"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things" Lewis Carroll

But mostly about how I quit my job last week.

As most of you know, it was a long time coming, as great as my "rockstar" job could be, I hadn't been happy there for a long long time. So I filed "irreconcilable differences" and last Friday was my final day. It was the right thing to do and I haven't had a single regret about it.

But now there's the question: what next??

I don't have an answer yet, which is both scary and liberating, it feels like one of those trust building exercises people do, the one where you fall backwards into the hands of others (or the floor. hah.).  And it's been really touching to see how many hands are there to catch me, this is probably one of the most irresponsible things I've ever done in my life and everyone is encouraging me! It's kind of hilarious. And so typically me somehow, I'm such a hesitant and timid person but when I make up my mind to do something big and scary I go at it full throttle in a complete "fuck this shit" sort of way.

I had planned to take this week easy and my body decided to help by saddling me with a sinus infection. Thank you?? I have to say being sick when you can just be sick and not worry about going to work is kind of awesome. I started Dr. Karl's snot regiment right away, take that snot!! Oh, wait, snot 's not a nice word to say. Phlem then. Take that phlem!!

I've been shooting more stuff up my nose than Kate Moss in a bathroom.  It's mostly the death rattle hacking stage now and I've lowered the number of cups of tea I drink a day from a million to ten.  The Eastern European plumber who was in my apartment the other day recommended I knock back a glass of whiskey and honey and just sweat it out. I'll keep that in mind next time I have the flu, thanks.

Oh, why was there an Eastern European in my apartment? Apparently the chick who lives next door dropped a plastic cap down her tub drain and it became lodged in a pipe located IN THE WALL between our bathrooms.  So not only did my shower back up for two days but the plumber had to move my radiator and knock a hole in the wall to get to the pipe.

Behold, the chaos.

Sweeeeet. It's a bit tidier now, the pipe is unblocked but there is still a hole in the wall behind my radiator.  Some men will come to fix it...someday.

So other than hacking up phlem and washing my hair with a pitcher like its the 1800s what have I been up to in my first week of being unemployed?

Ooooo boy have I been having fun!
I reorganized my closet.
I did my laundry.
I reorganized my kitchen cabinets and bakers rack (to better display my new creamer and sugar bowl).

I covered the top of my big cabinet with shelf liner paper because the paint is starting to chip off and I'm scared of getting lead poisoning.

I baked some bread. It was atrocious. It tasted like flour...baked. Not yum. Had to throw it all out.
I washed my garbage cans.

I made Smitten's Leek, Chard, and Corn Flatbread.  I highly recommend it, though I did swap out the leek for red onion and instead of making my own dough I used strange corrugated sesame bread from the Middle Eastern grocery store.

It reminded me of how awesome fresh corn is (note to self: eat more before it's gone).

And today I'm watching Slings and Arrows and baking bread again, it should be fine this time as I used the recipe a few weeks ago to great success. It's "English muffin bread" and is rather hole-y and english muffin-y tasting and makes spectacular toast. I halve the recipe and stick one loaf in the freezer to no ill affect. Though I didn't brush with butter as I did last time.

Anyways, I'm having a grand old time and although I'm not fully employed anywhere yet things keep popping up to help me along so I won't go broke and get evicted and end my days like the little match girl. Or chopping my hair off like the chick in Les Miserables.

Yaaaaay for temp agencies and odd jobs!

And friends!

Especially my good ones Ben and Jerry  up in Vermont who have been so helpful at easing my fears with their comforting ways. And my Aunties who set me up with their fantastic friend Biba to make some money and tell me it's okay to jump into the abyss. And Miss Natalie for sending someone my way who needed help for Renegade. And all my darling friends who have been keeping their ears open for me and listening to my thoughts and hugging and feeding me and sending me their love whether they are near or far. And especially the P-Units who encourage their children to stand up and fight for themselves and quit their job during a recession. I know I wouldn't be me if I didn't have parents like you, but being me is so much lovelier and better with you two as my parents so thank you for that.

It's a big leap of faith but I'm hoping it's like jumping down the rabbit hole and I end up having a great adventure.

And then there was a cheese castle.

So this one time, it was August and I did stuff.

One of my favorite summer activities back when I was in high-school was to drive to Columbus with Miss Lizbeth and/or Miss Kate and see Shakespeare in the park. So I was already gleeful when I heard that Chicago was now going to have (free!!) Shakespeare in the park but then it doubled when I realized the actor playing the male lead was someone I worked with in Colorado! Miss Moshka and I had to go. And it was amazing.

The play was great, it was so fun to see Mr. Matt again, who doesn't love pick-nicking on grass, but mostly because I now have Willy Shakes's  head on a stick. YES.

The summer-y theme of August continued with an all American meal at Miss Eire's house of pulled pork sandwiches, slaw, corn on the cob, strawberry pie a la mode and brews. Ate so much it hurt to move. I'm also completely enamored of Miss Eire's new dog, Cider, she has one blue eye and one brown eye and a bandana. Swoooooon!

