random thoughts on the last day of spring

If there is an art to burning a bag of popcorn i have mastered it. it's so disappointing to be anticipating a good bag of popped corn and then you get distracted for a moment and it's in the microwave 10 seconds too long and suddenly it's charred. yet i still sit here munching on it, it's like a sick form of punishment...

Isn't it weird that technically it's still spring? It was 90 degrees today! But if today's the last day of spring, that means tomorrow it's officially summer and i think it's the longest day of the year. i remember when i was little and it would stay light outside 'til 9 o'clock but my mom still made us come inside at 8. it was torture to be laying in bed listening to the neighbor kids still playing outside.

I don't usually like beer. i'm more of a wine and cocktails kind of girl, but Adam and i were at an I-Cubs game last weekend and all i wanted was a cold beer and a bag of fresh roasted peanuts. Seriously, the combination kept me occupied through at least 5 innings. it just tasted so good. you should try it. and i recommend getting a draft of beer rather than the bottles (I think you get more for your money)

I went to the pool for the first time this weekend and it was wonderful. I even got my hair wet, something that doesn't always happen when I go to the pool. (when I tell Adam I'm going to the pool, he always clarifies that I'm not going to swim, I'm going to sit in the sun) this time I did a little of both.

patio gardening

Last summer I dabbled in gardening with a hanging pot and a small basil plant. This year I fell in love with the idea of having window boxes. Adam did a great job making them work on our patio and now he calls me a happy plant mom (the only thing I'll be mothering for awhile) and I'm especially proud of my copper watering can. My next goal is to harvest a tomato (I think my pot may be a little small)

play, repeat

when i find a song that i really like i have a tendency to listen to it over and over and over again. I think I learned this when i lived with Lynn and Laura, they are both known for putting a song on indefinite repeat until it's completely engrained in your mind. (any time i hear a song from Michelle Branch's Hotel Paper I will think of the spring of Jr year in the GK dorms)

Right now I am obsessed with a couple of songs and artists. They are all a result of my trip to LA (Becca's new car includes an ipod hook up so the 3 of us took turns dj-ing as we drove around, gotta love technology)
Check out Tegan and Sara, specifically "Where Does the Good Go" from the Grey's Anatomy Season 1 soundtrack; and Kat Parsons, I love the passion and emotion in her voice and the lyrics. so good (and we actually saw her perform while i was in LA)

total anonymity

I spent some time in various airports on my trip to LA and I realized two things. The first is that while I love to travel with Adam (and we really need to do travel together more often) I love being able to go to the airport on my own and have the freedom to get on a plane and fly halfway across the country all by myself. I feel completely independent. There are many other things that I do that are on my own but I think that because I don't travel that often, that it's kind of a luxury.

I also realized that I love the feeling of not knowing anyone. I had a delay in the Denver airport on my way home and while it was inconvenient that I didn't get back until later than anticipated I suddenly had an hour and a half with nothing to do. It was kind of nice. I wandered around, and found the TCBY (I think all airports have one, and there's something about the combination of airports and frozen yogurt that I find wonderful, I make it a goal to get it at least once on every trip). Then I found a seat and read my book, flipped through a magazine, and worked on a Sudoku puzzle. Some people love to strike up conversations in these kinds of situations, but I tend to stay to myself. I don't think I'm necessarily rude, I just don't go out of my way to share my life story with a complete stranger (and honestly I hope they don't feel the need to open up to me). If someone starts a conversation with me I'll politely chat with them, but it's not my goal to make a new best friend in the airport. Part of it is that I'm selfish, I'll admit it. I want to be left alone. But I also relish the few moments, when I don't have to do anything or be anyone other than the young girl in jeans, with a paperback and a Starbucks. Sometimes that's all I need.

last week at this time...

Whenever I get back from trips I play this little game with myself of remembering where I was or what I was doing "last week at this time." I got back from LA late Tuesday night, and as always it was a great trip. Last Sunday Laura, Becca, and I drove to Santa Monica and walked along the beach before going to a Farmer's Market. It was different than the Des Moines Farmer's Market in that it was smaller and it was all food vendors. But there was live music and big grassy area to sit and enjoy the day. We shared roasted corn on the cob, a 3 pound breakfast burrito, and an amazing strawberry-banana crepe. Then we walked through all the booths and Becca got all kinds of fresh food for dinner (including the biggest carrots I've ever seen, purple potatoes, a flat of strawberries)

We also went to a fabulous flea market on Melrose Ave, took a nap, and went to the night service of the girls' church. I love going to churches in different cities and being able to find a community of believers who are going through the same struggles and trials that I am, but worshiping and depending on the same God.

