day one: #mrmrspaul

Day One of the Technology Diet is/was successful with the exception of an hour's long fangirling over Aaron Paul and his (Alanis-voice) bee-u-tiful wife (isn't it ironic... no it's not). Looking at their lives (holy crap they're rich, had to cut myself off when my ipod died but got far enough back into IG history to see her engagement ring the size of a literal dime) was quite the contrast to my other current distraction, Tina Fey's memoir Bossypants. After a decidedly serious and depressing weekend, I needed some humor and sunshine in my life. Tina's (feels way more normal to call her by her first name) book actually feels like it was written by a "regular" woman, exposing the glamour of celebrity to reality. Surprise! They're humans after all! Which, weirdly enough, was what I was ultimately thinking about #MrMrsPaul. Despite all the glitz and unbelievable beauty (of their faces), they really are just human people living human life which is repetitive and normal most of the time. People live lives on different levels but ultimately life looks the same whether your diamonds are big or small or non-existent. Everyone eats, loves, sleeps, gets sick, goes to work, has good days, has bad days, laughs, cries and dies at the end of the story. So, instead of looking at these celebrity lives (or IG projections of a life) and envying them, I thought: "I already have that." I'm alive and money doesn't matter, so really nothing separates me from them. Not to mention, if I spent so much time and effort into making my life look so glamorous, who knows what kind of celebrity I could appear to be in my own right. This whole tech diet is an effort to get away from comparison, but today I found a beautiful truth in comparing myself to someone very different from me: we're all the damn same.

6/365

There's no excuse for this other than that I forgot my memory card at home. This is bedtime. Stepping out of B's house tonight, the sky and air were this pasty white-orange. It was sort of science-fiction-y. Then, driving home, the cloud cover faded to purple and the spaces between revealed an orange and red setting sun. More rain. 

5/365

July 14. It was the perfect day long respite from the office. Books, grilling, sunshine, ice cream, and even a spontaneous German feast later on. Long afternoons spent sunning and reading by Brian's pool make my whole summer. I started re-reading Catcher in the Rye this morning, and I'm completely enthralled. Funny how books can take on new meaning in your second reading of them. I especially love the photos of B and Bailey.

4/365

Taken in the gentle morning light before work, I'm excited to find that some of the tomato plants are starting to turn from green. We've got eleven plants and are hoping for a bushel's worth. Our container garden crowds around our patio furniture in an attempt to evade the deer, who've chomped our hastas down to the the stems. We're hoping to have a raised bed with fencing by next summer, but for now I like our little potted garden. 

3/365

July 12th. Left work early in anticipation of the perfect summer dinner. We marinated chopped vegetables in a mustard vinaigrette and I tended to them in my bathing suit and pencil skirt. It was the perfect golden hour sunset; I sacrificed my ankles to bug bites to try and capture a bit of it. Summer nights around here are less about perfectly pinterested party decorations and more about that feeling you get sipping on an ice cold beer after work. That's me up there by the way. 

2/365

I don't like the lighting in my bathroom, so I prep for the day by this window whose natural rays are much more forgiving. Long week this week, working 5 days in a row. It's hot this summer; my car windows pill up with dew from the inside on humid mornings. 

1/365

July 10th (in retrospect) marks the beginning of the 365 project which will end July 10th, 2014. This is morning around here, romping with my boys before I stomp off to work.