A Dark Night

It turns out that, even though I’m all grown-up now and have my own place, I’m still afraid of the dark.

Last night I was without power from about 6 p.m., when I got home from the market with local ingredients and the best of intentions to blog a recipe, until after I’d given up on trying to accomplish things by candlelight, after 9 p.m. The weather outside was perfect but the whole neighborhood was dark, including traffic lights. I’m a big girl, apparently, until my cell phone dies. Then I start to hear noises, get jumpy, and imagine that this is surely the night I will need to dial 911 but will die a slow and painful death, my black-screened iPhone at my side… (At my very intelligent boyfriend’s suggestion, I’ve kept a fully-charged old cell phone of mine around the apartment for just such a crucial situation, but I lent it to my family’s German exchange student temporarily.)

Luckily, I didn’t die. What I did instead was light about a bazillion candles. Actually, I lit 39 candles (real grown-ups don’t say “bazillion”!) around the apartment and tried to enjoy the romantic ambiance. I wrote in my journal by candlelight (like Laura Ingalls Wilder!), read a book my mom lent me, and finally gave up, washed my face and brushed my teeth (also by candlelight but less like Laura Ingalls Wilder since I have an electric toothbrush), and tucked myself into bed, my favorite French knife on my nightstand (not kidding, but hey! my phone was dead!). Just as I was finally getting over my frustration that my plans for the evening had been thwarted, just as I was coming to terms with my romantic, candlelit evening, and just as I had reassured myself that it didn’t matter that my less-than-ultra-pasteurized, locally produced heavy cream was sitting in a warm refrigerator (since I planned to make it in to clotted cream anyhow), the power came on. My iPhone, sitting in my radio dock, beeped back to life, my refrigerator hummed, and the neighborhood snapped back to life. 

The whole thing seemed a little bit like a surreal and fleeting dream, the kind it’s hard to remember come morning.

Playing Dress-Up: All-American

The denim-on-denim look was one I was tentative to embrace, but I plucked this chambray shirt and these ultra dark wash jeans off sales racks at the beginning of summer and I just love them together. I felt unfussy and all-American (though my brother told me a denim shirt and jeans is called a “Canadian tuxedo,” which sounds silly I think).  

Chambray shirt and belt, Gap; jeans, Levi’s; platform wedges, Steve Madden.

Update

I always start this sort of post feeling rather ashamed. I’m trying to push away my regret for not having posted in, oh, ages and doing a rather terrible job of it.

(Hopefully many of you have been reading my recipes at The Little Gourmande to tide you over?)

I HAVE A NEW JOB! A few readers have asked me what I’m up to since I left my job as a nanny. Besides missing Kai and Amélie like mad, you mean?

I am managing a café. I’ve traded library visits, afternoons at the pool, craft projects, tummy tickling and grilled cheese sandwiches for serving, bussing, making coffee drinks, ordering food and products, scheduling, hiring and banking. Phew! Talk about learning to be a grown-up. My new job is a real challenge, but one that I like and at which I’m eager to succeed. I feel totally unqualified to be managing, but I’m trying to make up for lack of experience by willingness to step outside my comfort zone and learn. My dad, always full of worldly advice and a veteran of the restaurant business, told me that managing a restaurant isn’t so very different than nannying in that I have people for whom I’m responsible, whom I need to tell what to do and make sure that they’re happy all the while. The longer I’ve been in my new position, the more I feel this analysis is a bit of a stretch, but I’m doing my best to remain optimistic and be as good at doing my job as I can be. 

Nonetheless, I miss playtime and my favorite playmates. 

Real Grown-Ups Don’t Have Time To Blog

Remember when I told you about my new blogging project, The Little Gourmande? Well, it’s my latest and greatest excuse for the lack of updates here. I’m still posting recipes there, and I really, really think you should have a look. With the rest of my free time (now abundant since I’m only partially employed), I’m working on boosting my CV and pounding the pavement both literally and figuratively. On that note, hire me!

Happy Easter?

Here’s an outfit I wore to work last week:

It’s not my favorite outfit in the world, but on a really, really hot and really, really sunny day, I needed lightweight cotton and a sunhat. I like the idea of mixing patterns that seem like they would normally clash, though I’m not as daring with pattern mixology as many of my fashion blogging idols. Anyway, consider my pairing of pink-and-white and blue-and-white stripes to be a study in patterns that I felt was necessary for the sake of pushing the envelope a bit, even if it looked borderline silly. 