Then, the highlight of the evening was dinner cooked by Becca. She outdid herself starting with sangria (you can't go wrong with 2 buck chuck, a can of lemon lime soda and lots of oranges and strawberries) and a fabulous salad with avocado and strawberries (from the market of course) followed by chicken sauted with wonderful spices and steamed veggies and crusty bread. Laura and I didn't get to help her bake (we were fighting with the directions for an IKEA console) which is one of my favorite things to do with the girls, but just the act of sharing a meal was wonderful and one of the things I miss the most about having the girls close by.

Other highlights of the week included hiking through Runyan Canyon with Becca (we could walk up to the trails from her apt and it's just kind of like a huge park with some great hiking right in the middle of the city), hiking along Zuma Beach (pics to come), seeing the stars up at Big Bear Lake, and of course just sitting around, drinking wine, and getting ready together.

girl time

when i was getting ready to be married, i was excited at the prospect of living with adam, but a part of me was mourning the loss of living with girls. i absolutely loved my girlie roommates from our late night conversations, trashy tv marathons, and family dinners to sharing and borrowing everything from cereal to earrings.

well, i've been married almost two years now, and I love living with Adam. he may not care as much about shoes and makeup as the girls did, but we have a lot of fun together. this weekend i get to revert back to my college days. i'm heading out to LA to visit Becca and Laura. when i tell people what i'm going to be doing, i mention hiking and shopping and seeing the ocean, but really I don't care what we do as long as it's just relaxing girl time. i'm hoping to drink lots of coffee, eat some good food and wine and just enjoy the girls. it's been a while.

rainy sundays

It's been a rainy day and as much as I would have loved to spend the day at the park or playing tennis and going for a walk, there's also something wonderful about curling up on the couch, watching an old movie, taking a nap and reading a book. Adam is less content staying in all day, so he insisted that he wanted to go to Target. So I made him a very detailed list (I need conditioner, concealer, and razors). We'll see how he does, or how many times he calls to ask what I was talking about.

I'm listening to several songs on the new John Mayer CD on repeat (stop this train and the heart of life) it's very soothing music for a rainy day. I'm pumped because John is coming to Des Moines in June and Ben Folds is opening for him. It should be a good show.

dare to dream

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover..."
—Mark Twain

what does this look like for me. What are the things I should be doing right now that I will regret not doing in 20 years? I am so comfortable in Des Moines. I love our condo, the job is fine, life is good. There's nothing wrong with that, but do I want to be comfortable when I'm 24? I want to be challenged and pushed to the limit. Maybe that's crazy, maybe I just need to find ways to spice things up where I am. Maybe I just have spring fever.

the kindness of God

"If I am to know God as He really is, then I must not just accept that God is kind; I must embrace His kindness as my own. I need that kindness to saturate my being and transform me."

I wrote this quote down, and now I can't remember where I read it, so I can't give the author the credit he deserves, but it really struck me. the idea of embracing God's loving kindness as our own. i don't quite know what that looks like, but I know that I want to do a better job of loving myself and other people. Sometimes the loving myself part is almost harder than the loving other people part. I naturally feel selfish if I take too much time for myself, but really, if I'm not taking care of myself and embracing God's love for me, I can't fully love others.

check this out

my love for magazines started with printed magazines that come in the mail every month or that you pick up on the newsstand. anyone who visits our house knows that i love magazines after seeing the stacks of them sitting around the coffee table and through the house. but i am starting to pay more attention to online magazines (especially since Remodel is officially part of the world wide web now) and there are some pretty cool ones out there. I'm not convinced that they will ever take the place of the original paper copies, but I just found this new magazine that is only available online: Sprig.

It is created by some of the former editors of Organic Style (a magazine that was published by Rodale for several years and unfortunately folded about a year ago, just before the green movement got big) Those of you who are designers should appreciate th logo, it's very pretty.

Sprig stands for: Sophisticated People Are Into Green. clever, huh? I'm not quite sure what the purpose of the site is. It seems mostly product driven, but maybe there will be more content in the future.

