the twelve dates of christmas: date six (with a bonus lesson on the true spirit of the holidays!)

i think we all remember the foul mood i was in on friday. it was bad. and i decided i needed to snap myself out of it, if i could, as fast as i could.

there is a principle mormons are fond of espousing, that principle being that when you are focused on yourself and your own problems, you should serve someone else. and that by the act of coming outside of yourself, your own problems seems less serious or, at the best, somehow work themselves out. i have always been skeptical of this principle, mainly because i think sometimes the solution to our problems really is for other people to serve us when we need it, but i decided to put it to the test on friday.

and now, for some back story. every saturday AWD and i have "cleaning day," wherein we clean our house. vacuum, mop, clean the bathroom, do laundry. you know, cleaning day. AWD hates cleaning day. and he especially hates it when we have to do some or all of our cleaning on friday night because there won't be any time to do it on saturday. this weekend threatened to be a friday night cleaning day weekend, and he had already been lamenting that fact.

it was perfect really. i left work a few minutes early, stopped at the grocery and did all our shopping (something else AWD doesn't really like) and then went home and cleaned the whole house before he got home from work. and it felt so good! partly because i have found that an aggressive session of vacuuming or scrubbing gunk out of the caulk in the shower can be a cathartic release of rage and bad feelings. but mostly because AWD was so, so happy when he came home. doing that for him made me feel better than i had in days.

plus, the house was clean. which also makes me really happy.

to celebrate, AWD took me out to dinner at one of our favorite places, where i got one of my favorite sushi rolls and enjoyed a night out with my favorite guy.

in this case, at least, it turned out that forgetting about myself and serving someone else was just the right medicine. even better than watching a break-up video on repeat. imagine that.

how can i miss you if you won't go away?

last night as we were getting ready for bed, i looked at AWD and suddenly felt like it had been ages since i had seen him. really i have, of course, seen him every day even multiple times a day. but it felt like a long time since i had actually seen him. and i realized that i missed him. even though he was right there.

it was a curious and wonderful feeling.

i attribute the whole thing to the busy week we've had. AWD started a new job, which prompted the tearing apart of our house looking for his social security card which he needed to get his badge and his security paperwork for said new job. and that fruitless search prompted an impromptu road trip to his parents' house to pick up his birth certificate to act as a stand-in for the (hopefully just) misplaced social security card. the end of the story being that he didn't actually need either of them.

then there was cousin discussion group, canvassing for the obama campaign (i do not think i have a gift for this, but at least i tried), the ward halloween party and playoff baseball (during which AWD has a habit of falling asleep on the couch and staying there all night). plus lots of work for both of us.

all of which has left what turned out to be little time for just being together. and all of which meant that we went to bed at 9 p.m. yesterday, which was amazing.

so i think we'll have a togetherness weekend to make up for it. we might spend an hour or so just staring at each other. then maybe a movie, a road trip along skyline drive to see the fall colors, perhaps a few house projects and then frantic preparations for the coming "frakenstorm." i'm planning on eating everything in the fridge before sunday and then living on ramen noodles and canned goods until the power comes back on. after our power outage experience in july i am not holding out much optimism.

though if all that rain can get all that bird poop off my car, a massive storm might be worth it to me.

date night

on friday night, AWD and i rolled over to the northeast quadrant of the district and spent a lovely evening on h street.

we started with delicious pizza.

then saw cousin peter win a script competition at the dc shorts film festival. (way to go, peter!)

and finished up with pie.

as a bonus, we saw a car shaped like a banana on our way back to our sadly normally shaped car.

(it reminded me of this really funny muppets sketch that they show sometimes before a movie starts where fozzie comes into the theater talking on a banana like it's a phone and he says really loudly, "i can't hear you! i have a banana in my ear!" man alive, do i think that is funny.)

all in all, a date night success.

lost and found

yesterday was the perfect day for a bike ride. so, that's exactly what we decided to do.

and, on our third attempt, we found the way to the iwo jima memorial!

this was actually AWD's originally intended destination for the bike ride on which we got engaged so, for good measure, he asked me to marry him when we stopped in front of the memorial.

i said yes.

top chef

one of the great surprise lessons of marriage has been that the kitchen is just not as scary a place as i thought.

