February Highlights

I have officially reached my limit with winter. I am glad to be writing this post simply because it means February is over and maybe we can start inching toward spring. Knowing Nebraska though, we've probably got another dumping of snow or two before we'll be allowed to live in peace and maybe even feel the warmth of the sun. Regardless of all the horrible weather, February still managed to be a good and especially productive month!

We didn't do a lot of activities this month that involved having to leave the house, but we did manage to sneak one talk in at the Sheldon Art Museum. Just as a snow storm was blowing in, we were heading to "A Diverse Menu: Race, Class, Gender and the Things We Eat" with Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want To Talk About Race, and Soleil Ho, restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and producer of the podcast “Racist Sandwich.” The panel discussed how food can be a jumping off point, whether that be in reference to people's access to it, what dishes they're making, who's making it, etc, to explore the way those different social constructs affect people's experiences. It was a fantastic, thought-provoking panel which has caused me to think even more about the choices I make every time I sit down to a meal, and to really think about what white American food really entails, culturally. If you live in a town with an art museum, be sure to check out their events for high quality, often free, and very interesting learning opportunities to spice up an otherwise ordinary week night!



My other activities this month were on the complete other side of the cultural spectrum. We started the month with a Super Bowl watch party at my parents' house with my family. We tend to get together for this every year not because any of us are particularly into the game, but because it's a nice excuse to see each other and my parents have cable. This year was unique though because John and I made all the food so everything was vegan! We had the chili recipe I always make, buffalo cauliflower and peanut butter brownies, both from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook and it was all fantastic.

Later in the month I got to go on several shopping trips with my sister. The first trip was supposed to be for bridal shoes, but instead we ended up with way too many earrings from H&M, face mask sets, and a couple pairs of shoes between us, none of which were bridal related at all. The next trip was to get jeans for my sister, which we actually accomplished this time, but since we're overachievers we ended up with guest room decor, sunglasses, hats, sweatpants -- you know, a typical Target run. The things we bought were fun, but what I enjoyed most, cheesy at it sounds, was spending so much time with my sister. We live close to each other and we see each other fairly frequently, but that's usually with the rest of our family. This was just us two, laughing at our stupid jokes, spending way too much time in the candle aisle of TJ Maxx and catching up about work and friends and life. I always forget how much fun it is to spend time with her!

One load waiting to be donated

Other than those couple adventures, the rest of the month has been spent doing all kinds of (indoor) life admin. The wedding prep is really starting to come together -- we've ordered invites, had the first few alterations appointments, bought wedding shoes, ordered menswear, finalized shower details, started booking a honeymoon and began a registry. There's still a bit left yet to organize, but we're really starting to make progress. I've also spent a good portion of this month getting our house ready for guests, which I talked a bit about last week. We finally got around to donating all the stuff left after the great KonMari clear-out of 2017-2018 so we have our office back, plus we've cleared out 3 closets, turned our old yoga room into a guest room and rearranged our admittedly oversized book collection so that all our books squeeze onto our existing bookshelves with only a handful relegated to a temporary shelf. A lot is going on in our second floor and it's still a bit of disaster area, but we're making more progress than we have in years. Thanks for the kick up the butt future guests -- I'm really relishing my sudden penchant for making decisions, taking initiative and finally getting some shit done!

Our stray cat friend hanging out on our garage and chatting with Finn

Finn really wanted attention when I was working from home