Today is our last day renting our house, the day we turn in the keys for our home on Dunn Rd. We lived there for less than a year, but that year taught us so much. We learned about leaking basements and concrete foundations, weather-stripping and hardwood floors, insulation and landscaping, shoveling snow off a 316 ft. driveway and raking a secret garden full of leaves, the upkeep of a century old home and re-installing a mailbox after a utility truck takes it out, constructing a fire pit, and a whole lot about budgeting and responsibility. We learned about life as a married couple, and made our own first holiday traditions, and worked hard, and relaxed, and laughed, and cried, and struggled, and triumphed in that house. It was our first house. The house we came home to as a newlywed, married couple. We put countless hours of hard physical labor into that house, left it a little better than we found it, and it may have sucked our bank accounts damn near dry, but it was ours. And it holds a lot of beautiful, wonderful, happy memories. I won’t pretend this isn’t hard. I’ve shed many a tear over leaving this place. Most days I still cannot drive past it without tears streaming down my face. But I am happy to have had it for this one year and I know that it will always be our sweet little house, the fruit stand, set way back off the road on quiet, tree-lined, Dunn Rd.
A little piece of it will always be ours. And a little piece of us will always belong to that house, for as long as she stands.
One of the perks of working in the theatre is that you can enjoy qaulity entertainment several nights a week for free.
Between the two of us working at two different theatres that boast multi-show seasons, plus the free tickets that theatres tend to exchange with other area theatres for their employees and actors, and the connections we have to friends who work for other area theatres and dance companies, we are in a constant rotation of shows, so we’re really never at a loss for a good performance, if we’re in the mood to see one. And sometimes we’re obligated to see them. But really the biggest hinderance in our case isn’t the cost since we’re, very luckily, not paying $42 a ticket per show, it’s the fact that we just simply don’t have enough time or energy to hit them all. But we try to hit the ones we are required to see, and the ones that sound the most appealing, if we can make it happen schedule-wise – an even mix. Both CCM and ETC opted for a little more spooktastic of productions given that October is Halloween month. I could use some variety in my life, and both productions were regional premieres and fairly new works, so fine by me!
On Thursday night after work we traipsed up to Mt. Admas, a totally gorgeous area of town we’d love to live in, to try out City View Tavern, which Cincinnati Magazine rates as the #1 burger in Cincy, and then we stopped for an ice cream at Baskin Robbins and finished out our night seeing Coram Boy at CCM. On Friday night we dined at an authentic Mexican restarant in downtown that recieved rave reviews from our co-workers and then sat in on both the regular production and understudy intern performance of Ghost-Writer at ETC.
View from City View
City View Tavern is this tiny little hole-in-the-wall tavern near the top of Mt. Adams, which is at the top of one of seven hills of Cincinnati. You drive up a series of long and winding streets, past the monestary, that snake up the mountain. Nestled in a residential area on a ridiculously narrow one-way street on a steep hillside is City View Tavern. It’s tiny but clean and charming, has a sweet little bar with a small selection of beers and a few liquors, a handful of tables inside (but no table-side service, bar only), a menu with five items (all burgers), a pool table, and no music blaring on the stereo, but the bartender has a slew of board games you can play at your table. The real draws are the burgers, which were indeed very good (we ordered the Big Ted Delux – the name was coincidental, but totally appreciated. The vegetarian version was called Big Ted No Ted), and the phenomenal views of Cincinnati. I can totally picture us steaking claim to one of the patio tables out in the back on a warm summer’s eve, ordering a round of beers and burgers, and widdling away a few hours enjoying a warm sunset view and playing scrabble. It was good stuff! Hole-in-the-walls usually are.
