Greatness

"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different." - Coco Chanel

Did you have a chance to catch the Lifetime special on Coco Chanel?  I'm always intrigued by stories like her's...people who achieve greatness even though the odds are stacked against them. Coco Chanel, for example, was once nothing more than a poor seamstress with a knack for how to pull an outfit together. It makes you look inside yourself and wonder...what am I capable of?

Precious Things

There are few things more precious than a newborn's first smile at his great grandfather.

True Love

Sunday; a sixtieth wedding anniversary.  The following Saturday; a wedding. Contrast as stark as a black and white photograph balanced by the sanctity of their vows. The older couple holds hands, sixty years of marriage embracing them.  The younger couple holds hands, the promise of forever unfolding before them. Everyone around them holds hands, humbled by the power of true love.

The Gold Man of Norway

You may remember my May 25th post entitled, "Grimstad," in which I talked about the time we spent exploring my family's heritage in Norway.  When you consider how much we discovered about Dave's heritage, we didn't find much at all about the Neilson family tree.  That is, until now.  Since returning from Norway, my Dad has been working with a research assistant from Stavanger who filled in a bunch of missing pieces for us.  It turns out the story of my great, great, great, great grandfather, Captain Christian Paulsen is true!  He did strike gold in the California gold rush and when he returned to Norway he was known as "The Gold Man of Norway" or "Guldmannen" in Norwegian.  In addition to building the ship yard (for pictures, see the May 25th post) he built a beautiful waterfront home (pictured above), which recently sold for the equivalent of $5,000,000 USD. The current owner is professional Norwegian bicycle racer, Thor Hushovd, who recently won stage 2 of the 2008 Tour de France (check him out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Hushovd).  We were so surprised when Thor responded to our e-mail inquiry.  He told us he was familiar with the story of Christian Paulsen and the house.  Plus, he was kind enough to send  us photos!

 

Beautiful Celebration

Yesterday Dave and I celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary. It just so happened that our big day fell on the last night of Musikfest, which our town commemorates every year with a magnificent fireworks display. Living downtown, we were able to enjoy the show from the comfort of our front porch. We sat in complete darkness, holding hands and exchanging a few kisses, as the fireworks illuminated the night. And in that moment, it felt like the whole world was celebrating with us.  

The Universe at Work

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." - Buddhist proverb

Have you ever noticed how people appear in our lives just at the right time?  There seems to be a pattern of this in my life and I can't help but feel that it makes our journeys here that much richer.  My favorite example of this was on a trip I took to Australia several years ago.  It was the summer before I graduated from college and, at the time, I was constantly wondering what I should do with my life.  As I boarded the plane to Sydney I got to talking with a woman in the waiting area who revealed that she worked as a new age therapist, helping people find their paths in life.  I thought that was coincidental, but then when she ended up in the seat right next to me for the 18 hour flight, I knew it was the universe at work.  This is how I felt a couple days ago when I met Cathy at my mother in-law's birthday party.  Cathy is my husband's step-father's niece, but we had never met before.  Over the past month or so, I've been trying to fit more creativity into my life - both personally and professionally.  Despite how much I love all things creative, it's easy to melt into the couch after a long day at work and let my creativity sit idle.  Cathy, I learned, is into anything and everything creative...just like me.  We talked for hours about our projects and creative ideas and we both left that evening feeling inspired.  Now I've got a 'creative buddy' who will not only continue to be a source of inspiration, she will hold my feet to the fire to make sure I'm being true to my creative soul.  It's comforting to know that the universe is always at work for you, even when you least expect it.

The Vegan Experience: Beach Weekend

I stuck to my guns and made it through the rest of the week with relative ease.  My downfall, of course, was the weekend.  Not to make excuses, but this wasn't just any weekend, it was a special beach weekend with dinners at Specchio, Buddakan, and McCormick & Schmick's.  Naturally, my vegan lifestyle fell by the way side as I scarfed down fish, meat, and dairy by the forkful.  Do I regret it?  Not even for a minute.  After all, how often do I get to eat at these terrific restaurants?  Today, I'm back on my game knowing full well that I am likely to make special allowances for certain special occasions, like vacations, holidays, or my upcoming 5-year wedding anniversary.  Week 1 taught me that with a little thought and preparation, the vegan lifestyle cannot only bring you better health and weight loss, it can be an enjoyable and satisfying lifestyle.  Maybe one day I will be able to commit 100%, but in the meantime I am going to follow the rules day-to-day and allow myself the freedom to make allowances for special circumstances.

The Vegan Experience: Days 2 & 3

I sit here, minutes before lunchtime on Day 4 of my vegan experience, pleasantly surprised at how easy - and enjoyable - this has been.  So far, I've found that there are vegan substitutes for EVERYTHING and they all taste REALLY good!  Even Dave has attested to the tastiness of the food and he's a tough critic when it comes to food.  The biggest bummer so far has been cutting out Wawa coffee but I think I've found something even better:  the chai soy latte from Starbucks...heavenly.  For a DIY option, buy chai concentrate and soy milk from the grocery store and mix them in a 1:1 ratio...delicious!  Now, I realize that part of the vegan experience is to completely purify your body and cutting out caffeine is part of that, however, I'm not a saint and for now the caffeine must stay.  One of the trickiest things about this challenge is picking the right food.  For example, I bought a butter substitute that's made out of olive oil, only to learn that it does contain a little bit of buttermilk (you have to read the nutrition labels super-carefully). So I botched up a little bit last night, but that's the great thing about calling this my "vegan experience" rather than my "vegan diet," it allows for imperfection and doesn't make me feel guilty when I mess up.  Plus, the word "diet" screams "restriction," which naturally just tempts you to cheat.  Surprisingly, I haven't felt the urge to cheat at all during my vegan experience.  My next big challenge will be surviving the weekend (that's when all my best resolutions seem to fly right out the window!)

The Vegan Experience: Day 1

I made it through Day 1 of my vegan lifestyle challenge with little difficulty. The hardest part was lunch. I bought vegan "lunchmeat" at the store and tried it on a sandwich (with vegan mayo, avocado spears, and sprouts). The veggies were good, but I didn't like the faux lunchmeat at all. For dinner, I made the Penne and Butternut Squash dish featured in Skinny Bitch - it was excellent. Luckily, I had enough left over for lunch today, so no more nasty sandwiches!

Skinny Bitch

I love when new journeys spawn out of existing journeys, like this past weekend. We took a short road trip of sorts - my husband, my sister, and me. With endless amounts of highway looming before us, and stop-and-go traffic for several hours, my sister encouraged me to read aloud from the book she'd been reading, Skinny Bitch. It's a book that promotes the vegan lifestyle and blows the lid off the meat and dairy industries, serving up scientific information with a side of sass. Let me interject here, up until this point in my life I had been a self-proclaimed meat-loving individual who never seriously considered such radical lifestyles. However, this book really resonated with me, opening my eyes to the havoc that meat and dairy can inflict on the human body. Despite my love of seafood, pasta, cheese, and many other foods, this book forced me to consider whether I could adopt this lifestyle. I've decided to dip my toe in the water this week and see how it goes. Last night, I chowed down my last hamburger for a while and this morning I woke up to a glass of o.j. and a bowl of soy yogurt, wheat germ, and strawberries. Don't worry...I won't pat myself on the back just yet; lunch and dinner are going to be the real challenges!