Travel Tuesday: Romance

I obviously love traveling and thought of some great places to go with my honey if we could go anywhere for Valentine's Day. The weather outside here is frightful, it is freezing, icy, and full of snow (yes the snow is gorgeous but I am tired of the cold)!

Since it is so cold I want to dream of romantic vacation ideas. Where would I go if I could be anywhere this week with my Valentine?

1. St. Lucia
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I've always wanted to go to St. Lucia. It looks so gorgeous! How romantic would it be to wake up to room service, enjoy a private pool outside your room, and then take a walk on the beach?
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2. Paris, France
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This week I would love to be sitting in a Parisian cafe with my Valentine, sipping delicious coffee and eating delicious food. We would walk along the Seine and go to the Orsay and spend all day looking at the great artwork. After that---a little shopping--and of course I would want some delicious macarons!
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3. Corfu, Greece
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Taking a dip in the sea, relaxing and basking in the sun....what a wonderful Valentine's Day. On our way out I would want to see some ruins in Athens, but once we hit the Greek Island of Corfu I would relax 100%.
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It is fun to dream, but alas I have to go to class.

If you could be anywhere in the world this week, where would you be?

Valentine's Day food ideas

I hope that everybody enjoyed the Super Bowl!

This week, I am having a Valentine's Day theme week. Today, in celebration of Menu Monday, I am developing a menu that I think you and your sweetheart will be sure to enjoy!

Appetizer

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts:
2 cans of whole water chestnuts
1 pack of bacon
1 jar of Teriyaki sauce
toothpicks

The night before your event, wrap the water chestnuts with bacon. Hold them together with a toothpick. Marinate them in the teriyaki sauce. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, broil these on high for 5-10 minutes, depending on your broiler.

Main Dish

I would try to make Penne a la Betsy with a salad and some bread.

Dessert

Make Beatty's Chocolate Cake, a classic Ina Garten recipe that I made in this post.

Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

I saw someone else post about this so I thought I would join in on the fun!

Here are some of my Valentine's Day gift ideas:

Vera Bradley Travel SetFound here
As you all saw, I love my Vera Bradley travel set. If your lady has one, why not add to her collection? If your lady doesn't have one, then why not start one for her? These are fun but still functional AND gives you gift ideas for many holidays to come (just keep adding to the collection)! (Sorry, I don't think that many guys would get into this gift!)

Fresh Brown Sugar Body Polish

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Do you see that? All I can say is, "yum." But at $65 for the pack I doubt I will be receiving it from my frugal husband. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Tiffany Elsa Peretti Cross Necklace
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I have loved this necklace for years. I love cross necklaces and think that this is simple and young looking.

Conversation Hearts
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If you are trying to cut back with the money, why not buy these and do something like make a trail around your house with phrases that mean something to you and your significant other?

Fresh Cut Flowers Delivered
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You simply can't go wrong with delivered flowers. They will make your significant other's day for sure! I would pick hot pink peonies. Unfortunately, I have nowhere to which they could be delivered as I don't think they allow deliveries at the law school.

I went grocery shopping this morning and saw a bunch of guys buying chocolate hearts, stuffed animals, balloons, and flowers. My heart swelled because it is so cute! Remember, on Valentine's Day, it really is the thought that counts. Don't feel obligated to spend a lot of money. One year I made David a book about the story of our relationship and we still have it! It cost me about $5 to make. If you and your significant other aren't into giving material gifts, writing a love letter would be a fabulous treat. Take time out of life to enjoy each other this upcoming week!

And fathers and mothers, if your child doesn't have a boyfriend/girlfriend, send them something like a card to show that they are also loved! A ton of single people grump around Valentine's Day spewing how it is a commercial holiday and blah blah blah, but I can guarantee that your thought would still be appreciated.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

I have been thinking about the book The Unbearable Lightness of Being for a while now. If you have not read the book, you should. It is a gorgeous book and I love it and think that it is a very well-written novel. Perhaps it is especially sentimental for me because I lived in Prague for a semester and the novel is set mostly in Prague. We studied it in my Central European Literature class and I greatly enjoyed it.

In the novel, Kundera explores the concepts of living heavily or living lightly. This is from the Wikipedia article about the book and I am just going to quote it here because I think that it explains the theories pretty well:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being catalogues Prague in 1968, the artistic and intellectual life of Czech society during the Communist period, from the Prague Spring to the USSR’s August 1968 invasion and its aftermath, and until 1984. The characters are Tomáš, a successful surgeon; his wife Tereza, a photographer anguished by her husband's infidelities; Sabina, a free-spirit artist, who is Tomáš’s lover; and the secondary characters Franz, the Swiss university professor lover of Sabina; and Simon, Tomáš’s estranged son from an earlier marriage.

Challenging Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence (the universe and its events have already occurred and will recur ad infinitum), the story’s thematic meditations posit the alternative that each person has only one life to live, and that which occurs in that life, occurs only once shall never occur again — thus the “lightness” of being; whereas eternal recurrence imposes a “heaviness” on our lives and on the decisions we make (it gives them weight, to borrow from Nietzsche's metaphor), a heaviness that Nietzsche thought could be either a tremendous burden or great benefit depending on one's perspective.