A Big Ted Delux
I’ll come clean here. I was really intrigued by the storyline of Coram Boy, which is why we put in for the comp tickets. It sounded so interesting! But I also knew it was nicknamed the dead baby play and had heard the tales of gory CCM production meetings discussing the burial pit onstage, and the baby they’d made that moves and cries and then (at least in early rehearsals, they toned it down a lot by the time it reached the stage) was supposed to die a pretty gruesome on-stage death. Given all that uplifting information about this epic three-hour production, I was having second thoughts about if I was in the mood for something so long and dreary on an otherwise relaxing Thursday night. But my interest, thankfully, got the better of me. The play was first performed on the London stage in 2005 and this was its regional premiere, and the plot did sound really, really good! So we went. And it was awesome. It was dark, a period piece, but it had many moments of humor and joy. It was intriguing and kept you on the edge of your seat, just waiting to see what would happen next. It was perfect for Halloween, but not at all scary. Asthetically, there were some truly beautiful moments onstage where the costumes and lights and colors and props and fog and music all blended together to form completely lovely pictures. I found the acting to be good and the roles great, meaty roles for actors and actresses looking to sink their teeth into a something new. The show also features a good deal of music and some singing (though it is not a musical) and the Cincinnati Children’s Choir played a pretty large role in the production. Cute kids! And those three hours that I’d thought would be long and exhausting pretty much flew by in no time – lots of “ah ha!” moments and unexpected, riveting, twists and turns. It would make a great novel! I won’t waste time detailing the plot to you, but I would recommend reading more about it here and here. Don’t let the nickname turn you off. It was an excellent production and I’d put it right up there with the top three shows I’ve seen at CCM: Evita, Coram Boy, and Rent.
Friday night after work we left the car parked at the theatre and took a brisk walk downtown to Taqueria Mercado for some Mexican eats. We’d heard the rumor that this place was authentic, but I’m a tex-mex expert and hold Mexican food to high standards. I wasn’t disappointed! It was delicious. The chips were hot, cripsy and flaky, the salsa teeming with cumin and a spicy aftertaste, the cheese was creamy and authentic Mexican, and they used a ton of cilantro! The flavors were to die for. Ted downed a burrito as big as his face and I had two small quesadillas – shrimp and steak. We’ll definitely frequent Taqueria Mercado in the future. Just like being back in Texas!
Ghost-Writer was a completely different experience than I had envisioned. For starters, it was only an hour-and-a-half long with no intermission – a far cry from Thursday night’s 3-hour epic production. I’d read the play previously, several weeks ago, and from that read garnished an idea in my head about what everything would look and sound like. Perhaps this isn’t the best method, but I like reading plays and when you’re working on a study guide and curriculum standards for it, you kind of have to read the play ahead of tme. I enjoyed the play and I thought the actors put a neat spin on things, playing them in a way that I hadn’t even thought about, which was cool. But I also really enjoyed reading the play and, being that it is a play about books and authors, reading it brought a certain level of understanding and intimacy to the work. The concept of the play, if you’ve never heard of it, is a very interesting one and based on a true story, which is even neater. It follows a renowned author and the brainy female typist he hires to types his novels as he dictates them through a nearly twenty year relationship. After the author dies his typist continues to type his last novel until its completion, claiming the words are his words but told through her fingers, leading the audience to determine whether she finishes writing the book, or if his ghost finishes the book through her. Clever stuff. It’s at the end of its run today, as is Coram Boy, but they’re work checking out if a they’re coming to a theatre near you – support local theatre!
I could get used to dinner and a play a few times a month :-) Luckily, we can! Now if only the dinners were free too…maybe I should become a food blogger too? Feed the habit, so to speak.
I have to tell you how funky Ohio weather is! It’s still October and we woke up with a hearty layer of snow white frost on the grass, roofs, trees, and vehicles this morning. I’m still of the solid opinion that October is far too early to have to use an ice scraper (just as I am also of the solid opinion that Christmas music and decorations should not start rearing their metallic and shiny heads until December 1st, at the absolute earliest), but clearly, this isn’t my call. Regardless, today it looked like winter out. It was cold and foggy and white. Then as soon as I crossed the state line into Kentucky on my way to work, it was suddenly, magically fall again. The river between Ohio and Kentucky was glassy and calm with thick spirals of steam hanging off the water, the sun was shining bright golden orange and the trees were absolutly ablaze with the brightest fall colors I’ve seen all season. Not a hint of frost to be found. Purely gorgeous. It was like two completely different worlds seperated only by an abstract state line.
I’m not ready for it to be winter yet. Not at all. I quite enjoy fall and could bask in its glory for another three months, enjoying spiced cider and bonfires and pumpkins and leaves until the cows come home. But apparently it’s time for me to haul my winter wardrobe out of storage anyway. Boo.