“Dapper” is definitely the first word I think of when I look at these pictures, mostly because I tucked the shirt in, which I’ve been liking more and more lately. (Influence of job interviews? Perhaps.) Anyway, I don’t know if it was the pale colors, the kind of dandy/dapper look or my mama’s floppy hat that made a certain celebrity comedian who lives in my town to say to me, as I walked past him that morning, “Happy Easter! Naw, just kidding.” I tried to laugh it off but ended up feeling very silly for the rest of the day.  In his defense, he definitely wasn’t trying to make fun of my outfit and we see each other enough around town (his kids go to school with Kai and Amélie) to make such a comment seem lighthearted and friendly. And, in my defense, I think I would have felt just as silly if some other non-famous-and-successful-star-of-television-and-film had made the same comment. So. I probably won’t be wearing this outfit again soon, though I have to say my tactic worked perfectly and I was feeling nice and cool and protected from the sun all day long.

Shirt, Gap; shorts, Forever 21 via Gabriel Brothers; hat, borrowed from Mama’s closet; sunglasses, Franco Sarto via TJ Maxx.

Amélie

Playing Dress-Up: A Pretty Blue Dress

I’m gaga for dresses ever since the temperature has assumed its position above the 80 degree mark. Not only do I absolutely refuse to wear constraining clothes when it’s this hot, but dresses are one-piece outfits that require little thought or consideration for coordination (and who has energy to think about such things when it’s this hot outside?). I decided to walk to the park to read yesterday afternoon, and though I almost felt overdressed since most women there wore nothing more than bikinis (something I can’t really understand), I was ultimately happy with my choice. 

What I love most about this little blue cotton canvas number is that it has pockets and a double v-neck; what more could a girl want?

Dress, Kimchi & Blue; espadrilles, André; flower hair stick, little Japanese boutique in Bordeaux whose name I can’t remember. 

Playing Dress-Up: Reubens and Ice Cream

Last night I went out to dinner with  with my very first and longest standing best friend, Anna. We met on the playground when we were two years old, and even though we haven’t seen or heard from each other much since high school, it’s still remarkable to me that we’ve been friends for two decades… Eek! (Frequent topic of conversation? We’re getting old.) She drove into Columbus from the suburbs and we walked from my apartment over to High Street and grabbed Reubens at a tavern where they dole out potato products like they expect the famine any day now. Naturally we had to stop for ice cream afterward because it’s so warm outside, and we walked with our cones over to the park. I felt so comfortable in this little dress. (What a waste that I shoved a cardigan into my tiny purse before we left because I was positively glistening!*) I admit that I changed from heels to flip-flops when we decided to walk, but this dress transitions amazingly from casual to a bit dressier (or tonight, the opposite). And since the skirt is so billowy, I stayed nice and cool!

*Women don’t sweat. We glisten.

Dress, Silence & Noise; shoes, BCBG Paris; bracelet, gift.

Big Room

Okay. I moved into my current apartment in March and had numerous requests for pictures. I procrastinated, promising myself I would take some tomorrow, no, tomorrow, no, TOMORROW. Well, I finally decided to just take some here and there and post them as I feel inspired. This afternoon, like most days, the light was streaming through the tall windows in my big room and it looked so pretty and inviting. (I live in a studio apartment so my living room and bedroom are one and the same. To avoid confusing myself, I just call it “the big room.”) So here’s picture #1 of my humble abode, with more to follow in coming posts. I know I didn’t quite catch the whole room, but it just gives me an excuse to post more big room pictures later.

The Little Gourmande

Okay, my happy blogging news is ready to share! I’ve started a new blog called The Little Gourmande. There I’ll be sharing recipes I create and adapt from other sources, along with the stories that accompany them. I’m a firm believer that everyone - even poor college students (or struggling recent college graduates like me! Woo!) can eat well with the dedication of a little bit of extra time in the kitchen and high quality, natural ingredients. My first post just went up this morning and I’d be very much obliged if you’d hop over there and then tell me what you think. I’m sure that, like Grown-Up Lessons, it will undergo many transformations in the coming months. I’d like those transformations to be inspired by the reader’s needs and desires as much as my own.