The German expression Einmal ist keinmal encapsulates “lightness” so: “what happens but once, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all”; if concluded logically, life ultimately is insignificant. Hence, because decisions do not matter, they are rendered light, because they do not cause personal suffering. Yet, simultaneously, the insignificance of decisions — our being — causes us great suffering, perceived as the unbearable lightness of being consequent to one’s awareness of life occurring once and never again; thus no one person’s actions are universally significant. Said insignificance is existentially unbearable, given that people want their lives to have transcendent meaning. As literary art, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is considered a modernist humanist novel and a post-modern novel of high narrative craft.^{[citation needed]}

From Wikipedia, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unbearable_Lightness_of_Being (last visited Feb. 5, 2010).

Ever since I read the book, I consider whether I live my life heavily or lightly. I know people who live life lightly: they do not worry very much about the future, they live in the moment, and seem to be pretty laid-back. I know people who live heavily: they have goals for themselves and others, they worry about achieving those goals, they try to always act in a righteous way, and they worry about what others think about them. After considering the concept for a while, I think that I live my life differently during different times.

For instance, when I lived in Prague I lived life heavily. I missed David, I was sad and homesick, and I had a heavier heart. Don't get me wrong: studying abroad was the time of my life and I loved it. But the reality was that I lived too heavily. I thought a lot about what I didn't have rather than what I did have. The culmination of all of this was when a man stopped me in the streets of Prague and asked if I was okay because I looked worried. Too heavy!

But there are also times when you can act too lightly. I think that every adult wishes this, but I wish that I had stopped to enjoy certain times in my life more: like when I was in college, hanging out with friends, my childhood, etc. During these times we live completely for the moment and maybe do not take enough time to stop and reflect about what sort of fun we are having right then.

Honestly, I think that a balance of lightness and heaviness is essential. In general, I feel that I take life lighter than most of my peers. However, this may be because I am in law school, and I am convinced that to enter into law school they ask you this question on your application:

76. Are you really, really, really, really anal?

If you answer with a yes, you are admitted. If no, you have to go home.

I am saying that I compare myself to my law school peers, who are definitely more anal than the average person. Therefore, I may take things a little heavier than I think I do because when I compare myself to some of the more anal individuals in the world, then yes I may seem lighter.

Lightness is essential. I try to wake up every day and have a great day. I think that we should try to think about the future, but live in the moment and be happy all the time. I think that we should accept that others are different than us and not spend time judging other people for the choices they make. Negativity should not play much of a role in our lives.

Heaviness is essential. I think that it is essential for humans to think about others, their role in the world, their philosophy, and how they can attempt to improve everything. People should think about their morals (or, if they choose, their lack thereof). I think that humans should take life seriously sometimes, otherwise it may flash by without our enjoying it for long.

What about you? Do you think that you take life heavily or lightly?

Fun Thing Friday: Vera Bradley Duffel

I bought my Vera Bradley Duffel three years ago and I still love it. It has gone to Europe with me twice, on ski trips, and various other trips. I never thought that I would love Vera Bradley that much (don't the patterns get old? How to pick your favorite?) but now I understand part of why it is so popular. The bag weighs NOTHING. I can pack it and not worry about the actual bag weighing anything. And if it gets dirty? It is so easy to clean because it is made out of cloth. It is very durable (I have a small tear near a zipper but that was due to some...ahem...overloading on my part). My luggage pattern is Riviera Blue and I love it. I plan on finding a new pattern when we have a baby and using Vera as a baby bag.

What is your favorite pattern (if you have one)? Go here to look at the colors!

Posting Break

Sorry for the unexpected posting break. I went on a fun trip with David's family this past weekend to Breckenridge and had to spend a few days catching up!

Posting will resume tomorrow on the regular schedule.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Last Thursday I made buffalo chicken pizza. It was so tasty and delicious! I had a craving for buffalo sauce last week and thought this would be the perfect recipe. It did not disappoint.

First, I made homemade pizza crust off of this recipe.

Then, to top it, I spread mild buffalo wing sauce on the crust and added chicken, onions, red peppers, and tomatoes. I baked it at 360 degrees for about 30-45 minutes and it was SO tasty!

(Sorry there are no pictures...I left one of our cameras at a friend's house and the other one is missing its charger.)

Moments

KateOhKatie wrote about her favorite moments of the day this past week and I really enjoyed the post. It made me think about how busy my life is but how much I enjoy slowing down and enjoying life at some points during the day. My normal routine is to get up, get dressed, go run, shower, eat, go to school, go to class, read, go to yoga or go to class again, run errands, come home, do more homework, make something to eat, eat, and then finally hang out with David. But I also enjoy some nice quiet moments during the day:

- Every morning when I wake up I take my temperature. My thermometer beeps and whenever my cat Thorina hears the beeping she chirps and leaps onto my bed for some pets. I love it. She meows and purrs and rubs my hands and wants lots of scratches. What a nice day to greet the day!

- The "romp" time of the day. After I run, I let all three animals out of the house for their morning romp, where they walk around outside and enjoy fresh air for a few minutes. My neighbors know this because they usually run away and I have to chase them.

- Drinking my cup of coffee and reading blogs before I go to school.

- When I lay down in my bath and let the hot water envelop me

- The quietness of my kitchen after we have shut down the house and began going to bed

- The satisfaction of understanding something in class

- Falling asleep reading next to David in bed

What are your favorite moments of the day?

Fun Thing Friday: Facial Cleanser

I know, I know. I am telling you, I am not a crazy sponsor for Burt's Bees...but I love this facial cleanser. If you leave it on for a minute your face feels nice and tingly. My face has not broken out since I began using it. I LOVE it.