Sunday, November 20, 2011

from ny to cali


this picture means more to me than you can understand. seriously. that's not to say that i don't have dozens of favorite photos of my favoritist people in the whole wide world, but the reason this picture means so much to me tells a story 20+ years in the making.

when i was in 3rd grade and 8 years old, my teacher, mrs. sonnenburg, had us participate in a pen pal exchange with a school in california. I guess my class had the honor of reading generic letters from this other school and then we would have to respond to them. our teacher walked around the room plopping letters on our desks based on gender and i received a letter from a boy who's name had been mistaken for a girl. the very last line of his letter read, "you might think i'm a girl but i'm actually a boy." so my little 3rd grade self ran up to the teacher and got a new letter.

what a difference this letter was - it was written on pretty paper with nice girly penmanship. my memory is poor for details and i can't recall what was in that letter, but it was from a girl named sara who probably wrote about how much she loved music. we spent the whole year writing letters to each other and then at the end of the year we formally exchanged home addresses. i'm not sure what i was expecting other than the occasional letter in the mail (i loooooove snail mail...still love it) but what blossomed is a friendship that spans 20+ years and countless letters.

i still have a lot of the letters sara wrote to me over the years and love to sit down and read them at times. they tell the story of a girl who grows up into a teenager and then a wonderful adult. i'm not just saying that because i think sara is one of the most wonderful people i know, but because i've had the the great fortune of growing up with her. there's so much in her letters about my own life and experiences that i can only imagine what the hell i was telling her. she told me that she still has the letters i wrote her which i would love to someday read.

i've never had the opportunity to head out to california myself but a few weeks ago i received a facebook message that said something like, "i'll be in nyc! we need to try and meet up! you know this fall marks our 20 year." my response was a big fat - "WHAT!" i think my heart was literally jumping out of my body. i couldn't believe that this person who i have literally poured my whole entire soul to would be in ny. so i marked my calendar and waited.

when sara finally got to ny, we made plans to have dinner with some of her friends on the friday of her trip. i think that my nerves took over as i started to worry about this meeting. would she like me? would she think i'm incredibly annoying? would i like her? would we have anything to talk about?
 i'm a worrier. 


but what actually happened was better than i could have imagined. here's a person who i have written to my entire life in front of me, and even though it was our first time meeting face to face, we know each other. and we know a lot about each other. and nothing can really take that away. i think it's hard for people to understand how i could have sustained a friendship with someone through letters for so long, but i feel blessed to have had this experience. to have a connection with someone who lives miles and miles away, who you never get to see in person. it's amazing. it makes you feel more connected to the world and the people in it.

so back to this picture - this is our first picture together! it still feels really surreal to think that we actually met, but then i look at this picture and remember. i feel really lucky to have known sara my whole life and even luckier to have met her in person finally.

new picture taking spot

 my favorite skirt - f21, tshirt - h&m, sweater - no name, boots - via swirl.com

dress - from my sister's closet, turtleneck - h&m, boots - target (i have been LIVING in these boots), turban headband - f21

trying to find a good spot to take outfit pics has taken...3 months? yes, 3. but i think i found a spot i like where i can take some awesome pics - the balcony of our apartment.
if you didn't know before, i moved in with my mom back in august which has been awesomeeeee. she makes me coffee in the morning before i head out to work, salads for lunch and dinner, we go food shopping together, buy hotpants, watch really bad tv at night. and the other day she decided she wants to pick up crocheting again. i love that we can spend so much time together.

hopefully, with this new spot i'll be better about blogging. kinda sorta. our internet still royally sucks.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

a chicago story

once upon a time, there was a lovely girl named missDTM who went out to chicago to visit her lovely bff.
 they did a lot of eating during this trip. but a major highlight of the trip was hugging a gray pit bull.
 while there, missDTM and her boo had the chance to visit the famous bean in millenium park.
 they also decided to dress up as an angry bird and the green pig. yes, they really went out and about in chicago in these outfits.
 the night was full of crazy costumes and wonderful friends.
 but missDTM's least favorite part was ripping off the crazy fake eyelashes she was wearing!
the freaking end.

yes, ladies and gents, i made my way to the midwest last week. if you follow me on twitter, you would know that i literally ate my way through the town. no seriously, i ate. a lot. and fell in love with chicago. ny is cool and all but chicago is affordable and cool. those are two things i looooooove.

another thing i love is halloween. why isn't it acceptable for grown folks to get dressed up in crazy costumes more often? and when/how can i host a dress up party of my own every month of 2012?!? definitely thinking about doing that....these eyelashes make me want to do it!

i know i have been terrible at blogging lately but it literally takes about 20 minutes to upload one pic. ok, i'm exaggerating, but for real - 20 minutes for these 6 pics. that's a long time! i've been trying to get the problem fixed but customer service sucks ass.

i will try and be better about blogging in these last few weeks of 2011. for real. the holidays are my favorite time of year anyway so i should be blogging more!

xoxo