Picturing New York

last week i went to see this exhibit at The High. my favorite pieces were by a photographer named Garry Winogrand. he was a New York street photographer in the 1960s who published several books, including one called Women Are Beautiful (comprised of candid shots of anonymous women on the street). 

there are so many things i love about both of these photographs.

 "New York"

this first one might be my favorite, but the second one reminded me of a quote from The Marriage Plot (by the brilliant Jeffery Eugenides):


“He thought of all the people going to sleep or reading or listening to music, all the lives contained by a great city like this, and, floating up in his mind, rising just above the rooftops, he tried to feel, to vibrate among, all those million tremulous souls."

"World's Fair"

eating out

dr. hixson is an extremely picky eater. usually this is annoying as it severely limits our dinner options (acceptable fare: chinese, thai, italian, mexican). my suggestions of indian, french, and vietnamese have been immediately dismissed.  however, it also means we're not eating cheap, bad food either.


saturday night we ate at Thai Basil, by the Portland temple. i am not exaggerating when i say it was the best thai food i've ever eaten in my life. squash & tofu curry with pineapple fried rice? yes, please! that meal was followed by a lemon-mascarpone linguine in downtown Portland and then by a pesto ravioli with gorgonzola (at La Vita E Bella in Belltown, Seattle). 


i'm not even going to talk about how many doughnuts were purchased at Voodoo Doughnut  (six). 

visiting friends

next week i am going to Portland and Seattle for a little vacation. i have a few friends i am going to visit and have been making various plans with them. you know you are good friends with a guy when, in planning  your visit, he sends you this email:

"And yes, I'll block off Friday, you can stay at my house, clothes are optional"

my latest project

when i was out in Utah for Boy's wedding, i ended up wandering around the BYU bookstore with PopularBloggingFriend and taking pictures of things i thought were silly. this is what ended up happening

i'm going to run out of pictures pretty fast so i recruited my younger siblings to scout out the bookstore for me. feel free to join their efforts.

An Accomplished Woman

things i did today:

woke up at 11am

ate 2 bowls of peanut butter cheerios

let my mother buy clothes and make-up for me

that pretty much sums it up. 

Month of May, It's a Violent Thing

the month of May has not been easy. the first 1.5 weeks consisted of studying for/taking finals and the last 2.5 weeks consisted of frantically studying for my PhD qualifying exam. bonus - in the middle of the month, M2 left for a 4 month internship in DC. (given my track record with long-distance relationships, that is basically a kiss of death)

 a summary of my last 3 weeks

BUT, i also have the most amazing friends ever. in the days preceding my exam i had 2 different people make me dinner, 3 plates of baked goods delivered to my house (one was even accompanied by homemade ice cream & berries!), and countless encouraging emails and texts. when i finished my exam this afternoon, another friend took me "victory shopping" (i bought a victory candle). and when i get back from TN next week, my home teachers are taking me to dinner. how great is my life? 

brownies from my culinarily-gifted neighbor

Dispatches from East Tennessee

a few weeks ago Boy had his wedding reception in Tennessee. i took advantage of the weekend to introduce my boyfriend (let's call him M2) to the entire family. we're talking parents, siblings, nieces, aunts, cousins, etc.  - the night we showed up there were over 20 people at the house for dinner. M2 handled it like a champ, particularly for an extremely introverted & quiet person. no one got to know each other very well in such a short chaotic time, but here's an overview of the post-visit reactions by my family:


the 'rents: omg, we love him so much. we're pretending like we don't care, but we want you to marry him immediately.


H&R: he's smart. and nerdy. so he breaks even. 


the nieces: who is that guy? he'll look at weird bugs with me? i love him. i don't know his name, so i'll just call him Aunt Brooke too 

M2 & the nieces look at bugs together

Boy: "before i talked to him, i gave him a 4 out of 10. after our 60 second conversation, i'll give him a 6"

Babes: "he was cooler than i thought he'd be"*

*i asked her what she had expected. she said, "brooke, all i knew about this dude was that he was homeschooled in utah, doesn't drink Coke, and doesn't watch R-rated movies. my expectations were pretty low." - understandable based on the evidence.