A break ( after a break. )

Well... camp #2 kept me busy. (And cranky.) I haven't posted here in a while.

I am headed off for a last bout of relaxation, pre-job, today. I'll be here:


Au revoir / Auf Wiedersehen.

-Papermoon

PandoraJam

My brother has unearthed an amazing application!

PandoraJam is a genius little download that allows you to download your Pandora channel while it plays, saving the tracks as mp3s in your iTunes! The free demo is nearly identical to the $15 program; you just have to keep tabs on it more often, as it automatically shuts off every few tracks. (You can start it back up with a quick mouse-click).

The icon is also very cute!



Enjoy, Pandora lovers! http://www.bitcartel.com/pandorajam/download.html

-Papermoon

Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood.

America...

The Free.

The Beautiful.

The Bountiful.

The Winner!

-Papermoon

Goodbye, Chicago!

Well, it's official. My move has begun. My parents have texted me "On the way!" and the view outside my bedroom window already looks more nostalgic.

I am not going to allow much sadness over this move. I have been here for five years, enjoying what Chicagoland has to offer, and that makes me lucky. I am heading for a lot of good things: great summer jobs, time with my wonderful family this summer at home, and a new, exciting job come September. I will dearly miss my roomie and friends, and this city, but I will be back. I see no point in getting too sad. This isn't a forever goodbye...Chicago, after all, is only a matter of hours (and no oceans!) away.

Time to wrap up the packing, enjoy some sunshine, vacuum the carpet, and then welcome my parents!

Thanks for the fun, Chicago!

I'll likely post next week, when the crazies settle down...

-Papermoon

one of the best days of my whole life.

all throughout my childhood i was a compulsive lister. i don't think much has changed. i was constantly revising lists: in my head, in my diary, on scraps of paper and on chalkboards. i loved planners and pocket notebooks and post-it notes, and have written myself at least one daily 'to-do' list since i was about twelve. (i used to include 'wake up' every morning!) the back of my first diary--pink with ballet slippers, and my name in stickers-- held a running list of 'best friends' that is hilarious too look at, both for the ridiculous reasons i crossed people off the list, only to add them back on, and for the fact that the word 'best' didn't seem to limit my quantity! 12 best friends, really?

one of my mental lists through my growing up years was that of the 'best days of my whole life'. some were very specific events--one particular Palm Sunday in which i felt very grown up, my eighth and ninth birthdays, the day my brother and i filled up a top hat with snow and made beautiful 'snow cake', some family vacations, a 24 hour period i spent exclusively painting as a freshman in college, a very hilarious fancy dinner in which my sister katie and i accidentally got drunk... there are too many to count.

today was one of the best days of my life, despite being entirely solitary and without much to speficically define it. i suppose i will just list everything, in keeping with the theme!

• woke up (without an alarm) to good weather
• spent a lovely almost-hour talking to my littlest sister on the phone (SHE called ME! so nice!)
• cinnamon toast and coffee
• did the underpainting for something new i am working on (mother's day!)
• showered, got dressed in the new ($20) Audrey Hepburn pants i bought yesterday (sorry, it's a cellphone picture)

• lunch on my sun deck, pretending i was on an enormous cruise ship (delicious egg salad and iced tea!)

• read C.S. Lewis' The Four Loves: Friendship
  

and in an hour i will finish it off with Mass. the best.

-papermoon

last day at home

well... i love chicago, but it sure seems odd to be headed back.

it's been nice to be here at home, seeing my enormous family and my puppy dog, eating meat (who knew... i currently enjoy it), watching movies on a big screen, and seeing friends who reside east of the west. last night maggie and katie and i watched 'the secret of roan inish' and i was PERFECT as usual. i haven't gotten that lovely, muted mood out of my system yet. i need to order that on dvd, stat. it's nice to have ample excuses to watch kids' movies.

sometimes chicago really pulls at me when i'm away, but it didn't this last month-and-some. i am sure that once i land that familiar feeling will hit me again, though, and i will wonder at how i wasn't dying to return. not to mention, i will get to see the lovely roomie once more.

it was a good thanksgiving, a great christmas and a good first few days of 2009. my family does what a good family should... they build me up. i will miss the activity and all the good debate!

off to treasure today!

-papermoon

hooray for college bound brothers

james is going to georgetown in september!

