The piemaker

Thank you, all, for the good sewing tips. I will follow them in the new year! In the meantime I am excited to plunge into the holidays. Tonight I'm baking a pie for the first time without my mom. I'm making her white potato pie recipe to take to Chris's aunt's for Thanksgiving. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Oh -- Shelby, Chris, and I got matching new phones. They are very fancy and smart, darling. Perhaps I will even be able to blog from it over the holiday weekend.

Happy Turkey Day!

I think I would like to learn to sew

Flower arranging is too expensive of a hobby; if I knitted I would only knit scarves and everyone already has enough scarves; I stare at a computer screen all day so I'd like to put InDesign and Illustrator off to the future.

But if I sewed, I could make simple, streamlined, Parisienne-esque clothes. Skirts and tops and dresses and such.

What are the next steps?

Last night's autumnal dinner

Pork loin in crockpot with quartered onions and other mysterious fixings of Chris's doings. Turned on low heat at noon, served at 8 pm. Perfect.
Delicata squash cut in half lengthwise and adorned with pats of butter and salt and freshly ground pepper. Baked at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Delicious.
Frozen brussels sprouts spread on cookie sheet, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with cubed pancetta. Baked in the same oven with the squash. Yum!

We can never go back to Manderley again...

On Saturday I watched Rebecca on the couch with the green fuzzy blanket. I had never seen it before (Rebecca, not the blanket). I really enjoyed it, from pretty Joan Fontaine to amazing Olivier (even if they didn't have any chemistry) to scenery-chomping Judith Anderson to the costumes and interior design of MANDERLEY. The house is the star! I recapped the whole movie to Chris over wings and fried pickles at a new place in our hood.

Hitchcock rules.*

*That farting Rear Window sketch on SNL, however, does not.

They have a special chef for campus visit days

My alma mater flew me out for the weekend to talk to students about my career field. It was surreal in the sense that it was NOT surreal. Being on campus felt very normal. It felt like just yesterday that I walked up those stairs, used that bathroom (sorry to mention it, but they were exactly the same and I was amused), swung through that door, smelled that cafeteria (a much grosser reference than the restrooms, trust me)*. I sat in on one of my favorite professor's classes, and had dinner at another favorite professor's house. I also got to see two of my best friends for a few hours each. It was a lovely four-day weekend, despite missing Chris.

Still, it was a little weird hearing about what a "success" I am and telling those kids what they should do if they want to go into my career field when really I wanted to tell them to run far, far away. Especially now that I am ... back.

But I also know that I need to think positively. The direction this tends to take is that of total distraction. In other words, I am really excited about the new rug that's coming this weekend. Rugrugrugrugrug! Yippee! Yay for registry credits! And I'm excited for a quiet weekend at home with Chris. Sleeping! Movies! Yoga! More sleeping!

*Chris's young cousin actually visited the school a few days before I was there. She wrote me an email saying how much she enjoyed her visit and also mentioned that the food was really good.

I just didn't have the heart to tell her that the food was really good when I visited as a prospie, too. I am, after all, rooting for her to go there.

Gasp!

This blog posted about one of my favorite books from childhood. You've got to check it out! Oh, how I wish I knew where our copy is.

Smart ladies who like pretty things

I have this lovely friend, I call her Cole. In college she was my editor-in-chief for a while, then later we took the toughest English class ever, the infamous American Survey. Then she graduated and moved back east...and later I did the same. Now here we are, both living in New York City.

When we get together and our husbands are yammering on about football, do we turn to each other and discuss the poetry of William Carlos Williams? Do we recap the academic and professional hurdles we are presently experiencing? Do we share book recommendations and ponder life's big questions?

Well,  sometimes.

But usually it's more like: "My wishlist for fall includes a man's watch, a pair of red buckled flats, and some really soft tweedy pants for work." "That sounds awesome! I found the perfect nude nail polish, you would love it--OPI Barefoot in Barcelona. Meanwhile, I really want a pair of leopard print heels." "Oh, I saw some at DSW--let's look up the link!"

Etc.

And so, because we are comfortable with expressing our frivolous sides, we have started a blog together. You can find us posting now and again at pretty bird, smart bird.