More and more magazines are taking the plunge into online arenas, and it's interesting to see that some are forgoing print editions all together in favor of online. I love the idea of how much easier (and cheaper) it is to launch a magazine this way, but I don't know if it's really feasible. It's hard enough to be successful as a print publication, and there is so much more competition online (you still have to drive people to your site), but I guess if you can drive people to your site there are so many possibilities for interaction and video and community that maybe it's feasible.

As you can see, I love this stuff. I love it that I am paid to immerse myself in it and see what works and what doesn't and even get to try some things myself.

B Ave

I was back in Cedar Rapids a few weeks ago. I've lived in Des Moines for 6 years, it is truly my home, but Cedar Rapids, and more specifically B Ave NE will always be my home, where I grew up. My parents moved to a new house a year ago, and when I'm home now I still have to ask my mom where things are. I go "home" to see them there, but that will never be my house. I have a room there, but it's really the guest room, and that's fine with me. I'm not there enough to really put my mark on any thing (except for all the memories I can't part with that I insist my mom keep either in that room or the basement).

If Adam and I are driving somewhere when we're in CR I usually ask him to drive by the old house. I can close my eyes and know exactly where we are by the curves in the road. Some of the houses have changed, but there's still the stop sign (by the mailbox) that I remember barely pausing at as I rushed to make it home by curfew, the park around the corner where Adam and I would park his car and makeout before he dropped me off at home, the side street that we would splash in after it rained, and learning the rules of looking both ways before crossing the street so I could go play with Maggie who lived right across the street from us. Those are my childhood memories.

the Cooleys

At church people refer to Adam and I as "the Cooleys." That is who we are, but every time I hear it, I kind of pause and become aware that I'm not a Schmidt anymore. I am used to signing my name as Andrea Cooley and hearing people refer to me as Andrea Cooley, but for some reason it's still funny to hear us referred to as the Cooleys. Maybe it's because I associate that with a family. Obviously we don't have kids yet, but I guess we are a family between the two of us.

des moines highlights

1. Fireworks after Friday night I-Cubs games. Tonight was the first home game and we didn't go (it's still too cold for that) but we could see parts of the fireworks show from our bedroom window.

2. Tulips and daffodils blooming (even after the snow on Wed)

3. Fruit snacks (Adam and I rediscovered them at Target. somehow they are deliciously artificial)

4. Spring weddings (and the cards and gifts they entail) there are a lot of them this spring and I love going to Target to check the registries :)

5. Chinese food. Adam and I had a date night this week at P.F. Changs. Lettuce wraps, crispy honey shrimp, and cashew/almond chicken with plenty of leftovers. yum

6. Days spent in the photo studio. I worked on producing a tile shower set this week that we shot, and I think it turned out really well. You can see it in the Aug/Sept issue of Remodel.

7. Taking a nap on the couch and not feeling guilty about it.

to be a writer

I am a writer. Even if I didn't write for my job I would still be a writer. Sometimes I lose site of the fact that I get to write at work. Like today, a Friday, when I have this story about low-maintenance remodeling products that I've been pushing around all week. Not very exciting, but it's what's on my plate to write about at the moment. I've done the interviews, the research, all that's left is pulling it all together on the page. So I start crafting the lead, and while remodeling products can only be so exciting, I think I found a good one. I didn't finish the story, but it will still be waiting for me Monday, it's my job.

at immersion last night we started a series called "The Office" about how God created us to work and how our attitudes at work need to be positive even if we aren't in our dream job. I was convicted of that today at work. I haven't always had the best attitude about my job, but it really is a good job, a great job. not many people get to sit and craft a lead, write snappy titles, and just generally create and get paid for it. It's definitely something i take for granted.

I am not just a journalist or a magazine writer. I'm also a journaler, a creative writer, a letter writer. My friend Sarah Kay, a writer, says "The role of a writer is to say what we are unable to say." I like that.

Thank you notes

My mom trained me to write thank you notes. I remember after Christmas we always had to have all our thank you notes written before we went back to school. Kyle, Karen, and I would sit at the booth with our lists of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to write. I wrote thank you notes after birthdays, graduation, and most impressively more than 100 after our wedding. I've said before that I like writing letters, but there's something about thank you notes, handwritten, not e-mailed, that is very intentional and maybe a little old fashioned. I just read an article in Esquire about someone who decided to write 100 thank you notes in a month. It made him realize how many times a day he said thank you without thinking and how many times people said the same to him: waiters, coworkers, kids, friends, and strangers. interesting.

spring cleaning

Adam and I have officially been homeowners for a year now. That means I have maintained the same address for 365 consecutive days for the first time since high school. I love our condo, and love that we have been able to settle into a home together, but it seems like it's the time of year to move, go through all my stuff and purge the things I don't need. Even though we aren't moving, I feel the need to start emptying closets (which secretly must drive Adam crazy) I can feel a Salvation Army trip on the list of things to do this weekend...