At least in these parts we see some glorious sunrises and sunsets in the late fall and early winter!
…was not quite the hearty, creamy, flavorful, tasty meal I was envisioning. In fact, it was kind of gross. Pretty, and just the right consistency, but gross.
And I’m really sad about this.
Not only did I spend a couple bucks and nearly three hours preparing it, but now I have a giant vat of not-so-tasty soup taking up room in our fridge that I have no idea what to do with. The soup was inspired by an absolutely phenomenal butternut squash apple cider soup infused with roasted red peppers that we had in Door County last month. It was so delicious that I was just dying to recreate it!
I like butternut squash. I like apples. I like apple cider. I like onions. So what’s the problem here? Sunday night I plucked two different recipes for this soup off of Food Network and Epicurious.com and, like I usually do because I like to tweak recipes and put my own twist on things, I combined them to form one recipe of epic awesomeness. I don’t change big things, just little ones here and there. This has never failed me in the past, but this time I’m not quite sure what the culprit was.
I have a sneak suspicion it was the yellow onions that both recipes called for. I think they added an awkward sweetness and odd flavor mix to the apples and butternut squash that could have been avoided by using a spicer onion, like a white onion. But if that’s the case, then why did both soup recipes receive rave reviews and nobody else seems to think the yellow onions were a problem? I took a bowlful of the soup out of the pot and tried adding a bit of roasted red pepper paste to spice it up, which helped tone down the sweetness a touch, but did nothing for the flavor. So I scooped out a bit more of the soup and added some cream to it. It helped neutralize the flavor a good deal so it was manageable to choke down a spoonful, which was better than nothing, but by adding cream the soup went from super healthy to less healthy and more creamy. And it still wasn’t good enough to eat an entire bowl of.
Sigh.
So, do you think I can salvage this? I talked to a few soup connoisseurs at work today and one suggested adding a squeeze of apple cider vinegar while the other suggested adding more curry powder. They’re both good ideas and worth a try, but it’s not just the sweetness I’m concerned with. It’s the actual flavor.
Anyone have any advice on how to fix this? Do you think it can still be salvaged as a soup, and if not, can it be salvaged as anything else? Perhaps a base for something?
I love the smell of fall in our kitchen on a cool October day. I raise the blinds, open up the windows and enjoy the windy gusts that send brightly colored leaves spiraling down from the treetops by the hundreds while the church bell a few blocks away chimes out the time with a series of lyrical gongs. I cut apples, and pumpkins, and squash, and garlic, and unwrap caramels and appreciate the mornings I have off to take advantage of the tasty fall crops. Sometimes I turn on music, and sometimes I just enjoy the silence and the sounds of nature. It’s relaxing and helps me regroup or stay grounded in the midst of a busy life.
Despite the strains of adjusting to life in an apartment again, I am grateful to still have a pretty view and a full backyard, even if we do have to share it with other families. Though I loved our backyard at the house because of it was huge, and gorgeous, and Secret Garden-esque, and very private, it was also uneven, ridden with large holes from the wildlife that set up camp there, and the grass was questionable as to whether it was going to be dirt, weeds, or simply dead that season. Here we have a large, expansive track of soft green grass bordered by a forest of healthy trees that are now breathtaking shades of yellow, orange, and red. We have a few too many dogs living here for there to be bunnies, unfortunately, but we do have a handful of very large, bushy-tailed, bold, squirrels who frequent our grass and occasionally patter right up to the back door, nut in mouth, to say hello. They’ll hop up on the top of the grill, directly outside the living room window and stare at you while you stare at them, and then they’ll take a seat on the Adirondack chair to snack on their prized nut. Gutsy, aren’t they? But I love squirrels, so I take delight in this. Today I watched one, not more than 6″ from our window, use his claws to diligently dig a small hole for his nut, bury the nut, carefully cover over it with grass and dirt, then pick up a leaf and place it on top, for good measure.
