would be simmering on the stove at the same time. I have my fingers crossed for lots of cozy days in the coming months. And here are some of the things I’ll probably be making:

Continue reading Friday Fall Favorites →

fall, recipes

Classic Spaghetti Sauce

I love fall. Love love love it. And I always have. I was that geeky little girl who was excited to go back to school. I was that geeky college student excited to go back to school. I love the crispness in the air, and sweaters and scarves, and fires in the fireplace. In New England, I always felt that fall was the only season that was bearable. And while it might not be quite as breathtaking here in California (we make up for it with the rest of the year being so phenomenal), it still makes me smile. We got our first acorn squash from our CSA last night, and I almost got giddy.

I knew I wasn’t the only one feeling excited for fall when I saw several recipes for slow-cooked , meaty spaghetti sauce popping up in my feed reader this week. Meaty spaghetti sauce is totally not a thing you cook when it’s high season summer. Meaty spaghetti sauce is fall food, and I fell for it, hard. Last night, it was the only thing I wanted for dinner. I scrapped my existing plans (I think they called for a lot of summer vegetables or something), and instead set about making my whole apartment smell garlicky and tomatoey and amazing.

Continue reading Classic Spaghetti Sauce →