Most have seen too many winters...or too few

Memories I don't want to forget:

After I had tried to push my chair in after class, and grunted when it didn't work (this was a week ago):
"What's wrong, Anna? Are you frustrated? Tired? Upset?"
"All of the above." (It had been a rough week.)
"Awe...I'm sorry."
Thank you, Austin, for being a good friend.

While sitting at Claire's dining room table this morning:
"Anna, do you want some slippers or socks?"
"No thank you, I'm good."
"Oh, that's right. You're a Mid-western girl. Sometimes I forget."
Thank you, Claire's mom. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but it made me smile and realize that I am a Mid-western girl. And if that means that I'm tougher because I go bare foot, awesome. But really, it's just because I get too hot if I wear socks.

I navigated Omaha for the first time today. (It wasn't Omaha proper.) And I did it without a GPS unit because it wouldn't load the map for me. For the record, I made it to my destination going strictly from memory of what Claire's mom told me, which I hadn't really been paying attention to because I was counting on the GPS unit. And I didn't get even a little lost. Woah.

"I don't really like broccoli."
Neither do I, Claire's dad, but I ate all of mine... and I feel accomplished. And you know? It wasn't half bad.

"I thought, I could dress up for Anna."
Thanks Sara, you're so sweet, and so cute. I wish I could say that I dressed up for you and our Borders Coffee date... but I just didn't have any dry jeans, hence the skirt.

Great cream cheese frosting recipe:
1 stick of butter
1 package of cream cheese
3.75 cups of powdered sugar, sifted.
So......good. So, simple.

Watching the Lord of the Rings with Steph during the Super Bowl.... it's lovely.


"Now something is about to happen that has not happened for an age." [Treebeard, movie]

What's that smell?

Sometimes, there are things I wish I could snap pictures of. A moment in time that just seems perfect, right, comfortable. Sometimes, I wish I could capture a smell and keep it with me forever. Have you ever been somewhere and come across a smell you weren't expecting? And suddenly you're elsewhere.

Well, I'm visiting a friend's home this weekend. Her family is lovely, and they are very accommodating. (And I love her mom's style of decorating.) Beauty.

We made red velvet cupcakes (without the red) with cream cheese frosting. It was so much fun, and they turned out great. We took turns decorating the tops with the frosting and sprinkles. Her dad did the last one. Perfection.

I washed my hands in their bathroom and used their soap pump. Wild Honeysuckle. I was suddenly home with my mom, giving her a hug. It was wonderful. And I couldn't stop smelling my hands. I may just go wash my hands for the smell now. Comforting.

And I'll be meeting a friend at Borders for coffee and book perusing. The smell of coffee and books shared by good company. Simplicity.

"I spent all my childhood pretending I was off somewhere else...off with you on one of your adventures! My own adventured turned out to be quite different." [Frodo Baggins, movie]