So far this season I have made pumpkin mac n’ cheese, chili, autumn apple Waldorf salad, caramel apple cider cookies, taco bowls and Philly cheese steaks (it is football season, after all!), homemade applesauce, roasted pumpkin seeds, and now a butternut squash apple cider soup infused with a roasted red pepper glaze and a touch of cream. It’s simmering on the stove. We’ll see how it turns out. Still to try on my “fall goodies” list are homemade soft pretzels with a beer cheese queso, pork chops and applesauce, butternut squash ravioli with apple cider broth, baked pumpkin oatmeal, creamy cauliflower soup, zucchini bread, turkey and white bean chili, french onion soup, pumpkin snickerdoodles, sweet potato casserole, and thai lettuce wraps.
The most challenging recipe so far has been this butternut squash apple cider soup. Good Lord. I would liken cutting a butternut squash to cutting through elephant tusks. I actually had to look up directions on how to peel, cut, and seed them because I thought “I must be doing something wrong” when my vegetable peeler simply couldn’t hack it’s way through the skin. Turns out butternut squash are just tough little buggers. Though I did learn that their seeds can be salted and roasted just like pumpkin seeds – so I’ll be eagerly trying that out tonight as well. Butternut squash, much like humans I suppose, do not like to be skinned, cut open, or gutted. I cannot say that I blame them. It sounds uncomfortable, doesn’t it? I think I’d put up a fight too.
Roasted pumpkin seeds, a Woodchuck cider, and our little fire - sounds like a great fall evening to me!Homemade applecause - used Jongold apples, water, and cinnamon. Absoluely delicious!
I don’t do this every day. I typically have Monday and Wednesday mornings off to cook, clean the house, do laundry, run errands, blog, catch up on emails, work on scheduling and planning, and do educational outreach work for the dance/theatre/pedestrian movement company I work for. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons I teach musical theatre classes at an elementary school as part of their fine arts program. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work at the theatre doing any number of ed. outreach related things, teaching, or straight-up arts administration, and on Fridays, Saturdays and some Sundays I’m still at the museum. In between all that I often have meetings for any one of the four jobs. They are all going very well and I’m thankful to simply be employed, but I really love my Monday and Wednesday mornings to catch up on life.
I’ll post photos and the recipe for the butternut squash apple cider soup if it turns out as tasty as it sounds. Happy Wednesday!
Thank you all so much for the congratulations and well-wishes on our anniversary! We are so lucky to have such sweet family and friends.
We had a really nice anniversary weekend – it was perfect! We both had to work Saturday for a few hours in the morning and early afternoon, but after work Ted picked me up and we spent the rest of the afternoon at EnterTRAINment Junction, a model train museum in northern Cincinnati up near West Chester. We both like model trains so it was neat to walk through miles of track and see all the detail that is put into the models, scenery, and even the little people in the models. Hidden throughout the models and in the scenery were tiny halloween pumpkins and a number of little dinosaurs that you could try to locate, which was a fun challenge to try to find them all. There were also a lot of train fun facts and quizzes. We enjoyed the museum a lot and thought it was a lot of fun to check out such an interesting hobby. It’s something we’d both like to get into one day – in like 50 years when we’re rich and old and super boring, but still absurdly happy (we hope!).
For dinner we tried to finally get in at the fancy, delicious Italian restaurant Bella Luna (it always wins at the Taste of Cincinnati festival) but the wait was over two and a half hours. Lesson learned. So our second choice was Montgomery Inn Boathouse downtown on the river between Cincinnati and Newport, KY. It’s a beautiful location with a gorgeous view and the food is always fantastic – a crowd favorite and a nice place to celebrate something like an anniversary. Because there was a wait there too, though certainly not as long, we enjoyed a tasty drink of Jim Beam Red Stag at the bar and then dined on ribs and duck for dinner with a pretty backdrop of the downtown skyline and the night time city lights reflecting off the river. Our food was completely delicious as usual and it was so nice to just spend time together, talking and enjoying each other without all the distractions of busy schedules and technology.
We had originally intended to try to catch a movie after dinner, likely 50/50 or The Help, but damn, we’re getting old and because of how far away pretty much every movie theatre in the city is from our apartment and the late show times, we pansy’d out when we realized it would be well past 1 a.m. by the time we got home. We’re lame, we know. But even at the ripe old age of 25, 1:30 a.m. is well past my bedtime! So instead we rented the new Transformers movie and came home.