In other news, Adam and I were in Chicago over the weekend to celebrate my birthday (I am now a proud 24 years old, and have decided it's the perfect age, it sounds old enough to be taken seriously, but still young enough to not be taken too seriously). We have been to Chicago a couple times before, but this time we stayed in a great hotel, right downtown on Lakeshore Drive and spent the whole weekend walking around, exploring the city. We both loved it. I loved the Starbucks on every corner and Trader Joes within walking distance and the art museum, and shopping, and energy of it all, and I think Adam was content just walking around and watching all the people. Who knows, maybe we'll be living there in the next few years. We are very comfortable in Des Moines and finally getting connected at our church, and everything is so affordable here, but there is an allure to living in a big city or even just outside the city. Right now we'll pray about it and enjoy this season of life.

snail mail

I love getting letters, handwritten envelopes with pretty stamps and even cuter cards. The only benefit to Becca moving halfway across the country is that we have become pen pals. It seems at least once a week I find a personal letter waiting for me. This hasn't replaced our phone calls or e-mails, but the letters are where we share the little happenings of our day and sometimes open up about things we don't talk about verbally from our dreams to our faith.

Writing letters is something I started as a little girl. I would be pen pals with anyone who was willing to put a pen to paper and write me back from grandmas and camp counselors to kids from other countries. I've said this before, but I usually think I'm a better writer than a speaker. I like to get my thoughts down on paper. And I can't resist cute stationary :) Whenever I'm at a bookstore or coffee shop I can't help but look through the cards and pick one up for someone special. And Adam won't even go down the card aisle at Target with me anymore. I have been known to spend half an hour picking out the perfect card.

cereal party

all the really good expensive cereal like Lucky Charms and Captain Crunch were on sale at the store, 4 for $10, so Adam and I splurged and got 4 boxes of sweet, kid's cereal. Now it's all sitting on our stove because of course we don't have room for it in the cupboards. it makes me want to have a cereal party like i remember having in the dorms. it seems like there would be nights when we would just crave cereal so we would go to the convenience store and buy those bags of cheap cereal. then everyone grabs a spoon, we get a big bowl and start filling it with cereal and milk and everyone digs in. who wants to come?

monday

It’s one of those days at work that is almost eerily quiet. My boss Eliot is gone, along with his boss Linda, so not only is there no meetings scheduled (a rarity, especially on a Monday) but there really isn’t anyone around to be asking me to do something. Of course there are things for me to work on, but nothing pressing enough to keep me focused for more than 30 minutes at a time. I used to hate these days, I would much rather be busy working on a deadline than sitting catching up on all the things you put off because you don’t want to do them. But I am learning to appreciate them because I know that before the week is through I am bound to be bombarded with phone calls or something that needs to be done right now. Instead of feeling guilty for not being as productive as I’d like to be, I remind myself that I am a salaried employee, and there will be weeks when I might work a little more than 40 hours, but there will also be weeks where I work a little less, and that’s OK.

my Sunday routine

Anyone who has had the pleasure of living with me or who just knows me pretty well knows that I am not the most spontaneous person. I have a routine, a schedule, and I like to stick to it. Take Sundays for example. Now that I don't have to worry about school work this is my favorite day of the week. Adam and I usually have a leisurely morning of breakfast, coffee, and reading the paper (and I always have to look at the Target ad) then we go to church at 11, maybe run some errands and come home to take a nap. Then I start the laundry, catch up on e-mail and phone calls, go to the gym, and fold the clothes while watching the Apprentice. I know it's good to switch things up sometimes, live on the wild side, but there is something so comforting about a good routine.

Happy belated St. Patrick's day. I didn't go to the parade because we woke up to a blanket of SNOW on everything. I looked out the window from bed and saw the fat, white flakes falling and thought, oh, it's just snowing a little. But when I got out of bed and looked outside everything was covered. It's all melted now and back in the 50s, so hopefully that's all the snow we get this month. I remember last year that it snowed on my birthday though...