happy sunday! (belated)

Thanks to all who came out to my graduation from W h e a t o n this past weekend. It was such a blessing to have so many different family members from all over the country come and celebrate together! There should be a little newsletter-type note in the mail, stamped with love, updating family and friends about the things I am thankful for and what comes next. Look for it next week (provided I can find enough postage today).

 I am again seated at my home kitchen table, tip-tap-typing happily while the dog snoozes in an otherwise empty house. The past few days I have napped, read at the beach, read on the porch, read on the couch, done a few sewing projects and had happy meals with my family. It is good to have a break at home before the summer starts going, and a bit of sand and sunshine too.

In other news, I finally have another wee bit of publication to announce! The Quaker, a new undergraduate literary magazine that seeks submissions from all undergraduate writers, is publishing one of my poems, "Sweet Dreams Insomnia." It won't come out online for another few weeks, but I think you will find it here. It isn't The Southern Review, but it is encouraging to get another poem out there.

poetry

Since this week is my last week of chapels, likely ever, here is one from earlier this semester:

In Apology to Chapel Speakers

I listen to your stories

of rags-to-riches spirituality,

wonder what I could say

if called upon to speak

in front of thousands of slack-jawed twenty-somethings.

Would I be asked?

I could self-diagnose, talk about the redness

of depression, talk about how it feels

to mouth the vowels of loneliness.

Then I am each quivering girl

who ever spilled her soul

over in chapel, hoping to scare

up a smidgen of empathy, maybe a confession or two

later, in the quiet of the dorms.

We have heard it before.

I might talk about the words fear

not, how I don’t understand them -

pupils dilated, molars tight.

Then I am a narcissist, as though

my fears are different

from anyone else’s.

I should quote Jeremiah, talk about

plans, talk about goodness,

but I would not really know

what either one of those words

even means.

two more weeks

It's Friday, and another week flew by (despite extra Math homework, a philosophy paper, cold gray weather and Cormac McCarthy's The Road). Things are finally turning green on campus - the tulip tree magnolias are beginning to bust open blossoms, daffodils are bright, and someday soon trees might start looking leafy. Spring here is happening much slower than it did in my memory the past few years. Oh, well, it's only my impatience for the real draw . . . Summer! I am currently struggling to maintain the balance between appreciating the things which I love about Wheaton that I won't have anymore -- saga meals with all my friends, the janky Terrace kitchens, chapel on winter mornings -- and looking forward to the future.

For those readers who would like to be updated, I will graduate with a degree in English Literature on May 12th. This summer and next fall I will be here in Wheaton, living in a lovely little white and brown house with a big back porch and some sweet, good friends. I am working full time as a baker-barista-line cook at a sweet bakery and cafe in Glen Ellyn, Blackberry Market, and am looking forward to working with my hands and interacting with people all day. I get to bike to work on the beautiful Prairie Path every day, and come home to my own kitchen at night. I won't have internet at the house this summer . . . oooooh! . . . but want to be more intentional with The Blog Project anyway. I want to audit some art classes next fall, having realized this semester that I wish I was an art major. And I have a little list of goals for the summer too:

1) Keep growing out my hair
2) Get a tan
3) Finish writing the children's novel I have just started
4) Write three poems per week
6) Practice my french (weekly coffee sessions with Madame Abel)
7) Embroider some things
8) Get good at making Korean food
9) Actually gather together all my recipe inventions from the past year and write them down
10) Read some BOOKS! Look to the right for the new-and-improved-summer booklist
11) Bake the perfect summer pie

So keep checking back, I will write about all these things. It is funny thinking that I started this blog way back when I was a nanny in Hoboken for the summer -- how much of a project it has become, what a good way to post poems and pictures and experiment with design, to get a little writing in when I can. And to you the faithful - thank you for reading!

“Don’t run away from things that are unpleasant in order to embrace things that are pleasant. Put your hands in the earth. Face the difficulties, and grow new happiness.”

—	Thich Nhat Hanh

recipe update: spring brunch

Back when I nannied in Hoboken, I used to spend my Saturdays off wandering around Manhattan, and I would always start the morning with blintzes at Sarabeth's. I kept meaning to try something else - but they were so good I never did. For Easter this year we all had a potluck brunch at a friend's tiny apartment (quiche and homemade granola and yoghurt and hot cross buns and berries and lattes) and I decided to make blintzes. I simplified the recipe I have from my mother, tweaking it so that the ingredients were cheaper and the prep was easier - they still take a little time but not very many ingredients.

I made these again yesterday (with my best prep-chef boyfriend) for a small brunch after church at All Soul's. And, since I had both ingredients in the fridge, bacon wrapped asparagus.

Torunn's Simplified Blintzes (with ginger tangerine filling)

Crepes:
1 c flour
1 c milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp sugar

Whisk ingredients together in a large bowl. Make on a HOT pan ahead of time - or have someone making them while you fill.

Filling:
1 container Ricotta cheese
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Optional: 2 tbsp tangerine or orange juice
1 tbsp tangerine or orange zest
1 tsp ground cardamon
2 tsp ground ginger

Put a dollop of filling in the center of a crepe, fold edges over so that it is a square, covered pocket. Once all of your crepes are filled and folded, butter your hot pan, and cook the crepes a few at a time until browned lightly on each side. Serve with berries.

sketch of the week

Because spring was here for a week, and has disappeared into a haze of cold rain and gray skies, thunderstorms (not the good, summery kind) and forecasts of snow and sleet. I, however, am ready for warmth and sunshine, green grass and green leaves. I am ready for days so hot I am tempted to pull off the above look.

Is it spring yet where you are?

a few of my favorite things (spring)

These polka dot socks from rstyle.me

(To keep my ankles warm in the wind).

Upcycling Bonne Maman jams 

(I steam off the labels).

This periwinkle sofa from apartment.dk

(Because a good bright blue is spring-ish).

This witty fig illustration.

(Even though figs are summer-fall)

This dress from sousou.

(Because geometry on a light dress is as spring-ish as flowers).