i always just assumed i was not very good at cooking but it turns out that i can make my mom's recipes and they taste just as delicious and i can figure out what to substitute for shallots (because i can't quite figure out what those are) and i can make recipes that use double boilers and sifters and all kinds of other things that used to send me running for the hills/chipotle.

and tonight we conquered the fanciest kitchen adventure yet: creme brulee.

because turns out even wielding a torch isn't as scary and hard as you think.

sixes

six months ago (well, actually six months and three days ago, but who's counting?) (i am!), AWD and i were doing this:

so on saturday, to celebrate, we did this:

{brunch at carlyle. favorite}

{d.c. united season opener.}

(turns out they are just as bad as every other professional sports team in d.c.)

plus on sunday i made this perfect and delicious loaf of bread.

six months have quite literally flown by. i can't believe it has been that long. but i also can't believe that i haven't always just been married to AWD. i always figured being married would be a pretty good deal, but it is more fun than i ever imagined it would be, and i like AWD a little more every day. the other day he was late coming home from work and he didn't answer when i called so of course i assumed he had been run over by a train or kidnapped by aliens and i really couldn't fathom how i would get by on my own if he wasn't around. when i think of all the people i thought i wanted to marry before he came along, all i can say is, whew. certainly there are misunderstandings and miscommunications and cranky days and a learning curve, but i simply can't imagine doing it all with anyone but him.

so, here's to six glorious months. i figure we can make it at least six more.

my funny valentine

for valentine's day (so we are a little behind around here), AWD took me to paris... virginia. for a lovely dinner at an old, old inn with delicious, delicious food. he even set up the car like an airplane, with a bottle of water at my seat and everything. it was heart-melting-ly charming.

and for valentine's day i got AWD a swanky hotel room downtown (thanks, living social! thanks, obama!) for a little weekend staycation, which we cashed in this past weekend.

we had brunch with the klemturas (including baby penny), checked out the new exhibit at the newseum about press coverage of presidential elections, watched the oscar nominated live action and animated shorts at the e street theater, ran into some anti-bashar protesters, saw the new annie leibowitz exhibit at the american art museum and the new MLK memorial on the mall and ate late night amsterdam falafel, shake shack burgers and crumbs cupcakes. delicious.

and then we watched the oscars in our big, soft, hotel bed.

it was a great time being tourists in our own city, and it was great to have a little getaway without having to go too far. and mostly it was great to have the whole weekend, and each other, to ourselves. i have to say, before we got married i was a little nervous about the prospect of being with one person all the time. would we get sick of each other? what if i wanted to do something with someone else? i knew of couples who really only wanted to spend time with one another and didn't really care about seeing other people, but i didn't quite feel that way and i worried about what that meant. (meaning, i worried that it meant we might be doomed.)

now that i am older and wiser about these things i am happy to report that such a thing does not mean you are doomed. but i am also happy to report that, as time goes on, AWD really has become my favorite person to hang out with and i am not sick of him yet. i would rather be with him than just about anyone, and so a weekend of adventure together was really the perfect gift. for me, that is.

rolling!

some friends of ours had a film festival on valentine's day and, even though we couldn't go, we submitted a little movie.

it was super fun to make it, and we owe a big thanks to sarita bonita for directing us and filming everything. and a big thanks to AWD who was both a good sport and hilarious. i have watched this movie a couple times a day every day since we finished it just because i think he's so funny and adorable.

and i hope you think so, too.

happy friday!

then comes marriage

miss angela is mrs. angela now and it was a beautiful wedding all around.

(it was also a little windy there on the beach.)

goings and comings

i will admit i was a little sad to leave this.

but it was pretty great to come home to this.

pretty great indeed.

ga-ga for gadgets

AWD got an iPhone a couple weeks ago, which i am surprised i haven't mentioned yet since it has become such a big part of our lives.

in fact, i've stolen (borrowed?) a page from cjane's book and started referring to the new phone as the "sister wife." i also like to call AWD and say things like, "hi, AWD! hi, siri!"

i was feeling sort of smug and hilarious about the whole thing until it suddenly dawned on me that the way AWD feels about his new iPhone is the way i feel about my new kitchenaid stand mixer. and that thing can't even send a text message.

the night we got the new kitchenaid, AWD helped me take it out of the box, gleaming and gorgeous and red, and i set it up lovingly on the counter. then i started pulling out all the paddles and whisks and dough hooks and attaching them and un-attaching them and reattaching them, all the while giving AWD an adoring play-by-play of all the wonderful things this new gadget could do for us.

i had probably been talking for about 20 minutes before i realized he wasn't standing behind me at all.

he was watching TV in the living room, and i had no idea how long he had been there.

turned out it was about 20 minutes. he had walked out of the kitchen just about as soon as the mixer was out of the box.