We broke out our crystal toasting flutes and cake service set from our wedding, pulled out our wedding cake topper, and played our first dance song through the speakers in the living room. We danced to our first dance song, shared slices of cherry cake from the top layer of our wedding cake (and wow was it incredibly delicious for having been frozen for a year!! SO good!!) and toasted to our first year of marriage with a bottle of our favorite wedding wine from Door County. We watched Transformers until I fell asleep, which was approximately 20 minutes into the movie, as usual. It was a really lovely night.
On Sunday Ted had to head in to work for a few hours again, but I had the day off so we went to mass together, did our weekly grocery shopping together, and then I stopped in at the Cincinnati Art Museum to check out the new Art Deco exhibit – fashions and design from the 1920s. Obviously, I couldn’t pass this up! I adore1920s fashion. Anybody want to buy me a sweet pair of t-strap heels and a cloche hat? Please! It was a beautiful exhibit! But then again the whole Cincinnati Art Museum is pretty incredible! We spent the rest of the day watching football and cheering on our Packers.
Last Friday, in honor of my miraculous day off work from all four jobs and our impending one year anniversary, I called an impromptu “Treat Yo Self!” Day.
Sounds expensive, right? How I wish I could afford a Treat Yo Self day with the likes of fine leather goods! Oh, the things I’d cross off my “maybe one day” list! A new quilt that isn’t ripped for our bed, a purse that isn’t falling apart at the seams, some pretty new clothes! Sigh!
Alas, we’re still on a budget and the last time I checked, this is still reality. So Treat Yo Self day had to be luxurious but also done on the cheap.
The last time I got my hair cut at a really nice salon was….never. That’s right. Never. The nicest place I’ve ever had my hair cut was at a place called Snippers. Simply put, I’ve never had the money to blow $75 on a haircut, and when I have had $75 to blow, I’d much prefer to blow it on a new outfit or some other more sustainable treat that lasts longer than six to eight weeks. My hair isn’t particularly finicky. It doesn’t require high maintenance styles or perms or coloring or special treatments even, so the run of the mill hair cutting place has always been fine by me. But that’s all those places are – just fine. You tell them what you want, they spray your hair with a water bottle, they cut it, they charge you $12, and you’re out the door. If you want it shampoo’d or blown dry, that’ll be an extra $7, please. By then you’re up to $19, plus tip.
But my hair was getting really long, dull, lifeless, and just plain grungy. I haven’t had a real haircut since before we got married. That’s pathetic, people. It was time. I’d planned on going to any old place, like I usually do, paying my $15 for an average haircut, and moving on with my life. But then I discovered I had one whole entire day off work with no obligations! What to do! What to do!? Ah, yes! Enter “Treat Yo Self!” day. And then I remembered that Cincinnati has not only an Aveda Salon, but an Aveda Fredrick’s Institute where they teach students cosmetology and the art of great hairstyling. Then I read that those students need people to practice on. Then I read the slew of awesome reviews and how wonderfully pampering it was there. Then I read that it was only $17. Then I was sold. I booked my appointment and happily made the 45 minute jaunt to the far north side of Cincinnati to try my luck at a cheap yet luxurious haircut.
Y’all, I want to live there.
A) They just relocated and had officially moved in only last week, so the place was gorgeous, and B) I was paired up with the super sweet and very talented Laura (she pronounces it Lara, just like me!…it was fate!) who made my life pure heaven for the next hour and 45 minutes. My session started out with a hairstyle consultation with Laura, and then her supervisor/instructor Ben came over and all three of us consulted together and came up with a style that would work well with my hair, face shape, style, schedule, etc. I was offered piping hot tea and whisked off for a relaxing neck, back, and shoulder massage, followed by an oh-so-amazing hair shampoo and conditioning session with a scalp massage, and then a mini hot towel and soothing lotion facial in a quiet little back room. After that little piece of heaven that I absolutely was not expecting, it was time for my haircut. And it was incredible. There was such attention to detail, and such a desire to make sure it was done correctly, and that I was happy every step of the way. She cut 7 inches off, took her time cutting and layering my hair, then she applied all sorts of lovely, yummy smelling Aveda products, dried, and styled my hair. It took well over an hour. And I love me some yummy-smelling Aveda products! All for $17. Seriously, $17. And they’re not even allowed to accept tips! All that pampering and it’s even cheaper than Great Clips! It was, quite literally, the best hair cut I have ever had in my life. I am so happy to have discovered this place that I might actually do what I’m supposed to be doing and go in every 8 weeks to get my hair trimmed. I mean, hell, if they treat you like that even my limited budget can afford a Treat Yo Self day for less than $20 every other month! Plus, I don’t look like a rat anymore. Pure bliss!