I chopped the slaw cabbages and carrots while watching the highlight of the Olympics: The Spice Girls reunion. Sure, Michael Phelps may now be the most decorated athlete of all time, whatever SPICE GIRL REUNION. Aaaaand they're driving around on black cabs. I died. Died and gone to middle-school girl heaven. Girl power!!

Anyways, after I recovered from my Spice-y swoon I had Miss Eire over to my house for dinner, which was lovely. The two of us are concocting fantastic schemes of crafty-ness for the future, I'm going to help her with some basic pattern making and she's going to teach me how to crochet. Can you say Craft Night?!?!

I also got new glasses (yes, I wear glasses sometimes) which are fantastically girl reporter-y and I love it.

Spent a lovely day with Miss Ashley where we saw the new Bourne movie and held each other as they blew up the most beautiful house in the world "Not the staircase!! NOT THE STAIRCASE!!! Noooooooo". I'll never forgive them for that. Never.

We ate some buttermilk chicken then took a walk around my neighborhood.

I scored a potato press and the cutest plate in the world for $2 at a yard sale. Innocent enough, but it jump started my neglected hunter-gatherer needs which could only be satiated by a trip to Milwaukee for flea market/antique mall/shop-ing.

The original plan was for Miss Ashley and I to go it alone at the 7-Mile Fair, but as that turned out to be a creepy "buy 5 cases of socks out of the back of a truck" (literally.) sort of fair we decided to kidnap Miss Lyndsey to be our guide in our quest for old treasures. I'm very lucky to have friends who don't mind being kidnapped at a moments notice.

And o boy did Miss Lyndsey know where to go! Three floor antique mall. Three. Floors. Full of things that were blue and white, teal, and folk-y. I made off with  Berggren-Trayer's Swedish Flower "Var Så God" creamer and sugar bowl to match my "coffee" mug.  I may have a problem.

We were all starving and exhausted by the time we made our way through the epic mall so found sustenance in giant burgers. Hilariously we all have blogs but hate to have our photos taken so here's us:

Miss Lyndsey

Miss Ashely

and Me! The food was delicious, there were deep fried pickles and sweet potato fries and that ginger beer was superb. There was some more antiquing and I picked up a cute garlic press to save face as I suck so badly at chopping garlic I often avoid using it! SHAME.

And to top it all off Miss Lyndsey then took us to an Italian Grocery store. Raptures people, raptures. Sauce. Wine. Gnocchi. Pizzelles. Amaretti. Pasta. Prosciutto. Tiramisu. San Pellegrino pompelmo. And most of all Gelato! We ate ours outside and fed a wasp. He has very cultured taste.

 We sadly took leave of Miss Lyndsey, piled our loot into the car, and headed back to the City.

We made two pit stops: The Apple Holler and...

...the Mars' CHEESE CASTLE.

It's all true.  Wisconsin is a magical place indeed.

Well that was my August in a nutshell. But it's September now and I have plenty of things to tell you about next time! Oh man it's good to be back!

I can't talk to you right now, I'm eating pie and watching 'Enchanted'.

Ok that's not entirely true.

That was last weekend.

I'm actually doing very time consuming/emotional mine field type grown-up shit right now.

Obviously I'd rather be eating pie and watching a crazy princess make a dress out of curtains with the help of urban creatures. Duh.

But all such frivolous activities have been put on hold until further notice and that includes you Mumbles! Things had better be will be back to normal sometime in September but until then I need to be scarce and put all my effort into other areas of my life. Totally lame, but that's adulthood for ya!

I did have to share this little gem though, made me snort. Beware!

And they were.

Back to the grindstone, see you in September?

Real Comfort

Jane Austen once said that "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort" and I have to agree with her.  While most everything I did was wonderful, the past few weeks have been perhaps a bit too full, I was beginning to get a bit harried so decided to hide at home this weekend to rest up and recuperate.

(Also, my twin Miss Dick sent me a present of a Jane Austen puzzle and I'm obsessed and will not leave the house until it is completed.)

I didn't use to be such a social creature, as a kid I was famous for putzing around in my room alone for weeks on end.  As a teenager and in college I was simply too exhausted or poor most of the time to do all the things I wanted with friends, and by the time I was ready to graduate OU I was quite worn out. I could have graduated early but instead decided to spend my last quarter studying abroad in London which is someplace I'd wanted to see since I started learning about it through books as a child.  I took the minimum credits required so for the first time in four years I had a ridiculously small amount of school work to do and it was brilliant.  We did many class trips and I lived with a wonderful group of girls to go on outings with, but I found myself doing solo adventures too.  Sometimes just wandering around the city or reading in a park but I did do two day trips to Shrewsbury and Hampton Court. I'd never done so many things alone before, it wasn't easy but because they were such incredible places it was always worth it.