"i was telling you about the new kitchenaid!" i said.

"oh, i thought you were just talking to yourself," he said.

so, fine. we all have our gadget obsessions around here, i guess.

chance of showers

despite a last-minute flurry of chopping, dough rising, baking, sewing, two failed pie crusts, decorating and the emergency purchase of extra cookie sheets, we managed a lovely shower for miss angela over the weekend.

one of my favorite things about getting married was the excuse to have parties where i got to be around people i loved who loved me and AWD, too, and that is what saturday felt like as well. it is such a great joy to celebrate other people's joy, wouldn't you say?

it was also a great excuse to make these scones, these donuts, these home fries, this quiche and to try out my first ever as-seen-on-pinterest sewing project: bunting. it came out well enough i think i'll leave it up as part of my valentine's day decorations.

hurrah for love!

on the fourth date of christmas my true love gave to me...

... a trip to the temple on our three month-versary.

it seems impossible that three months have gone by since we were married (especially since we are still writing thank you cards), but there you have it. and the temple where we were married seemed like a pretty good place to mark the occasion.

and, to make it even more exciting, when we walked into the temple we ran into some friends of ours who were on their way to get married! hurray for love!

my wedding day was really one of the best days ever, and i love going back to the temple with AWD and remembering it. it makes for a pretty good date, christmas or otherwise.

and it also reminds me that i haven't really posted any of our lovely wedding pictures on this here blog, which seems like a shame. so i will rectify that situation speedily. don't fret.

the 72-day itch

i am pleased to report that, as of today, AWD and i are tied with kim kardashian and kris humphries for length of marriage. i have a good feeling about this one.

to celebrate our momentous 72-day achievement, we had dinner at costco and dessert at the dairy godmother (flavor of the day: pecan pie), which some of you might remember was also the site of our first date. it seemed appropriate. perhaps if kim and kris had done something similar, their wedded bliss might have lasted a bit longer.

as for us, i think we'll keep going for another 72 days at least.

the name game

before AWD and i were even seriously dating i announced that when i got married, whenever and to whomever that happened to be, i wasn't going to change my name. i didn't know at the time if i was going to marry AWD or not (for the record, turns out i did), but i figured that whatever happened, he should have all the facts.

and he took it like a champ. in fact, the next day he came back to me and pointed out that he wouldn't want to change his name, so why should i want to change mine? and you better believe that tipped the marriage scales in his direction.

on the one hand, not changing my name has made my transition to marriage a pretty uncomplicated one, record-keeping-wise at least. i didn't have to change credit cards or social security cards or drivers licenses or passports or utility accounts or any of the 1 billion other things that have my name on them.

and, not to be over-dramatic or anything, but i also didn't have to change my identity. i've been myself (first and last name) for a long time and i am sort of attached.

but, that's not to say there haven't been some complications, especially at church. my name was changed automatically on the church records and i had to ask for it to be changed back. and i feel like i am always sort of apologetically explaining to people that AWD and i have different last names but that doesn't mean i don't like him. i am probably making it harder than it is, feeling like i need to walk everyone through all the reasons why i kept my name every time i introduce myself, but i do it anyway.

so maybe this is why more and more women are choosing to take their husband's names? i have to admit, i was a little surprised at that, but i suppose it provides it's own brand of simplicity.

there are obviously arguments, and personal motivations for either side, and i am not here to say one is better or more right than the other, but i am sticking to my choice for now. partly because i am lazy, but mostly because i am me and i'd like to stay that way, name and all.

noted

before AWD and i got married we hatched this plan that it would be really fun to commute to work together. we could wake up, have a little breakfast, and then i would drop AWD off at the metro on my way to the office.

perfect, right?

except that to make it work, i would have to wake up at 6:30 in the morning.

i don't do 6:30 in the morning.

and so, in the nearly two months that we have been married, AWD and i have commuted to work together exactly one time.

a lot of mornings, when i am still curled up cozy in bed as AWD is leaving, i feel a little guilty about it.

a little.

but then i find things like this on the front door...

... and i think i should probably just sleep in every morning.