Earlier that day I’d done my own pretty manicure and pedicure, and for dinner Ted and I used a gift card to one of our favorite little pizza joints – Hyde Park Pizzaria – that my sister got us for our birthdays. For $17 (um, plus fuel…Cincinnati’s a big city, friends) I got a luxurious massage, facial, shampoo, haircut, style, manicure, pedicure, and dinner out!
I’d say Treat Yo Self day was a complete success!
BeforeAfter
P.S. The pictures totally don’t do it justice. It’s really hard to take a flattering picture of a hairstyle by yourself…it looks much better in person!
…I like to share my dad’s speech from our wedding reception. His words are beautiful and powerful. Please enjoy them.
As I thought about what I would say to you today, I thought of all the wonderful cards you sent me over the years, for Father’s Day, for my birthday, for our anniversary. I’m sure you know that I’ve kept every one you ever gave me and Mom. How nice it was for me to re-read your thoughtful and loving words. They gave me the inspiration I needed to now pass on to you some thoughts to consider as you start your journey with Ted.
First and foremost, tell each other “I love you” and “thank you” every day…say it a lot, over and over, never stop saying it.
Start each day with gratitude and compassion for each other, and unconditional love will follow.
Believe in each other, and support each other’s dreams.
Always give more than you think the other needs.
Apologize, forgive, and forget – doing so will make you feel better.
You are never given a dream without always being given the power to make it come true.
Never get so busy making a living that you forget how to make a life. Believe that you’ll be happy doing nothing with your spouse, rather than something with anybody else.
Set boundaries in outside relationships – don’t let anyone take away too much of the time you spend with each other.
Never forget that life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
You may never have it all together, but together you will have it all.
Realize that more is never enough – searching for the right pumpkin in the patch, drinking cherry wine, sitting by a campfire – the trick is to enjoy the things that don’t cost much. It is easy to live well when you’re poor as when you’re rich, but when you’re poor, it’s much cheaper.
Understand what satisfaction in marriage—as well as life—is: if you don’t get everything you want, be thankful for the things that you don’t get, that you don’t want.
When life gets too hard to stand, kneel; for with God all things are possible.
Lara, you are being blessed with the greatest happiness in life – to love, and to be loved.
To the world, you are one person, but to Ted you are the world.
May God bless you both abundantly in your new life together.
“Like a perfect line in a perfect poem, you bring me, bring me, bring me home.”
Tomorrow is our one-year wedding anniversary! I don’t know about you, but I find it absolutely astonishing that in about 24 hours we’ll have been married for a full year. I could go on for days about how strange it is that only one short year ago I was finally in Door County – one of my most favorite places on Earth – basking in the wonder of a sweet autumn, or sitting in a little salon getting a rare treat of a manicure and pedicure, or joyfully greeting beloved family and friends as they poured into town, or setting up the tables in the reception hall, or putting the finishing touches on this and that, or rehearsing our ceremony, or enjoying the world’s most awesome rehearsal dinner in existence, or thinking how darn lucky I was to be marrying Ted, surrounded by our incredible family and friends who’d travelled all this way to be a part of something so special to us.
But that was a year ago, not last week or even last month. A few weeks ago I was thinking about this blog. A blog called “Newlyweds in Cincy.” I’d been struggling to come up with a clever title for this little blog I wanted to start to document our life and keep our friends and family in the loop. I was searching for something that really spoke to our new life together, but that wasn’t as bland or cliche as “The Story of Our Life.” Because that could be about anyone – but this was sbout us. Newlyweds in Cincy fit the bill. It summed up our entirely new circumstances of being newlyweds living in a brand new city and had a nice ring to it. So, there you have it. Newlyweds in Cincy.