-papermoon

12. plums

the twelfth thing i am thankful for: plums

sometimes, making a plum tart/cake is really the only way to deal with a muddled mind. i couldn't decide what to make for dinner last night, and ended up eating two string cheese, scrambled eggs, and squash soup (alas, not homemade-- i caved and bought it at trader joes. i felt like i was cheating, but at least trader joe's is cheap?...) initially i thought that this was insufficient because the entire dinner was roughly the same color. in the end, however, i was basically unsatisfied because of an affliction that comes often in my life... I REALLY ONLY WANTED PIE.

unfortunately, i am not a baker at the level of pie-making.

so i made a variation on this lovely brown butter plum cake recipe, and ate some of it. it was very worth it, and i was thankful for my tendency to do stupid things like this.

plums are a favorite family fruit. i have fond memories of a period of obsession with them in my home, especially in the case of the oldest of my brothers. my parents are the reigning champions of getting the entire food pyramid on the table at dinner, and for years my task was to cut up plums, paper thin, and arrange them in intricate floral designs on two salad plates, one for each side of the table. (come to think of it, i might have only been asked to 'cut the plums', but i honestly had the impression that it was my duty to make the presentation beautiful. i will have to ask papa.)

i also recall a summer in which the same brother and i got really into the japanese version of iron chef--then the only one on tv--and took to a few contests between our less-than-iron selves. i know plums figured prominently. i guess i should be thanking my parents for my decadent, expensive fruit-filled childhood. (we also had ample supply of berries on hand at all times.)

vacations even involved plums. when my parents took the little brood of us out to explore the world, we were lucky enough to usually lunch one of two ways: 'picnic' (urban picnic?) style, or with candy bars. we would explore foreign grocery stores, almost uniformly buying the following: salami, cheese, hunks of bread, some kind of fruit, and candy, candy, candy. i promise, this is related to plums...i remember quite vividly eating a wildly delicious, bright yellow plum in germany.

for a while, starburst came out with some really nutso flavors, one of which was plum. it had a light purple wrapper. my middle brother would save them up and let us try them. he was a generous child. he probably doesn't even remember. (they were excellent, by the way... do they still make them?)

my dear roomie brought me a plum flavored candy... i blogged about that a while ago.

when i was still in college (how pretentious does that sound) and lived in the dorms, i would spoil myself rotten and buy all kinds of food for myself and eat dorm-cooked variations on real food, ignoring the fact that i had a meal plan with the cafeteria. one of my favorite concoctions in my sophomore year of college was the following salad: mixed greens topped with cottage cheese and a sliced plum, dressed with grey poupon country dijon. (i was kind of a brat at that point.) (it was, however, delicious, and probably worth it.)

surprisingly, even after this novel, i could go on. i have lots of plum memories. but i need to go to the farmer's market, and pursue a job (or at least some volunteer work), and do some even more important things, such as find out how my friends laura and almanzo are doing after a recent tragedy. maybe i will beam them a slice of my cake through the television.


later...

-papermoon

back, and soon to get back in the good habit

...the good habit of posting once a day, that is.

i had some good excuses lately, what with the election tensions and fretting, followed by the happy excuse of my lovely cousin's wedding this last weekend, in omaha. i have decided in the last year that i really like omaha a lot. and it goes without saying that i like my extended family a whole lot...and how great that my cousin's husband (crazy to say that word!) is now part of that group! hooray!


it was a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful and very fun wedding. and i returned to a very cold chicago--which was a perfect end, considering the fact that i quite enjoy winter weather.

my brother has been in and out of chicago with me the last few days, which has been a nice little blip of family. we went to the hopleaf last night, since he had no early morning engagements, and that was as good as always--as in very good. and it's always nice to have a brother about.

today i woke up late, and only because my mother called me. i am thankful for that--i think i might have slept until 4 pm without it. now i am endeavoring to organize my life, contemplating unpacking my suitcase, and realizing that time really flies.

in twenty days it will be thanksgiving. i'm trying to focus on what i am thankful for, instead of what blessings-in-disguise are still disguised for me. life really is good, even if i have been coming to the realization that it's very hard to be an adult. a lot of my favorite blogs have been discussing good ways to lead up to a thankful thanksgiving, and i have decided to take on the task by listing one thing i am thankful for--whether deep or seemingly trivial, no matter-- on each day of november leading up to thanksgiving.

today, i will ten, as i have missed out on a few november days previous!

1. toast
2. having multiple coats
3. the chicago card i found in the middle of the crosswalk--with money on it
   
4. my mac
5. maggie
6. michael
7. james
8. katie
9. paul
10. my landline, otherwise known as the direct line to mom

that's all for now. off to bundle up and see my brother off at his hotel!

-papermoon