With the Olympics going on I've been thinking about London a lot, but honestly when do I not think of it? With the rain tapping on the top of my air conditioner I'm pretty much acting out Kathy's song by Simon and Garfunkel, gazing beyond the rain drenched streets to England where my heart lies.  I know I'll be back some day.

Oddly enough, the study program I was part of required us to start a blog of our trip and that's how Mumbles came about.  I let it go after I got back to the states but picked it up again two years later.  I was once again in a fascinating city where the liberty of a steady income, good friends, and the glory of public transportation meant I was constantly running about doing things (and eating things too!). Emails to my family and friends just got longer and longer, brimming with photographs, and they kept asking for more so I finally decided to open those discussions into the world wide web and here we are!

Last weekend when Miss Lyndsey was in town we got to talking about blogs over the Greek food we were eating (And I'm so pleased that Miss Lyndsey decided to go ahead and start a blog of her own!). Blogs are a wonderful way to have conversations with friends who are far away, to be able to see into their lives and share our common interests. Mumbles has become a habit, while I'm constantly taking pictures it does take time to write it all up so sometimes I just know it wont happen until the next weekend which is annoying. The addition of Flora will be a big change and I'm excited to share more of the things I see around the city and forget to bring my camera to.

But that's all for some other time, this weekend is all quietness. Good movies, good pasta, and brownie in a mug. If I'm still thinking of England I'll make some curry chips to have with my tea.

Journeys End In Lovers Meeting

In my case the journey was to Skokie (f*ing Skokie) and my lover is an iPhone. That's right, the "European commune child" has got herself an iPhone.

May I introduce you to Flora, Miss Flora Poste my fancy new toy.

Isn't she lovely!! So chic and polite and full of the higher common sense! (And if you've never read or watched Cold Comfort Farm you just got none of that. And our friendship is over.).

She has already been my companion on several adventures:

We went grocery shopping together then ate a dinner of salad with chicken and cheese raviolis.  We grated lemon zest and pecorino romano over them. Divine.

We stuck together in a ridiculously vast fabric warehouse with Miss Lyndsey, where in the basement/catacombs I discovered the most horrifying clown head in a bin of lace collars. WHY.

And, being the fashionable ladies we are, of course we were present at the grand opening of the Target in the Carson, Pirie, Scott Building where we bought nothing but dined at the Pret a Manger with Miss Moshka before seeing a musical about the Eastland disaster. Flora cried. I did not.

With great power comes great responsibility (allegedly) so I'm curious to see how Miss Flora changes my life.  If it ends with me flying off in a bi-plane with Charles a la Cold Comfort Farm I'm totally down with it. Besides neither of us, or Jane Austen, can endure a mess so I'm assuming she'll enjoy tidying any of life's problems that come my way. And oooooh will they come. Are coming. Always coming?? Are here?? Poor Flora.

It's been a good few weeks since I was here last, full of friends and food and summer-times. Sometimes I feel like its wizzing by before I can get to the farmers markets and the lake, but it's only the start of August, I have time. I have enjoyed clicking around in a new pair of sandals and eating ice cream in the heat.

My dinner has often been a bowl of greens or some sort of avocado and corn salad to be scooped up with tortilla chips. Someone asked me if I was a vegetarian the other day because I eat so much avocado, I almost choked I laughed so hard.

I cleaned the land of filth that was my apartment after two busy weeks and a weekend at Pitchfork followed by a weekend working a wholesale show (where I made some lovely new friends in the Chicago Style Collective: Foxglove Accessories, Juliet Jewelry, Megan Lee Designs, Squasht by Les, and Stylish Girl. They let me come chat with them and shared their wine! Clearly we're BFF).  I was so pleased to see my bathroom windowsill so tidy I took a picture. That's sad right?

This weekend I had the Lovely Lyndsey as a house guest. It was her birthday a few weeks ago and I spotted twin owl vases that were a perfect present for my big sister.

White for me...

...and black for her!

I also gave/forced some Wandering Jew on her as I'm on round three of cuttings from this enthusiastic vine! It is, however, reassuring that I don't kill every plant I get as my poor Cyclamen finally kicked it last week. The poor dear had been slowly declining for years and at the last was a single sad leaf which I accidently snapped off when I was closing the window. It was the first plant I got in Chicago, a Valentines Day present, almost four years ago! Oh well, at least that mint plant is still alive.

As it was cooler this weekend I dared turn my oven on to make these oaty scones for our breakfast on Sunday. Every time I visit her in Milwaukee Lyndsey makes a first class breakfast, usually waffles, so I was glad to be able to return the favor.

I'm not sure why I bother having a table when my guests always end up eating on the floor. At least I provided tuffets/pillows to sit on in an attempt to be dignified.

 I made these with blueberries (I had a bag I'd been using as a makeshift ice pack which I needed to get rid of as most of them were smashed to bits. Oops.) and while the first batch was fine the second was really really blue! Like Bridget Jones soup shade blue.

Very tasty though and I'm munching on one now while watching the Olympics. I think Flora is jealous. Until next time my sweets! Go eat an avocado!