I didn’t really think about how well that blog title would adapt to life in a changing world. I didn’t think about what would happen when we were no longer newlyweds, or when we moved to another city. I guess I just thought I’d just be lazy and keep it, or I’d change it when it no longer seemed appropriate because we we’d been married for 4 years and living in Iowa for two and a half of them, or something like that.
Then I got attached to it. I like the name Newlyweds in Cincy. I like what it says about us. A happy couple exploring our new home and all the great things it has to offer, and weathering life’s up’s and down’s as a team. As our one year anniversary approached I contemplated the name. When is a couple no longer newlyweds? After one month? Six months? A year? I’m sure most people would call it after a year. You get that one year to bask in the newlywed status, to make googly eyes at each other and hold hands in public and shamelessly flaunt your wedding pictures and proudly proclaim that you’re newlyweds and then after that you’re cut off – now you’re just married. I wondered if it was time to change the blog title to something more “appropriate.”
But the more I thought about it, the less I agree with branding “newlyweds” as a designated period of time. I believe newlyweds is less about the amount of time that you’ve been someone’s husband or someone’s wife, and more about a state of being, a feeling, a way of life.
And that’s why I’ve decided not to change the title of this blog, likely for as long as it exists. It’ll always be Newlyweds in Cincy, or Newlyweds in Philly, or Newlyweds in Austria, or Newlyweds in Timbuktu for all I care. The location will change – I can promise that. Theatre folks are nomadic after all. But the newlyweds won’t change. Because I see nothing wrong or misleading about still being newlyweds (though you may not ever publicly call yourselves so) after three years, or nineteen years, or forty-seven years.
My parents have four children, nine grandchildren, a few half-children (foreign exchange students they housed, foster children they helped raise, etc.) and have been married for over forty years. They’ve moved nationally and internationally many, many times and have faced their fair share of trials and joys. They have one of the best, most loving, marriages I have ever witnessed and when I see them laugh together, and tease each other, and do something kind or helpful or selfless, or go one some great adventure together, or even just sit at the table for lunch and a cup of tea, I just know that they’re still newlyweds.
I have a best friend who has been married for five years and they’re one of the happiest, most playful couples I know. Definitely newlyweds. Another friend and her husband, who have been married for nearly the same length of time, have some of the best teamwork going in terms of planning their future and achieving their goals together. They’re still newlyweds. My sister and her husband have one of the kindest, most respectful marriages I’ve seen after seven years. I’d say they’re still newlyweds.
So with our one-year anniversary looming closer every minute, I think we’ll keep on being newlyweds, thanks. And this blog will go on being Newlyweds in Cincy for as long as we’re in Cincy. And then we’ll just be newlyweds somewhere else.
So I opened all the windows to get a pretty view of the fall foliage and to let in the sunlight and cool fall breeze, turned on some relaxing tunes, and spent the morning and most of the early afternoon cooking up a storm of festive fall treats and comfort food. After moving last weekend, working constantly, and being sick for a week, It was so calming to enjoy my down time in peace.
I took a break mid-afternoon to go teach a musical theatre class, then headed over to the sweet little house with the fire pit we lovingly made (that we are still renting until the end of this month) to prepare for the fall fest bonfire extravaganza we were hosting that night as a get-together with my fellow theatre interns.
Shortly after the sunset the gang arrived. We chowed on my homemade Texas chili, pumpkin mac n’ cheese, green apple and dried cherry waldorf salad, hot apple cider mulled with oranges, cinnamon sticks and cloves, and caramel stuffed apple cider cookies. They were all delicious and the pumpkin mac n’ cheese was a wild success – it positively flew out of the casserole dish. And the caramel apple cider cookies were another big hit. They will be permanently added to my iPad’s recipe book and I think I’ll have to make them often!
Ted built up the most wonderfully toasty bonfire and kept it going for us. We planted ourselves outside around the fire to roast peeps, make s’mores, and talk away the evening. Glow sticks may have been involved.
After a few hours we headed inside, laid out a giant tarp in the kitchen (this is where having a completely empty house comes in handy!), and hopped to making a huge slimy pumpkin gut mess as we drew our designs, carved our masterpieces, and clawed through the goop to salvage the pumpkin seeds for the roasting.
